Activating Your Body’s Self-Healing with Dr. Fab Mancini

This episode is brought to you by Google Health. Stop chasing someone else's definition of health. What matters is what's healthy for you. Google Health offers a new kind of coach built with Gemini for effortless tracking, sleep insights, and holistic coaching tailored to you. Visit googlestore.com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. Requires Google account, Google Health app, internet, and Google Health premium subscription. Features subject to change. Availability and results vary. Not intended for medical purposes. Works independently of Gemini apps. Check responses for accuracy.

Expedia and VisitScotland invite you to come experience the beauty that awaits in Scotland. The sweep of wild coastlines, quiet lochs, and untamed landscapes. Fresh cuisine that feels rooted in the land. Come experience the kind of stillness that stays with you long after you leave. Plan your Scottish escape today at expedia.com/visitscotland. So good, so good, so good.

New markdowns up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Stock up and save big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories, and more must-haves for summer. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

You can either agree to whatever the diagnosis is and say, this is going to be my future, or you can say, you know what, I don't subscribe to that. Your brain, your spinal cord, it controls every organ in the body. I had a patient, she had had over 10 surgeries, taken over 30 pills a day, and within 6 months to a year, she was completely well. All primarily by teaching her how to believe in the body to heal itself.

Why do you think that so many of the healthcare practitioners have gotten it wrong?

If you're trained traditionally, you believe in a system that is about healthcare, but in reality, it's about economics. Having control over your life says a lot about illness. There was a man named Bernie Siegel, and Bernie was a good friend of my mentor. I asked Bernie, and I said, "Well, Bernie, you're getting results in cancer where other people are not." What is the secret to your success? And he said to me, well, how much do they believe that their body can actually heal the cancer? And I look at him, I said, Dr. Siegel, you mean to tell me that it's the belief system of the patient that actually determines whether they get well or not? And he said, absolutely.

Hey, JJ here. Does your energy dip or even crash after meals? This could be a blood sugar issue. Bioptimizers Berberine Breakthrough is a powerful solution for those post-meal crashes that are so often related to blood sugar. This is not your typical berberine supplement. It's a comprehensive formula with 13 targeted ingredients designed to help your body handle carbohydrates more efficiently and support healthy blood sugar responses. What that means is more stable energy throughout the day and fewer cravings between meals. And yes, your clothes may even fit better, especially around the waist. What I appreciate most is that this supports your metabolism without forcing extreme restriction. It helps your body do what it's designed to do so you don't feel like you're fighting yourself. If blood sugar balance, energy, and metabolic health are priorities for you, this is one of those supplements you can actually feel making a difference. Right now you can save 15% at bioptimizers.com/jjvirgin and use the code JJ Virgin. And if you subscribe, not only will you get amazing discounts and free gifts, you'll make sure your monthly supply is guaranteed. Plus they offer a 365-day money-back guarantee, so you've got nothing to lose except those post-meal energy crashes. Again, that's bioptimizers.com/jjvirgin. Even when you're doing all the right things, your strength training, staying active, prioritizing protein, keeping the muscle you built over a lifetime gets harder with age. Now, our parents were told to accept that it's just getting older. I don't buy that. And that's why I use Timeline powered by MagniPure. Here's the real story. Muscle isn't just about strength or looking good. Muscle runs your metabolism, protects your balance, preserves your independence, and determines how powerfully you age. And what most people don't realize is that muscle loss isn't only about hormones or workouts. It's about cellular energy. As we age, our mitochondria, those energy engines inside our muscle cells, become less efficient. Now, when your muscles can't produce energy well, it's harder to maintain strength, function, and resilience. That's where Mitopure comes in. It's the only clinically studied form of Urolithin A, a postbiotic shown in human clinical trials to support muscle strength and function by helping renew mitochondrial health at the cellular level. I love this because it works with your training, not instead of it. Now, strength training is the signal, protein is the building block, and Mitopure supports the cellular energy that allows your muscles to actually respond and adapt. Mitopure gummies make it simple. 2 a day, sugar-free, vegan, non-GMO, and independently certified for quality. And let's not forget, absolutely delicious. So if staying strong is part of your longevity strategy, and I sure hope it is, Visit timeline.com/jjvirgin and get 20% off your order. Hey, I'm JJ Virgin, PhD dropout— sorry, Mom— turned 4-time New York Times bestselling author. As a certified nutrition specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer, and globally recognized leader in health, I'm driven to keep asking the tough questions and use my podcast to to simplify the science of health into actionable strategies that help you thrive. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the show. And here's the fun part: when you send me your review, I'll reply to you using my on-demand virtual me. That's right, my team and I created a virtual JJ packed with my books, speeches, and wisdom so I can personally connect with you. Here's how you do it. Subscribe and leave an honest review of the podcast. Take a screenshot of your review. Text it to 813-565-2627. That's 813-565-2627. My virtual JJ will reply directly, and trust me, this will make your day. So subscribe now at SubscribeToJJ.com and text me your review. Let's keep thriving Together.

Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

This has been a long time coming. We've been pals now for 20 years. 20 years plus. Oh my gosh. We don't look that bad. I know. Years of being the president of Parker College, lecturing everywhere, teaching everywhere, and TV, media, books. Your latest book, self-health. And so why self-healing?

One of the things, when I wrote my previous book, The Power of Self-Healing, I felt that the lesson that needed to be shared with the audience is the fact that most people have never been told their body is a self-healing organism. Our body innately is designed to heal itself and keep us in a state of balance. But the problem is most people think they need something to create some kind of reaction to alleviate a symptom rather than pretty much understanding how the body functions. If they just did that, I think that most people will be empowered when it comes to their healing rather than disempowered, which is where you find people today.

The exact opposite of what we've been trained to do.

And unfortunately, because 80% of the healthcare is primarily through traditional providers, So they were trained a certain way that the only way to solve a health problem is through a pharmaceutical. Now, I could have been a medical doctor, and I chose to become a doctor of chiropractic and a holistic doctor because I wanted to play in the world of prevention. I knew from the early on that most illnesses could be prevented if we could just learn to remove those things that we were doing that were causing our bodies to break down and be sick.

When did you start to get this whole idea that it was really about, you know, the body healing itself? Because I know that you've had years of studying, you know, emotional, physical, spiritual, and again, deciding which type of healthcare practitioner you wanted to be. What's that moment?

When I went to my chiropractor, my first chiropractor, and it was referred by an orthopedic surgeon, I had whiplash, and that's when it first hit me because he said, "We have different systems in the body, but we're gonna be working primarily with the nervous system." and we're going to give you gentle adjustments because the nervous system controls and regulates all other systems. So it controls your cardiovascular system, your skeletal system, immune system, etc. So that's when it began. And then when I started school, I realized that yes, through chiropractic, I can try to keep the body functioning at a higher level, especially through nerve system. But then what about the lifestyle choices? That's when it started hitting me because I realized that I didn't have the best choices going through school. You know, we're sitting all day long in class. We're not eating healthy. We're not having time time to work out most of the time, we're studying all the time. And that's when I started realizing that's what most people do anyways, so why not play in that space?

I just heard you— you just brought up something, because every doctor I have that comes in and does a podcast talks about how unhealthy they were during their school. And that Walton's heir who is doing the medical school— have you heard of her?

No.

So she is creating a completely holistic medical school, and part of it is As a student, you have to do all the things. You have to eat healthy, you have to exercise, you have to get your sleep. I mean, crazy enough, because if you did it yourself, it would be way easier for you to teach it. So let's go back to your clinic days. What is something, you know, you look at so many of the things in Western medicine, and I remember when my son was hit and that they gave him like, you know, less than 1% chance to live and just told us we had to let him go, which of course we didn't listen. And there's so many things out there that you'll hear as kind of, it's a miracle or it's impossible. What's one that you can think of that just gives you the chills?

I had a patient that, uh, her name was Rosie, and I'll never forget she called urgently that she was struggling. Her friend had come to my office. I helped her friend. So she was weighing over 350 pounds. She had had, uh, over 10 surgeries, taken over 30 pills a day. Not sleeping, in complete pain, bedridden, had to quit her job. And within a period of time, within 6 months to a year, she was completely well, all primarily by teaching her how to believe in the body to heal itself, not only doing chiropractic care, but also everything else. But 5 years later, she calls me because I received an award called Heroes for Humanity. And she said, oh, Dr. Fava, I saw you in the news, but I wanted to thank you. And I said, Rosie, why are you thanking me? You already sent me all these patients over the years. You She said, "Well, Dr. Fab, what I didn't tell you, 3 weeks before I saw you, my husband had told me that he was leaving me. And now I have the best relationship with my husband. Thank you for saving my marriage." And then she stopped and paused, and she said, "But what I didn't tell you is that my children hated me because I couldn't pick them up, I couldn't play with them, I couldn't study with them, I couldn't go to their events. And now we have a great relationship with my children." But then she took a longer pause, and she said, "But what I didn't tell you "Is that 2 weeks before I went to see you, I had bought a gun and I had decided to kill myself. Thank you for saving my life." I think that we live in a world that suicide rates are alarming numbers, and most people don't realize that they may be even with family members that are contemplating suicide because they feel so awful. So to me, that story continues to motivate me to never assume how difficult somebody else has it, but to assume that they're struggling just as Rosie did, and I have to give my all as a provider to make sure that they're gonna have the best chance to heal.

Why do you think that so many of the healthcare practitioners have gotten it wrong? What are they getting wrong about this concept?

Well, I believe that if you're trained traditionally, you believe in a system that is about healthcare, but in reality, it's about economics. And the more you realize that, the less disappointed that you're going to become as a provider. But if you are a doctor, a medical doctor or osteopath that goes into the functional space, their biggest frustration is the fact that they paid all that money, all that belief, all those years of sacrifice to realize that they have to unlearn. They have to unlearn and all that. And then if you are a chiropractor like me or an acupuncturist or a naturopath, the biggest disappointment is that 90% of the people don't even know what you do and what— and how you can help them. So our biggest disappointment is like, I spent $300,000, 8 years of my life, and what do I have to show for it when most people don't even know what I do?

Let's put a little pin in that one because— so it's now 90% of people do not understand what a chiropractor does, right? That's what all of our studies have said, 90%. So I think the people that do think they know what a chiropractor does probably thinks that is someone you go to if you've got a back problem to get to get cracked and then you're done. So tell us what all a chiropractor can do. What makes this training different?

It's evolved for me because initially, you know, my first book was Chicken Soup for the Chiropractor's Soul, where we were sent over 3,000 stories of people claiming just about everything you can imagine through chiropractic care, they got well. But then it was primarily that when I went into practice, I realized that chiropractic was far more than back pain and neck pain, which is 80% of our patient base. And that's when I started really trying to elevate the profession. But the game that we're playing now with chronic disease, what I love is that we now know that every bone in the spine has a metabolic function and we can actually measure it through markers. Now, let's say that you come to my office, I can evaluate you through markers, through blood tests. And I can tell you which vertebra is malfunctioning.

You are kidding.

Or I can palpate you and verify that through my palpation.

Give me an example.

But imagine now, let's say that your L5, you know, it's out of alignment. L5 is typically related to a lot of your sexual organs and all of that. So let's say I have a particular marker and I see that L5 is malfunctioning. Now, as a doctor of chiropractic, I can palpate you, verify that, I can adjust you, and I can actually remeasure you through that blood work within 30 days and be able to show you the improvement that we've had in chiropractic. Wow. This is all latest.

I was gonna say, I don't remember that from Parker days.

No, no, no. It's because I associated with a guy that wrote actually the Bone Health book, one of the top scientists in the world, and he was teaching me. He said, you don't realize the power, the metabolic power that you have having chiropractic. The problem is that our profession is musculoskeletal in most states. So what I'm trying to do is bring that concept to chiropractic, because if we don't start addressing chronic disease in chiropractic, we're going to go away. I mean, we're serving less than 10% of the public anyways.

That's been pretty, pretty typical, hasn't it, that you've been kind of stuck? I thought it was 5% before, so it sounds—

no, it's somewhere between 5 and 10%, depending on— that is consistently. And the other component is that there's a lot of misconception about what chiropractic is. Which is another layer of confusion. The fastest way that you can promote and sell chiropractic is to invite people to participate in the adjustment because we cannot measure all the thousands of reactions that an adjustment can create. But the patient will feel the difference. Yeah. And that is invaluable in my opinion.

Yeah. I just don't understand how you don't do it.

Yeah.

Let's go to the 40-plus-year-old woman listening who's been told, you know, just take, take whatever medications you need, manage your stress. You've got this, and they're not feeling great. Why doesn't that work for them? Like, especially for the 40-plus-year-old woman?

Well, I think you have been an example of that in your career since I've known you the last 20 years. I've seen how you live your message. And I think that especially women, we tend to put more emphasis on those that we serve, all the people that we care for, our children, our significant others, our parents. We have a lot of women in their 40s with ailing parents, and they put all their emphasis there. And then maybe they'll think of themselves at the end of the night where they have no time to do nothing. Maybe. Maybe. So I think it's a matter of priority. So I always tell people, think of your health like a savings account. The more good choices you make for yourself, the more deposits that you make, the more that you'll be able to give others around you. So that way you're not feeling depleted. So you have to make sure that you sleep 8 to 10 hours. You have to make sure that you do meditation, prayer, anything that can actually show the balance in the brain. You have to begin to switch all the processed food that we're hearing about. 60% of Americans now are eating processed food. We need to switch them with whole foods. So if you make those deposits, by the end of the day, you're going to be full. And you're gonna actually not feel depleted. And that's really the thing is they have to make their health a priority before they can think of anyone else.

And what about some of the emotional stuff going on? How do some of the emotional things that women have going on— I was just listening to something where they were talking about the stress level of a man versus the stress level of a woman. I think I am in total not a women's lib person. When was that? The '60s? I think that all we really have accomplished here is that I always say you come home from work to your second job, and then you have your kids, and somehow you're managing pretty much everything, like healthcare CEO of the family, food CEO, chef, all the things, right? House? Uh, house. Fortunately, I have a very evolved male in Tim, and we have a pretty good division of labor on all that stuff. But what about the emotional side of it, the stress side of it? How does that manifest itself into physical issues?

Well, we know that your emotional component turns and changes the chemistry of the body. And when you change the chemistry of the body, then that's where your cortisol levels go up and your hormones that are destructive begin to break down your cells and your organs. I think that it's important to, especially during the pandemic, you know, the pandemic created what they call today the mental health tsunami, where people are still struggling from what happened a few years ago. I think that the important thing is to recognize that there is a mind component to our health, and the mind component needs to be addressed. I mean, when I started researching the 3 most powerful emotions that can actually help us heal, gratitude was one of them. The more gratitude that you have, The more that you begin to appreciate what you have instead of always thinking about what you wish you had, the more forgiveness that you do is one of the best ways to release that resentment, that anger from the past. I mean, who hasn't been hurt? Who hasn't been betrayed? Who has not been let down? But you have to let it go because it's not serving you today. And then the last one, which I think is the most valuable, is women need to start self-loving themselves more. What does that mean? Self-love is you put yourself first. I can give you an example. When my last book was published by Hay House and I got to know Louise Hay quite a bit, and Louise taught me one of the greatest lessons. She said, I wake up every morning and I go in the mirror to brush my teeth, and I look in the mirror and I say, I love you, Louise. And I said, why is that important? And she said, well, Fab, that may be the only time I hear those words that day, that week, maybe even that month. If I don't start my day by self-love, I'm not looking at myself and saying, I love you, then what am I doing? I'm expecting everybody else to do it. And if they don't do it, then I get disappointed. But it goes more beyond that. It talks about the priority that I talked about, meaning that if you're gonna self-love, you have to self-love your body. That means that you gotta begin the day with you. Like, I teach that you begin the day every morning with physical activity, right? Because it changes your physiology, it changes your state of mind. And then gratitude spirituality, whatever you want to do, whether you want to read a spiritual book, you want to pray, you want to listen to a podcast that is very inspiring, whatever it is, you do physical, you do emotional and spiritual. That sets the foundation for you to have a good day. And that sets— and some people even say how you start your day is pretty much how you finish it. So I just start every single day that way, and it has served me well over the years.

Okay, so what did you do this morning?

So this morning is so interesting. So I woke up this morning and I got up early at 5:30, and the first thing I did is I did BrainTap because I've been using BrainTap first thing in the morning to be able to reprogram my subconscious mind into whatever session I want to program it to. This morning I wanted to do an abundance session, so it was all about abundance in everything, in my relationships, in my love, in my abundance, in money, everything. And then I went to the gym, which the hotel has a nice gym, so I had an incredible workout. And then I go back to the room, and I now travel with my blender. So I create my—

Just now? You're just getting on the blender path right now?

I have it like 6 months. Karen brought me this blender, and I don't go anywhere without it. So I do my healthy protein, I do my greens, and then I blend it. I do that. And then I end up with like a 20-minute inspirational for that day. And that's really how I started the day today. It was beautiful.

People tease us because we travel with so many suitcases, but between like blender and coffee maker, I just got a molecular hydrogen portable that I can travel with now.

I mean, honestly, we can have 10 suitcases.

I know, red light. Well, and Tim's like, you know, yeah, man, the sauna. I go, you know what, I'm not gonna take the sauna.

Like, we have the portable sauna that we travel with, but we only take it like if we're going to be a week away, that's when we take a lot of this stuff. But if it's a 1 or 2 day, then yeah, 1 to 2 days.

But we tend to go out for like, you know, you know, 7 days to a month.

So we— and the other thing that we started doing is looking at hotels. Like, I was just in Palm Beach and there was a new hotel that just opened less than a year ago, and they had a whole floor with— you can do your IVs, you can do all your red lights, you can do your hyperbaric chamber. It's called Amrit Ocean Resort. Wow. And it's right on Palm Beach and it's 15 minutes from the airport. It's this individual from India that wanted to create and bring to the hotel industry the ultimate health. So he created an incredible spa, but he created a whole floor that is all these activities that we're used to that we have to travel with and we don't have to do that.

So I think that everything's moving this way. I just met a gal who this is her whole business now.

Wow.

Is setting up hotels this way. So those crappy hotel gyms as your wellness center are a thing of the past. Hear that, hotels? Anyway, something you said at the beginning made me think that one of the biggest things we're doing wrong in our current healthcare— and I think it's a joke to call it healthcare— in that system, what we do is we shut down the very thing that our body is trying to do to tell us something's wrong. What are some of the things? Because I think that we are also taught this is normal.

Yeah.

You're just getting older, right? Whatever these things are. What are some of the messages that you think women, especially, you know, a 40-plus-year-old woman, should be paying attention to, listening for?

Well, the best example that I can give you is my mom recently moved and she went out to a different health center. And the doctor, she said, honey, why don't you fly to Miami and go with me? Because you're always really good at asking questions. So she doesn't tell them who I am. The lady told my mom, first of all, that she needed to do 4 ultrasounds, 2 MRIs. So all of this testing that was really not necessary because my mom is used to doing all of this. And the other thing is she mentioned 4 conditions that she said, you have to take this medication for the rest of your life. My mom is 83. She said, Gladys, you need to learn to live with that. That's just the way that your body is. And one was blood pressure. The other one was cholesterol. I mean, these are like medications. And afterwards, my mom said to me, I said, well, what did you think? And I said, well, Mom, the challenge is that these doctors are trained, number one, that the compensation now to providers that work for hospitals, which many of them have sold their practices, is the incentives tend to be more of how much diagnosis that you can do. So she called her concierge doctor, and concierge doctor said, oh no, Gladys, you don't have to do any of that. Just do one. One ultrasound and one MRI. That's what we've done all these years. You don't need to do all the—

Why had she gone to a different doctor?

Because she moved locations and she wanted to experience that new center because it's half a mile from where she is now. The other one is 45 minutes.

Worth the drive.

You know, so that's the whole point. So my recommendation is be wary when a provider tells you that you have to learn to live with this. It's like a life sentence. Be wary of that because your diagnosis is not a life sentence. That's number one. Number two, 2, if there's something that doesn't resonate with you, seek another opinion. And don't look at providers as right or wrong, just look at it based on opinions, based on their training. So if I go to a medical doctor, I'm going to get a specific training feedback. If I go to a surgeon, I'm going to get a specific training feedback. But if I go to a doctor of chiropractic or a homeopath or an acupuncturist, I'm going to get a whole different— or a nutritionist. So look for different opinions and try to get as many holistic natural science opinions as you can, because that's we find they focus on the root cause rather than managing the symptoms, which you have a better chance to actually relieving whatever symptomatology or chronic disease you may be having.

Well, how, how do you determine which is just a thing, aging, versus your body actually needs something, needs help?

Recently I had a friend and they had a child with, with cancer. They were trying to get the hospital to do functional testing and they refused. They said, we are not going to learn anything from that. Then we noticed that in the hospital, their nutrition, it was the worst things. They were bringing the kid all this sugar. Oh God.

You know, the single worst thing.

And this is the thing that we have to pay attention to. When you step into the functional space, you realize that there's a whole different world out there that you have never been exposed to. We've been in it for a while. So for us, it's common sense.

30+ years.

Yeah. 38 for me this last September. So I think it's important to expand your circle of influence when it comes to your health. Number 2 is look at your friends that are healthy. This is where I find that you can get some really good tips because you have taught me so much about my own health just by me watching you and asking you, hey, JJ, how do you handle this? Or JJ, how do you do that? And you share that not only with your audience, but also with your friends. And I think that that's where a lot of people can find a tremendous amount of empowerment is by surrounding themselves with more healthier other individuals that can give them insights as to their own health. And then lastly, I think, is take time to listen to podcasts like this. Take time to read books that are being written. Take time to listen to YouTube information that may give you a different perspective. And then take whatever you can and then discard whatever you don't need. But at least be open-minded, because if you're closed-minded, you're gonna keep getting the same results year by year rather than actually getting those outcomes that everybody's wishing and praying for.

Even when you're doing all the right things—your strength training, staying active, prioritizing protein—keeping the muscle you built over a lifetime gets harder with age. Now, our parents—

Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep-end DJ, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com/brightsummerahead to learn more. See you this summer.

Study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College Deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com/studentoffer. While supplies last. Ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms/collegepc.

We gather here tonight to bring women back to their rightful place.

The Testaments, a new Hulu original series from the executive producers of The Handmaid's Tale.

It's easier to accept a story than believe that the people around you are monsters.

The battle isn't over. There comes a time when you have to take action, when you have to choose your own destiny.

Never quite as it seems.

Watch the new Hulu original series The Testaments, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

We're told to accept that it's just getting older. I don't buy that. And that's why I use Timeline powered by MagnaPure. Here's the real story. Muscle isn't just about strength or looking good. Muscle runs your metabolism, protects your balance, preserves your independence, and determines how powerfully you age. And what most people don't realize is that muscle loss isn't only about hormones or workouts. It's about cellular energy. As we age, our mitochondria, those energy engines inside our muscle cells, become less efficient. Now, when your muscles can't produce energy well, it's harder to maintain strength, function, and resilience. That's where Mitopure comes in. It's the only clinically studied form of Urolithin A, a postbiotic shown in human clinical trials to support muscle strength and function by helping renew mitochondrial health at the cellular level. I love this because it works with your training, not instead of it. Now, strength training is the signal, protein is the building block, and Mitopure supports the cellular energy that allows your muscles to actually respond and adapt. Mitopure gummies make it simple. 2 a day, sugar-free, vegan, non-GMO, and independently certified for quality. And let's not forget, absolutely delicious. So if staying strong is part of your longevity strategy, and I sure hope it is, visit timeline.com/JJVirgin and get 20% off your order.

Well, you hear quite often about how a healthcare practitioner will tell someone, "Oh, you have cancer, you have 6 months to live," and then the person lives 6 months. You've said before that people don't heal because they don't believe they can. Where do you think that belief's coming from? How does one flip it?

Well, the best story that I can give you is when I started this process, there was a man named Bernie Siegel, and Bernie was a good friend of my mentor. So, one day, Bernie came to visit him, and I volunteered to drive Bernie from the airport to— Smart. To the university, right? Smart people like us do that. So during the car ride, I asked Bernie, and I said, well, Bernie, you're getting results in cancer where other people are not. What is the secret to your success? And he said to me, well, when I evaluate a patient, I look for 3 things. Number 1, how much do they believe that the treatment that I've selected for myself is the right treatment for me? Number 2, how much do I believe that the provider that is providing that treatment is the right person for me? And he said the most important one and the last one is how much do they believe that their body can actually heal the cancer. And I never forget, I'm a 21-year-old and I look at him, I said, Dr. Siegel, you mean to tell me that it's the belief system of the patient that actually determines whether they get well or not? And he said, absolutely. So we need to pay attention to our beliefs. Are we living our beliefs based on our parents' beliefs or based on our significant others, based on our influences around us? Or have we taken the time to actually formulate our own beliefs? I've had to change my beliefs because I grew up in South America. You know, I grew up where you do the flu shot, all of that, and we were sicker than ever. And as soon as I entered this space, my whole family has gotten healthy because I got to influence them based on what I was learning and realized that those things were not the right things to do to keep my body as healthy as it can be. So I think it's important to question. But more importantly, I think it's important that we realize that the mindset behind healing has so much to do with the power to heal.

Wow. I think of especially my parents' generation, where all the healthcare providers were on a pedestal. Whatever they said, you did. You know, they never questioned it. Like, wild stuff.

And today is the opposite. Today, actually, if you're not questioning, you're not giving yourself the best opportunity to find the answers. If you're just going by what that opinion— now, what I recommend is at least seek out two holistic, natural opinions if your only opinion is traditional, or even if you have a natural holistic opinion, go ahead and get the traditional because sometimes you get insights that you need to evaluate.

Why shouldn't you use the best of all of it? Like, I don't believe that's the one versus the other. One versus the other. I'm like, you know, I— when Grant was hit, I'm like, let's do all of it. We had like people doing all sorts of prayer, and then we had the guy saving his life with— in surgery. Like, let's— we're gonna do it.

And you saw some of the technology that he was on. It was instrumental in the early stages, right? So we have to look at the best of the best, and we have to realize that this is not really a battle between the right or wrong or good or evil. This is really about making an informed decision of what is actually best for me and not assume that it— what's best for you is going to be what's best for somebody else. You know, you have a lot of people out there that will tell you, oh, when I had that condition, this is what I did. This is all you have to do. Well, our bodies are different, right? And we can't assume that just because it worked for you, it's going to work for me. I need to evaluate myself. And that's why precision medicine— I love the concept. That everything is being evaluated as an individual. Whenever I started learning about genomics and, and gene testing, I got very excited because it gave us a foundation. And then the world of epigenetics came in, and then now all of a sudden you have the lifestyle into it. But when you combine both of those things is really when you find the best scenario for you.

Let's hope, because I know there's a couple places I'm thinking of, like, you know, UC Irvine has the Samioli Center where They really have done a great job with creating a truly integrated, 'cause you need all of it. And the more critically open-minded you can be, the better. I'd love to go back to that mindset thing, 'cause it's so wild. When someone believes that healing is possible, what shifts in their biology?

You can either agree to whatever the diagnosis is and say, "This is gonna be my future. This is my prognosis." Or you can say, you know what, I don't subscribe to that. I'm going to create what I think is possible and believing in something to yourself. So if you're a spiritual person like me, right, we're created in an image much greater than ourselves. As humans, we're very limited as to what we know and what we can do. Science is just evolving. Look at how much has evolved in the last 25 years alone. What's going to happen over the next 25 years, especially with AI, is going to revolutionize healthcare. So why not take the position that even though we may not know today what may be something that may help me, or there's no other cases like me, why not believe that maybe I can be that first case? So that's the way I like to think of it for myself. I believe that my body is meant to be at least 120 years old, healthy. I believe that. And I'm working every single day towards that outcome. And it takes consistency more than anything. It takes a belief that, you know what, all of this— and I see it in myself because I mean, I've redone my X-rays when I was 21, now that I'm going to be 60, and it looks like they were opposite because I have no degeneration in my spine. All of my discs are extremely healthy. All my curvatures are healthy. And then I do my scan and there's nothing, nothing that we can find. And Then I do my markers and I'm like, my goodness, can this really be so? Why is it that we cannot expect that as we get older, we're going to be healthier?

I know you feel healthier. That's what I expect. And I truly believe you get what you expect. So your thoughts create, you get what you expect. I would like to go back to your roots and like bring it back to the chiropractic, please. Yes. Because one goal of this is for people to understand, kind of, kind of blow through some of the myths of chiropractic. And I think one of the big things of chiropractic is to really optimize the nervous system. And fortunately now we're hearing a lot about the nervous system. Yeah. So what's the role that the nervous system plays here and plays in self-healing?

Well, the most important role is the one I shared earlier, is that your brain, your spinal cord, it controls every organ in the body. The brain tells the body what it needs to do. The body tells the brain what it needs., and it goes back and forth all throughout the day. The most important thing is that in the early days, all of the studies in chiropractic were done on the spinal root. And then we thought that just because a vertebra is misaligned, now all of a sudden that irritation in that location is really the problem. Now we're finding out that it's not even just there, it's in the brain. The brain is your big control center. So anytime that I adjust you, let's say I adjust your upper cervical, your neck, neck, I can tell you that your whole body is being shifted, not just your neck. You may say to me, oh, my neck feels much better, but you're going to see your whole body. I have had patients that I've adjusted their low back and they tell me, oh, I didn't tell you I had a severe headache, now the headache is gone.

I bet you get a lot of, oh, by the way, right?

So the important thing is to realize that when you're working with the nervous system, there's no higher level system. And if you were to ask me, recently I did another show that that somebody said to me, what is the biggest biohack that you had done? And I can tell you honestly, I have not missed a weekly adjustment in 38 years. Wow. Most of the time I go twice, but I have not missed one week in 38 years. Wow.

Well, to be fair, you get a lot of events where there's other chiropractors, so you don't end up in—

well, not only that, but I go— let's say I'm in Tampa, right? So I go visit a chiropractor that I don't No. Wow. And I insisted, oh, I'm here doing JJ's podcast. I wanted to get checked. I want to be at my best before I could do the podcast. Can the doctor see me? I'm a chiropractor too. I just need to get evaluated and see if I can get an adjustment. And then of course they come in, they give me an adjustment, and then they want me to not pay because of all the contributions I've made. And I said no. And I always pay because I teach the doctors that if you don't value what you do, how do you— would you expect other people to value it? And the problem that we have in healthcare, most of us providers, is we want to give it away because we are so blessed to know what we know. We feel like we're holding the secret to most people's misery and we just want to give it to them. But the problem is that if somebody doesn't have some kind of exchange, they don't value what you're offering. So therefore they won't continue it. They may start it, but they won't continue it. And that's the biggest challenge in our functional medicine space. Is that there's not a lot of follow-through. So a lot of people get shortchanged. Yeah, they get some changes, but not the type of changes that you and I are having because we've been consistent year after year. Amazing.

What about the other thing that could get stored in your tissues? Traumas?

Well, you know, it's interesting. One of my dear friends developed a technique called BEST. His name was Dr. Ted Mortar, and he taught me one of the greatest lessons. He says, anytime you have a trauma, it gets stored in your cells. And it could be a muscular cell, it could be a ligamental cell. So this is the example that he gave me. He said, you know, I had a patient that came in and she had a severe whiplash. And she said the irony was that she was driving last night and it was raining and she was on her way home and she stopped at a light and she saw the light of a car behind her coming through. And all of a sudden, boom, the whiplash started and the car never hit her because 10 years before, that same scenario happened. So imagine the environments that we find ourselves with that are triggering all those memory cells that are stored in our body. Imagine the songs that we hear, right? When we have a breakup, all of a sudden, all those songs, all you have to do is play it and people start crying and they're like, "Oh my God, I don't want to be around you." Or they get anxious. Like, "Oh, that's the song that was playing when he broke up with me," whatever. So I learned to realize that we need to look at our body, it's just like a big computer storage that's just recording everything. Now, most of that is stored in your subconscious mind. Experts are saying that over 95% of everything that we've experienced in life is stored there. So when that gets recalled is when that leads to the behavior. So even though consciously I want to eat better, as soon as I have an emotional recollection, Boom. What do I go for? The thing that I'm trying to avoid. And it wasn't because consciously I wanted it. It was subconsciously triggered something that that was what I did then. And that gave me the satisfaction or the payoff that I'm looking for now. Instead of what? Replacing it with the better habit or with a better food or with a better action step.

But replacing it isn't going back and getting— dealing with the original trauma, though. Right.

So, so what are some of the techniques? Yeah, these are what I've learned over the years. Number one is visualization. Visualization has actually changed the way that our brain works. And when you study neuroplasticity, you realize that your brain is constantly changing and it's adapting to your environment. So what we learn in visualization is we used to look in the mirror, right, and put the little notes and say, I am healthy, I'm this and all that. Now the new studies are saying, what about if you just do that? But why don't you go and lay down, close your eyes, and stay in a state of 15 minutes or more where you feel that whatever you're trying to visualize has already happened? This is what they call is the key to manifestation, is you have to embody not only in your mind that the feeling is already created, because your feeling is what will attract then the new experience that you want to have. So for me, visualization is a wonderful technique. Meditation, guided meditations, whether it's a YouTube one, whether it's something else that you use. I use guided meditations every day. I haven't mastered the quiet meditations. I don't either.

I'm with Dr. Joe. He's my— but his meditations are amazing. They're incredible, you know.

And, and he takes you on that journey, right?

You feel the minute, the minute that starts with the eyes closed, the dogs all calmed down. It was funny, I was talking to the guy who does his music, Barry, and Barry gave me a pet one. It's because the animals do, they just chill out. It's the same.

Incredible. And children, all you have to do sometimes is just play it in the background. I see all these parents that are really struggling with hyperactive kids, but if they will play some of those vibration sounds, they can actually calm those kids in a way. But I think meditation, and then the last one I would say, is having a conscious intention that you are going to shift whatever you are discover to be a subconscious trigger and make it into a conscious trigger. And experts say that you have to do it at least 21 to 30 days consistently in order to shift that habit. And that's what I would suggest people to try.

Kind of getting people— giving someone an action step. I always like to give them a step. What would be one daily practice that someone listening could start with to help them reconnect to their own healing capabilities?

I would say, if it's for your mental component of it, is to do a visualization every day. Because with— through a visualization, you can actually create whatever reality you want to bring into your life. If you get into that feeling state, you will attract it.

So I'm gonna do a little rapid fire. You ready? Okay. Biggest myth about healing?

That I will get sicker as I get older.

One thing a woman over 40 should stop doing?

Assuming that their bodies are not gonna give them what they require as they get older. One thing she should start doing?

Working out and lifting weights. Amen. One belief you wish every woman would adopt?

That they're meant to live 120 years old, healthy. Yeah, no marginal decade.

You know how Dr. Peter Attia talks about that marginal decade? I'm like, no, there's no marginal decade. Maybe a marginal week. Yeah. My 19-and-a-half-year-old Chihuahua passed away a couple months ago, and she had like 19 years and 5 months of just the most amazing life. Wow. And then she just did— actually, it was like the last week or two was just a slide.

Wayne Dyer used to say, the one thing I want in my life is to not live with the music still inside of me. Live fully. Yeah. Whether it's one day, whether it's 10 years, whether it's another 40 years, live fully every day and you'll never have regrets.

In watching the biohacking movement and the longevity movement, I'm watching some people and their whole life now is everything they need to do to live for whatever crazy number they've and I'm looking at their life, I'm going, this does not look fun. How do you create a life where you're living your healthiest, where your body is able to self-heal, you're doing all these things, but it doesn't become this crazy obsession where now you're not doing the social things because you had to go to bed at 8, you can't eat dinner after 4, all these crazy things that people are doing. And I'm like going, I think we've missed the plot. You can never have a glass of wine. You can, you know, it's like you don't want to go over and travel over to there because you're going to mess up your sleep score. I'm like, What's the— there's, there's some happy medium in here, which I think that you've done a really good job of creating and presenting.

I believe that as long as you put your priority of your health in check, then give yourself permission. Like, I never forget, remember when you were helping me 20 years ago to eat better and exercise more? You said something to me that I don't even know if you remember. You said, okay, after 6 months of working with you, you said, okay, you're done. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, you're over 80% of good behaviors. And he said, that's all I'm looking for. You don't have to be perfect.

You gotta be plus. I would say the same thing. You are. That's my life. You have this very, your margin of error goes way down when you're sick. But once you're, when you're really healthy, you know, the whole point is we've created ourselves so that we are a resilient body. So if we are out at a restaurant and oh my gosh, God forbid, a seed oil gets on our plate, or— Don't freak out. Yeah, or a non— or a farm-raised piece of fish, or a, you know, a non-grass-fed, that you're not going to keel over. That's the goal, really, isn't it?

I have had people that I've gone to dinner with that have actually called the chef to the table and complained because they put something in it that they were not wanting. And they told that to the waiter. And I often say to them, why would you make such a spectacle? People are human. And always know that as long as the majority of your choices are the good choices, you got plenty money in your savings account to handle any potential bad searches. So if you're craving that pizza, like the other day, oh, I gotta tell you. So we were in Washington, D.C., and Bobby Kennedy introduced me to fermented vegetables. And I remember Joe Mercola talking about that to me 27 years ago.

I heard that he travels with his fermented vegetables.

Everywhere he goes. And so we started doing fermented vegetables, and my visceral fat dropped to 100%.

I wish I loved them, but I just—

We even were in Korea and like we had them at every meal and I'm like, okay, I'll get through it.

No. So Karen learned how to ferment my favorite vegetables and that's what we do. It's a process that she learned. It's very simple. What are your favorite things? So I like, I love broccoli. I love asparagus. I love— Wow. I mean, so she chops it all. She ferments it for like a week or so, almost 2 weeks. And then she has these containers, but I don't travel with them yet. You haven't gotten to that.

That's a fam. I was hearing that.

Well, we were in this fancy restaurant and he's ordering his filet and his plastic Tupperware. Oh no, but he put it in a plastic Tupperware. And he puts it right on the table.

But no, but he put his ferments in a plastic Tupperware. Instead of glass? Yes.

Well, I can tell him that, but. That's very funny. But it actually has helped me a great deal and Karen too. So I think that that.

Oh no, fermented foods are definitely like when you look at the overall, like what is important in nutrition. Fermented foods, it's so important.

But it's not talked about enough.

Well, because it's not in our culture.

Any other culture, you go any other place in the world, they eat regularly, eat cultured food of some sort.

Yeah, but I think that the important thing is to give ourselves permission to not sacrifice a beautiful social environment just because we want to be perfect. Because the reality of it is you got plenty on that savings account. Keep making good choices and enjoy yourself. And, and granted, you may decide afterwards, like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have that, that taco, or maybe I shouldn't have the chips, or maybe I shouldn't have this. And that's okay. That's a good reminder. But for the experience, remember, right now, one of the hottest things is our relationships is what's determining a lot of our longevity, right? You know, so it's important that you spend quality, enjoyable time with the people around you, your friends, your family, and And take advantage of them. I lost my dad at 64 years old, so none of us take my mom for granted. But I don't mean just my mom. I'm talking about anyone, right? Your children, your friends. I have so many friends like you that one of my biggest challenges is how do I make time for all of them?

That's why I try to invite as many people over to the house at once, you know?

And it's beautiful because then all of a sudden you're like, Okay, these are my pips.

All right. So you have a bunch of great things for our listeners. So first of all, because we're going to put all of this at JJVirgin.com/DrFab, D-R-F-A-B. Your podcast is called— Ending Chronic Disease.

And I created that because I noticed that the administration was talking about ending chronic disease, but most people don't think that's possible. So I said, well, what if I start interviewing some of the biggest minds out there as to how are they approaching that. And that's what I've done. And this is all of the wonderful interviews that I've done.

That's so funny. If you look at which things are the most possible one by one, chronic disease is actually one of the most possible because it's a lifestyle problem. Okay, so your podcast we will put on there.

What else? I started doing masterclasses, you know, and you were one of them. You were teaching us about the importance of protein. And I wanted people to to realize that continuous learning is essential in order to be healthy. You have to keep an open mind. You have to learn new approaches and you have to keep up with the development that all these incredible people have spent and dedicated their lives to do. Then I started creating recipes, right? I started looking at the common denominators of chronic disease and what if I was to create a 30-guide recipe on some of my favorites, but also some of the—

I learned from others. Are there ferments in there?

I put some in there. Oh, good. And so I put that, and then I started— I did something very unique. I started realizing that a lot of the feedback that I get, and you probably get it too, is that I don't know how to read a label anymore. It's confusing for a lot of people. It's like a different language.

Well, because they've done everything to confuse us. Of course.

And not even encourage it. Right. So I teach people what are some of the basic things you want to look for and not make it complicated. So So what I did is I put all of these resources that I felt can empower somebody to say, I have a library of information that I can tackle. And, uh, and I, I made it available so that way they will have that at no charge.

Nice. Okay. So that again will be at jjvirgin.com/drfab. And thank you so much for coming and hanging out. Thank you.

Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can use to look and feel your best and be built to last. Also, I'd love to connect with you and hear your thoughts on the podcast. Here's how. First, subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest review. Second, take a screenshot of your review. And third, text to 281-356-1612. 5-2-6-2-7. That's 813-565-2627. When you do, I'll reply using my brand new Virtual JJ Virgin. It's my on-demand virtual self built from my books, talks, and years of experience so I can interact with you directly. You'll make my day and I can't wait to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in. And I'll catch you on the next episode.

Hey, JJ here.

And just a reminder that the Well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only.

You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health-related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. The use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.