The Cannabinoid Protocol Certification

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Absolutely. I got interested in cannabis and CBD more intensely about five years ago. I mean, I’ve been writing cannabis cards for patients here and there over my 20 years of internal medicine practice. But it was five years ago when my brother died and I was at the bedside trying to manage his death, because we, we just couldn’t get his symptoms under control. And, I unfortunately, even with the best of Western medicine still didn’t get great control. You know, even after flying into Detroit to work with them. And then, about four months later, unfortunately another good friend experienced a recurrence to her ovarian cancer and succumb to that. And I was also at the bedside with that death and dying experience, which is unusual for me. As an internist I do a lot of hospice management, but it’s always hospice management over the phone with the nurse that does the work on the other end or the family member. 

It’s not me at the bedside seeing what is exactly happening with each dose. And so, I was really surprised at the difference between these two experiences, between working with my brother and working with my friend. And, the main difference between the two was the choice of medicines that, that my friend used cannabis rather than typical morphine, Ativan, the Western medicine hospice model. And, anyway, her experience was so utterly different and so much better controlled that I thought, I’m just going to go and check the literature because all we ever hear is that we don’t have enough data to make recommendations on cannabis. And so, I went to the literature and found a ton of data and then realized that doctors don’t really understand the power of cannabis, and all of the vary in cannabinoids, the CBD but also CBN and CBG and CBC. So, I want to bring all of that information to light for people who want to know more and who want to position it properly for themselves. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

You know, it’s really remarkable. And thanks for being forthcoming. I had a brother pass away and I know that can be a very motivating kind of experience. And, but so you went from, you know, doing all the research and, and looking for alternatives and things to opiates. And I think just about everyone listening today feels that same way, that if there’s a safer, less toxic way to go. But CBD isn’t just for relief care, right? Like I know you can get rid of pain and inflammation and things, but, and we want to talk about that. So, why don’t you go into a little bit about that, but I also want to talk about more of the longterm restoring health kind of things, if you would. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think a lot of people come to CBD to manage chronic medical conditions, most commonly insomnia or anxiety or pain. And, I find often in the people that I’m working with that there’s an overlap where somebody is having difficulty sleeping but also having some pain or anxiety that’s contributing to that difficulty sleeping. So, what’s nice about having CBD on board is that there appears to be benefit in all of these realms for managing all of these different conditions. So, in addition to having videos on how to handle it, how to handle those conditions available at my site for free to watch any time. I’ve also researched attention deficit, multiple sclerosis, autism, CRPS disorder, gastroesophageal reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome and really a hundred different educational videos on what you need to know for how CBD and other cannabinoid formulations can work for you. And all based on clinical data, you know, research that has been performed in human beings, you know, rather than esoteric laboratory stuff. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. You know, I just wonder, what else would make someone sort of go in this direction? You know, cause it’s, it is alternative. It’s definitely, sort of on the fringes. And yet, you know, I think people like you are bringing it back or into the fold a little bit where it’s a lot more accepted. Is there anything else other than your personal experience or maybe just liked weed when you’re a kid? I don’t know. I just want to know a little bit more about that. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, well, when I was young in high school, I mean, of course I’m totally prohibited from using any of these products as a grownup. I mean my licensing, I’m licensed in 19 States as a telemedicine doctor now. So, I provide, and of course I’m board certified with the, with the American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians. So, I have a complete 100% prohibition on using cannabis. But when I was in high school, I think I smoked my body weight. I smoked a lot. And, and, and in early college, but I, and in retrospect, you know, I, I was doing a lot of different behaviors to try to manage quite a bit of anxiety. It runs in our family and I think it runs in our country. It’s just really difficult to have a healthy life in our country and manage your emotions in a healthful way. 

And then, you know, I’ve, I’ve worked on it in other ways, but certainly when I started to look into this, I realized that I may have been self-medicating, probably was self-medicating, way back in school in high school to try to get better control. So, I believe that these drugs are very powerful and you know, there’s 4,000 years of written history behind using these products, these formulations as medication. I mean, as far back as Egyptian and Asian documents. But also, you know, as recently before the prohibition in the 1920s, there was a great article I read from Prince College in the UK, for a recommendation that if you have a headache, you should inhale cannabis formulation through water in order to relieve your headache and be able to get back to work. Which made me ask like, what, what kind of work exactly do you do? 

That you can just jump right back at it after an inhalation like that. But it’s since the 20s, since the prohibition, it’s been, you know, obviously illegal to make these recommendations and the safety has been called into question, which has helped to support the prohibition. But we really have, you know, the HIV community and also the cancer community in the 1980s, primarily in California, in San Francisco, that pushed very hard for some type of compassionate care use because they were saying, you know, we’re nauseated, we’re losing weight and this stuff works. So, whether or not you believe it or whatever, we just need to have access to it. 

So, that led to compassionate care laws that eventually led to medical legalization that now just amazingly has led to recreational legalization in many States. And an essential worker, essential status, for dispensary’s within the pandemic crisis. So, it’s really moved quickly in the last 40 years to, to become supported. And I mean, it should be, it’s a $7 billion regulated industry, but we think that it’s at least $53 billion industry. Three quarters of this industry is happening underground on a secondary market. So, States that are not legalized for recreational and the federal government are losing so much money and they’re going to become aware of that very soon and make the necessary modifications to help get the tax space shored up with it, with this very simple modification for a very safe medication. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, I totally agree with all that. You know, you know, I only smoked it once in college, but I never exhaled. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Well that’s awesome. The longer you hold it in you know, you get a better result from the inhalation. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. That’s so, so now, talk about the legalization for a second. I’m in California and there’s these, it’s like a candy store. You go in there and the government is making a ton of money. I mean, truckloads daily. There’s lines, even now, believe it or not, it must be considered a necessity or something cause the weed shops are open and the staff is friendly and they’re usually really happy for some reason. You know, and serving and, what would you like? And there’s the, there’s the edibles, there’s the, the pens and things, the oils and stuff like that and vaping, I guess you call it. And then of course, the good old hash and weed.

It’s, it’s remarkable. You know, I grew up where it was, it was really taboo, you know, I mean you, you had to really watch yourself. So, so, you know, I think the medical community that even if it’s alternative is, was where, you know, we started getting a leg up on acceptance. Cause it is therapeutic. I mean, there’s no question about it. It’s actually therapeutic. And I want you to know doc too, we have, we have a lot of nerds listening and they want to know some of the, you know, stuff around, like physiological mechanisms or something like how to, what is, how does it work? You now. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Yeaah, nerds are my crowd. I love nerds. And that’s what all of my videos are just designed for nerds, done by a nerd, for nerds. So, that I can do all the research and you can just benefit from it. But yeah, the, you know, we have a system already built in our bodies. The endocannabinoid system that is made up of primarily CB1 and CB2 receptors, cannabinoid one and cannabinoid two. There are now five identified receptors, but the three, four and five are located in very isolated parts of the brain and really don’t deserve any special mention on a broader scale at this point. But CB1 and CB2 receptors are located throughout the central nervous system and the spinal cord, the brain and spinal cord, CB1 and CB2 receptors are located throughout the rest of the body, but especially concentrated in the immune system. 

In fact, all of the immune cells have CB receptors on them that can regulate the function of the immune cells. So, these receptors are already in place and the body already makes naturally occurring endocannabinoids endo, meaning from within. So, the endocannabinoids, anadamide is the most predominant one. Work with the CB receptors to stimulate the, you know, the endocannabinoid system and help to restore balance and homeostasis and reduce stress all over the body. So, that system is already in place and we know that it works to restore balance and reduce pain. If we take an area of a bowel that is inflamed and chronically irritated, take a biopsy of that and stain it for CB receptors. You’ll find those receptors in higher concentrations, in areas of inflammation, compared to normal bowel. Or if you draw fluid off of a arthritic knee that’s swollen and painful and inflamed, that fluid will have higher concentrations of the naturally occurring anadamide. 

So, your body is already using this system to try to up and down regulate. And it’s exciting because we just found this system, we just started studying in the eighties or nineties. Thank goodness for the HIV and cancer patients. And so, you’re aware of other systems that already do this. You know, your thyroid when it is up or down affects every part of your body. And when your adrenal access is off, cortisol is off, that HPA axis affects every cell in your body. And you also have the ECS system, which has broad effects over the body to, to impact inflammation and balance and help to get things restored. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, it’s remarkable. And just, just going back for a sec, for people who are getting, you know, so you have receptors, all over your nervous system, that’s why it doesn’t take much and you, you feel the effects. I mean, this is something that is obvious, especially with the, the quality of, of things available today. They’re just so potent. You know, you have to be careful. What, are there any contraindications like, and I think of alcohol and the sort of, the idea of doing, you know, like people doing it a little too recreationally, you know, or something like that. What would be some of the… 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Yeah, well, I think it’s, I think a lot of these products are one hit wonders where you really don’t need to, you know, it take a number of inhalations to get, you know, what you need. I suggest when people are starting with CBD or any other cannabinoid formulation that they start with a very low amount and then increase very slowly so that you can be sure to not take too much. Not that there’s a major risk with taking too much, but some people really hate that feeling and it can sometimes cause nausea. It can cause your heart to race. So, taking too much is a good thing to avoid and it’s easy to avoid. But the other issues around using these products. I can’t remember the second half of your question. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

It’s like contraindications is there a reason, and I mentioned alcohol. Like, you know, like is there something that would attenuate it or something like that. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Yeah. I mean, you’re not going to have the withdrawal syndromes that you have with alcohol or with other street drugs like cocaine or heroin. The withdrawal syndromes are more nervousness or feeling our anxiety or maybe some palpitations. But in terms of contraindications, in all of the studies that, I mean really virtually all of the studies that I’ve reviewed, there’s somewhere around 17 to 21% of people. So, about one in five that will say that they don’t like this product and they drop out of the study. They either cite that it made them feel too dizzy or it gave them a lightheaded feeling and they just don’t like it. So, it’s not necessarily a contraindication, but this product is not for everybody. And if you’re already taking other products, you know that, that manage your pain, in the central nervous system type of way. 

Like if you’re taking an opiate, Vicodin Percocet or if you’re taking fentanyl or Dilaudid or if you’re just taking other, antidepressants like Celexa, or Lexapro, or Effexor, or Wellbutrin, it’s just worth recognizing that you’re impacting the same feel good receptors with the CB receptors. Those CB receptors are located right next to the neurotransmitter junctions, the places where one nerve talks to the next nerve. And it tries to impact that communication so that the communication feels better for the body, you know, with more feel good neurotransmitters rather than more painful neurotransmitters. So, but all of those other things that you’re taking are also working in that same place. So, you just need to make sure that if you’re taking those other things that you’re aware that you’re adding something that can impact the system. It always helps to do that with, with a coach or with a doctor or a certified professional who understands how those pathways interact and can help you. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

And that explains it pretty much. So, you can use it if you like it, you know, like if you, if it doesn’t create a negative effect and, you know, I know some people don’t like, don’t like it. They just don’t like feeling different or something like that. Can’t handle the, the change in consciousness and things like that. What about the, like just the, the creams, you know, how does that, can you actually put it on your elbow and the pain goes away? How does that work? 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

There’s so many great balms and topicals and I, I was very suspicious initially that, that, you know, they weren’t going to work and I don’t have great scientific data around whether or not they work. However, it makes sense that if you have an area that is acutely inflamed your body’s going to upregulate the CB receptors there and be ready to respond if, if a cannabinoid formulation is, is used even locally. So, I think and also a lot of the people that are making these balms are making them with such, with other great products, with menthols and with a little eucalyptus and with all kinds of other herbal preparations to try to interrupt the pain systems and then that local absorption and the concentration of product there. It works great, in a number of cases. So I, I have found more patients telling me that they get great results with their balms or topicals. But I think you also should consider if you’re getting good results with that, using something orally too and allowing it to have more penetration that way into the central nervous system. So, you can get benefits for reducing pain and inflammation from two different directions. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, I appreciate that. And I wanted to just revisit just for a second. The purpose of this event is to educate health coaches to give them options and to raise their standards, and ethics, and practices, and things like that. I think it’s wonderful that they can hear experience and listen to a physician who’s obviously very well credentialed and licensed in all these different States. You’re a pioneer in the field that telemedicine as you know, plus you’re a friend of my good friend Tom. So, that puts you way up there high in my book. And, you know, I’m trying to establish that the, you know, physicians still have their own backyard and, health coaches have their backyard and you know, that we don’t, we can integrate in working with a person. Is there any medical condition, so a health coach can do all the diet, sleep, exercise, stress reduction, supplementation, things like that, which this falls into in a sense. 

But where’s the line that we don’t want to cross as health coaches? Like can we, is there something we could recognize that where you say, “Hey, you better refer them to a physician.” Cause I do it all the time. And I realized, and this is important for everyone to get, and I’ve said it on a number of interviews that if a person has a true medical condition then that’s, that’s, it’s not hands off cause we can work around the edges of it, but it’s where you do need oversight in which case would be the junior partner. If you working with diet, and exercise, and stress reduction, and supplementation, and you could be doing a lot of good for a person. So, is there an area where when we talk about these products and conditions they might have that we, where we’d hand it off, you know, or want to make sure there’s some oversight. Have you seen any thing going on? 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, I mean, there are a number of situations where a low dose, you know, we’re not allowed to say dose that always sneaks into my vocabulary, but when we’re working with CBD and cannabis, we have to say amount or serving size. So, there’s so, so we’ll scratch that. But the amount of product in a lot of cases is really pretty low and very easy for a coach who’s had some level of certification or awareness can easily make recommendations around this. There are other circumstances where you’re going to start to get into places where you just may not feel comfortable in. After somebody has tried, for example, CBD and they need to add THC in various amounts to really get the result that they’re looking for. A health coach may not be ready to have that conversation, or they may not feel comfortable when you’re going to high doses of CBD for management of things like seizure disorder. Or if you’re managing with kiddos, little ones where you’re trying to manage autism or juvenile seizure disorder syndromes. 

Those get pretty complicated. And you need to make sure you have the, the legal support, you need to make sure that you’ve gotten a review with an attorney and that you have the support of the pediatrician involved in the case. So, those are circumstances that start to just increase the level of risk to the point that I think that even if you are comfortable a recommendation for additional assistance with an MD or DL or you know, somebody who really understands these plants, along with your legal and pediatric would be a good place to introduce the doctor. But anytime that your, you know, it’s easy to bring somebody in to get additional recommendations or, you know, it’s also easy to join a community where you have, you know, input from a, from a higher level provider to where you can run your, your clients, or what I would call cases past that person. So, that you’ve got that support, you know, once a week or twice a week for the people that you’re working with. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. It’s a good answer. I’m just always coaching coaches up in that regard that, you know, if you, if you’re a know it all, you have’ know it all-ness’ you know, you don’t know it all and you want oversight, you know, none of us do. And I enjoy it. I mean, I, I kind of in this field, grew up with doctors around me that I could confer with and get a lot of mentoring from. So, I think I’ve been on the forefront of defining those backyards and making sure that we’re compatible with each other, that we actually can integrate cause we know where, where the lines are and I don’t like them being blurred. And I think the more better we can articulate those as you just did this condition, that condition, anything that’s considered a medical condition there should be some oversight. And understand your backyard is to, you know, work around the edges on the lifestyle things. And then there are agents that are totally over the counter legal in most States, you know, and, and that you can, that you can work in, but you want to get that oversight. So, I think we needed to point that up. Tell us, tell us, go ahead. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

I spent 10 years of my career working with Eli Lilly, and Medtronic and Amgen and Forest pharmaceuticals, you know, helping with painful syndromes related to osteoporosis and also women’s health. Breast cancer risk reduction, particularly with Eli Lilly. But, you know, I’ve traveled all over the country and spoken with, you know, two doctors where I’ve had wine spilled on me and, and 200 doctors in, you know, really, I’ve had a ton of experiences, so many interesting speaking opportunities, but, but a wonderful opportunity. But two things, that you have to always remember that it is not for everyone. 

If you show up with a product that is for everyone, then it is for no one, and no one, no one’s going to believe you. You know, you have to make sure that what you’re doing is not for everyone. And that’s one very important thing with coaching. But the second thing is it’s really important that you know people. You need to be able to say when you’re working on osteoporosis that you had a discussion with, you know, these particular leaders in the field. And it just helps to establish your leadership that you’re in a position to say, you know, I had a conversation with Henry Bone about that, you know, the leading osteoporosis guy out of, the hospital at Henry Ford Hospital, I think in Detroit. 

It’s funny that his name is Dr. Bone and he’s in osteoporosis. But it’s always, you know, it’s just important to have, to be able to share about the people that you know within the community. And all it does is elevate you. It elevates you rather than, that you have this beautiful community around you rather than making you, you know, look as though look as though you don’t know everything. All of us know, in all of our various fields, that we don’t know at all. And so, the sooner you embrace a community of leaders around you, the more powerful you will become. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, I agree with that. Totally. And it’s about working with individuals and not cohorts. It’s kind of another big difference in our back yard is we, it’s just so individualized, you know, and you could have had success with one person with a certain cluster of symptoms and then another person comes along and they sound exactly the same cluster symptoms and then you apply the same things and it doesn’t work because that’s a different person. And they could have those same clusters for a variety of reasons upstream. So, you need to know how to look and go upstream. That’s actually what I teach is the physiology, anatomy, biochemistry behind saliva, urine blood and stool testing. And people are pretty familiar with my course, but it goes hand in hand with so many other things, modalities and especially products. You know, I know a lot about them, but I don’t know everything about them. I do know this though, that what worked for one person could do nothing for another and make another worse. You know, so you just have to do this. I liked your idea of titration, you know, sequencing, just start small and see. And if there’s negative reactions you can back off. You know, you can, you can do lot of things. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

And you want to bundle your services. I mean when I was working with Richard Branson in the fall his favorite line is you, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together, you’ll be able to pull that community around you. You have a, you know, a bunch of different things you can offer. Cause if the entire world is just visualized as a nail and you have a hammer, it, you know, you’re gonna eventually break your hammer and it’s just, it’s just not gonna work. It’s so much more helpful when you can back up what you’re doing with a whole bunch of different modalities. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

You can go a lot further with support and plus camaraderie’s a good thing, you know, and it does make us a true community. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

It feels better too, to have your work backed up and to always be open to new ideas. I love to learn. I’m recertifying for my boards cause you have to do that every 10 years or so. And so, I bought a couple of years with a smaller recertification exam a few years ago, but now I’m doing the big, the big sit down eight hour exam, it was scheduled for April, but it’s going in the fall because for obvious reasons. But, I was, I was getting so irritated thinking about all the prep I was going to have to do and then I started the prep and now I’m having a blast. Like I’m just learning everything and remembering stuff that you only see once or twice in a lifetime that, oh yeah, I gotta remember to keep my eye out for something fun like that to cross my desk. And, anyway, it’s the learning is always so fun. So, even just for the pure joy of learning, you know, doing these, doing programs and certifications is so fun. But then when you can apply that data and have it help your everyday management of your patients or your clients, you know, whatever term you use, it’s such a pleasure. I mean, the, the ongoing learning experiences is really fun. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. You just nailed why we do this. You know, cause it feels so good when people appreciate you. You know what I mean? We love helping others, but it’s really the love we get back to, you know, just, just, just makes you happy when someone else is happy with your work or your efforts or, you know, and it’s why I think those of us in that trade try to express appreciation for others so freely. Like I, one of my most common phrases is just thank you, you know, for whatever, a tidbit, an anecdote, you know, just for, even just for, for talking to me. Now I want to move on to just a couple of tips you might have for health coaches. But before I do that, you know, tell us about your certification. Like what is it, how long does it take? And these kinds of things. What’s the platform like? Or whatever you want to say about it. I want, we want to know more.

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Well, I have nine hours of video that I’ve created that’s divided into various disease states so that you can learn all of the research around autism, ADHD, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, and of course, insomnia, anxiety and pain and cancer, which are biggies within the cannabinoid community. And then once that certification is completed, it’s backed up by, you know, weekly calls. And, and of course it’s always easy to get ahold of me by email to support you for any questions that you have that you can’t get immediately answered, so that you can continue to coach your community really effectively during the post certification process. And then I have some really great relationships with CBD and, and other, sort of the up and coming shining stars in the cannabinoid community, the CBN and CBG that are starting to take a center stage and though some really innovative products that I’ll be able to share and give people an opportunity for recurring revenue streams. So, I keep an eye out for all of those things. I try hard to make this not historical, no deep aggressive pharmacokinetic pharmacology section that just bores you to death and no agriculture or growing or plant biology. Just focusing aggressively on the clinical data that people need so that they can treat human beings. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, that’s one thing I haven’t tried growing yet. I work very hard at doing what I do. No, my hobby is gardening, you know, it’s… 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, really. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

When I’m not at the desk here, I go outside and play in my garden. I have, I have big property and I have mostly cause Southern California and water’s a shortage. Succulents are my specialty and I have over 2000 plants that I’ve planted. Yeah, it’s just such a great thing. But you know what, I haven’t tried growing weed just hasn’t really occurred to me. But, you know, I wanted to also ask you, and thank you for that about your course. It sounds intriguing and being modular, you know, you could go through it probably at your own pace too, right? Or it’s not.. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, a hundred percent. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

It’s all online. We developed it all online and it’s fully supported all the Q and A’s and it’s, yeah, I’m very proud of that work. That was a lot of work in development, but it’s, it, and we’ve tested it and gotten just, you know, a hundred percent of people love it. I have to say. And I would, I would love to tell you that 20% of people had a problem because I feel like, you know, there has to be some tweaking that has to be done, but we’ve gotten just excellent responses to it because I think it’s just very focused. It’s not trying to, you know, teach you how to use a cash register and all kinds of, and the business models. It’s just the clinical data. So, it gives you exactly what you need there. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. Some, some courses are more inclusive, you know, like mine is pretty much a turnkey method. I teach people who are health coaches or want to be, we even have a lot of licensed physicians coming through because we have this medical director program. We can run labs all over the country, all over the world, really. For anyone, cause it’s a direct to consumer thing that the, the coach gets to use, if they’re my graduate. And it’s just really a wonderful thing. But I’m glad to hear that yours is more, you know, sort of bite sized pieces that work in a specific area. If you have a specific interest. And I think a lot of people… 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

All of the videos, all the videos are 10 minutes long, so you don’t have to settle down for an hour long video. You can just get the data that you need, 10, 15 minutes and then, and then, you know, do it in short modules so that you can, so you literally get these bite sized pieces. And you’re right, I mean, I have heard nothing but positive things about your program too. Just, it’s exciting to even be invited to join this community and be able to share my program because it does offer another great opportunity for people who are already involved in great opportunities. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Well, thanks so much for that. And you know, again, in the spirit of, you know, integration, you know, medical and health coaching and our places. Give us some things, some of your thoughts and we’ll kind of conclude with a couple of questions about, what do you think of the top standard practices a professional health coach must follow to establish and dignify the field? You know, it’s what we’re looking for is what do doctors think about us and how we can dignify ourselves? 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Well, I think it’s always important to have education and to, you know, it everybody, everybody finds a very powerful experience. Like, for example, the death of my brother, a very powerful experience that that can drive your behavior. And those are very important experiences to have, because they can start 

you thinking on a path, but you have to be able to back that up with, you know, honest, real research, you know, based in humans. So often too, people are looking at a data in a mouse model or even worse in a cell culture in the laboratory and drawing some really powerful conclusions from data that just isn’t powerful enough to draw those kinds of conclusions from. So, it’s, it’s very important to handle the research properly and to educate yourself in a way that doesn’t make you, doesn’t undervalue you. The material that you’re using needs to add a very high level of value and make your statements even more powerful. Then when you combine that personal experience with something that you really, that that affected you very deeply and emotionally with, you know, with a high level of intelligent understanding of the material, then I think you’re unstoppable. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, that’s that’s how we do it. Most people do, but you know, most people come with their own experience. You mentioned your brother. But a lot of my graduates, I’ve trained 3000 people in 50 different countries and it’s amazing the stories, why they came into this field. I personally, I still, after 12 years personally interview every graduate, just you know, half an hour, get to know each other. What brought you into this field? Tell me about my course. How can I make my course better? Was there something you wish it had? That’s how it’s gotten so good over the years. It’s all the iterations of it. It’s not just me, it’s, it’s listening to the people who took it. So, how’d you get here? How’d you like the course? What can I do to make it better? And where are you going from here? 

How can I support you in business moving forward? Because this is for professionals. I’m trying to distinguish the professional from the hobbyist, but I really enjoy that, that one on one thing. And what would you say are some of the, oh, I know what I was going to say was about the personal experience. Everyone’s got their little ax to grind, something in their health history and that’s what made them curious and they weren’t getting results in standard medicine or not enough to really satisfy them. So, they started looking outside of that and you know, eventually they come around to our course and it’s a very robust thing that walks them through it personally. So, you don’t just take my training, you experience the training, you do the labs, you do the protocols on yourself and then you, we do mock ups and practicals and lots of things. 

So, but I personally didn’t come to this from that angle. My health was great when I started in the health space, I came out of environmental law, saving the planet. I started thinking about all these dead birds and trees and animals, the things that were coming across, you know, the pollution and what it does. And I started thinking in the late nineties, what is it doing to us? To people and me. That’s what turned me into this. And as a consumer advocate, just wanting to help, I started working in a clinic where the most common phrase coming out of people’s mouth coming in that clinic was, I’ve already seen eight or 10 practitioners and I’m not better yet. And I just thought it’s a rip off. I thought, well, something’s wrong and I’m going to be the last person you have to see. Now, little did I know how much work it was going to take to come up with a system that would have a reasonable expectations even, no guarantees, but, but it’s, it’s remarkable how we get to do what we’re doing. And, it is a… 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

I’ve spent, you know, somewhere between 40 and 60 hours a week for pretty much every week of my life for the last 20 years, trying to help people and just, you know, running my private practice. I spent eight years building a coaching community and writing my first book, Waste Away about vegan diets and always with an eye toward how innovation and disruption because the current system is too expensive. And it’s too hard to get into and it’s totally not transparent. 

You know, you can go in for what you think is going to be a test that might cost $200 and you can end up with a $2,500 bill or worse. You know, everybody has these horrible stories and you can’t ever tell what’s going to happen to you once you engage the system. It’s just a very, you know, financially painful system to get involved in even before you start dealing with, you know, the, the, the side effects of the prescription therapies. So, I’ve always been looking for innovation and disruption and I think diet and exercise just, I mean lifestyle all the way around, sleep and, sorry about that. Sleep, and relationships, and exercise, and diet are all huge. 

But diet I think is a massive portion of what people can do to help themselves feel better. And then in addition to but in addition to lifestyle, you know, we need to continue to look for things that empower the patient. And that’s where I just love CBD and other cannabinoid formulations because patients used to come into my office and I would start them on their pain pills or their antidepressants, you know, run them through several visits to get things at the right level. And then if you, don’t miss a day, you know, this is totally under my control. And if you miss a day or if you change your dosage by yourself, you know, we’re going to run into all kinds of problems where your script didn’t last until the end of the month. And now you’re labeled, you know, a potential diverter of your opioids, you’re contributing to the opioid problem or you know, you get, just shaky and dizzy after you miss a dose on your antidepressants. 

But the thing with cannabinoids is there’s just none of that. Like if you are having a really horrible Monday, because Mondays are horrible, then take more. But if you’re having a great Thursday or Friday and you’re looking forward to the weekend, take a lot less or don’t take it at all. You know, you are empowered to be in control. And that’s where I love handling people. It’s always been so anxiety provoking for me when I have somebody in my practice that says, now I take two of these every single day. Right. And I, and I think, oh man, you know, if they get, if, if they have, they just want such a clear instruction on what to do and they don’t want to be in control of their health. 

And then, you know, in certain circumstances, like if you’re acutely ill with, for example, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and you get dehydrated, there’s some of your blood pressure pills. I don’t want you to take, you know, , you need to have a lot of conversations around some of these very powerful medicines, you know. Whereas with cannabinoid formulation, a patient has a much better safety profile and, and they can be in control of their dosing and then in control of their health so much better. So, it hits all of my buttons, empowerment and innovation and disruption and particularly control back to the patient and not, you know, back to me. So these are… 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

That’s a, that’s a wonderful contribution and empowerment is wonderful. If you have all the other pieces of the puzzle in place and they know what to do with it, it could really seal the deal. Make a person happy and they actually get into that place where they forget that they used to feel so crappy, you know, and you really changed their lives. It’s quite transformational. Doctor, I want to thank you very much and just conclude with some, any other things you think would separate a hobbyist from a professional health coach? We’ve talked about it quite a bit and just any final tips on leadership or anything like that? Cause this is a growing movement. You talk about CBD is, you know, X billions and it’s going to be this many billions. Health coaching is paralleling that, or they’re, they’re paralleling each other. The empowerment, the idea of empowerment as you just mentioned. But what do you have to say about that? 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

Oh, I think the idea of empowerment is, is everything when you’re health coaching. You know there are people who really don’t want to know any more than they need to know. They don’t want to be engaged in their health. They’re just, their thoughts and ideas and their interests are elsewhere. But when you can identify and work with a person who is really engaged in their own personal health and wants to do something innovative to get off of their medications and to start to be in control, then you’re in a wonderful position. And that’s where if you can be sort of armed and dangerous at that point, ready to provide all kinds of great tools for your patient, then wonderful, cause they’re going to need the laboratories and the work so they understand what’s going to work for them. 

They’re going to need that tool, but you’re also going to need to know and be supported with people who will help answer your questions. You know, as you go along, you’re going to need to know how to implement all of these other very powerful sort of ancient to modern tools that we’re just now understanding how valuable they are. Diet, exercise, cannabinoid supplementation. All of these things are, are powerful tools, that will help you be a really valuable person in the health community. I mean, I think I can let you in on a secret that you probably already know that, you know, the medical doctor that is charging a person $281 to treat their UTI. These, these stories that I hear about, that’s going to go away because, you know, we’re moving through a time where people are just not going to have that kind of resources and they’re going to be searching for somebody who has an answer that they can actually use, that they’ll be able to afford. So, welcome to your moment to shine. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Thank you so much. That was a good place to end it there. Although I would love to talk to you some more. We’ll have to pick another time. And I want to invite our listeners to jump in on the opportunity to purchase all the videos while they’re available, cause once we’re done airing they’re gone. And, you’ll want to come back and revisit them. And make sure we get all the contacts and things like that. So, thank you doc, and we’re going to put all of your notes in the, in the show notes here, all the availability, contact information and that kind of thing. So, thank you a million, it’s been a great pleasure. 

Mary Clifton, M.D. 

You are welcome. Thank you, Reed.