How to Feed a Brain with Cavin Balaster

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Welcome to today's podcast, a subject really dear to me. Today we are going to be talking about we're going to be talking about feeding your brain, recovering your brain. And I have a guest who one of my members of my team met at an event who sustained a severe traumatic brain injury very similar to Grant's same injury, diffuse axonal injuries. He had a less than 10% chance of ever regaining consciousness, didn't he didn't eat, walk or talk for months. He really similar story to Grant except for what happened to him, how he sustained it, which I'll let you hear from him. But what's been interesting is that he has brought himself back through to really deciding to take personal responsibility for his health. You know how I feel about that. My through line and then finding some of the best of the best out there in terms of nutrition, neurology, functional medicine and just refusing to be anything but his best. So I always love these stories of absolute winning. He's worked with some of the most amazing people out there. We've also got a great freemium for you@jjvirgin.com Feed a brain and the cheat sheet from today's session as well. That will feature a lot of the things that we talked about here. But he's also got a great interview series that includes a lot of his go to experts and again, you may think right now, well, brain injury has nothing to do with me. But you got a brain and I'm sure you want to keep it healthy. And so these things that you do for brain injury are things we should be doing every day anyway. And what you're going to really hear from this is that if you don't directly, if you've directly never hurt your brain, which is unlikely, you know, someone near and dear to you has. So this is critical information to have in your toolkit. All righty. Kevin, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Me too. Thank you so much for having me, jj.

Well, I have purposefully not gone through and really do dove divin dove into your story because I wanted to hear you talk about it. In real time, which actually might be a little hard for me. So I'm gonna, like, hold it together over on this side or not. But I'd love for you to share your story with me and everyone listening.

You got it. Yeah, I'll try. I'll try not to.

No, no, no. You just go for it. You don't worry about me.

All right, so six and a half years ago, I sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. While I was in a coma. I was diagnosed with a diffuse axonal injury, which is a type of brain injury. I mean, if you search that on Wikipedia, you'll see source after source. Or on Google, see source after source that say 90% of those who have this never wake up. And of the 10% that do, most are in the vegetative state. So, first of all, I am extremely lucky. And I think about my. My mother and my family's reaction of. To getting this news and just devastating, you know, And I am very lucky. I woke up, I didn't eat, walk, or talk for months. My left hand was entirely flexed inward. I was breathing through a tube, my neck receiving nutrition through tube, my belly. And long story short, about 10 months post injury, I was steered towards a nutritional protocol, and I began to regain some clarity. And I was like, whoa, I've been in the fog for almost a year. Like, what? First of all, what happened? So I'm going through medical records, text messages, emails, all that. And then at the same time, why did nutrition make such a big difference? So I began researching metabolism, neurometabolism, metabolism, mechanisms of neuroplasticity. I. I began reaching out to doctors and practitioners, taking online courses, doing. Also, basically, I was studying like my life depended on it, because it did. If I wanted my brain back, I better figure out how to get my brain back. So I was using what was left of my brain to figure out how I could get more of my brain back.

And where was this? Like, which hospital were you in and where were you at the. Were you back home then or what?

Originally, I fell. I. The injury happened in New York, and I originally went to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, and then I was transferred to Mount Sinai, which is a fantastic place to be for. For acute rehab, for post acute rehab.

And, you know, my son Grant had the same thing. Multiple diffuse axonal injuries. So in a coma for a couple weeks. So I'm just feeling. Feeling your feeling. Feeling it completely here. So you came out of the coma. How long were you in the hospital for? In.

In the hospital. I mean, technically, I was hospitalized for five months between the two. Two hospitals.

Yeah, that was same with Grant, the acute trauma center, and then he moved to the other center.

And then there was a little time of, of visiting nurse service where I was, I was able to be under my mother's care. And, and we, you know, a friend of mine, a friend of my mom's, a family friend, actually secured us a corporate apartment on friggin Park Avenue, which was beautiful. And we were able to. I was able to live there while I was receiving visiting nurse service. So that was really good. But one thing I did want to talk about is the feeds that, that I was getting when I couldn't eat conventionally. Like, you know, the main ingredient to that stuff is corn syrup, soy protein niacinate, corn maltodextrin.

It's disgusting. I was very fortunate that Grant didn't have to. He hacked out his own feeding tube. And we were able to get past that fairly quickly because we had to put a sign up in the hospital room that said, no insurer, no crystal light. I mean, isn't it crazy that they were giving you stuff that would make a healthy person?

I know, I know. It's, it's. I mean, it's all industry is what it comes down to. And it's, it's unfortunate. And the way we change things, not by dismantling the old, it's by creating the new. So we're working on it, we're getting there.

Well, let's talk about that, because you then had, I mean, here you are, like, by all purposes, you shouldn't be here with us. Right? And here you are. And I know a lot of this stuff was. Started with some shifts in nutrition. So what were the initial things that you started to do that you noticed a difference?

So initially I was, I was steered towards a functional neurologist who did a blood test and was like, you have certain amino acids are low. Your protein level, some of your protein levels are low. And I said, doc, that doesn't make any sense. I eat meat with every meal. I have a protein shake every morning. And he, he's like. And I'm like, what are you saying? Eat more meat? And he was like, no, you're not absorbing the nutrients you're eating. So he put me on leaky gut protocol, basically removing things that could potentially be causing inflammation, while introducing gut healing supplements and compounds. And that's when my clarity came back.

What a smart functional neurologist.

Yeah, they tend to be pretty smart, those guys.

Who was that?

That was Dr. Thomas Colleton here in Austin, Texas.

All right, well, shout out to him for figuring that one out, because that is just amazing. So then, as you started to have some clarity, you were able to take what. One of the through lines in my business is to take personal responsibility for your health. Of initially, you got to count on your family and friends around you to step up, but now you were able to start doing it. And I don't know what you heard, but I was told by the doctors in the hospital that there was nothing. You're going to love this. Nothing you can do to heal a brain. It's just about time. And when I heard that happen, I just was like, no point talking here.

You know, jj, I tell your story and. And that line just, I. I was floored when I heard that. I was like, my God. And it's true. I mean, it was. And. And so much respect for you for, like, them being like, nope, there's nothing we can do. And you being like, yeah, okay, and taking it into your own hands and being like, you know what? I'm gonna find what's gonna help because it's out there. And.

Yeah. And obviously I'm not gonna talk to you anymore because you're not listening. Like, that was crazy. But again, and I see in your story, hey, the emergency medicine team saved my son. They are amazing. But we just need to know this isn't about, you know, like, only do alternative medicine, which should be, to me, first line integrative. It is really about use each type of medicine where you need it. When, you know, when you're basically dead on the pavement, you need to get into a trauma center and have them do all the life savings methods. But then once you get past that acute phase, then it's like, what can we do to start bringing you back? And that's where nutrition. And just. I know you've done some other things I'm excited to hear about, and I'll share some of the things we're doing with Grant. So you went to a badass functional neurologist, and he started you healing your leaky gut, which is fantastic. And then what happened?

Well, for. I want to. I want to just reiterate what you said and just. Absolutely. I would be dead. I would be so dead. I would be, like, really, really dead if it wasn't for. For emergency care. And I have so much respect for them. But absolutely, once we move past getting into getting into alternative medicine, quote unquote, and I always put it in quotes because I'm like, alternative to what this is, this is food and diet and lifestyle. Like, this is. This is not alternative. This is self empowerment. Right. I'm sorry, I know.

It kills me when I hear that alternative medicine is, you know, meditation, taking supplements, eating good food and exercise. I'm like, that, that actually should be first line therapy. That's really where we should start. Like the very first thing you should start to look at once you get past the acute. Are you going to bleed out? Or whatever is okay. Nutrition. Where do we need to be with that? So, you know, and then all the obvious, like, we were helping to regulate Grant's light and dark cycles because in a. In an icu, the lights are bright all day and night. And I didn't even think about it because his eyes were closed. And one of my friends was like, you know, he still. You still need to take them through circadian rhythms. Like, oh, wouldn't have thought of that.

So how did you end up doing that?

What?

Taking them through the circadian rhythms while he was in coma.

Eye mask. Just an eye mask.

Oh, okay, cool.

Yeah. You know, eye mask. You know, there were just. I started looking at every single thing I could do to wake up every sense that he had. Touch, taste, smell, sound, sight. You know, what could I do to start waking him up? I just intuitively was my sense to do right. And then as soon as I could start hitting him with as much nutrition as possible, I did stuff transdermally. So I started doing creams, I did essential oils, and then I did stuff a little bit through his feeding tube. But they were being pains in the butts there at that hospital. They let me do. And as soon as he. He hacked out his own feeding tube, it was to me, game on. I had a nutribullet in there, and I was. I went to town, I just. I just took. And then I got him home. And that's what I love to hear is what are the things that you most attribute to your success? Because come on, you are a unicorn out there in terms of happen. And if you look at the statistics for everyone listening, who's singing. I don't have a brain injury. This doesn't impact me. Here's the reality. If you hit your head, you hurt your brain. We tend to think of traumatic brain injury, thinking of what happened to you or Grant. But if you hit your head and hurt your brain, you have a traumatic brain injury. It's just a level of severity. And I think a lot of the depression going on and memory loss and brain fog is probably due to people hitting their head, not even realizing what they've done. But there are 5 million people suffering from the effects of traumatic brain injury at any point in the U.S. 25% of those people are suicidal. This is impacting all of us, whether we realize it or not. It's just you can't look at my son and I'm sure you can't look at you and go, oh, the guy has a traumatic brain injury. You wouldn't know. So this is a major thing. And one of the reasons I think my son's brain, he goes able to get off the pavement was we protected his brain before he got hit. And you never know when you're going to get hit. He was already on fish well prior to it. But I know what things have really helped him coming through it. What would you attribute like your top, you know, things that have helped you? Because for everyone listening, you might go, I did. My, my brain isn't injured. If this can help someone with an injured brain, think what this can do for your brain.

Exactly. Well, I want to say that you don't even need to hit your head to sustain a brain injury. I was actually watching a presentation that Rob Wolf did at Paleo Effects a few years ago about ketogenic diet on brain injury. And he was like, he, he brought up something that doc part parsley brought up, which was that you can sustain a brain injury from a roller coaster ride where your head's getting sloshed around in there, you know, so, so yeah, thank you for bringing that up.

All the, all the toxins in our food, there's so many things that can create problems for your brain.

Yeah. What do we call that chemical concussion when we're. And we're bombarded these days, you know, so some of the top things I did was understanding that I needed to, that I had a leaky brain. Like I had injured my brain and the blood brain barrier had totally broken down, which means that I needed to remove the toxins from my diet. And not only diet, but my, my skin care, my, my shampoo, my toothpaste, all of it. I needed to figure out all of that stuff. And basically what it came down to, you know, people like, oh, that's proven to be safe. And I'm like, in a long term study, which the FDA's long term studies are six months, I intend to live a little longer than six months. I think I'll go with something I know has been around a little longer than that.

They're not looking at how does it look when you take your toothpaste, the chlorine in your pool, the bromide in your bleached white bread, you know, and some of those artificial sweeteners and mix them all together in your body, they're not looking at the compound fact either. They look at one thing in isolation.

That's the truth. Yeah, so that was, that was the first part, was removing the toxins. So we weren't introducing things. Healing the gut. So we weren't introducing things, you know, because inflammation anywhere in the body is able to cross the blood brain barrier. You release cytokines, which are inflammatory messengers, and those are small enough to cross the blood brain barrier. And so so inflammation anywhere in the body that can inflame the brain. And so recognizing that I needed. If I was going to heal my brain, I. I needed to heal everything. So I need to make sure that I was not taking in any toxins. I needed to heal my gut. And then I began to detoxify as well. But then, all right, all that's great. That's cleaning up all the monkey waters and whatnot. But then I want to introduce the right ingredients as well. And that, that took a whole lot more studying and research and, and that the culmination of the nutritional tools that I put together is in, is in how to Feed a Brain, which is the book I'm soon to release.

Perfect.

And when's that book coming out?

That's coming out in December.

Well, that book will be out this December.

So this, this webinar, it will be out when you listen to the. You will be hearing this. And I think this is important because there's. Here's the big takeaway for everyone to really grab, is that you probably hurt your brain at some point in your life. Your body is a history book. You need to repair it, but you also want to think about optimizing brain function anyway, because if you don't have your brain, I have, I have seen firsthand what happens when you don't have your brain. And it's a horrible, horrific thing. But even just not having your brain fully, not being able to remember things, you know, starting to feel like you're losing it. And these are all things that you can turn around and you can turn it around quickly. So if these, the strategies that, that Kevin's going to share in his book and we're going to talk about what else you have for everybody in a moment. These, if these help the most injured of brains, think what it can do for you. And these are also important things to have in Your toolbox at the ready if anything were to happen to you or a loved one. And there's so many different ways. We tend to think of brain injuries as our military or athletes, but a lot of domestic violence, again, you talked about chemical concussions. There's so many different ways that we injure our brain. And this can show up later on in life where you don't even realize what you did. And all of a sudden you're going, huh, why am I depressed?

Why am I losing it?

I want to bring up one thing you weren't expecting. What is one thing that you do every day that you feel like makes a big difference in your life?

Honestly, few things I do every day. I'm. I'm going to take two, if that's all right with you.

I'll let you.

All right. First of all, I take a moment to, to center myself to, to, to meditate, you know, to get my head in the right place and to think about my appreciation. Because being in a place of appreciation is just such a powerful place to be. The other thing I do, so, so before I do that, I go to my sauna and I turn it on to let it warm up. And then I, I sit there and I, I take some time to, to think about the things I appreciate in my life. And then I hop in a sauna, heat therapy, get that going. And then I get out of the sauna and I hop into a cold shower. And in the interview series that, that, that we're doing, we talk a lot about the importance of, of, of hot and cold, temperature changing and what that does for the brain and body.

Yeah, I, I've gotten the sauna. I have a sunlight and sauna, so I've gotten the sauna piece. I haven't quite incorporated the cold piece yet. I live in San Diego. I don't even like to walk outside. So that's my cold therapy, man.

And in San Diego, it's probably. I mean, the water that you get out of the faucet is probably not that bad. Anyways. I grew up in Colorado, and I often go to Barton Springs because I currently live in Austin. And I'll go to Barton Springs and jump in the water and people be like, it's freezing in there. And I'm like, it's like bath water. It's like 60 degrees. I'm used to glacial runoff, which is literally 32 degrees.

Yeah, I keep going to warmer and warmer. Next up will be Florida. Now, we always have something fun for the audience, and I know that you are giving everyone access to some of your top interviews from your Brain Week interview series. Tell us about that.

So the Feed A Brain week interview series, this is, it's just, this has really been in the works for a long time. I mean, after my injury, I began researching, studying, reaching out to practitioners. I ended up working for a functional nutritionist. And I've been at this very long time. And so to celebrate the release of my book, I released a series of interviews with some top people in brain and health and nutrition. So we have Dr. David Perlmutter, we have Dr. Datis Kharazin, Dr. Dan Engel, who's on your podcast, Norga Goddess, Andrea Nakayama, Jessica Flanagan and many more. But we did this whole interview series. We're really talking to what it means to feed a brain nutritionally, emotionally, spiritually, in so many different ways. And then we also ended up talking a lot about a transformation in, in, in healthcare and being patient, empowered, and being in the driver's seat of your own health. So it was, it was just really a powerful, powerful interview series. And for your audience, what I want to do is, what we're doing is for the first, for the, for the first week of it, for the week that it was happening, we had all the interviews in their video and audio form, all the transcripts to the interviews, all the slides to the interviews, as well as a copy of my book, a digital copy of my book, along with with 12 handouts and charts to help you implement a lot of the nutritional changes that go on it. And we were doing all of that for $49.

All right, so we'll have all the information on this because I know you're going to start with people will be able to get some of those interviews right off the bat. And then if you want to go deeper, you'll be able to for a special deal. And you can get that@jjvirgin.com forward/feed a Brain so you can get started going, learning more. I know you have a great. We'll put all of this in the show notes along with your book, website, everything else. I get asked all the time by listeners because they know what happened with my son. What are my top strategies, where's my go to. And honestly, Kevin, I've been looking for a resource that had all of the information in one place. I kept thinking I had to do it. I'm super happy because I don't have to do it. I can just send them to yours. So I'm overjoyed. At some point I should give you just the what we've done with Grant put there and I'll just send everybody there. It's like so much easier because we've seen some great results with fish oil, CBD stem cells into the spine and some other cool stuff. But you can go deeper@jj virgin.com feed a brain and I want to thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I super appreciate it and I'm just really, you're a year and a half further along than Grant and it's really exciting to see where you're at. It's, you know, warm in my heart for Grant being 110%.

It is such a pleasure, JJ. Thank you so much for having me.

All right now after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question, so be sure to stick with me. Ready to lose fat fast and keep it off forever? Discover the number one resource for fast and lasting fat loss by visiting JJVirgin.com Access exclusive videos, content, rich blog posts, and lots of free resources to help you lose weight and feel better fast and be part of a community. Get ready to transform your life one simple shift at a time by visiting www.jjvirgin.com welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Mary in Houston. And Mary says, jj, I know you're a big fan of fish oil. I've heard recently that I can get all the Omega 3s I need from flax, hemp or chia seeds. Is this true? I'm really glad this question came up. And when I saw it on Facebook I went, ah, this is one I need to address here because what we need to look at is not just omega threes but what's in omega 3s, which are three fatty acids, Ala, EPA and DHA. And they do different things. Omega 3s in general are super important. They help with bone remodeling, they help with lowering inflammation. But then those three and really specifically EPA and most importantly DHA are different. And the challenge is when you use plant based sources, with the only exception being algae. But if you're using chia, flax, walnuts, hemp, you are getting ala. And for your body to elongate ALA to epa and then DHA is a very complicated process and it takes a lot of ALA to do so you really aren't going to get what you need in terms of EPA and DHA by trying to get this straight from a plant based source. When you've got when you're looking for the cardiovascular and brain impact, you want to get the EPA and DHA and those are what you get from the fish sources. And if you're a vegan vegetarian, you could go with algae. You're not going to get that from the plant. And depending on what your needs are, and the very best way to know your needs is to do something called Omega 3 index test. You can look on the resources in the show notes on how to do that. You really want to optimize your omega 3 levels. That's the best way to know how to dose. But without having that around and assuming you're getting a couple servings of wild fish in a week, the average dose would be 2 grams of a good high quality fish oil a day like my Omega plus. And if you've got any injuries that you're going through that you're recovering from 5 grams. When my son was in the hospital, I went all the way up to 20 grams to put the fire out and to help him rebuild and then dropped him to 10 grams and back down to 5. He was on 5 grams before the accident, which is one of the things that I think helped him actually even make it through because it fish oil protects your brain and so that is the difference between plant versus fish. And they're both beneficial, but they do different things. And to really get the EP and DHA that you need, that is something that you'll want to get from fish oil in order to ensure that you get what you need. Alrighty now, the gratitude portion. Oh, and back up. So here's how I get these questions. You can always submit a question straight to customer service infojvirgin.com but we really grab most these questions through social media at my Facebook page, JJ Virgin Official or my Instagram JJ Virgin. And I'm always watching for those questions. I go, ooh, that that's a perfect one for this. This podcast today. So love it when you submit those. Thank you so much. And we always try to make sure we're answering everything that's shown up in social media and showing up on my Facebook lives. And I love hanging out with you. Now the other thing I love are these awesome reviews and I super appreciate all of them. We all read them, makes our day, our week, our month. And this one was fantastic from Cordelia M. From Canada. And by the way, we are now in Canada with our store, our products. 18 months of hard work to get them in there. Health Canada is no easy group to to get things in with. They're very strict with their rules and a lot of regulations, registrations etc so a lot of work there as we converted things over, put French on etc anyway they are in so go Canada and all my Canadian pals. You can now shop with abandon at my Canadian store. You just go to our regular store and hit the little Canada sign the flag. All right now from Cordelia from Canada. She says Love this podcast. Says as a holistic nutritionist, business owner and woman, I absolutely love the approach JJ has with their podcasts. Easily digestible, relatable and fun the way that health should be approached in my opinion. Thanks for making my drives more awesome. Ah, thank you so much Cordelia. Hopefully I'll get to meet you in person. I'm going up to Canada a lot and for everyone listening a big ask over here is to leave a review. It helps a lot. Super appreciate it. All you need to do is head on over to itunes and while you're there, hey, hey. Go ahead and hit subscribe and then share it with your pals. And again, I super appreciate it. Thank you and have a great week.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years, and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.