"You can't hate your body and expect it to HEAL" with Dr. Olivia Lesslar

And from that day, doors have opened for me, and especially when I'm ready and willing to receive from the universe, doors have opened for me, like, just one after the other since then. And I have had incredible opportunities. I don't want to say luck, but I've had incredible opportunities. I've met incredible people. I've seen incredible things. I've done incredible— I've been to incredible places. And I went from being a a general practice trainee in a small clinic in rural or semi-rural New South Wales in Australia to now— and I think you may have seen my bio now— like, to being an international doctor, you know, whatever, medical advisor, medical director, chief medical officer, blah, blah, blah, of like 19 different companies and clinics now. The biggest gifts I feel that I have been privileged to have seen and accepted and received is that there is something more than us. And I don't have to define that. It's not a religious kind of indoctrination. It's not an institution. It's this something, you know, this connection. So from a medical perspective, I've gone full circle into learning more about light vibration. Sound is healing. I now fully understand and embrace the concepts of manifestation and setting intentions because again, we're going back to that vibration. You know, I'm so happy to say I don't understand and I don't know so many things, but my mind is definitely more open to things, and I have met incredible people, experienced incredible things, and I love the fact that I am at the bottom of the Dunning-Kruger curve. I don't know, but this just makes the rest of my life that much more— it's exciting, you know, to learn. It's exciting to see what's possible.

I'm super excited today to welcome Dr. Olivia Leslar. Welcome, Dr. Leslar.

Please, Olivia, and thank you so much for having me here. I actually, I've been really super excited to speak to you again because we had such an amazing connection when we first met, and this is such a nice way to finally reconnect again. So thank you for having me.

I'm so pleased. And I think for the audience, the way that we met, we're part of a community and I was heading to Portugal and I put in the group chat, I said, anybody's going to be in Lisbon? And then she replied that she was going to be there. And it was synchronicity. It was serendipity. I have a hard time saying this word because of my French background. I don't know.

Serendipity.

Say it, please.

Serendipity.

Serendipity. Here we go. I should have called the show like that, just to force myself to be able to say it. And it was lovely. You found a lovely restaurant. And then we started talking and then we talked about my TMJ. And we just— it flowed, right? We connected right away. I felt like you were a kindred soul. I felt like you were sister from another mother. And the rest is history. And it was the perfect timing. Now I'm launching Meet Your Higher Self. It's my journey of a medium reconnecting with my higher self, but also for, for the rest of the audience. It's this version of ourselves that's more intuitive, that's more conscious, that's more elevated, that's also more spiritual, that transcends, and that is heart-based and not ego-based. And Dr. Leslar, Olivia, is a doctor that really ventures outside of just the traditional medicine into more complex problems that people can experience. So I see you as somebody who's very courageous because you don't only tap into traditional medicine, you also are interested in complex chronic conditions, and we're going to talk about it today. You are in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, and we'll tap into that a bit more. What I wanted to kick it off with today is understand how did you meet your higher self, the more aware, the more intuitive version of yourself that transcends just the ego-based self.

So, you know, I've had a lot of iterations of myself over the last 45 years of my existence on Earth, in that I was brought up Catholic, and then after my mother's death when I was 17, I had a crisis of faith, and then I wound up leaving the church and being an atheist for a while and sort of throwing myself into that. And I helped to organize the Global Atheist Convention in Australia and got to meet Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and all that. I was very much part of the skeptics community there, the rationalists, but there was always something missing that I felt. Then I, I suppose, naturally became an agnostic And then a few things happened, and now I consider myself spiritual, whatever that means. So the really interesting thing—

the other spectrum of religion, from being very religious to atheist.

Yes. And then finding something else that sung, that, you know, sung to my spirit. So I don't— because I don't usually do sort of podcasts like this, I usually talk about medicine or psychoneuroimmunology or whatever. I actually don't know if this has ever been— if I've ever talked about this specifically on a podcast before, so this is just for you. Um, I used to be very sick, so I used to have all sorts of medical problems. I started off with asthma and hay fever, then like severe asthma and hay fever, then, you know, a bit of anxiety, depression. I had a couple of panic attacks when I was going through medical school. I had polycystic ovaries. Presumed endometriosis, which I recently confirmed, infertility issues, chronic urinary tract infections. I mean, the list goes on.

Oh, he has a long list of issues.

Yeah, yeah. Actually, constipation dominant IBS for 12 years. And so I was sick and I accidentally healed myself I went through a period of time when I was very happy. New relationship, you know, and all the things that come with a new relationship that makes you feel special and wanted and loved and, you know, so sex. And, you know, we had a routine which, as you know, both of us fly around so much for work, like I don't have a routine anymore, but, and I didn't then, but with him I had a routine. We were eating far more like farmers market vegetables, for example, and I started on a couple of like gut healing supplements, so magnesium and Larch. Anyway, and I realized after 2 months that I was no longer sick with anything. And that really piqued my interest eventually into what I now have an expertise in, and that is psychoneuroimmunology. How do— how does our psychology and our behavior influence our immune system, our nervous system, our endocrinology, our hormones, right? So I haven't— this is just talking about the physical stuff. I haven't yet talked about the highest, higher self stuff. I got better and I was in the peak of health and I was, I was really, really happy. And, you know, like many relationships, even if they're very good, they can— not all of them work out. And in this case, this relationship didn't work out either. But I wound up going through a miscarriage, and it was quite a traumatic miscarriage because what happened was I went to get an ultrasound and the ultrasonographer said, I'm sorry, I think you're miscarrying. And I said, okay, like it was really— it was fairly early in, in, in the pregnancy anyway. And I'm very pragmatic about these sorts of things. And then my GP calls up and says, oh, he should never have said that because you don't actually meet the criteria yet for a miscarriage. So you have to still think and pretend that you're pregnant until next week when you hit a certain number of weeks. And then if we still don't see the fetus, then yes, you are, then you are miscarried. So I went through another week where it was probable that I had miscarried, but it was so small that it's possible to miss it, right? So the week later I go in and And they say, okay, yes, you miscarried. And this is where the troubles begin. They thought that I had a heterotopic pregnancy. So a heterotopic pregnancy is where you have an ectopic pregnancy within the womb and outside as well. So it's, it's a medical emergency. I wound up going to the hospital and I was there all day and then they decided, oh, okay, actually it's not a heterotopic pregnancy. Then the week later, they thought that I had a molar pregnancy. So a molar pregnancy is where you have the embryo that's now not viable anymore, but it still keeps growing in the wall of your uterus and it starts to act like a tumor. So then you have to go on chemotherapy and all that kind of stuff. So I had to go to the hospital again and they, you know, did all these tests and okay, it turns out I didn't have a heterotrophic. And then Eventually put me on a pill to try and help because my body just wasn't letting go, even though it was the baby, of the fetus. And so they gave me some drugs to take and it just wasn't cutting the mustard. And so then eventually, and this is 4 weeks now of all these trials and tribulations, eventually 4 weeks later I had to go in for surgery to finally remove everything. Okay, so as you can imagine, by this stage, my partner and I have broken up. I'm left with what's happening with my body, and it's a very, very, very miserable time. So yeah, it was the beginning of meeting my higher self because I hadn't really told anyone I was pregnant, and I didn't really want to see anyone. I was at home, at home alone and miserable. And at that stage, I had curated an apartment which was just based around music and food and wine and views of the ocean and no TV. So I did not have that to sort of numb my mind. And instead, I downloaded a couple of apps, Calm and Headspace, I think it was. I just played them for hours on end and I would fall asleep. Like, I'm not a meditator. I wasn't a meditator. I listen and fall asleep. Listen and fall asleep. Listen and fall asleep.

So you look at nature, you're in your little bubble, you have no TV, and then you're like, listen to meditative apps, right? That's the mindset you are. And then you're going through this process where you're trying to like physically get the fetus out of your body and heal at the same time. And process, right? All in Australia.

This is all in Australia. And at the end of the week, I felt a bit better, and I decided to go to Bali for a week, just, you know. And I went to Bali, and I spent a lot of time writing. I love writing, and I was trying to be— it was cathartic. So I was writing about the experience and all that. And anyway, I realized that on my last day, last few days there, that I hadn't actually done anything touristy. I hadn't gone out, hadn't done anything. So I went online and booked last minute for the next day to go to the water temple in Bali. Did you go there when you were in Bali?

Which one? I went to one of them.

Yeah, the water temple.

The 10— there's 10 water fountains where you express yes, and then you cleanse and you make a wish at every hour. I went to that one. Something weird happened to me.

Yes!

But tell me your experience first, and I'll tell you my experience. It was like— it was mind-blowing. Just go. Tell me.

So I went to the water temple and there was— so it was me, the priestess who was the tour guide, and then there were 3 girls who were in this group together. And we did the water temple, blah blah blah. But you know, as women, we're always constantly worrying about the people around us. So I didn't want to take too long at the different fountains, you know. I was very mindful of the people behind me and all that kind of stuff. And anyway, at the end of the water temple experience, the priestess was talking to all 4 of us and said, when Olivia booked this trip, I thought to myself, there's something very special about her. And I thought, why is she saying that? Like, it's— I don't know, like, is she trying to upsell something? It was just very— it was a very weird thing to say. And then she said to me, you, you should do this again. You should do this experience again if you can. And I went, okay, here we go. And she said, no, you don't have to pay. Just come back and do the experience again. I was like, oh, that's, that's interesting. So I did. I went back like 1 or 2 days later and I did the experience again. This time there was only 1 other girl in the group and she was lovely and we got on very well. But this time, because I'd been through the experience and I know what to expect and I really leaned into it, I took my time and I really offered up a lot of intentions and I went through all the different fountains, and as we left the water temple, I started bleeding. Like, my uterus— like, I just— from, from, from my vagina, I started bleeding.

And it was, you know, wow, right? Finally, miscarriage was happening.

So I'd already— I'd already gone into surgery. I'd already had everything sorted. Everything was pulled out, all that. My body finally let go. It finally let go of this because I, you know, I think from a spiritual perspective I wanted to have a baby anyway. But whatever it is, my body finally let go and I had healing and I felt it. And from that day, that day in Bali in 2019, April, doors have opened for me, and especially when I'm ready and willing to receive from the universe, doors have opened for me, like, just one after the other since then, and I have had incredible opportunities. I don't want to say luck, but I've had incredible opportunities. I've met incredible people. I've seen incredible things. I've done incredible— I've been to incredible places, and I went from being a you know, a general practice trainee in a small clinic in rural or semi-rural New South Wales in Australia to now— and I think you may have seen my bio now— like, to being an international doctor, you know, whatever, medical advisor, medical director, chief medical officer, blah blah blah, of like 19 different companies and clinics now. You know, it's just been I kind of sometimes joke that the universe felt kind of bad for me. They didn't expect that the miscarriage would go so badly, so it felt bad for me and like was generous after.

They're giving you gifts here. I came bearing gifts. Wow. What is one of the biggest gifts that you feel that you've received from the universe? From thinking about where you were in the South Wales to now? Reflecting about the journey of like, of course, this healing suffering, but also now.

So now the biggest gifts I feel that I have been privileged to have seen and accepted and received is that there is something more than us, and I don't have to define that. It's not a religious kind of indoctrination, it's not an institution, it's something, you know, this connection. So from a medical perspective, I've gone full circle into learning more about light vibration, sound is healing, you know, that kind of stuff. I now fully understand and embrace the concepts of manifestation and setting intentions. Because again, we're going back to that vibration, you know. I am very grateful for the fact that it does seem that you kind of get what you give, you know. I'm so happy to say I don't understand and I don't know so many things, but my mind is definitely more open to things, and I have met incredible people, I've experienced incredible things, and I love the fact that I am at the bottom of the Dunning-Kruger curve. I don't know, but this just makes the rest of my life that much more— it's exciting, you know, to learn. It's exciting to see what's possible.

So you're excited because you don't— it's what I'm hearing is that you don't know what you don't know, but you're excited because you feel this spiritual force surrounding you And that's— it also feels like it's carrying you with a lot of promise because you've gone through a lot. But at the same time, there's so much bliss in what you're experiencing right now.

Yeah.

One of the trips that like, it was serendipitous. Oh God, this word, this word. It was serendipitous that we met, our encounter and the conversation. Some of it was extremely personal, right, about personal life goals, journeys, and pivots in where we are and in our journeys and things that we know and things that we don't know and where we're going to live when we retire, etc. And it was like we've always known each other. It was a super odd thing. Like, you put in a group, oh, who's there? And then I didn't want to leave you. And we had so much fun. It was incredible. And I'm like, if I ever have more kids, I want to raise my kids just right next to your kids, right? I saw how kindred it was, that encounter. I had so much fun in Lisbon. Anywho, so okay, so when you met your higher self, right, you were— was it— I just want to go back to this experience in Bali where you went in the waters. I had this amazing experience in the same waters where I think for me it was— I had a hard time opening my eyes. I don't know if you— did you watch Game of Thrones? So the seer, when he was having visions, his eyes would be rolling. So when I arrived in the fountains, I don't know what was happening with my eyes, but I was having a hard time opening my eyes. So I was just like trying to open them and I was like, what the hell is going on with me? And I was like, okay, I'm not going to be weird. But the whole time I had a hard time opening my eyes. I could just think about this little boy under the tree who was like having visions. I was like, no, no, Katheline Jean-Pierre, take a deep breath. So anyway, I had this thing with my eyes, so I went to the water, I went to my healing and had all my, you know, you have to say what are you grateful for, what are you giving up, and then what are you asking for all of the different fun things. So that was very healing for me, especially being grateful, because we always come and you want to ask a bunch of things. I'm not, I don't want to hear to come ask and ask. I want to actually be grateful, and then yes, I'm gonna have some ask, but I wanna be grateful for everything that I've been given. So I think it's amazing that finally, like, you let go. So can you tell, how did you feel it was your higher self? At what moment?

I actually do remember it.

Yeah.

So I was very angry with my partner at the time because he— the pregnancy freaked him out. And he wasn't around. And we started, you know, basically, our relationship was falling apart while I was dealing with this miscarriage as well. And eventually, this is before the surgery, he broke up with me on the phone. And I was working at the time, driving around as a driver around doctor, you know, after hours. And it was— I had a driver, and I saw the call come through, and I said, I have to take this. So I left the car. It was raining, and I was sat— it was like 11 PM at night. I was sat on the ground outside next to the road. It was raining, and he broke up with me on the phone. And it was just that you just couldn't feel worse, you know? And I was so angry. I was so angry and I thought I deserved better and blah blah blah. Anyway, fast forward, I still remember the switch. And the switch was, I remember thinking, what must he be going through? That, because he's a great guy, he is, he's a great guy. So what must he have been going through here and, you know, heart and head that he broke up with me like that or that he couldn't be around to at least, you know, see me through the surgery or whatever. In that moment, I remember there was— I felt a shift in my body, you know, and it was just— it was, I'm gonna be okay. Because many of us have resilience we don't even realize we have until we're tested, and that resilience comes through. And I leaned into that resilience, and I was able to find from those depths forgiveness and kindness and compassion for someone else, and it felt amazing. And now, don't get me wrong, I'm human. Like, I go— I'm my old self many a time, you know, but occasionally when I dig back and I start thinking about the other person, or I start thinking about the world at large, or I Meditate again. Life is lighter, you know. So I'm so grateful that now I know that, so that when I forget and life is starting to fall apart, I'm like, oh yeah, I should go to the beach and I should meditate again, you know, or something like that.

I think that's beautiful. We know that we have it in us. I like the sentence you said, we're stronger than we think we are. When I was going through something very, very hard when I had a lot of catastrophic events in my life, my coach— and I was very intentional, I hired a Haitian coach because I wanted to have someone who's been through it and that I needed to be true, close to my roots. And he just said one sentence, he said, Katheline, you are stronger than you think you are, number one. And then I don't know why, just because he said that, I just thought about the Black Maroons, who were the Black revolutionaries who orchestrated the revolutions in Haiti and hid in the mountain, the top of the mountains, right? Plan the revolution, but after the revolution as well, right? They went to the mountains. And I think about my ancestors who went through slavery, and found a way to escape to the mountains and to be free. And here I am living my very comfortable life, crying and panic attacks, and I'm like, girl, you're stronger than you think you are, living your plush life, driving your electric vehicle, you're good. And I was like, okay, just let's get on to it.

And that's it, isn't it? It's like we forget. I mean, it's all about context and, and all that. And that's why now, um, I remember saying to someone that if all you've known in your life is wealth and comforts, like, I don't know, Paris Hilton, let's just say, if you break a nail, that is actually an upsetting situation, right? Because the world is ready and willing to invalidate you every step of the way so you can't invalidate yourself. Whatever it is that you feel upset about, that's okay. You feel upset about that. Just because there are people starving in the third world country doesn't mean that your problems aren't real. You know, we can't always be comparing it to the people who have it worse off, otherwise we're just invalidating how we— our experience, our lived experience. However, we need to learn from them, and I'm certainly still struggling with that. You know, every time something happens and I realize that I'm so far away from my best self, it's a kick up the bum. And when I am present enough to remember the lessons that I've been given over the last few years from Source or whatever, then I know how lucky I am, the fact that I even had those lessons and I can tap into it, you know.

Yeah, no, 100%. I think the key is to tap into it. So I want to make sure we, we go back to you and, and talk about the— what you feel, because I think it's a complex field and I want to hear a bit more. So we heard about how you really were able to have the courage to tap into the most elevated version of yourself, and then that like I want to say like by solving for yourself, like you've seen yourself in high vibrations, in love, having this relationship, and then suddenly you had no symptoms and all the different problems that you had were not there anymore, were not present. So I want to hear some examples of like from the field of being in psychoneuroimmunology and, and in the field of complex chronic conditions, how were you able to solve like examples of some problems with patients that you were like able to solve for And like, how do you tackle a complex chronic condition? Like, give us an example of what you've done and how you do it.

Okay, so most of us, when we experience a complex chronic condition or a symptom, we always think of our body as breaking down. Or if you have an autoimmune condition, our body is against us. Or if you have a cancer, your body is broken. Genetics is determined, whatever. But when you reframe things, it just gives you a different opportunity to search for different possible answers. And that reframing is this: your body was forged in the fires of evolution over millions of years. Generally speaking, your body is going to fall back on evolutionary mechanisms to try to protect you if there's a threat, or if there is a perceived threat. In other words, inflammation is one of the oldest mechanisms that our body has to employ in the face of a threat, because inflammation in the short term is protective, regenerative, so on and so forth. It's chronic inflammation that winds up causing damage. So the chronic inflammation that we see in society, in all these different disease processes, Alzheimer's is inflammation. Type 2 diabetes is inflammation. Cancer involves inflammation.

Is arthritis inflammation as well?

Exactly.

Thyroid?

Thyroid is inflammation. Right. So inflammation at some point in the disease process, your body was, was turning it on because it was trying to protect you from something. Now, the sustained inflammation means that either the body is still perceiving that threat or your healing mechanisms are not entirely on board. So there are two things going on, right? You— when you're trying to heal someone from a disease process, you need to remove the threat, remove the issue, and the healing cycle has to be intact for that person to get back to wellness. Those are two separate things. One is pathogenesis, the other one is salutogenesis. So medicine tends to focus on pathogenesis, removing the sphincter, cutting out the tumor, that kind of stuff, right? But they very rarely focus on cellu-genesis. Have you got all the minerals and vitamins on board to even help with the healing? Are you taking in enough amino acids? Is your electromagnetic feels, because everything in the cell is electrical, right? Essentially. So the brain, there's all electrical highways. Our membranes of the, the wrapping around every cell contains a membrane potential, and that's how outside is kept from the inside, inside is kept from the outside. Everything is an electrical potential. Muscle movements is a depolarization, right? So different thoughts and feelings carry with it different electrical signatures as well.

And feelings can get us sick. In your example of your— before you got into that relationship, which seems that you brought you into very high vibrations, happiness and joy, you had some thoughts and feelings that maybe got you sick that generated a lot of different symptoms. I want to give you an example. A lot of Black women have fibroids, right? Don't know where it's coming from. I've had fibroids, my sisters, my mom, etc., and like removed them, and then they came back after I had a child, right? Like, and then it gives me anemia because of like, it's a lot of blood. I spoke to one of my friends who's a nutritionist. She's like, yeah, you have anemia, but is like to what you talked about, you talked about prevention and minerals, like, well, do you take vitamin C? Do you take— no, nobody ever talked to me about it.

Right.

I'm not unaware of it. And now she's putting me on some vitamin C and magnesium and etc., etc. So I think it's super interesting because it seems like prevention and minerals, this whole portion that we don't spend a lot of time versus my doctors are just like, okay, well, just like there's nothing we can do. We could remove them, but it's just— let's just wait.

Yeah, so they're looking at the pathogenesis side of things, and we need to be looking at both pathogenesis and salugenesis. And after that, we need to be looking at it from not just an immune issue or an endocrine issue, but everything is connected to everything. Psychoneuroimmunology is actually that intersection between psychology, behaviors, behavioral sciences, nervous system, immunology, endocrinology, which is hormones, right? So it's that intersection point between all these things because everything affects everything. And this allows me and my patients to have more than one lever to pull. So what I mean by that is if you have Type 2 diabetes, which is an endocrine hormone mostly issue. But when you realize that people who have experienced adverse childhood experiences, you know, whether it's financial abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse or whatever it is, they're more likely to have Type 2 diabetes later on. You're more likely to have Type 2 diabetes if you have a magnesium deficiency. You're more likely to have Type 2 diabetes if you have too much carbohydrates or sugars in your diet depending on your genetics, right? I mean, there's so many different levers that you're more likely to have exacerbations of your type 2 diabetes if you have poor sleep. You're more likely to have issues with your sugars and, you know, getting your type 2 diabetes under control if you're stressed. So what this means is that I'm able to offer my patients a whole smorgasbord of levers to pull to help with condition. And I can say, if you don't want to change your diet, we don't have to focus on that right now, right? It's something that we will work on slowly, but we need to do whatever you— I need to meet you halfway. Where can you meet me? Under what of these parameters are you able to meet me? Right? And then slowly together, we can pull a few of those levers because right now, Type 2 diabetes is reversible. Not just manageable but reversible. So if anybody Googles type 2 diabetes reversible low-carb diet, for example, all the different testimonials now and all the rest of it starts coming up because it is absolutely possible. So I never want to like pigeonhole a patient into something that's, you know, lifelong and saddle them when there are actually lots options.

So what about arthritis? Is it reversible? Yes. So how do you reverse arthritis?

It will depend on what the issue is, right? So remember, we're talking about pathogenesis and saliogenesis. Is your issue constant chronic threats, whatever those threats are, or is it— and/or is it due to the fact that your healing system is stuck? So for anybody who's listening to this podcast who's thinking, what exactly does she mean by the healing system and the salutogenesis and all the rest of it, I highly recommend that you Google something called cell danger response. Cell danger response is a mitochondrial hypothesis that has been well fleshed out by Professor Naviaux, N-A-V-A-U-I-X, I believe. From— and he has a Naviaux Lab at UC San Diego, I think it is. And that talks a lot about the cell's ability to sense danger, change the mitochondrial propensity for repair, and then go back to a homeostatic state out of danger. When this is compromised, you get issues. Cells get stuck in a particular mode. So, yeah, so with arthritis, you have to figure out what the different issues could be, get rid of that, and then make sure that the healing capacity is, is optimized.

And what about fibroids? Are they reversible?

I haven't had much experience with fibroids, but my instinct is to say yes. Absolutely right. Anything that is not— like, every— generally speaking, most things, most symptoms that we see is going to be— confer some advantage to the animal in certain circumstances. We only see things from the perspective, first world, where, well, this is inconvenient and painful, therefore it's bad. But your body is trying to affect some sort of change. And so if we kind of like the forgiveness of that other person, right, when we, when we resee, when we reframe the problem, we can start asking questions like, what does my body think it's trying to do? What does my body— what, how could this possibly be advantageous to my body, right? In what circumstances is that advantageous? So for example, like I said, I haven't dealt much with fibroids, but off air, we— let's, I mean, let's work on that together, right? This is a problem to solve. So for example, I was dealing a lot with chronic candidiasis, chronic candidal infections in patients where it doesn't matter how much antifungals you use on them, they just don't get better, right? I mean, I'm talking somewhere— one patient in particular, I remember years, years, chronic yeast infection. So the itch and the pain and the burning and the discharge, I mean Pro girl. And, you know, and this is the answer. So I left general practice, this was years ago, and then I've come to this realization now where I'm just constantly just reframing problems, just to ask the question. That's all. I could be wrong, but I'm just asking questions now, right? Because I'm not willing to accept the 'we don't know why she's got chronic candidiasis.' and then leave it at that. Like, that's not good enough for her and certainly not good enough.

Yeah.

So, you know, one of the things that I've discovered in my little reviewing of the literature and stuff is that there is now, you know, with the pollution in society, there is actually more heavy metals in semen, for example, than we've seen before. Now, not everybody and not every load, but there is definitely heavy metals that can be found in semen. And wouldn't you know it, yeast can actually help to sequester and metabolize those heavy metals. So I wonder, for example, and like I said, I don't know if this is the answer, but A, if you ask the question, then you're gonna actually start looking. And maybe it's that you are exposed to heavy metals in semen, and so your yeast increases in activity to try and protect you. You know, that's just one possible answer out of many.

Yeah, it's a hypothesis.

Yeah.

No, I think that's a good point. And then when you think about like being our higher selves, right? Everybody would like— I'm just assuming that everybody would want to be in their higher self. How can you be your higher self if you're having all these chronic conditions, right? So let's say I have like type 2 diabetes and I'm suffering, or I have a yeast infection and I'm I'm suffering and I'm trying to be my best self and I'm trying to be in my highest vibrations, but I'm like in pain all the time. So what would be your recommendation? Because we all say it's a Latin proverb, right? In, in the— I know it's in French. It's in the— it's a sane mind in a sane body, right? But if your body is not sane, how can you have a sane mind and how can you vibrate high?

That's a really good question. And you absolutely Yeah, but you're absolutely right. Like, it's really hard to, like, try to excel when you're struggling with the standard stuff, right? And the one thing that we all know is that if you keep trying to do the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome, then that's the definition of insanity. So in other words, first things first. First, start reframing the issues. Second, realize that there's more than one lever to pull on many disease processes and find a good— it doesn't have to be a doctor, but find a good coach, health practitioner, someone who's willing and able to join you on a quest of discovery. Third, very importantly, self-compassion and self-kindness go It takes you far because when you are sitting with your body, living in your body, and you hate it, it is a very dark place to be. So as you know, I'm the medical director of a mind-body medicine company called Liberate. We have a free science white paper that I wrote. You go to liberate, L-I-B-E-R, the number 8, dot health. You can go again, just chuck in your name and email address, and this 160, 170-page white paper is yours. And it talks all about the mechanisms of psycho-oncology, psycho-gynecology, psycho-cardioangiology. Like, it talks about why and how your emotions and your psychological state can affect your physiology and your biology. So that is going to be available to you, right? How you think about things, how you process emotions, how you let triggers trigger you— this is in your control. So the brilliant thing I think about both of us, that the shit that we've gone through to get to where we are now— and I'm not saying that we're at the pinnacle, like, I mean, you know, we've still got a long way to go— but one of the things is that because we have gone through so much, it just makes you realize that there are actually options and that there are— there's always tomorrow. And there is something to be said about learning from all the bad stuff that's happened too. You'd never get the lesson if you didn't, you know, get the— have the issue kind of thing. So everything's a bit of an opportunity too. Like, I don't want this to be a rah-rah positive thinking, you know, affirmations galore from start to finish. Like, we have to feel our pain too. That's super important. That's part of the human experience. But, you know, reframing, I think, can be very important.

No, I think those are very wise words because we don't think about being our higher self until sometimes— like, we had a guest who talks about, like, we wait until it gets dire. Like, Raw Goddess talks about how we wait until we hit rock bottom, right? It's human nature, even with health or with anything, with work, which is like, we're gonna work our way to the grave, right? We're gonna wait until it gets very dire until we change the course of our career or our health or anything. We have a tendency to wait until the last minute. And I think it's important, like all of us, like we're gonna push the limits and then when it hurts really bad, then that's when we make a change. But wishing for everyone not to wait until you hit rock bottom to seek your higher self and to be your higher self. But thank you so much for all your words of wisdom. I think it's been very, very helpful. I hope we're going to meet again. I don't know which city it's going to be, Bahamas or Bali, or if it's going to be Lisboa or Porto. We'll see. But thank you so much. And then we'll stay connected. Okay, have a good one.

Thank you so much.