Wait, IV drips are toxic? With Samael Tejada

Transcript

00:00
People have to learn how to eat real food. The first step is when we look at the ultra-processed foods is the chemicals that they're put in. All of the different food dyes. You go to other countries that do have processed foods have healthy ingredients in it. — Are there any supplements that you think everyone should have no matter what? — Vitamin C every day with only mammals that don't produce it.

00:22
I'm Veronika Larisova and today I'm joined by Sam Tejada, a leading voice in preventive health and modern wellness. In this episode, we uncover the truth about preservative-free IV drips, supplements, biohacking, and what it really takes to improve our health in the modern world. — You are listening to the Chief Life podcast.

00:49
Welcome to the Chief Life podcast. Did I get it right? — You did. That was actually perfect. — Thank you. I just wanted to return your favour because I was very impressed with you getting my name right the last time and mine one is hard as well. — Amazing. — How are you today? — I'm doing fantastic.

01:06
I'm telling you like I am I am just so blessed the life that I'm living. I feel good. I'm energetic. I got so many great things happening, you know, but I'm blessed. So, I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much. — You are. And that's why I wanted to talk to you today because you have so much interesting stuff happening.

01:24
But to give the guests a little rundown, you started off as a paramedic. Then you founded a chain of longevity and health clinics called Liquivida. And now you're spending most of your time by trying to make America healthy again. Is that right? — That is. — I love it. So tell me, how old were you when you started Liquivida? — So I was 26 years old when I started Liquivida.

01:49
Um, now I got into the functional medicine industry back when I was 19 years old on my days off from the fire department. That's how I got exposed to the health and wellness industry. — Yeah. Okay. So, that's super interesting because Liquivida is essentially longevity clinic which you started when you were 26.

02:07
What was the driver behind it? — So, you know, really what it was is um working as a firefighter paramedic in emergency medicine. You know, I saw a certain gap in our healthcare system that what happened with my career as a firefighter paramedic, I became a product to this broken medical system. And on my days off from the fire department, I saw a whole another side of medicine that most people didn't know about.

02:33
And that was my part-time job working with a company called Cenegenics. They're one of the pioneers in the longevity space. And you know, Dr Willix who was the chief medical officer of Cenegenics. He was my mentor. I worked under Dr Willix. He was formerly a heart surgeon that left heart surgery to focus on preventing patients from actually going to the operating table. So Dr.

02:55
Willix, he was um very interesting guy. You know, he's um the best way I could picture it is he had a Einstein moustache. He was about in his 70s, right? Would ride a Harley-Davidson wearing one of these like uh biker vests, you know? Um he was a vegan yogi and he was a shaman but also remember he was a heart surgeon. So very well-respected medical doctor — and uh he was world-renowned in the functional medicine space and he just knew he was so ahead of his time right when it came to the different type of testing the type of treatments and all

03:30
of that stuff. And uh Dr Willix took me under his wing. I was one of his guys. I did a lot of the specialised blood tests for his patients. And his patients were the who's who. They were some of the wealthiest people on this globe. And what I would do, I'd go to their homes every 3 months and draw their blood.

03:46
I'd do all of this specialised blood testing, micronutrients deficiency tests. I'd do uh environmental toxin tests, hormone testing. And a lot of his patients were patients that were very sick, patients that had autoimmune issues, patients with cancer, patients with uh respiratory issues. And one thing that I saw after working with him for many years, I saw Dr.

04:10
Willix reversing disease, right? And it was the complete opposite of what I was seeing at the fire department. At the fire department, when I worked as a firefighter paramedic, I was getting the initial 911 call, right, when they had their acute illness. So we would transport them to the hospital for the first time and then I would continue to see these people calling 911 over and over and I saw their conditions getting worse.

04:36
Them getting on more medications, them seeing more doctors and you just started noticing there was such a difference between both ways that these physicians were practicing medicine. One was more of a algorithmic pharmaceutical driven system, right? that if there was something wrong with the patient, they'd put them on some kind of drug.

04:55
And all of a sudden, these patients when I was going to the fire department, you would see that it was more medications, more medications, where eventually after a few years, these people had a shopping bag full of medications. Dr Willix was different. You had an issue. He was doing what's called root cause medicine. He was focused on figuring out, well, what is the root cause that's causing this person to have the high blood pressure? Let me not just put them on a medication.

05:18
Let me figure out their lifestyle. Let me figure out what type of toxins they're being exposed to. Let me see what their nutrition looks like, their diet. Let me see what their lifestyle when it comes to exercise and movement looks like. And then he would focus more on the natural more of a natural holistic approach. And obviously, if those things didn't work, then yes, he would use certain medications as a physician.

05:39
But what I was seeing with Dr Willix was just life-changing where I started taking a lot of his uh expertise of what he was doing with his patients and I started bringing it to my friends and family and my friends and family started seeing a difference and then that's where after many years I started with Dr.

05:55
Willis when I was around 19 when I was about 26 years old there was an opportunity from Dr Willix's patients were were his patients, you know, these wealthy people that had homes in California, Colorado, and they were telling me about this IV vitamin therapy and how they would do it when they'd go back to the other home in California or Colorado.

06:12
And they would tell me that it was uh typically an off-duty firefighter paramedic that was doing the IVs for them. So, um, I started looking into it and I saw the opportunity and I told Dr Willix about it and Dr Willix said, "Hey, yeah, this is good stuff. There's, you know, science behind it. you know, this is part of the body's biochemistry.

06:30
Um, it needs these nutrients to function. And a lot of people uh can't absorb the nutrients through their gut because they have so much uh gut issues. And um that's where I said, you know what, I'm going to do it. I'm going to I was seeing what my competition was doing and I said, you know what? I can do what they're doing, but I can do it better.

06:48
And that was the start to Liquivida at that point. — That's amazing. Well, I've been to Liquivida myself. — You did? because I was really run down from a lot of travel and just running myself down in general and so I came to get tested and get fixed. Um, can you tell us what does travel actually do to our body and what does Liquivida do for people to help them recover from traveling? — Well, as a person who travels quite a bit, um, traveling definitely takes a toll on your body, right? It puts stress on your body.

07:19
It puts stress on your immune system. So, um, when you're dealing with so much stress on your body, when you're traveling so much, you know, it's very important for you to actually look under the hood, figure out maybe some of the deficiencies you have, and then target those with the different supplementation to make sure that you keep your immune system on point.

07:38
Um, at Liquivida, we use different services to boost the immune system, right? Um, besides having diagnostic to see how your immune system is functioning, we do the IV drips, the vitamin IV drips. So, our IV drips, we have a range of different formulations depending how you're feeling. And those different formulations target everything from mental focus, clarity, immunity, uh muscle uh recovery, uh performance, hydration.

08:06
All of those things are included um with the different formulations that we have with our vitamin IV drips. Then we have other services that are really good for immune system. We have a red light bed, state-of-the-art, beautiful red light bed. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I try to get in there as much as often as possible. Um, you know, it's when you're moving around so much, it's like you have all of these tools and these technologies and you're unable to use them, you know.

08:30
Um, so we have that. We have our new uh two-seater hyperbaric chamber by One Hype Wellness. Um, state-of-the-art beautiful uh hyperbaric chamber. I've had it for about a month. I still haven't been able to use it. Everyone else is using it. they're posting about it and I'm like, man, I own that thing and I haven't been able to use it.

08:49
So, we have that and then we have other uh services as well um that we that we have at the facility to take care of yourself. — What I really love about Liquivida is that you offer preservative-free IV drips. — Yes. — And you speak about it a lot. My question is are the regular IV drips actually toxic? — So, this is the thing um you know when we talk about toxicity, right? Even with like food, the toxic chemical that's in there, it's not going to kill you or harm you instantaneously now, right? But when you're doing something uh

09:23
consistently, right, there's it it becomes cumulative, right? So what happens is when it becomes cumulative, it starts to build up a toxic load in your body. We don't want that. So when we come in and get an IV drip, the vitamin C, the glutathione, these are powerful antioxidants. These are powerful antioxidants that we're using them for a reason.

09:44
We're we're using them to reduce oxidative stress in the body and reduce inflammation. Well, if we implement a toxin within our body, what does that do? I mean, this is basic science. We know that a toxin in our body will increase oxidative stress and it will increase inflammation and it will decrease mitochondrial function.

10:07
So when we're dealing with uh some of these type of formulations where we're giving patients high-dose vitamin C, right, a good amount of vitamin C, good amount of glutathione, why would we do why would we give someone something that's going to be counterproductive to what we're trying to achieve? So the typical preservative that people put inside of their IV bags using what's called multi-dose vials is called benzyl alcohol, which we know benzyl alcohol is a known toxin, right? So that no one toxin will cause oxidative stress, will cause

10:37
inflammation, will reduce the ability to have good mitochondrial function. So at Liquivida, what we do is we've actually gone out of our way. We've had uh scientists, chemists uh develop the cleanest IV therapy product out on the market. And the reason why our product is the cleanest on the market is that it has no preservatives.

10:59
We have our uh IV packets which are uh individualised for one person. It's not a multi-dose, so it doesn't need the preservatives to remove any bacteria or mold from injecting it multiple times and creating multiple infusions off off of that one vial. These these are preservative-free, so it doesn't have the benzyl alcohol.

11:17
So, it's the cleanest product on the market. — Incredible. So, just to circle back to the regular IV drip, if I get just regular IV drip that's got a preservative in it, that's just a waste of money because it's got the benzyl alcohol, but then it's got the antioxidants. does it cancel itself out and then it's just like — yeah in my professional opinion it's counterproductive right so um knowing that uh there's a better product a significantly better product why would you put yourself through this expensive

11:47
treatment of $2 $300 right and you're not going to receive the full benefit from it you know so uh fortunately there's a lot of clinics out there that do offer the liquida product we have over 5,000 doctors throughout the nation that purchase the liquid product. Um, so it it is readily available throughout the 50 states, but there are so many clinics, I'd say about 95% of the clinics out there still offer products with toxins in it, which is the benzyl alcohol.

12:15
— I see. And people don't know and spend so much money thinking they're doing something good and it's not actually not as good as they think. Wow, that's sad. — Well, okay, let's talk about those myths and health halo products in the world of longevity. What are some of the other health halo or gimmicky tools or products in longevity and anti-aging that don't actually work or that are even harmful? — You know, uh, one of the things is, uh, when you look at stuff out there that becomes more of a fad, right? Um, you

12:46
have to be very careful of what you're putting into your body, you want to look at what is the foundation of what this is created from. So, you know, if you go way back, you have some of the gurus that have created a lot of the things that we do in the longevity space. You know, for I'll give you an example, the Atkins diet, right? — Um, we know the uh initially uh the doctor that developed the Atkins diet, very smart guy was one of the pioneers.

13:13
But now you look at the frozen meals, right? Yes, you're kind of following his protocol, but what's inside of those frozen meals? It's a lot of toxic chemicals, things that should not be going into your body. So, this is where we have to build the awareness and make sure people understand that it's not just about losing weight.

13:32
Are you going to lose weight if you have a calorie-restricted diet and eat these frozen meals by Atkins? Potentially, yes. But what else are you doing to your body that's going to cause this long-term negative effect? M. — So, these are things that I tell people, be very careful with a lot of these pre-made meals, uh, any kind of pre-made supplements, any kind of these pre-made, uh, nutritional bars that are out there.

13:54
Figure out something that's quality, something that is going to allow your body to perform the way that it needs to perform. — That's right. And talking about food and supplements, I know that in Liquivida, you have very specific individualised approach to nutrition. It's tailored to everyone in a different way b based on their biomarkers and their blood tests and all those tests you do.

14:16
But do you think there are some supplements or foods that everyone should eat to be healthy or everyone should take to be healthy? — Yeah. I mean everyone should be having protein, right? Um everyone should intake protein. I take my chief protein every day since you have given me that. — Give us a recipe for the yogurt thing.

14:34
How much protein does that have? That was a good tip. — Yeah. Yeah. So, I do um the Chobani protein yogurt, the drink. It's something quick for me to have, you know, plus it has some of the probiotics. Um that one that I use has 30 grams of protein and then I'll put two scoops of the vanilla. Sometimes I use the chocolate of the chief protein and that'll bring it up to about close to 50 grams of protein.

14:59
So, um plus I'm getting, you know, the collagen protein which has different benefits versus just reg the regular protein that they put in there. — Yeah, that's a protein bump. I love it. — Okay, so back to the supplements and food. So, what do you think? So, protein. Everyone should have protein. Are there any supplements that you think everyone should have no matter what? — Vitamin C every day.

15:18
— You should take vitamin C. We're the only mammals that don't produce it, right? Um, magnesium. Uh, magnesium is great, uh, for many different reasons. Controlling blood pressure, great for circulation, great for gut health, great for sleep. Uh, me personally, I take magnesium glycinate. A lot of people ask, "Well, what type of magnesium should I take?" Glycinate is one that's pretty well-rounded and can be really good for overall health.

15:42
Um, it's great for cardiovascular function as well, too. I take CoQ10. That's something that I always take. I take my omega-3s and fatty acids. Uh, that's something that I take every day as well. I take a B complex. I think a well-rounded B complex is important. And then I take a lot of the other things that are more uh personalised to myself of what I'm trying to achieve.

16:04
Uh I'm big into managing my NF1 data, right? The data of myself. So uh my third book that I'm working on right now, it's called your wellness data and it's about showing people that if you understand enough about your own personal health data, how you could truly take control of your health. So I'm big into cognitive health, which is brain health, and I take certain supplements for that.

16:28
I take the bulletproof uh Brain Octane oil. It's a Brain Octane oil that Dave Asprey created when he was with Bulletproof and it uses the C8 molecule and that basically gets your neurons in your brain just firing off. Um, it makes me sharp as a tack. So, I do that. I do my NMN with Novos. Uh, you know, Novos has a very quality NMN.

16:52
Uh, also some other, uh, healthy nutritional products that I take as well too. And then I uh also take uh my NR which is a Tru Niagen NR and I do uh subcutaneous injections of NAD. — So that there really gets my brain you know just very sharp — and you can feel it — mental focus clarity. I have no mental fog.

17:16
It's just unbelievable the way it works. And I tell people, especially if you're an entrepreneur, a business person who's just high performance, — like you want to be sharp as a tack, you know, your brain and the way you think and the way how you manage stress is extremely important. — Yeah. What about creatine for the brain? Do you take creatine? — So, interesting enough that you said that.

17:37
So, I've tried the creatine thing and I didn't really get too much of the nootropic effect. I think I'm getting more from the other things that I'm doing. Um the only thing that I don't like about the creatine and this is me personally because I believe in it and I do think people should implement creatine. I get bloated from the creatine.

17:55
— So I tell you two things. So first of all creatine only works if you sleep deprived. There's no science that shows that creatine will enhance your brain function when you had normal state and you had a good sleep. — All the science has been done on most of the science research has been done on sleep-deprived subjects.

18:14
So it will help to increase your brain function when you have brain fog from not sleeping. And secondly the micronisation of the uh creatine will also uh affect the bloating. I get bloated from just about everything. And when I take a creatine which is highly micronised which we have at Chief but we don't have it in America I don't get the bloating — really.

18:38
So maybe try different different and mine when we have it in the US and try it when you had like a bad night's sleep or sleepless night because I think otherwise it's good for your training but I don't think it works as much for the brain health and you also need to have about 20 g. — 20 g and that's that's — a lot.

18:54
Yeah, because people normally take five grams which is great for exercise but you need 20 grams. You know, I have to tell you funny thing. We did April Fool's post on Instagram saying that we have a creatine inhaler. Like you snorted and people actually wanted to order it and people are still asking me if we're going to make it. — Now we have to make it.

19:14
We have to make it. — That's so funny. Do you use any nasal supplements? — I do. I actually have part of my brain health uh my my brain health uh regimen is a nasal spray called Synapsin. So the Synapsin nasal spray is actually the number one thing that I use for cognition. And that one has Rg3 which is the uh extract from the ginseng root.

19:40
It's a pharmaceutical grade. — It has NR which is a precursor to NAD helps open up the pathways allows NAD to go inside of the cells and then it has the methylated version of B12. — When I do this first thing in the morning I do it every day. I've been doing it for probably the last seven years.

19:59
Every single day, right in the morning when I do it, everything becomes in high definition. I hear better, see better, speak better. — I need — and everything's just really really on point. — Can you send me a link to this? I need — Yeah. So, this is my prescription. So, it's a it's prescription only. Um, but we can get you taken care of for sure.

20:15
So, uh, the doctor who actually has the patent behind it, um, is a doctor who created it, he his pharmacy is in Texas. is called Pavilion Compounding Pharmacy and it's the highest quality product in my opinion on the market. — Yeah. — Yeah. That's amazing. Okay. So, you named so many different supplements which is great.

20:36
Like you've got a lot of research, you know what you're doing, but if you could only keep three supplements for the rest of your life, what would they be? — Well, the nasal spray would definitely be one of them. — Yeah, the nasal spray and then another two. Um and then other two vitamin C and then I would say uh vitamin C vitamin C.

20:56
Let's go with glutathione. Vitamin C and glutathione. Yeah, that's a good — I'm trying to see what's going to help me the best for longevity or if I get sick, what's going to work? You — only given me three, so it's not not the easiest thing to do. — I'm actually curious. So you talk a lot about brain health, about health in general.

21:14
have access to all the latest science through Liquivida and all the people that you work with in there. What is your daily routine? Like do you actually you that's the question. Do you actually use the scientific knowledge you have in your daily routine? And if you do, what's your daily routine? — So I try. Right. So I have all the tools, all of the bells and whistles, but it's very difficult when you're as busy as me to be able to use everything that I have.

21:38
Right? Because think about it, the hyperbaric chamber, you know, you're talking about an hour, an hour and a half that I would have to sit inside of the hyperbaric chamber. You know, we have a strict rule that we don't use any computers or anything in the hyperbaric chamber. Um, we have other uh technologies.

21:53
Well, let's say the red light bed, that's another 30 minutes. Infrared sauna, you're going to be there another 15 to 30 minutes, right? Um, so by the time you're done doing every single technology, half of your day is already gone. So, I don't do all of them, but I mix it up throughout the week. My routine goes like this. I wake up in the morning.

22:12
I try to get uh first sunlight if possible, right? So, going outside, I don't get on my phone right away. Um I try to connect with myself, try to do some grounding. Uh after I do some grounding, I uh use my Pulsetto device — and then I also use my Brain Tap. You know, I like to start off my day with the Brain Tap.

22:35
I don't have caffeine for at least a couple hours after I wake up. So after that, after I go through my regimen of doing my guided meditation with the BrainTap, use I do my HRV reset with the Pulsetto, I get on the vibration plate. Sometimes I'll do my Pulsetto when I'm on the vibration plate for about 15 minutes, right? Get my blood flowing.

22:57
Great for lymphatic drainage. And then from there, I start taking some of my supplements, you know? So, I start taking some of my supplements. My nasal spray goes into effect. I take my Dave Asprey uh uh Brain Octane oil, the MCT oil. And then, uh from there, I uh do my caffeine and sometimes I'll have my Nespresso. I'll I'll sometimes create uh the bulletproof style coffee where I'll use the heavy whipping cream, I'll use the uh the MCT oil, and then also the coconut oil in it.

23:32
And then uh from there I either do two things. I either go to the gym to go work out or I go rucking where I put on my weighted vest and I go out on the trails for about an hour. — so after I'm done with that, now when I go out on the trails for an hour, uh and when I'm doing rucking, then I'll still I'll get on some phone calls.

23:49
Sometimes I'll get on Zoom calls. Uh I'll check emails. It's one of those things where some people tell us, "Oh, well, you really should kind of be disconnected and relax." Well, I already did my meditation, so I'm out there now. working. — Yeah. — So, I like to multitask when I'm working.

24:05
So, when I'm out there uh on the trails, I'm also, you know, taking phone calls, Zoom calls, and everything else. So, so that's um the start of my day. Throughout my day, I'm drinking plenty of water. I do molecular hydrogen water. So, I use my Echo Flask for that. And then, um throughout the day, you know, drinking water.

24:24
I try to stay very active, get my steps in, at least 10,000 steps a day. And then in the evening, if I didn't go to the gym to do my weight training, um in the morning, in the evening, I'll go do my weight training. — So, do you train every day? — I try to train every day. Sometimes I don't have a scheduled day off, but typically I'll have one or two days off because I'm traveling or something else gets in the way.

24:48
I got to go to dinner meeting or something of that nature. But for the most part, if I can train every day, I do it. — That's awesome. You look like a picture of health. A lot of the uh tools that you have at Liquivida are considered biohacking tools like the red light bed and the hyperbaric chamber. But now you tell me that you don't have time for them and you go out in the nature which is essentially the original biohacking because you know you're in a daylight sunlight instead of red light bed.

25:17
What place do you think the biohacking has is has in the today's society and can it actually replace the nature? So yeah, you know what happens is is um the way that we live now is completely different than the way that God put us here to live. So when you look at we wear shoes, right? So we're not grounding.

25:40
We live in a high-rise, you know, so we're not getting uh any kind of grounding whatsoever at all. Um we're always indoors, so we're not getting that natural vitamin D. We're not getting true sunlight. So these different biohack gain technologies have really been put in place for us to be able to get what we're supposed to get from nature in a very enhanced type of fashion.

26:05
So it allows us to get that red light near and far infrared. Allows us to get vitamin D on some of these red light technologies that have the vitamin D uh attached to it. It allows us to use something like the PEMF uh technologies. We have the uh pulse technology. So um helps us basically like grounding a tenfold of grounding and it brings it in a way that's uh more accelerated, more advanced and a lot stronger if you will.

26:31
So it could target certain uh inflammation in the body body. It could help enhance the detox pathways. — Along with that, it can also help uh if you have any kind of chronic illness that you're fighting as well too. So same thing with supplementation, right? When we talk about supplementing with protein, supplementing with any kind of uh vitamins, minerals, amino acids, the reason we're doing this is because we're not getting enough from the different sources of foods that we're uh eating every single day. Um when you look at

26:59
our food source and the way it's growing today, it's grown in a very uh deficient uh source of soil, right? The nutrient density is just not there the way it was back in the day. So, um, that's where it becomes very important for us to supplement it. Um, and the nutrients in the foods is one thing, uh, because it doesn't have the density that it should, but also we're dealing with all kinds of other issues, gut issues, right? When we're having gut issues, something like, let's say, for example, leaky gut or or your microbiome is not

27:31
uh within the optimal ranges where it should be, then it doesn't allow us to even absorb the nutrients even if we were taking the nutrients. So you know frequent supplementation of it that's where it goes into effect. Sometimes even if you do frequent supplementation you're not getting the absorption. So then we have to go with the injections either intramuscular injection subcutaneous injection or intravenous injections.

27:53
— That is true. Yeah it's a good good way to see it. So if I lived in a forest and I had a beautiful food supply full of vitamins and minerals which it's hard to get or impossible to get these days I probably wouldn't need biohacking. But if I live in a high-rise walking shoes and breathe toxic air, then probably need biohacking to be healthy.

28:10
— Yeah. — Yeah. That's a good way to see it. There were a lot of biohacking tools at that event we just went to last weekend. — Oh, it was incredible. — If you could pick one that you could get, what would you get from what you saw there? — You know, there's one that uh I would recommend that is really, again, I'm big into like brain health.

28:30
And this one is called the OneBrainX. The OneBrainX is for neurofeedback and brain mapping. Yeah. Right. So, so when we talk about uh the different technologies, you know, for brain health, we talk about something like the BrainTap, right? The meditation, the vagus nerve reset, like the Pulsetto, uh all of these different supplements that I was talking about, but we haven't really measured the brain activity, right? So and as big as I am with data when you have the ability to measure I always tell people you can only improve what

29:00
you measure — you know so OneBrainX actually has the ability to give you the data of how your brain health is actually performing right so for me they were there at the conference it's a new technology it's backed by NASA you know so um they've used it on the military so they have a significant amount of data talking about it um the data that shows uh the changes, the positive changes and a lot of the military soldiers that have used it and the focus there is to really bring more of the uh additional

29:35
science behind a lot of these natural things that we're doing. — Can you please tell us what the MAHA movement is and what is the main goal? — Yes. So, the MAHA movement, sorry, MAHA is make America healthy again. So, which I'm a big part of it. I go every month to Washington DC for their their monthly meetings.

29:54
Um and the MAHA movement is led by RFK Jr. you know, our secretary of uh the HHS and uh you know what when we look at uh what MAHA is doing, number one, it's bringing exposure, right? It's bringing exposure um in awareness to the moms to the public on what is it that we're really uh exposing ourselves to, right? The toxic food, the chemicals that are out there.

30:23
And you know, when you have a secretary like RFK Jr. that's leading HHS in the right way, right? Where it's not uh through this corrupt system that's uh ran by the pharmaceutical industry or ran by the food uh industry. You know, this allows us to really uh bring true health to to our nation. So, um that's something that we want to see more of.

30:48
We want to see people uh tapping into a lot of these alternative treatments, not be so focused on the chemicals on medications, you know, and make it accessible to them, you know, and that's one part that I'd like to see more of, you know, myself coming from the inner city, um where, you know, we didn't have access to so much and seeing a lot of these type of biohacking modalities or just the education itself be more accessible to the masses.

31:15
Yeah, it is really important because you know we talk about the biohacking and all these advanced treatments but as a matter of fact most people don't know about them or can't access them like 70% of Americans are overweight or obese 50% are obese. — Wow. — One in six people in America has got at least one chronic illness.

31:35
Why is that? We we live in a very sick toxic world, you know, and it's exactly because of the system that we're living in, right? Yes, we have these food deserts, but at the end of the day, when 90% of the food that we're eating is highly ultra-processed foods with all these different chemicals, you know, that's not normal for your body.

31:57
You know, your body is going to be consistently trying to digest and break this stuff down. It's it's going to put your body in a certain type of deficit where it's going to struggle and disease is going to form. You know, it's it's this these are the things that we have to get away from.

32:12
People have to learn how to eat real food. — Yeah. So, what does MAHA do about this specific issue about the ultra-processed food? Is it just educating people to not eat ultra-processed food or is there anything else that needs to happen? — That's one component. But the first step is when we look at the ultra-processed foods is the chemicals that they're put in inside of the ultra-processed foods, right? All of the different food dyes.

32:35
You go to other countries that do have processed foods, but the processed foods have healthy ingredients in it, right? So, it allows your body to process these ingredients a lot better. Not having certain ingredients that are carcinogenic that can potentially cause cancer in your body, not potentially that do cause cancer in your body.

32:53
So, the first step is getting these chemicals out of these foods that they shouldn't be in there. And then if we can get people to eat real food first, that's going to be the goal, right? But you're starting to see certain restaurants that have tapped into the MAHA movement that now are doing certain things like removing the seed oils out of the foods as the way they cook the foods.

33:16
They're removing the microwaves out of uh the restaurants. They're using uh things like beef tallow instead of the seed oils. They're using more of like real organic type of foods. They're using uh uh grass-fed beef as well, too. So, when you see those type of changes, I think those are the they're not all of the steps we need to take, but they're the first few steps that are putting us in the right direction.

33:42
— Yeah, that's great. like I must say that a lot of the MAHA movement uh education that's on social media also shows in Australia and a lot of people in Australia are more educated about nutrition and health as a result. — So I think it's got like a global impact because even my mom in Czech Republic watches it because now all the captions are automatically translated to whatever language you speak.

34:08
So I think it's got a huge impact and I really love this movement. But I'm very curious like if you can say this because I'm not sure if you can who who are the people in the meetings with you and what do you actually do like what happens there? — Well, so there's a variety of people that show up to the meetings. A lot of people involved in government.

34:27
Um you get uh governors, senators that show up as well. Uh people that want to learn more of what this movement is about. M um you have uh big farmers, people that that do a lot of our production and farming. A lot of the big companies that are trying to do better for our nation as well too.

34:46
Um you have a lot of uh activists that will show up as well. Um people that uh testify on their uh experiences and their issues that they've had. Uh and then you have other people that are leading like Dr. Oz, the head of CMS is there as well too. Um sometimes you'll get someone like the vice president that will show up to some of the events.

35:07
Um and other political figures as well. A lot of attorneys, they go there as well. Um so it's a very strong mixture. Um a lot of people in the health and wellness industry u will show up as well too if they have a special invite. — And is it like a discussion on certain topic? — Yes.

35:26
So they're giving updates of what's happening and then there's a good portion of it that people have the ability to just hang out, network, you know, uh drink some coffee, have some uh some snacks, some healthy snacks. — That sounds great. And so how do people get to attend these? Do you have to be like a chosen or — Yeah, you get invited.

35:43
So — you get invited. That's amazing. So last, when did you go last time? — Uh it was last month. Uh the middle of the month or so. And so what was the topic of discussion in the last MAHA meeting and the updates? — So, so some of the updates were uh one of the big updates was what happened uh with uh Bayer, which took over Monsanto, right? Uh they were in the process of potentially getting a bail bailout from the government.

36:10
Um which I was a part of that. I went to the big rally um the rally that the the people against poison rally. — It's about the glyphosate. which that was something that we've been fighting for years, right? That's a big issue. It's an issue that people have been uh exposed to the glyphosate and have had uh cancer.

36:31
People have died from it. There's been a lot of lawsuits. They've paid out over 11 billion and they wanted a bailout and at the end of the day, we have to continue to hold them accountable, right? So, that was one of the big updates. Then there was um a few other members of MAHA that released their new books. Uh, one was Lyanna Warner Gray, her uh, book on seed oils.

36:55
So, she did a speech there um, at the event. I met uh, a few different governors as well, which was pretty cool. — And, and there's a lot of people that are running for office that will also show up because they get the MAHA backing for the political campaign and then they become a big uh, spokesperson throughout their uh, campaign. — Yeah, that's incredible.

37:15
What a crowd to hang out with. — Yeah. Yeah. So, did you at any of these meetings discuss the issue of the GLP drugs? Because I'm like torn like are these drugs going to resolve the issue of obesity in America or are we just creating a generation of skinny, fat, weak, and even sicker people? — Well, it it's not a specific topic of conversation at the meeting.

37:42
Um, it is something that they they've put in work to make it more accessible for people to be able to use these GLP-1 drugs, which obviously the GLP-1 drugs are are great for weight management, but they have a whole another uh flew of uh of benefits, you know, for cardiovascular disease and uh inflammatory diseases like PCOS, etc.

38:04
at a lower dose. even for uh pain management. I have a few uh doctors that are using GLP-1 drugs for pain management. So um but yeah, you you know the GLP-1 drugs, I'll tell you as a professional, as a medical professional in the industry, it's not going to solve the obesity issue. The obesity issue is solved not by the GLP-1 drugs, but by lifestyle change.

38:29
So the GLP-1 drugs are great as a kickstart, right, to kickstart your weight loss journey, but it's not going to solve the issue that what's going to solve the issue is people changing their lifestyle. — Yeah, I'm really pleased you say that and I think it has a lot to do with the ultra-processed foods and all the additives as you mentioned, — right? Um, one thing that I found really interesting at the biohacking event we attended last week, there are a few people that mentioned that their Instagram accounts were shut down by Meta because of discussing or promoting

38:59
peptides. And what I don't I'm a little bit torn about this like what do you think about this censorship? Like I think on one hand is good because there are lots of people on Instagram and other social media that are not qualified and they're giving advice that's completely wrong and people trust it.

39:18
But then on the other hand, I don't really agree with censorship because can it really interfere with getting out credible science out there and you can't even say anything that's actually scientifically proven just because you get censored out? — Yeah. — What do you think? So, so on the meta platforms, I could tell you from personal experience, it is a challenge, right? Um, you know, I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

39:45
like there's the good and the bad uh for it, but for the most part, if there's no um real research behind what's being promoted, they have a certain responsibility to uh — you know, re reserve that content from being exposed out there. — Um or at least put some kind of disclosure stating that this is false information um and there's no science to prove it.

40:12
So, you know, with the peptides, it's a little bit of a sticking point. — We know being in the in the precision functional medicine industry that there's a lot of benefits to peptides, but at the same time, a lot of these peptides haven't been completely or nor fully studied, right? Um it is under research currently and it's something that um you'll see people on social media making some tremendous claims that you can't make those claims.

40:38
You know, you have to be very careful with the claims that you make. Do you know what the one of the problems is? A lot of these people actually genuinely think they are saying the truth and I tested ChatGPT and Grok and I ask qu and like a question that I know I really know the topic and I kept asking for scientific studies on the topic and it both kept giving me fake studies.

41:02
They were like real authors but a made-up study. It even gave me links to some studies and the link was either broken or it took me to completely different study. So ChatGPT never admitted to anything. Grok after I asked 10 times actually send me a message saying I breached the code of conduct because there are gaps in research and I couldn't find blah blah and I fabricated the studies.

41:27
So I think a lot of these people are not educated. They don't know the topic. They just ask ChatGPT which is what everyone now does and copies and paste the caption and that's how it goes. Wow. which is why they don't even put disclaimers because they don't even know they are spreading misinformation which is the worst thing.

41:44
— Dr. Chat Chip. — I know right. This is scary. So like I'm just wanted to see what do you think about it. — You wrote a book about wellness. What was the name you I read it but I forgot. — How to win in modern wellness. — How to win in modern wellness. What do you think is the state of the current wellness industry in America? So the state of the wellness industry I it has grown substantially right um I'd say within the last 15 to 20 years people have become very health-conscious where people are sick and

42:15
tired of feeling sick and tired so people are taking more of that proactive preventative approach especially post-COVID um COVID really opened up a lot of people's eyes and minds to taking care of their health because what we saw when COVID, when the pandemic was here we saw the most vulnerable people that uh had deficiencies that were obese.

42:37
Those were the people that were stuck in the hospital and dying, right? So, um I think co definitely opened up a lot of people's eyes and minds to taking care of their health. I could tell you from being on the business side, our business had a tremendous shift and increase in people taking care of their health. So, and now it's it's just become when you look at the global market and in the longevity space, people want to take that deeper dive.

43:04
People want to be able to have not just longevity, which is the health span. They want to be able to have uh not not just the longevity side, which is the lifespan, correction, the lifespan. They want to have health span, which is a quality of life, right? They want to have good vitality and good vigor as well. — Yeah, that's true.

43:21
And I love how everyone talks about the health span these days rather than just lifespan and living longer. What's the point of living longer and being sick? Right. — Exactly. — Well, is there anything you wish I asked you but I didn't? — No. I think you asked me quite a bit, you know, — like is there something you really want to say but I didn't ask? — No.

43:44
Listen, Veronica, I'm just happy that I'm here with you being able to do what both you and I love to do best, which is really share positive information to help people with their health. You know, um we we've seen a lot uh not just personally, but even with other friends and family and people that we work with with our companies and our business.

44:04
So, us being able to get on this podcast and share this information, you know, even if it's just one person that can change the trajectory of their health, — I'm doing my job. — 100%. You're doing the job really well. And I have one last question. What is your favourite book? — My favourite book h you know, my favourite book since I was a kid is called How to Win Sorry. Uh, how to win friends.

44:27
Oh my god, — I know that book and I can't remember the name. — How to influ How to win friends and influence people. — Yes. one. Yeah, that's — So, so that is my favourite book since I was a kid. I've read it multiple times and maybe I need more of my nasal spray so I don't forget. — I need some too soon.

44:41
— How to win friends and influence people. And really that book uh the reason why it's my favourite book. It really has taught me um certain initial steps when I was young. I read it when I was in eighth grade, right? My uncle gave me that book. My uncle Moses. very advanced compared with me — and it and it allowed me to really learn how to communicate and understand people right um and being a salesperson myself and a people's person about relationships I think that book is a very good book that everybody should

45:10
read at some point in their life. — Amazing. Well, thank you so much for the tip and thank you for your time. It was great. — Absolutely. It was a pleasure. — Thank you. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Chief Life podcast for more conversations on performance, nutrition, and mindset.