00:00:00
To really care about the patients in a different way, people feel that when they come
00:00:03
in here.
00:00:04
Again, you don't get that with conventional medicine because conventional medicine, take it
00:00:09
or leave it if you want to believe this, it's the truth, is quota based.
00:00:12
Right?
00:00:12
They have to hit a certain number of visits a week to get paid by the insurance companies in
00:00:16
the pharmaceutical industry.
00:00:17
They have to prescribe a certain number of medicines, vaccines, whatever it is.
00:00:21
They have to hit numbers.
00:00:22
Whereas we don't, we don't deal with insurance companies.
00:00:25
We don't deal with these entities telling us how to help people.
00:00:28
We just help people.
00:00:29
And like so the only entity I wanna know how to help is the person in front of me with the pain
00:00:34
or dysfunction that's ruining their life.
00:00:36
Right.
00:00:37
Welcome to Health Decoded, your number one source for real health information with your
00:00:42
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
00:00:49
Hey, Health Decoded listeners.
00:00:51
Doctor Alessi here.
00:00:53
Let me ask you a serious question.
00:00:55
Are you tired of waiting until something goes wrong to finally see a doctor?
00:00:59
At Alessi Functional Health, we take a different approach, the right approach.
00:01:04
We believe true health care isn't about chasing symptoms.
00:01:07
It's about preventing them in the first place.
00:01:10
That's why we created the Alessi Total Care Program.
00:01:14
This is a functional medicine based membership that gives you proactive, personalized care
00:01:20
year round.
00:01:21
You'll get access to comprehensive blood work and functional testing, custom doctor grade
00:01:26
nutraceuticals, deep discounts on labs, protocols, and follow ups, as well as twenty
00:01:33
four seven direct access to your doctor, not just a ten minute checkup that ends with
00:01:38
another prescription.
00:01:40
And here's the best part.
00:01:41
As a Health Decoded listener, you'll get your first three months completely free when you
00:01:47
sign up for an annual membership.
00:01:49
That's on top of hundreds in savings already built into the program.
00:01:53
This is your chance to take responsibility for your health and join a movement that's
00:01:58
redefining what primary care should look like.
00:02:01
Head on over to alessifunctionalhealth.com, click on our services tab, and go to Total
00:02:06
Care.
00:02:07
Learn more about this program and claim your exclusive podcast listener offer.
00:02:12
Your health is your greatest asset.
00:02:14
Let's protect it proactively.
00:02:18
What's up?
00:02:19
Doctor Olesi here.
00:02:20
I'm here with doctor West, Doctor.
00:02:22
Carter West.
00:02:24
Awesome, man.
00:02:25
Well, hey, you know, this is a cool concept we have here for a show where we both attended the
00:02:30
same chiropractic college.
00:02:32
I was there 2016 to 2019.
00:02:36
Right?
00:02:37
So we'll say that what, like six years ahead of yourself.
00:02:40
You're just graduating and and being a doc now.
00:02:42
So, you know, the shift, and we kinda wanted to talk a little bit.
00:02:47
I want I like just wanted to kinda pick your brain a little bit on like the differences,
00:02:50
right?
00:02:50
What your experiences were versus what mine is, and there's a cool thing that I learned while I
00:02:57
was in school.
00:02:57
It was a doc that I used to shadow with, man, and he gave me this kind of analogy where he
00:03:02
drew like a really small circle on a screen and he was like, this is what they teach you in
00:03:06
school.
00:03:07
Then he drew a bigger circle and he was like, this is what we can practice once we're out of
00:03:11
school.
00:03:11
Yeah.
00:03:11
And then he basically was like, the rest of the page is what's out there, right?
00:03:15
Available for people.
00:03:16
And it's like, you know, I experienced that myself, like just in the last month, traveling
00:03:20
out of the country and getting different types of therapies with stem cells and things that we
00:03:25
There's just so many regulations, man.
00:03:26
So, I know you practice We practice in a similar way or kind of But you also do some
00:03:31
other things in your family's clinic.
00:03:33
Tell me a little bit about kind of where your trajectory is because you're a doc, but you're
00:03:40
gonna get a dual degree essentially.
00:03:42
So, talk about that, man.
00:03:44
Yeah.
00:03:45
I might preface it with a little bit more background if that's all right.
00:03:48
Yes, please.
00:03:48
Yeah.
00:03:49
So I'm graduating with my doctor of chiropractic in December.
00:03:53
But the reason why I chose National, where Doctor.
00:03:57
Alessi and I went to school is because they offer a dual degree.
00:04:00
So the second degree would be as a naturopathic physician.
00:04:04
And where I'm so I'm from Idaho, and there's a lot there's a few doctors out there that are
00:04:10
duly licensed.
00:04:11
So a broader scope offers broader techniques and a broader audience of of people that you
00:04:18
can help and serve.
00:04:19
So that's why I'm doing it.
00:04:22
But yeah.
00:04:23
So when it comes to the family thing that Doctor.
00:04:26
Alessi talked about, so I'm a fifth generation chiropractor.
00:04:31
My family has been practicing chiropractic and natural medicine in Southeast Idaho for about
00:04:37
one hundred and ten years.
00:04:38
Starting in January, it'll be one hundred and ten years.
00:04:42
So I love this profession.
00:04:45
I grew up in the field, saw a lot of things, and there was a lot of things that I really
00:04:49
liked about what Doctor.
00:04:50
Lesse is doing in his clinic that made me say like, Hey, I want to learn as much as I can
00:04:56
from this guy.
00:04:57
I don't want to just come across as like, Oh, hey, you know, I already grew up in this and,
00:05:01
you know, like, there's nothing else like, no, I wanna be open.
00:05:05
I wanna learn too, you know?
00:05:06
Like, there's a lot of things that people have to offer despite your familiarity.
00:05:10
Yeah.
00:05:10
And the cool thing, man, is like, I've been learning stuff from you as well.
00:05:12
Right?
00:05:13
Like, you know, just because I've been doing it for six years doesn't mean I know everything.
00:05:16
So I love that.
00:05:18
And that's the thing I see from a lot of patients is that ego is so big in medicine,
00:05:24
particularly Western medicine, right?
00:05:26
Like, and if you can empathize with this, I'd like, I urge people to just look outside the
00:05:31
box a little bit and maybe just start to question the the the normal, right, a little
00:05:36
bit.
00:05:36
And, you know, being normal, is that what people want?
00:05:39
Ultimately, is to be normal.
00:05:41
So, it's like or do we want to be like performing at a high level and and enjoying the
00:05:44
best of our life, right?
00:05:45
Whether it's performing in physical activities or just life stuff with your family, right?
00:05:49
You want to be able to live a healthy and good life.
00:05:52
So, you know, guys do some really cool things in your clinic with the EBU and the ozone
00:05:59
therapies and the IVs, which is something that we're expanding into down here, but is by no
00:06:04
means like where we started.
00:06:06
I started at as a chiropractor.
00:06:07
I was like correcting spines, that was all I did.
00:06:09
Then, I branched more into healing discs and neuropathy, right? Kind
00:06:13
Kind of went that route with the decompression.
00:06:15
Then we started just, how do we optimize, right? Got
00:06:17
Got the soft wave regeneration therapy.
00:06:19
Then we started bringing in the blood work and the functional medicine.
00:06:21
We're healing people's guts.
00:06:23
We're balancing hormones.
00:06:25
We're bringing on hormone therapy and peptides and just like the evolution of it.
00:06:30
The biggest difference I see, man, is I knew nothing about peptides, I knew nothing about
00:06:35
all this stuff when I was in school.
00:06:37
And now it's just so much more mainstream, right?
00:06:39
Even within five years, like the difference that's gone out there on social media and just
00:06:44
in general, docs like branching out.
00:06:47
So, know, I guess, tell me a little bit about your experience going through chiropractic
00:06:52
school, being a fifth gen chiro, like you have all this background, whereas a lot of students
00:06:57
like myself, I just came from, I was a personal trainer, right?
00:06:59
And so like I went a route, but I didn't have that similar background.
00:07:03
Had never been adjusted.
00:07:05
Doctor.
00:07:05
Yeah.
00:07:05
Great question.
00:07:07
So, it was a bit of a culture shock.
00:07:10
So, like I said, I grew up in a chiropractic office.
00:07:13
And we do a lot of naturopathic treatments, wellness.
00:07:17
And I thought I knew what chiropractic was.
00:07:20
I got into school, and I was like, Where's all the cool stuff?
00:07:24
Where's all the IVs?
00:07:25
Where's all the ozone?
00:07:26
Where's all the peptides in the stem cells?
00:07:28
And it was like, not even really talked about.
00:07:31
And so I loved how you talked about your coming up as a chiropractor and trying to evolve your
00:07:38
practice into other things because that's actually what we've been doing.
00:07:41
So kind of how we started.
00:07:44
Cool story.
00:07:45
So Pocatello, Idaho was a main railroad hub for Union Pacific Railroad.
00:07:51
And coupling train cars back in the day was a very violent process where the conductors and
00:07:56
the train workers would be in the middle of the train cars.
00:07:59
And when they couple them, they'd be inside to try and facilitate that process.
00:08:03
No.
00:08:03
And it would just come just like that.
00:08:07
Right?
00:08:08
And they would get whiplash.
00:08:09
So we would call that railroad spine.
00:08:11
It was the equivalent of getting into a car accident.
00:08:14
And, you know, this is what people are doing.
00:08:16
So they would funnel in into our clinic to get chiropractic care.
00:08:21
And then my grandpa, my dad, they evolved a little bit to cater to more needs.
00:08:29
A lot of times, there were needs within our family that we needed to evolve to be able to
00:08:35
meet, and then we ended up helping other people out with Yeah.
00:08:38
So I really liked how you shared about that because chiropractic is such an important part
00:08:44
for helping people to utilize wellness and to heal naturally.
00:08:49
But there's other things that we can use that, hey, we can evolve in that way.
00:08:54
So, love what you shared there.
00:08:56
And again, it's like being able to do what we can within the confines of regulations and
00:09:00
license and government and stuff.
00:09:02
And it's different across different states.
00:09:04
So, you know, you guys have different access in Idaho versus what we can do here in Florida.
00:09:09
Yeah.
00:09:09
But I know stuff always changes.
00:09:11
It's like from year to year, constantly changing, but integrating is what we call it,
00:09:16
right?
00:09:16
I became an integrative health practitioner.
00:09:18
Got a certification from this at a level two.
00:09:21
It's called basically going through the process of like how do we integrate things from
00:09:25
chiropractic, functional medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, holistic approaches, physical
00:09:32
approaches, lifestyle medicine, which is something we practice.
00:09:35
And using all those things to enhance the outcomes for a person.
00:09:40
And then, again, I think you and I are the same in that like, I don't want to be the forever
00:09:46
manager of someone's health.
00:09:47
I want to help them fix a problem, guide them, but it's ultimately giving them the power,
00:09:52
empowering them to take responsibility.
00:09:54
Hey, like learn all this stuff, and then now you just do it.
00:09:58
And then even better, now your family's healthier because you know how to make these
00:10:02
decisions, right?
00:10:03
That's the impact.
00:10:03
That's the ripple effect that we see.
00:10:05
So, you know, I love when I hear stories of like, not only somebody like, Oh yeah, I got
00:10:09
better through your program, but, Oh man, like I cut out all the processed dyes and foods for
00:10:14
my kids, and now my kids actually sleep better, and they're like, they're performing better in
00:10:18
school, like those are the cool things, man.
00:10:20
So, yeah, it's awesome.
00:10:22
You know, and again, going through school, I almost went to the same program that you're
00:10:27
doing with the dual degree naturopathic.
00:10:28
I just decided not to pursue that piece.
00:10:32
Looking back, like, that would have, you know, I kind of ended up going that route more like
00:10:35
functional meds.
00:10:36
Yeah.
00:10:36
So, it kinda would have fit me.
00:10:37
I actually almost feel like I I would have fit that more than the chiro piece, but Same year.
00:10:42
Yeah.
00:10:43
So, you're gonna be starting that here, what, next year?
00:10:45
Yeah.
00:10:45
January.
00:10:46
January.
00:10:46
That's the plan.
00:10:47
Awesome, man.
00:10:47
That's up in Illinois.
00:10:48
Some online naturopath courses right now.
00:10:51
So Cool.
00:10:51
Heck yeah, man.
00:10:52
Do you know much about the program?
00:10:53
I didn't, you know, I I can't say I'd like delved much into what it is.
00:10:56
I know it's a lot of homeopathy and Yeah.
00:10:58
And obviously herbals, they teach you all foundation of that kind of stuff.
00:11:03
But yeah, talk about that a little bit.
00:11:06
Yeah.
00:11:06
So good question.
00:11:08
I definitely want more training with blood work.
00:11:10
I actually get really excited and that's something that Doctor.
00:11:13
Alessi does here.
00:11:14
And I love being able to see the different patterns.
00:11:18
And that's actually kind of something that makes sense to me with naturopathic.
00:11:24
I've had friends who are like, what is that even?
00:11:27
Right?
00:11:28
So I've looked it up with Idaho and Florida law that a chiropractor or chiropractic physician
00:11:34
is someone that is able to manage, treat, diagnose conditions of the human body.
00:11:39
If that doesn't sound like a doctor, I don't know what is, right?
00:11:42
Who's a doctor?
00:11:43
But the thing is in healthcare, we do so with a different scope.
00:11:47
So with allopaths, they do so with an emphasis on medications and surgery and some advanced
00:11:54
treatments.
00:11:55
Osteopaths have their thing.
00:11:56
Chiropractic, we do so with an interest on the brain and its relationship with all the tissues
00:12:03
in our body.
00:12:03
We're kind of like electricians.
00:12:05
How do we enhance the communication to all of our tissues?
00:12:09
Naturopaths kind of do that more so with emphasis on blood work.
00:12:13
So when we look at blood work, yeah, we want to highlight the things that are outside of the
00:12:19
clinical reference range.
00:12:20
We want to fix those.
00:12:21
But something that my dad taught me to look into deeper is, can you find the patterns?
00:12:28
Can you see if it's on the higher end?
00:12:31
It still is in the normal range, but could this be preventable?
00:12:35
Right?
00:12:35
So that's one thing that I like about it is, chiropractic, we look at x rays to assess for
00:12:41
mechanical dysfunctions.
00:12:43
And then there's also another side where you have a systemic chemical issues, and I would
00:12:50
like to address those too.
00:12:51
So that's one of the reasons why I'm trying to enhance my training after chiropractic school.
00:12:57
Yeah.
00:12:57
You know the analogy, like I use car analogies all the time Yeah.
00:13:00
Because it just people everyone drives a car, it makes sense.
00:13:02
But the analogy is like, if your car is leaning to the side and the tires on that side are
00:13:09
wearing out, the brake pads, the gears are all wearing out, conventional medicine replaces the
00:13:14
tires, greases up the gears and the brakes, maybe gives you new brake pads, right?
00:13:19
Chiropractic or functional medicine fixes the alignment so that that doesn't keep happening.
00:13:24
Yes.
00:13:24
And then we take it a step further maybe and say, hey, are you parking your car every night
00:13:28
with the wheel turned to the side so that your alignment's just naturally being pulled off?
00:13:33
We go even that much further where it's like, what things are you doing on your daily life
00:13:38
that are making you stressed, that are then leading to your gut being off, that are then
00:13:42
leading to your hormone dysfunction.
00:13:43
Right?
00:13:43
You have to dig so deep.
00:13:45
You can't just myopically be like, oh, here's a here's some Prilosec for your gut.
00:13:48
Right?
00:13:49
It's like you have to go deep, deep, deep.
00:13:51
We talk about the dig, right?
00:13:52
Like, when we're going through our process of finding out from a patient what, number one,
00:13:57
what's going on, but like, why is this important for you to take action and fix now?
00:14:01
You have to dig, man.
00:14:02
You have to ask questions because when someone can emotionally connect to their pain or their
00:14:08
dysfunction, people take action.
00:14:10
And so, know, my patients all are very much familiar with that concept because we talk
00:14:15
about it's like, you don't have a driving reason behind why you're gonna fix something,
00:14:19
most people will fall off.
00:14:20
Yeah.
00:14:20
Right?
00:14:21
You start a gym workout routine, you start working with a trainer, and the only reason was
00:14:25
because you just wanted to feel a little bit better.
00:14:27
As soon as you start feeling better, you're probably gonna stop.
00:14:29
Yeah.
00:14:29
But if the reason was because like you wanted to lose weight because it's affecting your
00:14:33
marriage or it's affecting your ability to be present with your family, like that's a deep
00:14:38
driving reason.
00:14:39
People are gonna stick with that kind of thing longer.
00:14:40
So Yeah.
00:14:42
I think many people fear connecting to that emotion.
00:14:45
Mhmm.
00:14:46
And so when you fear it, you're gonna run from it or you're gonna avoid the tough decision of
00:14:51
taking action.
00:14:52
But if we can connect with it by exposing that fear, right, you break it and then it's
00:14:57
ultimately like, hey, like what does it take now to correct this problem?
00:15:00
Yeah.
00:15:01
Yeah.
00:15:01
I love that idea with with with restore.
00:15:04
You know?
00:15:05
Restore meaning to take something back to its original form.
00:15:09
You know?
00:15:11
Cutting out the the family time with the pain that you're having.
00:15:13
That's the that's the thing that I wanna do in my profession.
00:15:17
And that's something that I've noticed you do too in your patient interactions is, what did
00:15:23
you lose?
00:15:24
Can you not take a walk with your loved one, with your spouse?
00:15:27
Can you not throw a football with your grandson?
00:15:30
Like, you're an avid basketball player, lacrosse player, whatever sport.
00:15:35
And like, are you being robbed of that?
00:15:37
Yeah.
00:15:38
I wanna help restore people to that.
00:15:40
Yeah.
00:15:40
And I've noticed that in your patient interactions.
00:15:42
It's awesome when they do get out of that pain.
00:15:45
Yeah, that's the feedback we get that I think we do really well.
00:15:47
And it's not just me, I'm not gonna just like say, Oh, it's all me, it's my team, right?
00:15:51
We're trained, they're all trained on that to ask those questions, you know, and to really
00:15:56
care about the patients in a different way.
00:15:58
People feel that when they come in here, And you don't get that with conventional medicine
00:16:02
because conventional medicine, take it or leave it if you want to believe this, it's the truth,
00:16:07
is quota based, right?
00:16:08
They have to hit a certain number of visits a week to get paid by the insurance companies in
00:16:12
the pharmaceutical industry.
00:16:13
They have to prescribe a certain number of medicines, vaccines, whatever it is.
00:16:17
They have to hit numbers whereas we don't.
00:16:19
We don't deal with insurance companies.
00:16:20
We don't deal with these entities telling us how to help people.
00:16:24
We just help people.
00:16:25
And like, so the only entity I wanna know how to help is the person in front of me with the
00:16:30
pain or dysfunction that's ruining their life.
00:16:32
It's rewarding, man.
00:16:34
Like, there's days, obviously, there's tough days and long days in this industry where, you
00:16:38
know, we're going through, you gotta do all the business stuff, right?
00:16:41
You gotta keep the lights on and so you get kind of worn out.
00:16:43
But then you have that moment of someone coming in and just spilling there like they're crying
00:16:49
because this is the first time they were able to, you know, go perform some type of physical
00:16:55
activity with their wife or with their child or with someone they love.
00:16:58
And like, it's just amazing, man.
00:17:00
It's it's why we do it.
00:17:01
So
00:17:02
Yeah.
00:17:03
One thing that I kind of wanted to to highlight is how I came across doctor Alessi and why I'm
00:17:09
so interested in in coming here as as an intern.
00:17:12
So he did a little outreach with our school where he came in, and and he's just op he just
00:17:17
offered and said, like, hey.
00:17:18
I'm I'm here for you guys.
00:17:20
And I really appreciate that where there's other outreach stuff that I've seen you do on
00:17:25
social media.
00:17:26
So he's really out there in the community and and giving back and and trying to mentor.
00:17:31
And so that's why I saw him, and I really appreciated how he carried himself and and what
00:17:38
he was passionate about.
00:17:40
One of the reasons why I really enjoy chiropractic is I like the lifestyle stuff.
00:17:44
I enjoy doing yoga, working out, working on my nutrition because I can't imagine giving advice
00:17:52
to patients if I'm not doing it myself.
00:17:55
I just saw that with Doctor.
00:17:56
Alessi, and I was like, okay.
00:17:58
Like, he's obviously living it.
00:18:00
Like, it's it's one thing to do it because it's your job, but then it's one thing to live it.
00:18:05
For sure.
00:18:05
Yeah.
00:18:06
Like, you know, and and in doing this, I I kinda wanted to ask you about some of, your
00:18:11
your favorite lifestyle tips, stuff that you personally prioritize.
00:18:19
Yeah.
00:18:20
You know, I'd say the thing, if I had to like hone in on like the thing that changed my life
00:18:23
the most, man,
00:18:24
is going
00:18:24
to be a little bit different than even this conversation, but it's definitely mental health
00:18:27
work, right?
00:18:28
Like full transparency early on in my career as a chiropractor, I almost burned out and quit
00:18:34
because I was working for a doc or a clinic of docs, and I was just kind of being run through,
00:18:42
right?
00:18:42
It was very much like I was a treating doc, just treating sixty, seventy patients a day
00:18:46
sometimes with long hours at the same time as having newborn twins at home who didn't sleep
00:18:53
for more than thirty freaking minutes at a time.
00:18:55
It was just a lot, right?
00:18:57
And so, balancing, I didn't at the time have the tools to balance or manage that, right?
00:19:02
That level of stress I do now because I know how my body feels, right?
00:19:06
Like I can track on my wrist, oh, my HRV is getting a bit low.
00:19:10
My body's not recovering.
00:19:12
What's going on?
00:19:12
Am I stressed?
00:19:13
That too.
00:19:13
Yeah.
00:19:14
Am I going to be sick next week?
00:19:15
I can kind of tell when things are coming on.
00:19:16
I haven't been sick in say four years or more because as soon as I start noticing those
00:19:22
trends or I can tell, I just get ahead of it and I start doing the stuff, right?
00:19:27
Taking the bone broths and the honeys and all the good immune boosters and garlic, right?
00:19:31
And so, I start every morning, I do a spoonful of Manuka honey, like the high grade Manuka
00:19:37
honey, man.
00:19:38
I credit that.
00:19:39
I give it to my kids too, right?
00:19:40
And so it's like, we all it's like a little morning thing.
00:19:42
It's like honey time and boom, boom, we just eat the honey.
00:19:44
Again, it's it's getting ahead of it.
00:19:46
And that's that's the other thing is that we're doing is we're not just getting people out of
00:19:51
pain or curing diseases or restoring people to health, but we're helping them prevent further
00:19:56
things down the line too.
00:19:57
So, I think people are so used to waiting until something's wrong.
00:20:02
You wait until your check engine light's off to go to the mechanic.
00:20:05
You wait until you bald tires to get new ones.
00:20:08
Like getting ahead of it saves you money and time down the line because things just cost
00:20:15
more later, right?
00:20:16
You deferred maintenance on your car, it's going be more the next time.
00:20:19
You defer maintenance on your body, you better believe it's going to be more not just
00:20:22
financially, but emotionally, physically, and mentally on everyone.
00:20:26
So, mean, I the other things are like prioritizing my fitness level.
00:20:31
Strength training three, if not four days a week.
00:20:33
Steps, you're always making sure, I mean, in here, there's no shortage of getting steps,
00:20:38
walking around, treating patients.
00:20:39
He's that busy.
00:20:41
Yeah.
00:20:41
And then, you know, like nutrition is huge.
00:20:44
I'm a big fan of like the fundamentals, man.
00:20:46
Like dial in the fundamentals to a T because if not, then the other stuff is wasted.
00:20:51
I know the peptides are cool.
00:20:53
I know the supplements and all that stuff is cool and it's exciting, right?
00:20:57
The performance enhancers.
00:20:58
But if your diet's not in check and you're not sleeping well and you're not training
00:21:04
appropriately or moving your body, none of that stuff's going to do anything for you, right?
00:21:10
The people who think they can just go take steroids and they're going to get jacked, not
00:21:13
if you don't lift weights.
00:21:14
Like, it doesn't work that way.
00:21:15
Right?
00:21:15
It doesn't just like blow you up.
00:21:17
So, you got to have that.
00:21:19
And then, know, getting in like the cool stuff, obviously, like I did invest in this mattress
00:21:24
cover, the eight pod.
00:21:25
Yeah.
00:21:25
I don't know if you've heard of that one.
00:21:27
Not yet.
00:21:27
Oh my God, dude.
00:21:28
That might have been the best investment I've made in the last five years.
00:21:31
Is a cover, like a layer that goes over your bed.
00:21:36
Yeah.
00:21:36
And it's attached to a hub that is filled with water.
00:21:39
And so, at night at 08:30, it starts pumping cold water through the coils in the cover so
00:21:46
that when I get in bed at nine, 09:30, it is cold.
00:21:49
And I am able to fall asleep like that.
00:21:51
I sleep through the entire night.
00:21:53
Don't wake up.
00:21:54
And then in the morning, rather than like an alarm, spiking cortisol, the bed just slowly
00:21:59
starts warming up.
00:22:01
And you just wake up because it's warming you up, right?
00:22:03
And it takes you out of deep into light sleep.
00:22:05
And then if the warmth doesn't wake me up by the time I need to be up, it starts gently
00:22:10
vibrating and pulsing.
00:22:11
And so, I wake up very chill, not like most people wake up to an alarm and it's very abrupt
00:22:17
and catches you out of whatever So, stage of sleep you're I could give you a piece of advice
00:22:26
or give someone a piece of advice that will change your life today is investing in
00:22:30
something that can track your sleep and wake you up at the right time.
00:22:34
So, for example, if you're in a deep sleep cycle and you're dreaming and then your alarm
00:22:40
goes off, how crappy do you feel?
00:22:41
You feel groggy, right?
00:22:43
Versus when you're in a lighter sleep and you wake up, you kind of just naturally wake up and
00:22:46
you're like, man, I feel ready.
00:22:47
Like, I'm gonna get up.
00:22:48
And so, there's these wearables or the bed cover does it too where it can sense your heart
00:22:55
rate and your breathing rate and knows what stage of sleep you're in, and it wakes you up
00:22:59
at that time.
00:23:00
Even if it's ten or fifteen minutes before your alarm, but at least you're waking up in a more
00:23:06
ready to go state than going back into a deep sleep cycle and waking up then and feeling
00:23:11
lousy.
00:23:12
That's pretty sweet, man.
00:23:13
I'm all a big fan of that.
00:23:14
I think sleep is maybe the most important thing.
00:23:17
Yeah, I think so.
00:23:18
No, thanks for that because that's something I struggle with.
00:23:21
That's why I got a whoop is just so that way I have a better idea of what I'm doing with with
00:23:26
sleep.
00:23:27
Sleep hygiene is something I can always work on.
00:23:30
Something that I loved about what you shared with, with your kids when you did honey time,
00:23:34
you know, I your kids are gonna remember that, you know, and you're doing a healthy hack for
00:23:39
them.
00:23:39
So quick story.
00:23:42
My grandpa was still around and my dad was starting practice, you know how when you go
00:23:47
into a dentist's office or whatever, they'll just hand you candy or whatever.
00:23:51
It's like, Hey, thanks for coming in.
00:23:53
It was really cool, like, when I would go in and be like, hey, grandpa, grandpa, grandpa.
00:23:57
Like, he had these vitamin c chewables, like, you know, and it was like his own brand that he
00:24:01
was selling.
00:24:02
I guess the best way I can describe it is like those nerds at SweetTarts.
00:24:08
Like a farty.
00:24:09
Yeah.
00:24:10
Was like tangy, tart, but it was it was vitamin C.
00:24:13
He he would just say, here's some candy, you know?
00:24:16
And so he was like psychologically helping us to to be healthier in So that it it felt really
00:24:21
sentimental when you said, like, oh, you know, I got the best honey here, and I'm helping my
00:24:27
kids getting their, you know, their sweet tooth because what kid doesn't have sweet tooth?
00:24:31
No.
00:24:32
Know?
00:24:32
And it tastes really good.
00:24:33
Yeah.
00:24:33
So there's, you know, there's a bit of that too.
00:24:36
So, yeah, thanks for sharing on that.
00:24:38
Yeah, And that's the balance piece too, right?
00:24:40
The reason I operate the way I do in my business and like, I've built a team, right?
00:24:46
And this is more so talking to providers now than much of like, you know, patient based, but
00:24:52
even patient people who work jobs need to kind of be aware of like the sacrifice of time.
00:24:58
And like, to me, time is worth more than anything.
00:25:00
So like know, when time gets disrupted for me, that's a big deal because it's like you don't
00:25:05
get that back.
00:25:06
Right?
00:25:07
I can go make more money.
00:25:08
I can go buy more stuff, but like time doesn't come back.
00:25:10
Right?
00:25:10
So missing time with my kids is just priority.
00:25:13
So like, I make sure I I schedule my days in a way that I can wrap work when work's done.
00:25:19
Mhmm.
00:25:20
And then when I'm with the boys, I'm with the boys, right?
00:25:21
And I'm not on the computer while they're just, you know, doing whatever.
00:25:26
Like, I'm with them for that time.
00:25:27
We have dinner together, they go to bed, and then I can do more work if I need to, which
00:25:31
tends to be often.
00:25:33
But, you know, again, man, like that's priorities.
00:25:36
So like Yeah.
00:25:37
You know, that's my priority and and everyone's is different.
00:25:40
Right?
00:25:40
You don't have children.
00:25:41
So like right now is the time to like, you know, hustle, grind, get that bag.
00:25:45
Right?
00:25:45
As they say, because they say, so like do your thing, man.
00:25:48
And Right.
00:25:49
Because then, yeah, one day if that changes, like, then your priorities have to change.
00:25:53
And like, it's I'm not like the best parent in the world.
00:25:55
Can't claim that, but like, I I care.
00:25:57
Right?
00:25:57
So yeah.
00:25:59
Yeah.
00:25:59
I know that's a little different trajectory than this, but I like this conversation because
00:26:02
it's kinda we're going all over the place.
00:26:04
Yeah.
00:26:04
Yeah.
00:26:04
Okay.
00:26:05
So sleep, that's one of your best hacks ever that you swear by and you're like, this
00:26:11
is what's worked for me.
00:26:12
That's just such a low hanging fruit to make such a big impact.
00:26:18
You optimize your sleep, you're going to perform better during the day, you're going to
00:26:21
recover better, everything's better.
00:26:23
So
00:26:24
So I want to add on to the sleep thing.
00:26:27
So it's something that's really helped me out in my sleep.
00:26:29
And if someone were to say, hey, Carter, you know, what's the what's your favorite biohack
00:26:34
of all time?
00:26:35
Putting tape over my mouth when I sleep at night.
00:26:37
So,
00:26:39
I've read literature all about nasal breathing and there's ways that chiropractic can even
00:26:46
help out you know, with a lot of that stuff.
00:26:49
But, yes, I've noticed that it helps me out because the nose is like a muscle.
00:26:53
You go to the gym, you either use it or you lose it.
00:26:56
Yeah.
00:26:57
I felt like that's helped me out in my sleep, but now I need to get one of those pads so that
00:27:03
way because my room does get a little bit warm and would definitely benefit from a temperature
00:27:08
change.
00:27:09
Oh, man.
00:27:09
Yeah.
00:27:09
I used to I mean, before I had it, would wake up like sweaty all the time.
00:27:12
Right?
00:27:12
I'm just normally warm, guess, like naturally warm.
00:27:15
Yeah.
00:27:16
It's the worst.
00:27:16
And so, I haven't ever had that since.
00:27:18
And and again, I sleep really well.
00:27:20
I do like the mouth tape too.
00:27:22
I've always struggled like I you gotta get me on the one.
00:27:25
It just doesn't stick to my facial hair.
00:27:26
And so like Well, that's always the I have facial hair too.
00:27:28
Yeah.
00:27:29
I just like to do the the KT tape.
00:27:30
The one that I got that was specifically for the mouth, it just doesn't stay on and it's
00:27:35
just not big enough.
00:27:35
Don't know if I have, like, a big mouth or anything like that.
00:27:38
But, actually, we were talking about this a while ago, what you were doing for lacrosse
00:27:43
training to facilitate more nasal breathing.
00:27:45
Yeah.
00:27:45
You should share that.
00:27:46
Yeah.
00:27:47
Our trainer in college would make us just put water in our mouth, like fill your mouth with
00:27:50
water, and then we'd run, and we'd do a, like, a mile or two.
00:27:53
Yeah.
00:27:53
And, you know, at the time, we all hated it.
00:27:55
We're like, oh, god.
00:27:56
But, like, it was beneficial, man.
00:27:58
Like, you would have better output when it came to stamina.
00:28:02
Would you just ever, like, swallow it, like, while you're, like, running the mile or
00:28:06
you at the end, he would make us all line up and spit it out to prove that we did it, or
00:28:10
else we'd have to keep running.
00:28:11
It was like it was like a torture thing, man, almost on this guy.
00:28:15
Oh.
00:28:15
But no, I get like, I can see why we did it.
00:28:18
It was good.
00:28:19
And I've always had, like, probably a deviated septum.
00:28:21
I've, you know, struggled with breathing through one side.
00:28:24
So getting as much as I can with the nasal breathing is just beneficial.
00:28:29
Yeah.
00:28:29
Yep.
00:28:30
It's probably yeah, that's my favorite one ever.
00:28:33
So Nice.
00:28:34
Good stuff, man.
00:28:35
Yeah.
00:28:36
Good stuff.
00:28:36
Heck yeah.
00:28:37
Well, yeah, you know, let's we'll wrap this up and and I think this would be cool episode that
00:28:44
we can even like show to some of your classmates or even like have for people
00:28:49
interested in this type of thing.
00:28:50
And we'll encourage listeners to also submit questions.
00:28:54
Right?
00:28:54
If this jogged any type of question for you, oh, how can I improve deep sleep without having
00:29:00
to purchase something?
00:29:00
Right?
00:29:01
Like, can there's there's freeze.
00:29:02
Right?
00:29:02
You don't have to buy anything.
00:29:04
There's hacks you can do all day long that are just completely free.
00:29:07
You just have to do them.
00:29:08
This is maybe advice for providers.
00:29:13
You got to be firm with patients too, because people are going to want to weasel out and not
00:29:17
do this stuff.
00:29:18
At the end of the day, your goals only come from doing the work.
00:29:21
And so, at the end of day, like, to to improve your sleep, to improve your health, you have to
00:29:26
do stuff.
00:29:27
You have to take action, but it buys you more capacity on the back end.
00:29:31
Yeah.
00:29:32
So, yeah, it's always easier to start now and fix the problem now.
00:29:36
Alright.
00:29:37
I don't know.
00:29:37
You heard it there.
00:29:38
Doctor.
00:29:39
Carter West, Doctor.
00:29:40
Alfred Alessi from Health Decoded.
00:29:42
Have a great day.
00:29:43
Thanks, y'all.
00:29:45
Thank you for tuning in to HelpDecoded, where we break down the truth about all things health
00:29:50
and empower you to take charge of your well-being.
00:29:54
If you found value in today's episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with
00:29:59
someone who needs to hear this.
00:30:01
For more resources and personalized support, visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
00:30:07
up for our newsletter.
00:30:08
To hear your questions answered live on the show, send them to askalessifxhealth dot com.
00:30:14
That's askalessifxhealth dot com.
00:30:20
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered, and remember, your health is in your hands.

