Unlocking the Brain's Hidden Potential for Mental Wellness: Dr. Joe Kepo'o's Journey

"Restore the Real," hosted by Dr. Randy Michaux, dives into the fascinating world of brain health and mental well-being with special guest Dr. Joe Kepo'o, a multifaceted professional embodying roles as a chiropractor, ninja warrior, husband, and father. In this captivating episode, they explore Dr. Joe's unique journey from an unexpected chiropractic internship to his profound interest in ADHD and mental health, sparked by personal family experiences.

Listeners will be enthralled by the discussion revolving around ADHD's complexities, including its prevalence, diagnosis challenges, and innovative approaches for management and treatment. Dr. Joe's deep dive into the brain's functioning, the influence of environmental toxins, and the connection between physical exercise, nutrition, and mental health provides valuable insights for anyone interested in holistic wellness.

This episode is not just about understanding ADHD; it's a journey through the intricacies of brain health, the impact of lifestyle choices, and the power of compassion in dealing with mental health issues. Whether you're a professional in the health field, someone dealing with ADHD, or just curious about brain health, this podcast offers enlightening perspectives and practical advice.

Tune in to "Restore the Real" for this enlightening conversation, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful episodes that delve into the realms of health and wellness from a unique and holistic perspective.

Connect with Dr Joe Kepo'o:

www.OhanaChiropractic.com

Instagram: Ohanachiro.wellness

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

It's time for real discussions about health. Hi, I'm Dr Randy Michaud of Total Body Wellness Clinic, and each week on Restore the Real, I'll sit down with the guests to discuss how developing or overcoming health challenges has shaped the way that they live their lives, what they've learned, what they've changed and how they're moving forward. Restore the Real is a podcast that is unafraid and unapologetic when it comes to getting honest about the nuances of health and wellness Mind, body and spirit. Hello, welcome to Restore the Real. This is Dr Randy, and I'm here with a really great guest, joe Kippo, and he is a chiropractor, a ninja warrior, a husband, a father just super cool person. And before we get started, I have to tell this story.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Before I started my chiropractic career, I was looking for a chiropractor to work with and picked literally a name out of a phone book. I had injured my back. And picked a name out of a phone book Ken Hansen sounded good, so went in, started to get adjusted and then I'm like this would be a cool place to work, because I wanted to go in and be a chiropractor. And I remember one day, as I'm leaving the office, I turned around and, joe, you were right there.

Speaker 1: 1:40

Dr Hansen was kind of right there as well and I said are you guys like, do you want to do like an internship or are you hiring anybody right now? Because I really want to be a chiropractor. And it was so funny as you two looked at each other you're like no freaking way. And we just had somebody quit and yeah, we're looking for an assistant. And I remember that day Dr Hansen was like, well, do you have a resume? And I'm like yes, I do. Ran home, made a resume, came back that day for an interview, hired and it was just so cool and I think that's how that happened. And then I wouldn't say we work together because we're alternate shifts, but working for the same place, and then connected at a chiropractor fair several years ago and now I see you on Facebook talking about all sorts of great stuff. So welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Well, thank you, I really appreciate it. It was fun too, because we also had a connection right away.

Speaker 1: 2:42

I guess you were in some classes with my wife at BYU, or oh, that's right, we actually taught a church Sunday school class together and, yes, we taught a gospel principles class together and that was a blast. It was so fun. I totally forgot about that. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 3:03

Yeah, so that was kind of funny too. You're already connected with my wife and so we're already have that connection in America. So it was great and I remember just feeling so excited that like, oh my gosh, we found someone that can replace this person and we looked excited and he's ready to go. So that was a fun experience.

Speaker 1: 3:28

It was pretty cool. It's always cool how things come together and how it's not like coincidence, it's just things happen at the right time, so it's super cool. You have been hosting a lot of content on ADHD and that really interested me because one in my family. There are challenges with that, and growing up I had learning disabilities, probably still to do to a certain extent my brother, and so that's really going to be our topic today. I would love for you to share, though, like what is your background and then why are you so passionate about this? Because it's pretty evident in what you post on social media that this is like a real important issue to you, whether it's patients or if it hits home. But tell us a little bit about background and then why this now?

Speaker 2: 4:27

So I'm a care factor and when I started my journey, one of the interesting things about my journey is that it's really mental health.

Speaker 2: 4:37

It really impacts my personal family really quick my oldest child.

Speaker 2: 4:44

When he turned two, three years old, he started having some really big behavior issues and at first off people were just telling us, oh, he's just being a normal two-year-old and just acting out, right. But this was not just acting out. He had some really extreme behaviors that were really concerning it for my wife and I. And then, as I started doing more studying and understanding about the brain and the mind and so forth, it came pretty evident that it wasn't just the child thing that he was dealing with. This was actually something major with his brain that was going on. And from that moment on I really wanted to become an expert in understanding the brain so I could help him out and it just happened to be two at the same time. I figured well, while I'm learning how to help him out, I can also be applying this information to my patients. So I noticed a lot of my patients were also having some of these issues, whether it be with their children or having these issues, or as adults they were having these issues.

Speaker 2: 5:50

And so it was kind of nice.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Can you like share what kind of things, what kind of issues were your patients having or were you seeing? That was more specifically, I'm curious. You don't have to share about your son, but just your patients. What kind of things did you key into?

Speaker 2: 6:09

I can even share exactly what was going on with my son. I mean, a lot of things had to do with my son especially got really fixed on things to the point where if something didn't happen then you would just become so angry and so what's the word? They're not so much hurtful, but it's like he wanted to destroy the world basically, and we couldn't get him out of that into something really drastic would happen. I mean, I would even have to get to the point where we would literally have to like physically constrain him and tie him up and let him just kind of blow off his steam so that you wouldn't hurt himself or hurt people around him, and then you would forget about it and it was like nothing ever happened. I mean, it was just crazy that what type of thing happened.

Speaker 2: 7:06

And then a lot of my patients, a lot of things that they dealt with were things just like not being able to focus properly in school or they're having memory issues and they're only in their 20s and a lot of other things that were coming up was just being able, not being able to properly socialize with people. In certain ways, they just they had a hard time connecting with people or they didn't know how to socialize, they weren't picking up on those social cues of like they're talking too much or they're sharing the wrong things and their stories. No, those things. Those are some of the things. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 7:46

And then so you see those, you see that in your son, and then I mean to me, as I'm listening to that, I think my mind first goes to the spectrum Right, it goes to kind of Pans Pandas. And so, as you went down that road, what did you begin to find?

Speaker 2: 8:08

Or one of the things I started to study more about brain health. The person that kept coming up and all of my research was Dr Daniel Amon. Right, yep, very much. And as I started doing all of my research, he just kept coming up. I'm like, okay, I guess this is probably the guy that has all the information I need to learn about. And so as I started learning more about the brain through his method, I'm sort of realizing that most people, when they look at the brain, they see the brain as one whole thing.

Speaker 2: 8:40

If you have an issue, it's just a brain issue, whereas Dr Amon was learned through all these different brain scans that he's done. A brain issue is not just a brain issue. Now there could actually be one part of your brain that's not functioning properly and if you take care of that one part of your brain, then the whole brain starts to work more effectively. And I really liked that approach because I fit on that every single person that would have done it in my life that they wouldn't all respond to the same type of treatments, and my son was the same way. I would take him to different practitioners and they'd be like, well, this is the problem, you wouldn't respond to care, and that happened over and, over and over again. In fact, it was like a 15 year struggle. We could not find anything that perp-. No, that's so hard as a parent.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Yes, Thank you.

Speaker 1: 9:30

And then, as a doctor, it's like did you ever feel like, dude, I should be able to correct that, I should be able to fix this? I'm like the doc I you ever feel that Cause? I feel that way at times. I'm like I should know how to do this, but I have no freaking idea. And it's hard as the dog, it's hard as the parent, but the parent you can go two places. But when you're the doc, it's like family looks at you like come on right and you get to do. I'm like I don't know.

Speaker 2: 9:59

So, yes, that's especially you know I would. We would learn new things about brain health and I'd be like, okay, I'm going to buy this thing or this process or this supplement so I'll at least, at least I'm taking care of my family and my patients at the same time and I'd get all these great results with my patients. But it wouldn't work for myself.

Speaker 1: 10:22

I'm familiar with that.

Speaker 2: 10:24

It was. It was such a wild ride. He's 18 now. He does so much better. We finally found a really good solution and as long as he stays up with everything, with the supplements and so forth, he does really well.

Speaker 1: 10:41

So it's that's cool, it's great, that's awesome. You mentioned something about the brain, right, that we think, oh, it's my brain, and there are so many infricacies about the brain. Yeah, we do a scan here at the office called the Menlo, which you know. It doesn't give us direct insight into it, but different parts of the brain will light up and it's like, oh, that's the prideolobe, that's the temporal lobe, that's the occipital lobe, and the patient looks at you like, well, it's the brain. I'm like, well, no, there are different components of that. I said like the prideolobe is going to do this and the occipital, and anyway it's like, wow, this is so more complex than what we often want to make it out to be. Because then that complexity kind of is like well, I don't know what to do.

Speaker 1: 11:30

And then if you've ever done, you probably have but QEG, when they're brain mapping or looking at the brain, you get to visually see, oh my gosh, all these connections or disconnections and where different areas of the brain are lit up. And then I have not experienced this personally, but I've seen people go through neurofeedback where they begin to restore these connections and these spots on the brain through the scan Not the actual, there's not actually spots on the brain, but the scan, these spots that are lit up start to change and it's like wow. And then you see the effect of that. But in terms of like, so this journey when you started looking into ADHD specifically because I don't know how many millions of people struggle with that, but I know it's maybe you do what is it with ADHD, that? And going down that road and learning, what have you learned about that and how has that helped in, I guess, with your own family, but with your practice as well.

Speaker 2: 12:43

One of the big reasons why I've really come to focus on ADHD is one it's a really big issue. I don't remember the exact number. It was something like 4.3 million people, or something like that, are affected by ADHD, and that's just diagnosed people, right, that have actually gone to their oh, that's not non-diagnosed right, right. And so I find that more and more often as I work with people and as I have them do different scans in my office and actually look at their symptoms and stuff like that, it's like I would say probably 90% of my patient base all come in have some sort of ADHD ADD issue, and so that's why I focus so much on that, because there's such a big group of people that need help with that and we've got the tools to be able to take care of it. So I'm like, okay, this is what we need to focus on.

Speaker 2: 13:39

And because there's so many other mental health issues, dr Wail, there's bipolar issues, which was that was a really big one that my son deals with. There's anxiety, there's depression, and the list goes on and on and on, and ADHD tends to be inside each of those issues, and so someone may come in with depression, but if they're dealing with ADHD. A lot of times they're not gonna respond to the depression treatments. Or if they've got anxiety, they've got ADHD and that's not addressed. They're not gonna respond to the anxiety treatments. So I found that when we focus more on ADHD and there are causes to that, it actually can start taking care of a lot of the other mental health issues that are out there.

Speaker 1: 14:20

That's really cool. So, as I listened to you and then I went on to, I've looked at Dr Aiman's site and read about these seven different types of ADHD. It seems like that there is similarity between each of them, but they all have like a little different piece to it. But what are for people that maybe don't know what are some of the main challenges with ADHD? And I, like you said something or maybe it was him that said something, no, it was on your post. You said ADHD is not the ability you have, the ability to concentrate. You don't have the ability to, like, decide what you're concentrating on. Yes, it was. What is the exact quote? Yeah, it's not an inability to concentrate, it's an inability to control what you concentrate on is what you said, and I'm like that makes so much sense. Okay, that shed light on a few more things. But going back to, like, what are some of the classic signs of and how would people know that? Hey, this could be a challenge for me, met memory is definitely one.

Speaker 2: 15:36

Well, maybe you, just you a lot of people like to use the, the word object and permanent and permanent, or basically, as long as it's. If it's not in front of you, you don't think about it or you don't remember the things about it. Great, and that can go with either a simple object that we were just in this place, or it could even be with people. Now, a lot of people that that have ADHD. Sometimes people look at them as inconsiderately or they don't think about other people. Now it's like well, you haven't texted me in like three weeks, or you haven't contacted me in three weeks. Why are you contacting me now? And it's the mere fact that it's because their brain, if it's not, if that person's not in front of them, 24 seven, it just puts it in the background, because the brain is trying to use different reserves for other processes and trying to remember something that really isn't in front of them. It's not important, all right. So they throw that in the background of their mind and they don't think about that person. That, even though they love that person. They totally love them. Yeah, it's not that they'd forgotten about that person, they just their brain's trying to focus on other things that's in front of them. So that's a.

Speaker 2: 16:43

That's a common thing with the memory and falsivity. That's another really common one that people have. So they just will blur it out, things without even thinking about. You know why? Why should I not say this thing? Or why should I say this thing? I just blurred out whippers in my mind, right? Or there are also with whatever activities that we'll do, they don't really think about the constrictions to end that forethought type of thing.

Speaker 2: 17:06

Judgment that that's another thing that a lot of people deal with not being able to judge certain situations properly other than what's going on right in front of them. Focus, focus is another big one, especially for kids in school, where they might have a really hard time focusing during a presentation or during class or during homework. Well, especially if it's something that isn't fun for them, they'll have a really hard time focusing Right, right. And even adults yeah, I know I deal with that one, that's a big one for committee have a hard time focusing on stuff in a fight or a half time, for sure, yeah. So those are really, those are common, classic ones.

Speaker 1: 17:50

You know, and all of those as a sometimes you just want to say, well, they're just kids, right, they're not supposed to sit down, but they're not supposed to just be in a chair all day. But I think that if we ignore that which personally, as a parent, it was like, oh you know, they just need to be I have done that like, they just need to be outside, they shouldn't even be in a desk but there does get to a point where it's like, wait, all these things are adding up, like the things that you just shared, the impulsivity, the just blurting out things, totally forgetting. It's like, dude, how did you not see that? And just wasn't, wasn't in my brain, right? And and something that that is really interesting about, that is, and maybe you can speak to this is there is this need to focus on something.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Someone without ADHD. There's stuff with blood going on in the brain that happens, whereas with ADHD, the complete opposite happens. And I think when I, when I read that, I'm like, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Can you like shed some light on that? Like what happens to blood in the brain when an individual with ADHD is trying to focus?

Speaker 2: 19:05

Yeah, so there's a part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that has everything to do with focus and impulsivity, judgment, all those different things we just talked about. And someone who does not deal with ADHD. When they start to concentrate on a particular activity, blood flow actually increases to that part of your brain. Your brain can function, whereas someone that deals with ADHD or even ADD, then, when they start to concentrate and focus on something, blood goes away from that part of which they haven't quite figured out why that? That's a problem. That's a problem, yes. So when the blood goes away from that part of your brain, it makes that art for you to be able to concentrate the focus, and makes it really hard for you to be able to sift out what's important, what's not important. You can become impulsive with your activities, and so that's the challenge with pretty much all types of ADHD, all seven types.

Speaker 1: 20:05

That's one major thing that is common and that's huge and to put that in perspective, my mind goes to exercise. This morning I was on a trainer riding and the thought was man in my blood supply left my legs and I still wanted to do this cycling. I wouldn't be able to. There would be no energy, there'd be nothing to trend to circulate nutrients, glucose, all the things that my muscles need to do that, and it's like there wouldn't be activity. And now you, that's happening in the brain. That's just like mind blowing and you think of all the different things and maybe we can get into this.

Speaker 1: 20:50

If that's happening just naturally, then my mind goes to all of the toxins in our environment, food stuff that will perpetuate, that will just do that in anybody where it'll impact blood flow or it'll increase inflammation or it'll increase or decrease, like the, the lymphatic system, the lymphatic system in the brain, the ability to process. So I guess, before we dive down there, what things have you seen to be effective to help increase blood flow to the brain? We'll set aside toxin and that kind of stuff and pathogens. But just if all things were good, we lived in a good, clean environment, what would you do to help stimulate that? Are there things that you can do?

Speaker 2: 21:43

Yes, excuse me. Yeah, one. The biggest one is exercise. Now that it's just merely exercising, you're going to increase blood flow to all parts of the body. It just happens, Whether you do with ADHD or you got I like to call neuro typical brain, then you're going to increase blood flow to that part of your brain and your exercise. Another one that is really important for me it's something that I practice every single morning is breath work. Now, having a good breath work process, I really love Wim Hof. I'm not very familiar with him.

Speaker 1: 22:16

Very, yeah, I'm doing a course through him right now.

Speaker 2: 22:18

Oh, you are oh great, I love him yeah, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of toxin out there. I'll go ahead.

Speaker 1: 22:25

So is there specific breath work that you would do, Like what? Because he from so far in my experience, there's a lot of different things you can do with breath work Box breathing, forceps for calming alternate nostril breathing, what would you say you found to be some of the most effective things for that, for getting oxygen to the brain or just getting more oxygen through the body in terms of breath specifically?

Speaker 2: 22:52

Seriously just taking 20 deep breaths a day. Sometimes when you're working with someone, you gotta give them the simplest thing, right. If you give them too many things to think about, or you gotta breathe in four times and breathe out seven times, and sometimes that you know if you make it too complicated they're not going to do it, and so I usually just start with making sure you're just taking in at least 20 to 30 deep breaths all the way down into your belly and then just breathing out normally. Breathing deep down into the belly, breathing out normally that alone, right there, actually starts to stimulate a lot of oxygen within the body and the brain. And then over time, as somebody gets better at just remembering to breathe better, then they'll become a lot more motivated to start doing a little different touch techniques, whether that be a WEM off technique or the box breathing or the all the different types of techniques that are available out there.

Speaker 1: 23:51

That makes sense because, as you said, you're making it too complicated and you're out. Yeah, so 20 breaths, deep breaths, belly breaths. If you are not familiar with that, essentially put your hand on your stomach, hand on your chest, and when you breathe in, you want to see that stomach start to bulge out, right, because the diaphragm is pushing down on the organs, right, and you're getting the lower chambers in the lungs to expand. So I love that. That's simple 20 breaths.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:20

And then and then I like that you can expand from that, once that is kind of ingrained, to where it's like, okay, I got this, it's in the forefront of my mind, I remember it. Yeah, good. Is it similar with exercise? Are you other specific types of exercise that you like people to do, or is it just any exercise?

Speaker 2: 24:41

Any exercise is great and I know that typically 10 to 15 minutes exercises is kind of the mark that you're going to suffer yourself. But again, when you're dealing with ADHD, sometimes you need to make it super simple. And so one exercise that I really love and it only takes like maybe three more seconds to do it but it really ramps up blood's brain and also helps increase nitric oxide in the blood. Nitric oxide is a really important molecule to have in such a body If you really want to help ramp up your. You know, those good hormones help, maybe help happy, you know, like dopamine, serotonin right, you're helping to transport all that stuff more effectively with that.

Speaker 2: 25:24

Yeah, so the one exercise I really love is called the nitric oxide dump, john of like on the, the doctor's name who brought this up, but it's a super exercise. I think you just go to nitric oxide dump home and they have all the information about that particular exercise and literally within three to four minutes you've done probably about a 30 minute workout with an ambulance to what you need for oxygen for your brain, blood to your brain. So it's a. I do that one every day too. That one's one of my exercises I do before I warm up for an inch warrior competition or what is it like?

Speaker 1: 26:03

Like, what are some components of that?

Speaker 2: 26:06

There's. There's four different moves that you do with it. The first one is you're doing some squats with some arm lifts and you do between 10 to 15 of those and that x move. You do just arm lifts again and then move three. You're actually doing what they call it's. It's like a jumping jack motion, but you don't do the jumps, it's 10. It's a really nice exercise for people who have might might have, like me, issues or they've got weakness in their lower body. And then the last moves you're just pumping your arms up and down above your head. I actually have a lot of people when they watch me do this. They come over to me and they're like what is this ridiculous thing that you're doing? It looks so stupid. But then once they figure it out and they do it themselves, they're like man, my brain feels clear, my muscles feel strong. And then, before you know it, I got a whole room of people doing the same silly movement.

Speaker 1: 26:58

That's so cool. I'm gonna have to try that. I think I've heard of that, but I've never like explored it. So, yeah, and we'll link to that. So, nitric oxide dump, calm, yeah, and. And four simple exercises that you don't have to have equipment to do, which is really nice, yeah, yeah. Are there any? Are there any foods that you have people Like avoid? Avoid this associated with or or add this like what are? And I know they're different, you know again, they're different types, but in general, are there things that you would have people like, hey, you need more of this and you want to avoid this?

Speaker 2: 27:33

But never one thing is glucose. Getting some good glucose in your body is really important. A lot of people Talk about the brain running off of fat, which I'm a little I'm kind of the opposite on that. There's a lot of science out there that says the brain works off the fat. I've learned that there's a lot of science that are there that talks about the brain works off with glucose, and so I encourage all of my patients to Really make sure they get in a good glucose supply and a good mineral supply into the brain, and so the one of the first things I actually suggest people start doing is what we like to call the hybrid nutrition smoothie, and there's a doctor and doctor for a golden there.

Speaker 2: 28:13

She's actually the person who Created or put together this particular smoothie, and it's really easy. It's basically when you've got a ton of greens that you smashed down into your blender, you add chia seeds and then you add some fruit and Then that's your your smoothie. You and you can make enough to where you. Either you had it for breakfast and lunch, or maybe you just never for breakfast. I I'm at the point where I only have breakfast but it. I found that this really gives all of my patients all the different mineral salts and the different glucose If they need for their brain, then it also gives them really good levels of omega 3. So omega 3s are really important to have for brain health. And I'm not a huge fan of fish oils because Most fish oils people can't get your good source.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Right there rancid in many cases.

Speaker 2: 29:08

Yes, I found that too. So I find that, if you you can, flax seed or chia seeds, those are really good, clean sources for getting your omega 3s and then you ever have any.

Speaker 1: 29:20

You ever have any challenges with people being able to digest? That Just had a challenge to break that down, because I've heard that, like with Chia and even the flax, that the shell on the outside can be really hard for the gut to break down. Do you ever do you do anything specific for those to help, like promote digestion or yeah?

Speaker 2: 29:41

if I have a patient having a hard time with that and I have been typically if you just soak them before you use them, that's.

Speaker 1: 29:48

That's perfect, yeah and then you know, I'm really curious because the people that that I work with and and I feel there's so much exposure to Toxicity in our in our culture, from organophosphates, things like glyphosate, atrazine, especially in the Midwest, out here it's more. You know different agricultural chemicals, but then you have, you know, radioactive elements, stuff from the water, all these herbicides, pesticides, not to mention just what they put in food. What do you think? How do you think that impacts this? I mean, it's obviously negative these chemicals, but have you seen people like clear, clear stuff from their body, clear toxicity, and start to see Improvement in their, their mental capacity, specifically with ADHD or other mental challenges?

Speaker 2: 30:41

Yeah, that's actually, one of the big things that we focus on is when we start working with somebody I'm working at Not just what do they need nutritionally, but what do they need to help detox their body, because pretty much everyone's dealt with ADHD has some level of toxicity that's contributing to issues, right, because Some people think of ADHD like it's being caused by Something. There was a lot of times ADHD can just be something that we're just. It's genetically, one of those things that we're born with and our brain just function that particular way, and so when you've got more toxins in your system because your brain is a little bit more sensitive, it's not going to function as well in the same way as, like someone who doesn't have ADHD. They might ask some boxes z in their body and they're not affected, right, yeah, and so these people with ADHD, we help them understand. Okay, we're gonna help you with your brain, help with your mental health, and it's really important that you, we get rid of these toxins from your body. And so it's in a like.

Speaker 2: 31:47

The biggest toxins I have found that affect people the most with their brain are heavy metals, and obviously that a lot, especially out here in in my area, heavy metals are huge. So you've got heavy metals, radiations the big one like you just talked about, and then the next one that I find a lot has to With, like environmental blossoms. You know, like that's a lot. It's okay, like what you're starting about.

Speaker 1: 32:12

Do you find? Do you find, do you find the mold plays a role? Do you see a lot of that in your and your practice?

Speaker 2: 32:18

Yeah, mold is huge I.

Speaker 1: 32:20

Find that a lot like people that I test.

Speaker 1: 32:22

I find mold, radioactive elements, you know the metals.

Speaker 1: 32:26

We do a lot with parasites as well, and yeah, and and so it's really interesting how these and I like what you said, that ADHD it may not be caused by Something right, it may just be that is your genetic makeup.

Speaker 1: 32:42

But then you add on all this stuff right and right, and now and now it compounds it and I think I look at specific molds that actively affect the brain's ability to drain, and Then if we're not draining then and you have reduced blood supply, then to me it seems like and maybe this is wrong, but this is just me theorizing that there's more of a concentration Of that toxin in the brain, which someone that is getting Better blood flow there's gonna be less concentration. I could be way off on that, but that's just my, my thought, as we're, as we're talking here. And then these other chemicals that open up the blood-brain barrier and often don't Let in the good stuff but it's the bad, and now again, you have a higher concentration Of those. How have you seen those toxins impact your patients, people you know? Like what? Have you seen it make worse other, I guess other behaviors that will be more prevalent, or is that like the entire gamut of just everything is?

Speaker 2: 33:53

the biggest one that I have seen is has to do with the heavy metals and focus, concentration, memory.

Speaker 2: 33:59

Those are the big ones because if Heading metals settle inside the brain it actually disrupts the transfer of the different messages.

Speaker 2: 34:08

Now your brain is runs off the electricity right, right, and so if you put a heavy metal and though in the pathway of this electrical frequency that's going through some neurons to select the brain, it can totally interrupt that Process. So when you're trying to focus on something and you've got these signals running through your brain and there's heavy metals in there, it blurs up that signal. So by the time that signal gets to where you're trying to focus, their concentrator, think about something you forget something. Now, like the random Attations that are always like man, I just like randomly forget in the middle of the sentence what a word means or what a word is that I'm trying to say. And so that's a heavy metal, I feel any metal, carbon, some disruption of that, that process. So that's that's probably the biggest one that I'd find with my patients that the heavy metals that have settled in their brain Are contributing to that inability to focus and concentrate or even be able to put together sets.

Speaker 1: 35:07

Have you found correlations with the gut in the, in this in the brain, like things going on in the gut impacting the ability to process in the brain?

Speaker 2: 35:17

Oh yeah, For sure, I would say the number one thing I see with the gut brain connection has to do with the liver. Yes, oh my gosh, the yeah, yeah, and most people when they think of their gut, they don't think about their liver, right?

Speaker 1: 35:31

Right, they think about their, their colon or the mic, yeah, but very few you think about the actual liver it is, and it's incredible what it does.

Speaker 2: 35:40

Yes, yeah, it's a. It's a big filter and and when your liver gets clogged up with a ton of different toxins, the the two organs that get hurt right after that are your heart and your brain, because now the liver can't stop all those toxins from going to your heart and brain, and so a lot of us we don't know about hard. There's a lot of hard stuff going on these days, which that's right, but when it comes to the brain, when your liver is totally clogged up, then all of those, all those toxins are gonna go straight to the brain. And, mike, you're trying to look, the blood brain barrier, that blood brain barrier, was never made to be able to block out all the different toxins that we add these days, you know, and so you got all these toxins going right into the brain, coloring these health issues, these mental health issues.

Speaker 1: 36:26

You know what I find so interesting with the, the, the liver, and so you have your, your, your drainage pathways, which are ability to eliminate and the liver. That's filtering, and not just filtering, but you know it's it's kind of the end stage for making hormone and sending out nutrients to the body, and and and processing what comes back, determining what can I use, what can I use. It's really like it is. I think, of a processing center, I think of like an Amazon packaging center, like where all this stuff comes in, and now you have to determine, okay, where's it going, what address, what place, and if it's not on the right truck, then hey, there could be a problem. And our liver is doing that 24 seven, processing everything that's coming in, determining if it can be used, if it can't, where it needs to go.

Speaker 1: 37:17

And what's so fascinating, though, is our lymphatic system is a part of this. But you mentioned the heart as our lymphatic system accumulating all this fluid, bringing it back in the heart. There's no filter for that lymphatic fluid coming back into the heart. It hits the heart first before it goes to the liver. And so you know the heart not just being a, do I call it a pump, anyway, for for just the normal person, the heart being a pump and then the valve, is the interest, the interest, the intricacy about that. And then are you familiar with all like the nerve fibers not nerve fibers, but like neurons that they're finding in the heart, how it's so much associated with the brain? It's like one a, one a the gut.

Speaker 1: 38:08

I mean, they're all have these interactions, but it's so interesting that I guess the point maybe I'm trying to make is these toxins are not filtered before they hit the heart and the challenges that we see with mental health, are they related to just the brain, or the heart or the gut, and is it all three that are combining to really ramp this, this problem up? And so now we see it more and more with kids, and you know kids are being born in families that may have challenges. But what's in the mom, right and what? What is that impacting? How is that impacting the fetus? And so there's so many intricacies about this. But I think some of the things that you've shared breathing, 20 breaths, exercise, simple stuff, food we definitely want to get the right food and then clearing out toxicity I mean that is, that is key. But did you have anything else you wanted to say on the liver in relation to that process with the heart and the brain?

Speaker 2: 39:14

Yeah, In fact, you just brought up the nutrition thing. I wanted to bring up that nutrition wise too, and when it comes to the liver or the brain and the heart is there's a lot of dirty, dirty facts. I guess you can call them dirty fats that people are. They're eating like crazy and it's clogging up the liver, it's clogging up the blood and it's making your heart after work harder and it's also causing strange brain. And so one thing I advise a lot of my patients that they've got to check out how much fat are they getting into their diet? And and it's amazing, you may even ask your question yourself, that question like well, what kind of fat do I get in my diet? And most people don't think about it. They're like well, I, I don't know, I guess they eat some bacon every once in a while and I have some chicken and that's it.

Speaker 2: 40:06

You know they they might relate fats to this, like animal food. Right, right, put it to your. Animal foods have a lot of fats inside of them. But you also need to be looking at the different fats, like avocados.

Speaker 2: 40:20

Avocados are amazing brain, but if you eat too much of them, that fat that's inside the avocado can actually clog up the liver and clog up the heart and it can cause some communication and brain. So I even advise my patients you can have avocados, but don't have three or four of them a day, right? Yeah, so that's a. That's a big thing you want to focus on is decreasing those fats and and one way of doing that is decreasing your rental intakes that would be dairy eggs, meat, but also decreasing the amount of fats that you're getting, even plant based fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, for for most people. When I talk to them about decreasing fats, like I asked them to start decreasing their fats to around 30 grams of fat a day, which is actually really hard Cause most people are getting around 200 grams of fat a day, right, you know, I wonder, I don't even know if people realize the amount of fats in all the foods they eat.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Like if I, I was listening to a podcast with with somebody else this morning and it was on glucose, fructose and and and what that does, and you know they were talking about Oreos and you know if you ate three Oreos or if you had, you know, a bagel, and I don't think what many don't recognize is on the label, which I wish I had a label here. But you'll see, you'll see saturated fat and then you'll see other fat, right, and, and that other fat is usually polyunsaturated fat, which now we'll get a little technical. So saturated fats, right, they don't have a bond, or they have a, they have a very strong bond, so they're usually not going to be broken down, just, I think, positive. Then you have these polyunsaturated fats, primarily Omega six, which come from seeds and nuts, but in this case, in packaged foods, a lot of those are already rancid and and those Omega six is like, I think, of seed oils. You've got corn oil, you've got canola oil, you've got the the, the other ones they. There's sunflower, yeah, sunflower, soft flour, thank you. And so I think, I think it's really important for people to know that.

Speaker 1: 42:41

The saturated fat for me I don't I personally don't worry so much about the saturated fat. It's the amount of the polyunsaturated fat and the seed oils, because they're rancid, that I'm like. Do we even realize how much of that we're consuming through whatever packaged food, through restaurant food? It's like oh well, I just have, I just have salad. Well, how about the dressings? And I'm not saying like don't ever go to a restaurant again, but all those dressings are loaded with polyunsaturated, unhealthy fats and and I think that is a primary a huge cause of inflammation in the body which then, going back to the liver, bogs down the liver. Something has to process that and it's primarily the liver, that is, that's at work there.

Speaker 2: 43:33

Yeah Right, would you agree with that? Oh, yeah, yeah. And then, when the liver is bogged down again, it can't process nutrients, toxins, hormones, like it needs to. And so when those things, those packages, aren't getting sent to the right address, or the package doesn't have what it needs inside of it, right For the brain, the brain's lacking, the art is lacking. So therefore you then have all these issues with the mental health issues or the ADHD issues.

Speaker 1: 44:02

And then. So then, if we circle back to just ADHD, right, the things that you talked about you know the focus, impulsivity, recall, just forgetting things if it's not in the forefront of our mind, right, it's really easy sometimes to get frustrated at kids, adults, for, like dude, why didn't you do that? I mean, I'm thinking of myself, with my own kids, right, I am, I am guilty of this, as as anybody else is. Like, how could you not see that? And yet these are real issues that we need to be cognizant of and then even have grace in ourselves when you know we're not stupid, we're not dumb. There may not be a desire to be inattentive, it's just are there other things going on in our brain and body that can trigger this? And maybe let's?

Speaker 1: 44:55

If we move to this really quick, how do you help people manage their expectations of the challenges they have? It's so easy. We're in such a polarized environment now where it's easy to just lay blame and to guilt and shame, and it's really easy for people to do that to themselves. In working with people, how do you help them find like grace and compassion for themselves or their kids or their spouse family members that are going through this, rather than be like dude. You did it again Like you forgot again. You forgot your homework, you forgot this Like. What do you see with that? How do you help with that? How do you address that?

Speaker 2: 45:42

The number one thing is writing things down that you recognize, like the good things that are happening. Yeah, cause I. Maybe you've experienced this with your patients, but a lot of times the patient will come in and you're like so how are things going? How are you moving? Things going well, and they'll be like, no, I'm not at any better. Then you go and talk to their spouse and those spouses like, what have you been doing? They're more calm, they're more patient. It's like they don't recognize in themselves that they're a ruby, right, right. So one of the things I tell my patients is that if they're not writing it down, all of their wins or all of the improvements they're seeing every day, their brain just doesn't recognize it. Whether that's an ADHD training or whether that's just a normal human thing, I don't know quite yet but so as as people write down those improvements and their daily wins, their brain then starts to open up to recognize wait a minute, I am getting better, I, I'm not stupid, wait, I, I can do the, you know, and they need to do that, whether that be for themselves or whether that be for their child that we're working with for 15 years.

Speaker 2: 46:53

I was a big struggle from our wife and I know we. All we ever saw on our son was how horrible a person is and that I that sounds horrible to be thinking. I think my son's a horrible person, right, but there were times when we were scared that you would feel like born down the house or you were going to come come stab us in the middle of the night. I mean, it was scary time at times. And so when we found that when we would sit down and try to focus on the improvements that he was making and on the good things that he was actually doing, then we found that we weren't so focused on the negative, which actually empowered us to be able to help them better. But then it also gave us opportunities to build with the praise and when he started getting more praise he started to see in himself that you know he, he is a good kid, he does, he is making improvements and and that was a that was a slow process for us, but that's a really important process to use.

Speaker 1: 47:53

I think I love that you, that you shared that, because it's it is so easy to focus on the negative right, because it's so, it's so present and and I think our, our minds sometimes are geared to focus on or to find what's not right, where we do have to actually really be cognizant and aware and look for the good. And and I do love that, because when we start looking for the good, start seeing what is, what is the beauty around us, it's like all of a sudden you know you're seeing, oh my gosh, there's so many. Like, if you're focusing on the color red and your whole life you've just focused on gray and now you're thinking red, red. All of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, where did all this red come from? It's always been there, but are we, are we focusing on that?

Speaker 1: 48:45

And I had a conversation, I think last week with with a patient and we were talking about this very topic and and I said, you know, I really feel like if you try to see the good in what's happening, that that's going to make a positive impact in the family, because it is so easy to focus on what's not happening, but if all the individual is hearing is you're not, you're not, you're not, you're not, you know, you're not. This not like great, okay, yeah, I'm not, so why even trying? I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. But I think that reinforces that behavior as well, as opposed to and not just giving praise, to give praise, but to really sincerely see the good and and I think, writing it down. That's a practice that I've done, where I write down what I'm grateful for, why I'm grateful for it, and I think it's amazing what you see during the day, like, wow, there's so much to be grateful for. This is amazing.

Speaker 1: 49:46

Whereas if I don't do that, very quickly you start to focus on well, this is, this is terrible, and that didn't go the way. Of course, it was going to happen that way and it's like no, that's all perspective. So how do you help people writing it down? So that's key. How do you? How do you help people have grace for themselves? And I mean, you can't like thrust that upon them, but is there anything additional to writing it down and letting yourself, like, recognize that, yeah, there are good things? Are there any? Is there anything else that you have your patients do or family members do to see the good?

Speaker 2: 50:30

And you know this is more. This is more clinical, I guess, because this is a typical process people have to do in the office, but I love this particular process. There's a thing called EVOX. You ever heard of it?

Speaker 1: 50:46

I heard of it, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

Speaker 2: 50:49

It is one of my most favorite things to do.

Speaker 2: 50:52

When people are in a place where their brain is just stuck on you know they've got this health issue or they've got this emotional issue, whatever it is then there's something needs to happen to change that perception right, and sometimes they just literally can't recognize the good and what's going on in their situation or, if you're in themselves, whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 51:14

And so this process called EVOX it literally helps us to determine where their brain is stuck. You know what type of perception it's stuck in. Is that a perception of anger or sadness or depression, whatever it might be? And then we have them go through a process that actually allows them to start releasing these perceptions. So then now they're in a place where they can actually start recognizing the good things that are happening to them, or recognizing the things that they can be more grateful for, and that's a process I think people should look into whether that's a process with the practitioner that might be near them that does EVOX. Or I know I've had some patients that they loved it so much they went out and bought the process themselves. There's some hardware and software that you have to buy. It's made by a company called ZYTO and they're a great company, but that trying to go through some sort of process to help shift your perception is really important have a tool like that, and EVOX is one that I've worked with.

Speaker 1: 52:18

That's cool and I like that you brought that up is, sometimes no matter how much people try, maybe they just can't see the good, and so that there are tools that can help change, that can help allow them to see what they're not seeing.

Speaker 2: 52:34

So, exactly Like emotional freedom technique, that's another one I don't know if you ever used that. That's a really great one. There's another one that I love using with my patients that maybe they don't want to do the EVOX. They want something they can do at home. There's a technique that we use called the neuro tap protocol, and it's a modified tapping process. You know, with EFT you've got some meridian points that you have to tap on, like your face and your body. I always was annoyed by having to tap all these different points, and so the neuro tap protocol only taps. You only tap two different points on your body to be able to make this perception shift, and so that's a really easy process to go through too.

Speaker 1: 53:15

That's cool and so that's similar to the EVOX helps kind of bring people back to where they can see Right, Whether or not they can see the good, they can have different perspectives, different, this different way of seeing things or seeing themselves for good. Yeah, that's really cool. It's nice to have tools that you know. It's great to be able to go somewhere to do something, but it's also really nice to have something that I can do at home yeah.

Speaker 1: 53:41

I don't need equipment or devices, so where would people go to find that the neuro tap.

Speaker 2: 53:48

Yeah, I actually have a link that I can send you. I don't know if you'd do notes or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 53:55

Yeah, we do, we have. We have the show notes and we can put links in there so that people can find that. That'd be great if you send that to me.

Speaker 2: 54:03

Yeah, I'll send you a link and it just it takes you to a document you can download and it's pretty self-explanatory, Cool.

Speaker 1: 54:11

Well, this has really been great. Like this has been fun to talk about this. I think this is a topic that is way more prevalent than what I often think of it, as I know it is, but I don't often go to this realm with the people I work with, and so having this discussion today and following what you've shared has really been eye-opening to me to be like wow, I need to look at some other things that could be helpful for people. Anything, in closing, that you wanna share?

Speaker 2: 54:47

And yet, you know, I think the biggest thing is that self-compassion. One of the coolest things I ever heard from Dr Amen during one of his TED Talks was that at that point when he had done this TED Talk, he had done 82,000 grain scaring up to that point, I should. When you start getting up at those levels, I mean you can pretty much say what you found is legit, right? Yeah, 82,000. Yeah, I think they're up to 200,000 now at this point.

Speaker 2: 55:22

But the thing that he said in his TED Talk that has always stuck with him is that the number one thing that he has learned from doing all of these brain scans is not so much how the brain functions, but it's allowed him to have more compassion in the field of people, because he realized that after looking at all these scans and all these people's brains and how so many people have so many issues with their brains, and he realized most people are doing things that actually it's not their fault that they're doing these things.

Speaker 2: 55:55

It's because of the way that their brain functions, because of the toxins that are inside of their system, and so it's been able to give him an opportunity to just feel more compassionate. It's like these people are acting this way and it's not their fault, and I can still love them, I can still have compassion for them, and I think that's why he said just successful doctors, because every time he has a new patient that he works with, there's a really huge level of that, and so I think that also, if you're dealing with mental health issues or ADHD, they just need to realize a lot of times, even though this doesn't take you away from the consequences of your choices with the ABER, you need to realize that it's not really like it's not your fault. It's not because you're bigger ADHD. Right, that's not you, you are, and so you can have compassion for yourself, you can have compassion for your behaviors, and there's a lot of people out there, there's a lot of information out there that can help you heal and help you be in a better place.

Speaker 1: 57:01

I love that you ended with that. I think that's so well said and so important for people to remember, to have that compassion and just to find grace for ourselves, to find that for other people. I think that's critical. We need more of that, and I think the more of that that we have for others, the more we just increase this, the energy, the frequencies that we need to heal people and our families, our communities, and so that's very well said. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. How can people find you? Where can they go to find you?

Speaker 2: 57:37

So my website's on hannakarpractorcom and we have a ton of information on there there. I think there's even some links there that go to, like the hyper nutritious movie recipe. We're gonna give you a link to be able to get that neuro attack protocol, and then there's all. There's information on there, too that we'll be able to. You can email us and call us if you have questions. We do do free evaluation, like free consultations. So if you had some questions about mental health issues or ADHD issues and you want to talk to us directly, we do free consults. That way you can talk to us and cause we've got two other doctors in our office, Dr Whitaker and Dr Massimini. They're great doctors, we're great brain doctors and you'd be able to connect them to you to be able to get some answers to your questions.

Speaker 1: 58:30

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that, Joe. Thanks for thanks for coming on. Appreciate your heart, what you're doing or the things that you've shared, and just the conversation. It's been great to connect and talk with you, so appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 58:44

Thank you so much Awesome.

Speaker 1: 58:46

Well, blessings to you all and until next time. See you then. Thanks for joining me on this episode of Restore the Real Podcast. This show is supported and informed by not only my own deep personal work, but also the deep healing work that we offer our patients here at Total Body Wellness Clinic. In the show notes below, you'll find all the links that you'll need to hop on a discovery call with our team for some one-to-one support, follow along on social media or even learn about some of our favorite recommendations and products. Until next time, keep it real.