Join Our Newsletter https://alessifunctionalhealth.com/pages/health-decoded-newsletter
(0:00) Introduction to Health Decoded and the problem with traditional medicine (3:18) Empowering patients through education and Matt Tack's health journey (6:11) Understanding the three pillars of health (7:41) Exploring physical medicine and pain management techniques (24:43) The intersection of functional medicine and total care (29:00) The critical role of comprehensive blood panels in health (30:23) The essentials of lifestyle medicine (35:51) Spotlight on regenerative medicine and innovative therapies (42:10) Implementing the three pillars in your life (44:57) Getting started with Alessi Functional Health (46:00) Final thoughts and episode wrap-up00:00:00
But it's lifestyle, right?
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And it's like, you know, traditional medicine, you go in, maybe they draw a couple blood
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panels or they do something real basic and then they just recommend something like a like a
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medication Where a lot of docs can go wrong with functional medicine is they think they're
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doing functional medicine because they're drawing your blood and then they're giving you
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supplements.
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But it's literally just the same model just with natural interventions.
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So it's like a little bit better, but it's still missing the piece of the why and like the
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root cause.
00:00:28
And so like, yeah, if you're chronically stressed out because your life is just a is
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just madness, then like, I'm gonna dig into that a little bit.
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Welcome to Health Decode, 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.
00:01:04
It's about preventing them in the first place.
00:01:06
That's why we created the Alessi Total Care Program.
00:01:10
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
00:02:02
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.
00:02:15
Welcome back to another episode of health decoded.
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I am your host, doctor Alessi.
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And your co host here, Matt Tack.
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Matt Tack.
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Man, coming in hot.
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How are doing?
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Good.
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How are you?
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I'm doing well, man.
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I'm doing well.
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I'm excited.
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This is a it's a good day.
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It's been a good month.
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We just there's a lot of cool things happening within the clinic and kind of what we've been
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doing.
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And these programs we've put together and it's really cool to see, you know, people are like
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excited about it, right?
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Like patients coming in the office and they're, they're excited to be there.
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They're excited to learn.
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And it's just awesome, man.
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I feel like it's really like a health revolution that that we're seeing nowadays
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people like wanting to take control right wanting to get ahead of things and we talked
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about that a couple weeks back is like the proactive versus reactive right and think
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people are people are understanding the importance and actually starting to subscribe
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to that.
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It's been good, man.
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What's new to you?
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It's control, At the end of the day, like people, know, when you can have some element of
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control over your life, it's empowering.
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And I think that's what like ultimately you're giving to somebody with through the process of
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the education when you can have control over what you're putting into your body.
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It's a it's a beautiful thing.
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Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
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I literally just talked to a patient yesterday and we're sitting in there in a functional
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medicine consultation and I'm like, hey, the goal here is for me to teach you how to read
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your own blood work so that in the future you can run labs on yourself.
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You can see what's going on.
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You can stay ahead of things and then you know, I'm here to guide you if you need help, but you
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can tweak things as you need as well, right?
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Oh, my it looks like my cortisol is high this month.
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Oh, yeah, last month was pretty stressful.
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Now what do I got to do, right?
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I got to change up some things maybe in my daily routine, maybe in my sleep, maybe in my
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lifestyle.
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So being able to get the knowledge base there because most people have no clue or how to read
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lab work.
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So it's really important, know, it's like, you know, just rely on someone for that forever.
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Or can we guide you to then, you know, like a teacher give you an idea of how to do it for
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yourself.
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So we're all about that.
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And look who the guinea pig was, me.
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Yeah.
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Was the first functional medicine patient, I think at well, won't say the first.
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But I was a guinea pig in that person of like, hey, I want to learn more about what's going
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on.
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Like, what what are my symptoms?
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And how can we get to a root cause of this?
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Because I want to feel better.
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And so we did that.
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You know, you guided me through that.
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We dug in, and I just constantly want to learn more and more now, right?
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Put new habits in place, you know, dialing in nutrition, micro supplementation, you know, and
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then even understanding my blood work.
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Like I'm, I'm able to educate people on blood work now because of the time that you to just
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basically take me through what, hey, this is what this means, and this is how we basically
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need to put the micro supplementation together.
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And then maybe let's look at your habit structure.
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All those things really do play a huge role in an understanding of, you know, hey, how do I
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just get feel a little bit better tomorrow?
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And it's that 1% improvement.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And that's awesome.
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And yeah, now you don't I don't even look at your blood work really anymore.
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You run it yourself and you do it yourself and like, it's awesome, man.
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It's it's good stuff.
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And so I think you took initiative, right?
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Like that's a good point is like you took action on that and you were very proactive
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about it.
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You're like, man, I want to learn these things because you do care about your health and you
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are, you know, very much focused on that and not just for you, it's for your family too.
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So that's what we're trying to create, man.
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Again, you're like the you're like the role model for our patients.
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Know, today, we're unpacking the three pillars of health we call it, right?
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That basically is like the foundation of how we help people, how we get great results without
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relying on pills and really like guesswork is what we call it.
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Like a lot of places, a lot of docs you go to and it's like guesswork.
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They just, oh, let's try this medicine.
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Let's see what happens.
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Come back in six months.
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That's that's pretty, you know, basic and honestly fruitless.
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So really like our mission statement and I'll just read it here.
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Our goal is to educate and empower you to take ownership of your health.
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We believe healthcare should fix problems at the root, not just mask symptoms.
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And so that's really what the three pillars are built to do.
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And so when you kind of came up with the idea for this this episode, I was like heck yeah,
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let's do that because we want to let our patients kind of know like how we operate.
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Obviously, they've probably been to the clinic people listening or they've you know, met us at
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some point and they know what we do, but like the foundation of how we operate and why.
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And I think that's really cool.
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And so yeah, we do have these three pillars and it is important because it's like a roadmap or
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it's like a guideline.
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And so unless you have like structure in place, you're gonna be all over the place.
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And so why don't we just go through them and kind of we'll just you know, keep this open
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conversation man and and talk stuff.
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Maybe talk about like experiences we've had and kind of what it is.
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Explain some of this and then you know, keep this keep this fun.
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So I'll do this.
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I'll I'll just start it.
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Number one, the first pillar we have is what we call physical medicine.
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And so, you know, think of your body as a house, right?
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If the foundation of the house is crooked, everything else is going to suffer.
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And so the first pillar is what we call physical medicine.
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So think of your body as a house, right?
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If the foundation of the house is crooked, everything else is going to suffer or have
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issues.
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And so pillar one is really about the structure, but then also the function and the
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movement of that structure.
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And so there's a few different key components and let's just kind of get into this, right?
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Number one and patients who have experienced this know, we practice what's called
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chiropractic biophysics.
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And so this isn't just routine adjustment pop, crack your back.
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Oh, I feel better.
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See you next week when it comes back, right?
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This is correction based.
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And so, it's not pain based.
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So yeah, you might have pain, but why are you in pain?
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Because your spine is far from alignment or you have a reverse curve in your neck should be
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bending this way.
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It's bending forward, right?
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And so, things over time, these structural spinal changes lead to degeneration, lead to
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arthritis and ultimately lead to pain.
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And so, we're very focused on that because we get better results than anyone else because we
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take that extra added step to focus on the corrective, not just the let me get you out of
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pain for the week, see you next week, you know, kind of I guess routine, right?
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And you kind of experienced that too in the past with some chiropractic care you did.
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Yeah, for sure.
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And I think that's one of the big things of just the biophysical element is the ongoing
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maintenance of it, right?
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A lot of people think of it's like an acute, Hey, I have an acute injury or something
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happened and I'm gonna, that's my lifeline, right?
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I just don't treat chiropractic care that way.
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I treat it as like a long term maintenance proactive type healthcare approach for me
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because, I do.
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I like, I take my body through, a lot, you know, on a daily basis.
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I still play sports.
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We were talking about sports before this episode, right?
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We wanna play sports as long as physically possible.
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And I think we're able to do that, but we have to take the proper measures.
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And the chiropractic biophysics, along with the other therapies that we have are instrumental
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in that.
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Yeah.
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Well, it's like, what other things in life do you ever just, like, do it once?
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And it's you know what I mean?
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It's like, to maintain results like you got to have some level of like effort in exercise is a
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great synergy to it because you go to the gym and say you're more dialed in routinely at the
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beginning maybe you're going four or five days a week really with a goal in mind you get to
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that weight.
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Then you got to maintain that you don't just stop, right?
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And so, you know, but the cool thing is with the protocols we use is we do get really good
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permanent results.
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The patients just have to maintain that on their own, right?
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It's like, you come to us for a fix.
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We fix whatever problem it is.
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And now it's just it's up to you like if you maintain the things we've shown you, which a
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lot is done at home.
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Yeah, come in for an adjustment maybe once twice a month, but other than that, like you
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can maintain a lot of these results with the structural things we teach you the right the
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orthotics like the dental is awesome tool, and even like exercises to mitigate having to
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relapse and then end up being more on a corrective program again.
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And so it's like the phases of care that we often see with the physical medicine side is
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like very much like people come to us with pain.
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So there's like that acute pain relief phase that they got to go through.
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We got to get you out of pain.
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That's why you're here.
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And it's limiting things.
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Usually that's pretty short man.
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That's four to six weeks is that is about average what we see we get people out of pain
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pretty quick.
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Keeping them out of pain is the hard part and this is where a lot of chiropractors don't have
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like an answer or a plan.
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They just keep doing the same things.
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And so it's like, that's where we build in now the next phase, which is like the corrective
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phase, right?
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The corrective phase is what keeps people what actually makes structural change in the spine.
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And so some of the instruments we use in the office, which you know, you can talk about, but
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that's where we get like actual change that is visibly seen on like an X-ray.
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And then from there, the maintenance like you were just talking about.
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And so, why don't you talk about like some of the chiropractic things we use in the office,
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obviously, the adjustments or things that we have Doctor.
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Rennie doing adjustments.
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I do some adjustments from time to time.
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But like the protocol, right?
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And like what it looks like to do a corrective plan.
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Yeah, so when Doctor.
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Alessi actually came up with this, you know, complete phased out protocol, I, you know, it's
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been revolutionary in terms of like how we care for our patients and actually take them through
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the lifeline of what maybe an acute injury might be, but also like the maintenance on that
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maintenance side as well.
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So what we have primarily right now outside of our other three pillars, but specifically just
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within our protocol is soft tissue therapy, which is our soft wave therapy, which is
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essentially is kind of targeting acute areas, mainly that fascia, that soft tissue, tendons,
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whatever it might be, and in the spine, right?
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So the central nervous system is gonna feed back on any level of inflammation, but the
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Softwave technology basically kind of like artificially targets, not kind of, it does,
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targets in that area of inflammation and throws stem cells at it.
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So naturally produces stem cells in the region that it needs to.
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So we can use that in spinal regions, can use that in shoulders or knees or whatever it might
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be.
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So it's a beautiful thing in running combination, especially like in a, with a
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sciatic injury, where you're gonna be feeling that in that hip, you know, lower lumbar region
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all the way down to your potentially your ankle.
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So we can utilize it for that to reduce the amount of pain you're having in one region
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while we're adjusting through spinal decompression your spine, right?
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So that's kind of the structure or the elongation of the Rhine, you know, giving room
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for those discs in the chiropractic biophysic phase to be put back into place.
00:14:02
So that's what I love about the three things that we use in terms of the protocol is because
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they're also utilized very specifically, but they synergize together.
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So the three things we obviously do is soft wave therapy, spinal decompression, and
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chiropractor biophysics.
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So that's it.
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That's what we call affectionately the pain free future protocol.
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Yeah, and so essentially it was where it came from is, know, I've been doing this for going
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on six, seven years now.
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And I've always been chiropractic, right?
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That was where I started.
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Was adjustments, adjustments, adjustments.
00:14:38
And I was like, alright, there's how do we help people more?
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And then I worked in a clinic where we had spinal decompression.
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Was like, Okay, this is awesome.
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Like, this is now getting people fantastic results with disc injuries because before then
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it was really more like passive stretches and stuff like that.
00:14:52
And then three years ago investing in the in the soft wave technology, I found that we can
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take a disc injury which discs are very slow regenerative, so are nerves, they take a long
00:15:03
time to heal.
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And if there's compression on it, it's going to take even longer.
00:15:07
And so normally, you know, we are looking at somewhere around like six to eight months for
00:15:11
like a full recovery.
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We're accelerating that with the soft wave, you know, somewhere between like three to six
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months patients are getting awesome results and like permanent results, right?
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And so, basically we took that plus the corrective chiropractic plus the spinal
00:15:25
decompression, those three things bundle them together.
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It's like, now it's like a home run, right?
00:15:29
That's like that summative effect you get of all these modalities.
00:15:33
And so then we're like, Okay, like let's now let's put a name on it because it's a protocol
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is always better.
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It's like, we follow this protocol, we get results.
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And so, it might look mildly different from patient to patient like how many treatments
00:15:45
they'll need like the severity of maybe the neuropathy but for the most part, it's going to
00:15:50
be heavy with the soft wave and decompression on the front end, phasing into more of the
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decompression and corrective chiropractic in the mid and then on the back end, the
00:15:59
maintenance chiropractic to keep the results.
00:16:01
And so you go through this protocol and these phases of care.
00:16:04
And again, it's just if you do it and you do kind of how we instruct it, it works.
00:16:09
Like it just, I want to say a % of the time, but I can't.
00:16:12
But like it is, it's going to work, right?
00:16:14
And so again, there's always that buy in component like some patients fall off or they
00:16:19
get distracted or life events, right?
00:16:21
Like they have something come up and they so a % would be nice to say because we do get in the
00:16:26
high 90s success rates with our protocol if you do it correctly.
00:16:30
So then let's go into kind of the next piece of the physical medicine, which is the spinal
00:16:34
decompression that you mentioned.
00:16:36
So spinal decompression is basically it's like a bed, you're laying on it either on your back
00:16:41
or sometimes you can go prone, it's mostly on your back and it's pulling your body axially.
00:16:47
So like straight versus like some other therapies are going to flex your spine.
00:16:51
When you pull it straight, think of like the example I use is like a like a sandwich, So you
00:16:57
got like two pieces of bread and you got a bunch of deli meat and avocado and stuff in
00:17:01
there and you squish it, everything shoots out the side, right?
00:17:03
That's like the disc pushing out.
00:17:06
You can't just stuff that back in.
00:17:07
Have to open that sandwich up to let that the the contents come right back in.
00:17:12
And that's kind of the crude example for like a spinal disc is like if we can open that up
00:17:17
naturally the disc wants to go back into where it came from.
00:17:20
And then with the therapy, the soft wave and stuff like that, we can then let that heal.
00:17:24
But as long as it's being squished, that thing has no chance.
00:17:27
Right?
00:17:27
So we have to do the decompression to alleviate that.
00:17:33
Yeah, I think and that's both obviously in the cervical and the lumbar.
00:17:37
So the table's actually positioned appropriately based on where you're seeing the
00:17:42
compression in your discs.
00:17:44
Yeah.
00:17:44
Yeah.
00:17:44
And it's awesome.
00:17:45
It even if you don't have like severely herniated discs, it just feels good too.
00:17:49
The you and I are on that thing pretty regularly.
00:17:52
Least once every other week.
00:17:54
I mean, that's part of reason of you utilizing it for kind of the ongoing maintenance
00:17:59
component.
00:18:00
Right?
00:18:00
Because naturally, of course, there's gonna be something that happens through the either the
00:18:06
playing of sport or working out that you you just generally need it.
00:18:11
So it's that maintenance portion that's extremely critical.
00:18:13
Yeah, that's a good point.
00:18:15
A lot of patients come in and unfortunately, they've gotten themselves to a point where like
00:18:20
it is pretty, you know, severe and so like, yes, we do get them great results and we get
00:18:24
them out of pain.
00:18:25
But it's like, maintenance is going to more than likely be something you need to do.
00:18:29
Or we're going to highly highly recommend right again optional always optional but gravity and
00:18:36
the way we sit all day it just puts pressure on the discs again.
00:18:39
Discs are tough man they they're not easy to deal with You take a spinal disc injury to an
00:18:44
orthopedic surgeon, they're going to tell you the only fix is surgery.
00:18:47
Obviously, don't know the kind of stuff that we have.
00:18:49
So, this is out of their wheelhouse, but when we do it right again, we can heal that, then
00:18:54
it's a matter of like maintaining that over time.
00:18:56
And so, that's where like kind of the next part comes into is like the strengthening piece
00:19:00
right and so we very much focus on strength, you know, I'd say our population of patients
00:19:06
tend to be maybe 40 and above and so how do we build up a level of core strength and deep
00:19:13
strength that's going to prevent further injury, make you more resilient, right?
00:19:17
And prevent obviously relapse and these things happening again.
00:19:20
Because what we see is it's not like you woke up one day, your spine was perfect, and then
00:19:26
you your disc just explodes out the back.
00:19:29
Doesn't it doesn't happen that way.
00:19:30
More more than likely people are walking around with some level of disc bulge or compromise
00:19:35
that's it's there.
00:19:36
It's waiting for an event, right?
00:19:38
And then maybe the events a car accident.
00:19:40
Maybe the event is you fell or you picked up your kid and your kid moved weird and you
00:19:46
twisted, right?
00:19:47
It's always something super random.
00:19:49
And then boom, that disc just pushes back hits the nerve and now you're in excruciating pain.
00:19:53
And so, okay, how do we like fix that but then like bulletproof your low back, right?
00:20:00
And that's where we use a lot of the exercise piece.
00:20:02
So functional movement screens is awesome one that we use.
00:20:06
It's very focused on like that deep core.
00:20:09
And then again, like building up those like functional patterns too.
00:20:13
So you're a big component of or a big proponent of the deep core and I'm like you do core work
00:20:19
twice a day every day.
00:20:21
I mean, you're just like
00:20:21
Yeah.
00:20:22
So focused on it.
00:20:23
But and it's it you know, it's more than just a six pack, man.
00:20:26
It's like, how does how does your deep core actually keep you healthy?
00:20:30
Mhmm.
00:20:31
Yeah.
00:20:32
I mean, I I do.
00:20:33
And one of the things that, you know, is really big is when you're able to and it's not just
00:20:40
like the core work.
00:20:41
It's the postural stuff, that comes along with that because you notice that when you don't
00:20:47
have a strong core, you're tenderly you're rotating those shoulders over when you're
00:20:51
sitting down.
00:20:52
And a lot of people are sitting down for work.
00:20:54
Right?
00:20:55
And that's where that tech net comes into play because when your shoulder starts becoming
00:20:58
rounded, your head starts becoming rounded.
00:21:01
And what we look at, you know, as we see Hannah doing all these leg X rays and writing out, you
00:21:06
know, how straight these necks are getting, that come in every single day to our office
00:21:10
over these X rays.
00:21:12
So that's one of just the major things is when you have a stronger core, you're naturally able
00:21:17
to hold yourself up a little bit straighter, and you're not you don't have that roundedness
00:21:24
to your body, which, you can see that as you age.
00:21:26
You know, I see that even in my dad, has a very rounded postural look.
00:21:32
That's just over time has naturally like keeps going forward right now at 70 years old.
00:21:39
So that naturally happens unless you weren't cognizant of it in building strong core related
00:21:45
activity.
00:21:47
You can't really put yourself up.
00:21:49
And honestly, I think it, you know, neurologically, that's a confidence thing too,
00:21:56
right?
00:21:57
I, you know, we can do a whole other episode on this, but like portray somebody that has this
00:22:01
like kind of rounded figure.
00:22:03
Right?
00:22:04
And then like how you perceive them and their level of like confidence when they're rounded
00:22:09
like that.
00:22:09
But if you can sit up straight, you're almost like your chest is coming out.
00:22:13
Your appearance, you you know, takes on a much different look.
00:22:16
So that's just being extremely candid is that you're like the your brand is somebody else.
00:22:21
You know, when you're like this versus you're able to your shoulders are straight, you know,
00:22:27
says a lot about you.
00:22:28
So, you know, that's what we're, we want to build your confidence up, along with everything
00:22:33
else.
00:22:33
So those, the structural exercises are equally as important, but they are more at home based,
00:22:39
right?
00:22:39
So they're, they're relied on something that we can control as in clinic activities.
00:22:45
Then we send you home with exercise activities.
00:22:48
Those tend to become a little bit harder, but man, they important?
00:22:52
They are.
00:22:52
Yeah.
00:22:53
And like the cool tools that we use and stuff.
00:22:55
But you made a good point there because, yeah when you're in that rounded posture, there's
00:22:59
obviously the mental emotional kind of component to that like you maybe like exude
00:23:03
less confidence or feel less.
00:23:04
But there's also a physiological component to that is you are compressing your brainstem and
00:23:09
your your spinal cord.
00:23:10
And so the flow between the brain and the body is diminished, right?
00:23:14
And so that can lead to that, right?
00:23:16
Less feeling of like energy and stuff like that and you feel more kind of, I guess off or down
00:23:22
or, or you have less vitality.
00:23:24
And so it's very much a physical and emotional component to that's that's actually pretty
00:23:29
cool.
00:23:31
So yeah, I mean again, the concept with with the physical medicine piece and really which
00:23:35
was like the foundation of our practice and and where it all started with me was, you know,
00:23:40
it's this is the pillar where we focus on obviously getting rid of pain, keeping you out
00:23:44
of pain, but then improving function as well.
00:23:48
But it's you know, it's really just a piece because then there's oftentimes patients who
00:23:52
come in and we have to take it deeper.
00:23:55
It's like, yeah, you have chronic pain, but your body seems pretty inflamed, right?
00:24:00
Like why are you so inflamed?
00:24:01
Oh, like you have this massive brain fog and now you have all these digestive issues too and
00:24:06
there's more to the puzzle, right?
00:24:08
And like, we're not just a we're not just a bag of organs, right?
00:24:12
Like we're a we're a system that functions in unison in tandem.
00:24:16
All these systems have to be talking and communicating all the time.
00:24:20
The best example is really like the way our hormones work, right?
00:24:22
Like your pineal gland secretes a hormone that tells your hypothalamus to secrete a hormone
00:24:26
that tells your thyroid and your adrenal glands to secrete another hormone that either tell
00:24:30
them to do more or less and it's this whole cascade and if one thing's off, everything's
00:24:35
going to get kind of haywire, right?
00:24:37
And so, that's where like now, know, our second pillar really comes into play which is the
00:24:41
functional medicine.
00:24:43
And I like this concept and this is one because I think this is something that we do really
00:24:48
well that obviously Western medicine doesn't and a lot of other docs who are trying to don't
00:24:54
do it either.
00:24:55
There's not enough of that like connection component.
00:24:59
Think we connect really well with our patients.
00:25:01
So, you know, because the truth is dude, most people don't need more meds.
00:25:05
They need better data, right?
00:25:07
They're not getting enough data.
00:25:08
They're getting a snapshot which we talked about in many episodes already.
00:25:13
A snapshot of what their blood work looks like and then they're getting put on medicine with
00:25:17
this vague information.
00:25:19
And so, it's all about understanding why, like why are these things happening?
00:25:23
Because then once we know why, we know how we can fix it and then we know what we need to do,
00:25:28
right?
00:25:28
And so that's really the approach.
00:25:30
So, why don't we talk a little bit about it, man?
00:25:33
Like talk a little bit about like our program, what we call Total Care and, you know, kind of
00:25:38
what it is and, you know, the I guess the the fruition of it.
00:25:44
Yeah, I mean, the antithesis of, like, what this program is is there is a driving force.
00:25:53
I mean, I think a significant driving force right now in, health care.
00:26:01
I guess we could say, preferably now being known as sick care.
00:26:05
Right?
00:26:06
Think people have figured it out at this point of, like, what it actually means.
00:26:11
And so and now it's good versus evil.
00:26:14
And I'm not gonna lie.
00:26:16
Like, you know, for a lot of for a long period of time, I
00:26:19
think
00:26:20
that functional medicine was considered more woo woo.
00:26:24
Like, oh, they're they're out there a little bit more, but what now it's just good medicine,
00:26:28
right?
00:26:28
At the end of the day, because I think when you can be more educated about yourself, and this
00:26:34
is something that we have more mentioned, and I was the guinea pig, right?
00:26:39
And so then what does that look like?
00:26:42
And what does a lessee total care program look like?
00:26:44
And basically it's an educational resource, you know, for you to empower you.
00:26:49
We want to educate and empower each individual to take ownership for themselves of what's
00:26:55
going on internally within their the human existence at which they operate, right?
00:27:02
And so how do we do that?
00:27:03
Well, number one, it's data.
00:27:05
Like you have to understand like where your blood works at.
00:27:07
So like, that's the first thing we do is a comprehensive blood panel.
00:27:12
And so you'll sit down, we'll kind of dig through things, but then step number one is a
00:27:18
comprehensive blood panel.
00:27:19
So we actually had our phlebotomist come in and a bunch of people came in yesterday and had
00:27:25
their blood work drawn.
00:27:27
And so we'll collect data based off of that.
00:27:29
We'll be able to read that.
00:27:31
And then the next step is really, all right, well, what do we do with that?
00:27:34
And so then that becomes like, alright, we have a baseline.
00:27:39
But how do we improve this?
00:27:40
And so there's going be a couple different factors.
00:27:42
You're going to be able to sit down with a doctor, number one, and you're kind of give
00:27:46
that rubric, right?
00:27:48
Well, what are my habits?
00:27:49
Know, why would my cortisol levels be high?
00:27:51
Why do maybe, I have a dysfunctional thyroid?
00:27:55
Where are my vitamin D and what are even vitamin D levels, right?
00:28:00
You know, cardiovascular risk.
00:28:02
Oh, yeah, like, how do I understand my cardiovascular markers?
00:28:05
And what are lipid proteins at the end of the day?
00:28:08
So you might have a lot of questions and there might be just like some things that we answer
00:28:12
along the way.
00:28:12
But like, all those things come into play of really getting a better understanding of what
00:28:18
you're able to do with now the information that has come back from a comprehensive blood panel.
00:28:23
So sitting down with the doctors is really just building out habit structures of how you can
00:28:28
better align, what maybe some risk factors that you currently have.
00:28:33
And then number two is some maybe some micro supplementation.
00:28:36
Maybe you're extremely healthy and you don't need anything, but the likelihood is, you know,
00:28:40
I thought I was extremely healthy, and I looked extremely healthy, but I was deficient in a lot
00:28:45
of micro supplementation and, I get my blood work done on a quarterly basis.
00:28:51
Now, what came back from last time was I had high cardiovascular risk right?
00:28:56
Well, I wanna get ahead of that game.
00:28:57
And what do we need to do to build those into play?
00:29:00
So my microsuplementation became a big factor in that.
00:29:04
And then how I just adjusted a few things in terms of my habits.
00:29:08
I have pretty solid habits, but I've added a few things to help me from a cardiovascular
00:29:13
standpoint.
00:29:14
One of which is the sauna, right?
00:29:16
And that might be a recommendation, but I routinely get in the sauna because of the
00:29:21
factor that came back in my blood work recently.
00:29:24
So those are just some of the early steps and then it's ongoing maintenance, right?
00:29:28
So what does that look like?
00:29:30
Well, it's likely getting blood work done every six months.
00:29:34
That's a great way to kind of really have data driven effects that reverberate off of your
00:29:43
baseline.
00:29:43
So when you get it done more consistently, you have an understanding of where you're
00:29:47
progressing from that baseline.
00:29:50
And then what things need to be added in.
00:29:52
So you would come in probably two to even three times a year to meet with either Doctor.
00:29:58
Alessi or one of our functional medicine docs, really to, hey, to be coached and be
00:30:04
disciplined and maybe some new habits that need to be formed or new supplementation that needs
00:30:10
to be built in.
00:30:12
It's really, you know, at the very baseline of it, it's education.
00:30:17
How can we empower you to really just inspire your human existence?
00:30:23
Yeah, that's so good.
00:30:24
And something you said there that I want to point out because I love that you are this way,
00:30:30
but it's lifestyle, right?
00:30:31
And it's like, you know, traditional medicine, you go in, maybe they draw a couple blood
00:30:36
panels or they do something real basic and then they just recommend something like a
00:30:40
medication.
00:30:42
Where a lot of docs can go wrong with functional medicine is they think they're doing
00:30:45
functional medicine because they're drawing your blood and then they're giving you
00:30:49
supplements.
00:30:49
But it's literally just the same model just with natural interventions.
00:30:52
Okay, so it's like a little bit better, but it's still missing the piece of the why and
00:30:56
like the root cause.
00:30:58
And so like, yeah, if you're chronically stressed out because your life is just a is
00:31:02
just madness, then like, I'm going to dig into that a little bit.
00:31:05
I'm gonna be like, Hey, man, how's your sleep?
00:31:06
Okay, your sleep's not great.
00:31:08
Let's come up with some habits that are better for you.
00:31:10
Let's put the phone outside the bedroom two hours before you go to bed.
00:31:13
That's going to help, right?
00:31:15
Of scrolling, right?
00:31:15
All these things, right?
00:31:17
Like so, the sauna is an awesome one because again, you took a data from blood work and you
00:31:24
did a lifestyle intervention that you can now implement that's going to benefit you in that
00:31:28
way.
00:31:29
It wasn't just another thing, right?
00:31:30
It wasn't just like, let me take more stuff.
00:31:32
And so that's the cool part of how we practice is we call the lifestyle medicine piece.
00:31:37
And I have, I mean, a plethora of guides that I give patients.
00:31:41
Sometimes I'm like, hey, do you want the do you want the whole thing all at once?
00:31:45
You want the shotgun?
00:31:46
Or do you want me to just drip this to you?
00:31:47
Because like, sometimes it can overwhelm them.
00:31:49
We have all these guides like how to shop for food, right?
00:31:52
Like what to look for in your food.
00:31:55
Detox your lifestyle, what things to eliminate from your home.
00:31:58
Home doctor kit, we call it.
00:32:00
Like what things should you have that you can check every now and then?
00:32:02
Maybe a blood pressure cuff, maybe checking your pulse ox, like all those things.
00:32:05
And so it's like, again, giving them the tools, giving the patient the tools to be the doc and
00:32:11
then like, I'll just be the guide to kind of give you more information and tell you kind of
00:32:16
what you need to do.
00:32:17
Probably obviously heavier on the front end, but then on the back end, like you just now you
00:32:21
do it, right?
00:32:21
And so that's the cool part, man.
00:32:23
We definitely are changing the model with how medicine is.
00:32:26
And you know, when you when you got into like where this started from, was like a lot of it
00:32:31
was like you and I were having a real deep conversation and it's like, man, when I became
00:32:36
a doctor, I took an oath and the beginning of that oath is like first do no harm, right?
00:32:42
That's like every doctor takes that Hippocratic oath.
00:32:45
And that oath is being broken every single day when a doctor sits with you for five minutes.
00:32:53
Here's your thing and then just throws medicine at you.
00:32:55
They are doing harm because they're not getting the full story And they're not giving you like
00:33:00
what you deserve and what your body really needs.
00:33:02
And then they're just giving you a poison, honestly.
00:33:05
And so like, I'll be super blunt about that and super forward to that, like, yeah, that's harm.
00:33:09
Right?
00:33:10
That is doing harm.
00:33:10
And so, many people die?
00:33:12
I don't know the statistics, but how many people die from what's called iatrogenic death,
00:33:16
which is doctor induced, whether it's a surgery that didn't need to be done and there was an
00:33:21
infection or a wrongly prescribed medication or something, right?
00:33:24
And it's crazy.
00:33:25
The stats are nuts.
00:33:26
And so, I mean, I don't want to get too off the rails here with this, but a lot of, I want to
00:33:34
just talk real quick about like reference ranges and how that works and where functional
00:33:40
medicine takes a different approach, right?
00:33:41
Like the best example is like hormones.
00:33:44
You look at testosterone in a man, the reference range is like two fifty to like a
00:33:48
thousand.
00:33:48
It is huge.
00:33:49
And so if you're like 300 or three fifty, your doc's gonna be like, yeah, you're on the lower
00:33:54
end but you're you're in range.
00:33:55
You're good.
00:33:56
It's like that is insane.
00:33:57
Right?
00:33:58
And so like that range to be optimal, what we call like the optimal or the functional range
00:34:02
is a lot tighter.
00:34:03
Right?
00:34:03
Like functional range is probably like closer to like 500 to a thousand or even more.
00:34:07
Like we want to get that number up.
00:34:09
And obviously it depends on the marker that we're looking at but again, even like vitamin
00:34:14
D.
00:34:15
They you got like a 30 on a vitamin D, they're going say you're in range, you're good.
00:34:19
Ideal scores for vitamin D is somewhere like more like 75 to 80.
00:34:22
You want to have that higher level because that is a pro hormone that is an immune modulator
00:34:26
that is a co factor that does so many things to the body.
00:34:29
And so, again, taking a different look at it, looking at it more functionally and more
00:34:34
optimally of like, like how does your body actually going to perform?
00:34:37
And so like, do you want to put just standard basic stuff into your car so that like
00:34:43
hopefully it runs, but like, know, you know, it's not operating great.
00:34:46
No, most people are going to take really good care of their vehicle.
00:34:48
They spend a lot of money on it.
00:34:49
So it's like your body is a little bit more important than your car.
00:34:52
Think, You get one of them, right?
00:34:54
You can buy a new car, but how are we taking care of ourselves proactively in that way?
00:35:00
And that's again, not to harp on it, but that's where we definitely I like the approach we take
00:35:04
because it's a when you say it that way, people are like, oh, that does make sense.
00:35:08
Like, why wouldn't I do that?
00:35:09
Right?
00:35:10
It's like, why wouldn't I care for this this body I have?
00:35:14
Yep.
00:35:15
So you know, it's really like the functional medicine builds off of the physical medicine in
00:35:20
that it can help with inflammation.
00:35:22
Can help with these other symptoms and you know, more like internal things that are going
00:35:28
on within the systems that may be preventing healing on the physical side.
00:35:33
If you have all this dysfunction, your body's going to prioritize that versus healing your
00:35:37
joint pain.
00:35:37
And so then like you're doing all this stuff and your joint pains not go away.
00:35:40
We got to take a deeper look.
00:35:41
Hey, what's going on here?
00:35:43
Right?
00:35:43
Like how do we dig?
00:35:44
And how do we figure this thing out?
00:35:45
And so that's really good man.
00:35:47
And thanks for saying all that and kind of telling your story too.
00:35:51
Let's get into now like the third pillar, right?
00:35:53
So we got into pillar one, two.
00:35:56
The third pillar that we have and this one is it's cool.
00:36:01
This is like the cool one, right?
00:36:03
It's regenerative medicine.
00:36:05
And this is just more like on the cutting edge side of science, you know, falling into this
00:36:11
category is that soft wave therapy that falls into the physical as well as the regenerative
00:36:15
because it is a stem cell therapy.
00:36:17
It does help obviously on the physical side too.
00:36:19
So it's a really cool, really cool system we have.
00:36:22
But let's get into, you know, some of pillar three, which is that regenerative piece and
00:36:27
some of the therapies that we're doing to really, I mean, optimize and enhance patient
00:36:33
outcomes like nothing else.
00:36:35
So why don't you start with kind of like the MSC therapy?
00:36:40
Yeah, I mean, is some of the really cool stuff that is coming along from a regenerative
00:36:46
standpoint.
00:36:48
But to be honest, is like the little, you know, is just being extremely honest, little bit more
00:36:54
on the expensive side.
00:36:55
So there's maintenance occur to this one.
00:36:59
But still is a great way, holistic way to really enhance an outcome of maybe an acute
00:37:11
injury or just an elongated injury.
00:37:13
So mesenchymal stem cell therapy.
00:37:16
Stem cell therapy is embryonic in nature, right?
00:37:20
So they're pulling the stem cells, but it's injected into joints in stimulated tissue
00:37:26
repair.
00:37:27
So you can do this both intravenous and you can do it in direct site repair, but is really,
00:37:35
really cool way.
00:37:36
So if you have like you're having a knee injury, a shoulder injury, maybe even an elbow
00:37:41
from playing sports in college or high school, for a long period of time, right?
00:37:47
Those are some ailing ailments that can help.
00:37:49
It also for the spine, is a great way, right?
00:37:53
So like direct injection to right in the spinal columns is a great way for these mesenchymal
00:38:00
stem cells to approach and enhance just the reproduction of cartilage and joint repair and
00:38:07
all these things that are necessary for you to just get naturally stronger.
00:38:13
Right?
00:38:13
So like joints, you only can hold as much muscle as your joints will allow.
00:38:18
That's what really people don't understand too, is like you, your joints are almost more
00:38:23
important, you know, and muscle is so important for longevity, but your joints are probably the
00:38:28
most important things because those are what's holding on to those muscles.
00:38:31
So, they're amazing for as an anti inflammatory and regenerative properties.
00:38:38
And then they're typically location based.
00:38:42
So they're gonna be in the spine, the knees, the shoulders.
00:38:45
You know, those are the areas in the region.
00:38:48
They also are actually implanted, which I need to look into this.
00:38:52
A lot of people are using it for hair.
00:38:54
So you actually can get stem cells actually located within your hair for hair regrowth.
00:38:59
I'm obviously losing my getting a little thin.
00:39:01
I told you I would shave my beard and let you put it on your head, man.
00:39:04
I already told you that.
00:39:05
Please do.
00:39:05
You know, our family's looking for another redhead.
00:39:08
So so that's, the MSC therapy, which, you know, is we do in clinic, which is amazing add on.
00:39:21
So what when I say add on is you still need to use the structural piece.
00:39:27
So the biophysical standpoint of like what we're using utilizing in the chiropractic care,
00:39:33
the decompression, even the soft wave technology.
00:39:38
So those goals were hand in hand, right?
00:39:39
Yeah.
00:39:40
Because it enhances the productivity of the stem cells that are location based or
00:39:46
intravenous, right?
00:39:47
So you wanna make sure that you're utilizing both properties.
00:39:51
It's definitely, you need to get the structural component first.
00:39:55
The regenerative side, comes second, but they but they run-in tandem together.
00:40:01
So they're really awesome.
00:40:04
And to explain a little bit more about what the Soft Ape therapy, again, those are the acoustic
00:40:09
sound wave therapy that stimulate the stem cell recruitment.
00:40:12
So as you get ejected with MSCs, it's gonna recruit more natural homeopathic stem cells in
00:40:19
the body to just keep moving at a more rapid pace as an anti inflammatory approach.
00:40:24
So it's great for obviously the pain, the inflammation, and then extended recovery time
00:40:31
where it shortens the gap to that recovery period, right?
00:40:38
Those are some crucial things to know about what we're doing on the regenerative side.
00:40:42
And really honestly, last but not least, what we love is the peptide.
00:40:47
There's a number of different peptides that we could recommend that we actually utilize.
00:40:52
But if you don't know about peptides, there are bio identical signaling molecules that promote
00:40:58
healing, right?
00:40:59
And regenerative repair.
00:41:01
So improves soft tissue repair, immune imbalance, metabolism, and even cognition.
00:41:08
Some of the examples of like what we've used is BPC-one hundred fifty seven, TB five hundred,
00:41:16
it's a maximize, that's more muscular and structural component.
00:41:21
And then CJC with blended with ipamorelin.
00:41:24
You can also blend all of those together.
00:41:26
So BPC one hundred fifty seven, you can blend peptides.
00:41:31
Typically peptides, are better and best performed through subcutaneous measures,
00:41:36
meaning they're injectables, but they also have oral and suppository suppository, peptides as
00:41:44
well that you can utilize.
00:41:46
Nonetheless, I use the SubQ along with my hormone replacement therapy.
00:41:53
I find it being the best, but this is where we go from managing pain to actually rebuilding
00:41:59
tissues and patients love it because they actually feel the difference throughout the
00:42:04
process.
00:42:05
That's a little bit about our third pillar in the regenerative side if you want to add on.
00:42:10
Yeah, well, I just wanted to kind of talk about like what it would look like for a patient, you
00:42:14
know, we're on a little long here, let's not go too much more, but and then the other thing is
00:42:18
like the peptides are awesome because, you know, yes, you mentioned stem cells tend to be
00:42:23
a little bit more on the expensive range, but obviously, massively effective and that's why.
00:42:28
But the peptides are great because there's they can be so they're like a Swiss army knife.
00:42:34
You can use the BPC injectable for joint right in the joint.
00:42:37
You can inject it sub q in the abdomen for more of a global effect.
00:42:41
Or you can even take it orally because it is a gut peptide and so it will heal leaky gut.
00:42:46
So we use that in our leaky gut healing like five hours program the repair.
00:42:50
BPC Orly is it's amazing.
00:42:53
And so it's like next level for healing the gut if there's any inflammation.
00:42:57
And so, you know, it's cool because okay, we just talked about these three pillars now it's
00:43:01
like, what does it look like for someone, right?
00:43:03
For like all of those to kind of come into play.
00:43:06
And you kind of mentioned it, right?
00:43:07
Like say someone comes in, they've got back pain, an old injury, their body's massively
00:43:13
inflamed, maybe some digestive things.
00:43:16
They could benefit from like one of our like more premier programs or packages where they
00:43:21
get maybe a stem cell injection at the beginning, right?
00:43:25
They pair that with some peptides maintenance wise, they're doing the corrective chiropractic
00:43:29
and decompression with the soft wave over the area.
00:43:32
And then on the functional medicine side, we're getting them the supplementations and the
00:43:36
nutraceuticals to rebuild joint tissue, right?
00:43:39
We use a ton of different really cool products that have nutrients that will go in and
00:43:44
actually stimulate rebuilding of the tissue, that synovial tissue in the joint.
00:43:48
And then obviously lowering the inflammation, fixing gut dysfunction because that's at the
00:43:51
root cause of many things.
00:43:53
And so then like this three pronged approach just like getting after it but it's all on the
00:43:57
natural side.
00:43:58
None of it's actually causing any side effects or down, you know, downward effects.
00:44:04
And so it's all just positive.
00:44:05
And again, just like shotgun approach like like getting people like crazy tremendous results
00:44:11
with it, man.
00:44:11
It's awesome.
00:44:12
So that's why we like it's like we're good at what we do.
00:44:16
Like that's why we focus on what we do, right?
00:44:18
Like we're not gonna try to do something we don't know.
00:44:20
And so it's like we focus on these three things and we just really, really optimize the way
00:44:24
they work together.
00:44:26
So again, it's like the three pillars and how they work together.
00:44:30
It's like structure, function, regeneration, like you're hitting all the bases, right?
00:44:35
And so, know, you're not gonna detox your way out of a structural problem.
00:44:39
You're not gonna rehab your way out of a toxicity problem.
00:44:42
You need kind of a little bit of both, right?
00:44:44
And so, that's why the model works because it's hitting it from all sides.
00:44:48
And so, you know, if you're listening and you feel like you've tried everything, how many
00:44:52
times have I heard that?
00:44:53
Oh, I've tried everything or they tried everything.
00:44:56
You probably haven't.
00:44:57
And like this is your sign to stop treating symptoms and really like start fixing problems,
00:45:01
right?
00:45:02
And so if you want to learn more about how we help diagnose, reverse, heal chronic disease
00:45:07
within our functional medicine programs, go to AlessiFunctionalHealth.com, schedule a
00:45:12
consultation with me or one of our providers, and let's create a personalized program for
00:45:18
lifelong health.
00:45:19
If you're listening to this podcast, you always get exclusive discounts and price reductions on
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