Understanding Stress Through Chiropractic Care With Dr. Rashidian

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Dr. Rashidian's Bio:
Holding Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Human Biology and a Doctorate in Chiropractic, Amir A. Rashidian is the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Centers. Established in 2006 and serving over 20,000 patient visits annually in two locations, the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center focuses on high-tech diagnostics to detect and correct disturbances in the nervous system. The doctors at the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Centers, promoting drugless health solutions, work with patients to eliminate the causes of disease and not merely the suppression of symptoms.

As a consultant, Dr. Rashidian has worked with 18 chiropractic practices, 16 of which were startup businesses that all reached profitability within the first 3 months of a business launch. Dr. Rashidian attributes his success in opening practices to an intensive systematized marketing plan implemented 3 months prior to business launch. He has personally opened three very successful chiropractic practices.

A very active speaker at corporate events, conventions, and churches, he is also frequently interviewed by the local TV, radio, and newspaper. Additionally, Dr. Rashidian serves on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity and is a major financial supporter of their local building projects. Furthermore, Dr. Rashidian also serves as the chairman of the Elder Leadership Team at Grace Community Church. He has won multiple honors and awards including Business Leader of the Year and Philanthropist of the Year.

He has been happily married since 2005 and together they have three sons.

In this episode Dr. Rashidian talks about

• True definition of stress
• History and background of why he became a chiropractor
• The correlation of chiropractic care and stress
• Gives tips on how we can use stress for our success
• Details of how stress impacts the body, and how to combat it in the moment.
• Stages of stress
• Definition of wellness…it’s not a destination

And so much more…

Dr. Rashidian's links: 

• Websites: https://drrashi

Transcript

Interview with Dr. Rashidian

Elizabeth

[00.00.01]

 Are you a woman over 40, who cannot seem to bust the stubborn fat hormones all over the place, or feel low energy and sluggish, or even feeling achy all over? Well, I am here to tell you that it does not have to be that way. Our lives start a new chapter after 40 and it is not downhill as everyone says. Taking the first step towards better health is key and that is why you're here listening to this. Take one small step closer to your goals and find out how it's really possible by reaching out to me. I have created Functional Health Coaching with Elizabeth out of an understanding that it is hard work getting and staying healthy holistically as a woman over 40. I will arm you with resources, knowledge and accountability and work with you to mesh in small, easy habits in your life so that it does not have to be so hard. Book your free 20 to 30 minute consultation today by going to calendly.com forward slash functional health coaching forward slash consult and get started feeling alive 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.01.16]

 again. You're not the only one who suffers. My dad was sick. He was hurting. But guess what I suffered. My mother suffered. Everyone and anyone who cared about him also suffered. And that made me realize if I don't take care of me, my children, my spouse and everyone around me is going to suffer just as much as me. And so now I know if I take care of me and my health, if I manage stress properly, if I keep myself healthy through the tough times of life, guess what? I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for everybody that I love. And because I don't want to end up being a burden on them. And so that's what led me to become a chiropractor to study stress, the neurophysiology of stress, what the body does under stress, and how to optimize that so that what we can do is actually turn pressure into power and not be burdened by it 

Elizabeth

[00.02.23]

 Hello and welcome to another episode of The Root of Our Health podcast. I am your host, Elizabeth, a National Board certified health and wellness coach, a certified functional medicine health coach, and an employee wellness coach. Each and every other week, I will be talking about topics that has to do with alternative health and wellness for women. As we celebrate the second half of our lives, these episodes will range from solo to interviewing professionals in the space, as well as getting to know everyday people like you and how we can implement simple, bite sized habits in our daily lives that will help us thrive. And in today's episode, I had, of course, the pleasure to sit down with Doctor Richardson. Uh, so who is Doctor Richardson? Will? He is holding a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and human biology and a doctorate in chiropractic. Amir Richardson is the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Centers, established in 2006 and serving over 20,000 patient visits annually in two locations. The Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center focuses on high tech diagnostics to detect and correct disturbances in the nervous system. The doctors at Mid-Atlantic chiropractic centers promoting Douglas Health solutions, work with patients to eliminate the causes of disease and not merely the suppression of symptoms. As a as a consultant doctor, Richardson has worked with 18 chiropractic practices, 16 of which were start up businesses. That all reached profitability within the first three months of a business launch. Doctor Richardson attributes his success in opening practices to an intensive, systemized marketing plan implemented three months prior to business launch. He has personally opened three very successful chiropractic practices a very active speaker at corporate events, conventions and churches. He is also frequently interviewed by local TV, radio and newspaper. Additionally, Doctor Richardson serves on the Board of Directors of habitat for humanity and is a major financial supporter of their local building projects. Furthermore, Doctor Richardson also serves as the chairman of the Elder Leadership team at Grace Community Church. He has won multiple honors and awards, including Business Leader of the Year and Philanthropist of the year. He had been happily married since 2005 and together they have three sons. Well, in this episode, chock full of knowledge, Doctor Richardson talks about true definition of a stress. History, a background of why he became a chiropractor. He talks about the correlation of a chiropractic care and a stress. He gives some tips on how we can use stress for our success. Details of how stress impacts the body and how to combat it in the moment. He also talks about the stages of stress. Definition of wellness. It is not a destination and so, so much more. Again, this was a great conversation. You know, stress is definitely top of my mind. And what I talk about a lot, and it's basically what everybody knows about. So it chiropractic care is key. And I, I mentioned it in my last podcast episode about um alternative therapies. And so yes, chiropractic care can definitely help with stress management, but that just stress management to understand the differences of stress, how we can use it to our benefit. Right? So it's not all bad. And Doctor Rashidi and it talks about all of that. So hope you definitely, uh, love this episode. If you do, please share it around. Um, obviously we all need to know and understand a little bit more about how stress impacts not only our brain, our mind, but also our body and how we could, um, you know, obviously move through it. If that does resonate with you, please let us know. Love to hear from you in the socials and also rate and review. That is actually your free way to support this podcast. And it gets up in the rankings when you do so. So we'd love to hear not only what you liked about this episode, but if you have anything about, uh, the podcast, I this is you. This is for you. Honestly, I love doing it, I love talking, I love educating, I love this. These topics and interviewing people and learning. And so this is why I continuously put these episodes out. But it's also a great way to get into more listeners ears. If I understand what you all like and what resonated with you. So that ranking and also that reviewing definitely is that free way to help support this podcast. And also if you are listening, where I guess wherever you are listening to this podcast, please do subscribe or follow. And I do have a YouTube channel that is where you could watch this video, this interview with Doctor Richardson. Um, and so please do follow that as well. All of the information is in the show notes, so please do reference back to that and click on it. It's easy peasy. Um and yeah, thank you so much again for being here and for and for supporting. But before we get into the interview with Doctor Richardson, I want to tell you that I have partnered with the Rasa Beauty skincare and makeup. I talk a lot about toxic products, and it's not just what we put in our bodies, but what we put on our bodies that count as well as are. You are currently using products that have chemicals you cannot even pronounce. But I'm here to tell you that there is a clean beauty company that actually works around. The name comes from that super rare fruit grown in South America, highly regarded for its nutraceutical properties like high polyphenol carotenoids and vitamin C content, which is double that of an orange. It is wild picked from the jungles of Amazon, and it is immediately turned into an extract so that it retains its skin healing properties. 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Well, you can go to my leg at Bitly. Forward slash on Rasa misspelled AR as a beauty 15 and add the root of our health 15 at checkout for 15% off your first order. Now back to this interview with Doctor Rashidi an. Welcome Doctor Rashidi. And to the, uh, to the root of our Health podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you on the show today. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.10.56]

 Pleasure's mine. Thank you so much for having me. 

Elizabeth

[00.10.59]

 Anytime, anytime. So we'd love to start high level, and we'll definitely get into a little bit more of what you do in terms of your own practice and everything else. But I love to hear from people who talk about stress. Why are we so chronically stressed in this country, or what is the root cause? 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.11.22]

 I love that question. Um, well, the why is it's different for every individual, but as a as a whole, generally speaking, I think we all have the wrong definition of stress, and I think we have a different relationship with stress than we should. Um, if we if we truly define stress, it's a force that causes change in your life. So going to the gym and lifting weights is stress. But that stress that you put on your joints and your muscles, if you do it correctly, the results are positive. If you do it incorrectly, there's results are negative. And so I, um, you know, most people when they talk about stress, they're thinking more of the psycho emotional side of things where, hey, I'm stressed because I live in an area with a lot of traffic, or I'm stressed because, um, you know, the election's coming up or or the stock market that this or that. Um, so so there's our circumstances we really don't have control over. And it's not the circumstances how we deal with it. So as a general population, why are we so stressed? It's because one, either we're trying to control things we don't have any control over or to our response to the stress is inaccurate or incorrect, and that's why we feel those negative side effects of it. 

Elizabeth

[00.12.39]

 Beautifully said. Beautifully said. Yeah, it's what we make of it, right? The external stressors, so to speak, things that come our way. It's how we, um, show up or how we react or I don't want to say react, but just yeah, it just basically we react to it and it's either either a good or a negative. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.12.59]

 Yeah. You know, money money is a big source of stress for most people. Yeah. But you go, well, money can fund terrorist activity and lead to terrible things, or it can put your kids through college. But you would never say money is good. You wouldn't say money is bad, it's just how you use it. And I think stress, it's like gravity. Gravity can keep your feet on the ground so you don't float away. But it's also the reason you fell down and maybe sprained your ankle or you're hit yourself. Uh, it's the same thing. It's gravity. So gravity is not good or bad, but it can lead to good things and bad things. Fire. It can burn your hand, or it can cook your food. You wouldn't say it's good or bad. I stresses that force. And really, if we use it properly, it can be a fuel that propels us through success, happiness, joy, wealth, whatever else we want good relationships or it can destroy all those things. 

Elizabeth

[00.13.48]

 Mhm. Nice. So it's up to us. Absolutely. Awesome. Well thank you for that. Yes. And so going into then your background. So what is your background and how did you get here today. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.14.02]

 So I was nine years old. I was traveling with my father through these remote villages in Iran, where I was born and raised, and in a village we were at, there was a woman that had gone into labour and there were no doctors. The midwife said, I can't help her, and she ended up passing away in her husband's arms. And I decided at the age of nine, I didn't want to ever have anything like that happen around me. And I wanted to become a doctor. And so fast forward ten years later, I was a student at George Washington University and a pre-med. I wanted to become a surgeon at some point and save lives, and I went home for Christmas break, uh, 19 years old, uh, my dad was wearing when I walked in the house. My dad was wearing this big, thick white neck brace, and you could tell he was on some serious painkillers because he just looked like he was out of it, and he was limp and numb from the shoulders down. He couldn't lift his arms to even give me a hug to say hello. And so we we went on this journey during that Christmas break, going from doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what's wrong with that. And every doctor we went to said, this is beyond my scope, you're going to have to go to this other doctor. And we finally ended up in a neurosurgeons office. The neurosurgeon took a look at my dad, said, sir, you needed surgery yesterday. What are you waiting for? And, uh, uh, my dad said, well, he he thought it would go away. He said, I thought it would disappear. I thought it would. It would go away. Which is literally the five most dangerous words anyone's ever spoken. Thought it would go away. Nothing goes away unless what's causing it goes away. Long story short, the surgeon said, you need surgery and we're going to have to cut you open from the base of the skull to the bottom of the neck. We're going to have to break and remove the bones in the back of your spine to take pressure off the spinal cord, and then we're going to put rods and screws fuse your whole neck. You'll never turn your head again. And you may not regain function of your hands, but we're hoping you'll have less pain. And there's a chance you might die. Because this is serious surgery. Dad was 70 years old. And you know what I want to say is, there's such a thing as a young 70 and an old 70. But he wasn't a young 70. He had he had aged and. And so that's why the surgery was going to be risky. We talked to three different neurosurgeons. And then after the third one, we got in a taxi to go home in the back of the taxi. I was sitting there carrying all the dad's X-rays and MRIs and CT and medical records, and that is sitting next to me, and he's wearing his neck brace. And I looked over at him and he was cringing because every bump that taxi hit, doesn't anybody know what a taxi is anymore? Uber, Uber But I remember. Well, good. I'm not the only one. Every bump that taxi was hitting was sending this lightning bolt of pain through his body. You could tell he he didn't want to live anymore. And emotionally, I felt the same way I did in that village. And I felt helpless, like there's nothing I can do to help him. And, uh. And this taxi driver saw me getting teary eyed and saw him suffering in his rearview mirror. And he said, sir, I know you're in a lot of pain, and I know you asked me to take you home, but there's a chiropractor right down the street. Would you rather me take you there? And, you know, I was a 19 year old. No, at all. So I said, no, we need to go get ready for the surgery. Dad was terrified of the surgery, so he said, yes, let's go check it out. So we we pull up to this chiropractor's office. The chiropractor looked at all those X-rays and MRIs that I was carrying, and he said, I can help you. And he said, I'm not going to do it by breaking or removing bones in your spine. I'm not going to have you on painkillers for the rest of your life. I'm certainly not going to put metal in your neck. What I will do is with my hands adjust little by little, take pressure off the spinal cord and the nerves so that your body can begin to self-heal and self-regulate. And that sounded like rubbish to me, because I firmly believe the only way to get better was drugs and surgery. I didn't think there's ever any other option. So this guy's saying something different in this chiropractor said, listen, your your your father has bone spurs that are growing into the spinal canal, narrowing the canal and is pressing on the spinal cord. And unless we do something about it, this is not going to end well. And my respect level went up because he knew how to read the MRIs. He knew how to read the X-rays and the scans. And so that was under care for a good six months. He had to go in there about six days a week for a full six months. I mean, it was a very intense plan, but at the end of the six months he had full function of his hands. He could turn his head. He had no more pain, no more painkillers, no more neck brace. And dad lived another 18 years. He lived to be 88 years old. At the age of 88. He was younger than when he was 70 because he'd wake up, work out, go visit his friends. All his friends are in nursing homes, but not him. He's living a good life, enjoying his life, and I got to have him another 18 years. And, you know, um, the biggest thing that led me to, you know, wanting to become a chiropractor myself, obviously, was that story. But also it was the fact that I realized when somebody is suffering, when someone is sick, they're not the only one who suffers. My dad was sick. He was hurting. But guess what I suffered. My mother suffered. Everyone and anyone who cared about him also suffered. And that made me realize if I don't take care of me, my children, my spouse and everyone around me is going to suffer just as much as me. And so now I know if I take care of me and my health, if I manage stress properly, if I keep myself healthy through the tough times of life, guess what? I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for everybody that I love, because I don't want to end up being a burden on them. And so that's what led me to become a chiropractor to study stress, the neurophysiology of stress, what the body does under stress, and how to optimize that so that what we can do is actually turn pressure into power and not be burdened by it. 

Elizabeth

[00.19.49]

 Amazing. Amazing. Thank you for sharing that story. And yeah, you know, it's it's unfortunate but fortunate for us. You know, each one of us to go through something like that in our lives that puts us that gives us purpose, right. That gives us a reason to do what we do. And just like you, you know, I have gone through a lot of not just myself, but family, things like that, a lot of health issues. So like you said, also they're what affected them, affected me and vice versa. So it is it is definitely um, and chiropractic care. I have to say, um, is number one in my book as well. That's great. Just because, um, you know, I know the benefits I have seen, I am seeing a chiropractor and also the program that I'm at, um, for my company has a chiropractor for the employees and for, for corporate. Right. So it's it's definitely, um, a huge benefit to everybody. Um, and so interesting that you went from chiropractor to not too but in addition, focusing on stress. So what was the correlation? I don't remember if you said it or not. Was there a correlation that one day you're just like, well, was it a patient? Were you seeing a lot of patients that had chronic stress? And that's why, you know, they were in to see you. How did the correlation 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.21.27]

 happened. So, you know, just like there's different kinds of medical doctors, there's different types of chiropractors as well. And so to to answer the question, I want to give you our, um, description of our style of chiropractic. And the number one principle we stand on in our style of chiropractic is that the human body is self-healing and self-regulating. So what that means is if you cut yourself, it'll heal. If you break a bone that heals also, and your body, if you need an enzyme, you produce it. You need a higher levels of certain hormones. If everything's functioning properly, your body can produce that. So. So the body is self-healing and self-regulating within limits. You shoot me with a gun, my body's not going to spit that bullet out and heal itself. Obviously, I'll need some medical intervention. Or if I'm in a car accident and I'm over here, but one of my legs is over on the other side of the room. Again, I'm not going to grow another leg. So I realize that. But within limits, the body can self-heal itself. Regulate. That's number one. Second thing is that the nervous system, which is the brain and the network of nerves that go down the spine and to every organ, tissue and gland in the body, that network of nerves controls how the body responds to outside stressors or the environment, right? Because if it's called nerves, tell the brain it's cold. The brain tells my metabolism to pick up and produce more heat so I can maintain my core temperature. Everything's controlled by neurology. And so as long as there's no interference in that system of nerves, your body should function the best it ever has. That's called normal, that's health. And if there's interference in that system of nerves, then either you don't perceive your environment properly or you can't react to it correctly, which is what stress is. Stress is a force that works on us from the outside. Then the nervous system processes that stress and decides how it's going to respond. If it responds properly, the results are good. If it responds inaccurately or improperly, there sickness and illness. That's our style of chiropractic. So that's what we believe. My whole team of chiropractors, that's how we operate, that's how we practice. And so why did I go into this whole thing of stress is because so many of my patients, this was years ago, but a lot of my patients would say, doc, I just have too much stress. If I didn't have stress, I wouldn't be sick. If I didn't have stress, I wouldn't be hurt. If I didn't have stress, I wouldn't be uncomfortable. And I said, listen, it's not the stress. Everybody has stress. It's really how your body's responding to that stress. And if you improve your strength. So I have a phrase and I have written this in, in both my books. How healthy you are is determined directly by how much stress you can safely handle. And so that's why I had to write the book. The first book is written to my patients. The second book is written to entrepreneurs and business people who tend to have this tendency to burn the candle at both ends. And I don't want them to stop. I want them to go ahead and do that because it's the only way to be successful. You have to work hard, you have to make some sacrifices. But let's make sure you stay healthy while you do that. So that's why that second book came out. 

Elizabeth

[00.24.29]

 Great. Awesome. Yeah. Let's talk about the two books. So the, um, the first one is the stress proof life the secret to health, wealth and happiness and cracking the stress secret how to turn pressure into power. So in those two that you wrote, is there, um, can you give a little bit of information or maybe tips or maybe a nuggets of how we can use stress to fuel our success? Absolutely. So, so studying successful people, uh, there's three things they have in common that the rest of us don't. Number one, they have the different definition of stress, which we talked about. Uh, number two, they have a different relationship with stress. And number three, this is the most important one. You'll never see them try to reduce stress. That's not what they do. Their focus is, how can I handle this and how can I grow through it while someone else will say, oh, I can, I need to reduce stress. So so you think about anything that's great in life, um, starting a new business, starting a podcast. I'm sure it's stressful. Right? We have our podcast. Um, and, and, and I know how much work goes into it, and, um, your work has been fantastic. So. So I know you put a lot of heart and soul into it. I know you've made a lot of sacrifices, and I know you work a lot. So that stress. So you go, okay, uh, if you wanted to reduce stress, you would cancel the podcast. Stop doing this. It's the best way to reduce stress. In fact, the the most effective way to reduce all stress is quit your job and leave your family, 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.25.58]

 and all your stress goes away. But but who wants to do that? Nobody's right. And so if you want to start a business, you're going to deal with stress. If you want to go higher in education, you're going to have stress. So the more important thing, which is what the successful people do, which is how they use stress, is they never focus on reducing stress. They prepare for it. They train for it. Imagine you're a prizefighter and you have a fight coming up, and you're going to go up against a great fighter who is bigger than you and stronger than you and faster than you. What would you do? Are you going to sleep and eat whatever you want and rest and relax and then step into the ring? Or are you going to take six months and train for it? Same exact thing. If we prepare properly for the stress, it's not going to cause a problem and then we can use that stress to move towards success. 

Elizabeth

[00.26.47]

 Awesome. Yeah, it's just the reframing, right? It's the reframing of, again, that negative aspect of stress. And, you know, forgive me, but I know that there's people who do suffer in terms of their chronic stress. It's just because of the situation that they are in, right? They're in maybe a job that they don't want. And and we all have choices. I'm not going to say that they should be stuck in that job. They should obviously work hard to see what else they can do or figure out the the fun aspect or the good in their present job. So it's not working. It's not minimizing the stress. It's using, like you said, using the stress to see, to figure out the good in, in in the situation, to figure out the positive in the situation and then yeah, thrive from that. So yeah I mean we all look yeah speeches, presentations, podcasts, everything like that. You do get stressed and amped you up. You should have stress. So to to not have it is is impossible first of all. And we we can't live without it. Correct. So why don't we do what you just mentioned and use it for our good to thrive, to grow even. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.28.11]

 Sure. And let's let's talk to some of your audience who is actually sick, who is who is who. Stress is really hurt them. And my heart goes out to them. Obviously, you know, we've all been through that where where we start experiencing anything from anxiety to indigestion to heartburn to headaches to high blood pressure, uh, to high cholesterol. And literally there's there's a physiologic explanation for all of these things. And, and I'm willing to go as deep as you want on this. I'm willing to give you everything that's in both books right here, right now. Uh, we probably don't have time for all of it, but listen, I want to share. And 

Elizabeth

[00.28.48]

 like, a cliff notes. Yeah, 100%. All of it is yours. Um, so. So, you know, first thing that happens is you think when you're under stress and this is why we get sick, is the body goes into what's called fight or flight, which is the sympathetic response to the body. Your autonomic nervous system has two branches. One's the gas pedal, one's the brake pedal. Right. The gas pedal revs everything up. Right. So when you get stressed, you get bad news. Let's say you find out if you're a business owner and payroll is due Friday and you don't have enough money. Let's say it's Wednesday. You need to come up with $20,000 by Friday. Otherwise you can't pay your employees. Big problem. And and so you're stressed right? Immediately heart rate's going to go up. Blood pressure is going to go up. Pupils will dilate. Your skin becomes dry, your hands get cold. Your feet get cold. Two systems slow down or stop. Immune system and digestion. Right. Because if, let's say if you played sports, you know, before the big game, people go throw up because that the stress makes your digestion stop. So whatever's in the stomach, the body goes, I can't keep processing this. You're too nervous. Go throw it up and it comes out. So and the other thing is so is the immune system. So people are under chronic stress let's say every two weeks this person who's a business owner goes through the same stress every two weeks. He's trying to scrounge up some money to pay his employees. And he's been under this stress for months at a time. That person has chronic indigestion, chronic constipation, and chronic sinus infections. And they also have high blood pressure, which comes with high cholesterol. And I think about this stress one hormone will increase above others. That hormone is called cortisol. The precursor to cortisol is cholesterol. So your body will produce more cholesterol so that you can make more cortisol. Also cholesterol is the building block for cell membranes. So if you go back to high school biology, the membrane which is the outside skin of every cell is made up of the lipid bilayer, which is triglycerides and cholesterol. And so if we have any injury in the body to repair those cells, your body needs cholesterol. So people say there's good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. There's no such thing. There's no bad. There's no good. It's just cholesterol. It's just like stress. It's not bad. It's not good. And and so that's why all of this goes up. Now when you stay in that state, you'll end up with this. You'll be someone who gets regular headaches. You'll be someone who has tightness and tension. When the muscles get tight around the neck, you have numbness in your hands. Uh, or or or cold hands, cold feet. All those are people. During the summer. Their hands are still cold. Their feet are always do, always have cold hands. It's because their bodies in fight or flight. Another thing that happens is when your body is in fight or flight, you cannot fall asleep. Cortisol levels are high. Your brain will not allow you to fall asleep. Those are people who say, I'm so tired I can't fall asleep. Well, that's like saying it was raining so hard I didn't get wet. It doesn't make sense. If you're tired, you fall asleep. Not if you're being chased by a pack of hungry wolves. You can't stop and take a nap. Your body will think you're being chased by predators, and you're not going to be able to rest. You can't fall asleep so you don't sleep. Other things start to break down. Other hormones start to suffer. Testosterone goes down, growth hormone goes down. Estrogen gets out of balance. A lot. Immune system being down. Cancer starts to grow in the body. So the we're getting sick because we allowed that stress to take root. And we stayed in that fight or flight for a long time. So I'll teach you something right now. Do a breathing exercise where you breathe in for a count of five and exhale for a count of ten. Breathe, sloth. You can count to five. Count to ten when you exhale because. Inhale is fight or flight. Exhale is rest and repair. So if someone sneaks up behind me right now and scares me, the first thing I'm going to do is gasp, right? Big breath in. That means my body just went into fight or flight. Now if I find out, oh, that's my friend. She's playing a joke on me. Everything's okay. I will exhale slowly. Everything's okay. Right. So slow exhale removes you out of fight or flight. If you're in business, if you have lots of kids and you're stressed because you're your stay at home mom and your kids are driving you nuts, which every kid does. And if you want to admit it or not, every parent thinks about, you know, hurting their kids at some point, although no one does it. Thankfully, they're really 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.33.08]

 cute when they're sleeping. Yeah, yeah. so they know how to push all the buttons and they know how to get the best out of me. Um, but, you know, whether it's a business thing, a career thing, a job thing, a, um, you know, you know, you're in rush hour traffic or your kids or your spouse is causing stress. Um, do that breathing technique, get your body out of fight or flight right before you go to sleep. And, uh, and you'll be able to fall asleep better and faster. Nice. Yeah, I heard about that technique. Um, the inhale and the out and the exhale. Uh, definitely. Definitely works. Um, a little bit of a story, a personal story. So I said, and you, you know, before I hit record, that stress was a big thing in my life. Um, I actually 2019, I there was I don't know what was going on. I was just basically I felt off. So I was tired, I was dizzy, I was, um, I was drinking coffee at 3 p.m., but still sleeping. You know, I was taught, you know, all the I was always tired. And then my blood pressure was low. I had I had the cold hands and everything else. And, um, I was like, yeah, something is off. So I went to see an integrative doctor and he basically said, in this term is not really it's widely known in, you know, in, you know, everybody knows it. It's called adrenal fatigue. But really I think it's adrenal dysfunction. Um, and it's caused by for me, it was caused by stress. And I didn't realize that. And um, so he just put me on a whole host of supplements, but it was also toxic, you know, there was a lot of toxicity built up, but still, you know, still today I take ashwagandha because it really, really, really helps not to say that I'm always stressed, but I could be prone to stress. So it's really interesting to, um, you know, some people, again, are like even keel. Um, but people as entrepreneurs, as people who are risk takers, as high achievers. 

Elizabeth

[00.35.23]

 Their stress levels tends to be upper, you know, higher because of these. The risk taker you know, taking that they do. Absolutely. Um, so it's just an interesting dynamic again of yes, understanding what stress can do to you, either negative or positive. So yeah, I thank you for going through all of that because the the description is definitely, um, warranted in terms of everybody understanding it 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.35.52]

 when you, when you allow it to go far enough to the point where you're not producing enough adrenaline, which is the adrenal dysfunction. Yes. I mean, uh, dizziness, lightheadedness is a big part of it. Um, and, and blood pressure being low is a big part of it. So, so I'll take I'm going to give you two things. Um, yeah. One is, uh, the stages of stress because when you first stressed out, we call that wired. Right. So so so it's short term initially just wired. Everything becomes heightened and you're more alert. You're more aware, uh, the next state is wired and tired. So there's different food cravings that go with each one. Because when you're just wired and you're stay in the wired state for a few weeks or months, you're going to crave a lot of sugar. That's the person. If you put a bowl of M&Ms or Skittles on the table, you'll eat the whole thing and you'll wonder, why did I just do that? And then you reach for the Snickers and whatever else is sweet. You just eat all sweets because your body needs extra energy to sustain that level of active metabolic activity when you're wired. But at some point it starts to burn out. And so you get to the stage where you're wired and tired. That's the person who's tired but can't fall asleep. Your cravings will change at that point, because now you're starting to affect your adrenal glands, and so your cravings change. They become not just sugar, but sugar and fat, because now you need to replace some of the fat in your body because that's long term fuel. So your cravings from sugar switch to ice cream and doughnuts, because ice cream and doughnuts have fat in them. So now every time you want to eat something, you're like, I need something fatty and sweet. Yesterday in that wired and tired stage long enough. The third stage is just tired. That's the fatigue state that you got into. That's the person you can drink coffee at three in the afternoon, still fall asleep in the afternoon. That's the person. You can drink coffee after dinner and still go to bed and still fall asleep. That's also the person who falls asleep in church. That's the person who can be watching an action packed movie, and they're still dozing off because their body is just tired. Their food cravings change that person. Now. They may still want sugar and sugar and fat, but now they also want salty foods. Now they want pretzels and potato chips all the time. They reach for those kinds of snacks because minerals are what's required for adrenal glands. And so your cravings are going to change. And so if you're somebody who's tired all the time and you're craving a lot of potato chips, you are, you know, where Elizabeth was. You're in that third stage. When you get that far, it's a long journey back. Don't expect to bounce back quickly. You've done an amazing job, but you said yourself, you're not done yet, you know? And ashwagandha is great at reducing cortisol levels. It's a good thing to take at night. Your cortisol levels should be really high in the morning, and it should dip down to almost zero at night when you go to sleep. So a couple of tips for you is if you're having trouble falling asleep or if you're someone with adrenal fatigue original dysfunction, I think you should watch the news in the morning, not in the evening. There's a lot of bad stuff in the news, but a lot of people watch the evening news. No, no you can't. You got to watch hallmark in the evenings. You know, I feel good stuff in the evenings. Uh, 

Elizabeth

[00.39.05]

 do we have to watch the news? You know, I get all my news from the patients. I don't watch it. I get it from podcasts. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.39.13]

 Exactly, exactly. Because it is much less biased. Yeah. And bonds. Yeah. That word bond is is what the media is. But, um, but yeah, watch this podcast. You'll get a lot of information. Uh, and then the other thing is don't exercise late in the day. A lot of people go to work and then they go to the gym to work out. But working out in the evening raises cortisol levels as well. Your cortisol has to be low. Um, then regular tips I give to people who need to sleep better. Dim the lights two hours before you go to sleep. Try to make the room colder and darker. Um, you know, I'm against melatonin. A lot of people take melatonin. Melatonin should be reserved for people who are traveling outside of their time zone. Or they're going to be sleeping in a hotel room because half your brain won't sleep in. When you're in a hotel room, you have to be in that room for at least 3 or 4 nights in a row before your brain says it's safe to sleep here. And so melatonin is not a bad thing to take when you're traveling. Otherwise, um, tryptophan is better, uh, because it leads, it makes you sleepy. It's, um, and it's a precursor to things like serotonin. Um, but, uh, 

Elizabeth

[00.40.17]

 what do you think about magnesium? Glycinate

Dr. Rashidian

[00.40.19]

 yeah. Amazing. Glycine. It is good. Um, uh, it helps you relax your arteries. It helps to relax your, um. Um, your muscles as well. So. Absolutely. I recently realized there's nine different types of magnesium, so that's one of them. But there's a, there's that's good for digestion and bowel movements. There's a type, uh, there's the type that helps you with migraine headaches. Uh, there's, there's there's the vegetable based one, and I forget what that one's called. It crosses the blood brain barrier. So you don't need a high dose. The glycine that you need, like, uh, somewhere between 300 and 800mg to do what it's supposed to do, but, yeah, take that at night. Um, usually it's in a powder. You just dissolve it and drink it. Uh, absolutely helps with relaxing. I'm a fan of magnesium. So the other thing I wanted to tell everybody is there's a formula. Uh, because. Because I love how you said, um, you had to feed the nutrition, nutritional deficiencies in your body, but you also had to remove toxins. And so it's it's it's the two sides of the same coin. And so I'm going to give you three coins. These are the three coins. This is the secret to being healthy. And and and this this is why some people go to the gym and they exercise. They eat right, but they don't see results. I've got them in my gym. The gym I work out at. There are these ladies that sit on the exercise equipment, and they've been pedaling for an hour a day, every day for years, and their body hasn't changed. They're still overweight and they're sweating, but they're not getting results. And here's why. Because they don't approach it three dimensionally. So there's three coins when it comes to wellness. By the way, the definition of wellness is that it's the degree to which that health and vitality are experienced in the three dimensions of life. All right. So so basically by that definition, wellness is not a destination. Wellness is a journey. It's a direction. It's like east. How long can you go east. Forever. How long can you go west? Forever. How long can you go towards wellness? Forever. And the minute you stop going towards wellness, you don't stand still. Now you're going towards illness. So you're always moving. You're either going towards wellness or illness. You're never standing still. So to to improve wellness you need to improve three dimensions simultaneously. So imagine there's three coins. One of those coins is biochemical. Chemical right. That's what we just talked about. You have to feed the deficiency and eliminate toxicity. Unless you do both sides of the coin you're not going to get good results. The second coin might be physical. Physical means you have to exercise. What's the other side of the coin rest. So if you're exercising and not resting correctly, you're not going to get results. So you could exercise too much or you exercise too little, rest too much, rest too little. But you've got to balance the two. The third one is psycho emotional. We talked about watching the news, whatever else it might be. So you have to bring positivity and remove negativity. Whatever is going to increase your cortisol, you want to limit or put it in earlier in the day. Things that make you feel good, feel good stuff later in the day. If you do those you approach three dimensionally, you're going to get results. Here's the best part. You only have to improve each dimension by a little bit to get massive results. But what most people do is they take just the physical and they improve it by a lot, but they don't do the chemical and the psychological. They don't get results. So improve each one by a little bit. 

Elizabeth

[00.43.36]

 Awesome. Thank you know that that definitely works. And yes, you have to I mean we're made of a system, right? It all works together when one is out the other two are out. Right. So yeah. Exactly. And that's what, you know, I teach as well or I shouldn't say teach, but I work with as well is the nutritional the physical and the mental piece of it. And so we just definitely have to understand that it does take a little bit of each to move towards that wellness. And it's again, I think as human beings, we we strive for so much and we look at the obviously we look at the big picture. Great. But then we it's not achievable what we can, what we want because it is going from, you know, a 180 from where we're at today instead of, you know, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50, you know, and then all the way to the 180, the little steps to that big step. So yeah, I thank you for those three coins, I like that I like the the analogy. So definitely going to be sharing that around too if you don't mind. Absolutely. 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.44.47]

 It's yours. It's yours. 

Elizabeth

[00.44.49]

 Awesome. Awesome. Okay, well, this is you came with a plethora of information here. Um, so is there anything that you would like to share that I haven't asked, um, that you would like to actually talk about a little bit more? Um, or is is have we talked all of it? 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.45.07]

 Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, I want to go back to chiropractic because, um, those three coins we talked about, they all require your nervous system to be functioning properly. And so please, please make sure, you know, chiropractic has been, uh, boxed since the 1980s. This isn't the original purpose of chiropractic, which was founded in 1895. From 1895 until the 1980s, it was all about wellness, and it was about prevention, and it was about optimizing the body's original functions. Then suddenly in the 1980s, when insurance started to accept chiropractic, they turned it into back pain and neck pain. And so most people think unless they have back pain and neck pain, they shouldn't go to a chiropractor and only go to a chiropractor when you're hurting or when you have a headache. And that's not the case. Going a chiropractor is like going to the dentist. You go to the chiropractor to get your spine check to make sure it's balanced and there's no nerve interference. Wouldn't it be great to fix things before they cause problems? Wouldn't it be great to make sure you find a tooth cavity before it hits a nerve and rots through the tooth and causes gum disease? When we go to the dentist every six months, get our teeth checked, get them cleaned, get X-rays, all that stuff. So our patients, we we X-ray them every two years to make sure their spine is healthy. We find out how to optimize the curves and the balance, make sure there's no nerve interference. Structurally, we align them and test them. So we do tests like heart rate variability. We do things like electromyography and surface um, uh, surface electromyography and thermography to see if the heat patterns around their spine are normal. Blood flow is normal. Heart rate variability tells me if their body is stuck in fight or flight, or if it's in rest and repair, or if it's in adrenal fatigue. We pick that up in advance before they start having symptoms. And then we work on balancing all of that, and we take a holistic approach from all three of those dimensions. That's what your chiropractor should be doing. And so if you have a dentist, you should also have a chiropractor. And you should be seeing your chiropractor on a regular ongoing basis basis. And you should do it from the day you're born until the day you die. That's the fact about chiropractic. So so that's one thing a lot of people are missing. And I know the naysayers are talking right now. They're going, oh, I've heard this before. They said it. They said, you once you go to chiropractor, you have to go for the rest of your life. And chiropractors are shams. They want to keep you a patient forever and ever. That's 100% true, I do. If you come see me, I'm going to keep you forever. Why? Because I have a plan for you. My initial plan for you is feel better. Whatever's bothering you, I want to get rid of that first. Secondly, though, let's make you stronger, because how healthy you are, it depends on how much stress you can have there. So let's make you stress proof. Let's make you stronger towards strength stress. Let's make you more resilient towards stress. Once we do those two things, then the third stage is longevity. How do we add years to your life? The last phase, the fourth phase. How do you always feel younger than your age. So feel better, get stronger, live longer, feel younger. That's a lifetime plan. That's my goal for every patient that comes in. It's a long term plan, and that's why our patients stay with us and hopefully they'll continue to stay with us. So the other thing I want to tell everybody is we also have a podcast. It's called The Real Health Podcast with Brandy and and me and my wife and I, every week we take the latest, um, articles in health and wellness that were published in mainstream media. We read the article, we summarize it for you, we tell you what it means, and then we give you our perspective, and we tell you how to apply it to your life for the same reasons feel better, get stronger, live longer, and feel younger. 

Elizabeth

[00.48.38]

 Wow. So it's an education educational podcast really, because that's I, I think that's what we need more of, right? It's the education piece that people are missing. Um, I know I see it so many times. It's it's it's unfortunate. And it's like, you know, people blindly sometimes go and yeah, you know, listen to your doctor, of course, but. In terms of taking things with a grain of salt or taking things in your own hands. And when you know, you even said you growing up, what did all this neurosurgeon say? Right? Or you need surgery, you need surgery, you need surgery. So if you were to just, you know, well, you, you know, your dad would have listened, would have gone through it. He wouldn't have. So we need more of this. So your podcast, my podcast, others out there. Um, definitely educating the world just because you know the education piece. Take it for what you will. Right. We can't make people do what they do. Um, but when you arm people with the knowledge, and if they go to a doctor and say, hey, I know X, Y, and Z, I don't want this. Um, so then they'll be able to, you know, be prepared, like you said. So amazing. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. And actually, where can people find you or reach out 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.50.13]

 to you? Um, we have two websites. One is Doctor Rashidi and Com. Uh, that's my author website for the books. Uh, the other is called Mid-Atlantic clinic. Com, which is our office website. And then, um, YouTube channel is real chiropractic. So, um, those would be the three best places. Uh, we have hundreds of, I don't know, maybe a thousand videos on our YouTube channel, all little stuff. And then our podcast is also there on Spotify, iTunes, all the other places as well. 

Elizabeth

[00.50.41]

 Awesome. I'll link all of that in the show notes so they can just one click and they'll be there. Thank you. I have one last question for you. So what is a favorite quote of yours? Or any words of wisdom that you can leave us with? 

Dr. Rashidian

[00.50.54]

 Wow. Favorite quote? Oh, that's a tough one. You know, I heard someone say, uh, who you become determines how well what you do works. And, um. And I don't remember exactly who said that. Uh, I think it was probably one of my mentors, a chiropractor, who said that, but but it really resonates with me because, um, most people think that if if you, uh, if, if you have the resources, then you can do the things that you want. You can be who you want to be. And it's exactly backwards. First, you have to become the person to be able to do what you need to do. So you can have what you want to have. And and as long as we flip it upside down and worry about who we're becoming, you know, Jim Rohn says something similar to this. He goes, he said everybody's goal should be to become a millionaire, not because it's about the million dollars, million, but it's about. It's about who you have to become. To earn $1 million. And that person. If you become a person, you can earn $1 million. That person can succeed anywhere, at any time. And so focus on who you're becoming. Constantly improve yourself 100%. Awesome. Thank you so much, Doctor Asheton, for being on here and for your wise words. And to my listeners, have a great one. Take care. Thank you