Mia Michaels Begins Therapeutic Plasma Exchange | Her Journey Back to Health

Hi, I'm Mia Michaels, and as many of you know, I have been MIA. So I was perfectly named by my mom and dad. I have been MIA for years now due to some health issues that I couldn't really get a grasp on, and I'm excited to share that I'm going on this journey with MD Lifespan and Dr. Paul Savage doing therapeutic plasma plasma exchange to remove all the toxins and mycotoxins, infections, all of it out of my body so I can now take my life back and be creative again. And, uh, I'm— I couldn't be more excited to share this journey with you.

I think one of the most powerful things about your story is you were sharing with me how you felt disconnected, and so many people can relate to that. They feel disconnected to themselves for whatever reason.

Yeah.

Tell me more about that.

Well, I feel that disconnection is— can be on so many different levels, from disconnect to the world around you, disconnect to your body, disconnect to your spirit, disconnect to people. So it's, you know, there's lots of layers to that word, but I will say, like, from my, from my experience, my journey, I can honestly say I never truly felt connected to my body, which is crazy because I was in the dance world from— I grew up in a dance studio and I was constantly dancing and moving. However, in hindsight, when I look back, I go like, I never really connected internally to my body. It was more about the aesthetic of movement. And then as I became a choreographer, it was more about creating movement through everyone else's body. So then I stepped back even more and lost more dis— I had more disconnection to myself and to my body. And through the journey of being a choreographer and then becoming successful, the more and more I stepped away from my body, and I didn't listen to myself. I didn't listen to my body trying to talk to me through so, so many years. I literally was all about— I had blinders on, like, and I was just like, focus, success, achievement, make it happen. It was that kind of energy. Anything else that would come in the way of like my health or the way I ate or drinking too much, partying, stressing out, traveling, not sleeping, like all of those things factored into where I'm at today. And I just never listened to it because I was on, I was on a trajectory. I was like this path that I was going on. Nothing else mattered. And then what happened is when COVID hit, I wound up coming to Orlando. And as soon as I got to Orlando, and once I stopped, because I was already starting to spiral out of the entertainment industry. I just, after I did my big show at Radio City with, you know, the Rockettes, that was like a big directorial and a big moment for me. And then it just like everything started falling away. It was weird. It was just like relationships, work, everything just started kind of going away and what was left was me. And that was very uncomfortable because my whole life was about work and creativity and as everything started kind of falling away That's when COVID happened. I wound up in Orlando, and then my health just was like, basically, after decades of ignoring my body, it was like, screw you. It was like, okay, now it's my turn, you know. And for the last years, like the last 5 years, I've been in and out of the hospital. I've been not knowing. I go in and people are like I don't know what's wrong with you. Like, I've done every test known to man, you know. I've had so many tests, so many scans, and just, I'm not myself, and I'm not feeling well, and things are happening in my body, and I'm like, I don't know what's going on. And it forced me to connect, right, to my body. Some way, and I'm still working on that because it was decades of me being disconnected. So it's a big— that word disconnect for me, big time with my body from even a child. So I'm— that's a relationship that I'm working on now.

And you spent your career expressing yourself through movement.

Yeah.

And your body. And so now that you've come to this point, so what are some of the things that you kind of realized about your body?

That I ignored it, that I didn't take care of it, you know, and we're given one body in this lifetime and how, what we do with it, you know, it's like it, what we do today affects our tomorrow, right, and the decisions we make is from not only from what we eat, what we drink, what we breathe, what we watch, what we listen to, It's all we're putting in, right? And so it's so important to be aware of what you're putting in your body, period, and what you get out, because we're living in a world, especially in the United States, that is just loaded with millions, trillions of toxins that we can't get away from. Our food and our water and our air and our social media and our— on our big screens. Like, it's everywhere, and there has to be an outlet. Yeah, but because we're getting it in, but there has to be an outlet. There has to, or we die. So we find, you know, that I have many friends and people that I know that are sick. They're sick and they don't know what's wrong with them. And they've gone to so many doctors but they just don't know what's happening in their body and everyone just chalks it off as like, "Oh, we're getting older, so that's part of getting older. That's the aging process is to feel like crap." And I'm not gonna buy it.

Yeah. From the outside looking in, I think this happens to a lot of us, everybody looks at you and looks at us and, "Oh, you look fine." Yes, but what were some of the things that you noticed that you maybe weren't doing that you could have been doing, or signs that your body was telling you that you kind of still take a step back and say, okay, this is happening?

Well, I think the main— it's like the simplest things from— and we hear it, right? It's just like eat well, drink enough water, exercise, breathe, like all these things that are so simple. These are the things that make you healthy, you know, and all of those things I didn't do. I ate terrible, you know, I'm a foodie, but I chose bad, like I chose food like just not thinking about my health, and what I would do because I would have very long days, you know, either in rehearsals or or shoots or whatever it was. So by the end of the day, my reward was a great martini, a bottle of wine, any food that I wanted, because that was my reward for, you did it, you got through the day, congratulations, you know. And that was my, that was my place of like, I couldn't wait to, at the end of the day, have my reward. And then between the cortisol levels and the stress levels of my work and then not having any time to meditate, to breathe, to— I didn't drink enough water. My drinks of choice were coffee and wine, you know, that's where—

I can relate.

That's my choice of drinks for sure, you know, and then I didn't exercise.

Ever.

And so, because I was always, you know, I was working in a physical world of movement, but yet my body started going, declining. My knees, arthritis, joints, neck, all of it. And then I was getting heavier and heavier, less, you know, like it was just like this weird thing, like of just, yes, you're successful, but you have no time to take care of yourself and you're not. And so you're getting unhealthy, unhealthy, heavier, heavier. So it's just this really crazy time for me that I had to— I mean, I think God and the universe just basically was like, sit down, you're gonna, you're gonna take a moment in your life and you're gonna deal with your body and the one vessel that we're given to walk through this earth. You know, this is our earth suit. And if we don't take care of it, we're not going to be here. And, you know, I'm now 60, and I want to— I'm stepping into a new chapter of my life, and I have struggled in the last 5 years. So it's been such a journey, and so awful and scary. And, um, I don't— and when you lose your health, when you lose all— it's like you lose your You lose yourself. You lose yourself, and then all of a sudden you're like, where'd my life go? Like, I don't have any energy. My brain fog was on— is on another level, like, to the point where I'm just like, I don't— I don't— I'm not comfortable going back to work. I'm scared to go back to work because my brain isn't functioning the way it used to work. I used to be able to like, zing, zazz, you know, I mean, I was very sharp.

Multitask.

Yeah, and then now it's just like What is happening? You know, and every day when I put my feet on the floor, first thing, you know, I thank God for another day, but the next question is, oh my God, what am I feeling? What am I feeling today? Am I okay today? Like, what's my body telling me today? And it's exhausting. It's exhausting, and I can't wait to get to the other side of all this so I can take back my life and my creativity. You know, that's a big thing. I haven't been able to be as creative as I used to be.

You mentioned brain fog as one of the signs. What, what, what else was your body telling you that you were noticing that maybe you just didn't— maybe it was happening, but you just didn't have the time to like notice it?

The brain fog didn't happen until I would say the last 3 or 4 years, but my body was telling me, my gut was telling me a lot for a while. And, you know, working in New York in those old theaters, lots of mold, lots of mold. I'm loaded with tattoos, which I didn't realize at the time hold so many heavy metals because this is the old ink and the old ink has a lot of heavy metals. The new ink is more vegan-based, but in order for me to take off this ink, I'm not healthy enough to take it off because when you laser, it goes into your bloodstream and then it's up to your body to get rid of it. I can't, I couldn't do it. So I'm left with like this stuff on my body that isn't the greatest, right? But I also came from My mom, she had, she, you know, was not healthy when she, she was full of amalgams and toxins and lead. She was loaded with lead when we were born. So a lot of things get even passed on as, you know, as babies. And then we're in moldy homes in Miami growing up, and then also then what happened The gut— I had SIBO, H. pylori, ulcers, gastritis. I have hernias. Like, I mean, my gut is— my gut is— yeah, it's been a lot of issues with my gut. And then just recently, 2— well, 2 years ago, A year ago, sorry, we find out that I have this massive, massive infection in my jaw, in my right side of my jaw, from bad root canals. So my teeth were done for television, you know, and I have all these veneers, but I've also had very weak teeth my whole life, and I'm a mouth breather, which also creates weak teeth and stuff, right, and I had, I got all these root canals and 2 of them in the back went really, really bad, but with root canals it's very scary because you don't feel the pain, so when they get infected there's no nerve anymore, so you don't know when there's an infection, and I mean after doing the research people have died from bad root canals from infections, right, and it's super scary, and I find out that I have this massive, massive infection in the lower part of my jaw. Cut to last, last summer, we have it removed, and they took out like an inch, and an inch in a, in a, in a canal like in it is a lot of tissue, necrotic bone, necrotic tissue was taken out. I had been very, very sick from this infection. So how did you find out that you had the infection? From a biological dentist, and all these other dentists were like, "No, you're fine. There's no infection. No, everything's great." And this guy was just like, "You gotta get these out. You gotta get these out, like, now." And I wound up in an emergency in Greece getting it out and then coming back here, but it was a journey. And after I took that massive infection out, I did feel quite a bit better, but you know, I'm still— there's still stuff. And my brain fog kind of escalated this the last couple years where I was like, what is going on? And so I think a combination of everything, from the toxins, from lack— the infection, from my gut, from— I mean, there's just, there's a lot of stuff, and I think circulating in my body, and I think that's has been causing a lot of the brain fog.

Would you say like over the past 5 years, this is when you've really taken a step back to really invest in your health?

Yeah, I would say I really started taking it seriously about 3 years ago, and then it just keeps getting more, and then it, then it actually became my passion because I'm realizing it's like, well, I'm blessed enough to be able to, you know, do treatments and go to specific doctors and to, you know, do the things I need to do. It's so important. And so that's kind of been my goal now, is to— my health is my goal, is to get it back. That's my main goal. And I'm a very good goal-oriented person. I like to really, when I decide to do something, I really go for it and I really do it because, and this is the most important decision I've made because without your health you have nothing and I miss having vibrancy and I miss feeling creative, I miss feeling alive, I miss feeling— I hate the fear that I have in my body, like anytime things come up you're like, what is that, what is that, you know, and it's terrifying and it's awful and I don't want that anymore. Anymore, you know, and I feel like a lifetime of not great decisions and the lifestyle and all kinds of stuff has gotten me to this place and now I'm, I'm doing something about it. Now I'm making different decisions and now I'm making, I'm moving forward and I'm excited about this next chapter of my life and what can, can you only imagine what it's going to be like even creatively and to live a life when you actually finally feel vibrant and healthy and good and you get yourself back.

You touched a little bit on just the history of toxins, maybe, you know, how it impacted your life when you were around the same age and no idea growing up in Miami that, you know, you're exposed exposed to all this humidity and mold, and meanwhile we're, you know, putting hairspray and deodorant. I think the statistics show that, you know, our age and white females are the most toxic because of how we grew up and, you know, just in general, like our makeup. When did you really start— I mean, it's in the newsfeed every day about toxins, but when did you really start like saying, okay, have you always been aware about toxins? No.

No, I have not been aware of toxins. My sister, she's a functional medicine doctor here in Orlando, and so she was responsible for like getting me on this path, you know. And I would listen when I was in New York. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you should do this, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when I came down from COVID I wound up living with her for about a year before because I wasn't sure where I was gonna wind up. And I remember going to the grocery store and I bought, you know, food for the house and she was like, "Mia, it's not organic." I was like, "Does that really matter?" And she's like, "Yeah, it matters. Absolutely, it matters. You don't want pesticides all over your fruit and vegetables and you don't want processed foods and you don't da da da." So I was like, "Okay," and at first I was like, "This is a lot." But then after like staying, living there, I started like going, oh, and then I started like naturally just dropping weight because I was eating differently and I was not eating such processed foods. I wasn't, um, you know, I wasn't— I was eating organically. I remember when I first came down, at least once a week I would escape and I'd go to McDonald's, right? It's like you wouldn't— you couldn't pay me, right, to go to McDonald's. The amount of toxins and the things that have come out about all these fast food and processed food. And I mean, when you look at a box, you go, I can't even pronounce any of this. This is— this isn't food. Like, this isn't food. You go to Costco and you can get a box of carrots that were packaged a year ago, and it says organic on it, which is insane.

Yeah.

And so it's like really going back to whole food, right? Organic whole foods. Like, that to me, I think, is the biggest thing. But my journey continues to escalate, the passion of wellness and the knowledge of toxins. And it took me a while to clean out my makeup, to clean out my skincare, because, you know, you always buy the best, you know, the best stuff you can get, and A lot of those things are just full of toxins, the makeup, the this, and I mean really high luxury brands too. And now I'm like with the simplest little, like, you know, just 5 ingredients, you know, and you know, from like the Cotswolds, some wonderful woman just creating these beautiful skincare, you know, natural organic stuff. Stopped doing Botox. Stopped doing all of it because I just was like, I'm pumping my face with toxins into my head, into my— and now they're finding that Botox can move to your brain and it can affect your brain health. It can— there's so many things now that you're going like that are coming out that we didn't know 20 years ago. I was doing Botox when I was 35, you know, and all this I mean, that's decades of doing it, and I was just like, now I'm like, oh my God, but wait, oh my God, which one do you want?

You want to create?

Yeah, you want a typeface or you want toxins? So I'm like, yeah, so it's, you know, it's a journey, and like now it's still everything. I read everything. I try to keep my home, you know, super, super, super clean. Even with, you know, Sok, my fiancé, it's just like, it's a journey for him. I'm trying to, you know, because he doesn't understand either, but he sees how sick I was. He was the one that was taking me in and out of the hospital.

So yeah, so a lot of stories, it's very similar here, is of people that just, you know, they go from doctor to doctor, they can't figure out what's going on, and then these small lifestyle changes like you just mentioned, and you also mentioned that you have an infrared sauna. Tell a little bit more about it, how you integrated that into your life, and maybe some other ways to detoxify as you've been going on your health journey.

Yeah, so yet once again, my sister is responsible for introducing me to the infrared sauna because she had one in her house, right? And so I was using that And then when I moved out, the first thing, you know, I got was an infrared sauna. So good, so good, because it's not a traditional sauna where it just makes you sweat. What happens is it heats up your organs. You'll be sitting in heat, but you won't be sweating. It's very interesting because it's heating up your internal organs, and then about 20 minutes in, all of a sudden you're like, Whoosh! So it's a great detox tool for— I mean, it's fantastic. My brother-in-law beat prostate cancer, and one of the biggest tools that he used was an infrared sauna. And he was just— I mean, every single day he was in it, and he really attributes a majority of his healing to the detox pathways. And that's the other thing, is you want to make sure your detox pathways are open so that you can clear toxins, right? You know, drinking the right water, red light therapy is wonderful, vibration, rebounding. And so what I'll do is I'll go, I'll rebound for about 10 minutes or, you know, 15 minutes, then I'll lay in a red light, you know, and then I'll go on a vibration plate, and then I'll take a, like, a charcoal, binder, and then I'll go sit in the sauna for, you know, 30 minutes. And that's kind of my way of kind of detoxing, because when you rebound and/or do vibration plate before you do a sauna, it kind of gets things moving and loosened up so that you can actually have even more of a detox.

Well, it sounds like you've been on this toxin-free journey. How did you come to where you are today, where you've discovered now to explore therapeutic plasma exchange and tell us a little bit about how you got to, to this point.

When I talked about last year with the infections and everything, last year was the worst. That was the— it kind of came to a head with that infection. And what was happening is my body was, is, was so inflamed that I would have these episodes where all of a sudden my gut is like so much pain, so much pain, and then my limbs would lock up, everything would lock up, my head felt like it was going to explode, and my heart was going really fast, and these were episodes where I couldn't move for 6 to 8 hours, and Suk would have to carry me to emergency because it was so, it was so scary, but yet I didn't know what was happening to me. So I'd get to the emergency and they couldn't find anything, but it was all, it was all, it was all based on inflammation in my body, whether it was coming from the infection or my gut, we're not sure. But I wound up seeing a doctor in California, Dr. Daniel Roney, and he, he told me about plasma exchange. And he also said there's two treatments out there that I think you should look into: EBOO, and then the, the top one, the best one that you can do is plasma exchange. If you can find somebody in Florida, in Orlando, that does the plasma exchange, I really think it would benefit you. And so I started doing a deep dive, and Paul, Dr. Paul Savage MD's name came up. I just reached out to him and I just said, "Dr. Savage, this is Mia Michaels and I need your help. I think I need what you have." And he was like, "Mia Michaels, oh my God, I know you. I used to watch your work on City Thinking and Dance and blah, blah, blah." And I said, "If you can help me to get back to my creative side." like I would be so grateful, you know. So now then we find out that there's a place here in Orlando, Dr. Lee's office, which is like 10 minutes away from me. And so, you know, after kind of— there was multiple people saying plasma exchange, plasma exchange, plasma exchange. So I was just like, okay, okay. You know, so now we're here and we're about to go on this journey and it's scary and it's exciting and I'm so ready for it because like I said, I'm just ready to step into the next chapter of my life in a beautiful, beautiful, healthy way.

So just looking back pre-5 years ago before you hit the wall of where you are now, What was a day in the life of Mia then, and what is it now, and what do you want it to be?

Oh my goodness, wow, that's a really big question. What it was was a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, stress around the hustle, always going, okay, I'm working, but what's— you know, as an artist, you don't know what's happening next, right? It's not— you're not doing a 9 to 5. You're not like, okay, this is my salary, this is what it is. It's like, here's a project, you do it, and you go from— you go like full out. Like, it's intense. There's no, you know, it's like lack of sleep, and it's intense, and this and that, and then it's done. And then you're like, okay, what's next, you know? So it's always the constant hustle to make sure that you have work But then if you're doing, if you are working, you're, I mean, you could be up depending on what project, we could be shooting, starting shooting at 5 in the morning until 7 at night, you know, rehearsing all day. And then you always have the reward, you got to have the reward at the end, right? So it was intense, you know, and it's, you know, with all the production houses and the directors and producers, and there's lots of personalities, and you're always having to prove yourself. And that was really, really difficult because no matter how successful you are, the more successful, the more people expected from you, and you constantly had to prove yourself over and over and over again. Am I good enough? Is that good enough? Is my work— you know, and that's really unhealthy and it's really stressful and you don't realize that until hindsight, right? So there's that, that, okay, I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm successful, but there's, oh my God, I'm doing it, I'm doing it. That's the entrepreneur life, right? Yeah, and then all of a sudden, sick happens and sick is like fear and pain and no clarity about, or future, like what am I, what can I do if this is my, this is my life, how am I ever going to do anything like other than just be home, right? So constantly running to doctors, my life is doctor after doctor after doctor, my life is appointment after appointment. It's exhausting. Like, I'm tired of always having to get tests done and going here and there. It's just, it's exhausting. That's my career right now, and I don't want that anymore. I want to have a life that I can wake up and feel great and work out and be in my garden and be creative and cook and enjoy my life with my partner and my two dogs. And also, you know, I see myself because I'm not done yet, you know. I feel like there's a whole world that I want to bring together from my knowledge of movement and, and just the learning how powerful movement is. And how healing movement is and bringing together the passion of wellness and what I'm learning and what I have learned about how to take care of yourself. I want to bring this together and create something for everyone. And what that looks like, I'm not sure yet, but I'm in the process of trying to create something that's for all people, not just— not for dancers, but for people. People that can help heal and help make them— because I think about if I'm suffering, how many millions of people are suffering and they don't know what's wrong with them, you know? And it's— they, they're just— they're like, what's happening in my body? And I feel like crap and I don't know, and I've been to every doctor. People, people are suffering and there's got to be a way to— there's got to.

Yeah. You mentioned that you kind of disappeared over the past 5 years from your fans and from being on camera like we are now. And now you're sharing your journey. And imagine somebody that maybe doesn't, you know, doesn't have a fan base or a following and they disappear, you know, what What advice would you give them to come out? Like, you're sharing your journey. If you had to give advice to somebody that was feeling what you're feeling, and really you're appearing mostly to doctors versus your friends and your, your network, what would you say to somebody that is just suffering right now and nobody even realizes they disappeared?

I— the first thing I would say, well, you know, I'm— the Western medicine world, I think they're great and they're for what— when emergency, when you need them for emergencies, right? But for longevity, I think America is just on medication, more medication, more medication, more— that it just is a snowball effect because one medication that it makes you sick in another way, and then you have to take this, it makes you sick. So I think that whole mentality of that take another pill, take another pill. I think it's just, I think that's one of our biggest issues in America is that kind of mentality. I think telling someone to go start moving into a clean space, more about longevity, more about detoxing, more about changing lifestyle, like your lifestyle is most— it's key, right? From what you eat, what you drink, what you see, what you hear, what you breathe, how, you know, what you think of too. I mean, your thoughts are what's creating you, you know. So it's a journey, and you have to just take one step at a time. This journey that I've been on has been a long one, but every step I take, I learn something new. I learn something new. I learn something new, and I'm applying it. And, you know, I feel better than I did for sure than last year, making sure there's no infections, getting the toxins out. Toxins are key to your health because mycotoxins, the heavy metals, the molds, the infections, the gut infection, all of that causes chronic disease. And if you don't get it out of your body, you will get sick. I mean, it's not a question of if, it's when. So it's, it's serious. And people are like, oh, it's toxins. No, it's toxins that are stopping your body from working, and when you're loaded with toxins, you're not— your organs are not functioning properly. And so can you imagine getting rid of— just clearing your body out, clearing your body of toxins? That is the goal. Having a beautiful lifestyle, exercising, breathing, meditating, prayers, journaling, eating, cooking beautiful healthy foods, community, all of that is super, super important. And that's one thing for me too, is like when I left the industry and just disappeared, I lost all community. So that is also a part of— I'm trying to find my people so I can then also— that's another part of my healing journey for sure.

A little bit about your book. So you wrote a book called A Unicorn in a World of Donkeys. What does that mean? And you are a unicorn. You definitely are a unicorn.

Well, I'm not— I haven't been a unicorn for the last 5 years.

I don't feel like I have. You're a unicorn in hiding.

I'm a unicorn healing in hiding, right? I'm like, my horn was taken off with all my health, and now I'm growing my horn back. A unicorn means someone that is unique and different and someone that doesn't try to conform, someone that is on their own path and, and celebrates it and doesn't try to be like anyone else, which is very important with social media right now. Because especially with young adults, um, you know, they're, they're trying to find their way. And when you're saturating yourself on social media, you're looking at who's the prettiest, who has the most followers, who's, you know, and then you try to be like them. Right? And it's like, no, no, be yourself and stand true and celebrate it. And that's kind of the whole message. And, um, that's— yeah. And so I felt like, you know, I was always different. I was always— I didn't, I never didn't really ever fit in. And as a kid, I hated that because I didn't have many friends because I was friend, and I was very— I was taller. I had like my very— like in the beginning years, I had like bars on my legs and my knees and my hips, and, and I just was a little weirdo, you know. And now I look back, I'm like, oh my god, I love that little weirdo. That little weirdo is amazing, you know. And it wasn't about being the cool kid or the popular kid because I wasn't. But dance is kind of what I think helped me to find, like, just kind of— I had dance. Dance, I think, in some way saved me, you know. And so I have this love-hate relationship with dance because it's so painful physically, but it did save me in some way. And it also allowed me to to become a creator of movement. And in that world, I was able to like explore my uniqueness and never apologize for being different. And I remember doing one of the big first jobs I did was the Celine Dion in A New Day in Vegas. And I remember, because my movement was different, it was weird, it was quirky, it was just different, but I stayed with it. I was like, no, this is This is who I am. And I remember getting in an elevator. The show had opened. It was a huge show, right? And I was in the elevator and there was like a bunch of like, you could tell they're very cultured, artistic, you know, women that came out to see, you know, a show. And they were in the elevator. I was just kind of up, you know, going up the floors. And they were like, I don't know what that was, but it was incredible. I can't. They kept saying like, it was so different, like the movement, and I just, I've never seen anything like it, and it was so interesting, but I loved it. And I was just like, hee hee, in the corner of the elevator going, yes, yes, because you like it, you don't know what it is, but you like it. And that for me was important. That was an important moment for me. And then of course working with Franco Durgon, who was just the most amazing. It was like working next to Fellini, you know. He was just a magic man, and the way he saw things, and he would just— he was magic, and he was a full-out unicorn. And you tend to, when you go to— when you start thinking about artists and people in the world that you tend to respect and love and you go like, their work is so amazing, you know. When you think about Prince, when you think about, you know, there's just people out there that are just unicorns that don't try to fit in. And that's what this is. It's just kind of like a workbook hybrid that kind of helps you to kind of just go— talks about my journey as well as helping you to kind of embrace your own.

Yeah, I would say, and I'm biased, I think a little bit, but Dr. Savage is definitely a unicorn because when I started working with him 20 years ago, he was like the misfit doctor. Not a misfit doctor, but he was the one that was working on bioidentical hormone therapy when everyone was like, what is that? Yes, so foreign. And then thank God for Suzanne Somers, she wrote her book that helped put it a little bit mainstream. And now, you know, he came back out of retirement. I don't know if he told you. Yes, to do this. And now he's, you you know, another like, you know, kind of the Lone Ranger that is first in the category. But what has your experience been with Dr. Savage MD?

He's been amazing. We've connected about 3 or 4 times, and he's just so down to earth and so brilliant. And I listened to his podcast with Gwyneth Paltrow, and he talks about his journey and his story, and it just— he's very, very special, and he's gifted. He's a gifted doctor and I trust him and everything he says makes so much sense and what he's created here with this TPE is just, it's, it's, it's a, I really believe that it's something that needs to be available for the world because it, I think it's part of, I think it's, it's part of this, their healing and everybody needs wellness in their life, right? But I think that this, this whole plasma exchange is important for people. I really do. I think it's something that can just change people's lives and get their lives back, you know. So yeah, he is a unicorn. Dr. Paul Savage MD is a unicorn and I'm So excited to be working with him.

If you had to give a title to this point where you are right now in your life and then where you want to be, what would those two things be?

Living in, living inside of a, you know, an unhealthy earth suit. You know, existing in an unhealthy earth suit. And where I want to is free. I want to be free. Look, I'm gonna cry. I want to be free. I want to feel alive again. I wanna— yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's almost like you've heard the saying, you know, you have to visit the dark to really appreciate the light. So true. I feel that for you.

So true.

I feel that part too.

Like, the darkness is only making the lightness that much brighter as you get Yeah, because every day that I keep working, it's like I've worked so hard to try to have a good day that I feel good, you know. It's like if I can get through a day and feel okay, I'm like, "Thank goodness," you know. So yeah.

Do those baby breaths. Feel better? Yeah. Double breath in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, thank you, thank you for sharing that and being vulnerable with us and Is there anything that I didn't ask that you want to just share?

I think, you know, emotional stuff too. Emotional PTSD or trauma or anything that has happened to people emotionally. That's part of healing.

It is. It is.

It is.

Anxiety of not knowing. We were talking about that earlier.

It's just that.

It is PTSD. Of like, yeah, because yeah, are you actually going to get healed?

Yeah, and I had, um, and it's interesting because part of the, my healing journey is definitely emotional and trauma PTSD based on, um, when I did leave New York, um, I, um, during COVID I lost everything. I lost and it was a very traumatic thing because I made the choice to go because I wasn't feeling well. I made the choice to go, I can't go back to the industry, I can't teach anymore, I can't do what I do to make money, and I, I decided to let it all go. And so I had a lifestyle that I had built with all this stuff, right? And when my health started going, I just made the decision to go, I'm gonna— I can't afford to carry my past with me. I have to focus on the now and my health. And I remember opening up my storage unit with like hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff that I had worked so hard to build. And I opened the storage and I remember putting it on Marketplace and people were coming in and like going, "Oh, you're that choreographer!" And then just putting my things and carrying it off for $20, $30, this, and I'm just sitting there watching people carry my life away. It was wild and just carrying out the stuff, all the stuff. Just, and I was left alone in the storage unit. Went back to Orlando, and that's when I had like surgery after surgery. I had 3 colorectal surgeries, and it was like one thing after another. And I feel like after the spiraling down, stripping away, and then a decision that I made, I said, you You know, I just have to let go of my past and trust that God and the universe, I'm gonna step into a new life. And I stepped into a life of healing, and that has not been easy. And I do believe that part of my health came from the pain of the entertainment industry. It's a very brutal world, lots of backstabbing, lots of toxic people. And there was a lot of that that I carried, a lot of hurt and, you know, just not good stuff that I carried. There was a lot of great stuff, but there was a lot of not so great stuff. And then when I decided to let everything go, I had to lose everything in order to find myself. And then in that, as I take that step forward, then I start my health. So it has been a journey and it continues to be right now, a journey of healing and forgiving, you know, of trauma and emotional stuff as well as physical stuff. And they go hand in hand. They go hand in hand, and that's one thing that I would also tell friends and people out there is that, you know, if you have hatred or unforgiveness or trauma or PTSD or anything that you've dealt with, even from childhood, you got to work through it because, you know, there's a book called The Body Keeps the Score, and it is very, very true, and it's your stuff, your emotional stuff, it gets in there and it does cause sickness. It does, and you gotta, you gotta be free of all of it, from emotional toxins to physical toxins. It's a journey.

That was such a good point. We were talking about toxins, like toxins in the air, the water, the food, like toxic people.

Yes.

Make you toxic.

Yes.

Add to those, you know, your toxic load is emotion. And I don't think people put that in the same category as the toxins we're physically putting into our body, the emotional toxins that we're absorbing.

Yes, you can't heal your physical body if your emotional body, if your emotional and spiritual self is all messed up. You have to— it's all— It's all connected.

Yeah, yeah, such a good point.

Yeah, so I think that's— I needed to say that. Yes, I think that's a huge part of my journey as well, um, is that, you know, and I have— I made a list of like people who hurt me and people who I hurt, you know, and I went through each and every one and just kind of went through and either I wrote them a letter or I wrote myself, and it was all journaling, and it was letting go and forgiving, forgiving, forgiving myself, forgiving others, you know, and it's because we're all human. I don't think anyone's trying to be hurtful or spiteful or, you know, I think it's just we're human and people go through what they go through, and we're all on a journey to to evolve and to be a better version of ourselves, and every day is another opportunity for that. And so that's what I, I hang on to, is the next day is going to be better.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Beautiful.

Hi, if you're interested in learning more about the journey that I'm about to go on, visit mdlifespan.com/viamichaels. In this website, you'll learn so much about the plasma exchange and toxin-free living, which we all need so desperately right now. So I look forward to sharing my journey with you, and, uh, big love, lots of health.