Integrative Health Insights: Chiropractic Care, Sleep Optimization, and Holistic Wellness Tips
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Integrative Health Insights: Chiropractic Care, Sleep Optimization, and Holistic Wellness Tips

In this episode, Dr. Alfred Alessi introduces the Total Care Program before welcoming Dr. Carter West to discuss chiropractic education and his family's chiropractic legacy. They explore integrative therapies in chiropractic care and the role of integrative health practices, including naturopathy and blood work analysis. Dr. West uses car analogies to explain health care approaches and reflects on Dr. Alessi's influence. Dr. Alessi shares lifestyle tips for mental health, emphasizing sleep optimization and hygiene, work-life balance, and biohacks like nasal breathing. Listener questions are addressed, and the episode concludes with a wrap-up and call to action. (0:00) Introduction with Dr. Alessi and the Total Care Program (2:18) Dr. Alessi welcomes Dr. Carter West (2:42) Chiropractic education and practice (4:26) Dr. West's chiropractic family history (5:45) Integrative therapies in chiropractic care (9:11) The role of integrative health practices (12:05) Naturopathy and blood work analysis (13:24) Health care approaches explained through car analogies (17:02) Dr. West on Dr. Alessi's influence (18:06) Dr. Alessi's lifestyle and mental health tips (21:28) Sleep optimization and hygiene (24:38) Work-life balance strategies (26:04) Biohacks for improved sleep (27:28) Benefits of nasal breathing (29:00) Listener engagement and questions (29:37) Episode wrap-up and call to action

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To really care about the patients in a different way, people feel that when they come

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in here.

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Again, you don't get that with conventional medicine because conventional medicine, take it

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or leave it if you want to believe this, it's the truth, is quota based.

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Right?

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They have to hit a certain number of visits a week to get paid by the insurance companies in

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the pharmaceutical industry.

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They have to prescribe a certain number of medicines, vaccines, whatever it is.

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They have to hit numbers.

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Whereas we don't, we don't deal with insurance companies.

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We don't deal with these entities telling us how to help people.

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We just help people.

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And like so the only entity I wanna know how to help is the person in front of me with the pain

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or dysfunction that's ruining their life.

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Right.

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Welcome to Health Decoded, your number one source for real health information with your

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host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.

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Hey, Health Decoded listeners.

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Doctor Alessi here.

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Let me ask you a serious question.

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Are you tired of waiting until something goes wrong to finally see a doctor?

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At Alessi Functional Health, we take a different approach, the right approach.

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We believe true health care isn't about chasing symptoms.

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It's about preventing them in the first place.

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That's why we created the Alessi Total Care Program.

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This is a functional medicine based membership that gives you proactive, personalized care

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year round.

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You'll get access to comprehensive blood work and functional testing, custom doctor grade

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nutraceuticals, deep discounts on labs, protocols, and follow ups, as well as twenty

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four seven direct access to your doctor, not just a ten minute checkup that ends with

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another prescription.

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And here's the best part.

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As a Health Decoded listener, you'll get your first three months completely free when you

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sign up for an annual membership.

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That's on top of hundreds in savings already built into the program.

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This is your chance to take responsibility for your health and join a movement that's

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redefining what primary care should look like.

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Head on over to alessifunctionalhealth.com, click on our services tab, and go to Total

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Care.

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Learn more about this program and claim your exclusive podcast listener offer.

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Your health is your greatest asset.

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Let's protect it proactively.

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What's up?

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Doctor Olesi here.

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I'm here with doctor West, Doctor.

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Carter West.

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Awesome, man.

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Well, hey, you know, this is a cool concept we have here for a show where we both attended the

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same chiropractic college.

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I was there 2016 to 2019.

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Right?

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So we'll say that what, like six years ahead of yourself.

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You're just graduating and and being a doc now.

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So, you know, the shift, and we kinda wanted to talk a little bit.

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I want I like just wanted to kinda pick your brain a little bit on like the differences,

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right?

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What your experiences were versus what mine is, and there's a cool thing that I learned while I

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was in school.

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It was a doc that I used to shadow with, man, and he gave me this kind of analogy where he

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drew like a really small circle on a screen and he was like, this is what they teach you in

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school.

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Then he drew a bigger circle and he was like, this is what we can practice once we're out of

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school.

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Yeah.

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And then he basically was like, the rest of the page is what's out there, right?

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Available for people.

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And it's like, you know, I experienced that myself, like just in the last month, traveling

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out of the country and getting different types of therapies with stem cells and things that we

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There's just so many regulations, man.

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So, I know you practice We practice in a similar way or kind of But you also do some

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other things in your family's clinic.

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Tell me a little bit about kind of where your trajectory is because you're a doc, but you're

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gonna get a dual degree essentially.

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So, talk about that, man.

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Yeah.

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I might preface it with a little bit more background if that's all right.

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Yes, please.

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Yeah.

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So I'm graduating with my doctor of chiropractic in December.

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But the reason why I chose National, where Doctor.

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Alessi and I went to school is because they offer a dual degree.

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So the second degree would be as a naturopathic physician.

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And where I'm so I'm from Idaho, and there's a lot there's a few doctors out there that are

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duly licensed.

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So a broader scope offers broader techniques and a broader audience of of people that you

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can help and serve.

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So that's why I'm doing it.

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But yeah.

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So when it comes to the family thing that Doctor.

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Alessi talked about, so I'm a fifth generation chiropractor.

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My family has been practicing chiropractic and natural medicine in Southeast Idaho for about

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one hundred and ten years.

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Starting in January, it'll be one hundred and ten years.

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So I love this profession.

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I grew up in the field, saw a lot of things, and there was a lot of things that I really

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liked about what Doctor.

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Lesse is doing in his clinic that made me say like, Hey, I want to learn as much as I can

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from this guy.

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I don't want to just come across as like, Oh, hey, you know, I already grew up in this and,

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you know, like, there's nothing else like, no, I wanna be open.

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I wanna learn too, you know?

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Like, there's a lot of things that people have to offer despite your familiarity.

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Yeah.

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And the cool thing, man, is like, I've been learning stuff from you as well.

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Right?

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Like, you know, just because I've been doing it for six years doesn't mean I know everything.

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So I love that.

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And that's the thing I see from a lot of patients is that ego is so big in medicine,

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particularly Western medicine, right?

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Like, and if you can empathize with this, I'd like, I urge people to just look outside the

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box a little bit and maybe just start to question the the the normal, right, a little

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bit.

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And, you know, being normal, is that what people want?

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Ultimately, is to be normal.

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So, it's like or do we want to be like performing at a high level and and enjoying the

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best of our life, right?

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Whether it's performing in physical activities or just life stuff with your family, right?

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You want to be able to live a healthy and good life.

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So, you know, guys do some really cool things in your clinic with the EBU and the ozone

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therapies and the IVs, which is something that we're expanding into down here, but is by no

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means like where we started.

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I started at as a chiropractor.

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I was like correcting spines, that was all I did.

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Then, I branched more into healing discs and neuropathy, right? Kind

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Kind of went that route with the decompression.

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Then we started just, how do we optimize, right? Got

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Got the soft wave regeneration therapy.

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Then we started bringing in the blood work and the functional medicine.

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We're healing people's guts.

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We're balancing hormones.

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We're bringing on hormone therapy and peptides and just like the evolution of it.

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The biggest difference I see, man, is I knew nothing about peptides, I knew nothing about

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all this stuff when I was in school.

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And now it's just so much more mainstream, right?

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Even within five years, like the difference that's gone out there on social media and just

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in general, docs like branching out.

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So, know, I guess, tell me a little bit about your experience going through chiropractic

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school, being a fifth gen chiro, like you have all this background, whereas a lot of students

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like myself, I just came from, I was a personal trainer, right?

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And so like I went a route, but I didn't have that similar background.

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Had never been adjusted.

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Doctor.

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Yeah.

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Great question.

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So, it was a bit of a culture shock.

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So, like I said, I grew up in a chiropractic office.

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And we do a lot of naturopathic treatments, wellness.

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And I thought I knew what chiropractic was.

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I got into school, and I was like, Where's all the cool stuff?

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Where's all the IVs?

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Where's all the ozone?

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Where's all the peptides in the stem cells?

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And it was like, not even really talked about.

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And so I loved how you talked about your coming up as a chiropractor and trying to evolve your

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practice into other things because that's actually what we've been doing.

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So kind of how we started.

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Cool story.

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So Pocatello, Idaho was a main railroad hub for Union Pacific Railroad.

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And coupling train cars back in the day was a very violent process where the conductors and

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the train workers would be in the middle of the train cars.

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And when they couple them, they'd be inside to try and facilitate that process.

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No.

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And it would just come just like that.

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Right?

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And they would get whiplash.

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So we would call that railroad spine.

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It was the equivalent of getting into a car accident.

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And, you know, this is what people are doing.

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So they would funnel in into our clinic to get chiropractic care.

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And then my grandpa, my dad, they evolved a little bit to cater to more needs.

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A lot of times, there were needs within our family that we needed to evolve to be able to

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meet, and then we ended up helping other people out with Yeah.

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So I really liked how you shared about that because chiropractic is such an important part

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for helping people to utilize wellness and to heal naturally.

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But there's other things that we can use that, hey, we can evolve in that way.

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So, love what you shared there.

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And again, it's like being able to do what we can within the confines of regulations and

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license and government and stuff.

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And it's different across different states.

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So, you know, you guys have different access in Idaho versus what we can do here in Florida.

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Yeah.

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But I know stuff always changes.

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It's like from year to year, constantly changing, but integrating is what we call it,

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right?

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I became an integrative health practitioner.

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Got a certification from this at a level two.

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It's called basically going through the process of like how do we integrate things from

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chiropractic, functional medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, holistic approaches, physical

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approaches, lifestyle medicine, which is something we practice.

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And using all those things to enhance the outcomes for a person.

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And then, again, I think you and I are the same in that like, I don't want to be the forever

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manager of someone's health.

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I want to help them fix a problem, guide them, but it's ultimately giving them the power,

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empowering them to take responsibility.

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Hey, like learn all this stuff, and then now you just do it.

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And then even better, now your family's healthier because you know how to make these

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decisions, right?

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That's the impact.

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That's the ripple effect that we see.

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So, you know, I love when I hear stories of like, not only somebody like, Oh yeah, I got

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better through your program, but, Oh man, like I cut out all the processed dyes and foods for

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my kids, and now my kids actually sleep better, and they're like, they're performing better in

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school, like those are the cool things, man.

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So, yeah, it's awesome.

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You know, and again, going through school, I almost went to the same program that you're

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doing with the dual degree naturopathic.

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I just decided not to pursue that piece.

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Looking back, like, that would have, you know, I kind of ended up going that route more like

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functional meds.

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Yeah.

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So, it kinda would have fit me.

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I actually almost feel like I I would have fit that more than the chiro piece, but Same year.

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Yeah.

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So, you're gonna be starting that here, what, next year?

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Yeah.

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January.

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January.

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That's the plan.

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Awesome, man.

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That's up in Illinois.

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Some online naturopath courses right now.

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So Cool.

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Heck yeah, man.

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Do you know much about the program?

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I didn't, you know, I I can't say I'd like delved much into what it is.

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I know it's a lot of homeopathy and Yeah.

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And obviously herbals, they teach you all foundation of that kind of stuff.

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But yeah, talk about that a little bit.

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Yeah.

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So good question.

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I definitely want more training with blood work.

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I actually get really excited and that's something that Doctor.

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Alessi does here.

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And I love being able to see the different patterns.

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And that's actually kind of something that makes sense to me with naturopathic.

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I've had friends who are like, what is that even?

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Right?

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So I've looked it up with Idaho and Florida law that a chiropractor or chiropractic physician

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is someone that is able to manage, treat, diagnose conditions of the human body.

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If that doesn't sound like a doctor, I don't know what is, right?

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Who's a doctor?

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But the thing is in healthcare, we do so with a different scope.

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So with allopaths, they do so with an emphasis on medications and surgery and some advanced

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treatments.

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Osteopaths have their thing.

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Chiropractic, we do so with an interest on the brain and its relationship with all the tissues

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in our body.

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We're kind of like electricians.

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How do we enhance the communication to all of our tissues?

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Naturopaths kind of do that more so with emphasis on blood work.

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So when we look at blood work, yeah, we want to highlight the things that are outside of the

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clinical reference range.

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We want to fix those.

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But something that my dad taught me to look into deeper is, can you find the patterns?

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Can you see if it's on the higher end?

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It still is in the normal range, but could this be preventable?

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Right?

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So that's one thing that I like about it is, chiropractic, we look at x rays to assess for

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mechanical dysfunctions.

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And then there's also another side where you have a systemic chemical issues, and I would

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like to address those too.

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So that's one of the reasons why I'm trying to enhance my training after chiropractic school.

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Yeah.

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You know the analogy, like I use car analogies all the time Yeah.

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Because it just people everyone drives a car, it makes sense.

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But the analogy is like, if your car is leaning to the side and the tires on that side are

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wearing out, the brake pads, the gears are all wearing out, conventional medicine replaces the

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tires, greases up the gears and the brakes, maybe gives you new brake pads, right?

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Chiropractic or functional medicine fixes the alignment so that that doesn't keep happening.

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Yes.

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And then we take it a step further maybe and say, hey, are you parking your car every night

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with the wheel turned to the side so that your alignment's just naturally being pulled off?

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We go even that much further where it's like, what things are you doing on your daily life

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that are making you stressed, that are then leading to your gut being off, that are then

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leading to your hormone dysfunction.

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Right?

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You have to dig so deep.

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You can't just myopically be like, oh, here's a here's some Prilosec for your gut.

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Right?

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It's like you have to go deep, deep, deep.

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We talk about the dig, right?

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Like, when we're going through our process of finding out from a patient what, number one,

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what's going on, but like, why is this important for you to take action and fix now?

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You have to dig, man.

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You have to ask questions because when someone can emotionally connect to their pain or their

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dysfunction, people take action.

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And so, know, my patients all are very much familiar with that concept because we talk

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about it's like, you don't have a driving reason behind why you're gonna fix something,

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most people will fall off.

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Yeah.

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Right?

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You start a gym workout routine, you start working with a trainer, and the only reason was

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because you just wanted to feel a little bit better.

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As soon as you start feeling better, you're probably gonna stop.

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Yeah.

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But if the reason was because like you wanted to lose weight because it's affecting your

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marriage or it's affecting your ability to be present with your family, like that's a deep

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driving reason.

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People are gonna stick with that kind of thing longer.

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So Yeah.

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I think many people fear connecting to that emotion.

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Mhmm.

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And so when you fear it, you're gonna run from it or you're gonna avoid the tough decision of

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taking action.

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But if we can connect with it by exposing that fear, right, you break it and then it's

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ultimately like, hey, like what does it take now to correct this problem?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I love that idea with with with restore.

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You know?

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Restore meaning to take something back to its original form.

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You know?

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Cutting out the the family time with the pain that you're having.

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That's the that's the thing that I wanna do in my profession.

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And that's something that I've noticed you do too in your patient interactions is, what did

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you lose?

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Can you not take a walk with your loved one, with your spouse?

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Can you not throw a football with your grandson?

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Like, you're an avid basketball player, lacrosse player, whatever sport.

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And like, are you being robbed of that?

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Yeah.

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I wanna help restore people to that.

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Yeah.

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And I've noticed that in your patient interactions.

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It's awesome when they do get out of that pain.

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Yeah, that's the feedback we get that I think we do really well.

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And it's not just me, I'm not gonna just like say, Oh, it's all me, it's my team, right?

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We're trained, they're all trained on that to ask those questions, you know, and to really

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care about the patients in a different way.

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People feel that when they come in here, And you don't get that with conventional medicine

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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

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the pharmaceutical industry.

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They have to prescribe a certain number of medicines, vaccines, whatever it is.

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They have to hit numbers whereas we don't.

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We don't deal with insurance companies.

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We don't deal with these entities telling us how to help people.

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We just help people.

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And like, so the only entity I wanna know how to help is the person in front of me with the

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pain or dysfunction that's ruining their life.

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It's rewarding, man.

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Like, there's days, obviously, there's tough days and long days in this industry where, you

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know, we're going through, you gotta do all the business stuff, right?

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You gotta keep the lights on and so you get kind of worn out.

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But then you have that moment of someone coming in and just spilling there like they're crying

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because this is the first time they were able to, you know, go perform some type of physical

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activity with their wife or with their child or with someone they love.

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And like, it's just amazing, man.

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It's it's why we do it.

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So

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Yeah.

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One thing that I kind of wanted to to highlight is how I came across doctor Alessi and why I'm

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so interested in in coming here as as an intern.

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So he did a little outreach with our school where he came in, and and he's just op he just

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offered and said, like, hey.

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I'm I'm here for you guys.

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And I really appreciate that where there's other outreach stuff that I've seen you do on

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social media.

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So he's really out there in the community and and giving back and and trying to mentor.

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And so that's why I saw him, and I really appreciated how he carried himself and and what

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he was passionate about.

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One of the reasons why I really enjoy chiropractic is I like the lifestyle stuff.

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I enjoy doing yoga, working out, working on my nutrition because I can't imagine giving advice

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to patients if I'm not doing it myself.

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I just saw that with Doctor.

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Alessi, and I was like, okay.

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Like, he's obviously living it.

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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
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00:29:54
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00:30:01
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00:30:08
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00:30:14
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00:30:20
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