Full Transcript Summit Introduction and Hopeful Framing 0:09 - Hello everyone and welcome to the Microbes and Mental Health Summit. 0:13 I'm your host, Dr. Miles Nichols and today I have for you a story of hope. 0:19 I'm going to share an interview that I did with a patient that went through a process, 0:25 a functional medicine process and also had a background of really dedicating and devoting 0:32 himself to also doing mind body practices, movement meditation 0:39 practices and what I see in the clinic and for myself as well when I was struggling with 0:45 chronic fatigue dealing with severe brain fog for me, 0:49 I really had this challenge inside where I needed to do the inner work 0:56 and I needed to commit to a process of going through the labs, 1:02 the nutrition, the supplementation and it took the right combination because I tried seeing a 1:09 lot of practitioners doing a lot of things and I see this in the clinic to where many have 1:15 tried doing dietary approaches before working on their lifestyle, 1:19 doing some meditation, but it's a real commitment that it takes to go through an 1:25 intensive, inner and outer simultaneous process that produces the kind of
Peter's Health Background Before Treatment 1:32 transformation that I really want for myself, for my loved ones and for people in the 1:38 clinic. So this story might intention and I hope that 1:43 this serves to inspire in you a sense of hope for what's possible for 1:49 transformation and that it will set the stage for the themes of the talks of 1:56 today inner and outer, complete sense of cultivation of wholeness, 2:03 heartfelt ability to commit to a care process and move towards your 2:09 healthier and happier self enjoy. 2:13 - Welcome Peter, thank you so much for being here today. 2:17 - My pleasure Miles. 2:20 - So can you help paint the picture for where you were at before beginning the 2:27 Shenzhen meditation movement practices and before doing the functional medicine process. 2:32 Where was your life at physically, mentally and emotionally. 2:38 - I came to change in in 2005 and I was able to be involved in a teacher 2:45 training with master Lee and learn the practice of Shenzhen and 2:52 that really started my transformation. So I was 62 and I was not in great 2:59 shape. I was overweight. 3:00 I was taking steroids every day Because I had asked, my, 3:06 had asked me, I had taken it every day for 10 years. 3:09 I was, had CPD was chronic, I had sarcoidosis is way a long time ago, 3:15 who knows whether that was in effect or not, but these are all autoimmune diseases and and 3:21 and inflammatory diseases. And so anyway,
Functional Medicine and Diet Reset 3:25 that's my situation. In 2015 I had them and I really went far in my 3:32 practices of meditation in Shenzhen. And it took me to places I never thought in my 3:38 wildest imagination, I would go. 3:41 So that by January 2019, I was already to work with Miles. 3:48 And that was when the big changes started. - So there was a lot, 3:51 there was in your heart, there was a lot of emotional turmoil, 3:57 there was this sense of a struggle in your life and there was 4:04 this physical being overweight, being on steroids every day, 4:10 having multiple autoimmune diseases and diagnoses, having a lot of chronic pain. 4:15 That was a part of your experience. There was still there were still several things 4:20 that were going on when we connected for a for for when you sought out the 4:27 functional medicine process. So what happened through your transformation is 4:32 we uncovered that we had this environmental microbial toxin exposure, 4:38 creating chronic inflammation and this internal imbalance in microbial bacteria that was 4:45 contributing to inflammation for you systemically. 4:50 - The process was amazingly fast. 4:54 It was difficult, definitely. You didn't, you had a lot of willpower and one 4:59 of the good things was having the shank in practice gave me the willpower. 5:03 So I changed my attitude towards my what I was putting in my 5:10 body. That happened. 5:12 We did a real cleanse for the month of March. I toned it down and started in generate 5:19 toned it down in February. So we hit March running, 5:22 did it all the way through March by end of March in April.
Coming Off Steroids and Lung Recovery 5:26 We continued adding little bits back in every one thing at a time, 5:32 Back in to this very, very strict diet so that we'd see what was the problem. 5:37 And I easily saw that it was a problem. I never tried to eat it again and dairy and 5:41 yeah, so I changed my diet and then by May I had lost I've lost 5:48 35 pounds since January and continue to lose. I lost in the end about 5:55 40 pounds. I went from being 205 to down to about 6:01 65. So I was, you know, my lowest, but you know, 6:07 I I didn't say there, I'm now, I'm now proud to say I'm stayed the whole time. 6:12 I'm now about in the low one seventies, which is a perfectly fine place for me to be. 6:16 And I feel great, - That's amazing. And you were taking steroid medications 6:23 every day when we started as well for your lung function. 6:26 How did that change the experience? 6:31 - We again toned it down. We we went down gradually and I started 6:36 stopping the steroids in probably again in February and by April 30 6:45 no more. And I'd already I had absolutely no need for my
Pain Relief and Mind-Body Healing 6:51 medical inhaler that albuterol stuff, folks. 6:56 I didn't have that all. I had to have that because if I had a problem I 6:59 needed and I haven't used it since January January of 2019. 7:05 And the Prednisone I was taking actually wasn't Prednisone, it was Symbicort took Symbicort 7:10 every day stopped at at the end of April. Never took it again. 7:13 I don't have any problems in my lungs are totally clean. 7:16 My doctor says I'm absolutely fine, no problem. 7:19 - And we're not talking just right at the end of the process. 7:23 This was several years ago. So this isn't something that it was temporary, 7:28 - Just fine, just fine. I feel absolutely if anything Miles. 7:34 And this is the honest truth. If anything, I'm even better than I was then 7:39 because without the baggage of those problems, my body is healing 7:46 itself up more. Some of these changes seem to keep going and 7:49 they and they build, they don't go backwards, which is very nice. 7:55 - And how about before we began the functional medicine process your body and the pain in your 7:59 body. And how has that transformed through doing this 8:02 process? - Well, that was very interesting too. 8:06 That was, that was, I don't know what exactly to make of all this ship. 8:12 But surprisingly, one of the first things that happened to me on my path of Shenzhen is I 8:17 became what I called pain free. 8:21 So all of 2018 I was pain free from December to November. 8:28 Almost 12 months of being what I considered at that age. 8:33 Pain free, which was late 60's guys, that's pretty amazing.
Improved Cognition and Whole-Body Connection 8:37 And then I took a fall down the stairs so I heard and since then I've been working it back, 8:43 I've had remember I told you, I was thankful thankful for working and gotten my body to 8:49 loosen up enough so that some of the pains that had been carrying forever are now gone. 8:55 But with practice and being an active participant in your 9:02 healing by doing meditation and working with a practitioner like miles so that you're a 9:08 team so that your energy and his energy, her energy meld together and you 9:15 you don't know what you can accomplish. There are so many things. 9:19 We have absolutely not tapped this power anywhere near enough. 9:24 - And how about your brain function, your cognition? 9:28 What have you noticed? I mean you're getting to the age where many 9:31 people struggle with certain memory issues and cognitive decline. 9:36 Where are you at with your cognitive function at this time and how has it changed? 9:43 - Most of all? I think it's clearly seeing the connections in 9:47 your body, understanding your own health. 9:52 I think that's where the connections lie, is understanding the connection between this and
Feeling Better Than in Youth 9:58 all of this, that it's one unit and it works all together and your brain when it 10:05 is functioning properly and you give it the right respect and help will guide the rest 10:12 of it and the rest of it will guide the brain to help each other so that you act as one unit. 10:19 - So how does, how you feel now compared to earlier times in your life? 10:26 Some people, they, you know, felt great in through their twenties and thirties and forties 10:30 and then they declined a little bit. And and how does it compare where you're at now? 10:35 Two previous times in your life - When the transformation happened to me after being with 10:42 Miles in 20, I'm going to tell you, I think it was in the summer of 2019. 10:49 Remember started in January Summer 2019, maybe the fall I wrote I have, 10:54 I feel better than I've felt since I was a teenager. 11:00 I feel better than I've felt since I was a teenager the whole time, 11:08 ridiculous thing to say, but I believe it then, and I believe it now. 11:13 How cool is that?
Advice on Self-Belief and Healing 11:17 - It's absolutely amazing and very inspiring for someone who is in your 70th year to 11:24 feel that way. So, what would you like to just summarize 11:28 and wrap up until the audience? Who you know, 11:32 maybe they're struggling with mental health concerns, maybe they're uh maybe they began to 11:37 become interested in trying to transform their heart, their mind, 11:43 their body, and what would you tell them? What would you like to leave them with? 11:51 - Believe in yourself, you have the power, it's your 11:57 power, everybody's got it, no doubt in my mind, you have 12:04 it no doubt, believe in yourself, believe in your power, 12:09 believe in your power to heal yourself, believe in your power to do good to yourself, 12:15 leave in your power to love yourself and love yourself. 12:21 You're wonderful. 12:22 I know you are, and if you love yourself and I love myself, 12:29 look at how great a world we're gonna have together, let's do that, 12:33 wouldn't that be a lot more fun place to be. 12:37 And all you have to do is open that heart of yours. - Thank you so much,
Closing Reflections on Mind-Body Functional Medicine 12:42 Peter for sharing your story of transformation and for the audience. 12:48 I want to emphasis a few things that transformation it's mind and body 12:54 both for many of the people who I've seen, who have transformed so fully and 13:01 profoundly from a deep level that usually what I find for myself to that I went in 13:08 to meditation practice deep meditation and movement um I found a practice that resonated 13:14 with me, shenzhen meditation resonated with me and I did that meditation that movement 13:19 practice and that really helped me to come to a place internally where I no longer had 13:23 resistance to what my struggles were. I believe truly that by 13:30 integrating together a mind body based approach by looking at microbes and the impact of 13:37 microbes physiologically mentally emotionally while also addressing through meditation 13:43 through brain retraining through mindfulness practices through movement practices through 13:48 breathwork practice, as many of the practices were covering in the summit as well, 13:52 that the two together come and I call it mind body functional medicine because I I believe 13:57 that this is really the future for helping people to transform and there is hope I've seen 14:02 amazing and incredible transformations. Peter is just one example. 14:06 So there's hope please do empower yourself to not give up. 14:12 Even if people are telling you there's nothing that you can do or if you've tried several 14:16 things and you've not yet seen results step on the journey. 14:20 It's a long journey in some cases and I really want to encourage you to continue to 14:27 look at ways in which you can work on yourself to transform your inner 14:34 experience, to let go of the resistance to what is in lean into it, 14:38 and then to work on finding the underlying root cause issues and transform them. 14:44 So thank you everyone so much for watching. 14:48 This has been an episode in the Microbes and Mental Health Summit. 14:52 I'm your host, Dr. Miles. Thank you, Peter and thank you audience.
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