Ep152: Understanding the Difference Between Integrative & Traditional Medicine | with Dr. Edison de Mello

Zack Arnold 0:00

My name is Zack Arnold, I'm a Hollywood film and television editor, a documentary director, father of two, an American Ninja Warrior in training and the creator of Optimize Yourself. For over 10 years now I have obsessively searched for every possible way to optimize my own creative and athletic performance. And now I'm here to shorten your learning curve. Whether you're a creative professional who edits, writes or directs, you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're a weekend warrior, I strongly believe you can be successful without sacrificing your health, or your sanity in the process. You ready? Let's design the optimized version of you. Hello, and welcome to the Optimize Yourself podcast. If you're a brand new optimizer, I welcome you and I sincerely hope that you enjoy today's conversation. If you're inspired to take action after listening today, why not tell a friend about the show and help spread the love? And if you're a longtime listener and optimizer O.G. welcome back. Whether you're brand new, or you're seasoned vets, if you have just 10 seconds today, it would mean the world to me if you clicked the subscribe button in your podcast app of choice, because the more people that subscribe, the more that iTunes and the other platforms can recognize this show. And thus the more people that you and I can inspire, to step outside their comfort zones to reach their greatest potential. And now on to today's show.

When it comes to health and wellness, there is no shortage of information on the interwebs I would argue that there is probably way too much information and trying to sift through what's true and what's garbage is enough to make just about anybody throw up their hands in despair. And please don't even get me started on the number of quote unquote thought leaders and influencers that are complicating things even further. Because it is so difficult to discern what works and what's a gimmick, most people only approach their health on an as needed basis because who's got time for anything else? When something goes wrong, you go to the doctor. In fact, that's kind of what our traditional medicine system is designed to do treat sickness. But what if you strive to be more than just not sick, and instead you want to optimize your health. I spent most of my life simply thinking that the doctor was there to help me when I was sick, which led to me literally hitting rock bottom, both mentally and physically before I decided to take a more active role in my own health and well being. When I finally looked for help, I was disillusioned by what conventional Western medicine doctors had to offer. Then I found Dr. Edison de Mello and the Akasha center. Dr. Edison de Mello is the founder, CEO and medical director of the Akasha center for integrative medicine in Santa Monica, California, and he has been my doctor for over 15 years now. He's also now become a very close friend who has literally saved not just my life, but the lives of several of my closest family members and friends. And in today's conversation, we're going to help you better understand what integrative medicine really means. And trust me, it has nothing to do with magic crystals or incense. We also discussed the benefits of having regular doctor's visits, even if you feel fine, and how the work that he does. And integrative medicine treats the patient as a whole person and not just simply treating the disease. If you're discouraged with traditional Western medicine like I am, and you're looking for a more comprehensive and preventative approach to your health, this episode is a great primer on getting started down the road towards integrative medicine and a better approach to your well being. Now if you're struggling with creative burnout right now, or you find yourself sacrificing time away from family when you know deep down that it doesn't have to be this way. Then I invite you to download my ultimate guide to optimizing your creativity and avoiding burnout, which offers over 50 pages of my best tips, tricks and strategies to consistently stay focused and energized throughout your long work days when you're trapped in a dark room that most likely has no windows. You can download my ultimate guide 100% free at optimizeyourself.me/ultimateguide. Alright, without further ado, my conversation with Dr. Edison de Mello made possible today by our amazing sponsors Evercast and Ergodriven who are going to be featured just a bit later in today's interview to access the show notes for this and all previous episodes, as well as to subscribe so you don't miss the next inspirational interview please visit optimizeyourself.me/podcast. Today I have the honor of speaking with Dr. Edison de Mello who is the founder CEO and medical director of the Akasha center for integrative medicine in Santa Monica, California. And I'm out of breath just reading all that. Welcome Dr. de Mello.

Dr. Edison de Mello 4:51

Thank you for having me.

Zack Arnold 4:53

So I just want to read a full disclaimer to everybody before we start Dr. de Mello is my personal physician. I say this literally without hyperbole or exaggeration, Dr. de Mello has saved my life, he has saved my father's life, and he has saved my niece's life. And he is currently in the process of helping with my mother's care with her cancer as well. So I don't say this lightly when I say that Dr. de Mello is a miracle worker.

Dr. Edison de Mello 5:17

Thank you, Zack.

Zack Arnold 5:19

So the reason that I brought you on to this podcast today is obviously for my fitness and post program, which you're very aware of, and you've become involved with. So what I want to do is first, just have you introduce yourself, explain a little bit about your medical background, and why it's a little bit different than the usual Western medical doctor.

Dr. Edison de Mello 5:37

Absolutely. So medicine has always been of a great passion for me. And I became a late bloomer in medicine, because early on, for a lot of reasons, I had to go away from medicine into another career, which for me, was very similar to in a way to our medicine represents to me, which is the ability to really get to know my patients. For that reason, because I couldn't go to medical school, medical school early on, I decided to become a psychologist. And I went through the trials and tribulations of going to school getting licensed and practicing psychology, I was very happy with it, and felt that I had really pretty quickly developed the sense that there's always something beyond the story, story of their lives, the story of a particular relationship, there's no longer working or at the loss of a loved one or depression, anxiety. And I knew that what they were telling me in that moment was very true. But I also knew that behind that there was something that they were not aware of. That was also true. It's what is the other story? What is this particular situation in for me my patients have? And how can I empower them to have this story, instead of this story, having them. And what I mean by that is that when you have this story, you can participate in it, you don't have to like it, you can say, I don't like what's happening. I don't like this particular relationship or this particular job situation. But I am going to look at it from a different angle, and we're going to look at, it's not all of me, this particular situation that I'm dealing with is only part of me, there's so much more to my life, and then this particular issue. And so years later, I realized I was about 30 to 31. At a time I real I was in a PhD track. And I realized that I really wanted to do more than my patients in the room presented with such diverse issues. And a lot of them had no, you know, the the medical touched away, the Depression was now becoming more of a high blood pressure. But the Depression was becoming more like a chest pain. And when I send those patients to go see their medical doctor, they would come back with a number of medications. And I would ask them, so how would the visit go? And for the most part, they would say, I don't know. And I said, Well, what do you mean by I don't know where or where he or she didn't ask me did they ask did not ask me many questions. And that astounded me. And I kept realizing very quickly that those physicians who I believe had perhaps the best intentions that they could have, but perhaps not enough time or interest. Were not interested in who my patients were, but rather they were focused on the disease process itself. In other words, they were meeting the pay the disease, or their condition, not the patients. And so I decided to go to medical school. So in routed medical school and subsequently went into residency. And when the time come when it came to time for residency, I knew that I needed to do something different that I could, I could not just sit behind a desk and see 15 to 20 patients, or even more, perhaps, this days, 30 patients a day without knowing anything about this, this patients but basically prescribe him to them. I knew that that's what the current medical model was, and sadly still is. And so I developed an interest for integrative medicine. What if a physician were to integrate all aspects of a person's life when she or he is saying that patient? What if we were to actually become healers, helping them heal their disease process, as opposed to bandaid on it with medication with more with more visits of five minutes each? What if we were to become educators? And what if if we were to go back to the oldest form of medicine, which is when a physician in the in the old days, used to come to your house sit at a table with you Have a cup of tea, or coffee and then get to know how you love to get to know who your neighbors were get to know, you know your stealth, the Gestalt of that family. And so when I finished residency actually writing, in the last few months of my residency, I had the unfortunate experience of of being part of the 911 rescue team in New York. And that was experience of a lifetime. From the from the time I saw the first, the second playing head, to the time I left, five days later, when the National Guard came in, I realized that I was ready to do something different now. Now, five years later, when I already had established, my name in somebody else's practice or hospital, not some, not five years later, when I felt more secure financially, in all the medical student laws that one needs to pay, but I needed to do it. Now for those people who lost their lives for the fall, those people had dreams for those people who thought that that the next day. And I knew I could do it. And so the telling point came when during the 911 experience of being there, at one point, I looked down on my shoes, and I realized that they were covered with grey dust. But I didn't say dust at that time, when I looked down, out of nowhere, I actually used to work matter, I said how we cut out this gray matter. And it dawned to me that it was people's ashes that I was looking at. And so the ground zero for me became very significant, sacred grounds. So when I left there, I came back to California and six months later, I built or I started his medical clinic, the Akasha center for integrative medicine, I saw it as a place where people could really learn how to change the paradigm of what they thought health is, in this country, we think that house is going to the doctors getting your physical exam once a year, for those of us who even do that, and then go back home and continue to live to live life as it is until we get sick. And then we keep going more often, instead of once a year, we now go twice a year. And then we get older, or we get stressed and we go off and now we're going to the doctor three times a year, four times a year. And I thought, Wait a minute, there's something really wrong with this, I don't wait until my car breaks down to take it into the shop, I take it there. So I can make sure that my machine, the machine that I need to take me from one place to the other is working properly, and it's not going to fail me. And so it became clear that we for the most part, we take better care of our cars than we did do ourselves, we take it to have oil changes, we take it to, you know, check the brake fluid. But we only take ourselves out to the doctor once I get to the physical. Like I said if that much. And when we are sick. And I saw what if we were to do it differently create this healing place when people came in to actually get well to actually optimize the house to prevent themselves from getting sick. So that's the premise of the Akasha center, I see it as a healing sanctuary with Western medicine at its it is that my finger point. Anytime I need to order a lab or I need to prescribe a particular medication or I need to send a patient to the hospital. We can do it. But the purpose of the clinic is actually to look at the patient and meet the patient before we meet their medical condition is to help them realize that their body has a language and their language is called symptoms. And it's talking to you it's trying to get your attention it's trying to say to you that something is happening that it doesn't like and what is that if their body you know was my child that would I ignore that child? If that body fight it was no idea a friend or a relative saying to me, Hey, listen to me when I ignore that. And yet we do we take you know Tylenol, we take motor and we don't stop and think Wait a minute, why do I have anger? Why is my ankle hurting right now? Where is my breast hurting? What is said that I need to do differently. So basically that's the premises of the Akasha center is to really meet the patients before we meet their diseases. And when we meet the diseases also to help them think of it differently. It's it's incredible that in in this language it's called dis ease. D I S and then ease. What if we were to take the D I S out of disease? What do you have you have ease. So I want to help people understand that most of the time and of course there are, there are a lot of situations, sometimes beyond our control your, your lovely, incredible mothers dealing with that right now, with this horrible condition that she's fighting, and in the most, in most cases, it's not that in most cases, it's us, not really listening to what the body needs from us, it's us not not paying attention to it. So. So that's that's basically the premise is here is to help people think differently how people realize that a disease may actually be a wake up call, may actually be an incredible opportunity for them to stay for people to stand back and ask themselves the questions. Do I want to continue living my life the way I'm living it? And if I do, will this condition continue to grow? So

Zack Arnold 16:04

before I even go any further, I just want to say I didn't know most of that. And you were an inspiring human being before. And if you didn't just inspire people to take care of themselves and believe in what you do, I don't know what can possibly be done, because that story is astounding. And I didn't know half of that. So that's amazing to me. And I've known you for nine years. And I didn't know any of that. And that's, that's just awesome. So I'm just going to put that out there. But what I really want people to know as well. And I had this conversation a lot. I'm sure that you run into this too. When I mentioned the Akasha center and it's for integrative medicine, they're like, Oh, well, is it some holistic guy that's treating you with magic crystals and herbs and incense and I want to dispel that rumor because obviously, you're integrating western and eastern philosophies. But the other thing I want you to talk about is this clinic is not you this clinic is psycho therapists and massage therapist and acupuncturist and like talk about just the whole integrative approach that you take to medicine. Thank you. Yeah, indeed.

Dr. Edison de Mello 17:04

So, it is Integrative Medicine at its best without Western medicine, you and I could not be here, right? Without Western medicine, we would not have had penicillin, which saved the world in so many ways. We would have people with heart disease not surviving to have people with a broken bone or broken leg not perhaps been able to have it heal properly. So Western medicine is an incredible medicine for to deal with emergencies increase. So for Zack now that you've, you've been in my I've known you for 10 years, if I'm ever talking to you in my office, and you're here might you see myself putting my hand on my chest and say, oh, chest pain. Don't talk to me about acupuncture call 911 and taking me to the ER, because we're there to do that they will save my life. Here's what the problem is with Western medicine, the same medicine that saves people's lives all over the world so beautifully every day, never stopped and asked the question, what happened? Why would a 60 year old man have a heart attack? Sometimes it's evident, you know, he is obese, he has high cholesterol he is stressed out. And another time another time, it's not obvious. The sad thing is that even when it's obvious, very few physicians and the medical Western medical world will sit down and talk about acupuncture, or talk about nutrition or talk about lifestyle or simply ask the patient this question. Are you happy to you feel good? When you look at yourself in the mirror? Do you feel you have optimized your house? Can you run around with your grandson or your granddaughter? Can you take your walk your dog for a walk without being short of breath? Because if we were to take the time to meet the patient to look at them in their eye, and that's the question, we would start a dialogue about lifestyle which in most cases leads to heart disease the same heart disease that could have killed him. So with that in mind when Akasha center was founded, I realized that we needed to take a step further that if it's not going to be a western medicine all the time and again if they come in if you were to commence I can you for some reason on a flight home you got pneumonia and now you in the morning is is bringing in you know is taking her into a very high fever episode. We're not going to be talking about herbs. We're going to talk about antibiotics. But along with antibiotics, I'm also going to make sure that we talk about steps that you can take to help your body metabolized the antibiotics and to diminish the side effects. So we'll talk about if your body needs this. Let's give it to it. But here's why we can do to help it metabolize it To help it have less side effects from the antibiotics that you need to, to be able to take care of this pneumonia. So, we brought in the herbalist, the herbalist is the person that would come in and meet with you if you had a pneumonia and say okay, Dr. de Mello is giving you the antibiotics, but he also wants me to help you with some herbs, and help you increase the flow to your lung area, we know that the most amazing arc antioxidant of all time is blood, blood is the most pure, the most effective healing antioxidant that we have. So what acupuncture does is it stimulates the blood flow to the Aries, it stimulates the release of endorphins. And therefore it gives you a sense of well being a sense of that you're decreasing that kind of stress level that disease can bring, and allows you and allow your body to release the other hormones and to increase blood flow to the area. So that's acupuncture, you would also meet with a nutritionist to at least talk to her. And we will say Okay, so what is the best thing for Zack to take now that he has pneumonia. So we look at foods that that create a lot of mucus, so we will take off dairy products. And we'll say no, take a break from it. Now, you know, let's go and try to eat a meal that is more rich in protein. It's richer in protein, less carbohydrate, more vegetables, a lot of water. And were you eating consistently several times a day. And then from there on, depending on where you have what your condition is presenting with, let's say you were dehydrated. And you were somebody who cannot tolerate vitamins because you're in the morning. So some make you very nauseated. So we will hook you up to an IV bag where we'll give you incredible amount of vitamins all there are compounds that are very pure vitamin that can bypass your gastrointestinal tract, and go right into your system, and can give you the incredible minerals and vaccine that you need to stabilize to strengthen your immune system. And this is all scientifically evidenced in the 19. Then in the 1970s, Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize by showing the high levels of vitamin C was so incredibly effective as an antioxidant. There like the he was actually recommending it for as an alternative or and that excuse me, not an alternative, but an adjunct to chemotherapy. So when the patients were not doing the work to the patients were of taking chemotherapy, he would recommend that people take them high levels of vitamin C. And so everything that is in that bag that we're going to give to you as part of your antioxidant treatment of vitamins and minerals have been all evidence based research is there about the benefits of vitamin B 12. The benefits of calcium of magnesium of lysine, which is again this amazing anti inflammatory. So depending on the weather conditions are that people are being seen for you can see anywhere from one to three to four of practitioner the same day when you're at a cashier. And even if you cannot see them for whatever reason, it will because they're not available, because your condition doesn't really warrant them to come into the room, we make sure that they are part of your treatment plan. We discuss the case with them. And so one of our very pride moments for us is when we can tell the patients Well, you saw me but you actually your case was reviewed by 10 of us. So see one of us get 10 of us is the motto that we believe here for patients.

Zack Arnold 24:03

And I can certainly say firsthand from the experiences that I've had there over the last like nine or 10 years that it's a completely different approach. And there's there's a story that I know that I told you before but it's it's really what convinced me it was the story shows us how much you were taught me over a fairly short period of time and how I almost started taking it for granted. But it was probably about five or six years ago, my father was going through some very severe health issues. And I went to go visit him. He's in Wisconsin, and he was essentially catatonic and dealing with depression and you know, nutrition issues and high levels of stress and wasn't very healthy. And we went to go see a regular Western medical doctor and we sat down and they talked to him for about five minutes. He gave his list of symptoms, and then they basically hand in a prescription pad and I said well hold on a second. Maybe there's a few more questions we can ask her isn't there a way that we can possibly introduce vitamin D or fish oils or You know, is there any kind of neurotransmitter support you can recommend? And they just looked at me with this quizzical look. And they said, Oh, no, we're medical doctors here. And that was it. That's when I was done with regular Western medicine because I said, if they're not going to listen to any of this, and they're going to discount it, I'm done. And I basically threw him on a plane, and I flew him out to see you. And now he's 20 years younger than he was five years ago. So that that was my last experience with Western medicine other than, oh, my God, I just broke my arm, or you know, I've got a really bad cough. Like, if my condition is very simple to diagnose, it's very run of the mill, and they don't need to know me, I run down the street, and I get a z Pak, get an antibiotic and get rid of my cough. But if there's anything that has to do with overall long term wellness, there's no question that I don't care what it costs. To me, the value is so worth it, to just sit down with you sit down with the other clinicians, because it literally changed my entire life. So what I want to do is go backwards to where I started, because I know that there are a lot of people, probably right now in the situation where I was, I basically walked into your clinic, roughly nine years ago, and I was dealing with severe depression. I was completely exhausted. I was almost catatonic I was working crazy, long hours, my diet was horrible, I was not sleeping well. And I was essentially at the point of having suicidal thoughts. And I came in, and you guys, I mean, it's just like a full court press, like the entire team just jumps right on you from all directions. And you just it literally, you just feel like you've become a part of a family. And then all of a sudden, you just see this improvement go forwards. But it's not just here's a pill to make you feel better. It's education. And that's what I'm really trying to do with my site in my program is educate people, because there's no one fixed, there's not a magic pill. But through a combination of education and hard work. You can empower yourself to make these changes as long as you have a guide. So that's why I think you guys are just so vital to this process. And I hope that your approach to medicine takes off and more people start to do this,

Dr. Edison de Mello 27:05

I think I think it has already because of patients like you and patients who want to be seen by the doctors, were patients who really ask themselves Wait, is this really working for me. And so the latest research is showing that seven in 10 Americans are now I have now been exposed to some form of integrative medicine. And again, it's not holistic medicine that I'm promoting. It's not alternative medicine that we're not going to somebody else, or I'm not promoting that one goes to another practitioner, because Western medicine is bad. It's like I said to you, and you said as well, when you need to go and get a professional for a for z Pak, it can be wonderful. It just never asked the question of why did this system fail? have me give an example. If you bring somebody into your house, because your roof is leaking? Here, we'll fix the roof. But you as a homeowner is gonna want to ask the question, what happened? What happened here? Why is it leaking? And so he will likely try to find an explanation, they may run the gamut of possibilities. That's why I'm promoting medicine is for doctors, practitioners. And whoever else is practicing any kind of a healing modality to take a step back and let go of this idea that is here that there is a band aid approach to everything. And to use the band aid if you need to literally, if somebody is bleeding, you need to use the band aid, right? But then to say, Hey, why are you bleeding? You know, is it that you cut yourself? Is it that your platelets are low? Is it that there's something else happening? And if your payments are low, why is that and to keep in to open the dialogue of trying to understand that the body is doing what he knows how she's trying to talk to you. She's trying to communicate with you. So I am hopeful. And I see this a little bit when I go out and do my presentations or do some grand rounds. The medical students are more open. They're not rolling their eyes as they used to several years ago when I was in training, that I would say when somebody came in as a senior resident, somebody would present a case to me, and I would say what's the name of the patient and they would know because they are referring to the patient is there bad numbers bad 24 e or bad 24 A or the pneumonia cage? So today when I do the grand rounds, they still do that they would still come in and present, you know a case of liver failure, and they would do this great presentation and then at the end the presentation. They haven't told me anything about this patient. I noticed about the disease. So when I asked him, I said, Well, what is the color of your patient's eyes? And they look at me funny for a couple of seconds. And I they realize right then that what I'm asking them is to go meet their patient, if they haven't looked at the patient's eyes? Or if you haven't even said, well, it's kind of bluish gray, I'm not sure. But at least give me an answer that you have looked at this person and they you have to realize that this person has a story, this person is somebody's mother, somebody's sister, or there's somebody out there that maybe depends on this person, for a lot of different reasons. And that there must be something in this person's life that would give her or him is trained to beat this disease. And if so what is that is that our granddaughter that she needs, she wants to say graduate from college is that her husband that she wants to make sure that it's, you know, that that is taken care of, for a while for? Is there a dog that she needs to find a home to for. So there's always something that when we take the time to meet the patient's like I took the time to meet you and meet your father, the patient can then see that there is another way of doing this, that this condition doesn't change so rapidly. But what changed very quickly is how you look at it, and how you decide to be bigger than what it is, no matter how big it is, you can always come from looking at it from the top and realizing I can't do this. I don't know how. But I'll find a way to do this. And either to cure it to hopefully can be cured. But if it cannot be be cured to help me live with it, with dignity. And I think that I'm hopeful that I see more and more of that happening today.

Zack Arnold 31:53

What I'd like to do now is just changed directions a little bit, I want to go back to my story of where I started. But now we're going to put a hypothetical person in my position. And somebody is at that point, right now there are a lot of people in my industry that live incredibly sedentary lifestyles, their health is not very good, their diet is really bad. They're not getting any sunlight, they're not getting any activity, they're most likely dealing with some form of depression, whether or not they know it. Where can they start, I know that you have a supplement site Akasha naturals and I highly, highly recommend the things that are there. I use a lot of them myself. But let's say that somebody just is not ready to jump into the integrative medicine approach and have 10 doctors look at them. And what's the baby step to kind of transfer from traditional Western medicine to this direction, either through Akasha naturals or through your clinic?

Dr. Edison de Mello 32:45

Okay, great questions. I think the first question, it's a very simple question. And you don't have to have the answer by So ask yourself the question, am I living the life I want to live? Do I have the energy that I want to have? That's it? And then and then let's say the answer is no, I get up in the morning, I'm tired. And no matter how many hours of sleep, I don't feel rested, I look at myself in the mirror and I don't like the texture of my skin or the way I look or I don't like my weight or I don't like you know, the texture of my hair, whatever that is. Okay, well, I don't like you know that I it takes me a lot to be able to go to the bathroom. Whatever the question is, is just to witness the question, you may not have the answer, which most of us were worn it for. But pose the questions so that you don't go with it or add to it with an i o and then take a baby step as you said, for instance, Zack in this country, 90% to 95% of us are vitamin D deficient. And vitamin D is this incredible miracle type of vitamin. I do believe that it's actually should be called hormonal D. It works as a hormone in your body. It promotes a lot of metabolic functions. It strengthens your immune system. It helps with the skin house meaning that if the skin is your largest organ in your body, you want that skin to be healthy, you want it to be able to absorb excrete breeze in a very optimal way where vitamin D has been proven to do that it even prevents when the levels are optimal presents Prevents Cancer. So you asked me but hey that to do why 90% of us are deficient in vitamin D. Very simply because our body's very smart our bodies it really needs a synergy between the body and the and the nature and nature to be able to operate in a very optimum way. Your body produces vitamin D to but it needs sun to activate it into the active form of d3. But we put a hole in the sun right The ozone layer, we don't have enough time to spend time in the site in their early hours of the day when it's safer. And we don't have to four hours a day they will take to be able to really metabolize or transform the right amount of medicine, the correct amount of vitamin D into vitamin D chew into it environment is three, you need, you know, quite a bit of it to be able to optimize it. So vitamin D, I think would be the step first step that I would take. The second step is to really look and see how you're eating. How What are you doing, you know, how much how much protein Are you taking for every meal? How much carbohydrate or you're eating instead. And I'm not saying big changes, I'm saying something like, some patients of mine says, but dr. D, you don't understand I live in a place that is where I cannot find a lot of healthy restaurant. And I said, well, healthy restaurant is really, it depends on how you look at any restaurant, you can go in any restaurant and you make a choice, no matter what how difficult you think it is, and make a choice, even for people who cannot eat anywhere. But McDonald's, for instance, right there looking at the menu, you can make a better choice. You know, it can either be well, it the median, or the bands, if you're going to eat the meat, which is not good anyway. But if he if that's where you need to eat, get rid of part of the band, you know, is there salad that you can make it you can eat, it says something that you can do to balance your meal, even when you're looking at the fast food because or you have to have it because you think that is that there are no other choices. And then the third step, the first step, you know, simple thing, vitamin D, you can get it online. Second thing ask yourself, How am I you know, how am I eating. And the third thing is, am I doing everything I can to move my body to exercise Now, you may not be able to go to a gym, people in your industry works from very early in the morning until very late at night, if they are busy.

You know editing a particular project, sometimes you don't leave until the job is done. And you come in many times, very early in the morning when there's no sunlight and you leave at night. So there you have it by you can get out, you can get off your chair and walk around the block. And if you need to go into another office, whether it's an escalator versus an elevator versus a stair, which went the other day, it's only a matter of perhaps another two minutes that you would save if you were to take the escalator the elevator, taking the stairway will help you move your body move your bladder to exercise in your juices. And in the meantime, decrease the amount of cortisol that your body is making by the simple fact that you are working in an environment where no where there is no sunlight. And when you're stressed Sydney most of the time. So those are the the three baby steps that I will take for any one of you out there asking yourself the question, How do I do this? How do I get it started?

Zack Arnold 38:12

Well, you're really good spokesman for my program, because that's step number three, which I call making small changes. And it's just it's not about getting a crazy exercise program and changing your entire life. It's about doing what you already do just finding more active ways to do it. So he just gave me some free advertising now that's great. So as long as we're on the topic of diet and exercise, I wasn't, didn't think I was going to go here. But I might as well bring this up. Now. There's so much information about diet and food and fad diets and you know, eat only this, eat only that, and counting calories. And one thing that I've been a really big advocate of from all the research that I've done independently is that calories are not all that they're cracked up to be. And what's so much more important than counting the number of calories is understanding the quality of the food that you're eating and the type of macronutrient it is whether it's a fat, a carbohydrate or protein. And what I've been advocating, and I'm hoping that I've been correct in advocating This is that if you say I've eaten 2500 calories today, but I've exercised and burn 3000 I know I'm going to lose weight. But my counter to that is well what if you weigh 2500 calories of Krispy kremes that's not really going to work based on the complex way that the body works. So can you just talk a little bit about the idea of calories in versus calories out versus the quality and the types of foods that you eat especially processed sugars and processed foods versus proteins and healthy fats like avocados and almonds and things like that?

Dr. Edison de Mello 39:43

Absolutely. You know, I think we've become very, very imprisoned by the idea that there is one way that works and everything else does turn to or that you know, carbohydrates is bad. Our bed and that protein is better. And you should do this, you should do that. And along the way, I think we forget a simple question of what is the individual's lifestyle right now, certainly, if you have young children that you have to go to when you leave work, or if you have a situation of a parent that you need to travel to, to take care of, just as in your case, recently, or if you have to work many hours, because there's a project, creating a very clear food menu, where one is counting calories, or deciding they know how much protein you have to have I had today how much protein Have I not had today may not be very feasible for that person, that particular moment. And it may actually lead one to feel so guilty. That was to feel like a failure that then you do you try very hard for three days, it doesn't work if you're frustrated, and you say the heck with it all. And you go back to now eating even worse than you were before, because now you're feeling like a failure. And you're feeling that you cannot do it. So for me, in my practice, in this clinic practice, the idea is, can you look at your your eating? And tell me, which changes can you make right now, we all know that we are 100% protein, you know, we come from an egg and a sperm, both 100% protein, that protein is the basis of life. The protein is the basics of cell metabolism. And we all know that this is high school biology of common sense. And so knowing that one should move towards protein, whenever possible is it's a fact of life. It's it's not anything that needs to be proven, it has already been proven because you were born, you weren't born because there was 100% protein there. Like I said, Mom and Papa and and that coming together and here you are. So how do we sustain life with protein. So therefore, look at the balance, you know, suddenly in the morning, it's the very morning and breakfast is the most important of all meals for you because that's going to determine, you know how you're going to feel for the next three to four hours. So try in the morning to have pretty good source of protein. It doesn't have to be a lot sometimes, you know, a tablespoon of the almond butter is consider a whole a serving of protein. And you can put that in your drink. You know you can make a protein drink here at the Akasha naturals Cause you know, we do we recommend that people started with a protein drink so you can decide which one works for you. This pea protein days rice protein and for people who are not allergic to milk or don't have a lactose intolerance, this whey protein and so we recommend that you start the morning with that in fact we recommend that you make it the night before just put a couple of bananas on a whole big jug of on your blender and put a quart and a half there of almond milk if you're not allergic to milk to almond milk, some berries, frozen berries that are organic because berries are very porous and they retain a lot of the pesticides. So we always recommend that people eat organic berries with four to five scoops of protein in there like I said that one and a half quart of of liquid is sometimes it can even be water or coconut water or in my case I like almond milk and a tablespoon of almond butter to release give you a lot of sustenance and let set and now you have two to three shapes for you to drink throughout the day. Drink the first one in the morning before you do anything. Whether you're going to go to the gym and drink that sometimes it helps to after that to drink a little bit of an very healthy non processed field energy drink with there's a couple of them that we recommend here at the center that you take your max day, take it Go do your workout or go for your morning walk or simply go to work if you cannot exercise. then here you are you let's say you're doing this drink at seven o'clock sec by 10 o'clock you're going to be hungry or you have a banana clock. Then you think to yourself okay, what can I have? You know, some people will have a piece of fruit or to be great. Some people who are not allergic to Brad's will have whole wheat bread, you know where some, some kind of, you know, again, you can have a piece of turkey meat in there if you eat it or You can have even some very good energy protein bars. There are several of them available. They're not processed based, have a light lunch, always thinking of yourself, How did my grandparents eat? It's a joke that I that I use a lot around the clinic with my young patients, or sometimes patients, you know, in the middle, the middle age group. And they say, Well, I don't know what you eat. And I say, I don't know what to eat. And I said, well think like your great grandparents or your grandparents, where do they eat, you know, so you go towards that, you know, so for lunch can have a piece of chicken or a piece of fish, or you can have the sandwich without all the bread, Kava salad. And then you have in the afternoon, when you get hungry again, you have the other part of your protein drink. So now you have the protein drink in the morning, you had it in the afternoon, and then you get home and you have a light healthy dinner. So in other words, the way to stay healthy is to eat. That's kind of interesting. Because most people think now the way to stay healthy and are gaining weight. It's not it's only to eat three meals a day, it's the very opposite. The more small meals, healthy meals you eat, the healthier you become. The question here is, how small is the meal? And what is the quality of that meal? That is the big question for you. So what we see in the US, for instance, is that we are on the wagon of not eating breakfast, most of us don't, then we get very hungry, very hypoglycemic for lunch. And then you see the supersize me kind of service that people have, everything is back by you see this, your boy eating this, drinking this gallons of coke gallons of, of whatever drink and this food that the more the better is Warren hamburgers stacked on top of the other. They are super hungry. And when you're super hungry, you cannot think of anything, but the more the better. So you'll overeat. And then 20 minutes later, the sentence that I hear the most situations like that is I'm stuffed and then you're sober, think why would anybody do that to themselves? Why would they so much to the point that they're stuffed? Okay. He said that they have no control of what they're eating, possibly. Or he said that they said that. But there's also the fact that there is a 20 minute delay between the area of the brain that specializes in hunger that tells you that you're hungry. And the enzyme in your stomach that communicates with your brain to tell that that is full, that enzymes called neuro peptide. So neuro of brain peptide of enzymes, it's actually a signal that your stomach gives to the brain to say, Hey, I'm done. It's there's too much extension, I have the food that I want. The problem is that that takes 20 minutes. So people keep eating and keep eating, keep eating, as opposed to eating small meals, eating slowly allowing their 20 minutes to go by, before they will have a second. And if they wait for that 20 minutes. You know, current research shows that about 75% of times, you will now go for a second because now the signal that I'm talking about has been fully given to the brain. And so those are the steps that one can take and diet is really the awareness of Do I need to eat this now? And if I need to eat the sugar, why am I drinking the sugar eating the sugar? Is it because I'm bored? Is it because I need more energy? Is it because there's nothing else available? And I am hungry? it the the fruit bar filled with sugar but then ask yourself the question, Can I do it differently tomorrow? Can I set it Can I go to you know a supermarket Trader Joe's whatever you are, if you have one or Whole Foods and buy a protein bar that is healthier than the one that I had yesterday. That would be the first step baby step towards changing that paradigm of how to do things differently than you what you've been doing up until now.

Zack Arnold 49:24

So all these recommendations are things that I've been doing myself for years, and they've made a huge difference. One word, though, that I haven't heard you bring up is the word fat. And there's a lot of controversy right now and a lot of discussion about the idea of fat and the fact that we've really been misinformed about the way that our body processes certain fats, and we've always been told for the last 40 or 50 years, all fats are bad and eating fat will make you fat. And obviously the research is proving overwhelmingly otherwise. So what I want to do is can you just talk very briefly Kind of about the idea of all these low fat fat free foods that are actually filled with preservatives and fillers and sugars to compensate, you know, the the canola oils, the corn oils, the soybean oils, all these things like margarine that we think we're eating because they're healthier than just having, you know, good old fashioned grass fed butter, or having an avocado or having almonds. Because when you put an avocado in your calorie tracker, you fall out of your chair, and you think, Oh, my God, this is 400 calories, it's gonna make me fat. But people really need to understand that there are fats that are actually really good for your body and can provide energy. So just talk to me a little bit about the concept of fat and how it doesn't actually make you fat. You've said it beautifully.

Dr. Edison de Mello 50:43

It's a fad. And it's and a lot of it is, was motivated by lobbying of different food groups at different food industries they want to do to get the margarine on your table, I wanted to get to get you to buy the canola oil, and so on and so forth. So I'll leave the politics, the food industry aside for now, Zack, but it is true that fat is not the enemy. What the enemy is, is the amount of you know, the bad fats that will consume. So let's talk about the good fat, the good fats, the fats that are good for your heart, that fats, they're good for your production of good hormones, you know, in this country or in the Western world. For years, we've made cholesterol the bad guy, cholesterol is no better. Without cholesterol, we wouldn't be here because we wouldn't be making sex hormones that wouldn't allow our parents to make us. So every hormone starts out from the fat track. And then it trickles down to the different subsets of hormones on one side, steroids to the other side, and so on and so forth. So the good fat or the fat there, that would be good to provide you with the kind of nutrients that your body would need to be able to produce what's called the high density lipoprotein, also known as HDL. We talk about good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. So let's talk about the good cholesterol, the good cholesterol is your HDL, high density lipoprotein. As the name implies, it's high density, it's always moving. So I think of it as the roto rooter of your system, it goes in there and and takes the bad cholesterol, which we'll talk about in a little while, the bad fat, and it takes to deliver so that the liver can process data. So you want to have foods, they're rich on your good cholesterol and your good fats. Like I said, HDL, and those are olive oil. Those are avocado, fish oil, some of the nuts, they're not the oil prices, and what are their, you know, foods they're written that's on the good oil, certainly fish, a lot of the fish have incredible good, incredibly good oil, that's known as the omega three. And certainly you have to balance out between the good oils that you need and mercury. So the bigger the fish, the more away from it, you should stay. So I usually recommend that people make sure that they have a lot of salmon in their diet and the small fish and avoid the big fishes such as tuna, and halibut, and so on and so forth. avacado fair fairly rich in HDL again, there's very little research pointing to any significant side effects of any of those good foods of good fat so it's not unless of course, you have kidney condition where you cannot metabolize protein. That's the only time that we tell patients to avoid all kinds of fat is when they cannot process it because there's a problem with the kidneys for instance, they have a condition, the most common one being nephrotic syndrome. Coconut coconut is an incredible, good fat also coconut water, incredible and not only a little bit of that good fat but mostly of the electrolytes and then there are the good, the bad fats, those are the saturated fats they're so saturated, that they cannot be you cannot move away from them in in your in your supermarkets you look around and you'll find a lot of those bad fats and that that canola oil like you said the some of the the margarine and sometimes mayonnaise in there as well. So those are the those are the facts that your body cannot break down very easily requires a lot of energy and they are called low density lipoprotein. They are low density because they just sit around there, they are not able to be easily metabolized by your body. So they could they create a so called, you know, plagues and plaques all over the place. And so the way to avoid those foods is to first of all, not eating them to not eat them. But if you need to eat them again, sometimes you don't know you go into a restaurant, and you only have a few military your food, sometimes you have no idea how the particular food was cooked. So there's two ways to manage the bad effects of bad fat one certainly is to avoid it. And the second when you cannot avoid it is to make sure that you're compensating that you balance it out with a good fit. So you always have avocado in your home. So I always try to develop a taste for coconut oil, said if you don't want a cook with olive oil, because sometimes expensive, sometimes people are like a or like you get tired of it. Go to coconut oil, coconut oil is so rich in the good fats, that it's actually used to pull bacteria out of one's dental cavity sometimes. And that's another subject that we can talk about in another podcast, Zack, but it's how those good oils can also come back bacteria. And certainly the other way to balance the bad fat that sometimes you cannot tell. Because they're everywhere, you have the time to read the label, and to get educated, fantastic, go for it. But if you don't have time to do it very religiously start by one thing. One thing you know, move away from anything that is that is extremely mass produced that is cheap, if it's very cheap, unfortunately, you know, where it's simply because you don't take a lot to make it. And so try to go to something that you may spend a little bit more but use less, it's better to use less and, and have more at home, then use a lot of it and buy cheaply. You can use coconut oil instead of olive oil. Like I said it's a little cheaper than that. And the other way to really balance out those good fat, bad fat that sometimes you are exposed to is through exercise which you talked about it again, when you exercise your blood flow. There's many thing in clothing is speeding up how your body breaks down the LDL triglycerides, all the other bad fats, fats, at the same time, he helps your body conserve the good fats, the HDL.

Zack Arnold 57:36

My sincerest apologies for the interruption in the middle of this interview. But if you are a content creator or you work in the entertainment industry, not only is the following promo not an interruption, but listening has the potential to change your life. Because collaborating with Evercast is that powerful. Here's a brief excerpt from a recent interview that I did with Evercast co founders, Brad Thomas and award winning editor Roger Barton

Roger 57:58

Living this lifestyle of a feature film editor has really had an impact on me. So I was really looking for something to push back against all of these lifestyle infringements that are imposed on us both by schedules and expectations. When you guys demo to Evercast for me that first time my jaw hit the floor, I'm like, Oh my god, this is what I've been waiting for, for a decade.

Zack Arnold 58:21

I also had the same reaction when I first saw Evercast two words came to mind game changer.

Brad 58:26

Our goal, honestly, is to become the zoom for creatives, whatever it is, you're streaming, whether it's editorial, visual effects, Pro Tools for music composition, LIVE SHOT cameras, it's consistent audio and video, lip sync, always stays in sync, whether you're in a live session where you're getting that feedback immediately, or you can't get it immediately. So you record the session and you can share those clips with people on the production team where there's no room for any confusion. It's like this is exactly what the director wants. This is exactly what the producer wants.

Roger 58:54

What matters most to me is it makes the entire process more efficient, which then translates to us as creatives who spend way too much time in front of computers. We get to shut it down and we get to go spend time with their friends and family.

Zack Arnold 59:07

The biggest complaint and I'm sure you guys have heard this many, many times. This looks amazing. I just can't afford it.

Brad 59:12

Tesla had to release the Model S before they released the model three. So by the end of the year, we are going to be releasing a sub $200 version a month of Evercast for the freelancer, indie creatives. Anyone who is a professional video creator outside of Hollywood.

Roger 59:28

I think what we've learned over the last few months is that this technology can translate to better lives for all of us that give us more flexibility and control while still maintaining the creativity, the creative momentum and the quality of work.

Zack Arnold 59:43

I cannot stress this enough Evercast is changing the way that we collaborate. If you value your craft, your well being and spending quality time with the ones you love, Evercast now makes that possible for you and me to listen to the full interview and learn about the amazing potential that Evercast has to change the way that you work and live visit optimizeyourself.me/evercast. Now back to today's interview.

What I can say from my own personal experience, and what has been the most transformational thing I've ever done, I've exercised and been very active and athletic for most of my life. And up until probably three or four years ago, I didn't have to worry about diet because I could burn anything off and I didn't care. So I ate crap. And then all of a sudden, like it does for most people, I was 28 or 29 years old. And it really caught up to me. And I was like, Wait a second, what is all this garbage around my waist? And why don't my pants fit anymore? And why do I want to sleep at three o'clock every afternoon? And why am I grumpy all the time. And if I were to boil it down to three changes, and there's probably more, but the three things that I've noticed that have just completely changed my energy levels. And my focus in the way that I feel are number one I had followed the Akasha cleanse, which is just a list of dietary recommendations that I have on the website that are from your clinic. But really kind of the bullet point from that list in my mind is get rid of all processed foods and all sugars like anything that has sugar in it high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, all the crazy monosaccharides di saccharides polysaccharides, just all that junk, get rid of it. That was the first step that I thought made a huge difference. And then the next thing I did is I said, I'm going to get rid of all this low fat, no fat garbage that I have that has all these fillers. So now instead of having the margarines, and the low fat yogurts and whatever. Now I've basically replaced those with MCT oil, which is you know, as a form of coconut oil, I've introduced a fair amount of coconut oil into my diet, and also replaced the margarines with grass fed on salted butter, which is coming from a completely natural organic source. Just doing those three things has made me feel like I'm 20 years younger. I mean, it's I can't even explain the difference that I have an energy level by just changing food. It's not changing activity. It's not because I'm working out six days a week, like I was working out six days a week years ago, and I still felt like crap. And I wasn't losing any weight because I didn't address my diet. But once I address the diet, everything kind of opened up for me.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:02:11

Yeah, it's so insane, right? So this it is it's so true, you are what you eat. And the idea is, you know, we don't have to make a drastic change all at once. Because it's going to be so overwhelming to anybody that we won't do it but change a few things. change the way you relate to food and change the way you think of food, you don't think of the fact that your car needs fuel to be able to run to take your again, going back to the car analogy, you're not going to question the fact Oh, my car needs gas or electricity. For to go from point A to point B, you just do it and you do it. Hopefully, we don't see a lot of people stalled in the streets because they forgot to put gas in the car, you just realize that you look at that little, you know, little gadget there little pointing thing showing that you're on empty and you go, Oh, I need to do something about it. But yeah, when it comes to the body, we don't do this, we wait until we are on empty until we have run out of gas to be able to go get food. And the idea here is to change the paradigm, his point that I want you to drive home, you don't drink, don't wait to drink water until you're you're thirsty because by the time you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. And so you see people drinking water too fast, which is better than not drinking water, but not a good way to drink water. And so you think oh, again, I don't wait until I run out of gas to put gas in my car, I just do it. So you go to the water thing, the water protocol of eight to 10 glasses a day. It's based on research, you need that to be able to operate effectively. And you just do it for a glass by your desk for a guy or a bottle of water everywhere where you are going to be in a particular day, be it in your desk, be in the bedroom, be in front of a TV, whatever you're doing, make sure they have a bottle of water there for you. The same thing with food. You don't wait until you are hungry for you to eat. You eat so that you don't get into this starvation mode in starvation mode is that when you get so deep, so hypoglycemic, that the little mechanism that I told you about few minutes ago of the neuropeptide gets completely dysregulated now you're so hungry, that all your brain is thinking this forget the neuro peptides. The brain is a very selfish organ in those that needs to come first beyond anything else so that you can operate It also knows that without food, you wouldn't be able to reach out for the same plate of food that you need to stay alive. So it does whatever it needs to do. And you've heard of horrendous stories that people go through when they're hungry, to be able to get their food so that he can operate. So your brain, in other words, is the hard drive of your body. And when you are hungry, and because you have a need for several hours, like I said, their whole mechanism of coordination coordinating with your stomach acid coordinating with your neuropeptide, it all goes down the brain. And now you're basically at eating non stop completely in a discombobulated form, that at the end of the meal that may last only five minutes, if that much, because you were so hungry, you have not chilled your food, if you have eaten so much. And sometimes around food, that the side effects of that action can really be detrimental to yourself, eat so that you don't get hungry, drinks water so that you don't get thirsty. And the analogy again, is that when you look at babies, and for those of you who have children who have a or, and or have been caretakers of children, or one time in your life, you know that a baby and a toddler needs to eat every three to four hours. It's kind of like clockwork, well, he is the is the analogy, Zack we are x children, which means that our system is the same, it never changed. The requirements of your system didn't change. He needs food every three to four hours, you need water every hour. What it changed is that food became a socialized phenomenon. What changes that us became socialized beings that work really, you know, responsibilities, whatever it is that we need to do, for most of us come at the expense of food. And so change the paradigm, changing how you relate to it, change how you think about it, do more of the podcasts that Zack is promoting, get more educated about it. And then take a step back and say, Alright, if I can make one change this week, what would that be, and go for it and stay consistent. And then the following week, okay, if I can make two changes this week, what would that be, maybe I won't take the elevator. If it's only up to the third floor, maybe I'll drink more water, even when I'm not thirsty. I don't think I'm thirsty. My my body needs water. So let me do it. Maybe we'll think about in the morning, when I'm rushing to my car to the garage to the bus, I will grab an apple and put it in my bag, those little changes, it's the beginning of a new language that you will soon learn. And then like any language, the more vocabulary you add to it, the more proficient in the language you'll become. So keep adding more vocabulary in the form of habits that you're changing one by one, until you're going to have a pretty nice basic language of eating better established for yourself.

Zack Arnold 1:08:18

So the next category of information that I would really want to address and this is kind of coming from some of the members of my test groups and my challenge groups. This is exercise related. You have the tools in front of you to understand what your body's doing. But what is it that you should and should not do when you first started going into exercise. Just hear the basics to understand about your heart rate, how your body works, when you're not in great shape, and you're getting started, I want to make sure that people don't jump in too much. And try to do too much too soon. So just kind of address that that general idea.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:08:50

The question of exercise, and how much should one, you know, how much time should one spend on exercise if you're a beginner, or if you're somebody that we used to do it and hasn't done for a long time. And what is a good heart rate? Usually, the rule of thumb in integrative medicine is that when it comes to exercise, more is better at a lower pace, because you were conditioning your body to be able to really extend even more rigorous exercise and in a few months, hopefully in a few weeks. So when you start, it's always better to still ask yourself what is my goal, your heart rate is the resting heart rate. What that means it means how much energy Your heart is expending to do its work. And the function of the heart, as you know is to receive blood from the right side of your lungs of your body and then dumps the blood into the first Chamber of your heart which is called the atrium. Blood, remember has been cleaned in the lungs from carbon dioxide, co2 202. And so as the ball comes into your heart, the the first chamber receives the blood, and then it pumps the blood to the left side of your body, which is where it's gonna replenish all the organs. So it is a pump. And what you want on that pump is effectiveness, think of it as efficiency. Think of it as effectiveness, think of it as conditioning. And so if you are if your post is resting post of 80, okay, it's good, it's not great, depending on your age, if you're 85, and you have a pulse of 80, it's better than if you were 20 with a pulse of 80. Because it has to do with the amount of energy that you're going to expand. And when you're younger, you don't need your heart is very young to have to expend that much energy to pump it out. So we start slowly building it up. So if your post is you put your hand there and your post before you start if your post is at four, when I bring it down to 70, when I bring him down to 68, nothing lower than that, because otherwise you you may faint, you may get a little dizzy, you may you know your body will have to adjust. There's zones that we talk about when you exercise is the zone of you know how much pumping Your heart is doing. And you don't want it to pump too slow. You don't want it to pump too fast, you want it to be optimal. And optimal has to do usually with increasing the amount of pumping that the hardest during increasing your pulse, pulse pulse pulse pose pose, so that when you stop the exercise, you have dropped it to a lower to a lower rate. So again, for your your hand in your poster and you say Oh, my resting pose right now is 70 is 84, I want to bring it down to 70. When I stop, in order to do that, I need to really maximize the amount of energy on this. So you're gonna pump and pump up to maybe about if it's 80, maybe you can go to about 120 130. You I usually say to people at 30 to 40 beats per minute to their heart and see how that feels. And I also say look for the if you are exercising at a gym, look for in your exercise bicycle, or in your treadmill look for the red zone. But there is some means is that it's gone too high. Right? punching your age, just like in your Fitbit. In your Fitbit. You can also punch in your age, it's very much related to the A to the patient's age, the age that you are at the particular time that you're doing the exercise. So follow the guidelines. The I don't know if Fitbit that comes with that, but most of those will come with what is the red zone? If it's red, if gone too far. What is a lower zone? I believe it's on the yellow side is to your to low stay on that green zone. That is the biggest zone, the green zone is the is the one that is the largest because again, it's very dependent on your age group. And don't sometimes don't think so much about Am I in the red zone? Am I in the green zone Western Umayyad, but ask yourself, How am I feeling? Is my body telling me to keep on going? Now my mind but my body because the mind sometimes you know he wants to compete. But ask yourself, Am I feeling good about this? Am I feeling relaxed about this? Am I feeling that I've accomplished some kind of incredible zone in this exercise or is I'm feeling too harsh. If it's feeling too hard, then no matter what zone you're at, stop, take a break, and perhaps 10 to 15 minutes break and go do something else.

Zack Arnold 1:14:04

Those are all excellent recommendations. And it sounds like we're talking mostly to people that have not done a whole lot of activity and we're getting them started. We don't want them to push too hard. But let's bring in somebody that's more in the kind of shape that I'm in now the shape that I was in seven, eight years ago was that guy were like just the thought of jogging a quarter of a mile would have sent my heart rate racing and I would have felt horrible and would have felt like throwing up. But now that I've been very highly active and training very heavily. I do a lot of high intensity interval training, which I'm sure you're familiar with, and that there's been a lot of research that's come out recently, just in the last couple of years. That has said there's a lot to be said about short bursts of intense activity in like 25 or 30 minutes, as opposed to just jogging or being on an elliptical at a very leisurely pace for say an hour. And I don't recommend that for people that haven't done any activity. But when you get to my level I think there's a lot of efficacy to exercising that way. Because I find that if I really pushed myself for 30 or 45 minutes, I get the benefits from that four days, whether it's, you know, metabolic benefit, or just an energy metaphor. But if I get on an elliptical and I'm in the green zone for an hour, I get bored, and I don't feel anything. So talk a little bit about that.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:15:19

Okay, well, so so you are a perfect example, when you started, you started this flow, and you needed to be on the treadmill for about 40 minutes, 30 to 45 minutes, and you needed to be to pace yourself because you didn't want to break down your muscles. So quickly, where you will take days to recover. You also want to optimize your exercises, stamina, by being able to slowly increase your pace. Once you get to that level, they were announced back where you know, I've seen you the other day, and you look fantastic, and really in great shape and really strong energy of really helps you good house, then when you want to do it the opposite, you want to push yourself, and then you push yourself as hard as you can. That's the whole idea behind interval exercise is to really maximize those fibers in your in the red fibers and your muscles is to really use them to the max, because then you sit back and wait. And very quickly see the benefits of their endorphins kick in and of the muscle building protocol that you have, that will suddenly be very helpful because you are increasing creatine in your body, you're increasing the endorphins. But you can only do that. If you condition yourself. Think of it as running when you want. If somebody has never run before and suddenly wants to take up Ronnie, the idea is to go from really brisk walking to power walking, to then running for no more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Because what you want is to condition yourself which is to strengthen your muscle, rather than to break down it's so completely, that you're now going to have to spend time rebuilding it, you don't want to break it down so badly where you want to do it strengthen it. So you in your case, and for those of you out there are in a similar situation, the sack is the idea of interval exercise is phenomenal. But even within interpro exercise, pay, you know know when to stop. Because to anything in life, there is always in a point where too much becomes detrimental to your even exercise. You know, if you are not respecting the boundaries of your body, even drinking water, which I've promoted here, in the talk before, if you drink too much, you can develop some kind of bad condition called diabetes in seperates. So all of that is an indication to see that it's about balance. Where do you start and how you you slowly conditioned yourself to get to that point. The reason it worked for you so well, Zack is because you were patient, I told you that you needed to suggest that you needed to do more exercise, I suggest that you needed to eat better. But most of all, I very clearly asked you to be patient with the process. The reason for that is because if you develop slowly, yeah, needed changes, consistent change. And again, the key word here is consistent, you will stay with the program, you're more likely to stay with the program longer than it is if you just decide that to recall from you know, eight to 80 without any preparation of your body. So and that's what the problem is. But people who I see sometimes when I exercise and I see some of those guys in the gym stair lifting weights, they're too high for themselves, the weight of what they're lifting is just too high. And so yeah, they lift in it, but their posture is awful. And so it's really not benefiting them at all integratively. And then we all know that there's a certain point where we feel I can push myself a little bit more without losing my form, or it's time to stop is the same thing about sleep, I can stay awake another hour and try to push myself up a little bit to stay up. But it's at one point that you just cannot do it anymore, that you have to go and rest. The body is the same way. Be in touch with that part of the body that says not in your mind, but in your thermostat in your body that says time to stop. And also be aware of the opposite to it is when your mind says oh yeah, really you're going to do this Your body once is ready to exercise or escape of exercise, your mind is lazy, that's when you push it. So the answer is balance.

Zack Arnold 1:20:10

So as long as we're on the topic of high intensity exercise, what I want to do is give you a really good free plug for the most amazing supplement that's ever existed on the planet. And that is vital fuel. You introduced vital fuel to me a few months ago, which is one of your Akash and naturalist products. And I have never experienced the kind of benefit doing exercise from any other products. And I've used a lot of them. And I don't even understand how it's possible because it doesn't have all the sugars and the carbohydrates and the caffeine. I mean, it has like twice the effect of Redbull except the differences. It's not made of battery acid. So explain to me how vital fuel works so well, because it's, it's what I recommend to everybody, once they've started getting an exercise, and they're starting to push themselves and they've spent a few weeks getting themselves in shape. And they're like, Alright, I'm ready for the next level, I say get vital fuel. And then after two or three servings, they email me or they call me and they're like, this stuff is unbelievable. So explain to people what vital fuel is doing for me and for anybody that uses it.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:21:16

Alright, so vital few. Okay, what is the foundation that one needs to exercise? Okay, so the foundation is amino acids. Why amino acids? Because in a previous podcast, we talked about protein being the basis of life, but how is protein then supported? How is protein, you know, made possible? How does it work? Well, protein is also strengthened by what we call amino acids. So a meal a protein is the basis of life amino acid is the main components of protein. So what we looking at here, and and the vital fuel that I myself use as well as I can, I don't know how I left before how exercise before vital feel, is that what you want is to have the right amount of the very important amino acids that they are the that allow the muscle that you are exercise. So that particular muscle group to not only be strengthened, but to also be prevented from breaking down from hurting from stopping you from continuing to the way you're doing. And there's a few of them, the one that we love here, and the one that we've seen work the most the best, according to the latest research is l carnitine. And, and it's called acid to l carnitine. That gives your muscle a lot of stamina to keep on going that increases the viability of the muscle that increases the energy that is required for from your mitochondria to produce that kind of ATP, which is cellular energy for you to keep on going. So that's l carnitine. Then the ribose say something called the ribose, which is the same thing that is on DNA, or what is DNA. So this ribose is the good amount of source, which is in the form of not your refined sugars, that people using their foods every day, excessively. So around the world, but the good, the good sugar, they've got that expressed on your own DNA that gives you the energy to be able to operate. That's called D ribose. In addition to that, we also have several other things in there, we have the right amount of calcium, calcium, again, increases bone metabolism. And when you're exercising in there, you're also having to make sure that your bones are healthy. So we are having the the right amount of calcium in there. There's also carbohydrates, carbohydrates, like cholesterol is not the bad guy is what quality, what is the quality of the carbohydrate that you're using. And when I use a carbohydrate, you use carbohydrates to give you energy to give you fuel to be able to do what you need to do. So the best time to use carbohydrate is when you need energy. So if you're going to go on a bike ride, if you're going to go exercise, or if you're going to have a long day, and you need to have energy, carbohydrates is good for you. It's not good when you're eating it and in the form of a pastor dinner seven days a week and not at eight o'clock at night because you're not going to go and burn it out after that. So this Phyto field we assume that it's good for exercise and we have people take it during the day, whenever possible to use the date if they're going to exercise every day, or if it's not too late at night, right if if people want to take They said, say nine o'clock 910 o'clock at night, I usually tell them, well, it may keep you awake, because if you don't, it's going to give you the energy to exercise, but also is going to take the energy that you need to kind of slow down your metabolic process so that you can go to sleep. And he has, you know, some very good protease and protease as the name implies, anything that has an ace at the end is, is basically an enzyme, and protease is very good to help you in your metabolic process to help you eliminate what they are, which you don't want, which is called the free radicals after your exercise. In addition to that, he has co q 10. And co q 10. is an enzyme, okay, another enzyme that is incredible for metabolic process that involves, you know, the ability for you to maximize your oxygenation. So somebody comes in and they feel like that they are gonna go on a long bike ride, and they don't want to take this because they're gonna do a bike ride at night, I will tell them to take co q 10, take 200 milligrams co q 10. Because it's gonna help them to maximize the benefits of oxygenation in the body. So oxygen, as you know, is is the reason why we're here. So it's also what you need to have significant amount of when you exercise, because you're going to be using more of that. And then we also asked our formulator, to add a little bit of

rhodiola rosea, their extract, which has a really incredible benefits in cardiovascular function. Also in vascularity, it opens up it helps your your blood vessels to have a better flow of blood. And therefore when you do that, you're usually allowing your body to benefit more from the endorphins that exercise itself releases from the brain. And why does it improve endorphins because it improves blood flow. So rhodiola is an incredible herb that is really beneficial for, you know, increasing blood flow, increase vascularity, and sometimes even use for people who need to improve their moods a bit. So. So that's the the magic of better vital feel.

Zack Arnold 1:27:29

And it is magic, I will attest to that firsthand, and every single member of my test group will say the same thing. Because whenever you suggest a supplement or a meal replacement, or anything else, there's always skepticism. And the idea of Yeah, well, you know, it's just really going to work and what's in it. And the second anybody gets vital fuel, they just think to themselves, well, I don't know if this is really going to do what it's supposed to. And then they take it and they realize that their life is literally transformed. And they will never exercise without it. There was a Facebook posts this morning, of all days where one of the members of my test group had placed his follow up order for more vital fuel. And it said that it was temporarily out of stock. And the message on his Facebook post was just the word no with like 50 O's like no. Like that. I've gotten people hooked on your stuff. But the reason that I love using basically anything that you have from Akasha naturals is I know that I can trust that it doesn't have garbage in it. Because if I'm if I'm going to go to the store, if I'm going to go to Ralph's or even to Whole Foods, there are fillers and preservatives, and there's all kinds of junk in there that isn't doing anything that the label is telling me is supposed to do for me. And I know that you are formulating this stuff firsthand, and there's no crap in it. So I don't need to understand every single ingredient, because I know that it's something that's pure and natural and doesn't have junk.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:28:54

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we are very proud of it of Akasha naturals and it's really proven to be quite beautiful for us to see the benefits that our patients can you know, gain from this. We also believe very even though we are part of our business model is supplements. We also believe the less is more, it's about consistency. If somebody comes into my office with a with a brown bag of filled with 2030 supplements, I see that as being very unhealthy. Because then you think, okay, if I'm taking this some organ system has to metabolize it, break it down, and another organ system has to excrete it. So you're actually overwhelming the system with vitamins that for the most part, when I look at those bottles, they're just really sometimes the same vitamins with different names. So one has 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C, the other one has one milligram, the other one has 500 and I'm thinking why I've not come up. This is seven years ago, eight years ago when we launched it, why not do something where we could stay in business can help, we can help us sustain business and benefit the patient the most by educating them, by educating them that it's consistency that matter, just like exercise. Even if you can only do 15 minutes of exercise a day, doing every day, even if you can only do five minutes do it every day, even if you can only have four right now you'd have the bread that you've been using for whatever reason, you cannot, you don't have the time you don't have the money you don't have whatever that is, it's the idea of consistency. Because consistency leads to habit change. And here's something that I want to tell you that can your listeners, it takes about 21 days for any system to adjust to change, not adjust, but to be able to kind of gather or understand what's happening. So when we put people on the dietary regimen that I put you on the Akasha clans, what I asked you several years ago was doing for 21 days minimally. But do it consistently, lls talk about it. And you came back and you said I feel fantastic. So then what I did then was like, can you do another 21 days, because by then you start to create a habit that is different than the habit that you had before you start to create another language. And again, go back. And when I go back to the idea of habit being a language, you have to be consistent with language. I remember myself when I was learning a couple of other different languages, I didn't know what I was saying I just needed to, to remember that I need to I needed to keep repeating it, repeating it repeatedly until my brain was able to get the connection between the particular object that I was trying to describe, and how to pronounce it in the new language that I was learning. Well, that's the same with any processes in the body. So find something that works for you. If it's if it's vital feel stick with that. People, if you take a week, they may not be able to feel the benefits, because for some reasons, one, you know, you haven't changed the habit completely to maybe you need to do something else. In addition to that, if you looking at it as it's kind of me have make me have all the energy in the world. Now you're changing your habits, your eating habit, it won't, I'd love for you to buy it, but I won't help you. But if you do, as Zack has done, which is like how do I change my lifestyle? And at the same time? How do I support my system, this incredible body system to optimize the my exercise energy? How can I do that? So fighter fuel became this incredible magic for you? For two reasons. One is because you're asking yourself, how can I eat different and ensure you're you're really readily available to make some changes in the form of connecting the food eating well, also with the exercise and realizing that it's a cycle, and they're all connected.

Zack Arnold 1:33:23

The last thing that I would like to get into is the idea that most people think to themselves was all about diet and exercise. It's all about what I eat, and how active I am. And that's the key. And if I can figure those out, I've nailed it. And I'm going to be healthy. And I try to take a much more all encompassing approach. A lot of this, I'm sure just coming from knowing you but also from other research that I've done. And what I'm really trying to stress with the people that I'm doing these challenge groups with is the diet and exercise are really the first two places to start. Because that's those are the things we're most familiar with. But the next big thing is sleep. And it's not just about the quantity of sleep and sleeping longer, but it's about the quality of your sleep. So talk to me just about a few different things that you have to offer that can help with the quality even if you can't increase the quantity because me For example, I'm fairly locked into a sleep schedule, because I have two small kids, so I can't get nine hours a night. But if I can get six hours and those six hours are awesome, I'm good for the whole day. So just walk me through why sleep is so beneficial in the recovery process. And what are some things that you offer that are you know, over the counter is a supplement that can help people get better quality sleep.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:34:35

Okay, so again, as I said before, is that I can you were a testimonial to that it's all about education. It's about looking and seeing what what is it that we're doing? That is not working? So even before the supplement and I have some great recommendations here. Ask yourself the question, Can I do this differently? Yeah, I cannot sleep eight hours a night or seven hours so sometimes even six but What can I do within the six hours that I have to sleep that is different than everything that I'm doing. In our culture, people do electronics, either because they have to, for work, or because it's a pastime for them, right to the moment where they need to go to bed, I just say that all the time with kids, my own kids that we have to consistently educate them to turn off the computer, or the TV, and you need to do everything possible to help your brain Calm down, not to wake it up. So all of you know that when you're looking at a screen, you're actually looking at millions and millions of little, little tiny pieces of a screen that together compose where you're looking at. And so you cannot see that right your by your brain does your eyes see the complete image Look, I'm licking my computer now, as I'm talking to you. And there is a big picture here on my on my desktop. And so my brain says, oh, whatever, beautiful picture, my eyes, but my brain is busy putting together all the little particles that together will compose the picture, which means that it's busy. And that's what happens when you are watching TV right before you go to bed, when you're working on your computer, or when you are on your cell phone. And again, have a lot of compassion for people in your industry sec, because sometimes you cannot do that. Sometimes you have, you know, a deadline The next day, and you're gonna wait, we're gonna work into the very last minute on that on that screen. But if you can turn it off, if you can walk away at least five minutes before that, and do something completely different. So if you're sitting in front of this screen, your brain is using a particular side of your brains hemisphere. When you say okay, I need to go to bed in 10 minutes, I'm going to turn yourself and then you go do something completely different, sometimes even may be going and if you can, you know shooting a basketball hoop, or you know, kicking the ball somewhere, or you can be you know, listening to a piece of music, right there, you know, looking at you just listening using another another one of your senses, or take a shower, right? There, again, you're going to be using another another one of your senses, something that's completely different than than what you're doing is the name of the game in this situation, because you're doing now what's called the sleep habit, you're telling your brain, basically, it's time to transition into something else. And here is the stepping stone to that something else, which is sleep. But before we do that, we're going to do this. So that's the message that you're giving the brain kind of like a child that needs warning before you're going to say, okay, play time is over, you need to give that brain a warning, then you're also stressed out, you're sitting for a long time and not able to move, you're possibly probably typing you know, for hours. So your wrist is is you know, somewhat painful your finger. So you need to think of something that can help you relax. And that's magnesium. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant. at a cost, we have something called muscle pm. And what that is, is basically muscular relaxation at night. And we tell people to take depending on, you know, if you've taken it before, or how tall you are, and your weight, you can take anywhere from from three to four of those fields at night, if you feel like you really need to kind of relax your muscles. And that's been wonderful for even myself when I'm at the hospital very late, and I'll transition and I come home and I want to be able to relax they can magnesium pm has been really one for for some people, you take that about half an hour before you go to bed. Some people still have difficult time, a difficult time turning it off, then we have a supplement called sleep. And then the latter is the sleep easy. And that is

a supplement that has things that can really calm the brain down. He has a little bit of, you know, some flower essence in it. It has things that have traditionally given the body again, a sense of transition from one wavelength which says stay awake to another wavelength that says it's time to switch in waves here and starting preparing the body to go to bed. He also has what's called rhodiola, which I mentioned before, is an herb that is extremely important for blood flow. So your brain will get out of this workflow that he needs to bring They're good, you know, melatonin any day you need to sleep, and also has some calming amino acid that can really help you bring your levels down, make sure that if you are too anxious, you cannot sleep even after you do this, that you hopefully have a discussion with your health care practitioner. Sometimes acupuncture can really help reset your body, sometimes nutrition most of the time looking at what you're eating sugar is toxic. I recommended all of you, Google, you know, sugar is toxic was the best article that I ever read on sugar. And it was on the New York Times, two years ago, I still use their article because it was very scientifically evidenced and easy to read. And it was just making statements. Here's why. And it wasn't judging people wasn't promoting anything wasn't linked to any products. It's just saying you need to have this inflammation sugar is toxic, is the name of the article New York Times about two years ago, sometimes taking melatonin we also have melatonin spray melatonin that you spray under your time, Melatonin is the sleep hormone has also been helpful. So and again, if after all of this, you haven't been able to fall asleep at a few relax, then you do need to see your healthcare practitioner. And blood tests needs to be ordered to locate your thyroid to look at other things that may be contributing to you not being able to fall asleep.

Zack Arnold 1:41:36

Well, I can tell you from my experience, that the things that really worked for me on a regular basis are the magnesium glycinate, the muscle, these pm because I find that the only time I really can get in a good exercise session as at night because I'm up with my kids at six o'clock in the morning and watching them until eight and then making lunches and then getting ready myself and then going to work. So morning might be the more optimal time to work out. It's just not optimal for my schedule. And I find that if I do my exercising in the evening, that having the muscle ease pm and the magnesium, it just totally tones me down. And just brings me to that point of relaxation. And I just pass out and have very restful sleep. And the other thing that I use, which is something that I found recently, through somebody on the web, his name is Dave Asprey. He's called the bulletproof executive. And it's a program that you install on your computer, which is completely free, it's called just get flux. And what it does is based on the time of day, it will change the wavelength frequency of the light from your computer. So during the day, you're getting very bright, very blue wavelengths. And what it does near the end of the day is a search gets very orange and Amber and then a very deep red. And that actually is helped me immensely because I do spend as much time as possible in front of the computer all waking hours. And I try to separate the last 30 minutes where I'll turn everything off and get an actual physical book, I used to be an iPad reader. And I just decided I'm going to go back to old fashioned books, and that's made a difference. But just changing the color and the wavelength frequency of the computer monitor, it actually instead of keeping me awake started to put me to sleep so that combining all those things have really, really massively changed the quality of my sleep. And even though I don't get the number of hours that I want, I'm now waking up rested, and ready to go, even if I get six hours, because the quality of the sleep is so much better.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:43:32

That's fine for that's a good idea, Zack, if you can only exercise at night. And the vital feel works for you then alternatively, so that you can feel like you really come in down is to take the muscle PM, and some of the other sobremesa you recommended, and even the sleepeezee because it then helps you kind of, you know, transition from one wavelength to the other. So that's a good idea.

Zack Arnold 1:44:00

Well, I cannot emphasize enough what an absolute treasure trove of information this podcast has been. And I cannot thank you enough. And I guarantee that when the time comes, and there's more information to be had, I'm going to want to bring you back. So I'm so excited that that we met many years ago and I'm so excited that you can now be regular on the show. So I just wanted to thank you for that.

Dr. Edison de Mello 1:44:21

Well thank you sad for your stress that you put on me. I mean, the admiration is very mutual. I want you to know that because you were ready. You knew that your whatever you're doing, you had the you know, the beginning your family your you needed to do what you needed to do to find the food on the table to get the mortgage going. So you needed to work a lot. But you also knew that you could not be at the expense of your body because you wouldn't last and and so you very quickly were able to recognize that when I brought it up to you and so and you were ready, and you took The beautiful initiative and you became this this incredible advocate for integrative medicine and now, bringing this gift to your colleagues, they're in the editing world. So, yes, it helps when you're ready. But even for those of you out there, it's not ready. For whatever reason, just take a step back and think again about even if you're not ready to do much of one little thing that you can do to make a change. And it will be my pleasure to come back on the show again, and explore other other subjects out there that I think you will really be able to help your your colleagues even more than you have so far by continually showing them that awareness and knowledge is the name of the game when it comes to optimizing your health. So thank you for having me.

Zack Arnold 1:45:56

Before closing up today's show, I would love to ask for just a couple additional minutes of your time and attention to introduce you to one of my new favorite products created by my good friend Kit Perkins, who you may recognize as creator of the Topomat, here's a brief excerpt from a recent interview that I did with Ergodriven co founder and CEO Kit Perkins, talking about his latest product, New Standard Whole Protein

Kit Perkins 1:46:20

I'm into health and fitness generally, but I want it to be simple and straightforward. About a year, year and a half ago, I started adding collagen into my protein shakes. And man, the benefits were like more dramatic than any supplement I've ever seen. So I thought if I can just get this down to coming out of one jar, and it's ingredients that I know I can trust, and you just put it in water. And you don't have to think about it.

Zack Arnold 1:46:40

When people think of protein powders they think, well, I don't want to get big and bulky. And that's not what this is about. To me this is about repair.

Kit Perkins 1:46:46

So big part of what we're talking about here is you are what you eat. Your body is constantly repairing and rebuilding and the only stuff it can use to repair and rebuild is what you've been eating. Unfortunately, as the years have gone by everyday getting out of bed, it's like you know, two or three creeks and pops in the first couple steps and that I thought you just sort of live with now. But yeah, when starting the collagen daily or near daily, it's just gone. So for us job 1A here was make sure it's high quality, and that's grass fed 100% pasture raised cows. And then the second thing if you're actually going to do it every day, it needs to be simple, it needs to taste good.

Zack Arnold 1:47:20

Well my goal is that for anybody that is a creative professional like myself that's stuck in front of a computer. Number one, they're doing it standing on a Topomat. Number two, they've got a glass of New Standard Protein next to them so they can just fuel their body fuel their brain. So you and I, my friend, one edit station at a time are going to change the world

Kit Perkins 1:47:38

and even better for your listeners with code optimize on either a one time purchase for that first, Subscribe and Save order 50% off. So if you do that, Subscribe and Save that's 20% off and 50% off with code optimize it's a fantastic deal.

Zack Arnold 1:47:52

If you're looking for a simple and affordable way to stay energetic, focused and alleviate the chronic aches and pains that come from living at your computer. I recommend New Standard Whole protein because it's sourced from high quality ingredients that I trust and it tastes great. To place your first order visit optimizeyourself.me/newstandard and use the code optimize for 50% off your first order. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Optimize Yourself podcast to access the shownotes for this and all previous episodes as well as to subscribe so you don't miss future interviews just like this one please visit optimizeyourself.me/podcast. And as a quick reminder, if you would like 50 plus pages of my best strategies to optimize your creativity and fit in even just a little bit more life into your work life balance, you can download my ultimate guide to optimizing your creativity 100% free at optimizeyourself.me/ultimateguide. And a special thanks to our sponsors Evercast and Ergodriven for making today's interview possible. To learn more about how to collaborate remotely without missing a frame and to get your real time demo of Evercast in action visit optimizeyourself.me/evercast. And to learn more about Ergodriven and my favorite product for standing workstations the Topomat, visit optimizeyourself.me/topo, that's t o p o and to learn more about Ergodriven and their brand new product that I'm super excited about New Standard Whole Protein, visit optimizeyourself.me/newstandard. Thank you for listening, stay safe, healthy and sane and be well.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai