The holistic approach to healthcare is explored, highlighting the intricate connections between the mind, body, and gut health. The session outlines practical methods for managing health conditions through holistic means, emphasizing the necessity of patient involvement and commitment. By tailoring diet and exercise plans and addressing both psychological and physical health, the approach aims to achieve overall well-being. The importance of setting clear, measurable goals and the role of mental training, psychotherapy, and personalized wellness coaching in maintaining a balanced and healthy lifestyle are underscored.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:03 – Introduction and Importance of Holistic Care

01:05 – Understanding A.D.D. and Holistic Treatment Approach

03:09 – Stress, Parasites, and the Importance of Gut Health

04:15 – Goal Setting and Wellness Coaching

06:46 – Holistic Care and Patient Involvement

08:58 – Psychological and Physical Interconnections

12:44 – Referral to Specialists and Psychotherapy

15:17 – Conclusion and Practice Changes

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:03] So straight answers questions from questions at Qualcomm. And this is why today’s questions should be one of the reasons why I really like these questions. This question was actually asked a while ago, and it’s actually changed the way I practice. Somebody asked me, this is why I remember some of you asked me, what my view on holistic care was and how it affected my practice, how how it makes my practice change. My practice. How my view of holistic care as we take care of the entire person. We take care of the chemistry. We take care of the way they work out when it moves, where they. You know, any of the things that we know that affect health in a positive or negative manner? We address and we we change. And the hard part about that is that where do you start? Where do you stop? And so and, you know, I’ve kind of come up with over the past ten years of researching this to kind of come up with a path that I’ve been doing, but it hasn’t been expressed very well. So, and I just kind of explain what I mean by that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:05] So let’s say you have 80 days, right? And, you don’t like ready until you go to the medical doctors and they give you Ritalin or Adderall or whatever, and it helps. And then you go, I don’t like the side effects of the Adderall. I don’t like the addictions. I don’t like whatever where I, I you just don’t like the Adderall. So you come in and go, hey, hey, what causes A.D.D.? And there’s. Well, there’s a couple of different varying factors. The the overriding pathway is that you lose functionality from what’s called the reticular formation in the brain that processes interaction formation, that starts kind of losing, basically starts falling asleep. And so it can’t direct that information very well. And, you know, really, why is it fall asleep? Well, because it’s losing epinephrine or epinephrine. Where do we get that? Well, from the adrenals. Okay. So Aids and adrenal issue. Yeah. All right. Cool. So we’re just giving adrenal supplements, and it’ll help. Yeah. Kind of. Well, why are the adrenals weak? Right? Like. Well, because they’re not getting stuff in the gut. Okay, so what’s wrong with the gut? Well, it’s low in probiotic.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:09] Okay, well, we give it probiotic. Well, you’ve got a parasitic infection, so you can’t really give the body parasite probiotics very well and have it work as well with parasites in the body. All right, well, we’ll kill the parasites. Well, you saw the yeast issue. All right, so kill the parasites and kill the. Well, if you do that, you’re going to overload the liver in the kidneys and give you some detox, reactions. And you have patients who are sick for weeks, and so it’s not a great idea. All right, so it’s clean the liver, clean the kidneys, then kill the parasites and use then feed the get the probiotics. They don’t feed the adrenals. And then we’ll fix the everything. Yeah. All right. Well how can we get the parasites in the first place? Well, because you’re in a sympathetic state, you’re all stressed out. And so since you were stressed out in your mind, wasn’t in the right place. It changed the way your physical body chemistry works. And so that’s what led us up, led us to this whole issue. All right. So when you deal with the stress on the on the mind. So the gut will work. So these rules will work. So the brain work. Yeah.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:09] That’s basically yeah. Well how do we do that. Well you got to change where you actually have to start looking at the things that cause you stress and push back away from those. The easiest way to do that is with exercise is with mental training to focus on things that are going to de-stress you. Like the gratitude thing? If you have things that are actually really problematic, psychedelics are really, really great at breaking sympathetic chain escape. Which is that keeps you in that sympathetic state, keeps you all jazzed up and anxious. Break those. And then psychotherapy or talk therapy is fantastic at breaking those things down further. If you have traumatic issues from your past, many of them need to be talked about. So psychotherapy is a great adjunct adjunct for that. That’s what you need to do to be healthy holistically. So if you’re like, yeah, that’s what I want. That’s that’s what we’re doing. And the way that it’s changed my practice is that what we do now is we bring people in to consult. And I’m like, what is it your major issue is, and what are you trying to do? And then we figure that out and like, okay, this is the path I would want to take. And so what we’ll end up doing is we sit down.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:15] And the easiest thing to describe it is, is wellness coaching. Well, we’ll sit down, be like the first thing we do is we’re going to go over how to set a goal and we’re going to set that goal. And so once we set that goal, the goal can change as we go. But the process we use to set goals is important. We talk about this all the time. Healthy is not a goal. We can’t track that. We can’t measure that. We have to break down what we really want into measurable outcomes. Yeah. We’re here. Our goal is over here. We know how to get from point A to point B. If we set a goal that is you know. Intangible. Like healthy, right? That has no objective, you know, 2 to 4. Pretty easy. We’re 2 or 2 and a half or 3 or 3 and a third or three and a half or, you know, we’re three and three quarters or four. Easy to track. So healthy we have to break down into actual tangible things that we can put together. So the first thing we do is we set goals and then we start. We start making paths to get from point A to point B and our goals. And a lot of times it’s me, the same thing, you know, with people it’s gonna be cleaning up the got, you know, hormones that, you know, teach people to eat, right. You know, dietary changes, and then doing some mental work. What we do in there, how long that takes, what it takes is going to be a little bit different, but that’s kind of the path that we take.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:35] And that’s the best path that we know to work through, because there’s a lot of times where, where like, for instance, just in hormones, you’ll come in and they go, I’m tired. I and I know that testosterone helps with being tired for my hormones. Let’s see if I’m low on tasks. We’ll get some tasks because I don’t want to be tired anymore. Or guys will come in and be like, I’m working my ass off in the gym. It’s just not going anywhere. I think I’m low t to Brahman and we go, okay, cool. So the person who wanted energy to use energy versus he wanted to, you know, see that the goals, the gains are putting worked in the gym and they start seeing gains there. So the thing they came in for, they get it was always cool. Was that the person one of the energy goes, hey, you know what, I just want to not be not be exhausted at 5:00 anymore. And now I’m not tired till ten. And now I have time to go to the gym. And I’m starting to like that. I’d like to talk more about that. Or hey, now that my wife hasn’t exhausted all the time, she’s, you know, her sex drive is up. Like, our marriage is a whole lot better. You came in for energy. Marriage got better. If you start working out, there’s a lot of people who sort of working out because they were fat and they came in there and they found out there were a lot less depressed.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:46] Their mental state changed drastically because they were working out, and it wasn’t because they automatically just got a six pack, like, this is 2 or 3 weeks in a month. And they’re like, man, I just it’s just life seems easier now that I’m working out all the time. Yeah, neurologically, we know that that’s a fact. So your goal of lose fat gain muscle is being achieved, but you’re also the goal you didn’t even realize you had of fear. Your oppression is also getting fat. So when we look at something holistically, it’s like we’re going to put all the things together. At least I’m going to present all the options to you to do put everything where it needs to be. And a lot of this stuff isn’t super genius stuff, right? Like everyone’s got diet and exercise are important. Okay. Have you maximize your diet and exercise for you? Do you even know what how that should be? Do you know what your macros should be? Do you know where you should get it? Do you know what you know? Do you have food choices? Have these like have you really dived into the nutrition days? Are you working out the way you’re supposed to? You know, are you working at the best thing for you? Like we have guys who come in who are who are 60 years old.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:54] And the last time they got education on, lifting weights was in high school for football. You probably don’t need to be an offensive lineman at 60. So the workout you were doing when you were, you know, 15 is probably not the best workout for you. When you’re 60. You know, just going to the gym and doing the same thing isn’t the way to do it. Yeah, I always tell people in the pool, kind of shocking the workout that the football team does should be very different. Your offensive and defensive lineman should not be working out the same way. Your tailback, your quarterback, your tight end, maybe your tight ends, but you know, your receivers are working on your quarterbacks, working out because they have different roles. And so their body shape and body function is different for the position you’re at. You know, when you’re 16, you’re not 16. You’re you know, it’s a completely different set of needs most of the time. And so working out to that is important. So the idea of holistic care is to take care of the entire person and of course, in accordance with their goals, which means I have to sit down and actually listen to you and figure out where your goals are and what you want and, you know, help you kind of put that together.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:58] And then we organize a plan that goes through that. But we’re going to we’re to address the whole person sooner or later. Because like I said, and everybody knows this to be kind of a fact, when you get really emotional, your gut gets messed up. Yeah. And when your gut is messed up, your mind gets messed up. Have you ever been hangry? Right here are complete that are jerk. And you’re you’re grumpy and no one wants to be around you. You’re just a, you know, scary bear. And then you eat something. You’re fine again. Okay, so that blood sugar issue, there’s chemical issues that the nutrient deprivation, if you will, altered the way your mental state was. Happens all the time. So that’s the that’s my view of holistic hair is you gotta take care of the whole person. The problem is that it’s a lot more difficult in a patient has to be really on board. So I could write you the greatest diet plan in the world. That or the greatest workout plan in the world, or whatever. If you don’t go to the gym, the greatest workout plan in the world is worthless. You know, if you choose not to follow the diet again, it’s worthless. So it’s one of those reasons why, you know, when we sit down, we kind of go through these little sessions. It’s why it’s entirely, you know, it’s not a 5050 hack is I can give you the information. You just gotta do it. So it’s always a question. I try to tell people, I give you options because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:14] If I tell you you should workout this way and you don’t. Well, I gave you the option. You just chose not to take it. So that’s kind of when I say options for me. But that’s kind of the flow that we do now. I’m starting to doubt we’re actually going to change the website in about two weeks. But that’s kind of the way we do it. We’re bringing you in. What exactly are you trying to do? Here’s how I want to do it. Here’s how I’m going to help. And then we walk through it from there. But it’s the entire person. Because I have not been able to figure out a way to divorce the psychological, where the nervous system functions between the sympathetics parasympathetic and the function of the digestive system. Because parasympathetic ruled over the digestive system, allowing it to do all the things it does. The sympathetic system overrides that and shuts off the digestive system. And when you’re stressed out, you’re in sympathetic state. So if you’re stressed out, that’s not working right. So so so we’ve got to do something to balance this out. So we bring down the sympathetic group. We bring down the thing that’s causing you to be in fight flight, where all your energy and muscles and blood is in the muscles to run away or to fight and move it back to the gut. So we turn all the energy to the gut so we can digest properly.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:27] So at the end of the day, you have to work on everything if you truly want to be healthy. And so that’s, that’s kind of how we’ve reshaped how we’re reshaping the practice now is that we’re going to sit down, we’re going to go through the whole thing. We’re going to talk about all sorts of stuff. And again, lots of times when we get so stressed up, there’s going to be things that you’re going to need that, you know, this office can provide. We’re bringing you then. But, you know, there’s been lots of you who need advanced actual therapy. I’d, I’d say 90% of us actually need that of people. Not just people who are coming here. It humans in general. 90% need serious psychotherapy that they’re not getting. So there’s me. A lot of us will hand you off like, hey, if we’re going to figure out what’s going on with you, like, look, I work with a lot of therapists. These are the three people I think would be the best for you. Why don’t you go talk to them, figure out the best version for you, just like we do as surgeons. You know, it’s always funny because people come in and, like. All right, so tell me, like, what kind of surgery do I need? What’s the best for me? And I’m like, I’m going to send you to the two surgeons that I think are the best surgeons for this particular issue, and they’re going to tell you that, you know, like, why? Because I’m not surgeon. Like, I don’t know, maybe there’s new techniques that I’m unaware of that they’ve just decided they’re going to put them in practice.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:44] So you know, that’s that’s the thing. I know enough to find out who’s the best person for me to send you to. You know, I have my guys I like a lot. For instance, orthopedic surgery, even the stuff he doesn’t do. And I’m sure, I’m sure it pesters him to a degree, but I tend to think that the doctor might not, up in medical, say, Frisco, because he’s amazing. When my when my son broke his arm, I texted him, I was like, what’s up, bro? His arm. You’re waiting to see you. How do you said tomorrow I’d be like, cool, son, you’re waiting till tomorrow with a broken arm to see him or not, because he’s the only one I’m going to mess with my son’s arm. But that’s the thing. So? So finding those guys who were the best at what they do. I use Frisco Counseling Wellness a lot. I use my friend Elise, who’s also a therapist, a lot for psychotherapy, because, you know, I know where it is. I know what to what to look for and find out. This is this is a spilled coffee issue. This is something that I can kind of coach through. This is a life coaching thing, or this is a serious issue that needs a serious, you know, practitioner. And we refer out to those guys. So that’s my view of holistic medicine. It’s our holistic health care not medicine. Traveling medicine.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:52] Holistic. That’s my view of holistic health care is finding out, you know, taking care of the entirety of the person, not just saying, like, oh, you have A.D.D.. Here’s a pill that fixes, you know, that covers the symptoms of A.D.D. and allows everything else that’s already messed up to continue to get messed up, make the problem worse. And now we see issues here and here here. So like, for instance, like people who start with A.D.D. end up with Pots because they didn’t do anything to fix the actual issue. So they still have ADHD, but now they have pot, they stand up, they get dizzy, you know, that type of thing. So. Treating the whole person is a gigantic thing, and I want people to understand that when you get into holistic care, the beginning of it’s going to be a lot of work for you. Because you guys are working out. Yes. Or dying. Right? We’re going to work on hormones and fermentation. I always figured at whatever speed you want to go, but at the same time, you know, it’s been a lot of work for you beginning. But once you kind of get it going, you start getting healthy. A lot of the goals that you’ve been looking for actually start opening up. And then again, that’s kind of the way the world works. And, you know, if you want something, the more work you put into it, it seems like the easier and faster the thing. We want cops. So. But that’s kind of that’s kind of the answer to that one. The reason it’s changed my practice is because I realized that while I was doing it, I wasn’t doing it in a cohesive, easy to follow and understand pathway for the patient. And so that’s what we’re changing.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:17] We’re not changing what we do. We’re just changing how we how we do it. The process, if you will. So, if you guys are looking for health coaching or you’re looking for that type of thing, give us a call. We’ll get that all set up. If you guys are looking for the medical option, I’ve got lots of great docs. I’ve got a buddy of mine who’s a. He’s a great functional medicine doc, and I’m trying to talk him into leaving the hospital he’s in so he can come up and do that here. So if you guys are looking for adult MD functional medicine guys. Funny to me to note on that one, so I can show it to him and show him that, you know, there we’ve got people who want that. So anyway, questions of Chalmers as I can’t drop a comment, in the comments and, we’ll move on. So thanks for your time.

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