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The Symphony of Wellness: Functional Medicine with Dr. Darin & Laura Zimmerman
33 Plays3 months ago
Healing Stress, Hormones & Gut Health
🎧 In this episode, James O’Neill sits down with Dr. Darin and Laura Zimmerman, APRN, Founders of Rebalance Health to explore the “symphony” of wellness through functional medicine. Together they discuss how stress, hormones, gut health, and lifestyle all play interconnected roles in healing. Discover how looking beyond conventional care can help restore balance, clarity, and lasting vitality.
✨ Begin your journey beyond stress and limiting beliefs with free meditations and a complimentary 15-minute consultation at JourneyMindfulness.com.
🌿 For daily mindfulness insights and inspiration, connect with me on Instagram @mindfulbmore.
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Want to explore whether functional medicine is right for you?
Visit RebalanceHW.com to schedule a free Discovery Call and begin your journey toward lasting balance and vitality.
🌿 Connect with them on Instagram for daily insights at @rebalancehw.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guests
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Journey Mindfulness Podcast, where the inner world meets the infinite. I'm James O'Neill, and together we explore consciousness, the soul, mindfulness, and the mysteries beyond our world, and most importantly, how to integrate all of it into the life you're living right now.
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome to the Journey Mindfulness podcast, where we explore paths to be a, or to live a balanced and intentional life. Today, I'm excited to introduce Dr. Darren Zimmerman and Laura Zimmerman, co-founders of Rebalance Health and Wellness in Columbia, Maryland.
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Challenges in Health Advice and Personalization
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, i I, you know, when I discovered your practice, you had already started helping out some of my close friends. So I've been hearing all of the good work that you have been doing. And really part of this show is, you know, among the very topics that I cover, mindfulness simply being awareness, right? It's like bringing you awareness to our health and how do you integrate all this information that's out there and really cut through the noise because there's so much out there now. It's it's hard to kind of get true information about about health and wellness.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think ah for us, a big part of the challenge is people see a lot and the information may be true in the sense that like these things do apply, but they may not apply universally to everyone.
00:01:46
Speaker
In fact, sometimes medical advice online doesn't apply universally to everyone. And so, oh and we get into the situation where people are taking advice that really nobody is monitoring the effects of, ah you know, and and so we get into trouble.
00:02:07
Speaker
So, yeah. Well, i I don't mind getting into trouble, by the way. but that ah But what inspired you to, I know you still do traditional medicine, but what inspired you to kind of start balance and kind of shift and kind of open up your practice to functional medicine? medicine Yeah, i mean that's a great question. Do you want to go through what your experience was like before we...
Laura's Health Journey and Functional Medicine
00:02:35
Speaker
So a big reason we opened the practice was actually because of my personal selfish health struggles that I was going through. And I'm a nurse anesthetist by training. So I've done anesthesia for well over a decade. Darren's an anesthesiologist and an intensive care physician. So critical care. And like we're in the system, right? Like we know all the people and We are healthy and we exercise and we eat well. And I literally needed three energy drinks a day to function. i
00:03:08
Speaker
was so irritable. One of my like trademark stories is like I came home from 12 hour shift at the hospital and Darren was laying in bed next to me, like just eating pretzels.
00:03:20
Speaker
And it was literally the most irritating thing. I made him go eat pretzels on the bathroom floor. Like, banished me from the room. Yeah, it was insane. But like my moods were unstable where like I genuinely like I have a lot of mental illness in my family and I was legitimately questioning whether or not I was bipolar.
00:03:38
Speaker
My moods were so erratic. I was having night sweats, hot flashes, and I was literally 34 years old. like that So like no one would take it seriously. They're like, no, you're just like a new mom. Like I had two small, like i had an infant and then my other kid was 16 months old. So And then we share custody of my stepdaughter. So we had three kids and they were like, you're just tired. Like everything's normal. Oh yeah. You're getting older. Yeah. That was the, that was a great one for someone in their early Yeah. It was just so weird. So like, I just, I literally would collapse.
00:04:11
Speaker
Like i by 8 PM, I could not even stand up. um And I was like, this isn't right. So that was a long way of saying like, we went to my OBGYN, we went to my mary primary, who are all amazing physicians, by the way. Like I actually just saw my primary the other day and she actually like,
00:04:30
Speaker
does a physical exam. Like she touches me when she does a physical exam, which is like super rare these days. Anyway, I digress. So they just kept telling me everything was normal. And then we were like, there's no way, like I can't live like this. And so um we kind of started looking into hormones and functional medicine and then um ended up sending a bunch of kind of off the wall tests to other people, which we do daily in our practice and found out I had severe adrenal fatigue where I made zero cortisol, um pretty much like the most dangerous type of cortisol dysregulation.
00:05:08
Speaker
um And then I had like no hormones. And anyway, so my gut was completely inflamed and leaky. And i mean, I thought I was doing all the right things and I was not. um So we ended up fixing me and then realized there's this like whole space where no one is actually getting taken care of. There's no real
Holistic Approach vs Conventional Healthcare
00:05:27
Speaker
prevention. I would say colonoscopy is the closest thing. And even that is like you wait until they did lower the age to 45, but then like you're just looking for something that might be there, but it is the best prevention that we typically do.
00:05:40
Speaker
And so we're like, we have to do better than this. And there's so many people that need help. And so that's kind of like the the start of it. See, I mean, it was that. Yeah. Go ahead. dar My takeaway and always has been that like selfishly we wanted her to be like a functioning, you know,
00:06:01
Speaker
human being. And so like when everybody else was sort of, know, they don't teach you this stuff in medical school, even the hormone testing that she was having done, they weren't lining it up with when in her cycle she was.
00:06:15
Speaker
the numbers, they could mean all kinds of things if you don't actually pay attention to when in your cycle you're testing. um yeah They just don't teach us a lot of these things. And certainly they don't teach us about gut health. Like if you say leaky gut to most medical professionals, they're going to laugh at you. Same thing with adrenal fatigue.
00:06:35
Speaker
They're just going to like kind of laugh it off as these sort of buzzword science, know, pseudoscience type of definitions. But when you actually...
00:06:46
Speaker
do see the difference in the way someone feels when these tests are grossly abnormal. And again, the reason we do the testing is because we want to treat a lab test. We want to try and see, do the labs clue us into why the symptoms are happening?
00:07:04
Speaker
And then how can we help to intervene in a way that will allow the symptoms to get better? And ultimately the lab work should reflect that improvement as well.
00:07:15
Speaker
Uh, and so like when you look at her before and after stuff, it's, it's wild, it's like night and day. And so, you know, to get her better, we just reeducated ourselves in the system. That's just outside of the traditional.
00:07:32
Speaker
you know, healthcare education model. Yeah. Well, it's, it's fascinating to hear because from the mental health side of things, ah feel like i I wonder even just hearing you talk, how many people got sent into the mental health care system? and ver percent 100% who were having issues that could be treated.
Mental Health and Hormonal Imbalances
00:07:56
Speaker
outside of that, you know, but it was like, no, you have to go see a psychiatrist now or ah therapist because this is what, you know, this is what's going on. And it wasn't related at all.
00:08:07
Speaker
I mean, I think everyone needs therapy, like first and foremost. Like, I think therapy in general should be a requirement for all people. But the medication and the pharmaceutical industry, um there's like some new data, like 70% of perimenopausal women end up with some sort of mood disorder, whether it's rage,
00:08:25
Speaker
irritability, anger. um And so what ends up happening and we tell our patients this all the time is you go to your primary carrier, go to you, go to your OBGYN when they're not educated in these things and they send you home with an anti-anxiety medication, an antidepressant and a sleeping pill.
00:08:41
Speaker
And that's like, that's a cocktail. That's the perimenopausal cocktail. Yeah. That's so crazy that they're yeah you can just label that and be like, this is what you're going to probably walk away from if you're having these symptoms.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yes. And it's true with men too, though. Oftentimes again, like, you know, the counterpart to Laura's story is my own health journey, which, you know, not to say there isn't significant, you know, therapy is a most, I agree kind of of talking things through and, and, and,
00:09:13
Speaker
it Going down that realm of, of wildness, I think is extremely ah important. Um, but I will say like a lot of hormonal imbalance in bed specifically, like in their late thirties, early forties manifests. And when I talk about hormonal imbalance, you know, I'm talking about age related decline and things like testosterone, uh, DHEA, uh, even estrogen.
00:09:42
Speaker
in males, um, a lot of times that manifests as anxiety or like sort of that yeah midlife crisis type ah stereotype, you know, where you're trying to fill in some kind of void. You don't have that same necessarily sense of direction or purpose.
00:10:02
Speaker
The, the motivation is going. um And a lot of times the manifestations are not primarily sexual in nature of these lowering hormones, but that's what everybody associates it with.
00:10:16
Speaker
And yet a lot of men also kind of funneled into this antidepressant, anti-anxiety pathway when it may actually just be that the way we're even evaluating hormone levels doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense in this country.
00:10:35
Speaker
bad So I'll see a lot of people or they come to my door, you know, but having seen a a physician and maybe you're on a depressant, which has sexual, you know, implications. effort So now like in terms of depression, now you're like excluding this part of your life.
00:10:55
Speaker
You know, it's not even an option for you at the moment. And it's like, how do we win here? What do we do? Well, and sexual function and dysfunction is, it can be life-altering
Rebalance Health's Comprehensive Approach
00:11:06
Speaker
for people. That's how people connect. I mean, sex is a normal part of life.
00:11:11
Speaker
um And you see so much of it, one, when you're on the pharmaceuticals, and two, when you have the hormone imbalances as well. so But, I mean... So we do a lot of hormone work for sure. We do a lot of gut health, but we really like we do all lifestyle medicine. So like stress management really is huge.
00:11:31
Speaker
um We really think mental health is a big part of wellness. I mean, if you talk about stress management and just your ability to calm your and nervous system. um that's huge i mean if you're able to decrease your nervous system activation like you're automatically going to lower your inflammation so like our goal for all of our patients is to have more of that parasympathetic rest and digest tone but um or undertone really throughout their whole day um we focus on nutrition and exercise so we really like lifestyle medicine is like
00:12:04
Speaker
what we love. It's not for just today. Yes, it's to help people feel better with their symptoms. But really the beauty is like the long-term benefits and effects that you get from implementing all of these things into to your daily life.
00:12:17
Speaker
So. Yeah. No, it's it's a, so I've been referring people to you guys and just in functional medicine doctors. Because ah but when someone comes to me, I want to be able to say, hey, go to these people that will take a big picture view of what's going on. Because a lot of times, you know, clients get on this carousel of going to this this doctor or this doctor.
00:12:46
Speaker
you know, they're going to give you their spiel for their stuff, but like no one's really... I don't want to take anything from ah primary care doctors. I think they're amazing. Totally. same but drper but yeah But they are put in a very hard position to be aware of everything that's going on in that patient's life and put it all together. it's they It's not easy. The system is not easy for them to need. They have 10 minutes.
00:13:13
Speaker
They have 10 minutes with the patient. And so it's things are not outside of the normal ranges, even if it, I mean, and we talk about this all the time is that America as a population has progressively gotten more and more unhealthy and the lab ranges widen in order to count for an that. Right.
00:13:32
Speaker
And so if you're smack dab in the middle, like the primary care physicians, they're overworked. Like they have to see so many patients in the insurance model. And so if you're if there's nothing like completely out of whack, like they don't really have time to take a second glance at it or follow trends or you know what I mean? it just they just don't have the time. um And insurance like really kind of pigeonholes you to this, that type of practice where you can't actually care for the patient. Everything in healthcare is so siloed too. It's like, oh, I work on the left pinky and I work on the nose and I work on the, you know what I mean? And so like having somebody be able to take like an overall look of you as a human is like really important instead of like a body part or a thing or a symptom or a disease. um
00:14:23
Speaker
And so- We really pride ourselves on the relationships with our patients and and giving them the time that like other providers just don't have. So there is a program at I think it's NYU's medical school.
00:14:39
Speaker
What we call it? The Compassion Project or the Empathy Project? Um, as started by, uh, the 60 minutes doctor, uh, Dr. John LaPoop, but they have, I've seen some of their trainings where the doctor is sitting with a patient and they're like typing their note yeah and the, the, the patient's giving them all these clues on all these things that are going on in their life.
00:15:01
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, uh, and it's. The timing and like the, the, you're able to sit with somebody is so important because, you know, like in mindfulness, we talk about presence, but to be physically present and attuned to your patient and actually kind of dive in with them with what's going on in their life is so important. And it's, it's often not there. It's, it's such a big thing that I think sets you apart and in your practice.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think we take you know, we, we, we always try to figure out what's the best way to convey information.
The Symphony of Human Health
00:15:39
Speaker
And one thing that I think resonates with our patients and that we kind of incorporate into our outlook on, on health in general is,
00:15:50
Speaker
You know, your body is is basically a symphony, right? And so, you know, when any one part of it is out of balance or out of tune, you notice it.
00:16:02
Speaker
And I think the thing that we try to hone in on is how do we get that symphony playing well together again when different parts are misaligned?
00:16:14
Speaker
And that's like to to Laura's point and to your point where when people are bouncing around from specialist to specialist, they may be doing an amazing job on their one organ.
00:16:28
Speaker
But that intervention or whatever approach they have may be at the expense of another organ. Right. And so, yeah, you know, absolutely.
00:16:41
Speaker
You see it. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. No, I just, um, yeah, but you can tie it back in here, but one of the main practices of mindfulness is a body scan, you know, and how I describe it to my patients is it's you doing your own and MRI on you to kind of see what's going on.
00:17:03
Speaker
And no one knows what's going on better than you because you're feeling your body. And once you start to tune in with that, all kinds of things are going to come out that you may or may not be in your awareness or your consciousness.
00:17:16
Speaker
And so a lot of times I find people aren't aware. And and even even for that, for me, yeah as a guy, one of the kind of in my own healing journey with things, which is still evolving all the time, ah paying attention to my feelings, my emotions.
00:17:33
Speaker
You know, like, ah how did you feel? i feel good. i mean, why would i not feel good? That's like, and how do you actually feel emotions? What kinds of emotions do you feel or the language of sensation? How do you articulate to yourself or to your doctor how you are feeling? Because that's not easy either for many people anyway.
00:17:54
Speaker
A million percent. And I feel like, especially like us and our age, it's like, I i know for me, like I was taught to just kind of like, stuff it all down and like just move through it. And like we have little kids and so we are having to reparent our ourselves and learn like, you know, like it's okay to have all these feelings. Like, like your feelings don't scare me. And that's like, it's like a whole new world when you have to like realize that that is like the healthy way of like making sure our kids aren't totally screwed up like we are.
00:18:33
Speaker
um
00:18:35
Speaker
But it's hard. Really, it's hard to be present with yourself. It's uncomfortable for people if you don't learn it from a young age. It's not a natural thing. So like the work you're doing is super important as well.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, in my studies that in, in, in my learning, you know, I had to go through my own inner child work and regression and learn to do you use the word rep repair, but that can become part of that is, you know, to nurture yourself in a way that you might not have been nurtured before and to have emotions and.
00:19:08
Speaker
Be able to express them and to feel your body and not feel weird about it. Or, you know, we were talking about sexual health a moment ago, like being okay with talking about sex and like enjoying that and just not, you know, inhibiting all of these things that we feel on a day-to-day basis.
00:19:27
Speaker
Totally. You know, what's pretty interesting and that I realized, uh, as we were talking, we were, you were talking earlier about, you know,
00:19:42
Speaker
people and in general kind of going on this merry-go-round.
Empowering Patients Through Education
00:19:46
Speaker
um And I kind of think towards some of the the work that we do with our clients is stuff that I've not encountered elsewhere, but and I mean, I'm sure it is elsewhere. I just haven't encountered it where we actually take like a deep dive into people's metabolic function.
00:20:03
Speaker
Like, you we have the breathe into a mask and we see how they're metabolizing things based on how much CO2 they're generating and it ties into their heart rate and their metabolic rates and all of these things. And what's interesting is, um, and you were also talking about like health trends.
00:20:20
Speaker
Right. And you hear like zone two training and whatever. Zero two max. yeah Right. Right. But so, so when we actually tested ourselves and do these things,
00:20:34
Speaker
I learned for myself the way that I metabolize different things, the way I burn fat when I exercise. I've never once been training in the zone to like heart rate that all of the calculations and all of my heart rate monitors tell me is my zone too.
00:20:52
Speaker
Like when I actually looked at what I. body is doing. It was nowhere close. And so it's interesting because even though some of the tests are very like clinical, they actually do allow you to get back in touch with yourself in a, in a way with just more information where you can then pay more attention. And it actually helped me pay much more attention to my body as I'm doing things.
00:21:22
Speaker
And similarly, yeah the gut health, like we do food sensitivity testing and stool testing to look at the gut microbiome. And like I always tell my patients, I think the most beneficial part of our programs is like the education you get about your own body.
00:21:39
Speaker
So like, OK, like maybe. cheese makes your belly hurt, but, and you have a food sensitivity to it and you have this information now. So, you know, if you eat, like, you know, it's causing it. So, you know, if you eat it, like this might happen.
00:21:55
Speaker
It gives you a choice. Like it allows you to kind of take ownership of your health and like knowing that this might happen and that's okay. Like as long as you know what it's kind of coming from and I don't know. So it is really interesting. Yeah.
00:22:08
Speaker
yeah Well, there's, You're giving people information to work with so that you're increasing their awareness and of their own body. So there's like this personal, tailored, unique approach where it's like, okay, this is the information that you might've heard, but this is how it actually applies to you and your body because you are unique.
00:22:29
Speaker
yeah Exactly. Yeah. So like, that's been the most fun for us, like being, we both do still practice in traditional medicine. Also, we, I mean, I like working in the ICU. i still do that couple of days a week, you know, ah and you still like doing anesthesia.
00:22:47
Speaker
I'm happy never to do anesthesia again, but, um but you know, what's really cool though, is it it really is. It's just like,
00:22:59
Speaker
you know, with each of our patients, there's not a single two patients in that we've treated that have the same plan. Like, that's what's so cool about it is like, we get to just sit down.
00:23:13
Speaker
we get to know our patients in so much detail, not just medically, but personally. yeah And, you know, it gives us a chance to really sort of go on this journey with them.
00:23:27
Speaker
And it's awesome. It's really awesome because we get to see them going through it themselves. And so... Well, here at Journey Mindfulness, we love the journey.
00:23:38
Speaker
It's great to hear. Well, and I feel like you might experience that yeah with your clients as well. Like kind of seeing that like full like transformation when they're able to really connect with themselves, which is like so important.
00:23:51
Speaker
It's, it is so important, right? And like one of the the big things is, you know, what, what is it that you want? You know, i mean a lot of people are disconnected from themselves and their bodies, which I think is where, if you know, I can't get away from like the mental aspect of everything is one part, right?
Mental and Physical Health for Well-being
00:24:11
Speaker
It's like, okay, there's this whole other part that you have to look at too. And so, you know, in my own life, it's,
00:24:18
Speaker
Okay, there's the mental part, but you still got to go to the gym, you know, like, and and take care of your body and um pay attention to all these other things. ah You know, and so it's, it is a journey because it's, it's constantly ebbing and flowing, you know, like there's times where it's like, I am doing great.
00:24:37
Speaker
And you know, I'm eating well, i'm eating clean. And there's times where I'm like, oh, got away from that there, buddy. Yeah. and And that's okay. Like no one should be perfect. Yeah. This is what we shoot for with our patients too. What you think most of the time is what matters. Absolutely. Like you also have to live your life.
00:24:56
Speaker
It's so and being so rigid, but then you develop lifestyle habits and like you end up sticking to them for the most part anyway, because that's what you're used to. And then when you want to go out and have your pizza and whatever, like you do it, there's no restriction on it, you know?
00:25:11
Speaker
So and there it's just, again, like what you do most of the time matters. yeah it yeah With our patients, honestly, is like as they start, they start to feel better and they get more motivated to work, like to to actually do the work to feel better.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's it's it's usually people are coming to see us and they just don't feel good. And that's a hard place to be. And so getting people to even just turn a small corner, you'll see it like snowball. And our patients are so motivated.
00:25:51
Speaker
Like for the most part, they're so motivated and like Our practice is not really geared for people who are looking for a quick fix, uh, you know, or a pill to fix it all, you know, that kind of. Yeah.
00:26:06
Speaker
And so just watching people get, uh, more energy to take care of themselves proactively is awesome. Cause that's the other reason we started this.
Enhancing Health Span and Motivation
00:26:20
Speaker
We always joke around. Oh, and we use silly term. I think it's still a silly term, the term health span, but like only because i don't know, whatever, but she loves it.
00:26:32
Speaker
I don't know. Okay. But, but I guess what we talk about more is like, rather than lifespan, we talk about your health span and both of us would be content to live Shorter years, as long as those years are spent doing the things that we love.
00:26:52
Speaker
And as long as the years that like we become dependent on others for our basic care and things like that also shortens. Right. Because we see a lot unfortunately, we see a lot of people getting towards.
00:27:06
Speaker
the years where they're becoming fully dependent on others. And that's not, that's not what we want for ourselves. And so that's something else that we set out to do with our patients is how can we keep you guys functional and engaged in life and doing the things that bring you joy for as long as possible and make it so that that time period before it inevitably everybody will pass.
00:27:32
Speaker
That's a period where you're not as functional and able to enjoy life as much as as short as possible. Yeah. Right. i guess the whole thing with longevity, it's like, we all fall off the cliff at some point, but like, how do you want that to look like?
00:27:46
Speaker
I actually had a client share this with me when they were talking about, you know, that process of, you know, getting to retirement age. Um, and you know, you at that moment, ideally you're, you know, you're go, go, you can go anywhere. You know, you have some, some money in the bank, you can travel and then have fun and enjoy yourself. Uh, so there's the go, go, then there's the slow go.
00:28:10
Speaker
Okay. I'm getting a little bit older. I can't go everywhere. And then there's the no go. And I think what I hear you say, it is like, you want the no go period to be as short as possible. I want the no-go to be a no-go. Yeah, exactly.
00:28:22
Speaker
Pass it. We're not surfing in our 80s and go out riding a wave or something like, don't expect it. that That's a losty bar, but that's pretty cool. that's that Um, but you know, you also said before, Dary, like, you know, the energy that you bring, like when you start to do these things and you get the energy, you know, from a mental health standpoint or, or my, the work that I do is you, the motivation is feeling good.
00:28:52
Speaker
Because some of the stuff you might be asking people to do might not be easy, right? It's not necessarily easy to be consistent with certain things, um especially if they are, you know, changes that you're making in your life.
00:29:04
Speaker
um But that feeling is often, you know, you might hear it in like manifestation or or that type of thing is the feeling gets you going because that, once you tap into that, then you get alignment from that.
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Absolutely. I mean, like, that's why when there's people that come in that are just like, I literally like me, like, I cannot even finish my day without having this insane crash. Like, I'm not going to be like, well, you should run a half marathon next weekend. Like, you have to get people like to a place where they're able to like feel good enough to even do the small things. So yeah.
00:29:43
Speaker
For some of our patients, it's like baby steps and it's one thing at a time, um but the energy piece is huge, huge. And then once you get a glimpse of it, you're like, oh my gosh, like this, this is life changing. Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
Yeah. I think that once you start taking that action, that motivation increases and it's like, okay, we got you. ah We're tuning you to the symphony, which I love by the way, like we're, we're, we're starting to make it sound good here.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We're all works in progress. That's the other thing, you know, that we try to bring to it. Like, it and for me, a big part of what I, what I talk to my patients about is like, Hey, we're making this wellness plan today, but keep in touch with me over the next week, the next two weeks, the next, when you come back in a month,
00:30:37
Speaker
Do we need to rewrite this wellness plan? Because we will. Like if if it's not working or if there's certain things that are working great, other things that aren't, like it's a work in progress because that's kind of how life is.
00:30:53
Speaker
And that's part of, again, like the difference between what we do and that traditional, you know, you might have a face-to-face twice a year.
00:31:05
Speaker
At least if you're getting, you know, up in years, you'll go twice a year. If you're the ho one. Well, she's on the annual plan.
00:31:17
Speaker
But, nah but you know what I mean? Like those touch points are really important. And I think that they also let people know that they're not doing this alone.
00:31:29
Speaker
Which is also really important. And that's, that's part of why we get to know our patients and their social situations so much as well is to know like what that support looks like and how can we best tap into that as well.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, that connection with your, your patients is so important, you know, that to walk with them in that way, um, just lends your, you know, your credibility, your authenticity, and just that, that power to tap in with them and and kind of see how they're doing. It's a, that's a big deal for people that, you know, we don't, I don't have that with my docs.
00:32:07
Speaker
like You know I mean? Like it's just, and and I, maybe other people feel the same way, but it's, you know, definitely something that you offer that I think is, is very appealing. Yeah, we think so.
00:32:21
Speaker
But all you people like to feel heard and understood. and like, I mean, just today, like one of my patients was letting me know that her kid had a sleep study and, you know, she was up all night and like it doesn't it's not just like, OK, here's your prescription.
00:32:39
Speaker
You know, it's like. They can talk to us about whatever they feel like they want to talk to us about because like we're invested in their lives. It's not just like this one thing. Like, so we talk to our patients all the time. Like they'll tell us their personal, the things that are going on in their personal life, if they want to. i mean, that's not a requirement, by the way. Anyone listening? Some people just blow us up with ridiculous Instagram stuff. Like it's kind of, it's great. it's awesome. It's like a family. No, it's awesome.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah. new to, well, newish to Instagram and like tapping into that with the Columbia mom and kind of being inspired by good information that you provide on there.
00:33:23
Speaker
That's fun and like expiring inspiring, think and think you I I had far more fun doing those kinds of things than I thought. Like putting yourself out there and, you know, sharing your information and all that stuff.
00:33:40
Speaker
Have you found that? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and then like, and then you're just like, okay, it's like, okay. Like people receive it well and like,
00:33:52
Speaker
You grow as well because you're doing something you're not super comfortable with. Cause I've never, Darren actually just got social media basically when we started the business. Um, and so we're, that's another piece like we're having to learn for sure. It's like how, like what, yeah. Like the logistics, but also like, what do people want to like hear about? And like, you know what i mean? Like, how do we engage with people and yeah.
00:34:23
Speaker
I'm learning a lot about it. It's a, it's a, yeah, you know, you, I guess one of the positive things is getting comfortable with your voice, you know, and in hearing yourself talk about things, positioning yourself out there, having thick skin, you know, with people who, you know, there's everyone, the critic, right? So like, you're, you're doing this brave thing by even just putting yourself out there and getting into the arena.
00:34:49
Speaker
And then also sharing worthwhile things like what you do has purpose and meaning. It can impact a lot of people, which, you know, it's one of the positive things about social media is that your reach can be expansive versus, you know, like in, in my world, a lot of times I'm one-on-one, you know, and it's,
00:35:10
Speaker
It's great, but it's, you know, in that you want to, don't know, impact is the word that comes up, but impact as many people as you can, ideally. Yeah, totally. Absolutely, man.
00:35:21
Speaker
ah I'm still, I struggle with social media. I'm trying. I'm trying. Hey, man. it It's just keep practicing, you know.
00:35:35
Speaker
But I think you do great, by the way. and pipe Thank you. Appreciate it. To keep it up. um
00:35:44
Speaker
You guys mentioned some of the fun that you're having. What are some kind of maybe successes or just some of the things that you found most fun since you've started this? I actually, i will say this just happened today.
00:35:58
Speaker
had a patient who reached out and basically said like, You know, it all kind of like, I shouldn't read the message actually. I'm gonna have to find it, but it basically said like, I was just driving around in my car and I realized I feel good.
00:36:16
Speaker
And like, that was huge. Just hearing that was huge. Um, we've had a, so I do tend to skew more male in my clientele, although I, you know, I take care of plenty of women as well.
00:36:30
Speaker
Um, but seeing some of the men that I work with get patched into like, uh, working with therapists and doing some of that emotional work in addition to the, you know, changing lifestyle or changing medication is also hugely rewarding.
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of my female clients refer their husbands. It's a. yeah it's ah It's yeah you said something before, like we're not taught all this stuff, right? You really have to, to relearn i and how you communicate, you know, what's how, what is your presence? Like, what are the emotions that you're carrying? What's the stress that you're carrying that you're aware of or not aware of?
00:37:21
Speaker
You know, it's there's, there's some work to be done for sure. Oh yeah. For, you know, for me and probably for you too, you have patients like this. Like I had two patients that stick out also. One of was getting migraines every day and even just, you know, having migraines go down to like once a week, how impactful that's been or a patient sleeping through the night for the first time in like a year. Right. I think about your restless leg patient.
00:37:50
Speaker
Oh yeah. As well. Yeah. Like the, The fun part for me is seeing all the progress that my patients make and like the effort that they put in because like they're doing it like and seeing how proud they are and just like like they get themselves.
00:38:11
Speaker
That's like the biggest thing I hear is like when they come in, like I just don't feel like myself. And to like see somebody like truly feel like themselves again is like so inspiring. um it's um It's amazing, honestly.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I like it because people are always like, you always like have this like conviction. I'm like, well, I literally to have lived it. Like I know what it can do for you. And I continue to do it. Like I do all the things I have my patients do. So I think there's like a lot of trust there. Like they're like, oh, well, I know that she's like,
00:38:47
Speaker
Also doing it like she's not just telling me to do something that she's not willing to do, which I think um can be really impactful for people um and just continuing to like be there for them is like so fun for me.
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's people want to see you walk the walk, you know, it's, it's easy for to be able to tell someone to do something, but it's like, I've done this work. I know how hard it can be, or, you know, what, this is what you might encounter.
00:39:18
Speaker
Um, when you can relate on a personal level, it's, it's really important. Yeah. Not that you want to go through or can go through everything, but you know, certainly we have our personal experiences.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah. Even with just like certain treatment stuff, like for instance, like if people have certain bacteria in their gut that they have to treat, we know the treatment sucks because we've done it to ourselves.
00:39:43
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like it's even to that level, well you know, I'll never be able to relate directly with what it's like to go through perimenopause or menopause or any of those things, but certainly the experience of, uh,
00:40:02
Speaker
that, you know, the connection I have with Laura, our personal lives and our professional lives, seeing the impact that these things have had on her health. You know, it's, it's not the same as her having lived through it in that sense, but it is a different perspective that I think also, ah allows people to understand that I'm not just going to sit there with them and sort of write them all.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. No, that that personal experience resonates strongly, right? Like there's a ah vested interest in what you're doing. In many ways, my story is somewhat similar is I worked in a very stressful place and because i was a male and a bigger male, I got the most serious cases. So the more physical or traumatic they were, typically i was the one that had to go into certain homes and I worked with a lot of at-risk youth and things like that.
00:41:05
Speaker
However, I was not taught how to deal with the stress of and repeated exposure <unk> years. And so that's when it started to take a toll on me.
00:41:16
Speaker
And that's when I got into mindfulness where it was like, you are like a walking time bomb here. Like you have got to start dealing with the stress. And it was like, you know, high blood pressure, right? Like there's like, okay, let's do a ah mindfulness practice. it's like, my pulse is through the roof.
00:41:34
Speaker
You know, but I felt okay, but I wasn't. And so it was like, all right, you gotta start taking a look on what's under the hood here, see what's going on. So you can start to address those things.
00:41:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's a big trauma response. As you're like seeing all the trauma, your body is undergoing physical trauma. i oh for sure. Yeah. Totally. I did um trauma anesthesia for 10 years at shock trauma in the city.
00:42:00
Speaker
It was kind of the same thing. I think that's completely what crushed my cortisol curve. Yeah. I actually, I'm going to, I do make my myself sound a little cuckoo, which is fine, but like, um, talking about like, maybe I was, um, better you than me. Yeah.
00:42:18
Speaker
Like I used to be like, oh, my gosh, like I'm not able to mount a sympathetic response anymore at work. Like all these crazy things would happen. There's like patients bleeding out and dying all around me. And I'm just like cool as a cucumber. Like, shouldn't I be like amped up or something? And um that's another thing I was like, this like cannot be normal. Like at some point you start to kind of like.
00:42:44
Speaker
acclimate to the environment for sure. But I was like, I'm not able to like mount any sort of emotional response here. Like that is not healthy. So when you're good things like that, like you, it should be triggering a response.
00:43:00
Speaker
So yeah I think about your, what you just shared with us. And I think about and the approach that you took and how commendable it is, because i think,
00:43:11
Speaker
A lot of people wait till they have the heart attack or the stroke, and then they start dealing with the risk factors for heart attack and stroke, or they wait for diabetes before they start dealing with the diabetes.
00:43:28
Speaker
And what you're describing is taking a proactive and preventative like full-on approach to your own life and your own health.
00:43:40
Speaker
And that resonates because that's like, we don't want to wait for things to be abnormal or so far gone that we're picking up the pieces. We want to keep the car running as as long as possible.
00:43:55
Speaker
And you can't do it if you don't ever look under the hood. Yeah, no, it makes really happy to hear you say that because what i've what I've seen, and I'm curious your opinion, is a lot of, so i am 44.
00:44:11
Speaker
But what I found was like a lot of you know my friends who are professionals that might work insane hours doing whatever they do, and you know whatever discipline they have. When they got to like that 40 year mark, probably. in And for me, it kind of coincided with COVID too. So there's also the stress of that, but where that stress had built up so much over that period of time, you know, 20 years or whatever, that they started to break down physically and then psychologically.
00:44:41
Speaker
And they were like, I don't know what's happening. It's like, The stress finally got to that breaking point. And, you know, these were things that, you know, no judgment, right? There's no criticism. Like, well, you you should have looked at this. It's like, all right, here's where you are now.
00:44:56
Speaker
Let's try to like, you know, approach this in a way that's not gonna mess you up even more. Like let's, let's start to to take this, a look at this in a more compassionate way and more holistic way, you know, as far as health goes.
Impact of Chronic Stress and COVID-19
00:45:07
Speaker
The thing about chronic stress is it literally causes low-grade inflammation throughout your entire body. And the root cause for any of these things that happen, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, is it starts with inflammation. And stress is one of those triggers.
00:45:26
Speaker
I mean, ah it makes sense that people break down physically as well as psychologically. i mean, and once you have inflammation in your body, like and it breaks down literally everything inside of it as well. Blood vessels, it intrudes your blood brain barrier. I mean, there's so many things. Plus though then there's like the hormone chaos. And again, everything is a symphony. So one thing is out of whack, it ends up impacting X, Y, and Z as well.
00:45:50
Speaker
It's not just like the one thing, even if stress is like the primary insult. Does that make sense? Yeah, because stress is a silent killer. Yes. what What is that?
00:46:02
Speaker
There's like a, but I think it's called inflammation. Oh, yeah. That's like a new buzzword for you. I have not heard that yet, but I get you could you saying that. I get that.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You know, going back to something interesting that it occurred to me earlier when we were talking, but I don't remember at what point of the conversation it occurred to me So for me, a lot of mental health severely deteriorated during COVID, ah um without a doubt.
00:46:39
Speaker
And it's interesting, like if you were to, if, if I, five years ago, I were to know that like today I'm going to go see a perimenopausal outpatient followed by, you know, somebody with Alzheimer's disease that we're kind of, you know, running so a new medication that's still in the trial phases. But like, if I were to even have anybody tell me that that would be my scope of practice would spin anything beyond just COVID and like, cause I couldn't see, I couldn't see through it.
00:47:16
Speaker
It was just COVID and people dying from COVID. And then, you know, For a few months, we were very well-respected and regarded to everybody hates us and every you know patient's families are screaming at us.
00:47:30
Speaker
To then like know that I could find joy in medicine again, would it it would have just, i don't I think I would have had a heart attack if except you had told me that back then.
00:47:42
Speaker
But like that is the like one of the big successes that I see is like I do get to touch these different areas of medicine that I would not have otherwise been able to doing. well Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
Not so fun fact. Darren actually. Pronounced the first patient in Maryland dead of COVID. So like Darren saw a lot of death. He. Intubated, which means he put people like breathing tubes in people during their last moments on FaceTime with their families. So he saw a lot of really scary things during COVID. And we had a new baby. Our baby was born in April of COVID when COVID started in March. Like that terrifying time to like have a child.
00:48:24
Speaker
And we have, you know, we have no family here. And so, um yeah like he definitely like suffered mentally from, from COVID and it, it impacted literally everyone in some way. And so it's interesting to hear different stories and whatever, but yeah, we, um, we definitely had a little bit of a different perspective just being in healthcare and especially hit him, um, like taking care of all those patients.
00:48:53
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, so I started my practice a few months, January, basically the end of January, right before COVID. Oh man. That's well, not the worst time to start a mental health practice. That's true. How did it go?
00:49:13
Speaker
ah did it go I mean, I was just, it was the best time in terms of like starting that type of practice was because a lot of people, it made them stop and think, you know, about their life. You know, if the, who knew, no one knew what was kind of coming down the pipeline, right? This was like before all that.
00:49:34
Speaker
ah But a lot of people were at home. You know, there's so many things that were going on just from a mental health standpoint where it's like people were there's and being introspective and like, if I'm going to die, like what, how do I want to live?
00:49:47
Speaker
Right. Like what, ah what am I going to be doing with my life? Like maybe it's time to change. And so like, it it was very fascinating from that standpoint uh,
00:50:00
Speaker
Just people reevaluating, reevaluating their lives and how they wanted to move on or move through that period of time. um So it was a big, it was a big shift, a big change for a lot of people. And, you know, it sounds like you went through a ton of, you know, that, that sort of secondary trauma, like going or, or trauma, like really. i mean, like you're there, hand on.
00:50:23
Speaker
ah you know, ah and through my own experience with with trauma and compassion fatigue and burnout and all these things was like, okay, this stuff all exists, but how can, you know, I'd love to hear, you know, you say this brought joy back into my life. And like for my clients, like I want them to find joy in their lives. And so,
00:50:45
Speaker
A big part of that is finding how to reconnect with themselves, to find meaning in their life and to also be healthy, you know, with their bodies and and everything else and the whole picture. And that's really what you guys do. I mean, you, you are tapping in, which I, which I really wanted to highlight and and talk to you guys about, because I think it's, it's such a ah big thing. And we're fortunate to have you here in Columbia, Maryland, in Howard County, and that it's an option for people.
00:51:14
Speaker
Appreciate that, man. Yeah, absolutely. um what ah For people that hear this and are inspired, what's out where can people reach you who want to work with you?
Reaching Out to Rebalance Health and Final Thoughts
00:51:28
Speaker
Yeah, our website is www.rebalancehw.com. You can email us at info at rebalancehw.com. We're on social media. RebalanceHW is our Instagram.
00:51:41
Speaker
think it's our Facebook too, right? I think it's our Facebook Remember, we don't know social media. Hopefully it's our Facebook. um But those are the best ways and we love talking to people. Anyone can shoot us an email, ask a question. and We're really quick it at that.
00:51:55
Speaker
and But yeah, we love to help our community, so. All right. Excellent. Any words of wisdom for those out there and that we didn't cover?
00:52:08
Speaker
i just think, honestly, man, like, It is, there's never a too late and there's never a wrong time. If you're feeling like, you know, maybe things aren't the way they should be, then there's not a wrong time to ever try and seek out some help to, to course correct.
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I would say like, if you're experiencing any symptoms, it's not normal. Um, regardless of what anyone else tells you, like it's your body trying to send you a message and we can help uncover the message. You just got to listen to it.
00:52:47
Speaker
Excellent. Well, I will put your information in the show notes and, uh, pay attention to Darren's social media posts. See how he does. I just didn't it.
00:52:59
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, thank you guys so much for coming on and sharing your your wisdom and knowledge with us. And it's very appreciated. Thank you. and Thank you so much for having us.
00:53:11
Speaker
Thank you for joining me on the Journey Mindfulness Podcast, where we explore the edges of consciousness, the depth of the soul, and the practices that bring it all into daily life. If you enjoyed today's conversation, follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
00:53:26
Speaker
If you're ready to go deeper, I offer a free consultation to explore how we can work together through psychotherapy, quantum healing, or one-on-one transformational coaching. Visit journeymindfulness.com to learn more and schedule your free consultation.
00:53:41
Speaker
Until next time, stay present, stay curious, and enjoy the journey.