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360. Complex Chronic Illness: A Unique Puzzle With Dr Ben Reebs
Ep. 360
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Dr Ben Reebs, founder of the Portland Clinic of Natural health joins me on the show today and it is a brilliant look at Complex Chronic Illness and the biggest things that he’s found to be helpful as a doctor. The questions I ask him are:
How did you arrive at 7 laws of healing - not just for your book but in the way you practice medicine?
Those laws are Vitality, Disease, Cure, Compensation, Resonance, Synergy, Intention and I’m looking forward to diving into some of them…
You start your book with a quote about commitment from William H Murray and my mind went to a bit of an aha “Today, in our modern world we have to commit consciously and proactively to our health, instead of it being culturally and naturally a way of life - we have to choose it because our instinct and surrounds to help us ‘be it’ are mostly gone… is this why health might feel ‘hard’ to people in modern life? It can be a lot of energy to constantly swim against the tide, right?
At the very start of discussing vitality you say “No one can heal you. There is only self-healing in the laws of nature”. I love this because for the main people are so disempowered in their health journeys and often forget it’s an inside job and you need to find the right supporting partners to help facilitate that healing - so often I hear “I’ve tried everything” and they’re in a really bad way, eating 4 foods, reacting to everything, inflamed, in pain all over: when someone is in that “I’ve tried everything” boat - what are some gentle words of wisdom to share as they look within and look to find a better way forward?
You talk about a move from acute infection-style illnesses, to chronic illnesses such as autoimmune, as vitality wanes - what is the mechanism of this change in the immune system?
Talking about signs and symptoms that are trying to promote balance/get our attention - how can we listen to them more effectively and act accordingly rather than medicate them to make them go away - almost feels like medicating is a part of the reason we’re forgetting to speak the language of vitality/homeostasis ( outside of an SOS context for physical mental health challenges that require that short term ‘get out of crisis’ to work on the long game of course) Thinking back to all those tylenols to fix the headache, instead of ‘hmm maybe it’s the fragrance cloud I’m working in at the department store every day, not a Tylenol deficiency, right? Can you give us some more examples of seemingly innocent quick fixes we use, leading us down the path of potential chronic disease because we’re not listening enough?
At the end of the Vitality chapter you invite us to simply list 5 things that bring us vitality - and prescribe MORE of them, and 5 things that make us feel LESS vital and do less of them. I love this. It’s like a little ‘stock take’ - how often do you do this in your own life and check in?
Then we look at the Law of disease and we’re reminded that when we go against nature’s order it produces toxicity, deficiency and disease.
Do you see the many modern environmental and lifestyle changes of the past half century as the culprits of this draining of vitality and creation of chronic disease?
Something doctors - naturopathic and integrative/functional have answered the call to is supporting people with these… Lyme comes up a lot; Mold too. With your deep understanding of these infections, can you shed light on how our modern lifestyles and environments might be exacerbating the risks of these conditions? It’s never just ‘the tick bite’ or ‘the mold exposure’ is it?
And can we go a bit granular on some of the things that set the stage for chronic illness and talk about ‘leakiness’? Gut, brain, cells… basics/deep dive, would love to spend some time here…
Enjoy the show
Alexx
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58:02||Ep. 401As with all things, I believe in finding people who can help us navigate the nuanced way forward - is there a way our kids can healthily grow up in public? Devorah Heitner PhD has been asking this with curiosity both as a parent and a researcher and in today’s show, we unpack exactly that question. Her book “Growing up in Public” is a must read so that we understand our kid’s social dynamics today better, and so that we know where boundary and protection are required, as well as curiosity and patience. Kids are growing up more in public than ever. While we discuss meaningful ways that we can ensure they get to live childhoods more connected to each other than they are to their screens, I genuinely feel it’s important to have a conversation about the world that exists and how best to navigate it, than to simply wish it weren’t like it was and ban everything. The tech algorithms favour fear and outrage and so nuanced explorations on this topic are hard to find. Please help me amplify it. Dr. Heitner’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN Opinion. She has a Ph.D. in Media/Technology & Society from Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul and Northwestern. She is delighted to be raising her own teenager and she lives with her family in Chicagoland. Letting kids use phone during the school day? Bad idea. Using screens as babysitting to save on childcare costs? No judgement. It’s complicated with multiple things at play as to how many families got there. Kids needing more places to hang and connect than home or shopping centre mall? HECK yes. I hope you find the show useful. Alexx xThank you to this month’s show sponsors for helping you make your low tox swaps easier: @ausclimate gives you 10% off their range for the whole of 2024, with brilliant Winix Air Purifiers, the best Dehumidifiers I’ve ever used and their new energy-efficient heating range. code LOWTOXLIFE https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate@blockbluelight_official gives you 20% off site-wide, including their brilliant red light panels, to help you achieve the perfect light balance in your home and for quality sleep, rest and repair. Code: LOWTOXLIFE https://bit.ly/4cRGf6d@cleannectarine gives you a huge 20% off site-wide to help you make your low tox personal care and beauty swaps achievable! Wow. So generous. CODE: LOWTOXLIFE (excluding water filters) https://bit.ly/4g1Ixm9Be sure to join me on Instagram @lowtoxlife and tag me with your shares and AHAs of this week’s episode.400. 400. It’s the 400 Show Birthday. On the menu? Breaking up with our programming, deep love for self, connection with the natural world and a call to establish what your ‘enough’ looks like with Bruce Lipton, Charles Eisenstein, Sage Magdalene & Jade Miles
01:15:37||Ep. 400Show 400 - How did we get here!? Well, it took a few people to get this show to where it is today and I’ll list them below because if you’re reading this, you’re one of them. In the show today, I’ve chosen 4 excerpts from past shows that weave together in funny ways, once I listened to them all in a row… 10 or so minutes from each of these deep-from-the-archive shows that are every bit as necessary and useful today, as they were when I first published them.1. Bruce Lipton - on breaking the programs we downloaded very young, and changing your energy to change your life. 2. Charles Eisenstein - on self love quests being perhaps the wrong tactic, yet self love being the key to being free of judgement of the ‘others’ and carving a path to de-polarising our world. 3. Sage Magdalene - on the invitation nature gives us to have more reverence for the big things happening everyday around us that we don’t notice, and yet if we did? 4. Jade Miles - on Future Steading and how we can apply the principle of living aligned with a world that has a future, from wherever we are and whatever we can do to restore balance in our lives. I hope you enjoy these excerpts and I encourage you if you remember listening to it ‘back then’ to listen again.You, the listeners - no point making a podcast if no one shows up to listen!Our incredible guests across food, body, home, mind, family and environmental topics. Stevie my producer who’s been with me since the beginning.Norie and Ele on my team who help with coordinating the guests, research prep, prepping the podcast docs with all the info we need, moving files into folders, creating show notes, transcripts and social media tiles…Our sponsors who help the show happen weekly but also help you make your swaps with their ever-generous offers.Thank you to this month’s show sponsor for helping you make your low tox swaps easier: @ausclimate gives you 10% off their range for the whole of 2024, with brilliant Winix Air Purifiers, the best Dehumidifiers I’ve ever used and their new energy-efficient heating range. code LOWTOXLIFE https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate@blockbluelight_official gives you 20% off site-wide, including their brilliant red light panels, to help you achieve the perfect light balance in your home and for quality sleep, rest and repair. Code: LOWTOXLIFE https://bit.ly/4cRGf6d@cleannectarine gives you a huge 20% off site-wide to help you make your low tox personal care and beauty swaps achievable! Wow. So generous. CODE: LOWTOXLIFE (excluding water filters) https://bit.ly/4g1Ixm9Be sure to join me on Instagram @lowtoxlife and tag me with your shares and AHAs of this week’s episode.