Fix Your Mitochondria & Dramatically Reduce Your Fatigue

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That’s true. Yeah, that’s true. I’m so glad to be, you know, participating and contributing to this event. Rodger, you’re just such a good guy and you do such important work in the world. So likewise, honored to be a part of this.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Well, so there’s been a few interviews where we’ve talked about mitochondria because I mean, it just it’s a big part of fibromyalgia. We know that those are fibromyalgia genetically just the way God made them. Oftentimes those have as many mitochondria and that the mitochondria that they do have have become dysfunction and decoupled. And so they’re operating under a a weakened energy system that really doesn’t help in the cause of them being able to overcome their symptoms. But before we really dove into all that, can you explain just something? Basically, what is a mitochondria? What is that thing?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, this is, you know, one of my favorite topics that I want to share with you that I, I did work in Western medicine for 21 years and I can remember early in my career it was the so I started as an MP in 2000 and I can remember people with fibromyalgia showing up in my office and back then it was kind of like this. What is it? You know, it was a condition that was finally kind of accepted by Western medicine as a thing, but nobody really knew what to do with it. And I remember people would come into my office and say they have fibromyalgia and I’d be like, Oh.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

I’m not one of those. Let another one of those.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

My gosh, I’m not going to be able to help this person because we didn’t have the tools to help and oftentimes, you know, I’d write a referral to psychiatry. Right. Or, you know, that’s all we could do. Like, well, here’s some antidepressants and, you know, I really don’t know what to do to help you. Could you get out of my office as you can’t.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

You know, it’s sad. I hear this all the time. I mean, I’ve you know, obviously that’s changed what you do now. But I hear this still all the time when I’m talking to colleagues and they asked me, you know, what do you do? And I tell him I was specialize in fibromyalgia. I’ve written a couple of books on the subject and speak on the subject and I’m like, Really? Why would you want to work with those people? And thinking I’m thinking really? I mean, if I’m going to work with them because they need help, I mean, they’re looking for help. And I think a lot of people, if they being honest in the health profession, they had the same reaction that you had originally. It it is. And it’s not to step on my toes. It’s just that you feel helpless. 

And as a, you know, as a health practitioner, nurse practitioner, you’re used to being able somebody comes in, you know what they you know, you figure out what they got you. You know, this is what’s going to get you better with fibro early on now and and still in conventional medicine you can’t drug your way to fibro. So they just try to learn to live with it. But in functional medicine, the way we practice now, we have the tools and now we can start to look for the underlying causes. And one of those is a problem with this, this slow mitochondria function.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So, you know, it was just it I didn’t have the tools to help people back then. All I had was a prescription pad and a referral ability to referral. But now when people with fibromyalgia come to me, it’s exciting. It’s like, Oh, okay, I’ve got a tool belt now with all kinds of tools in it that can help you. And so that plus I can always refer to people like you who actually can support, you know.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

But I remember early on when I first started treating fibromyalgia, my initial thought to the first patient is she’s a hypochondriac. Yes. There’s no way someone can have this many symptoms and still be walking around. There’s no way someone can have this mean symptoms in her conventional blood work look normal. But the more time I spend with her, I realize why. Why would you buy make this stuff up you know to go from she was a I can have forget what her what she was a VP for I think the company but I mean she you know had a really solid really good job mother of four really active play tennis in a tennis league. I mean, she had everything to nothing to gain by becoming ill and having to take a leave of absence from work. And so when people start to discredit those are fibromyalgia I little the hair stands up on the back of Maggie. I just get so angry. But, you know, that’s still part of what they’re experiencing.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. And they’re still experienced in the Western world. So I know you brought me on here to talk about mitochondria.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah, let’s dove in. Because, you know, people hearing this thing, what are these little organelles called mitochondria? Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So my superpower is really taking complex medical information and making it easy to understand. So that’s really my goal here, because there’s nothing more boring than talking about the biochemistry of mitochondria. I can remember.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

This. Fascinating.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, you can. I do but a lot of people just tune out. So we don’t want to we don’t want people to know. We want to make it really easy. So you can explain this to, you know, a sixth grader. Right. So, you know, I remember in biology class in high school, it was really fun when we were doing dissecting and we were playing with Bunsen burners and we were doing all the cool stuff in the day that we started the Krebs cycle. Learning about ATP energy production was so my 15 year old brain was like, Really? This is awful. This is so boring. I mean, I geek out on it now, but I think most people now when we start talking about the electron transport chain and all all everything it takes to make a unit of energy so for mitochondria, they actually have a really important job in the body and they have a lot of functions. 

But the most widely researched and understood is their purpose of making most of your body’s energy in the form of ATP adenosine triphosphate. And I promise that’s the only big word that I’m going to use here. But basically the food that you eat and the oxygen that you breathe in is taken into your cells where your energy is produced by your mitochondria. That’s the most simple explanation of what’s happening here. And your body needs a lot of ATP energy. In fact, there’s a few organs that use more energy than almost any other organ. And that’s your brain and your heart. And believe it or not, ovaries in women use a lot of ATP energy. 

So you have all these trillions of cells in your body and inside of each of those cells are thousands of mitochondria. And you just mentioned that people with fibromyalgia are born with fewer mitochondria and they may not make new mitochondria as efficiently as others. And the way that the environment and oxidative stress damages mitochondria may affect somebody with fibromyalgia more so than somebody without. So at any point in your day. So you or me, Rodger, just sitting here doing our thing, talking on this interview. Right now we’re making a billion molecules of ATP that gets used up in just minutes, gone. 

And a cell can completely turn over its store of ATP in only 2 minutes. It’s really incredible. So the mitochondria are their own little organelles that are inside the side of your cells. So like I said, I like to make things super easy to understand. So I want you to think of your organs in your body, like cities. So there’s your brain, there’s your heart, there’s your lungs, there’s, you know, all these different organs and that’s like a city. So think of that. Like Los Angeles and Los Angeles proper has a population of over around 7 million. I mean, the whole greater area is enormous. But 7 million people in Los Angeles and now think of the neighborhoods within Los Angeles. So what you think of like Hollywood and West Side and Beverly Hills and Santa monica and Melrose and so on, and those neighborhoods are actually synonymous with your cells. So within the city, within the organ, you’ve got cells. Those are the neighborhoods. And within each of those neighborhoods lived tens of thousands of people. So think of those people like the mitochondria within each cell. Are you tracking me so far?

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

No. I think this is a great explanation. I know this is great. It’s a very. Yeah, I’m a steal it. Okay. I’ve already filed it. I’m using it on my next podcast.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What I do is I sit and I think up stuff like this, you know, you know who gave me permission to teach like this? It was one of my instructors that taught me lab interpretation. He was so incredible at breaking down everything into stories that I realized, Why am I not doing this with people? It’s so much easier. So let’s take your brain. Because with fibromyalgia, a lot of times people have brain fog and slow thinking and they just can’t, you know, they’re they’re ambitious, super want to be super productive people. And they got like this list of things they want to accomplish every day. But they get stuck. They cannot multitask. 

They cannot, you know, they can’t move from one task to the next in a seamless way that other people can. So for your brain, you’ve got about 10,000 mitochondria. Purcell Now imagine with fibromyalgia you got less than that. So stop and think about that for a minute. Just decide what 10,000 means. I want you to imagine a college football stadium that holds 10,000 people, or imagine a small neighborhood in a city. And that neighborhood, it has a population of 10,000. That’s a lot. There’s 10,000 in one tiny little cell that’s already so microscopic. 

We can’t even see it without a microscope. Right? We can’t see it with the naked eye. So think of mitochondria like your life force because they’re responsible for 90% of that energy production. I said we make all that energy every day. So they are called the powerhouse of your cells for a reason, and they create this endless supply of energy. In fact, you make your body weight in ATP energy every day, and when that energy ceases to be created, that’s where life ends, right? If we don’t have that ATP production, we have a problem. So it would be okay if we talk a little bit about ATP and the unit of energy made by your mitochondria.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah, because I think it’s important to point out, you know, once that becomes dysfunctional, now you’re dramatically reduced the energy production and other forms of energy metabolism.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So I want you to think of ATP again. That’s that adenosine triphosphate that, you know, big word that I promise is the only big one we’re going to use. This is like currency, like money. So think of it like you have to pay a certain amount of ATP or money to do every function in your body. So if I were to get up from this chair and walk across the room, that takes a different amount of ATP energy. It costs the different amount than for me to wiggle my finger or to take one breath in and out, or for my heart to pump one time or for my nerves to fire off a signal and a message to the rest of my body. 

So just like everything that’s going on in your body, a certain amount of ATP is required for your brain to function, for your gut to heal, for you to digest your food, for your immune system to work. And any time that you eat or take supplements, by the way, you need ATP energy to break that stuff down. Shuttle it around the body, absorb it and use it. And if you’re starting off with even less energy, this is why some people with fibromyalgia will say, I’m taking these supplements and I’m making me feel worse. They’re making me feel tired because it’s actually requiring energy for you to break that down and move it around your body, right? Yeah. Yeah. 

So yeah. So basically the perfect circumstances inside your body need to happen in order for your mitochondria to make energy every day. They’re picky, they’re finicky and if you have fibromyalgia, you’re kind of already behind the eight ball with that. And so I didn’t know that when I was very first working in Western medicine. We talk about mitochondria with people with fibromyalgia. So this is such a critical component. And I think if you’re working with a practitioner, you know, you want to make sure that they’re paying attention to this, that they know that you need a different kind of support than somebody who has, you know, a normal amount or a normal functioning mitochondria.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Do you think that we’re finally getting to the point that mitochondria is a common conversation now? And certainly, you know, in functional medicine, integrative, maybe nonconventional. But it seems to me and I know you’ve been talking about mitochondria and health and energy issues for a number of years. So have I mentioned those in my I don’t know what edition first edition. Second edition, I don’t know. But certainly some of the beginning of building, beginning of my books. But it seems like more and more people are looking at that as a possibility that could be affecting people with not only fibromyalgia, but autoimmune disease and Alzheimer’s and some of these other chronic illness. We’re looking for something that can bring these together. What’s the common now? See, between some of these conditions where people kind of fall through the cracks? And one of those, I think, is this mitochondria dysfunction.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It definitely is becoming a more common conversation, especially in the integrative medicine space. I think in the Western medicine space, it’s also becoming more apparent that this needs to be part of a treatment plan. Yeah, unfortunately, the you know, in the western traditional medicine, we call it traditional medicine because for me traditional would be what we were doing a thousand years ago. Right. But in the current landscape, you know, we’re reactive. We’re not preventive, truly. We are you know, we’re waiting for a problem to happen and then solving it. And, you know, these chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s, neuro, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, these are I always say that those problems are just basically, if you asked, you know, what do we call end stage mitochondria dysfunction, there’s a word for that. And the word for end stage mitochondria dysfunction is cancer is heart disease. Alzheimer’s right.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Now.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Is, you know, just the list goes on and on. Yeah. So fibromyalgia. Yeah, that.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Too. Yeah. And so what is it now? Obviously, genetics can play a role. We see that and it’s not for everybody in that role, but it’s certainly we see that in the literature. But what are some of the things that can compromise our mitochondria function? Let’s talk about that.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, this is the most important thing, right? Because if we can not if we can stop damaging our mitochondria and protect what we have and help the ones we do have, reproduce and grow, then, then we’re doing a good thing for our health. So there’s a few things we don’t have control over, and that’s our genetics and aging and genetics is a really fascinating thing. I mean, if you’re getting your DNA tested by a company that actually can interpret it and show you they can show you the things that are causing, you know, mitochondria decline. So you don’t have control over those two things, but you do have control over lifestyle. And this is a huge bucket of problem because of mitochondrial dysfunction. So some of those things that I think all of your people are coming on here and talking about, so I’ll just briefly touch on them. But, you know, lack of moving your body and obviously somebody with fibromyalgia cannot move their body in the same way as somebody without fibromyalgia. Because if you did a really hardcore workout, you’re actually going to cause more harm. And your body cannot handle the oxidative stress that occurs. You cannot clear that oxidation when you have fibromyalgia. So there’s a way to exercise the fibromyalgia. Right. And I know you have people on here talking about that the way to move your body, that doesn’t hurt you. But, you know, and then we look at food and diet and what we’re eating. And so I would say, you know, this is one of the biggest things because there’s two things. Well, three things we got to drink water to survive. We got to breathe air to survive and we got to eat food to survive. 

So, yes, fasting is healthy, but we can’t fast forever. And so one thing for certain is that most of us are going to be putting food in our mouths two, three, four times a day. At a minimum, all of us are going to be breathing air all day long, and all of us are going to be drinking water. Without those things, we’re not going to last long. So what you eat matters so much. And of course, you know, we’re in this era of just destroyed food sources. And every time I turn around, you know, there’s I’m just so surprised at what’s happening in the world. I mean, right now there’s a whole movement to get rid of animal foods. I mean, are you kidding me? I’m one of the most healthy things we could possibly put in our bodies, especially if you have the DNA of somebody who cannot digest. Well, then you shouldn’t be on a raw vegan diet because it’s going to kill you. 

You need to be on it, you know? So. So everyone’s different, right? You’ve heard of people who say, I can’t eat meat and the people say, I can’t eat raw vegan. And it’s because we’re all made a little different. But anyway, so all the processed food, the, you know, non non-organic food with pesticides and you know, glyphosate is just kind of destroying our gut microbiomes. It’s destroying wildlife, it’s destroying bees, it’s destroying it is destroying everything, conventional meat that’s full of hormones, antibiotics and chemicals. And then there’s this whole.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah, well, I’m going to say, really, it’s just toxins. I mean, if you want to just it’s just the toxins that we come in contact with on a daily basis. And sometimes you can’t even avoid these toxic air that you breathe, stuff that you come in contact with you can’t control. But yeah, but yeah. But obviously the food that you’re eating, you want to do your best to have the cleanest diet that you can. And Terry was did a wonderful interview on here, which talked all about her paleo diet. It was protocol. It actually a really good job really looking at it’s not about what to avoid. I mean, this part of it, it’s really what you really want to try to increase in your diet what you want to eat on a daily basis. I think I thought that was really interesting how she presented. Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You know something, Rodger, that we do need to touch on and I don’t know if you have somebody talking on this, but with the toxins. Yes. I’m sure you’re beating that up on this summit.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

We’re talking about heavy metals. I mean, it’s these are just triggers that exactly come along. And then next thing you know, you start developing symptoms now.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. And then something I really want to shed light on is infections. So viruses, you know, Epstein-Barr hepatitis, herpes bacteria, chronic bacterial infections. You know, people are colonized with bacteria in their urinary tracts, in their gut, in their gut, in their digestive tract. They’re colonized in their sinuses. They’re colonized in their lungs. I remember you did the lung summit and talked a lot about this. You know, people have cavitation in their jawbone. Don’t confuse that with a cavity. Cavity is happening in the tooth. A cavitation means that it’s an infection in the bone itself. And then there’s fungal infections like Candida and parasitic infections that can be anywhere in the body, including the lungs and sinuses and bloodstream and liver, not just gut. So this is a really huge bucket of problems that is that is causing harm and decline to the mitochondria and to your energy production. So you got to solve these things.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

So people are hearing and thinking, well, I don’t stand a chance because, you know, they’re there. They know they’re exposed to multiple sources of toxins and they know they probably have infections. There’s this all kind of stuff out there that you can’t run away from. It’s just part of being alive. So what are some of the steps that people can do? One of them, you know, that I really encourage them to do is to lighten the load. And we’ve had this conversation about people go through life, they’re filling up their bucket with toxins. 

And if you got a really big bucket genetically the way you know God made you, you’re probably going to be okay for many years. But if you have a little bucket that starts to overflow, maybe in your thirties and forties and something comes along, that’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back. And you can if it’s just spilling out and you can’t fix that with a drug, the only way to fix that is to detox. And you do that with deep restorative sleep and healthy relaxation exercises and exercise, if you can. And a lot of people fibro can’t because, you know, fibro flares. But there’s certain steps you can do to start to a allow that mitochondria to come back on board.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So obviously detoxing and there’s a whole process of pre detoxing before you detox and there’s all kinds of steps. But I think something that would be really important to take the time to talk about right here is how to restore mitochondrial function.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

So all.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Right. So before I cover the steps to restore it, we need to talk about and unpack the concept of autophagy. So the word comes from Greek and it means self-feeding and it refers to cellular recycling. So your cells are actually like a recycling plant. So think about it in your house, you’ve got the waste bin that you put the paper in and the one that you put the compost in and the one that and then you got the mixed bag one. So your and your cells are off are a lot like a recycling plant. So they actually break down old worn out parts of you and build new healthy cell structures. And autophagy occurs when your cells are exposed to good stressors. So there’s all the bad stress that everybody’s talking about on this summit. And I want to introduce you to good stress like heat and cold food and nutrient depletion. So think of fasting and exercise that’s good for you. Exercise that’s not damaging to you. 

And of course, being very careful with fibromyalgia. But when you’re exposed to these stressors, your cells break down that old damaged stuff so you can build new cellular structure. And you’re doing this in every part of your body all the time. And this is what supports memory and cognition and brain health and your heart beating and your digestive tract working and your immune system firing, and all the enzymatic reactions that need to occur in every aspect of your body all day long. And when this doesn’t work, this is part of the development of chronic brain problems and health problems and inflammatory problems. 

So, now let’s talk about how to promote autophagy. So basically, these are the things that are beneficial to you to help heal so intermittent and extended fasting, it’s the most researched and proven method to improve your lifespan. There is no I don’t think there’s any better way to add days and hours and years to your life than actually intermittent fasting. It’s so widely researched and this really stimulates that autophagy to occur and so that those damage mitochondria are purged and you just remove a lot of, you know, damaged debris and reactive oxygen species and nitrogen species and unfolded proteins which are all bad things. I need to know is everything I just said is bad. The next thing would be cold exposure. So shivering actually recruits mitochondria to generate heat. So there’s a lot of popularity right now, you know, with cold showers and cold baths and cryotherapy. I mean, there’s a place down the road from my house where you can go get, you know, up 2 minutes or if you can stand it, of a cryo blast right in a quiet chamber to your whole body. That’s another really great way to stimulate autophagy and that regeneration of healthy tissue. Another one is, you know, heat exposure or sauna bathing and it doesn’t even have to be read sauna. I mean, everybody’s thinking of, oh, I need this infrared. The best studies out there are actually done on traditional heat, sauna. The goal is that you sweat. So that’s a mild stress signal that triggers this, you know, adaptive response in the body and gets you to, you know, improve your mitochondrial health. 

And then there’s the concept of phytochemicals. And, you know, there’s a lot of people that have spent their life, you know, PhDs researching phytochemicals and the use of certain nutrients to stimulate homocysteine. So, for example, resveratrol from grapes or sulforaphane from broccoli or curcumin or Allison from garlic. So there’s the ways that you can use these phytochemicals to actually stimulate mitochondria, Biogenesis and COMESA. So Biogenesis is the generation of new mitochondria. So really eating a nutrient rich diet and those are some of the big ones. I mean, you mentioned, you know, getting good sleep, reducing stress. What else comes to mind? Sunlight, you know, getting outside and getting your circadian rhythms in check. That’s critical of mitochondrial function. It turns out vitamin D is pretty important for mitochondrial function.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So those are some good ideas. What do you dads that Rodger.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

So co-captain you know one of my favorite things so the spark plug of every cell. So I find that my patients are notoriously deficient in CoQ10. That’s why I don’t even testing me more. Not only do that, you know, L-Carnitine is another folic acid. Of course, all the B vitamins, there are supplements out there that can certainly help your mitochondria work more effectively. But what you share, Laura, really didn’t cost you anything, just not to eat as much. And David Jacobs was on here. Dr. Jacobs Yeah, we did a conversation all about intermittent fasting and fasting. And for those of you who have not seen that interview, you might want to check it out. But a lot of people get intimidated when they hear fasting.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, it’s.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Really not it’s really not that hard of a thing. You might have to take baby steps and go and you know, your maybe you go 10 hours, you know, you eat it APM and then you eat it. But six, six, eight, is that the right math? Anyway, you you can do little baby steps just if you normally eat at 8 a.m., maybe go an extra hour till 9 a.m. and then two or three days later you see you can find oh I go to 10 a.m. before I eat, but eventually you can get to where you can go 14 to 16 hours, you know, a couple of times a week is really not that hard and it can add a tremendous amount of energy and it can help to reduce inflammation and pain. I see my patients who implement this strategy on a routine basis dramatically reduce some of the symptoms that they’ve been battling with fibromyalgia.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, definitely. The nutrients that you just listed are so important for the electron transport chain, which is really boring thing. When you’re making that ATP energy, you need all those cofactors and support. Yeah. So getting on a good mitochondrial supplement is going to make a big difference.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

So some of the medications that that are commonly used in fibromyalgia are some of the tricyclic antidepressants, some of the beta blockers, certainly stat medications, deeply co Q10 and people can develop a deficiency over a number of years and all it takes is a 25% reduction in CoQ10 to start seeing the symptoms of low CoQ10, which would be brain fog, diffuse, achy pain, muscle spasm, muscle pain. I mean, these are low moods. I mean, this is some of the common things we see in Fiber Mountain totally. 

So mitochondria, these power plants, one of the things I think’s really interesting is this thing called cell danger theory or Isaac Elias talks about the survival paradox. There’s a lot of similarity between these, but it makes sense to me that something comes along. That’s the stressor. That is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The body thinks it’s being attacked, goes into hyper alert mode, kind of like we see with with COVID and it doesn’t turn off. And so the mitochondria, instead of their job as being part of the immune system and releasing inflammatory chemicals to help with this, they just shut down. They don’t they quit working. And that’s where people really start to see this low energy states. Yeah. So the things that we can do to nurture ourselves, to allow ourselves to realize, you know, you’re, you’re, it’s all going to be okay. I remember when Isaac was explaining all this detail and he’s got this Israeli accent. You know, it’s really, really interesting to hear and try to really try to understand what he’s saying. It’s I’ve got this Southern accent. He’s got this Israeli accent, and we’re having this conversation. And, you know, but I actually after a little while, I said, well, what do people need to do? Just tell me, what do they need to do to turn this survival paradox off? And it was like Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer in he was Deepak and I was Wayne Dyer. And he said, just meditate. Just meditate. You know, and really, you know, this sounds so simplistic, but what it is, it’s a way to give your body the opportunity to realize that you’re not under attack, you’re going to be okay. And and the supplements can help. The diet certainly can help. But making that time to really nurture yourself is really important as well. Right?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Totally. Isaac’s amazing. I love I’ve had him on my summits and he’s here. He’s kind of one of those genius kind of guys.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And a scientist and. And a medical doctor all at the same time. Right.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Well, tell me, he. What are some of the relaxation techniques that you recommend for your clients, for your patients?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Now, you know, I really like to. So there are people if you tell me I have to meditate one more time, I’m going to stab you. Right. People like some people just don’t.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

I have patients like that. They get they just they can’t they start to bring it up. And I can just I can see their eyes rolling. Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So I empathize because I’m one of those people I understand my brain never stops. And so when I try to meditate, I’m thinking I cannot stop myself. I literally have to have tricks to like. So my trick is I put myself next to a river that’s flowing and I just sit next to the river and watch the water in my mind. So then when I start thinking about my grocery list and the people I forgot to get back to today, and my daughters teacher at school that I need to connect with, I’m at the river. I’m at the river. I’m watching the water go by. I need to. So meditation for me is actually really stressful. Well, I mastered it.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

And everybody is shaking their head. They’re going, Yeah, me too.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Oh, my gosh. So, I mean, even if you can do it for 2 minutes, that’s good, right? So you get to have a little win. I mean, I have meditation goals. If there is like beating drums or something like that, I can get in a meditative state. I absolutely can. But I have to have some kind of distraction from my brain. So I mean, meditation, my whole point is meditation doesn’t have to look or relaxation state doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. You need to get away from unhook your brain from the stressors, right? So for me, what it looks like is every day when I get up in the morning, I sit down in front of my red light and I am usually reading a couple of different books, usually a science book of some sort and some kind of business book. 

And then I have a scripture that I like to read and a devotional. So I start my day with my devotional and scripture. I sit there and read that and then I’ll read whatever else I happen to be reading and I’ll give myself, you know, on a busy day, I get 10 minutes of that on a luxurious day. Maybe I get to do that for an hour. Right? And so for me, that’s way more effective for me than trying to go meditate. But obviously yoga is something a gentle pose. Yoga, the most important piece of that is breathing, right? It’s the breathing that really helps people. 

So I just invite our audience here to not have their, you know, relaxation, time and downtime, have to look a certain way or look like somebody else’s. I mean, getting out in nature for some people, it’s taking a walk in nature. For some people, that’s the best thing they can do. For some people, you know, it’s family time. It’s playing with you, it’s time for joy and playing with your kids and grandkids and unplugging and making time for that. Yeah. So I mean, that’s really my approach to that kind of downtime. If you struggle with meditation, of course, meditation, amazing if you can do it.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah, I advocate the hour power and if you can’t do an hour, you can do half an hour. Most people, you can find an hour, you can I mean, you can you can do it too, where you give yourself permission just for quiet time. And that’s for me is to read, you know, scripture or Joyce Meyers or our spiritual material like Wind Hours or motivational things like Zig Ziglar and these kind of folks. Joel also. Yeah. And then the job. Yeah. And just a journal. But just to have that quiet and I do meditate, but I totally understand it’s not for everybody. But like you said, Laura could be just getting out every day and, you know, getting a 20 minute walk in. I mean, something that you can do to kind of detach from this being in the maze is what I call it, where you can’t get out or you just have this stinking thinking that Zig Ziglar used to say, you just can’t get out of that. You just got this black cloud. Like, what was the guy, Linus and Linus, and who was who in Peanuts with Charlie Brown, who was with the Black Cloud or you know that?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Oh, yeah.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah. I can’t think of his name, but.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You can.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Pick that. Yeah. You know, but I think the first step is making a pledge to try this and get in a habit of finding some quiet time every day. I think that’s the most important you know, the important step is just deciding you’re going to do this. Otherwise you wake up every day, you’re just reacting to whatever happens to you all day long because you’re not, you know, attempting to control your thoughts. And I know that can be intimidating, you know, but it’s really the first step to that, is realizing that you can control your reaction. You know, you can you can you can have it preset up that you’re going to when you get pushed or you get squeezed. If you’re an orange, when you get squeezed, orange juice comes out. 

What happens when you get squeezed? Anger, irritability, you lash out, whatever. But I think once you start doing this quiet time, you can start thinking about how you want to react to a certain situation that day or something that’s coming up on the calendar. And then you’re much more prepared when you’re faced with that situation. You can take a step back and as one of my mentors, Wayne Dyer, used to say, I can choose peace over this. You know, you don’t have to be right. You don’t have to get in an argument. You know, you can just just choose peace for sure.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

We’ve had quite the conversation. We go we’ve been we’ve done all over the place. I hope that you were taking some notes because we mentioned some supplements I think could be really helpful for some of you. And we’ve mentioned some lifestyle changes that I would encourage you to learn more about intermittent fasting. You can go online, you can read anything you want to, to your heart’s content about that. It’s really not that complicated, and it’s really not that hard to do. You just, you know, get started and take a little baby steps. Exercise is something that for many of you is probably out of reach, at least in the beginning, but even 5 minutes a day. And then you build on that 5 minutes of walking or stretching and even that is going to help build that mitochondria.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. Thank you so much for doing this, Rodger. This project is so important and you know, as someone who overlooked people with fibromyalgia for, you know, a long time in in the Western medicine world, I’m so glad that I went down the functional medicine wormhole and actually was able to open my eyes and learn and see that there is hope and there is a tool toolbox for fibromyalgia and so, so those of you watching this, you’re in fantastic hands with Rodger. I mean, this is the place to be. So thank you for the work that you’re doing. I wish I knew you 20 years ago Rodger.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Well, I really appreciate it. That’s quite the compliment coming from you, because I really highly respect your work and your brain and really appreciate all that you’re doing to bring the functional medicine space. Thank you so, so very much for being a part of this. And for those who want to know more about Dr. Laura, she nurse practitioner, about her practice and about some of her programs. What’s the best website for them to go to learn more about your work.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Go to laurafrontiero.com You can probably see the spelling of my name right here on this little, little zoom.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Yeah, we have it on there. Yeah, yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Go to laurafrontiero.com. You can find me on Instagram at laura.frontiero. I’m on Facebook. Best thing to do is just go there to find me.

Rodger Murphree, DC, CNS

Great. Thank you so much.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Take care. Bye.