Episode 12: Dr. Payam Hakimi And Shiva Hakimi: The Shift To Functional Medicine For A Body Of Harmony

Life is full of interruptions. Health and wellness are usually the first to go.

Join us each week as we talk to real people who achieved wellness despite health issues big and small, experts who reveal their secrets to optimal health and personal tips and biohacks from us.

I'm Gina Lombardi, celebrity fitness trainer and.

I'm former Miss America Laura Kepler and.

This is Health Interrupted. Hi and welcome to Health Interrupted. We're your hosts, Gina Lombardi and Laura Kepler.

Today's guests are Dr. Pam Hakimi and Shiva Hakimi. A board certified family physician, Dr. Hakimi has had diverse medical training and has combined his knowledge of medicine with specialized alternative medical modalities to create an integrative and comprehensive medical practice. He is currently the Medical Director of Body of Harmony in Beverly Hills, California and at the second location of Body of Harmony in Miami, Florida. Body of Harmony offers integrative medicine, functional medicine, anti aging medicine, clinical homeopathy, osteopathic manipulation and cranial osteopathy, IV nutrition and heavy metal elation, bone marrow aspiration, transplantation and stem cell therapy, peptide therapy, and a wide variety of testing.

An award winning physician, Dr. Hakimi has been part of the teaching faculty at multiple medical schools. While finishing his residency at USC with the Department of Family Medicine, he was elected Chief Resident and Assistant Clinical professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Hakimi says to learn something thoroughly, you need to be able to teach it perfectly.

In addition to earning a Master's degree in architecture and a degree in Business Management, Shiva is is Managing Partner at Body of Harmony. She's had a long journey into spiritual discovery and has devoted much of her time to furthering her knowledge of poetry from Rumi and Hafiz. This has been a stepping stone for Shiva to train for consciousness expansion meditations.

We cannot wait to talk to Dr. Hakimi and Shiva. But first, if you want to see what else we have going on, visit healthinterruptedpodcast.com and remember, you can always learn more about today's topic and tips and by looking at the description on your podcast app, you can subscribe to Health Interrupted on itunes, Google Play, Spotify or Audible. Our sponsor today is Body of Harmony. Wouldn't you love to have a harmonized body? Not only can you look younger, but you'll have more energy and more motivation to be as physiologically active as possible.

At body of harmony, Dr. Hakimi integrates conventional medicine with his functional and anti aging medicine. His expertise extends into clinical homeopathy, osteopathy and IV micronutrient therapy, while Shiva Hakimi focuses on consciousness expansion techniques that encourage the overall mind body connection.

They start with in depth laboratory testing to get to the root cause of the problem. Then they use the latest and most advanced natural ingredients to support your health and enhance your immune system while balancing your hormones.

Their harmonizing therapeutics reduce inflammation, help with fatigue, increase motivation and concentration, and so much more. It's an all inclusive medical practice in two locations, Beverly Hills and Miami. Go to bodyofharmony.com and mention health Interrupted podcast for a discount.

You know, for me, Laura, it's been an ongoing process into finding the right doctor who I really feel has an interest, the knowledge in really getting to the root causes of the health issues that I've come up against personally, but also for my friends and family. And that includes you, by the way. And I feel as though western medicine has its place for sure. You know, you break a bone, you go to the emergency room, you go for a physical, no doubt. But rising in the distance is another pillar that's getting a lot of attention lately because it delivers. And that is functional medicine.

Absolutely, I agree with you. And you have been very helpful, Gina, to me in helping me find doctors that I use and love. And I've also struggled with my own health issues and have been put on various medications or protocols that quite frankly, were just a band aid. They didn't really get to the root of what was going on. So finding someone who knows all the processes of the body and how they work together is key. And with that, let's talk to someone who does just that. The Hakimis.

Welcome. Shiva and Dr. Hakimi. We are so thrilled to talk to you today. We have so much to learn from you both, so let's get right to it. But before we ask you about the health interruptions that you see in your practice, could you briefly explain what functional medicine and osteopathy is?

Of course. Hi, Gina and Laura. Yes, Functional medicine is a new way of looking at the way all the organ systems in the body work and how they sort of interact and work together. It's looking at the amount of inflammation that's in the body, the toxins, all the hormones, the amount of the hormones, the way we digest things, the way our thyroid and our testosterone, our serotonin, our norepinephrine, all of these things work, then trying to figure out a way of balancing all of this together. Most of your functional medicine doctors, we try to balance everything as much as we can with natural herbs, supplements, as much as we can. And once we reach a point where we say, well, we tried supplements or homeopathic medications or IVs, we did chelation, we did detoxification of the liver, we helped out with your liver, but it seems like we're not reaching where we want, then we sort of add medications, you know, in small doses, and then we increase it up. So it's a way of balancing everything in the body with the least amount of, I want to say, toxins added to the body, which is a smart new way of dealing with issues that medicine has.

Got it.

And can you briefly explain what osteopathy is? For those who may not know, osteopathy.

Stands for osteo and pathos. Osteo means the skeleton, pathos means suffering. And the idea came with Andrew Taylor Steele, Dr. Steele, who was a physician, and he figured out that there is a direct correlation between structure and function. So. So any structure we have in the body, macro speaking, our joints, our muscles, micro speaking, our hemoglobin, our red blood cells, if there is a change in the structure, let's say the structure of a joint, if it changes its function, is going to change. Same thing happens if the structure of a red blood cell. Some people who have thalassemias and hemoglobin abnormalities know when the shape of the red blood cell in the body changes, when the structure changes, its function also in dropping oxygen or picking up oxygen, changes as well. So that sort of ideology or that philosophy increased, it sort of grew into this osteopathos. In the macro osteopaths, we align the body and basically, if there is a rib out, the nervous system, the blood vessels and the lymphatics that are in that area are going to be congested. And in that essence, they're not going to do the job properly. We can explain this, let's say, with what we call cranial osteopathy. And once we taught it, and we can talk about that as well, craniosacral therapy is what osteopath taught other people to other practitioners to do. With cranial osteopathy, we release the tensions in the membranes of the cranium, the structure of the head, and releasing the tension will basically change the flow of oxygen and nutrients up to the brain and then the flow of hormones and everything else. So we can appreciate that recent studies with cranial osteopathy has shown that it helps with depression, it helps with anxiety. When I was a medical student, I was working with a doctor who was treating autistic Kids and parents always said when they get their cranial work they're actually feeling better and their activities are different and they're more conforming as opposed to when they don't have a cranial. So in essence structure equals function. Once the structure goes up, the function changes. And this is osteopathy is what a chiropractic came out of. In the early 1900s, Dr. Dee Dee Palmer came to osteopathic school, did one year out of three years which was osteopathic schools length. And he liked the idea that with manipulation you can change things in the body. And so he started Palmer School of Chiropractic. So from osteopathy we've had chiropractic myofascial release. A lot of different hands on and manual modalities have sort of started from osteopathy. Sorry, I know it was, it was not short. I couldn't do it in.

That makes so much sense. And I wrote down here structure equals function. And the way you explained it that when a certain structure of something changes the rest of the way your body flows and should function will also change with it. And so you do a lot at Body of Harmony. And we are curious as to what are a few of the top health interruptions that you see in your practice.

I'm a trained family physician from usc and with adding osteopathy, homeopathy, functional medicine, or what we call integrative medicine, IV nutrition and everything else, there's a lot that we see in our office. The major issues that we see are related to functional medicine like inflammations, skin problems, digestive issues, hormone abnormalities, fatigue, sort of or what we call adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue. So the sort of functional medicine symptomatology of having issues with the libido, with thyroid. Why don't I lose weight? Why can't I, you know, lift heavy weight? I've been lifting for five years, but I can't go on any further. That's sort of the physiological issues that we see and then or vague symptoms like mold abnormalities. You know, people who are exposed to mold and, or have heavy metal issues. And then on the other hand we see all the structural abnormalities. Why do I get jaw pain and TMJ and clicking and neck pain and back pain, sciatica. Why are those things coming back? With osteopathic treatments, what we do is we align the body to a point where these things don't have to come back. It's a change in the myofascial as well as the structure. So that we make sure they don't come back. So we see a big range of interruptions in Body of Harmony, and we harmonize every single one of them.

I don't know how you get any rest because you've got people lined out the door to see you. Well, if you don't mind, I want to take a moment to focus on gut health, because I'm more and more finding that people are suffering from gut issues that don't seem to resolve. I see it with my clients, I see it with family members. I've even had situations like that. Laura's had situations like that. So is there any specific testing that you do to determine what's wrong, and then what protocol do you follow to treat it?

Yes, we have two or three different tests to figure out the amount of enzymes, amount of good bacteria, bad bacteria, fungi, parasites, if there's leaky gut syndrome, and then how to treat these things based on what we find in reality is a conversation with our patients to figure out exactly do they want to sort of stay more with the functional medicine, they want to take herbs and supplements that will take care of this thing, or do they want to go directly to antibiotics and antifungals and everything else? You brought up a really good point. And following that, what I just said, I want to say that, remember, a lot of our issues in what we say in functional medicine starts as a kid when we start taking those antibiotics and we start killing our good bacteria. So you have someone who's had antibiotics as a kid, and then let's say if they're a female and they get yeast infections and UTIs and they take more antibiotics, and then they have a travel somewhere and they get sick as well, and they get food poisoning. And then add to that our diet, which has a lot of toxins in it and a lot of different issues with our diet, with our processed food and everything else. Add to that caffeine, add to that alcohol, and you create a situation in the digestive system where a bad bacteria or a fungus or yeast can actually grow. And. And once they start growing, what happens is the good back. The amount of good bacteria in the body, in the digestive system, starts decreasing, because now there's not enough food for the bad and the good to live together. Right? So as the amount of good starts decreasing, there comes inflammation and leaky gut syndrome. And then it sort of becomes this cycle that just continually gets worse. And what we do, we go to a gastroenterologist who gives us another antibody, and it just makes things. And I'M not saying that that happens all the time, but most of the patients that end up in our office, this has been the history that we have seen. And then things have just gotten worse and worse progressively. And we have to rebuild everything from sort of, from the beginning, sort of change everything and change the diet, do a food sensitivity, figure out exactly what they should not eat, balance out the good bacteria, kill. I call the yeast the beast, and then sort of move on from, from there.

It sounds so complicated. Like for somebody that's listening to this right now that has gut issues and might not even know they have it, but when they eat, they get a lot of gas. Maybe they have terrible bloating and they don't know what they're sensitive to, food wise, or they do have a list and they still have these issues. You know, maybe they are staying away from the foods that they're sensitive to. What kind of things could they do on their own? Like maybe they couldn't afford a functional medicine. Doctor, a lot of this is not covered by insurance. In some cases. Is there something that they can do to feel better?

I was listening to your podcast with Dr. Nasseri as well, and the food sensitivities and allergy testing that you have done, which is sort of the beginning part of this thing, because the whole point is to not add sort of fuel to fire. It's like there's already inflammation there that we want to add more inflammation to the mix. So a lot of the sort of the concept is to take out inflammation, support good bacteria, take out bad bacteria and yeast. And yes, there are certain things people can do using proper probiotics. And we have, I think two or three on our websites, probiotics and prebiotics that are amazing that will help out with balancing. At least we're doing the balancing part of the gut. A lot of people are sensitive to dairy, to eggs, to carbs. And so these are the things that should probably, if they don't want to do an allergy or a food sensitivity testing, they should take those away from their diet right away and see how they feel. And then they have, you know, all of us have to be conscious of when we eat something. What do, how do we feel like that way that day? Do we get congested? Do we get bloating? If there's anything that we feel that's what's causing the problem, we should take that away. We should put aside coffee and alcohol.

So try what?

What?

Ellie's coffee?

Come on, take my coffee away as I'm drinking coffee. Myself.

You can take the alcohol. I don't care about that. But not the coffee. Come on. Really?

Okay. Just the alcohol. Okay.

Well, all right.

So what's coffee gonna do to my gut? What's coffee gonna do that's bad? I don't want to hear it.

And is it possible to drink really clean coffee that isn't with low acid and all organic? Is it possible to drink good coffee that maybe won't do as much damage to your gut?

We bring our coffee from. We have an office in Miami, in north Miami Beach, Florida. And we bring our coffee from a store that we like there that has specificities that we like. And, yes, there is a way of doing that. What I was mentioning is the. Some of us get up in the morning, and the first thing we do is we reach for the coffee, and then before we get on the elevator, we have another cup of coffee, and then there's another one on the way to work, and then one as we get to work. And for those of us who are sitting home because of COVID now, obviously, it's like, you know, the coffee machine is right there. So without eating and without having the water and the oil. So it's important to have the water, oil, and then something to eat so that your body is actually. Your stomach is ready. And the. The amount of acid that has been sitting there the whole night that we've been laying down sort of gets washed away and used up before we add more acidity and we add more irritation to the stomach, because then, you know, we have this heartburn, and we have the bloating, and we have the upset stomach, and we're wondering what's causing it. That can be a source of issue. So, yeah, that's, you know, what coffee does.

Well, I want to switch gears here.

For just a second, because I am a patient of yours. My family is Gina, and her family are as well. And Gina has been dealing with adrenal insufficiency. And as part of my protocol that you have me on, I also take adrenal support. I don't have as great of a deficiency as Gina does, but can you talk a little bit about the symptoms of that and how you would possibly treat it? Because I think that's something that a lot of people suffer from and may not even know it.

Adrenal issue is a spectrum of problems. It's not. We call it adrenal fatigue, or we call it adrenaline, adrenal burnout. But there's a big difference between fatigue and burnout. Adrenal fatigue is where your body is sort of going through this issue that I'm going to talk about what it is. And then adrenal burnout is sort of the end of it, where, you know, things have already changed and it's really hard to bring someone back. And if someone is in adrenal burnout, it might take two to three months of supplements, IVs and everything else to bring their physiology back. Right. So it's a spectrum, and we all sort of lie somewhere in this spectrum.

Sure.

Cholesterol is the building block of our sex hormones. Our estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, dhea, pregnenolone, cortisol and aldosterone. And this is a pathway. And I wish we had, you know, Graf and I could discuss this a little bit better. However, there is a condition called cortisol steel or general adaptation disorder, where our body needs more cortisol. Cortisol and cortisol we all know as a stress hormone. So as our requirement goes up, we use up more cortisol, so the cortisol amount drops and then this whole sex hormone pathway has to shift a little bit. So the DHEA starts decreasing, testosterone starts decreasing, and then the estrogen progesterone ratio starts changing. Now, for guys, DHEA and testosterone, very important. It's important for cognition, it's important for sleep, it's important for recovery, it's important for healing, it's important for libido, it's important for energy. And for women, obviously, the change in the estrogen progesterone creates the hormonal, the menstrual abnormalities, the pms, the headache, everything that goes along, you know, the acne and everything else that goes along that line. So. So again, it's a spectrum that needs to be treated properly. The way we treat it is, again, I want to go back to. And the reason I like Body of Harmony is because it's about harmonizing the body. It's about harmonizing the DHEA and testosterone pathway and the cortisol pathway to make sure everything in the body is sort of fine tuned so that your body has the amount of cortisol that it needs whenever it needs it. So it's sort of adrenal support for a while. We have another supplement that's amazing called adrenal supplement that we use. But then once we do the blood work, we figure out exactly what needs to change. Is it, do I need to add dhea, Do I need to work on testosterone, do we need to work on cholesterol? So I've always said body of Harmony, my motto has always been, we don't do cookie cutter medicine. It's more about figuring out exactly. And, Laura, you have seen your blood work that we do here. It's pretty complex and complete. It's figuring out exactly where do we need to fix and fine tune things so that we can get the whole body to feel better. But again, if you have adrenal, if you feel like you're tired, you're fatigued, there's a lot you can do. Start with meditation, start with exercise. Because sometimes, Gina, you know this. Sometimes exercise just changes everything because it changes the whole hormonal panel with norepinephrine, epinephrine, cortisol, and testosterone. So start there and then add a supplement or two.

Okay. So I was way beyond that. I had already been on adrenal support supplements. And then all of a sudden, you know, last September, I had blood work done and I was. My cortisol was undetectable. Zero complete adrenal insufficiency. So I was put on cortisol Cortef. So how long do I need to be on this? When can I get the heck off of this stuff? How do I know? I know I have to do more tests. I just did a Dutch test. The Dutch test is the hormone test. It's a urine. It's. I'm just saying. I know you know this, but I'm saying it for people listening. But the Dutch test measures all the hormones, including cortisol, which is the adrenal hormone that's secreted. So if that comes back pretty good, might I be able to get off this Cortef?

Yes, obviously, with the help and support of whoever gave you the Cortef, it's decreasing it gradually because we also don't want to remove. Once you remove these things, suddenly at times, you will have another dip and another crash. So it's a slowly bringing the cortex down as you're adding other supplements and balancing out the rest of the hormones. And this is a question that Shiva asks all the time, because we see patients and we look at the blood work and patients ask Shiva and they say, well, when am I going to get fixed and how long does it take? And the reality of it is this. It's the mojo of your body. It's the amount of sleep you have, it's the amount of rest and relaxation, the amount of music therapy, the amount of healing, the amount of massage, the amount of calming technique. And that's where everyone gets referred to Shiva, because then they talk about meditation and healing and everything. Else. But the whole point is, if your system is strong enough, it will get there. It will bounce back very quickly. If it's taking forever to bounce back, that means you need to start working on the basics. You need to listen to Eckhart Tolle and sort of stay in here and now and sort of get a little bit more sort of grounded so that these things can start working in the body.

That's a great answer. It really is. And Shiva, we're going to get to you right now.

Yeah, I'm really glad, but don't think.

We'Re going to let you go without talking. You can't see her right now, but she is absolutely beautiful. This is probably the most beautiful couple I've seen in Beverly Hills lately.

Also, for listeners who don't know, Shiva and Dr. Hakimi are married. They are a couple, and they both work at Body of Harmony together. And I think it is such a wonderful complement you both to each other and that you're such a dynamic powerhouse of knowledge and alternative modalities. And we're really interested, Shiva, in your study and your understanding of the mind and body and that experience.

I like to talk a bit or redefine what we call the awakening process, because sometimes our perception or definition of what awakening should be is the problem. So what is awakening? The awakening process is really the mind expansion or consciousness expansion. We're continuously expanding the mind because we're in constant motion and constant expansion. So the actual expansion never really ends. So the awakening process, therefore, never really ends. The awakening process happens when we realize that we are more than this 3D form. Not just the days that we sit in meditation and days that we don't, it just stops. Because, you know, when we're having good days and then we're expanding and we're understanding everything and we have amazing breakthroughs. And you say, oh, wow, this is amazing. I'm awakened and this is working for me. But then what about the days that we struggle? What about the days that we get stuck? Is the awakening process reversing? So you see, consciousness is energy, and energy moves forward continuously. This is an important perception for us to know that the human mind tricks us into thinking that days that we're not doing well, we're not moving forward. Simply not true. So just shifting your perception, this new definition should give us a sense that this is a journey. And therefore, we should relax and let the actual awakening process happen. And the more we rush into doing this class and that class and doing this technique and that technique, it almost looks like it works against us. And because we're shifting and we're not focusing on the expansion process, we're focusing on the destination.

Well, my question, Shiva, is there an amount of these things like meditation and some of the other things that you do in the office to cause that awakening or to create that awakening? Is there a certain amount a day that people should be doing? I'm trying to put this in usable bite sized pieces for our listeners because when, when you ask people like what their morning routine is, for example, you know, somebody like Tony Robbins will say, well, I wake up and I drink water and then I meditate for an hour and then I work out and then I take a nice walk on the beach and then I check my email. So I don't even go to social media or email or electronics yet. Most people don't have that much time. What is a reasonable amount of time and what's a reasonable few things that people can do that can help them with their awakening process?

That's a very good question, Gina. We need to understand that this isn't something that we can rush into as far as the expansion. But even the biggest masters, Christ entities that appeared in human forms, whatever you want to call them, the ascended masters, and all those amazing individuals, it took them approximately seven years from the moment that the time starts to complete the phase one. And that's only phase one. And what is phase one? Just to give you guys an example, it's really that you have acquired, you have received, you have downloaded whatever you want to call it, enough experiences that give you a good sense of who you are. So knowing that the mind expansion does not mean that you have been doing spiritual work for 20 years, or you do walk on the beach every day, or you sit in meditation for, you know, I, there are people that, that say, you know, I've been doing transcendental meditation for 15 years and I've been doing astrology and I've been doing this and that. That's not what I'm talking about. This is more than just sitting in meditation every day for an hour. Everything that you do throughout the day, even if you come to our office and see Hakimi, that's part of the consciousness expansion, you see. So it's really being aware of your everyday life. Every, everything that you do is a part of that.

I need to make an appointment. Dr. Akini, I've got my book out.

Are you free?

Are you free on Friday afternoon? I'm not even kidding, Shiva. Thank you everybody. Write that down. Thank you for that answer, it is the whole process of what you do every day. And I often tell my clients that as well. That's why I go to their homes. Because for all these years, I've been doing this almost 30 years. I want to go to your home. Not a gym, not outside. We can do that later. But I want to go to your home and I want to see what your environment is like. Is it really stressful? Is it cluttered? What's your routine? What's in your refrigerator, what's on your counter, what are you taking supplement wise? What are you eating? Where's it coming from? Where is it sourced?

Yeah, I've known Gina for almost 10 years, and she's been in my home for almost all those years. And it's true, you really do take a complete look at a person. And I think that's what's so great about Body of Harmony is that you really do the same. And you offer so many different techniques that all come together in one umbrella to further the mind and the body together.

And that is one thing that is missing completely in traditional Western medicine. Even though you were trained that way, Dr. Hakimi, at the finest schools, you know, USC. I mean, you can't get any better than that. And yet here you are expanding your practice with Shiva into that whole body of harmony. And not just that one narrow aspect of it. I had a physician that I used to go to who is retired now, and I asked him about functional medicine, and he just looked at me and he slammed his hand down on the table and he just said, you know, that's quackery. I felt like saying, I am so glad you're retiring, because I don't understand why they don't get it, because, like, what you do and, you know, you have so many aspects of your practice, you know, not just functional medicine, but also osteopathy and also traditional medicine, because you are an md it's really a tremendous combination. But I don't understand why people don't get that. It's important to have that harmony of all of those things put together.

So the whole point of expanding consciousness is to utilize your full brain capacity.

I think that's what we also say in medicine. I mean, we say that we're only using around 5% of our brain, you know, and the 95% of it is sort of sitting there. We don't know what it does. There is a opportunity, and there is a sense of wanting to know what the rest of the brain. What is this thing doing and what.

Else is out there.

You know, we only know so much. And you're right. I think we all live in autopilot a lot. And if we are open to the possibilities of the. The miracles of life, I think it can take you to the other places and other levels. But you have to be open. You have to be. You have to believe in the magic, I think, of life.

You know what? Shifting gears for a second. Why do you find most people come to you after exhausting Western medicine almost as a last resort instead of a first resort?

Most people. I don't want to say everyone. There are a lot of people who have been. And once you do everything that I do, you see that people come in and say, I've been raised with homeopaths. I've been raised with osteopaths. I've been raised with. Or my mother never gave us antibiotics. So we do have a group of patients that come in and seek us just because they want to continue their sort of medical treatment with a homeopath or an osteopath or a functional medicine doctor. But for the majority of people, unfortunately, it's an authority. It's confirmation to authority. If I go to a doctor and I say, I have a headache, and they say, okay, well, here's Tylenol. I say, okay, well, Tylenol has to fix it. And then I go back and I said, well, Tylenol didn't fix it. What should I do? And they said, well, here's an MRI and a neurologist evaluation. And then I go to neurologist, and the neurologist says, well, here's a stronger medication. Let's see if they hit it. So you continually stay with. Remember, as physicians, we know a lot. We have a lot of knowledge, and we do everything that we can to help you. And as a patient, once you come in to see a physician you already programmed to accept what the physician is telling you, you most probably take it. But before questioning, we find that a lot more people are looking up side effects and so on and so forth. But just talking about, generally speaking, a lot of patients will continue on a specific path. And then once they go through a path and they say, okay, well, they look back and they say, well, three years and nothing has changed. I'm now on two or three different medications that have not done much, and I've done all these tests and not much has changed has happened. Then they sort of start finding someone who will look at physiology. And I'm gonna go back to the previous comment that you made, which was, I Tell my physician that I'm seeing a functional medicine doctor or a homeopath. And you know, there's a response to that. Functional medicine is nothing but physiology. That means if you learn physiology in pre medical, wherever you were, I was at ucla, and if you finally made it to medical school and you really mastered your physiology, you will understand functional medicine. I'm fascinated physiology. I'm fascinated by the way our eye works. But if you really understand physiology, you understand what functional medicine is. It's looking at every single pathway, looking at every single intermediate in the pathway and say, well, what am I going to do about this one? Why is this one low and why is this one high? Right. And really have to sit down and think about it. Unfortunately, conventional medicine, doctors don't have enough time. It's the way the medical practice has been said. You have eight minutes per patient, maximum 15 minutes. Certain doctors will spend time with you. And that does not give you enough time to think about all of these things because number one, you're sort of busy on the computer entering patients, electronic medical records. And then you have to go from one page to the next and wait for the page to load. And there's a lot of technical limitations as well as time restraints on a physician to properly deal with the physiology of a person. You know, conventional medicine is a way to start. And if things fix themselves, that's fantastic. You know, you saw your doctor for 15 minutes and you got Tylenol and now you're good, we're good, there's no problem. But if you notice that going from one doctor to the next to the next and doing multiple tests and you're not getting somewhere is because someone is not thinking about or doesn't have enough time to spend and look at the physiology and everything that's, that's going on and sort of fix that and sort of pay attention to it. And I think that's what functional medicine brings. We spend a lot of time with our patients. We look at everything and we want to fix everything. And once we fix everything, which is your liver, your kidney, your digestive system, your brain physiology, your hormones, your testosterone, I mean, once we fix everything, how do you think you'll feel?

Fantastic. And I love that answer so much because we all want that, but we're just getting one piece of it. When we go to our, like regular doctors, and not that they don't have a place, they absolutely do. It's just like emergency rooms, they're great for if you broke a bone or something like that, but it's you're not going to get comprehensive care there. And at many doctor's offices you're still not getting comprehensive care. Comprehensive like you're doing, where they're looking at everything and all the physiological parts together, processes together. It's so fascinating. I don't know. How does your brain work? I don't know.

I know.

Well, we want, well, we want to.

Pick your brain for just a few.

More minutes and we wanted, we want to put you both in our health seat, is what we call it. And we want to know just real easy tips like manageable, doable biohacks that our listeners can benefit from in four different categories of health. And so if you could offer a nutrition tip, what would it be?

I think the, if, if you were going to do any, anything nowadays, I think we're all stressed out. Adrenal support, Adrenal supplement. You know, we have a couple of supplements that are amazing. Like as far as a nutrition to do, it would be sort of doing one supplement that will help a lot of different physiology in your body.

Is there one that you can actually name and brands are okay, you can, even if they can get it on your website or whatever, that's great. But would you say like something like Ashwagandha, which is an adaptogen, something like that that everybody could benefit from? Is there something general like that?

Exactly. And we have two supplements that are for adrenal gland. One of them is called adrenal support and the other one is called adrenal supplement, literally. And they're from Body of Harmony. You can find it on our website, bodyofharmony.com and one of them is vegetarian and the other one has glandulars in it. And I mean adrenal gland, desiccated adrenal gland in it. And, and I wanted both because, you know, we have patients who are vegetarian who don't want glandulars, but sometimes glandulars just advance the way, you know, the sort of catapult you to getting better a little bit faster. And with my patients who are really adrenal burnout, we, I ask them to combine both. I ask them to take, you know, two of this and two of that a day or three and three a day so that they can actually rebuild their adrenal gland. And Ashwagandha that you mentioned, an amazing adaptogen, is probably part of both of these supplements. Adrenal supplement and adrenal support.

Now, what if someone doesn't know if they have adrenal fatigue? Should they take adrenal support or adrenal supplement.

Yes. And if they do, they have to take very little. The reason is this. I say if it's not broken, don't fix it. You know we can. And I'll give you an example if we have time. I had a patient who saw me a while back and she was complaining of severe acne. We sort of looked at, I looked at everything and she was on the right supplements, right probiotics and everything else. It was, it was amazing. There was nothing else to do. And I said, well, when did you start probiotic? And she said I started this when I was like 13, 14 years old. So one option was to stop probiotic and see what happened. And we stopped probiotic and their acne went away. So here's what it is. If your digestive system is good, don't touch it. If your adrenal gland is good, don't touch it, don't do anything for it. Because all of these supplements, especially the ones that we have on our website, obviously sort of a little bit sort of doctors grade a pharmaceutical grade so they will do something and it's not that they don't do anything and if something is not broken, you will break something else. So if you want to be on something, just a multivitamin, just the B complex on a regular basis nowadays with COVID vitamin we have an amazing vitamin C which is vitamin C buffered on our website is an amazing vitamin. It has sort of glutathione. Everything in it is amazing. So vitamin D is another one for immunity we have another one which is called immune stamina. If you just want to deal with, let's say what's happening right now, do that. But if you don't have issues, don't take anything.

I think if, if the end of the world were to come, I would take as an emergency, I would take sardines with me, guys. And I know so many people might not like sardines, but I love sardines and I think everyone should know the nutritional benefits of eating sardines. Sardines have the highest amount of vitamin B12, guys. Excellent source of calcium, minerals and protein. It does not contain any carbohydrates or sugar, omega fatty acids. They help prevent heart disease due to their anti inflammatory properties. And also even pregnant women can have sardines.

Is there an issue of mercury in sardines?

It has less mercury contamination than any other fish. So I, I just know this because it is safe for pregnant women to have used to take them myself and I love them with bones, the little ones with the bones.

You crazy?

You can already tell what we have for dinner tonight.

I'm not coming to your house.

They're delicious.

Really? I should try it again. I think I tried it 100 years ago and I was like, whoa. But it's. I know they're good for you. Everybody says that. You're absolutely right. I should really try it again.

I think you have to find. Because they come in different flavors and different oils and different also you have to find something that you like and. And sort of continue with that.

Yeah.

Okay. So that was your nutrition tip, Shiva.

Yes.

How about a fitness tip from both of you?

Dance away, guys. Life is too short. I love dancing, dancing, stretching. Try to stretch every day for even 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. I love music, I love dancing. And one thing I want to mention, I really love spinning. And until I met this guy and this guy said, oh, no, you know, spinning, it's not good for your body. And so can you please talk a little?

Please tell me, because I love spinning.

If you, if you adjust and align your sitting position and your legs and your knees and your ankles and your neck and arms are all properly balanced and, and you know how much force you're putting on different things, it's fine. The problem is some people, when they're spinning, the way they sit down and the way they have their seat and the length of where the knee and the ankle is, it creates an abnormality in the hips and in the sacroiliac joints. And you know, for osteopaths, myself being one, those are sort of things that scare us because the sacroiliac joint can go out at any point and then it becomes a sciatica and then it becomes sort of something else. We also, as osteopaths, since we are on that subject, we're not a fan of one sided sports like golf. It's a twist to one side most that happens repetitively. So it creates a pattern of twists in the body and in the vertebral column, which eventually will cause a disc to go out. So if you are doing exercises that are one sided, we ask you to do exercises to sort of at least also stretch yourself out to the other side just to make sure. And also with spinning, if you're doing spinning, make sure there's also extension, because spinning is a lot of flexion. So you want to make sure that there's enough extension to balance out what's happening in the lumbar spine.

You should see me when I come up out of the saddle on spinning. I look Like, I'm straight up and down, and I'm pedaling like this. Because, honestly, if you do it the way half the teachers want you to do it in the class, you're hunched over, you're down on the bars like this. It is the most uncomfortable thing. I remember the first time I did it, my neck was killing me. It was horrible. But if I just come up out of the saddle and do, you know, I'm in alignment and I don't mash the pedals, you know, you do like a push pull.

Right.

I think that's a great fitness tip, is to balance what you're doing. And just to your credit, Gina, you also do that in all of your workouts, too. We always have to balance what we do on each side. And I think that's a great tip, because a lot of people enjoy activities like golf or tennis, but may not be aware of the negative component of that.

I call it a behavioral component because it's not necessarily negative. I mean, it's a sport by any means. It's an amazing sort of thing to do. However, it's a behavioral component of it, which is the twist to one side. And I tell that to my patients who drive a certain way and they have their hand a certain way and their legacy, same thing. It's a behavior that's going to. As osteopaths, we want you to be square at all times. That does not happen in life.

Right, right.

I know. I'm thinking, like, well, how. How. How should we move? How do we live life?

You know?

Okay, well, how about. And we both. We. We know you both have great tips for this, but in. In the mental, spiritual category, what are some easy tips that our listeners could implement into their lives?

I would say start looking at everything from a place of trust and alignment. Be mindful. Be the master of your own consciousness. Always remember that what we do daily, every day, should be acknowledged as part of the awakening process. Even the bad days, you're still moving forward and we're still awakening.

Is there a book that people could go to to learn how to awaken?

We listen to Eckhart Tolle a lot.

Yes, I love him.

We read poems by Rumi a lot. And so the visions and the pictorial visions that Rumi brings into life and sort of makes you sort of understand and appreciate. And if that was my tip, it would be read Rumi or Eckhart Tolle, one of the two, and sort of stay with the path. Just make sure it's a five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day that you're reading one poem or half of it or just a phrase by Eckhart Tolle and just stay with that. And after three, six months, you see, you'll see how your life changes.

That's. That's great. You know the actress Jane lynch, she. She named her dog Rumi.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, because after Rumi and. But the best part of that is the nicknames she has for her dog. Like rheumatologist.

I get it.

Arthritis. It's hysterical. This question's for both of you, but you're such a natural beauty. Shiva. Do you have a beauty tip for our men and women?

You know, beauty is more than just moisturizing your face and doing facials. As you know, it's really, for me, it's more internal stillness, taking care of yourself. If you've been neglecting yourself, guys, or anybody else, your listeners, now is the time. Really take time for yourself. Eat well, be mindful.

What do you think? Yeah, I think. I agree. I think it's. I look at it internal, but I look at it physiologically internal. I think digestive system has a lot to do with our beauty. Number one, it changes the skin, it changes the amount of fluid, the amount of oil that's under our skin, and what we look like. A majority of serotonin of the body is in the digestive system. And once we have good serotonin, we feel fantastic. Once our digestive system works really good, a lot of things change in our body. So if I were to say anything, I would say make sure that if there's anything going on with your digestive system, make sure it's taken care of properly.

And consistent exercise, guys, you know that consistent exercise increases your brain functions. It creates brain cells, new brain cells. Write. If you can write for a few minutes a day, listen to classical music, have a healthy diet. Believe it or not, all of this combo has a lot to do with being beautiful and feeling beautiful. It's really feeling. It's how you feel about yourself.

You know, can you do this? Like, I know where your office is. Do you ever look out the window, you see people walking by, and you can tell by their skin, the way they hold their body if they are someone that exercises or not. I know I can. Because people that exercise have. They're vibrant, their skin is beautiful, they're sharp, they're aware. And then you see everybody else who. And you could sort of pick those people out that aren't exercising and aren't eating well. Do you find that?

Absolutely. I mean, as you said, you know, even osteopathics speaking, when I see someone, the way they stand up, the way they walk, can tell us if they exercise or not, or if they have pain anywhere or not. But you can actually tell if they're limber, if they're strong or not from the way they walk. And that's what you recognize as the vibrance that comes from in their step, the pep in their step.

Yes. The last thing we'd love to get from you is a call to action to all our listeners. So something that you can give them that they can put into place right now that's going to help their quality of life.

I say stretch every day. I think the most important thing that we can do as we age, our joints change, our ligaments, tendons, muscles, everything starts changing. And if we. Again, going back to osteopathically, sort of looking at the body where structure equals function, if our structure changes and becomes limited, its function is going to become limited. Therefore, the function of our ribcage, it's going to become limited. And if we just stay with the ribcage, which holds our heart, our lungs, our diaphragm, the liver, and the spleen. And then underneath there is the digestive system. If all that were to just get a little bit of tight, you can appreciate how much of a difference we will feel in our body. So it's important to stretch every day so that internally things can open up as well and our physiology can change based on, you know, sort of just being limber and being open.

That's great. That's a great call to action. We have had no one say that yet, and I believe it, and I know the benefits of it, and all my clients do it, but that is fantastic, and it's spot on. Really great call to action. Thank you for that. Write that down, people. I wrote it down.

I've been taking notes this whole time.

We never take notes. You should see all the notes.

I know, I know.

I'm like, I know. We can go back and listen.

I know.

We're recording it.

Why are we taking notes?

I want to remember it.

I want to remember it right now.

Yeah.

Shiva. Dr. Hakimi, thank you so much for being here with us today. We've learned so much from you, and we're really excited to have you back for a part two, if you'll do it.

Laura and Gina, well, you guys are brilliant, and this was amazing. Thank you guys very much. And we'll definitely be back for part two, part three, part four. Will become the series.

Hey, there you go.

The Hakimis Part 13. Love you guys.

Have a great night. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today on Health Interrupted Again. We're your hosts, Gina Lombardi and Laura Kepler.

And if you were listening to this podcast and you couldn't write anything down, check out our show Notes, where we'll have links to everything we talked about. But most of all, please be sure to subscribe. And please leave us a kind review.

And remember, consistency equals results.

I'm Shiva from Body of Harmony, and I was energetically interrupted.

I'm Dr. Pean Hakimi, and I am interrupted every day with my patients, and I love to bring their bodies back into harmony.