EP #19: Dr. Eva Selhub on Stress, Inflammation, and the Mind-Body Connection
The Mind-Body Medicine Revolution
From Harvard to Healing with Dr. Eva Selhub
Episode #19 | The Healthy Wealth Experience
Episode Information
Guest: Dr. Eva Selhub, MD – Harvard Medical School Faculty (20 years)
Host: Chris Hall
Runtime: ~56 minutes
Topics: Integrative Medicine, Stress & Inflammation, Mind-Body Connection, Resilience
About Dr. Eva Selhub
Dr. Eva Selhub is a medical doctor who served as faculty at Harvard Medical School for 20 years, specializing in integrative medicine and the mind-body connection. After a life-changing experience early in her medical career, she shifted from traditional emergency medicine to pioneering work in stress research and holistic healing approaches.
Background:
- Medical Degree from Boston University, residency at Boston Medical Center
- Former Medical Director at the Mind-Body Medical Institute
- Harvard Medical School faculty member (20 years)
- Author of multiple books on integrative medicine
- Board member at Mary Med (cannabis company)
- Chief Medical Affairs Officer at For Humanity pharmaceutical company
- Creator of “Foundations of Mastering Resilience” program
The Life-Changing Moment
In 1996, during her second year of residency, Dr. Selhub was accidentally stuck with an HIV-infected needle. This near-death experience, followed by six months of devastating personal losses (dog’s death, grandfather’s death, harassment requiring legal action, apartment fire, and father’s heart attack), led to a complete transformation in her approach to medicine.
The Revelation: Instead of asking “Why me?” she shifted to “Why not me?” – recognizing that life isn’t personal and that resilience comes from how we respond to challenges, not what happens to us.
What You’ll Learn
- The Stress-Inflammation Connection: How chronic stress creates arterial inflammation leading to cardiovascular disease
- Victim vs. Co-Creator Mindset: Why language matters – “happening to me” vs. “happening with me”
- The Gut-Brain-Wealth Connection: How gut health directly impacts decision-making and performance
- Effective Stress Regulation Techniques: Three proven breathing methods for activating the parasympathetic nervous system
- Smart Supplementation Strategy: Why cycling supplements prevents bacterial overgrowth and maintains balance
- The Six Pillars of Resilience: A comprehensive framework for building sustainable success
- Minimum Effective Dose Philosophy: Why less can be more in both supplements and medications
The Real Story Behind Heart Disease
Moving beyond the cholesterol myth to understanding inflammation:
How Inflammation Creates Plaques
Blood vessels have smooth muscle walls designed for optimal flow. When inflammation occurs, these walls become rough and turbulent, creating “nicks” where cholesterol particles lodge. The body sends immune cells to “heal” these areas, creating plaques – the same clotting mechanism that stops bleeding from cuts.
Stress as the Root Cause
Chronic psychological stress triggers persistent inflammation because the brain perceives ongoing threat. This chronic inflammatory state damages arterial walls, making them susceptible to plaque formation. The solution isn’t just lowering cholesterol – it’s addressing the underlying inflammation.
Top Inflammation Triggers
- Processed Foods: Chemicals and additives trigger immune responses
- Chronic Stress: Persistent fight-or-flight activation
- Sleep Deprivation: Even modest sleep loss increases inflammation
Three Proven Stress-Busting Breathing Techniques
1. Double Breath Technique (Fastest Relief)
Inhale through nose as far as possible, then take another small inhale, followed by long exhalation. This quickly stimulates the vagal response.
2. 3-6 Breathing
Inhale for 3 counts, exhale for 6 counts. The extended exhalation activates the parasympathetic nervous system and fully empties the lungs.
3. Box Breathing (Navy SEAL Method)
Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. Repeat to create mental calm and focus.
Key Quotes
“The question is not why me, it’s why not me? Nature just as soon lets a forest fire burn as a flower bloom – it’s not personal.” – Dr. Eva Selhub
“Nothing is happening to you. Everything is happening with you. You are co-conspirator, co-creator.” – Dr. Eva Selhub
“Your brain is a Maserati, not a pickup truck. It needs high octane fuel to work really well.” – Dr. Eva Selhub
“Pain is going to happen, absolutely, but misery is optional.” – Chris Hall
“Medications are band-aids. So are supplements. When you start building up the body’s reservoir and abilities to heal and thrive, you need less.” – Dr. Eva Selhub
The Six Pillars of Resilience
Dr. Selhub’s framework for building sustainable success:
- Physical Vitality: Nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management
- Mental Clarity: Opportunity mindset, cognitive flexibility, continuous learning
- Emotional Intelligence: Self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy
- Quality Relationships: Building and nurturing supportive connections
- Purpose & Spirituality: Connection to something greater than yourself
- Leadership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for your influence on others
The Healthy Wealth Connection
This episode reveals critical links between physical health and financial success:
- Gut Health = Decision Quality: 95% of serotonin comes from the gut; poor gut health impairs executive function
- Stress Management = Performance: Chronic stress creates inflammation that damages cognitive function
- Resilience = Wealth Building: The ability to bounce back from setbacks directly correlates with long-term success
- Energy Management = Productivity: Proper nutrition and supplementation optimize mental performance
- Emotional Intelligence = Leadership: Higher EQ correlates with higher earnings and better business relationships
Chris’s pharmaceutical background provides unique insight into how the medical system often treats symptoms rather than root causes, missing opportunities for holistic wealth and health optimization.
Supplement & Medication Wisdom
Smart Supplementation Strategy:
- Food First: Always try to get nutrients from whole foods before supplementing
- Cycle Your Supplements: Take 3 months on, 2 months off to prevent bacterial overgrowth
- Work with Professionals: Use integrative nutritionists or health coaches for personalized approaches
- Monitor Your Response: Pay attention to how your body responds to different supplements
The Probiotic Protocol:
- Support your microbiome with fermented foods (kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut)
- Feed good bacteria with prebiotic fibers (artichokes, onions, garlic)
- Use targeted probiotics short-term (3-6 months) for specific issues
- Akkermansia mentioned for GLP-1 activation (weight management)
Revolutionary Drug Delivery
Dr. Selhub’s work with For Humanity pharmaceutical company introduces VigorAir – an inhaled erectile dysfunction medication that:
- Bypasses the gut to avoid first-pass metabolism
- Uses 25mg doses instead of traditional 50-100mg oral doses
- Works faster with fewer side effects
- Gives patients more control over timing and dosing
Action Items for Listeners
- For Stress Management: Practice one of the three breathing techniques daily
- For Inflammation: Eliminate processed foods and add fermented foods to your diet
- For Supplements: Review what you’re taking and why – consider cycling protocols
- For Sleep: Remove electronics from bedroom and use room only for sleep/sex
- For Mindset: Replace “happening to me” with “happening with me” language
- For Resilience: Assess yourself against the Six Pillars framework
Resources Mentioned
Dr. Eva Selhub’s Resources:
- Website: DrSelhub.com
- Online Course: “Foundations of Mastering Resilience” (10-week program) at unlearnworlds.com
- Social Media: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook (daily content)
- Meditations: Insight Timer app, YouTube, CDs (under 10 minutes)
Companies Mentioned:
- Mary Med: Cannabis company (Dr. Selhub on Board of Directors)
- For Humanity: Pharmaceutical company (Dr. Selhub as Chief Medical Affairs Officer)
- VigorAir: New inhaled ED medication launching
Tools & Apps:
- Oura Ring, Apple Watch, iFit for heart rate variability monitoring
- Calm app, Insight Timer for meditation
- Super Beats gummies for nitric oxide support
Why This Episode Matters
Dr. Selhub’s journey from traditional emergency medicine to integrative healing represents a paradigm shift in healthcare. Her experience reveals how personal crisis can become the catalyst for revolutionary change – both professionally and personally. The episode demonstrates that true wealth isn’t just financial but encompasses physical vitality, emotional resilience, and the ability to transform challenges into opportunities.
For entrepreneurs and high performers, the Six Pillars of Resilience provide a practical framework for sustainable success. The stress-inflammation connection offers a scientific basis for why meditation, nutrition, and lifestyle choices directly impact business performance and financial outcomes.
Complete Episode Transcript
Chris Hall (00:00)
Hello and welcome to the Healthy Wealth Experience. I am your host, Chris Hall, and I am very excited to share with you a guest that we have here, Dr. Eva Celeb. She is a medical doctor who has been a school instructor for Harvard Medical for 20 years. She’s written several books and she has a lot of really interesting
medical stuff that she’s been doing that’s like not your so your general ed type stuff. So I’m really excited to have her on the show. So, doctor, thank you so much for being here.
Eva (00:25)
I’m so happy to be here.
Chris Hall (00:26)
So I did kind of mention that you’ve been with Harvard Medical School for 20 years. Kind of tell me about your journey as a physician and kind of what let you do this part we’re in right now.
Eva (00:35)
Yeah, so I I started out like any other young person thinking that they were going to be to come doctors and Went to medical school at Boston University. I trained at Boston Medical Center But while I was there I I have the personality type It’s sort of that the leadership CEO get things done fix people save lives, right? so that was sort of if you if you transpose that from a business perspective to
Chris Hall (00:57)
Thank
Eva (01:02)
medical perspective, that person’s a person who’s running ICUs or running ERs. And that was my personality type, just to sort of give you a background. And that was my plan. My plan was to work in ICUs, do a fellowship in pulmonary medicine, but that was kind of cut short because in the second year of my residency, I was doing a procedure and was stuck with the needle that was in 1996 and the needle was infested with HIV. So back back in 96.
Chris Hall (01:10)
Thank
— my gosh.
Eva (01:31)
You know, it’s not like now, but it was basically a death sentence or a miserable life. I was one of the first people that was put on a slew of medications. It ended up being about 14 pills a day for six weeks to prevent conversion, to keep me from getting HIV. And that study had just come out from the NIH back then. So was one of the first people to be on that protocol.
Chris Hall (01:36)
Why not?
My gosh.
Eva (01:58)
And so you can imagine I’m 28 years old and you know, I’m single. I’ve owed like $200,000 worth of debt and medical school loans. you know, I’m complete distressed. I was in complete distress for six weeks. Not to mention I got sick from the medications. I cried a lot and I was gonna die alone. I was never going to be able to work. And what have I done? My parents co-signed on my loans. They’re gonna be stuck with this debt. What have I done?
And but during that six weeks, I also did some bargaining, think as many of us do. If there is a God, you know, I promise I’ll, you know, be a nicer person. I’ll be more compassionate. I’ll take care of the needy, you know, whatever it is I need to do, just let me live. So and during that time, I also had a think, you know, is this really what you want to be doing? — Is this way of practicing medicine your way? You know, this idea of
Chris Hall (02:29)
Hehehe.
Right.
Eva (02:49)
saving lives as opposed to supporting lives. know, fear of dying versus desire to live. And that was a big no for me. I said, if I make it through this, I don’t think I want to do this. I don’t want to spend my life doing these procedures. It’s just, again, to go back a little bit when I was younger before I decided to do what the society told me to do, which was go to medical school.
Chris Hall (02:53)
I like that.
you
Eva (03:14)
I wanted to be medicine woman. loved, you know, ISIS who moved things telepathically and the whole world of energy and alternative medicine. I was always fascinated by that. But because I was doing what I was supposed to do, I put it aside. So during those six weeks, I thought a lot about all of that. And so when everything turned out okay six weeks later, still had to continue getting tested for a year, but I thought, okay, I’m gonna change.
you know, my life around. I’m going to, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’ll do primary or current until I figure it out. And I followed a midwife around and learned all these things about people rather than procedures. And I took it very seriously. However, you know, just when you pick yourself up, you get knocked down again kind of thing. My dog died and then my grandfather died. And then somebody started harassing me and I had to hire a lawyer and take her to court.
And then my apartment burned down and I lost everything. I didn’t have renter’s insurance. Remember my debt. I still have a lot of debt. And then my father had a heart attack and that all happened within five months.
Chris Hall (04:17)
my gosh, the hits just keep coming.
Eva (04:18)
So that
was 1996. So every time I, you know, get knocked down, I’d cry, have a pity party, and then I’d figure it out and bring myself back up again. And, you know, change courses, change courses. So by the time my apartment burned down, which was a good five months later, I had nothing left. That was it. I was burnt out. I was done. I did not want to live anymore.
Chris Hall (04:23)
Wow.
This is…
Eva (04:41)
I didn’t have the energy to smile, to think, remember anything, to do anything at all. I wasn’t suicidal to the point where I would take my own life, but mostly because of how that would affect other people. And I just didn’t want to live. I had no energy. And that went on for probably five months, maybe six.
Chris Hall (04:59)
And
nobody can blame you for that. Like nobody.
Eva (05:00)
No, I was just miserable.
I just didn’t see the point. I kept saying, why me, why me, why me? And then one day after a friend took me out to dinner and said, we miss you, we want you back, I just woke up. I don’t know what happened. I just said, you’ve been asking the wrong question, Eva. The question is not why me, it’s why not me? You know, nature just as soon lets a forest fire burn as a flower bloom, it’s not personal. I say that all the time.
Chris Hall (05:05)
me.
That’s really good.
Eva (05:26)
Why are you taking this personally? Like life happens. It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it. And we need to figure out, I talked to myself in the third person, right? I said, I need to figure out why I feel victimized by life so easily. What part of me feels so unworthy? What part of me feels, you know, like I’m not enough or don’t have enough when I clearly do. You know, look at…
the people who have rallied and supported me. But my mind goes in the opposite direction. So that’s when I finished my residency and I got a job working as a primary care doctor in a Harvard hospital, which meant I was going to be teaching there. I took the opportunity to also volunteer at the Mind, Body, Medical Institute, which was also there at the time, with Herb Benson, to learn about all these things I was inquiring about, about stress, about, you know,
self-worth, cognitive-rable therapy, psychology, and all the other facets that support people to heal. Meditation, nutrition, exercise, spirituality. And I started volunteering there and applying, you know, those modalities, those interventions with myself and my patients. We all started getting better. Within a year, they hired me to be the medical director, and I started researching the research and coming up with understanding of how stress is applied and mind-body is applied to
not only our health but also our lives. That became my expertise. I started teaching that and that went on for 20 years. But during that time, was in my practice, I started hating my practice because they’re changing the model over to what it is today, which is this incentive model. And I started to look at my patients’ numbers and I said, I can’t do that. So.
The primary care job I quit after five years, I stayed on as medical director and stayed on as teaching at Harvard. And then I started studying with healers, what I always wanted to do. And opened up my own practice a year later in 2003, merging Eastern and Western medicine and coaching people to heal themselves. And I did that for a very long time until 2019.
And during that time wrote tons of books and that got brought into corporate environments to work with leaders. And I started shifting the model over into a coaching model and, you know, working with executives and coaches and companies and that sort of thing, which is what I do today. And I consult on all things in, you know, integrative medicine. So that’s my very long story to how I got here today.
Chris Hall (07:40)
that.
Well, that’s phenomenal. — So my background, I’m a financial advisor now. But before that, I spent 10 years as a pharmaceutical rep. And so, you know, I’m very aware of the medical formation, you know, the medical business, as you will. And so and I’ve seen people who, you know, have basically kind of been like, this is not why I got into medicine. So I think it’s really cool that you have a story. Obviously, you have a lot of, you know,
other circumstances that kind of like brought you to, you know, like a basic step of like, where do I go from here? So I love that. I love that you found this. I’m really interested in the integrative medicine. When I was a pharmaceutical rep, I always felt like that was something that was missed in the medical field as well. You did some research for medical marijuana before it became like, you know, pretty much, you know, it’s pretty easily had right now. But like you were doing the research on that. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
and how you got into that.
Eva (08:35)
I have a very inquisitive mind. And so I sort of, sort of get a hit or a ha and say, — well, that’s really interesting. Let me look into that and start understanding. So what I do is I translate the research into.
how it can be used practically and adaptively in medicine or in everyday life. you’ve got sort of like a researcher in Timbuktu is researching something very microscopic and minor. And then somebody else in New York is researching something else and then I’ll put them together. This is how they correlate. And then what happens is 10 years later, somebody else actually does the actual research, just improves those theories to be true.
Chris Hall (08:51)
Okay.
Okay, I love that.
Right. yeah, here you go.
Eva (09:15)
That’s kind of what’s
happened. And colleagues that we do that as well, we started seeing patterns. Like when I actually was in, in 19 or 1999, I was already recommending probiotics and omega-3s and I actually got in trouble for it. Vitamin D, I was, I got in trouble. They were like, what are you doing? is, this isn’t medicine. This isn’t real. Yeah. This is when I, yeah, this is when I was, yeah.
Chris Hall (09:36)
This is when you’re in primary care or this is when you were with Harvard?
Eva (09:41)
Yeah, I was getting
Chris Hall (09:41)
Okay.
Eva (09:42)
in trouble for recommending things that weren’t really proven yet. yeah, so that’s that’s a little bit of background on that. So my research is researching the research mostly and then doing clinical work. And with with with cannabis, it was really looking into what are different other pathways to support people who are in pain, and to look at the cannabinoid system and the opioid system in the in the body. And, you know, looking at also inflammation.
And I wrote this really great article. And then as it so happened, this company that I work on, I’m on the Board of Advisors saw the article and they said, wow, we need to have this person on our board. So I’ve been sitting on a board of as a board of directors in the cannabis company now for six years.
Chris Hall (10:24)
Mary Med. Did I say that correctly? Okay, that’s great. That’s great. I love that so much. So you had mentioned inflammation and so going back to when I was from SUQA rep, I sold Lipitor and so the number one prescribed statin in the world at the time and you know it was all about LDL and it was all about LDL and it was all about LDL and I kept looking at the studies and I kept reading them and very much like I’m a very inquisitive person I kept going like
Eva (10:25)
Yeah, Mary met.
Chris Hall (10:49)
Well, if it’s all about the LDL, how come like we’re not getting these massive reductions in death and events before people get really sick? Like why is there no primary prevention study? To my knowledge, and I could be wrong, if something’s come out, I’m sure somebody can tell me about it. But to my knowledge, after 30 years, we still don’t have a single primary prevention study on statins. Do you know if that’s true or not?
Eva (11:10)
I don’t know of it. I’m not a big fan of statins. So I don’t actually look for research for something that I don’t want to advocate for. I’m not going to tell people it’s bad to be on them. It’s like we don’t have that kind of data. But there are a lot of other things that one can do. And if we’re really targeting inflammation,
Chris Hall (11:15)
Me neither. Me neither. So yeah.
Okay.
Eva (11:35)
There’s other ways to target inflammation without having to take statins.
Chris Hall (11:40)
Yeah. So that was part of my journey is like near the end of my career. I got laid off in 2009 when everything else was going crazy for pharmaceuticals companies. There was like a massive layup. think we lost like 80 % of all sales reps got canned in that year. But right around then I remember thinking to myself like, don’t think this is what we’re, I think it was felt like a wild goose chase. And I knew that there was some data that was coming out at the time about inflammation.
Eva (11:51)
Yeah.
Chris Hall (12:04)
And so my knowledge of this is, you know, still pretty rudimentary, but basically, if you have inflammation in your arterial walls, the cholesterol will come in and sort of like, you know, putty it over, try to cool it down. And that’s how you get these plaques. And like we’re attacking the LDL, making it the monster, but really it’s the inflammation that’s the monster and we should figure out ways to do that. — And so I know you’ve done a lot of research on stress and stress is a huge factor when it comes to the
Eva (12:13)
That’s
That’s right.
Chris Hall (12:31)
the inflammation of the arterial walls. So can you talk a little bit about that research that you’ve done?
Eva (12:33)
That’s
Absolutely. And you’re 100 % right here. think for listeners who aren’t understanding anatomy, if you look at a blood vessel, it’s unlike the muscles on your bones that cover your bones, the muscles in your arteries are smooth for a reason. So that blood flow can be smooth, a nice flow.
And when you start having inflammation, it actually creates like ripples, right? It becomes turbulent, right? So you’ve got inflammation, just like if you had inflammation in your bone or on your hand, it’s like the skin isn’t smooth anymore. Like if you have inflammation on your face, your skin isn’t smooth anymore. So when smooth muscle becomes rough and it can get like, and the blood flow starts doing this and it creates like water, like will create a nix.
in the blood vessels guess what gets what lodges in there? Any particle that’s flying around like cholesterol is going to lodge in there and then it creates plaques. Right? So and that will create more inflammation because what happens is when the body perceives that there is something wrong like a foreign object or an injury, it’ll send immune cells which is inflammation to try to heal the area. So the body will send
immune cells to that area that’s in the in the blood vessel that’s been nicked to try to heal it but creates you know a clot or a plaque just like it does when you know you have a you’re bleeding and your body clots to to protect you so that you don’t bleed out. It’s a brilliant design but that’s why we want to you know have inflammation when we need it but not chronically and so the things that can create chronic inflammation
are multifactorial and psychological stress is one of them. So what happens if you think about it, right? If you’re bleeding or if you get cut or wounded, you don’t want that wound to bleed or hemorrhage and you don’t want the wound to get infected. So your brilliant system will send immune cells to that area of the body that’s injured so that it can repair itself and so that it doesn’t.
bleed out so it clots. So that’s what happens when the brain perceives that there is an injury. But that’s what happens when the brain perceives that there is a stress in general. Okay, that’s part of the fight or flight response. So normally, when the brain perceives that the stress is taken care of, that response will extinguish itself, the inflammation goes away. But if the injury persists, or the stress persists, the inflammation persists.
Chris Hall (14:51)
me.
Eva (15:06)
And so what started out as something healing now becomes damaging. So if you’re in chronic stress, psychological or otherwise, the brain perceives that you’re basically injured chronically or the thing that’s injuring you is there chronically, inflammation will be there chronically, and eventually it’s going to damage the system.
Chris Hall (15:07)
All
That’s really good. Yeah. Yeah. So when it comes to stress, you know, you’ve done a lot of stuff on like how to reduce stress and kind of like how to switch a stress from something that’s like happening to you for whether versus something you’re more aware of. Can you kind of go through the steps on that?
Eva (15:44)
Absolutely.
and that’s actually a very important word to distinguish that the minute you think something is happening to you and I use this when I was learning about myself, your brain perceives you to be the victim. Right? So if it’s happening to me, I have no control. Right? It is happening to me. So if it’s happening to me, automatically the brain will jump into victim mode.
Chris Hall (15:58)
you
Yeah.
Eva (16:08)
into survival mode into I need to fight or fly or whatever it is to save my life. And unconscious subconscious level the minute you say this is happening to me. Nothing is happening to you. Everything is happening with you. You are co conspirator co creator. It’s happening. Okay, it is happening like Yeah, yeah, like a tree doesn’t happen to you. A tree is there. How you interact with the tree is up to you.
Chris Hall (16:25)
I really like the term co-creator. think that’s excellent.
coming.
Eva (16:33)
Okay, so it doesn’t mean that things don’t happen that are horrific. Okay, it’s just that, you know, watching our language, it’s happening while I’m here, you know, and so the minute I say it’s happening to me, I become a victim of the circumstances, opposed to it’s happening. And what can I do about it? Right? So life, life is happening with you. So that that’s number one. So when we perceive
Chris Hall (16:51)
I like that.
Eva (16:58)
a challenge that is present that we do not have the ability to handle. It’s very different from when we perceive a challenge that we can’t handle, correct?
Chris Hall (17:06)
Absolutely.
Eva (17:07)
Right. So mindset is important. When we shift our mindset from victim mindset, from a limited mindset, I can’t, I’ll never, this always happens to me. You know, what am I going to do to, got this, or how can I learn from this? I don’t like it, but I’m going to learn from it. I’m going to grow from it. I’m going to make something out of it. How, you know, I get to do this. That already changing the physiology.
Chris Hall (17:09)
Yeah.
Eva (17:31)
the mind-body connection will respond. Plus you have now top-down control. You start accessing the parts of your brain that can make decision and rationalize and intellectualize that have control over your emotions and your responses versus your responses having control over your brain.
Chris Hall (17:45)
It made me think about when my kids were little, one of the things I would say to them is I would say, the two things I would say to them was number one, would say you get to choose your attitude. Whatever happens to you in this world, you get to choose your attitude. So you can choose to be a victim of it, like you’re saying, or you can choose to be a conqueror of it, like it’s been shown for you. And the other thing that I would always say is pain is going to happen, absolutely, but misery is optional.
Eva (18:09)
right the suffering is optional
the suffering is optional that’s and that’s it like you know things happen and they hurt and they do it it hurts and it and we don’t have to like it and we can even have pity parties whatever that may be however what are you going to do with it now what so that’s that’s really a big piece when how do you get there because when you’re hurting when you’re in fight-or-flight you know trying to change that
Chris Hall (18:25)
Right.
Eva (18:33)
You know, that emotional response is like trying to stop a shiver when it’s cold outside. It’s not easy to do. And that’s where stress regulation comes into effect. So the first step is being more self-aware of how am I feeling, what’s going on here, what’s my mental attitude to is being aware that my stress response is now activated. I’m in victim mode or fight or flight mode. That’s okay. So self-compassion. I’m human. I’m allowed to feel this way. And now I can start.
seeing if I can regulate this response. Let me see if I can get this top down control. You can do that through activating the parasympathetic nervous system, through that vagal response, through breathing techniques, mindfulness, meditation, whatever that may be, movement, things that will start lowering the stress hormones and getting that vagal system into control, which is not the fight or flight system, it’s the rest and digest system. It’s gonna allow me to be in.
more in balance and I can get, like I said, get the top down control. And then I can assess my situation and figure out what is it, know, given what is, what can I do?
Chris Hall (19:32)
Well, and then you had mentioned and some of the stuff I’d seen from you is that, you know, when you do breathing, like you have a specific technique, like I were all breathing, right? But like, what would be the technique that you would want someone to use if they feel like, hey, I’m in stress right now, I’m in a or flight mode. What kind of breathing technique do you recommend for people to kind of like bring that system back down from where it’s at?
Eva (19:51)
Well, I
have three that I recommend. One is the one I think they’ve done recent studies with that they found that it’s the quickest is the double breath in and then exhale. So you inhale through your nose and then when you get as far as you can, then you take another breath in.
and then do a long exhalation. that’s, we’ll stimulate that vagal response fairly quickly. So that’s one. Another one that I’ll do is I’ll just have people breathe in on a count of three and then breathe out on a count of six. Again, extending that exhalation will again stimulate that parasympathetic nervous system. And also what happens when we start being stressed, we breathe quickly and rapidly, and which means we’ll start trapping air in the little parts of our lungs called alveoli, which is
really what happens in asthma. And if you do a longer exhalation, it gives the opportunity for all the air to get out of the lungs, which allow the lungs to expand more completely in the next round. And then the third one, it’s a common one of Navy SEALs used, which is the box breath, which is, you know, can imagine you’re creating a box with your breath and you inhale on the count of four and you hold your breath, you pause, and then you exhale on a count of four, you pause.
Inhale on account of fore and pause and exhale on account of fore and pause. And those are all really very effective ways of using your breath.
Chris Hall (21:13)
Great. I actually use a very similar technique when I do meditation. When I do meditation, I’ll do where they do the inhale breath and I’ll hold it and then I’ll exhale it, but I’ll make sure the exhale is like super long. And that is extremely relaxing. Yeah. So I can totally see how that works for, you know, trying to de-stress you out. And then I always use box breathing. Like you just mentioned, I always use box breathing when I get in the cold plunge. Cause, man, that is just…
you know, you just the whole body just seizes up. So the box breathing is very, very good for that too. So yeah, that’s cool. I really like that. So when it comes back to like stress and things like that, you know, if one of the things I also kind of always got into was with inflammation is a C reactive protein. I do you feel like the medical community in general has recognized the value of C reactive protein at this point? Or you do feel like it’s still kind of an outlier?
Eva (22:03)
Well, mean, when it’s a pretty common test, I mean, most people have that tested because it’s a common test to look for if you have if it’s elevated, then there’s likely inflammation happening in your body. The thing is, it’s not specific. It’s not it’s not it’s not a specific test. It’s not telling you where you have inflammation or, you know, what type of inflammation is just saying that you there is inflammation in your body like it could be elevated because you know, you have a virus.
Chris Hall (22:17)
night.
Eva (22:28)
and that’s causing inflammation. it’s not necessarily specific, but you know, it’s so thick, they’re not going to know a lot from it. But in the case of other clinical findings, it’s going to mean something, right? If you’ve got, you know, cardiovascular risk, or you’re coming in with chest pain, and you’ve got elevated C reactive protein, and all these other things within sort of the bigger clinical picture.
You know, right now that there are so many markers, there’s so many biomarkers that people are looking at now that it’s just, it’s gotten a lot more intricate than C-reactive protein alone.
Chris Hall (23:08)
I love that. was it’s like what are the things that cause inflammation and stress? Like let’s just like top three. mean, there’s a million things that cause it but like the top three things —
Eva (23:15)
Food. Let’s start with food.
It’s food. First of all, like stress alone, like I said, can cause inflammation. But the number one in this country is food. So the food that people put into their system is highly inflammatory in the Western world between processed foods and fast foods and the chemicals and additives that are in foods. mean, anything that’s not natural, the body’s going to see it as a foreign object and then it will fight it. So.
Chris Hall (23:26)
you
Eva (23:43)
there you have it. And plus when most of these processed foods will destroy the microbiome which is the gut bacteria which you need to prevent inflammation and to keep nutrients coming through and to keep the gut lining intact. And so if that is off, the balance of those bacteria are off, then that’s going to create more inflammation as well. So one of the fastest and best ways to
reduce inflammation is through getting a nutrient rich diet. And that’s basically, whether it’s Mediterranean diet or the anti-inflammatory diet is your fruits and vegetables, mostly plant-based nuts and seeds, whole grains and lean meats and proteins. And if you have sensitivities, then I recommend doing an elimination diet where you just sort of take everything out and you sort of introduce the things that could be allergens.
slowly but surely, a lot of people need to avoid grains for a while, especially gluten. So it’s not a clear cut for everybody, but nutrition is going to be key. And the other one is sleep. Just even modest sleep deprivation can create more inflammation. So making sure that you’re working on your sleep hygiene, getting off your screen before going to bed, keeping your room dark and quiet, using it only for sex or sleep and nothing else.
No electronics in the room. — All these things are going to support getting adequate deep sleep and all these things are going to be also helping your heart rate variability, which we know is associated with longevity and resilience. So those are just two right there. And then of course exercise moving your body. So these are things everybody knows about exercise, nutrition, meditation and watching your mindset and
also having fun, making sure that you have downtime.
Chris Hall (25:27)
good one too to add in. think that, you know, we do get stuck in these ruts where we just work, work, work. And it’s like sometimes just having fun and letting loose is a good recipe for success. So you had mentioned the gut biome and you had also mentioned earlier that you had prescribed probiotics back in the day and even gotten in trouble for, you know, prescribing it at the time. Like what’s your stance on probiotics now? And I’ll be a little more specific on the question. You know, I think probiotics are great.
I’m really a big fan of it. I have no idea what probiotic to take out of the millions that exist. So like if you go on Amazon right now and you put in probiotic, it’s going to be like a laundry list of things. And they’re all like billions of this and billions of that.
Eva (26:01)
Yeah, it’s very confusing.
Yeah,
so the first step is not necessarily to take a probiotic, but to support your microbiome to regenerate. So that’s going to mean eating foods that are either, you know, have probiotic contact with them, which are fermented like kefir or miso or kimchi or sauerkraut or, you know, things that are fermented.
for those of us who don’t tolerate fermented foods then we find other ways to enhance the microbiome and this is about eating a variety of plant-based foods because the the microbiome and prebiotic fibers you know like artichokes and that sort of thing and onions and garlic they don’t all like the same foods so starting to improve your diet is the first way to go
The other thing is figuring out if your gut is okay. So finding ways to also heal the gut, might mean drinking some bone broth or again, eating the right types of fibers and nutrient dense foods that support the gut to sort of restore itself. So that’s number one. The next thing is that not all probiotics are created alike. It depends on what your issues are. You know, there’s…
Bacteria that support mental health and there’s bacteria that support the gut to heal and there’s bacteria that support weight loss But remember if you are taking something and you take it long term, you’re going to create an overgrowth of those bacteria that are in this product So if you’re going to use you want going to use a probiotic or recommend using it short term, know Like six months, right three months three months on maybe a couple months off so that your body can start rebuilding itself on its own It’s not long term
Chris Hall (27:33)
Good.
Okay.
I don’t
think I’ve ever heard that before. That sounds like really fantastic advice, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. It’s smart though, right? You don’t want to… You have good bacteria, but you don’t want to like overgrow it. Like that’s like too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Eva (28:00)
Well, we want to remember that it’s all about balance, especially when it comes to the microbiome. Problems don’t happen, know, problems happen because of dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of the life force in there. So we want to get it back into balance.
Chris Hall (28:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
So everybody heard it, I’m sure, and they’re going to want to know, what is the probiotic for weight loss?
Eva (28:22)
Well, the
one it’s not so much the probiotic for weight loss, it’s sort of the one that’s touted a lot that they they you you’ll see it all the all these celebrities are taking acrimoncia, which is a GLP one acrimoncia, which is a GLP one activator. But again, if you take acumen acrimoncia for too long, you’re then you’ll have an overgrowth of acrimoncia. So — so but you know, there are there are probiotics that I really like.
Chris Hall (28:33)
Commencia.
Right.
Eva (28:48)
But, you know, I would do a short term if you wanted to take these things and then, you know, see how you feel. You know, take a break and let the body sort of restore itself.
Chris Hall (28:55)
Damn.
By the way, I just want to mention for those listening the GLP-1 activator. So GLP-1 is the same thing that you’re hearing when you hear Ozempic, Monjaro. Those peptides are actually activating GLP-1 as well. So we’re talking about activating it through a pathway that’s like more like probiotics instead of medicine. So that’s definitely something to look into if you’re thinking about doing weight loss. So thank you for sharing that. I love that.
So the other one that I was going to say, when it comes to probiotics, what do we do with like these, like these, specifically the prebiotic sodas? Have you seen those? Those are pretty popular. I won’t name a name right now, but there’s a, there’s probably a half a dozen of them out there now. And it’s, you know, they’re, they’re like $2 and it’s basically a soda. that’s, know, they’re using soda water and then, you know, they’re saying that it’s prebiotic. So prebiotic means it’s feeding your bacteria that you have, that you want to keep.
Eva (29:48)
huh. —
huh.
Chris Hall (29:50)
But
anyway, what do you think about those because it seems like they’re really expensive. So if you try to take one of those every day you’d be
Eva (29:54)
No, look, I’d rather eat food.
So I’m not going to tell you not to do that. So this is the thing. When you take something that isn’t food, it’s a supplement. And supplements, right, it’s always going to if it’s not the food itself, you’re taking a supplement. And supplements are meant to supplement. So if you cannot find the time and you’re traveling,
Chris Hall (30:04)
true story.
Yeah.
Eva (30:16)
and you know that you’re not going to be getting food into your system, then go ahead and take a supplement. But if you can, try to get the real thing in. And then you won’t have to take a supplement.
Chris Hall (30:26)
That’s good. That’s good.
Eva (30:27)
So use supplements
wisely is my point. We want to activate the body’s natural ability to do what it can do. But if you keep giving it something outside, it will get lazy and not do it itself.
Chris Hall (30:38)
that’s true too? That actually, you know, that brings a good point of, you know, like when you have certain kinds of bacteria, there are certain kinds of effects. you’ve done, you’ve done, you’ve made some statements about gut bacteria and higher income. Do you know what I’m talking about with that? I, I, maybe you didn’t, maybe you didn’t make a statement, but I guess I would say is there.
Eva (30:40)
Okay.
tonight.
No, no.
Chris Hall (30:59)
Is there any correlation between like, you know, cause this is also financial stuff too. Is there any correlation between like having healthy gut bacteria and like success in business? Is there anything that kind of correlates those two or is that just more of a, think that’s the case.
Eva (31:08)
Well, look.
I mean,
I don’t know. I don’t know that they’ve done those studies yet, but I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you this though. When, you know, I wouldn’t be able to make, you know, a big jump like that, but I can tell you that when your gut is working well, your mind is working well. You know, the gut is known as a secondary brain and it’s directly and indirectly connected to your brain and connected to your mood. Your brain is a Maserati, right? It’s not a pickup truck.
So it needs high octane fuel to work really well. If you have a leaky gut, which means you’ve got holes in your gut or your microbiome is like half there and half not, and you’ve got inflammation happening as a result and you’re not absorbing nutrients as a result, and your serotonin is now dropped because they’re supporting, 95 % of your serotonin comes from your gut and your gut is one of your largest immune organs.
So if that’s not healthy, your brain isn’t healthy. Which means you’re not going to be able to make clear decisions. You’re not going to be able to function at your best. You’re not going to be the highest possible performer. Right? Your mood is not going to be, you know, solid all the time. Your ability to tap into your emotional intelligence will be less so, most likely. Right? So that’s not going to be true for everyone. Some people are fine no matter what’s happening in their gut.
Chris Hall (32:22)
Thank
Eva (32:26)
But eventually it’s going to catch up with them. Especially, you know it’s how hard it is to think clearly or to motivate or to connect with people when you’re So you can make that correlation that if you want to be a high performer and you want to be resilient, it’s one thing to be a high performer, it’s another thing to also be resilient because high performers burn out.
Chris Hall (32:47)
It’s true. Yeah. I do want to talk more about
supplementation. But before I do that, I want to kind of mention, you know, get your thoughts on sugar and the gut biome. You had mentioned ultra processed foods, ultra processed foods or processed foods in general, usually kind of they’re geared up to turn into sugar. But just like, what is the effect of sugar on the gut biome? What is the effect of sugar on arterial walls?
You know what? Give me, can you give me some information on that?
Eva (33:10)
Yeah, well sugar
has a sugar does a lot of things one yes it creates dysbiosis, which is the imbalance of the microbiome, but also sugar spikes insulin, right? So an insulin will create a whole cascade of events that also will be a proponent for inflammation. And then the more insulin that you are causing to spike, the more your body will start becoming resistant to it. They’ll say like, well,
You know, it’s around all the time. What do I need it for? And so then you’ve got essentially, you’re eating sugar. What does insulin do? Insulin pushes the sugar into your cells so they can get energy, right? So that you can make ATP from it. But if your cells are like, insulin, I don’t care, and they become resistant to insulin, that means sugar is now flying around in the bloodstream, but not going into the cells. You’re literally still starving your cells.
So they’re not getting energy. And that’s going to create more inflammation. you’re one, not getting energy, starving your cells, creating more inflammation, and that also is affecting your brain, happening in your brain.
That’s what happens with sheep.
Chris Hall (34:14)
I
read something or saw something where they talked about how like when you have excess sugar, the reason that you have people who go blind or they lose a limb or something like that is because that or erectile dysfunction is another thing with people who have too much sugar. But a big part of that is because people don’t understand like your body is bathing in it now. Like your body’s being bathed in sugar. And it’s like you’re saying like when it’s not being used for its purpose, which is energy, it’s like. At that point, it’s turned into almost it’s basically a poison at that point. Would you agree? Yeah. Eva (34:45) Yeah, pretty much. like I said, the, when the body is brilliantly designed, that’s why I said it will, there are switches that turn on and off and these hormones that say, we need to start working. Oh, we can stop working. And if there’s plenty of something around, they’ll say, oh, we’re good. We can stop. If it’s not enough is around, they’ll get activated to, know, get in more. Right. So if there’s plenty around, the systems will just shut down. Chris Hall (35:13) Yeah, yeah. So just the dose is the important part, right? Which goes into what I was going to ask about supplementation is, know, I, know, 53 years old, you know, probably started taking my first supplement, you know, I think I started taking it when I was about 28. I started taking magnesium because I had heart palpitations. I had a pre-vascular contract contractions.
Eva (35:17)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Hall (35:34)
And a friend of mine was like, Hey, you should try some magnesium. And sure enough, I tried magnesium and they went away. And then one day I ran out of magnesium. I was out of it for like five or six days. Sure enough, the PVC’s came right back. And then I went back into magnesium and then, and then I was gone. And then that was within the first year. Like now, if I were to go a week or two, or even a month without some magnesium, I feel like I’m pretty good. I haven’t had a preventricular contraction probably since I was 28.
Eva (36:43)
Well, this is where I think it’s good to work with somebody, work with a practitioner that can support you in that. And also, why are you taking everything for life? Why are you taking so many things? Really, to ask yourself, am I not getting this from my diet? Am I taking this because somebody told me to? Or is it something that my body really needs? Now, we have precision medicine and genetic testing and.
Chris Hall (36:45)
Thank you.
Eva (37:07)
Some people are fast metabolizers, some people are slow metabolizers, and some people need a certain supplement and other people don’t. Some people need one form of a supplement and then other people need a different form of a supplement because they methylate differently and they metabolize differently or their kidney functions are different. don’t just take something because somebody says you should. First figure out how do I get it from my whole foods.
Chris Hall (37:37)
Okay.
Eva (37:51)
Do I live in the northeast, which means I don’t get a lot of sunlight in the winter? That’s going to be vitamin D. can get that checked and I might also benefit from taking that. So use your noggin and don’t just take something because somebody said so, but really start thinking about why am I taking these things? What can I get from my diet? And the question is, am I absorbing it? Is my gut working and looking out for symptoms of…
Chris Hall (38:04)
That’s it.
Eva (38:17)
if you have any type of symptoms or showing that your gut isn’t working. I these are things that you can look up. What are signs that my gut is working? What are signs that my gut isn’t working? But I do think that having somebody help you is always good. There’s a lot of wonderful, integrative nutritionists who are available right now, so many health coaches. It’s just not a bad idea to work with somebody.
Chris Hall (38:38)
Okay, yeah, that’s good advice. I do think that, you know, for every pill I take, there’s probably nine that I didn’t, you know what mean? Because I was like, I don’t think that works for me. I don’t think I need that. And then you’re like, but just again, over the course of 25 years, you know, they’re just gonna add up. So
Eva (38:51)
but also do you need them for 25 years?
Chris Hall (38:53)
Good question, yeah, that’s a great question.
Eva (38:58)
You you do
Chris Hall (39:02)
Yeah.
Eva (40:33)
Yep.
Chris Hall (42:12)
That’s cool. What is the drug that you’re coming out with? What’s it called again?
Eva (42:15)
It’s called vigor air. It’s for erectile dysfunction. So it will be an inhaled form, which means it doesn’t have to go through the gut. It won’t take hours for it to work. And it’s at much smaller doses, which means less side effects.
Chris Hall (42:19)
Okay.
Eva (42:43)
Yeah, and this will be 25.
Chris Hall (42:52)
I love that. So how does that work? So it’s an inhaler? So like you would use for bronchitis or something like that or?
Eva (42:56)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Hall (43:12)
1Mm-hmm.
Eva (43:31)
That’s correct.
Chris Hall (43:42)
Peace out.
Eva (44:10)
That’s right.
Chris Hall (44:21)
Yeah.
Eva (44:38)
Really? Yeah.
Chris Hall (44:53)
all the things you’re doing to get that blood to the proper muscles and stuff like that. know, yeah, meditation is a good pre workout as well. Okay, I’ve never heard that before that also increases nitric oxide or what is it working on different pathway.
Eva (44:57)
So is meditation.