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Heal Your Gut: Transform Your Life with Dr. Alejandro Junger
245 Plays4 days ago
What if most chronic symptoms—fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, even autoimmune disease—weren’t your body’s flaws, but signals of deeper imbalance?
In this episode of The Choice to Grow, Dr. Alejandro Junger, founder of the Clean Program and pioneer of functional medicine, unpacks the root causes of modern illness and why our healthcare system is built to suppress, not solve. From detoxing emotions to healing the gut, this conversation is a masterclass in reclaiming your body’s natural intelligence.
Whether you're struggling with your health or seeking more vitality, this episode will shift the way you see your symptoms—and yourself.
Dr. Alejandro Junger - Functional Medicine Doctor, Cardiologist, Gut Health Expert
Dr. Alejandro Junger is a renowned cardiologist, functional medicine doctor, and the founder of the Clean Program, as well as a New York Times best-selling author. With decades of experience in medicine, Dr. Junger has dedicated his career to uncovering the root causes of complex health issues that often seem unrelated. His journey began with a profound intuition that a deeper understanding was needed, leading him to explore the intricate connections between Eastern and Western medicine, as well as ancient wisdom and modern science.
Through his extensive practice, Dr. Junger discovered that many health challenges are linked to one vital system: the gut. This insight propelled him to develop a holistic approach focused on healing the gut, supporting the body's natural detoxification processes, and restoring essential nutrients for optimal function. His innovative protocol has not only transformed his own health, resulting in a newfound vitality, but has also proven to be a powerful method for his patients.
Inspired by these results, Dr. Junger founded the Clean movement, which emphasizes the importance of gut health in overall wellness. His signature 21-day full-body reset program is meticulously designed to restore the body’s natural balance through nutrient-dense smoothies, supplements, and whole-food meals. Participants often report a significant shift in mindset and the cultivation of uplifting habits. On a cellular level, the program skillfully redirects energy and nutrition to enhance detoxification, reduce inflammation, and promote gut repair.
Scott Schwenk - Master Coach, Spiritual Teacher, Culture Architect
Host and creator of the podcast The Choice To Grow, Scott is known for his hugely popular courses and workshops with OneCommune.com, Younity.com, Wanderlust Festivals, and Unplug Meditation, Scott has been catalyzing the inner evolution of others for decades: helping them to grow, transform obstacles into opportunities, and find Love within.
Scott spent several years living and studying in a meditation monastery which introduced him to the core body of Tantric meditation traditions which continue to flow through each of his teachings. Scott continues to study and teach from two key Tantric lineage streams.
Scott’s teachings support the entire person to not only progressively recognize, stabilize and embody our inextricable oneness with the source of creation (Waking Up), but also to resolve the wounds of the past (Cleaning Up), continually expand our capacities for wider and more inclusive perspectives on any moment (Growing Up) and creatively and joyfully participate and collaborate with all of life as a loving thriving human being (Showing Up).
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Transcript
Introduction to 'The Choice to Grow' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to The Choice to Grow. I'm Scott Schwenk. Through these dialogues, we'll explore fresh perspectives and discover practical tools for navigating a thriving life that adds value wherever we are.
00:00:14
Speaker
I'll introduce you to innovators and creators from across our world who embody what it means to cultivate growing as a way of life.
Breathing Exercise for Relaxation
00:00:23
Speaker
Let's prepare together.
00:00:24
Speaker
Take a deep breath in.
00:00:28
Speaker
Hold the breath briefly as you soften your shoulders and soften the soles of your feet and palms of your hands. Then exhale like you're releasing tension and setting down a heavy burden from every cell.
00:00:41
Speaker
Ah. Now let's dive in.
Guest Introduction: Dr. Alejandro Jünger
00:00:49
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody, to The Choice to Grow. This is a very special episode for me. And this person I'm about to introduce you to I've known for a very long time, more than half of my life. Here I am at 53.
00:01:00
Speaker
Dr. Alejandro Jünger is a renowned cardiologist. He's a functional medicine doctor and the founder of The Clean Program, as well as The New York Times bestselling author.
Dr. Jünger's Journey into Functional Medicine
00:01:10
Speaker
So with decades of experience in medicine, Dr. Jünger has dedicated his career to uncovering the root causes of complex health issues that often seem unrelated.
00:01:21
Speaker
His journey began with a profound intuition that a deeper understanding was needed, leading him to explore the intricate connections between Eastern and Western medicine, as well as ancient wisdom and modern science.
00:01:35
Speaker
Through his extensive practice, Dr. Jünger discovered that many health challenges are linked to one vital system. And this is a game changer, the gut. This insight propelled him to develop a holistic approach focused on healing the gut, supporting the body's natural detoxification processes, and restoring essential nutrients for optimal function.
00:01:58
Speaker
His innovative protocol protocol has not only transformed his own health, resulting in a newfound vitality, but it has also proven to be a powerful method for his many patients across the globe.
00:02:11
Speaker
Inspired by these results, Dr. Junger founded the Clean Movement, which emphasizes the importance of gut health and overall wellness. His signature 21-day full body reset program is meticulously designed to restore the body's natural balance through nutrient-dense smoothies, supplements, and whole food meals.
00:02:32
Speaker
Participants often report a significant shift in mindset and the cultivation of uplifting habits. On a cellular level, the program skillfully redirects energy and nutrition to enhance detoxification, reduce inflammation, and promote gut repair.
00:02:50
Speaker
With a commitment to educating others, Dr. Junger continues to be a leading expert in functional medicine, empowering individuals to reclaim their health and embrace a life of vitality. I have known so many people who've gone through this CLEAN program and had a huge life change, most of whom went in totally skeptical, not sure if they were gonna follow through, and the ones who did experience the
Friendship and Experiences in India
00:03:15
Speaker
change. It's so obvious in their photographs.
00:03:17
Speaker
I met Alejandro, many, many, many years ago when he was a cardiologist to senior monks in the meditation ashram in India for the ashram that I basically re-grew up in again.
00:03:30
Speaker
And so he was on his way back after a year, full of charisma, full of stories, always full of charisma, always full of stories. I have so many stories from Alejandro that I continue to tell from India, like the one about the crows, we'll get there.
00:03:47
Speaker
I've spent lots of time with him and watched him closely. I watched him while he was formulating the clean program, supplements on every countertop, sorting out what did and didn't work, and really being willing to live and sleep on the floor while he sorted this out for humanity.
00:04:02
Speaker
And so here we are. With Dr. Alejandro Jünger, is a joy to be with you, Alejandro. Always, always. Welcome to The Choice to Grow. My little brother, thank you for having me.
00:04:16
Speaker
It's also a a pleasure for me to be here and spend some time. I haven't seen you for a while. I did meet you when you were a kid, and I see a fully grown man, which in a way it makes me feel like when I see my kids grow. up
00:04:34
Speaker
um So, see yeah, I can't erase the smile of my face. and Now, thank you for your kind introduction, but it was a little too generous.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I want to make a distinction between what's your generosity and the reality. when you started to talk, you said about how I discovered that there was something missing and you know and I made a choice to to go study this and that.
00:05:08
Speaker
And that makes me sound too good and courageous. and and you know It wasn't like that. It was out of desperation. It was either I shoot myself or I find a way.
00:05:23
Speaker
You understand? Because i grew a very happy life in Uruguay, eating around my family, cooked meals from scratch, sports, friendship, tribe.
00:05:35
Speaker
Nobody had to have an invitation to your house. my my My house would be full for breakfast, lunch, dinner. You know, as as long as there's food, there's friends. and And it was a very healthy, wholesome life by design, by by default, because there were no supermarkets and there was no TV and there was no cellular phones and nothing like that. so So when I moved, when I graduated, I went to medical school there. And when I graduated medical school, with this desire of finding something incredible, you know, my my my mentor,
00:06:13
Speaker
who was one of the survivors of the Andes, the group of rugbyers that fell in the Andes had to eat their dead. And he was one of the ones that climbed over the movies called a Alive. The book is called the Alive.
00:06:25
Speaker
um He was a carologist he's a cardiologist and he was my mentor. And with him, and with him dreams were big and I was gonna, in my mind, I was gonna study and discover this new, and I was thinking more about opening arteries, right? Like angioplasty and things like that, catheterization.
00:06:44
Speaker
So I moved to New York after graduating to to read where the books that I was reading in Uruguay were being written, you know? So I started working at NYU and doing my training in internal medicine as an intern and then as a resident. And then I moved to Lenoxville Hospital as a cardiology fellow.
00:07:03
Speaker
And things were going good, but... On the first three years, I started gaining a lot of weight. I started having seasonal allergies. And then on the next three years, I started developing really heavy weight.
00:07:19
Speaker
continuous allergies, and irritable bowel syndrome and depression. So these were three diagnoses that I was giving by three specialists at Lenox Hill Hospital on my sixth year of training, which was when I was about to graduate as a cardiologist.
00:07:35
Speaker
And they prescribed to me seven prescription medications. One of them was an antidepressant, one of them was an anti-anxiety, one of them was an anti-diarrhea, antiant anti, anti, anti, anti.
00:07:47
Speaker
So so i you know, settled prescription medication. I said, no, this is shes is not for me because I knew by that time that these medications, these chemicals were not going to resolve the problem.
00:08:03
Speaker
They were going to attack, force a certain chemistry that would block the symptoms. but yeah But I knew by that time already, because there was a philip full long, not only doctor an internal magnet term medicine, but also cardiologist, I knew that all these have side effects and it's, you know, it's it's if you have a dam and you have a few holes, you put three fingers, but then suddenly, the whole thing crashed. So I didn't want that for myself and I didn't want that for my patients because that's the medicine that I was practicing. now i
00:08:40
Speaker
I had this profound, disillusion of of of, you know, I should have done, movie I mean, I was really good with cameras, I should have been a movie director, you know?
00:08:52
Speaker
so So um I got really depressed. And he went to the doctors. They gave me medications. I said no. So I started looking for a different solution. And the the first thing that I noticed was my mind was making too much noise.
00:09:05
Speaker
It was all the time thinking. Thoughts were appearing in mind. And I say thoughts were appearing because I wasn't choosing them. It was 99.9% of them were negative and repetitive. so So I wonder, how are they happening?
00:09:18
Speaker
So then I started reading about it. And the books of psychiatry didn't tell me anything. They didn't give me any explanation that I went, wow, I understand. So then I started going into the self-help books. and the And then I i ended up in Eastern religions and philosophy.
00:09:36
Speaker
And a book fell on my hands that talked about meditation as the practice through which you slow down and you maybe even stop flow of negative, repetitive thoughts that grab you and take you places and react with your body because if you're a gazelle in the jungle and and and the tiger is coming, it's good to get that fight or flight reaction.
00:09:59
Speaker
But we imagine the tiger coming to kill us and we're always in fight or flight reaction when we create a reality that doesn't exist. The gazelle, once she escapes, she goes back to being present.
00:10:11
Speaker
Otherwise, if you thought about the tiger, there would be no gazelles and we'd all die of a heart attack.
East Meets West: Multidisciplinary Healing
00:10:17
Speaker
Right? So, so meditation makes sense to me.
00:10:22
Speaker
That is how I ended up in the monastery in India where I met you because I had a very powerful experience with the guru and I don't have a I don't have a problem saying the name, you know, it's a Guru Mai, Swami Chisvilas Ananda, whose ashram in in the Catskills upstate New York was my first introduction.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then I met her in person, face to face, she slapped my my my chest And she put me in a state that I cannot really describe to you in words. But the more I read about it is what i read that people describe what they call consciousness kind a cosmic consciousness.
00:11:06
Speaker
where I merged into everything and I was everything and everybody and I could read people's minds and there was no past, present and future, just the existence, there was no body.
00:11:18
Speaker
so and it lasted a few minutes. And then after that I said, wow, this is what I'm looking for. I don't want to be a famous doctor and discover, i want i always just want to be in this state. So I started studying in and then I found out that you know through the practice of Siddha Yoga, which is what she teaches, maybe I could and learn or practice being in that state until you are in that state, which is what I understand as enlightenment, but it's basically a state of full presence, right?
00:11:50
Speaker
So I wanted that, so I went to the monastery in India, I stayed for a year and a half, that's when we spent time together, and you were a baby just coming out of your, not a baby, you were like the caterpillar, he just had the baby episode, and you were in the cocoon, and it was breaking there.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then you emerged, you know, as this other new being, right? But I was i was a a witness of that, which was a joy.
00:12:21
Speaker
and um And then i over there, I ran the clinic. It was a big ashram. There were 2,000, 3,000 people any given time from all over the world, some with medical issues.
00:12:32
Speaker
And we had a clinic that that that um had a lot of specialists, people coming to do SEVA, to do service. They assigned them to wherever they're good at.
00:12:44
Speaker
So there was, you know, my buddy from the body system was Divacar and he was an engineer. So she he was in charge of the water supply. And I was a doctor, so was in charge of the clinic. And there were chiropractors and naturopaths and and hands-on healers and Reiki practitioners and osteopaths and Ayurvedic medicine doctors, Chinese medicine doctors. Depends on who was rotating and had that skill, they would do a service there. So we had a clinic with the ah a multidisciplinary clinic. I didn't know it, but I was the director of clinic.
Discovering Detox and Clean Program
00:13:20
Speaker
multidisciplinary clinic of you know an alternative and complementary center very rudimentary in the middle of of India but it was beautiful so people would come with a problem and there was we would sit and the Ayurvedic doctor gave their opinion and the Chinese doctor medicine his doctor gave his opinion I gave my opinion And many times, my opinion was, you know, ah this person has an allergy, let's give him, a you know, it was full of hives and the breathing was a little bit tight and let's give him histamine or, or you know, or no histamine, Benadryl to block the histamine or maybe even steroids, right?
00:13:58
Speaker
There was a woman with severe problems. And the medicine doctor, no, let's try first, she's a pita and that she's and she's everything eating everything pita because she's in India and everything is fiery.
00:14:11
Speaker
So she took away the fiery foods and then the next day she was completely fired. So, whoa, I was like, you know, and then, but there was sometimes that the Chinese medicine doctor would oh, he needs like two needles. And I said, no, he needs to go to the hospital right now.
00:14:26
Speaker
It was a monk. I don't know if you remember him he him. He was very fat. I don't remember his name. Me neither. But he he he was he was a veteran monk and he was a sweetheart.
00:14:39
Speaker
And he came one time with chest pain and the doctors wanted to do all kinds of things. And I said, no, I put him in a, however little we had a little ambulance there. We put him in the ambulance. We went to Mumbai. I took him to the hospital.
00:14:51
Speaker
And thank God, because his left anterior descendant artery was closing with a clot. And we were able to open it up and put a stent and save his life. Yeah. So, you know, I have i have a a little bit of training now in you know what can solve this problem. Now this one needs to go to the hospital, but this one needs to repair his gut or increase detoxification. ah And then ah and and I know what Ayurveda can do a little bit, a little bit.
00:15:23
Speaker
I know Western medicine, I'm a cardiologist. But then when I see things, nice, I'm open-minded and I'm like, oh my God. You know, you you stop mango and the the hives go away. the mango is a little, is very fiery.
00:15:38
Speaker
Whoa. so So then I came back to the United States. I started eating from the hospital cafeteria again. All my symptoms that got much better in India, you know, with the allergies, with the irritable bowel syndrome, and also the depression.
00:15:54
Speaker
i work but The moment I started working in hospitals again, being on call, intensive care unit, eating from the hospital cafeteria, everything came back with a vengeance. At that time, I stumbled upon a friend of mine took me to the We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs, where we also had a an encounter, you and I. you know Life brought us to together so many times.
00:16:19
Speaker
One of them was in Palm Springs. yeah um You were doing your healing arts there. Yeah, and you opened the door for me to start teaching. I taught there for about six and a half years, giving private sessions to their guests. And for the listener, it's ah it's a best kept secret.
00:16:38
Speaker
People who've been to We Care all tell me the same thing if they had a good experience, which most do. They say they feel like they've joined a secret club of people all over the world who know something. It's so secret anymore. It's very, very fashionable for many years, you know, movie stars and and models and supermodels and but and billionaires, but also people that save for three years to all spend a week, you know?
00:17:01
Speaker
That's right. So yeah. And people that go for free homes. So, so it's ah it's an amazing place where they, they have a program. It's basically an intense detoxification program with colonics and supplements based on juice and all kinds of therapies, breath, work, meditation, yoga, you know?
00:17:20
Speaker
And people have a three or more days experience. And it's and i havent I was the medical director there. And um after I learned you know about that, and and through that healed all my problems, my depression, my irritable bowel syndrome, my allergies, everything gone.
00:17:38
Speaker
So so i became very interested. I couldn't understand because that was not what I was taught in medical school. So I started searching desperately to try to make sense of it.
00:17:50
Speaker
And it was when I found the Institute for Functional Medicine that everything clicked because I had learned everything that turk that takes to understand at a biological, cellular, physiological level.
00:18:03
Speaker
But I didn't have the approach how to how to join, the the so how to think about it in a different way. And I will explain to you very easily what the difference is.
00:18:16
Speaker
In Western medicine, in medical school, I learned to separate the body organs. So i became a cardiologist. Friends of mine became lung specialists, nephrologists, the kidney, a hepatologist, the liver.
00:18:31
Speaker
a hormonologist, an endocrinologist. So we separated, right? I i went to the heart. And usually the cardiologist doesn't talk to the neurologist who doesn't talk to the gastroenterologist who doesn't talk to the psychiatrist, right? so So you go from office to for office, from island to island. You're given one medication in one place that has a side effect affecting the other place.
00:19:00
Speaker
And so you go to the other organ to deal with that, and then he gives you a medication that counts that but affects the other. you know and so So you connect the organs through problems.
00:19:13
Speaker
On the other hand, functional medicine divides the body in systems, systems that perform certain functions.
Gut Health as a Central Hub
00:19:22
Speaker
And many organs...
00:19:25
Speaker
participate in one system, and many organs participate in different systems also, right? And in functional medicine, there's seven systems that are distinguished.
00:19:39
Speaker
One of them is the structural system that that entails bones and ligaments and membranes, and it's what gives the body shape and the ability to move in in space as a physical view, right?
00:19:54
Speaker
The other system is the communication system, and it involves two methods of communication. Let's say, like, regular mail and and email. i Email is much faster.
00:20:08
Speaker
Regular mail would be the hormonal system. It takes time, it's slower, you know. The the email would be the nervous system. You can send a message from the tip of your of your head to the tip of your toe instantly, right? the The hormones have to be secreted into blood, transported into blood, you know, by the transportation system. That's the third system.
00:20:37
Speaker
The transportation system is arteries, veins, everything that transports, arteries, veins, a lymphatic system, right? It's like the hoses of the body. the if your house If your house was a, if your body was a house, the nervous system is all the cablory.
00:21:01
Speaker
the soc The circulatory system, the transportation system is all the hoses. They take the fluid, you know? and then And then you have the digestive and absorption and assimilation system.
00:21:15
Speaker
It's the way that you incorporate the outside world. You make it absorbable by digestion. You digest it, and then it goes and it makes part of your muscle, your skin, your your hair, your teeth, your hormones, you know?
00:21:33
Speaker
So yeah then you have the detoxification system. Because as you live, you burn glucose or you burn ketones into into carbon dioxide or citric acid or lactic acid.
00:21:48
Speaker
Those are all poisons, citric acid, lactic acid, carbon dioxide. If they accumulate inside of you, you die. So they have to be detoxified and eliminated.
00:22:00
Speaker
And there's many internal toxins, but there's also external toxins, exotoxins. Nowadays, more than ever, because we eat them, we drink them, we put them on our skin, we put them in our mattresses, in our furniture, in our cleaning utensils, in our cleaning products, mostly in the food-like products that we eat, the ultra-processed foods that occupy 95% of what modern society is feeding itself from.
00:22:26
Speaker
I also like that you said food-like products. They're not food, they're food-like. Edible stuff. Yeah. Yes. So you see that all of these are systems. Now, for example, the intestines are an important part of the digestive absorption system.
00:22:46
Speaker
They're in a very important part of the detoxification system. There's a system that I didn't mention, which is the defense and repair system, which is what we call immune system.
00:22:57
Speaker
no 70% of it it lives within and a around the intestines. So intestines are also part of the immune or repair and defense system, defense and repair system, right?
00:23:08
Speaker
So now they're part of the digestive system, theyre part the absorption system, they're part of the repair system.
Microbiome and Health Connections
00:23:13
Speaker
They're part of the circulatory system because there's a huge, huge net of arteries and veins around the intestines.
00:23:21
Speaker
Huge. It's what is's called the mesenteric tree, right? And it's into where... um nutrients get thrown when they are absorbed from the lumen of the intestine through the intestinal wall, they're dumped into the ah circulatory system, which will transport them everywhere, right?
00:23:42
Speaker
and And so, and there's a huge nervous system, communication systems, a brain bigger than the brain inside your skull lives within and around the gut, where
00:23:55
Speaker
90% of the neurotransmitters that are the they ah chemicals that end up sending signals through the cables, they ignite the cable, you know, they're produced in the gut.
00:24:09
Speaker
Serotonin, the most famous one one of them, but now dopamine is also very much in ah in fashion, you know, but there's many more. There's epinephrine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, gabapentin.
00:24:24
Speaker
mean, you can, you know, there's many. And there's opioid-like compounds, you know. So 80, 90% of all these compounds are produced in the brain, in the gut, your second brain or your largest brain, or the neuroenteric organ, right?
00:24:45
Speaker
So, so... There you go. In the intestines, meat, mayor the nervous system or communication system, the the absorption and digestive system, the a detoxification system, the hormonal system. There's lots of hormones that are produced in the gut and lots of hormones affect the gut immune system.
00:25:08
Speaker
The hormonal system. um All systems meet in the gut. And there's one system that is not really a system, but but um but the microbiome.
00:25:25
Speaker
You know, there's like three, four kilos of bacteria inside of you, normally, and healthy in a healthy gut. And this is like an organ. This weighs as much as your liver. Your liver maybe weighs more, and a little less.
00:25:39
Speaker
So it's an organ. If you put them all together, you know, And if you count the number of bacteria is nine times more than the number of cells in your body.
00:25:52
Speaker
Wow. So you are 90% bacterial. Really. Wow. really oh right And this organ performs tons of functions, right?
00:26:05
Speaker
Detoxification, pre-digestion, so that the body is able to absorb. um it's a It's training and keeping a i alert the immune system. It's sending signals to your brain to even make you crave certain things.
00:26:26
Speaker
or exhibit certain certain behaviors, right? like like Like those mice that were given a a different bacteria in the gut from dogs or something, they ended up chasing the cats, huh?
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah. um I mean, don't quote me exactly, but it's something like that. Yeah. but But true, it's an experiment that's been done. so So, you know, bacteria now are guiding a lot of unconscious people's behavior and experience.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:00
Speaker
That's what I learned. And then how trauma also affects this whole thing.
Trauma's Impact on Gut Health
00:27:11
Speaker
right yeah Everything meets in the gut. Which comes first, Alejandro, the trauma or the or the the gut imbalance? There is no first.
00:27:22
Speaker
there is no There is no first. nothing no Because there is no past, present, and future. so you know it It's part of the same thing, right? huh But I understand your question and just think about it in a practical way.
00:27:35
Speaker
It can be both ways. ha It can be always, well listen, I am dealing with it right now. I mean you know well I'm in Argentina, is I came here to do something called discolysis, which is injecting ozone into, in between my vertebra, L3, L4, L4, L5.
00:27:53
Speaker
Why? Because after an accident my discs were destroyed and Western medicine wants to do a fusion surgery. They want to fuse L4 with L5, L3 with L4, L4 with L3. Fuse the whole thing, and without the movement, there's not going to be compression of my of my nerves. There's going to be pain.
00:28:14
Speaker
But it's not always effective. There's but potential problems, and then there's future problems. Because when you fuse, the one in the bottom and the one in the top have to do more work, right?
00:28:28
Speaker
So they get worn out and then in in in a few years you need to fuse them and you end up fused. you You end up like a tripod. Well, like you said, I imagine, I'm not a doctor, but I imagine from what you said about the way ah Restorative medicine, Western medicine typically operates where it's treating just symptoms, not dealing with root causes or the interconnection of all systems.
00:28:53
Speaker
The lack of oscillation in those discs and the impact on all the organ systems that are connected to those discs, let alone all the other implications energetically, emotionally, spiritually, and so on of limiting movement.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yes, yes. And I've been experiencing firsthand what you just said. What's the impact not only in the nerves and that you know and and in your gut or whatever, but in your emotions, you know?
00:29:23
Speaker
I've been dealing with deep depression at the moments of of of pain, even with suicidal ideation of Let it be, you know? haven't explored my options, I'm not going to do it before I explore the options, right?
00:29:38
Speaker
And today you see me you see me with 100 kilos of my chest because I had that procedure the day before yesterday. um They inject these big, big needles connected to a machine, ozone machine generator, and and they have to do it under fluoroscopy, under x-ray.
00:30:00
Speaker
And it's an 84-year-old neurosurgeon who is unbelievable. He's an enlightened bee. And he puts it right in between, you know, where the vertebrae are, punctures there and.
00:30:13
Speaker
insufflates with ozone. And that not only creates a little bit of pneumatic space, you know, it's like you it's like inflating a deflated tiler, right?
00:30:25
Speaker
and and And the rim is not touching the ground anymore, right? i made A little bit of that, but also it's like injecting a he like injecting hydrogen peroxide or Clorox inside the vertebrae.
00:30:41
Speaker
It kind of dissolves the the impurities, the they spikes, you know? And that, if you do with Clorox, you burn it and you're inflaming.
00:30:55
Speaker
But with this, it calms down the inflammation. And if there's bacteria, fungus, viruses, things that shouldn't be there, it saps them on like like a... Like a... So, and until now, I had it three times. This is my fourth time.
00:31:16
Speaker
It lasts for about a month and a half. I've been given exercises from an approach called Bambiomecánica. a lady that has and also has very special gifts and in magic hands.
00:31:31
Speaker
So i you know I had my injection, then I went with her. After the injection, the torturous pain had gone, but there was a lot of other pains right that remained. I had a session with her, everything was gone.
00:31:43
Speaker
Today, I have little bit it. Tomorrow, I'm having a session with her. And she's going to give me exercises that this time, Om Namahshuva, I promise I'm gonna do them. Because I did, you know, I was very half-assed with my exercises.
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, everybody, you heard that. Send him extra energy so he does his exercises. Because you know what I know about you, not just you, what I know about you observing your life over 26 years is that all the challenges you've experienced end up helping thousands and thousands of other people not because you sit back and go gosh i want to suffer so i can help some more people but it's just what's happening somehow the the the larger sphere of life the collective the part you're playing or others of us are playing and i think this is a really important
00:32:33
Speaker
contemplation about the choice to grow is... It's it's what it's what the woke call the the wounded healer. Yeah, and that's something that like almost, not almost, I get sick to my stomach, want to vomit when I hear that now, because we've, we've some of us have unwittingly, I had for a while, fetishized the wound.
00:32:56
Speaker
and turned it into some sort of a false god. And you know first-tier energetics, this is now the work of Donnie Epstein, first-tier energetics, you require pain to grow. i mean, we know, you and I know, in biological systems, if a system does not have novel energy injected into it, introjected, introjected, injected, that entropy kicks in. The universal forces tear it apart back into free energy, so it can create something else.
00:33:20
Speaker
But if novel energy is ejected... Let me... yeah let mean tell you where where I think a little bit different. Please. right Because you said you need sometimes pain to grow. In first tier energetics. In second next tier energetics, you don't. From from my experience, yeah yeah right and what I learned from Baba and Guru Mai and many more, is that there is no need for pain to grow. growing necessary causes pain because it's it's the friction.
00:33:56
Speaker
you know It's like as you're passing from from so a more expanded vibration,
00:34:05
Speaker
friction. And that is experienced in many different ways, but it's not many times it's not pleasant. know And that and that is he's like is inevitable to suffer.
00:34:16
Speaker
Now, yeah what what is not inevitable inevitable or or could be not inevitable is to suffer unconsciously. Yes. Yes.
00:34:28
Speaker
because there's And this is what we're talking about. The things that you if you make yourself suffer consciously, the more you suffer consciously, the less you're going to have to suffer unconsciously. Like, for example, that's why in in in the ashram, they make you do the dishes.
00:34:42
Speaker
you know You eat and you go, you do the dishes. It's a suffering.
Exercises for Presence and Attention
00:34:46
Speaker
And you have to, you know, it was a pain in my ass. But you go, oh, you suffer.
00:34:54
Speaker
Meditation, in a way, it's conscious suffering. Well, I'm confronting all of my contractions when I sit. When I quiet the mind, I'm going to confront whatever's there that I may be historically distracted from through social media scrolling or searching for this or that or medicating in some sort of a way.
00:35:14
Speaker
But the point i'm i'm I'm interested in is really for my study coming from basic alchemy, hermetic alchemy, you've got a point A where there's something happening that's, we don't like it, or it's painful, or it's problematic, or it's harming others. That's point A, that's the lump of coal.
00:35:33
Speaker
Okay, what's the point B? What's the diamond? What is the energetic of that? Not from a thought, not from a story, but like what is the more coherent energy? Maybe it's the mantra energy in Omnama Shivaya.
00:35:44
Speaker
Maybe it's being slapped on the chest by somebody who's living in a very coherent state at that moment. Maybe it's doing work over time. I think it's pure presence. Right. you when that's a new That's a novel thing for humanity. That's it.
00:35:59
Speaker
That's a novel thing for most of humanity if we look at the experience that people express. You know, you and I have both worked with thousands of people over the years and seen some themes.
00:36:11
Speaker
i've I've had people come in, you know, over and over again who are saying, oh, me, oh my, this pain, this pain, or I keep attracting these unavailable people to date and it's painful or this or that.
00:36:22
Speaker
Okay, wait, are you doing are you doing practices to transform your consciousness? Are you doing practices that are gonna transform how you're breathing, how you're holding your body? Oh, well, you know, I try.
00:36:35
Speaker
i give you I'll give you an example that is very simple. Yeah. Very simple. And then you don't have to do 20 minutes a day in ah in a quiet room with the with with the you know with your altar and nothing.
00:36:50
Speaker
Sure. Sure. And it's conscious suffering. <unk> And it's a way to put your state, your person in the in the in the state of presence. And we're going to do it right now as we speak. Great.
00:37:01
Speaker
right Great. So as we speak, now you're looking at, you're looking at the, in the camera, direction of the camera, and I can see it. No, he I mean, you can look at me. You can look at me. if You look at my eyes. So I'm gonna look at the camera and look at my eyes.
00:37:14
Speaker
But don't know don't focus just there. Do the conscious effort of also noticing the rims of the computer, the keyboard, the wall behind the computer.
00:37:26
Speaker
Keep on looking at me, see me, but notice from the corner of your eyes everything else. You know, your table, hands, the camera, the ceiling. Keep on looking at me and keep on seeing everything at the same time.
00:37:41
Speaker
Now, suddenly it became a little more still because you are making the conscious effort to look. Otherwise, the eyes just go drawn just to me and they're focusing on me. and But look at, so and may you may have plants, you may have statue, a painting, whatever. Just notice everything at the same time, all the time, and keep on doing, right?
00:38:02
Speaker
And as you listen to me and you notice everything, Now, put some of the attention on your feet. Feel your feet intensely from inside. You know, measure the temperature, the humidity, the orientation. Are you ah your toes looking straight forward onto the sides?
00:38:23
Speaker
Are you wearing socks? what's silly What's the consistency or the touch of the socks? Keep on feeling your feet, seeing everything, don't forget. Notice it's the ceiling, notice the table, and feel your feet.
00:38:37
Speaker
Now you have to do double conscious effort. It's an effort, it's a pain. It's a pain the ass. This is not something you were doing before. You know yeah you have your feet there, but now I'm asking you to keep your attention there and and everything that's around And now add to your feet your knees, your thighs, your butt against the chair, your back, your shoulders, your neck, your face, your tongue, right?
00:39:04
Speaker
So feel your body all the time at the same time from inside as you see everything. And you also put some attention on what I'm saying to try to understand and relate.
00:39:15
Speaker
And now notice how all the other thoughts are gone. Because you're anchoring your attention in the present. Your feet, your hands, your body's in the present.
00:39:28
Speaker
And whatever else you can see in your field of vision is in the present.
Holistic Healing and Gut Repair
00:39:32
Speaker
So you're putting your attention there, you're anchoring your attention there, you're becoming more present.
00:39:38
Speaker
Now, if we, can you hear me? Now, if we didn't have earphones, and I don't know if yours is noise canceling or or transparent, but you could add also what the sounds, you know, I've been kind of hearing some birds, because I'm in the middle of a garden here.
00:39:56
Speaker
um so So you can add that, right? And then you can add your breathing. And you're gonna have to be so busy putting your attention in all those places that there's not gonna be attention left to go into the thinking mind, the monkey mind, the broken radio.
00:40:16
Speaker
yeah Now, when you're not doing all of that, all the attention, because attention is like is like blood, it's flowing all the time, and it has to go somewhere. So when you don't direct it yourself, it goes to the place where it's then less resistance.
00:40:30
Speaker
which is your your mind, your thought, which is theory, right? And sometimes even your emotions. So you're feeling and thinking you feeling and feeling like out of control.
00:40:41
Speaker
yeah why Because attention is just flowing to where there is less resistance. And if you at all times of the day, remember to feel your feet, feel your arms, see everything. I call it the fish eye view.
00:40:56
Speaker
And you even walk around like that or you have meetings like that. yeah then you're always ah little more present. yeah Until you are love this practice. I love this practice.
00:41:08
Speaker
And I love the research around how holding two or more things in mind at the same time shifts attention from the hindbrain into the frontal cortex where we can actually make better decisions. And it's not holding. It's not holding things.
00:41:24
Speaker
What you're doing you're... you're putting your willpower to work because to feel your feet, you have to send an electrical impulse in a long cable. It goes down your spine and then your femoral vein and then your tibial vein and then to the feet and then to the receptors of temperature, humidity, and then it has to come back.
00:41:51
Speaker
You're activating that nerve. You're sending electricity. It's like turning on if like In your house, the cable that goes from that wall to the light that's up there, right now the light is off, the cable is idle.
00:42:04
Speaker
But if I switch it on, there's going to be electricity running. So there's going to be resistance. So the cable is going to get hot. That's the same thing that happens to your cable. But to turn the switch on, that's the effort.
00:42:17
Speaker
And the problem is that you have to hold it there. Maybe that's what you meant by holding two things in your brain. Yes, holding or attending to, no grasping, no grasping.
00:42:28
Speaker
The intention, the switch. You have to hold it and then you have to switch the one that sees everything and you have to switch the one that hears everything. And that is such an effort, that is conscious suffering.
00:42:42
Speaker
That that it you know there's no space for anything else.
00:42:48
Speaker
Mine mine is ah that I give is the six points of softening. So I grew up such a perfectionist and I was trained ah by Salih Kempton, Durga Nanda, to do a body scan, start at your feet, work your way up.
00:43:02
Speaker
By the time I got to my knees, I'm already in expanded state, but I was a perfectionist, so I'm back in my thoughts again. I've lost my place and i remember sitting on my couch going, F this, you've got to show me another way. I'm by myself in my room and one by one these points lit up in the body and the voice says, soften them like you're opening a fist.
00:43:20
Speaker
Soles of your feet, palms of your hands, all the corners of the eyes, region around the ears, tongue and pelvic floor. Soles, palms, eyes, ears, tongue, pelvic floor. Let the breath slow down.
00:43:31
Speaker
Functionally, what are you doing? you you turn in the cable of attention into all these parts, which is the same thing that we were doing five minutes ago.
00:43:42
Speaker
Yeah. You're feeling your feet. Yeah. But you go a little further because you soften them. Yes. you know So that's also an active thing. yeah hu So it's maybe a little more powerful, but but a you compensate that in the one the practice we were doing before by also doing the visuals and the auditory.
00:44:08
Speaker
Yeah. You see? Yeah. and The auditory one is, I find for me and others, so much easier in a busy, crowded place when you're learning it. Like to go to a mall or a marketplace. And then, because there's so many different sounds, it's easier to not latch on to one particular sound and start thinking about it and focusing on it.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, but but there's also there's also more power in keeping that on when there's not too much, because then yeah the saddle comes in, you know?
00:44:38
Speaker
yeah A bird that's singing three blocks away, and you know?
00:44:44
Speaker
They're all good practices. They're all good practices. And for everybody, they work in a different way. For you, it may be this one in the mall and this one when you're walking.
00:44:55
Speaker
and and and you know it's yeah you have to find yours. That's why you have to try. Yeah. And that's also valuable. I've seen this in my own world.
00:45:06
Speaker
you know
00:45:09
Speaker
We're in different states at different moments. you know when you're when Prior to the injection, maybe on the airplane from UK to down to where you are in Argentina, it's a lot for me in a fairly healthy state to sit in an airplane seat for over an hour.
00:45:28
Speaker
So it's one thing what practice I can select and have easy access to when things are seemingly going well there's money in the bank the lover is still there the children are kind like this colleagues are getting along who are we when we've been ah accused of something we didn't do uh lost the money got in a terrible car accident you know in horrible pain if we're not having been training so we need to be present enough to be kind to ourselves to go what do i have in this moment what can i do not what should i do
00:46:02
Speaker
not where i like I should suddenly be able to be aware of pure consciousness when my best friend just died or something like this. I might i might be thrown into that state, but there's like ah start where we are kind of thing. And that's why I like what you've just shown us is we can all start there. We can start with the mean vision.
00:46:22
Speaker
In the meantime, don't do it all about just being present. Repair your gut. Everybody walking around in the modern world today is walking around with some degree of gut dysfunction, of gut injury.
00:46:37
Speaker
What I call gut injury is the dysfunction or the ah the problem in one of four components. One of them is the microbiome, the gut bacteria and fungus and viruses and parasites.
00:46:51
Speaker
It's a zoo there. It's not just bacteria, right? So you have to... a a the The damage, the alteration of that is one of the problems. The second problem is the gut reward. Pause one second. I have to say this thing you said many years ago to me that just coming into mind, and I've said it so many times to so many people, and I think it was from your work with Gurdjieff.
00:47:13
Speaker
You said in at any given moment, your mind is a zoo and you're the either the zookeeper or you become lunch for the animals.
00:47:23
Speaker
Now, the zoo really is in the gut. And when this zoo gets altered, a lot of things get altered. The immune system gets altered, they absorb the digestion and absorption of very important nutrients get altered, the nervous system gets altered, irritable bowel syndrome, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, cancers, diabetes.
00:47:48
Speaker
Metabolic inflexion, B, I mean, so many things, right? so So inflammation, basically, right? So the the gut wall the wall should be intact. The cells should be stuck like like bricks it together on a wall with cement.
00:48:03
Speaker
That cement is called the tight junction. And modern life and dysbiosis, which is the changing, and the toxins are destroying that. So everybody's walking around with some degree of hyperpermeability, which in the common lingo is leaky gut.
00:48:21
Speaker
right so dysbiosis and leaky gut this is this is the achilles heel of modern disease of human of human beings on in health right this is where 99.9 if not 100 of the chronic diseases of the modern world begin with the breaking of the microbiome and the and the hyper permeability the leakiness of the gut of the gut wall that when it's leaking, not only, instead of only digested food, amino acids, fatty acids, esters, and simple carbohydrates should be passing.
00:48:59
Speaker
Now, through the spaces, bacteria, viruses, parasites, undigested food, they pass, and the immune system within the gut and around the gut starts getting crazy.
00:49:11
Speaker
Sometimes it gets confused and it starts attacking parts of yourself. Those are the autoimmune diseases. Then sometimes that the leaky gut leads to leaky brain. The they and so they a hematoencephalo barrier is also leaky. So leaky gut leads to leaky brain and vi and vice versa, right?
00:49:32
Speaker
And when that happens, mental fog and all kinds of all kinds of problems, right? um The nervous system also suffers. It starts producing a neurotransmitters that that instead of going to balance you and keep you present and help with that process and and and and allow repair and detoxification, no, they go they are enter into adaptation and survival mechanisms, a cortisol and all kinds of things.
00:50:00
Speaker
to you know to kind of increase the healing and the, you know. um so So the whole body goes into disarray. So what I say is the mother of preventive medicine.
00:50:12
Speaker
And the father of curative medicine, of healing medicine, is gut repair. And until you don't try a gut repair program, don't bother going and injecting hormones and take, you know, if first you repair your gut and then everything corrects by itself.
00:50:27
Speaker
And what doesn't correct by itself, then there are people that can, you know, bring in what's needed, right? But in functional medicine, we always say that disease happens for two reasons.
00:50:39
Speaker
Something is blocking the normal functioning or something is missing for the normal functioning to happen. And when you remove the blockages and you add what is missing, everything corrects by itself.
00:50:53
Speaker
this is That's the healing. The healer doesn't heal you. the healing The healer helps you create the conditions to remove what is and the obstacles and provide what is lacking. And then...
00:51:07
Speaker
Is it beneficial for us to do gut biome tests? There's several of them out there or is it just start a program? cases In certain cases, yes. And if you are of the type that needs information and needs data and needs a way to track progress, there's there's many tests that are helpful.
00:51:26
Speaker
But... Listen, i propose this as a world solution for health, not just for the rich that can get tests. And the truth is that when you start doing certain things that have been done for thousands of years, simple, like eating real foods and not food-like products.
00:51:46
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Like like not not not bombarding your your life with nasty chemicals in the food-like products you eat. So when you eat real foods and organic, then then there's no no source of toxins, right?
00:52:01
Speaker
Instead of drinking from plastic bottles, use glass bottles so that you don't end with microplastics. instead of Instead of buying a a volatile you know paints for your house, you buy biological paints for your house without iron, without VOCs.
00:52:20
Speaker
um that without v o c but Volatile organic compounds that are poison. If you buy a mattress, you buy a mattress without fire retardant who is off-gassing these chemicals that you spent a third of your life in it's for for for so you know for for all your life.
00:52:37
Speaker
You're breathing this shit. And when you use cleaning products in your house, maybe you use viny white vinegar instead of a floor cleaner or Windex.
00:52:48
Speaker
and and And when you brush your teeth, you brush your teeth past with paste without fluoride and other chemicals. And like that, blah, blah. The most important thing is is is is what you eat and what you drink, right?
00:53:03
Speaker
And when you start doing those things, um everything starts correcting. And also also becoming present and healing the trauma and and, you know, hugely important because trauma is the number one thing
Functional Medicine vs. Conventional Medicine
00:53:21
Speaker
Forget about the toxins, so forget about the the aisles of boxes and jars and cans and tubes and plastics that we're eating all day long as if it was full, full of chemicals and the glyphosate and genetically modified organ.
00:53:35
Speaker
Trauma is still the number one factor. So you can be eating the right thing and eating the taking the right supplements. and And if you don't hear your trauma, or and I've seen patients like this for years.
00:53:48
Speaker
And then suddenly they went to family constellations or breath work or deep tissue massage. or And some trauma got released and processed and and and paid attention to. And then boom, and then the gut heals.
00:54:05
Speaker
Alejandro, are there studies that you've seen? I'm asking because I've heard contradictory information. Like there's one fellow who's got a big organization doing healing work and says trauma is not stored in the body. He's a doctor of chiropractic.
00:54:19
Speaker
And then other people like Basil van der Kock or all these people say, yeah, the body keeps the score. It is stored in the tissue. What have you learned or observed about how Where is trauma scoring? I am not good at remembering studies and in and bibliography and all of that. And yes, there are studies. But but and in this in this subject, in this question, I don't need studies.
00:54:41
Speaker
My studies are the studies of life. I've known people that that went into a session and and had body work or breath work and and and and that was the the opening to the healing of their trauma.
00:54:55
Speaker
Sure. and you know So I don't need studies for that. yeah Have you seen people simply go into the clean program without any psychological work and traumas are releasing because they've transformed the body? Okay, so this is important. Say more about this. Thousands, thousands of people that go into the clean program and end up realizing how little attention they have for their kids, how little patients.
00:55:19
Speaker
They become better mothers. They feel like theyt they're able to drop antidepressants guided by the doctor. um They're able to to to stop medications for high blood pressure, for sleeping, for for hormonal imbalances. so i mean it touches Healing the gut touches every every organ in your body, every system in your body. Why?
00:55:45
Speaker
Because we are like plants. Now, plants have the roots into the earth. Our roots are mobile because we had to move around. So we inverted them and we put them inside the body, inside the gut.
00:55:59
Speaker
And instead of being rooted in the earth, we use portable air, which is the foods that we eat. yeah I've never heard that example. I love that.
00:56:09
Speaker
That's so obvious. Plants suck their nutrients from the earth through the roots. We suck our nutrients through our gut it from the food, which is the earth, right?
00:56:22
Speaker
And the earth, just like the earth around the plant, has to have... certain microorganisms, even funguses. There's a whole mycelial network that connects plants and roots and and and prepares nutrients for the plants to absorb, just like the gut bacteria in your gut and the microbiome.
00:56:41
Speaker
The good fungus do that for you. They prepare, they communicate. And when the roots are fine and soil is fine, then you have beautiful flowers, leaves, fruits, right?
00:56:58
Speaker
And when they're not, a gardener, when when the fruits are not thriving, doesn't doesn't go and paint the fruit or you know the the leaves are brown, doesn't go and paint the leaves green.
00:57:10
Speaker
He goes in and checks, is there enough sun? Is there enough water? Is there enough nutrients, right? Are there any parasites that shouldn't be there? And when you fix that, boom, the fruits become beautiful.
00:57:25
Speaker
You and I have heard and said this to each other many times, as within, so without, this ancient teaching about how energy works. And it seems obvious to me listening to you that as more of us really get a healthy relationship with our gut, we start treating the planet and our communities differently, just naturally by extension.
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, and listen, a there was a guru that I'm that i um you know, I had very controversial controversial experience with, right? He was was one of the biggest gurus of our time.
00:57:59
Speaker
He only died, i think, eight years ago. and um And people went to see him from all over the world and heads of state. And yeah he had the biggest ashram in the world. It's a whole city in Bangalore.
00:58:13
Speaker
Puttaparty is the name. and um And um he used to say, you know, and and ah and I'm not promoting him. or i I had a actually had a great experience, but I had a really bad experience that I don't I don't I know it. and I'm not sharing it. and And people well, and people are sharing it all over the Internet. And some people had committed suicide because of it, you know.
00:58:38
Speaker
And, um but he used to say something that really called my attention. He used to say, because he, went when he went with, you know, the lucky followers that three or four a day that were able to go into this private little temple and he used to materialize things, right?
00:58:55
Speaker
Like a, like a watch or ah or a chain out of thin air, right? And then he used to give it, people went, ah, So a lot criticism because, yeah, why are you giving jewelry to him?
00:59:06
Speaker
And he said, he used to say, I give people what they want in the hope that one day they will want what I really have to give them. Right. Yeah.
00:59:17
Speaker
So I don't when I when I practice with patients, I don't go into the spirituality too much. you know I'm dealing with my spirituality enough. and know So i'm not I'm not a teacher. I'm not who to come and tell you this or that.
00:59:30
Speaker
What I do is um I focus on the gut. But what happens is that when you fix the gut, all these other things become available to you in a much more powerful way. Yeah.
00:59:43
Speaker
More bandwidth. Better neurotransmitters. Yeah. you know No inflammation that's that's that's a utilizing not only your resources in terms of nutrients, and but your energy. You know, we have two types of energy.
00:59:58
Speaker
The one that's produced by burning glucose and in the Krebs cycle, and it transforms into ATP, right? In the mitochondria that everybody's talking about these days. But when there's another different energy that the Chinese called Qi,
01:00:12
Speaker
a Hindus call in part Kundalini, but chik Shakti, more Shakti, right? um which Which is also necessary, and we also have a limited amount at any given day.
01:00:29
Speaker
which is why we get tired and we need to go to sleep to recharge You don't recharge it by eating the nutrients that you're going to burn down, like either glucose or ketone bodies, right?
01:00:41
Speaker
in in In the mitochondria through glycolysis. this energy you get from from sleeping that's why you don't do anything you go to sleep and you wake up recharge right so so there's there's these two energies that are being consumed and used for everything we do for thinking for seeing for smelling for the liver to be working for your intestines to be transporting food your your gut wall to absorb it your circulatory system and your heart to pump Everything is using these sources of energy, right? It's like your house, your body is like your house.
01:01:19
Speaker
And every system, every every organ is like like a an appliance in your house, right? And then you're using what? They're all plugged into ah to the main source, right? But here, the main source comes from the city, so it's constant, right?
01:01:33
Speaker
Unless there's a blackout. But in your body, the main the source comes from the production of ATP, which is kind of limited, and the energy that you have stored, which is kind of
Biohacking and Longevity Practices
01:01:45
Speaker
limited. I mean, it's unlimited, but it's you have to get there, right? So so um every system in your body is like an appliance that that's using up energy.
01:01:57
Speaker
If your energy is used in a lot of digesting, that's why we're eating all day long, digesting all day long, consuming that energy all day long, there's going to be less energy left for other systems. So you get tired when you eat a lot.
01:02:11
Speaker
You go into digestion. So digesting all day long is one of the diseases of the modern world, right? So when you stop digesting, you give you your your digestion work ah a rest.
01:02:23
Speaker
It allows for energy to be relocated to other things, you know? Repair, detoxification, right? So... so um
01:02:34
Speaker
It's so important in my clinical practice. I don't do anything before i repair their guts. And usually repairing their guts solve whatever other problem they actually came to with me. So I give them what they want in the hopes that one day I, because and that comes from this.
01:02:56
Speaker
A lot of people do it to lose weight. And it's a great way to lose weight. People lose a lot of weight and they look better. and And a lot of people do it for that. So I give them what they want.
01:03:07
Speaker
in the hope that that one day they'll understand what I really have to give them, which is gut repair and enhanced detoxification can really do for Which basically is the way that they look better and they lose weight.
01:03:22
Speaker
so So somebody does the CLEAN program, they they follow it... meticulously, how often is it beneficial to to do it again? a every months. Well, like taking a shower. If you take a really good shower, exactly like it should be done, and you brush everything, and you have a nice soap without toxins, how often does the next shower have to be? Depends.
01:03:45
Speaker
If you finish your shower, you go jump in the mud, and you go sweat, and you go paint, and you go, you know, then maybe you need a shower that same day. But if you don't do much, and you you keep yourself clean, right, then you don't need a shower in in a week, like the French.
01:04:05
Speaker
So it's a little bit different, because what I'm trying to say, if you do a gut repair program, and then you continue... implementing the tools to allow the gut to keep healthy, like for example, eating fiber, um and not eating sugar, understanding what your your trigger foods are, and not taking antibiotics unless life saving and what's really necessary.
01:04:36
Speaker
And then, you know, hanging out with your friends and having fun and be practicing these tools to stay present and and it and adding the foods, you know, that your body actually needs.
01:04:52
Speaker
And that's the way you maintain your body. If you do all those things, you may not need to do the clean program ever again, which is my hope. Huh. which is my hope. this is This is just a way to get back on track fix things a little bit so that you can continue, right And what about this business of, let's say you've done the CLEAM program really successfully.
01:05:13
Speaker
There, in the world of functional medicine, there's such a promotion of things like NAD, or now NR, the precursor to NAD, things like this, total plasma exchange. Those are different things, right? What what I'm talking about is is is the root of healing.
01:05:29
Speaker
What you're talking about is they they the world of biohacking and longevity, right? Okay. So so that is like... And it's great and it's fantastic, right?
01:05:40
Speaker
yeah And I love it and I read about it and I try, I'm i'm trying BPC-157 now, which is a peptide, body protective compound 157, which is a peptide that helps heal the gut and if you inject more locally, it helps heal the whatever area, right?
01:05:58
Speaker
So I'm trying that. I tried microdosing with growth hormone. now you know I'm open to all of these things. What I learned is that most of these things, you either need to do it almost all the time, it takes expensive equipment, you know BPC 157 is 300, 400 dollars a vial.
01:06:16
Speaker
it's ah it's you know It's a lot of expense. Some of them work, some of them don't. you know so so It's not that I'm not interested in those things. I am.
01:06:28
Speaker
but But it's not the main of the main way or to to help people. you know I just know we have many biohackers listening who do cleanses on the regular and they're like doing this and not knowing necessarily, am I just spending a lot of money or is this actually doing something of value?
01:06:45
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you the ones that I do like, infrared sauna and regular sauna. Convection sauna is amazing too. um Cold plunges, if done in the right way and at the right time, like women shouldn't be doing them when they're menstruating because it kind of fucks
Detoxification's Role in Health
01:07:02
Speaker
them up.
01:07:02
Speaker
Same thing with intermittent fasting, you know, different in women than in men or long-term periods of fasting, um infrared light, ozone, you know, I'm injecting ozone between my vertebra, you know, it's not like I'm a you know. um so So there are things that work, right?
01:07:22
Speaker
And there are some things that are... We don't know. Fashion. Yeah. Expensive and maybe do nothing. After I had... first round of being very sick from the the thing that the world experienced.
01:07:38
Speaker
I don't want to say it. um I was put by my functional medicine PA into two rounds, one a month of this intravenous ozone cleansing, like 10 rounds through the blood.
01:07:51
Speaker
I did that too. Amazing. Amazing. It was gone. I was healed and then hyperbaric oxygen chamber twice in one week got the fluid out of my lungs. Another amazing technology.
01:08:03
Speaker
But that's not you. Right. Yeah. The machines are getting better and better, but that's, that's an old. Well, same with total plasma exchange. They were, I was gifted at a last month or month and a half ago.
01:08:15
Speaker
And the people that were there from the company, it was a training exercise for a new, ah a new group of people. We're going to offer it next out. And the ladies like we've been doing this in hospital for years and years and years, this is not a new technology, you know, separating out the, you know, what it is separating out the plasma and then putting in a,
01:08:35
Speaker
opportunities for the plasma to regrow. Well, in a way, that's what dialysis is, you know? Is is it? it's not it's Well, it's not total plasma exchange, but they're but they're putting they're putting your your blood through a membrane that has a plasma, a clean plasma, so things by osmosis, they they go from the dirty blood into the you know the clean plasma, so they equalize it better, so you're cleaning the patient. So it's not the same, but it's kind of based on You know, you take the blood out, you put back in, whatever you do in the middle is different, but but yeah.
01:09:10
Speaker
say Touch on them for a moment the things that can happen for some of us. I know it happens for me certain times doing a cleanser, this total plasma exchange. I didn't remember them saying, stay away from people for a few days while you're building new immunity because I didn't remember that all the white blood cells were in that plasma that was taken and had to be rebuilt. So I got a gnarly look.
01:09:31
Speaker
ah Not all of them and not the information. and theca yeah maybe Maybe stay away, but but it's not i mean it's it's pretty fast. But the question is more about like when we're doing certain protocols, there's language that some of us have heard of like having a healing crisis. It doesn't mean the treatment's not working.
01:09:50
Speaker
Talk about that a little bit. That happens all the time. When you start, when you're digesting all day long and eating food-like products all day long and stress all day long, so so things things get overwhelmed. The detox system cannot work, so toxins keep circulating, so the body reacts.
01:10:07
Speaker
Because the ah the body only knows how to adapt and survive. So the body starts adaptation survival mechanisms. The most two most simple, that diffuse, and common are the retention of mucus, the formation and retention of mucus to surround the toxins and buffer their irritation, and the retention and formation of fat.
01:10:28
Speaker
Because most molecules that are toxic in the body only dissolve in fat. So the body... intelligently generates and retains fat in order to allow these toxins to dissolve in it and and and not cause more damage, you know, to buffer the irritation.
01:10:47
Speaker
so and So the toxicity of our planet is a huge factor in the epidemic of west obesity. You know, the obesity that we see in America, yeah, it has to do with so you know some of it with calories and inactivity, and but a lot of it, and maybe more than we ever, i mean, most people don't even think about it, but the ones that think about it maybe even more than what they think about, is the adaptation, is survival this mechanism that the body's turning on to defend itself and with the barrage, the attack of
01:11:18
Speaker
of toxic molecules, microplastics, glyphosate, that because we're eating all day long and digesting all day long and not and don't have the right bacteria and don't have the right nutrients, the liver cannot even manufacture the the detoxification enzymes that has to manufacture to perform the activities to fulfill the function of detoxification. It's done through enzymes.
01:11:43
Speaker
And enzymes are are made of what? Are manufactured in the liver cells. And they need vitamin C. They need zinc. they need and And if you're not, magnesium. If you're not eating the magnesium and not absorbing the magnesium, because most people are magnesium deficient. And vitamin D3.
01:11:59
Speaker
And vitamin D. You know, most people are depleted. And vitamin D is... ah More and more, now in more studies, um yeah known to be absolutely necessary. Some doctors don't even test it.
01:12:13
Speaker
They just give you a vitamin d ye because you cannot even overdose on vitamin So there's a lot of things that you can do without testing and without biohacking and, you know. maybe Maybe with supplements, maybe without supplements. If you' are if you're in a country that that ah that is poor and and, you know, like Haiti or what, we eat you tell the people to take a little more sun and that will increase their vitamin D, right?
01:12:37
Speaker
so So, yes, lot of spectrum of tests to doing it blind are possible. i have I have success with with both of them.
01:12:50
Speaker
And do you like to, when you're treating somebody before they begin your program, if they're under your personal care, they're your client, do you like to get blood work before and after to see or to show them the changes? It depends. Some people really need it and some people are very number oriented and and they they don't believe, you they don't see, right? So for them, you they they have money and they... they Yeah, let's do everything. you know I have friends that experts in genetic testing. reading all these functional, and even the laboratory today. They send you the report i mean you know where you measure all of these things that your regular doctor doesn't measure.
01:13:31
Speaker
Going from vitamin D to to zinc, magnesium, homocysteine. you know A lot of doctors don't send any markers for inflammation, CRP, ESR.
01:13:45
Speaker
Hematocrit. There's so many laboratories. I mean, you can spend thousands and thousands of dollars. And if you want to, yeah, sure. yeah The more information, the better. But the the thing is, until you repair your gut,
01:13:56
Speaker
you don't even You don't even should do anything to correct all those things because once you repair your gut, 99% of the people that have those things abnormal go back to normal.
01:14:07
Speaker
Is there anybody who should ah seek different counsel first, like shouldn't jump right into a cleanse? like the CLEAN program. Is there anybody that should be aware of anything? Yeah, if you have an autoimmune disease and you're taking, for example, I you know i recently helped a woman that that had the diagnosis of dermatomyositis, autoimmune dermatomyositis, which is kind of a cousin of lupus, you know?
01:14:33
Speaker
So it attacks your muscles and it attacks your skin. And your your own immune system attacks your muscles. Now, what but most people don't know, my most people most rheumatologists that are the ones that specialize in these things, they'll know is that that the the immune system of the people gets confused in the gut, with a leaky gut and dysbiosis.
01:14:57
Speaker
So when you correct that, this the confusion stops. Now, what they do to these people, because they don't know that, they they the immune system is attacking them.
01:15:10
Speaker
They give them medications to suppress the immune system. so that you know that so it doesn't attack them. But it doesn't attack any other threat, so they're more prone to cancers, they're more prone to infections, they're more prone to other things, right?
01:15:23
Speaker
So instead of giving these immunosuppressants, which another word for them are chemotherapy, um ah Because what what do you do with chemotherapy? The immune system cells are cells that reproduce very rapidly.
01:15:37
Speaker
What other cells reproduce very rapidly? The bone marrow, red blood cells, white blood cells, and the a they they testicles.
01:15:47
Speaker
They're making spermatozoids all day long, right? So when you give... in chemotherapy, when you give
Personalized Care for Autoimmune Diseases
01:15:53
Speaker
immunosuppressants, you're suppressing cells that that that divide rapidly.
01:15:58
Speaker
So for example, you give immunosuppressants, you may make them anemic, or you may make them more prone to infections, or even cancer, because cancer cells reproduce more rapidly. So these medications stop the reproduction.
01:16:11
Speaker
So they have their cells, but when you fix their gut, the immune system gets unconfused. Hmm, so I helped this woman recently, but she couldn't just go and do the program by it by her own because she needed coordination. You know i spoke to her rheumatologist. I said to her, she was on methotrexate and prednisone. Methotrexate is a cancer medication, chemotherapy, and prednisone, and we started...
01:16:37
Speaker
We tapering them off, the prednisone more cautiously than the metrotrexate and monitoring for a lot of things, right? And we did it successfully.
01:16:50
Speaker
If I showed you the pictures of before and after, you wouldn't believe. I mean, I can't because I'm filming myself with my phone and so I can't show you out those pictures in my phone. In any case, yes, sometimes sometimes you need, but for the majority of people, 67 to 80% of people walking around with all these ailments, you don't need to do anything.
01:17:10
Speaker
You just jump right into it. Right on, right on. Alejandro, there's a question I ask every guest. And it's based on my favorite quote from Shinryu Suzuki Roshi, who opened the Zen Center of San Francisco in the 60s, who and confronted a lot of life challenges starting young.
01:17:29
Speaker
And he said, often, death is certain, the time is not. What is the most important thing? So what is the most important thing to Alejandro Junger?
01:17:44
Speaker
My kids.
01:17:48
Speaker
Simple. Yeah. and then And then right after that is, you know, and of course, being present for my kids and for myself and, you know, because without being present, you can't really express the most of your potential, right?
01:18:05
Speaker
um So that is even more important than my kids because then, you know, but but my kids and then my my what I enjoy doing, which is helping people, you know?
01:18:16
Speaker
Yes, team. and And it just happens that in my path, many times I have to help myself first.
Reflecting on Helping Others and Growth
01:18:26
Speaker
It's easier for us to learn me to learn from somebody who's already living it because then i can get it downloaded from their nervous system just being with them. a lot of things but if you're not living it just telling the stories you know years ago i'll tell on myself i reached a period where something happened in my life that shook my confidence i didn't realize it my phone stopped ringing all but two clients really brought me to my knees and i had suicidal ideations i had just like it was intense really really intense important period of my life and
01:19:00
Speaker
I was doing my best to keep being helpful. Social media was somewhat new. I was posting and Alejandro writes to me, says, you know, if you would meditate as much as you're posting, you'd have something really powerful to share.
01:19:16
Speaker
I remember that day. And I took it very seriously and I deepened my practice. But I'm going to give you hope in something. Yeah. I used to think the same thing. I used to think that I have to be, and not completely leaving the example, but you know, e when you when you are in a good state, you can affect people better. And there's some part of that that is true, but I'll tell you something, some people It's just what they are.
01:19:44
Speaker
They are vessels for for for promoting healing. And I realized that that that even if I don't have to fix their God, even if people have come and spend time with me, and I have like a clinic,
01:19:58
Speaker
Wherever I am, I always have rooms and people come and stay and they get sick and they go back healthy. And yeah, I tell them supplements and I give and i take them off certain foods and I cook for them and everything.
01:20:08
Speaker
But even when I'm feeling like shit myself, I notice people get better. ah Yeah, yeah, well. i about yes yeah getting Don't and get inhibited if you're having a bad day or a bad month or a bad year because I think you have something a a which is the healing energy.
01:20:29
Speaker
And just by being there, even if you're crying, people are going to benefit. It's taken a long time to see that and and notice it and notice less words are necessary, sometimes none. Exactly, exactly.
01:20:45
Speaker
Yeah. Alejandro, thank you so much. I have missed you. It's great to be with you. I'm so grateful for all the listeners that all the things that are coming. ah At some point, we're going to see if we can get you to do a Instagram Live so people can ask questions.
01:21:02
Speaker
Ideally, maybe the week that this comes out. And So what we can do is we can do an Instagram Live and the viewers can request to join and we we can do consultations right there in real time.
01:21:17
Speaker
That's a really, really cool thing to do. So we'll be in touch. We'll we'll figure that out. i'm I'm learning a lot about technology, but you'll teach me. Alejandro's also been my Apple whisperer. I'll be doing it in my Instagram.
01:21:30
Speaker
Great. Great, great, great. Perfect.
Conclusion and Future Engagements
01:21:32
Speaker
Perfect. Any last words?
01:21:36
Speaker
No, Papi, I'm happy to see you, happy to spend time and me I'm proud of you. i like what what I like what I see, I like what I hear. i mean a lot of the things that a that I saw in you that were covered by whatever, insecurities and fears and shame, can see there they're melting away.
01:22:01
Speaker
so it's good, man. good to see
01:22:05
Speaker
So we're going to do what we do, folks. We're going to go into silence together. Partially this is for my editor, but really it's an opportunity to just experience being together. We are all always connected and there's such resource of vitality here. So we're going to spend about 10 seconds together. See everything, hear everything, feel your feet.
01:22:25
Speaker
That's right. That's right. And lengthen the exhales.
01:22:41
Speaker
Loving the episode? Click to follow, like, and share it as widely as possible. Want to go deeper with the choice to grow? Explore the show notes. You'll find links there for going deeper with our guests, as well as how to work with me in the work of waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up.
01:23:01
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Can't wait to join you in the next episode.