Subscribe to The Model Health Show:
TMHS 513: Surprising Effects of Hand Sanitizers, Cellphones, & Toxic Cookware – With Guest Dr. Christian Gonzalez
There is truly a myriad of factors that go into what makes us healthy. From diet and exercise to mindset and environmental factors, health is truly a holistic, multifaceted state. Now more than ever is an opportunity for us to tune into the things we can do to fortify our health and reach our potential. More often than not, simple shifts and sustainable changes can have the biggest impact.
Today’s guest, Dr. Christian Gonzales, is a naturopathic doctor, host of the Heal Thy Self Podcast, and a true expert in the areas of cancer prevention, clean living, and how environmental factors impact our overall health. He’s back on The Model Health Show to talk about how we can make simple swaps to reduce our exposure to harmful substances and reduce our overall toxic burden. He’s also sharing how living an authentic life fueled by love can improve your health.
No matter where you are on your personal health journey, I think Dr. G’s message can resonate with you on some level. His messages on authenticity, connection, and community are inspiring and empowering. I hope this episode arms you with tips you can use to improve your health and upgrade your environment in tangible, sustainable ways. Enjoy!
In this episode you’ll discover:
- The effects your cell phone can have on sperm motility.
- What percentage of people confess to being addicted to their phones.
- How our devices can literally change our brains.
- The connection between mental illness and cell phone usage.
- How to create boundaries with your phone.
- Why drinking green tea before or after drinking alcohol can have positive effects.
- How to identify high quality teas.
- The importance of surveying your indoor air quality.
- Two main reasons why air quality is more polluted indoors.
- Simple, non-toxic swaps for commercial cleaning products.
- What to look for in your cookware.
- Three reasons why you should wash your hands instead of using sanitizer.
- The importance of the mind-body connection.
- Why authenticity is a main driver of health.
Items mentioned in this episode include:
- DrinkLMNT.com/model — Get a FREE sample pack for the cost of shipping!
- PiqueTea.com/model — Use code MODEL at checkout for 10% off!
- Themodelhealthshow.com/airdoctor
- The Surprising Truth About Cancer with Dr. Christian Gonzales – Episode 455
- The Truth About the FDA – Episode 512
- Dark Waters
- The Swell Score
- Connect with Dr. Christian Gonzales Website / Podcast / Instagram
Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Model Health Show. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review of the show on Apple Podcast by clicking on the link below. It will help us to keep delivering life-changing information for you every week!
Transcript:
Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. On this episode, we're going to be talking about some of the things that are existing in our environment that are affecting and influencing our health in a myriad of ways, that we might not even realize, things that we take for granted in our society today that can have some really detrimental impacts on our health. And of course, what are some of the things that we can do about it to fortify our health to make us more resilient at this time when we need to be more resilient than ever.
We've got so much access to wonderful technology that can make us more connected, more educated, but at the same time, it can do the opposite, it can make us more disconnected from others, it can make us a little bit dumber, it can make us the Lloyd Christmas version of ourselves, so our smartphones can actually make us dumb if we're not utilizing them for the good. And what I mean by that is that we can outsource our thinking to our phones. We can utilize this technology to engage in things and immerse ourselves in things that really distract us or that pull us away from our intellectual capacity. And it's all good, we can have some brain candy, we could have some fun to connect, but it just really depends on how we use these things. And we, again, our technology and our integration with technology is not slowing down any time soon.
So this is a great time to truly take control of your mind, to set up a positive perimeter of mental health around these things as well, because our connection and again, integration with technology is just going to continue to grow so much so even one thing that I'm thinking about right now, even going to the movies, it's just been this incredible phenomenon for humans, and it really hasn't been that long in the grand scheme of things, and so we're looking at just around maybe 100 years ago, this opportunity, this experience of "going to the movies" existed, and it's evolved over time, where we get sound in the movies, for example, then eventually we get to a place where it's surround sound, where it's like just right there making you feel like you're more in the movie, but hey, that's not enough. Now we got 3D, visually feeling like you're more in the movie as technology advances, then that's not enough. Now we've got 4D, That's Right, 4D movie theaters. And I actually had the experience of going to one just a few days ago.
Alright, so I went to see Shang-Chi with my youngest son and my wife, big Marvel Universe fans, and I was like, Okay, it's his birthday, we're going to do something new and different. We're going to go to the 4DX movie theater. Alright, we're in LA. They got everything. So, we went to the 4DX movie theater. You get into the chair, it's like literally you got to step up on the chair, there's like a foot place where you step up like you're getting into a roller coaster, and I'm like... I don't know.
So, I sit down, and when the movie begins, the seats literally start moving side to side, up and down and around as if you're on something that would be like universal movie theater, like a theme park but it's for two hours. So, the seat is like dipping down and back and forth, and when somebody, for example, shoots a gun in the movie, there's little air guns that are behind your head that are shooting past your ear, and then like somebody got thrown into some water, then water splashes on you like little sprinkles of water in your face.
It was crazy. We did not sign up for that, I thought being like a little bit of engagement with the movie, but literally when somebody got kicked in the chest in the movie, the Chair punched you in your back, like really like punch you give you a nice punch, right in the center of your back, you're going to feel this punch Shang-Chi is throwing or the bad guy is throwing, you going to feel this... And I looked over at my son about 15 minutes into the movie, I looked over at him, and he had just turned ten, he had just turned ten, it was his 10th birthday.
And he looked at me, he was like, "Do you think I'm going to make it?" My son literally asked me, and he looked at me with these eyes of, Dad, please help me, he said, do you think I'm going to make it. It was that... I'm literally getting bounced around in these chairs, I'm like, I'm going to have to go to the chiropractor for sure, after this. But I was sort of starting to get used to it, but then when my man was like, I think he was getting even maybe a little motion sickness or whatever, it was like that, but it's cool if it's a ride and no disrespect, if you love the 4DX, if you've gotten a chance to go to a 4D movie theater and you love it, all power to you, if you like the two-hour roller coaster theme park ride, but I was coming to the movie to chill and it wasn't a chill-type experience.
So, our integration with technology is just going to continue, and honestly, it's like it's never going to be enough. And I think about if somebody back 100 years ago, around the 1900s, when movie theaters became a thing, if they were to see a Marvel movie to... If we could transport that back then, they would probably run out of the theater in terror thinking that the Incredible Hulk is real. It wouldn't even register to their minds. Now today, like somebody could spend $50 million, $100 million making a film, it's got all this incredible CGI, so realistic. And you'd be like, ah it sucked. We've become conditioned and we just come to accept this stuff as normal.
And so, what other things are we doing that for in our lives where we accept our advances and our potential and our possibilities as normal and also things that are detrimental to us as normal? And by the way, we did leave and went to another theater, another movie was starting 30 minutes later, and it was just a fresh regular seat Shang-Chi experience, and literally about 30 minutes into it, my son was like, "I'm having such a good time." He literally said these this word, I'm having such a good time. He doesn't talk like that. We kind of, we vibe like that, but he was just so happy to just be able to sit and watch a movie and not have the chair punching him in the back whenever Shang-Chi throws a kick.
So, shout-out to the Marvel universe and shout-out to you, thank you so much for tuning in today. This episode is incredibly important and powerful, and it's just another one of the things that you're going to be able to add a plethora of things to your superhero utility belt, speaking of the wonderful world of superheroes. And right before our special guest left, we had a mutual love that we talked about, and I was able to actually hand him some because I have it here in my office here at the studio, and what we connected on was something that is incredibly important for that amazing brain of yours. A fascinating new study published in the journal Neuron found that magnesium, this critical micronutrient, magnesium is able to restore critical brain plasticity and improve cognitive function. And also, on that same line of understanding with the brain and with these electrolytes, again, electrolytes are allowing the electrical conduction of our cells, so it's important. These are these incredible compounds, these nutrients that carry an electrical charge and you are running on this miraculous electrical energy.
In a double-blind placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, found that improving magnesium levels in adult test subjects, and these were folks who are aged 50 to 70, could potentially reverse brain aging by over nine years. Alright, that's just one of these critically important electrolytes. Now electrolytes overall in the human body help to maintain fluid balance in particular, if we're talking about the brain, it's that important because your brain is mostly water and electrolytes are needed to maintain that proper fluid balance, especially sodium. And researchers at McGill University found that sodium functions literally as an on-off switch in the brain for specific neurotransmitters that support optimal function and protect the brain against numerous diseases. That's how critical electrolytes are. Sodium, magnesium, potassium, these are of the utmost importance. And now, here's the key, it's having it in the right ratios and having it from an ethical source, having it from an ethical source that is doing things the right way without any kind of crazy abnormal processed, highly refined sugars or anything of that nature.
And this is why we had connected on the way out, and I know this, our special guest today, he is neurotic about quality, and what we connected on is the electrolytes from LMNT. Go to drinklmnt.com/model. That's drinklmnt.com/model, and you're going to get to try LMNT for free. That's right, you just pay a small amount in shipping and they're going to send you a sample of LMNT for you to try a sample pack, for you to try for free. Take advantage of it, you've already gotten yourself some LMNT, it's time to re-up. This stuff is amazing for so many things with cognitive function and also for our immune system that's heavily reliant on this sodium-potassium pump to literally run all the processes in our body, let alone the functioning of our immune system.
And how do we know this? Where does it show up in the data with the virus that's on everybody's minds today? There's a study that was recently published in the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry titled, Electrolyte Imbalances in Patients with Severe Coronavirus Disease, and what the researchers uncovered, and this was a meta-analysis of five studies analyzing about 1500 COVID-19 patients, and they found that sodium was significantly depleted in patients with severe COVID-19. Similarly, potassium was also significantly lower in patients with severe COVID-19, and this is key, are folks coming into it with electrolyte imbalances and making them more susceptible and/or is COVID-19 and the immune system response is so heavily reliant on electrolytes that it's getting depleted from the body very quickly, and getting folks electrolytes up in these clinical settings was one of the most important factors in getting folks back to a state of health. So, the study doesn't identify which was it, was it the chicken or the egg, which came first. The susceptibility or was it something afterwards where it's depleted in the body, but we know that electrolytes are critically important now more than ever.
So go to drinklmnt. Again, that's drinklmnt.com/model for your free sample pack of LMNT delivered right to your door. And on that note, let's get to be Apple Podcasts review of the week.
iTunes RevIEW: Another five-star review titled “Nutrition We Can Understand” by Verna BL. "I'm obsessed with Shawn, his books and this podcast. He's hopeful, he's fun, and he speaks so I can understand. Time to move the needle with my health and wellness. PS, the episode with Dr. Gonzalez is packed with so much, I'm going to listen to it again. I'm so emotional listening to it because I want good health for all of my community. Thank you."
Shawn Stevenson: No, thank you. Thank you so much for leaving that review over on Apple Podcasts, and I've got a little surprise for you. That review was talking about Dr. Christian Gonzalez in his first appearance on The Model Health Show, and he is back today. I thought it was a timely review to share, but he is back today to share more of his brilliance.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez, aka Dr. G, completed his doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, where he took a specific focus in oncology. And upon graduation, he completed his residency at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he found a passion for helping people to optimize their health and preventing chronic diseases as well. You can check out Dr. G, as the host of the weekly podcast, Heal Thyself, which focuses on giving people the tools they need to truly heal from the inside out. Dr. G has been featured in countless media outlets, including MSN, the Los Angeles Times, Shape, and much more, and he's back on The Model Health Show to share more of his wisdom. So, let's jump into this conversation with the amazing Dr. Christian Gonzales.
If there's anybody who I think might be more neurotic about water than me, it would probably be you. I actually look to you a lot for recommendations on different products, and even the air filter that we have here in the studio.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: That's so cool, that's so cool.
Shawn Stevenson: I reached out to you because I really appreciate and admire your in-depth investigation into things. It really does mean a lot, man. So first of all, welcome back to the show, Dr. G, I appreciate you.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Oh, thank you, what an honor.
Shawn Stevenson: And listen, I think the big reason I wanted to have you back and to talk to you right now is I think that we are kind of inundated with so many things that we just come to accept as normal, so even as I'm putting my phone by my lejonk, I'm thinking about what would Dr. G do, and usually with my phone, if I'm not moving around, going somewhere and carrying it, when I get anywhere, I take it out of my pocket, get it away from me, but why is that? Because this is something folks might have thought about, but now we have some more evidence on why you might not want to have your phone in your pocket.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: It's funny you say that I was driving on the way here and I was looking for the address, and I had my maps going and for like... I just found myself just dropping on the phone by my lejonk, as you say, and then I'm like, No, my sperm, my sperm, their viability. I was like, I've read the research study. Man, phones are crazy, because we can go into what it's doing to the brain, but specifically in terms of fertility, especially for men, it's wild for me that fertility docs don't bring this up. They might speak to the man and go, What's your diet like? They might, but they'll most likely talk about alcohol, you're drinking a lot, and what is your diet like. No one talks about cellphones, right.
And when I read a study a few years ago at the Cleveland Clinic, the renowned Cleveland Clinic, talking about how the frequencies from your cell phone have an oxidative effect in the body, just like all the crappy stuff, like the crappy foods we tell people to take out of their diet, 'cause it works as an oxidant in the body and inflammatory, it creates inflammation, so does the same thing from the radio waves that are coming out of your phone.
So, I was like, Whoa. And then I proceeded to read that these men are keeping their phone by their pocket, not putting it on airplane mode or just continues to just holding it right, if I'm not on it, I'm going to put it in my pocket, it's reducing sperm motility, meaning the sperm aren't even swimming to their best ability, and then viability, meaning that when they tested half the sperm or more are just gone, and that's wild to me because if people are trying... Couples are trying to have a child, the man's semen is almost directly connected to this phone, and if they're keeping the phone in their pocket, something that we need to talk a lot about more. Because everyone has a phone, everyone is on it. Most of us overuse it, and then most of us are putting it straight in our pocket. Now for females, I don't think there's enough research yet to know exactly how it's affecting but I would expect at some point, we'd see a similar effect to ovaries, ovarian health, uterine lining, something is going on too.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, it's... I think it really boils down to something very simple, which is, we are tinkering with things that we don't know the long-term effects of these are all new things, not to say that they can't be things that are advantageous for us as a species, but we're talking about different waves, for example, and your body has a certain resonance or different frequencies that our whole system is operating on. We are waves and particles and all this stuff, and so we don't know the full ramification of how these things are affecting us, but you also mentioned the brain as well. So, what can be going on there?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah, and I love Shawn that you said that we are energy, we are waves of energy, so we would think it stands to believe that the main disruption would be an energetic wave disruption, so it just... We need to look more into how these are affecting us. Now, I haven't dove as deep as I'd like to on EMFs, partly because I'm scared because I do most of my work from my phone, but there's a lot of conversations that need to be had and it's just at this point, we should talk about it more. And more scientists coming out, that were like 12 years ago, 15 years ago, we thought it was a lot safer, and a lot of these regulations are based back then 15, 20 years ago, and we're using these regulations the phones are way more powerful, with way more capability, with stronger frequencies, and we're like, Okay.
So, Pew Research Center, this is in Washington DC, they research how the cell phones, how addicted we are, first and foremost, 50%, a little bit under 50% of us report being addicted to our cell phones, and they found 85% of us are reaching for our phone when talking to our friends and family, which is already disrupting the social fabric of really how we connect and interact. And it's interesting because that's essential for our health. Connecting to the community, connecting to family, connecting to people.
The other side of it is that, especially in children, we're seeing brain changes, cognitive changes, pre-frontal cortex, this executive function, learned behavior, memory, mood, all of these things that are so essential in a child's development, we're seeing that children using the cell phone right around five hours or more, they're having brain changes, not only literally their brain is changing, but also the chemicals of their brain, it's changing the brain chemistry. So the cellphone is having a direct impact. Also, we see anxiety, depression connected to it, which is wild.
This is a recent study, and I did a show talking about anxiety and cell phones, University of Illinois Champaign, they did a study on 300 students, and they found, they concluded, essentially, the students who have addictive behaviors... Reporting to have addictive behaviors and connected to their cell phone have higher, way higher amounts of anxiety and depression. Then a follow-up study they did, they show that these students, especially when faced with an anxious situation or an anxiety-provoking situation, were reaching for their cell phones as self-soothing too. So, it's interesting, the thing that is really pushing the anxiety in the brain over time is also your self-soother. That's an interesting cycle to look at.
And then the last one with the brain with children... This is wild, teens, teens, using their cell phone more than five hours a day versus one hour a day, with the teens who weren't, have an increased risk of suicidality 71%... 71%, that's crazy to me. So not only is it changing their brain, changing the brain chemistry, but also there's an influence of self-esteem on there too, so the construct is massive. Right now, we're not only talking now about sperm and fertility, we're talking about how it's affecting our brain, how it's affecting our mood, how it's affecting our sense of community and connection, this is health, and unfortunately, over-use of the cell phone is really leading to detrimental effects.
Shawn Stevenson: Man, this is so good. I didn't know that you would take this dynamic with it, but this is something that I think it's one of the most pressing issues of our time. Because we are in a sense devolving from community and connection as we're living our lives through the phone. Appropriately, I actually just watched, the Matrix, last night. It's a documentary now, but I just watched it yesterday. And seeing some of these similarities and when he's popping up out of the pod and he's looking around at the other humans who are in effect jacked into the Matrix. And is in a sense, it's like if your cell phone dies and then you look around and you see all the other people who are in the Matrix, they're jacked into the Matrix.
And we, again, we don't understand completely what it's doing to us as a species, but just look at the results we already have, it doesn't look good. So that aspect of it, and also something I talked about in my first book in Sleep Smarter, I shared a little bit of some court documentation, because it's really difficult as well when we have this new technology to prove that there's an offense taking place, especially these very powerful entities. And so, the researchers were citing all this data showing increase in midbrain tumors in children, because we grew up in a time when cell phones weren't a thing, maybe the... It's like you get the scar face like car phone, but you didn't have just a cell phone on you. And whereas we have kids today who are literally growing up with it, it's just more opportunity for this technology that we don't understand to be affecting our brain, so thank you for that, man. And also, with the motility of the sperm like, "Really get that guy, if you really get it," we want the good motility, we want the Michael Phelps swimmers.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Right, right, right. And now we just have a sluggish snail sperm because of it... We want the Michael Phelps guys.
Shawn Stevenson: We want the Phelps. So, man, it's so interesting that again, these things that we just accept as normal and looking at the bigger picture. So, what do you suggest folks to do? Okay, so number one, if we can, let's not have the cell phone in our pocket, what about the social connection aspect, what can we do with our cell phones that again, you mentioned the majority of folks are picking up when they're supposed to be connecting with their friends and family.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah. What I found... It's a few things 'cause I found it affected me in some of my relationships. Because for people like us, we're always wanting to reach the world, we're always wanting to teach the world, for better for worse, it's ingrained in our DNA. And because of that, I'm always like, if I find something out that's really interesting to me, I want to put it out to the world quickly, I'm like, "Here, look what I found, check this out, this is really interesting, here's how you do better by your health," boom. But it's affected my familial connections, lovers. So, what I found is creating boundary. So, I know that if the weekend is coming and I'm spending time with my girlfriend, I'm going to go, "Listen, I got to... I'd already planned a post, I'm going to answer some people 11:00 to 12:00 or 12:30, I'm unavailable, she's like, "Good, I'll go workout." And then I have hatched that time, so then I feel I can be completely present with everything I need to do on my phone, and then once that's off, airplane mode, I can be completely present with her, so that is the relationship part that's super, super important.
And then just the practice of keeping it on airplane mode and away from you is really powerful. So say for example, I go to the beach with my friends, which I did the other day, I left my phone in the car on purpose because even when no one was talking, I just wanted to be present, if not with them, then the damn ocean, maybe the seagulls, maybe I could just be calm and let my nervous system just relax a little bit instead of just reaching for my phone. So, making these interventions on your practices, really utilizing airplane mode, and then at night, come 9 o'clock, my phone is off, I say goodbye to everyone, I do my last phone call and I put it on airplane mode and it's out of my room. I have an old school alarm clock to wake me up now because still if the phone is in my room, there's a risk of me reaching for it and just answering something.
Those practices... I know how ridiculous they may sound because it's like, "Oh, don't we have self-control?" we don't at this point. So, we have to submit to the fact that maybe if we don't have the self-control, we may have to go back to just these practices of creating boundaries and really following them. For me what works best, if the phone is not in the room, it's in my car, I leave it, then I don't think about it. But if it's in my pocket and then there's some downtime and I'm waiting in line, for example, or waiting for someone to come into the car I'm parked in front, you always reach for it. But what about those times when there's these subtle connections that we miss, say for example, when your phone dies and you look around, everyone's on their phone, how about years ago before phones when we could have sparked a conversation with a stranger that would have been so synchronous and so powerful and make us feel better about our day and them feel better about their day, that's lost now. So, if we can lean more into that and create boundaries. Boundaries are so, so important, they'll make your brain better, your sperm better, and just your overall sense of community connection better.
Shawn Stevenson: Powerful, I love this so much. So socially distance from your phone?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Exactly, exactly. That's another thing we should be really socially distancing from, the thing.
Shawn Stevenson: So, I love that because just a couple of nuggets there, when using it for an alarm clock, let's... Maybe for somebody, especially paying attention to your personality type, maybe you get up... Like you mentioned, an old school alarm clock, and so you can outsource that to something else. And also, maybe even if it is your alarm clock and you're not touching it, but maybe you grab it first thing in the morning, you just dive right into the matrix. Or, for me, it's work. So, when I'm working, I got to get the phone away. I put it on a bookshelf across the room. I got to... I put it somewhere where I can't just reach for it and do the just checks. So that's what we usually do is just check real quick, just check. And the same thing with social media, which can be an absolute time suck, to say the least, and then there's so much value to behold there, but rarely does somebody spend an hour on social media, and then afterwards, they're like, "You know what, I feel amazing!"
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: "I feel better than I did before." No. None of that, ever.
Shawn Stevenson: And because it's so abnormal, there's so much pressure and anxiety that can manifest from it, from trying to do all this stuff, see all this stuff, our brains are literally... We did not evolve with that kind of exposure. That's why we feel the way we do. So, having some dedicated time where you're doing the thing, and even... I love you mentioned that going to the beach, because that's another time people might just bring out their phone, "I'm at the beach! Look at... I'm on a boat!"
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: The girls right next to me. That same exact thing, I was like, "Man, they can't even just be together, be with the beach, the water," and man, it was like a photo shoot right next to me. I was like, "Damn, this is the world."
Shawn Stevenson: And even if... Here's a little tip, though. It's not that you can't capture... Throw some... Throw some vibes up there, but you don't have to post it. You can just record it, record a couple little things, and then just put the phone away.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Exactly.
Shawn Stevenson: Rather than getting into the matrix and start looking for responses and all that stuff, so... Super valuable stuff, man. Something else that you've been talking about recently that I'm so grateful for is alcohol. And let's start off with something that a lot of folks have experienced: The imminent hangover. Or they've experienced the poor sleep quality, which is a big part of the hangover. And there's a little bit of a bio-chemical hack for folks that you mentioned recently. I thought it was fascinating and something new that I hadn't thought about. As soon as I saw it, I was like, "Obviously! Why didn't think about that sooner?" Can you talk about that?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Man, I'm just reading so much about green tea and matcha. I've been such a fan of it for many years. It started when I was reading about how it's effective for breast cancer, right? It's a protectant for breast cancer, 'cause that was the realm that I worked in for so long. And then I learned that alcohol's connected to seven other different types of cancer. A lot of them, Mouth, oral cavity, esophagus, pharyngeal, laryngeal, breast, rectum, colon... It's crazy. And then I was like, "Well, why don't we just drink more green tea?" So, then I was looking... It is protective, especially in the oral cavity. And that's an important hack for me. Now, this is what I tell people, it's like, these hacks don't negate alcohol drinking. I put up a little post yesterday saying that... Doing all these things, like eating right and working out and doing all these, really, hacks, like liver protectant is like squirting a gun into a burning house. It doesn't work that way. Alcohol will set the house on fire. But it's a way of protecting ourselves, and why not, right?
So, I always recommend that people drink green tea or matcha before or after drinking. It's something that when I was drinking, I was doing. And I can't say it helped with the hangover, but I know that long term, hopefully, I was helping myself from the negative effects of alcohol. And it's easy, right? So, let's say, even if you come back from drinking, you're back home at 1 o'clock in the morning, and you're feeling a little buzzed up or really buzzed up, then I would suggest doing a cup of maybe decaf green tea to be acting as an antioxidant towards those oxidative effects of ethanol. Throughout the whole system, not just the oral cavity. That's my little hack. And it's funny, because when I put that out, people really took to it. They were like, "Hey, look!" I'm getting posts and stories, people making tea, they're like, "I'm going out with the girls, but they're making tea." I was like, "Okay!" If you're going to drink, you might as well try to protect yourself as much as possible.
Shawn Stevenson: I love that, and... Just on the one principle of the antioxidant effects there in the oxidation, I don't think we think about that enough in regard to alcohol and the oxidative capacity. One of the things that I've been really trying to impress upon culture is with... Alcohol is so interesting. It's a macronutrient, but we don't usually think about it in that context. We just think about the fats, proteins, carbohydrates, but we got water in alcohol. And with alcohol, it's so unique, because your body can't store it, so it has to use it immediately; it takes priority over everything. So, it creates this phenomenon called fat sparing. So, your body's like, "Nah, forget the... Burning fat, any metabolism stuff, we got to use this stuff!" And I think that it's part of our evolution because it's so potentially toxic and oxidative. So, that it just all comes together and makes sense, and so, having that little bit of a buffer is such a cool thing. And with that tea, though, do we want... Do we just get any tea? Any kind of tea bags?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: If I'm on this show, I know the question's coming up. I know that you care about the quality just as much as me. No, and that's the important part. Unfortunately, when I was drinking tea around my alcohol consumption years ago, I was just going straight to the supermarket. I was like, "Yeah, green tea. Alright, I'll get this company." The problem is is that they're not all created equal. Especially matchas, 'cause they're more concentrated. When it comes to tea, there's the risk of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, as you talk about in your book, how it affects your fat storage, right? How it affects your health. But also, just overall. That's something we need to watch out for, but heavy metal was the other thing. Tea, like rice, likes to suck up especially arsenic, lead, cadmium from the ground.
So, I would suggest, and I talk about a lot how to look for this, but I would suggest that people, if they are doing this, you might as well get yourself the highest quality. If you're exposing yourself to alcohol, you don't want your body to do more work. Yeah, we're getting the benefits of tea, but also, you want to make sure that it's clean, it's pure. And... Yeah, do... You can call a company, ask about... Look for the organic label. You can call a company, ask to see their certificates of analysis, or if they test for heavy metals, which they should. And then, a company that is... Really does all these things is going to be very proud. They're going to go, "We have the best in the industry. Prove me wrong. Check this out. Look at that LEED." If I had a company, and I had the best tea, man, I would shout it on top, and I'd be like, "Maybe people don't care about heavy metals, but I do. Let's talk about it."
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, I love that. And what about the tea bags themselves? This one is nuts.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: That's a great question. A lot of the... Okay, so when it comes to tea bags, a lot of them are bleached, first and foremost, the bleaching process, like tampons, they create dioxins, dioxins are nasty, nasty chemical, and they affect almost every organ in the body over time, particularly. So, the tea bags also have something called epichlorohydrin, which is connected to different effects in the body, but really can affect our thyroid, which is scary, 'cause there's a lot of men and women suffering with thyroid disease. So not all tea bags are created equal. You want to watch out for the ones that are really smooth and silky, those are the ones that have been bleached and have really high amounts of epichlorohydrin. And then I know a lot of people are listening, they're running to their cabinet right now, and they're looking at their tea bags. Yeah, so smooth and silky. You want unbleached bags that are using organic paper or something, where you can call a company, go Hey, I'm concerned about your bags, tell me about them. And they can tell you about them because...
And microplastics, we never think about that, right? We need to talk about that, microplastics too, a lot of them are just made of plastic, the netting or the thread that goes around it, but you dip it in hot water, they are all released, billions of microplastics are released, that's a massive hormone disruptor. Now, imagine someone wants to do right by their health and making themselves their tea in the morning, in the afternoon, maybe one before bed every single day for years, thinking they're doing right, but getting exposed to all this crap, so not all tea bags are created equal. Not all tea, not all matcha, not all green tea, there's a lot of logistics, but really, once you find a really good one, you can just rest easy that you're doing really good for your body.
Shawn Stevenson: I freaking love you. This is amazing. These are the same things that I've thought about over the years, and I don't talk about often. But then to have somebody like yourself who pays attention to these things as well and does so much of the research, just bringing stuff... Making stuff that we, again, we take, accept this is normal, the way that things are processed and... We just did a masterclass episode really looking at the FDA and the regulatory powers that it has, and so many things meet this gras kind of loophole, it's generally recognized as safe and it's not accounting for things like microplastics, for example. And there have been many different organizations speaking up about these things, but we have to do this for ourselves, we have to be our own advocate.
And with our tea, again, we're looking for something that is generating health, something that has been used for thousands of years, but now we have these different modalities of doing it, but we can also do it better. And the company that I happened upon, and they were actually reaching out to me for quite some time, I was like, what is this? Well, I don't know about these tea crystals, but they do a triple screening for toxins, heavy metals, no plastics, they have a concentrate of their matcha, for example.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Mold.
Shawn Stevenson: They test for mold. They do stuff so freaking well, and once I started utilizing these teas from Pique, there's no turning back for me, it is such a superior tea in processing and safety that I don't think much of anything really compares to it. So, you drink Pique, as well?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: I do, I do, it's one of the two that I drink, and I really enjoy it. I've had a relationship with them over the past few years. And they've always been open, they've always been... They've always corresponded very openly about what... How proud they are, right. And it's not a cheap product, but then again, the way I look at it is like, this is more medicinal, you have to look at these things as medicinal. You're going to spend 40, 50, 100 bucks on a bunch of supplements, this should be one of your supplements. And it's interesting because my tea is in my supplement cabinet, it's not with the rest of the food. And it's not even with the rest of the teas actually, because that's telling my brain, no, this is actually a really powerful therapeutic that is acting as an antioxidant, the whole body, it's protecting my whole system. So that's why I keep it in there 'cause I can look at it and be like, Yeah, alright, I got to take my medicinal today, and then later I'll drink like a nice little chamomile tea or something, but that's my medicinal.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, I didn't tell you this, but when they reached out to me, they mentioned you, in one of the times they reached out and I was like, "Oh my guy, he's given this the green light?" And it just spoke volumes and... Yeah, they're absolutely amazing. And actually, you get 10% off, I created a new thing with them, I don't know if you've got this, 'cause they also... They did like a shipping thing, but the 10% off is more valuable, it's exclusive piquetea.com/model, that's P-I-Q-U-E-T-E-A.com/model 10% off, they're incredible. Matcha, my favorite is the Pu'er. Have you had the Pu'er yet?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Really good.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, the Pu'er.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: I've tried the whole line.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, oh, I love their ginger tea too.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: The turmeric one is really nice too.
Shawn Stevenson: I haven't had that one yet.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: The turmeric, man, you make... That's another anti-inflammatory that I keep in there, the turmeric one. I put a little coconut milk, mix it up, sweeten it a little bit, and I take it right before bed.
Shawn Stevenson: That's a vibe.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: That's a really good one.
Shawn Stevenson: So, their curcumin, obviously anti-inflammatory, but also has some benefits with memory, sleep quality, so good.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Anticancer.
Shawn Stevenson: Anticancer, anti-angiogenesis. So, freaking good. Go to piquetea.com/model. And man, if there's anything I've really leaned in on for reaching out to you and finding out what is the efficacy of this, because I haven't had my finger on the pulse of it for so many years, which is air quality, air purifier, and it was probably about 10 years ago, because prior to moving to LA, I lived out in the woods a little bit, I was living in Wildwood, Missouri, and it's pretty, it's just pretty pristine. We got bambis in our yard every day, we got the wild turkeys, which they are the... If anything, that you need to be worried about, it's the wild turkeys.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: They're savages, yeah.
Shawn Stevenson: Yes, they look like some kind of freaking dinosaurs, they run in a pack and they are not afraid to let you know that it's their street, it's their block. But anyways, but coming out here I'm just like... I couldn't believe the smoke. We know about LA from back in the day with the exhaust and all kind of thing, a lot of that's been cleared up, but when there's these wildfires, I wasn't prepared for anything like that, it was so foreign to me. And so, I started looking into, Okay, what is the optimal air purifier, not just in that context, but just in general, like when we come into the studio or whatever the case might be, and I was like, I know who knows. And I sent you a message to find out, so why should we be a little bit more aware, if not concerned, about air quality indoors right now?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Man, it's a great question. This is like my bread and butter. I love talking about indoor air quality, 'cause it's something that I never looked at, especially even in school, especially working in cancer, especially in a cancer hospital. It's something that's not really even addressed. But then when you start really looking at what is a major driver of chronic disease and cancer? It has a lot to do with what we're exposed to at home. That's the environmental toxins. One of the major things is air quality, particularly not just... We're under this false pretense that outside air is more polluted than indoor air, and maybe sometimes, especially if there's wildfires, but on average... And this is from the EPA, on average, 10 to 100 times more polluted is the air indoors than outdoors, which is wild, 'cause then you're like, "Well, why?" Well, there's different reasons why. One, because we don't always open our windows, but two, because we use cleaning products in there, bleach, Lysol, all those nasties. It's partly connected to cooking, especially with Teflon, all those particles released in the air. Couches, rugs, beds, not to overwhelm anyone, but just to bring that attention that there's a concept of off-gassing.
It's actually a phenomenon that happens. In that off-gassing, those chemicals get into the air, we breathe them in, children, dogs, us, we're all exposed to these things. For me, I don't care if you live in LA or not, it's essential that you have something purifying your air throughout the day, and I have three air purifiers in my home. One, because I suffered with mold a few years ago and I got really, really sick. My mental cognitive health was a mess, that my brain was inflamed, I couldn't remember words, it was bad. And moving into this new place, I could tell there was some musty, moldy smell in one of the closets, so I put an air purifier in there and I put a dehumidifier, never felt the issues again symptomatically. But that's why it's important, it's not just the off-gassing chemicals, it's not just pollution from wildfires coming in particulate matter, it's also the mold aspect. The home is a living environment, we have to not think about it any other way. It's dynamic, there's mold growing, it's going away. There's off-gassing, there's pesticides being tracked in from your dog or your children, and we have resiliency, but something that's really going to help is something like an air purifier.
That's why it's important, especially in the room that you're in the most. So, I would assume that's a bedroom or if you're working from home, maybe an office, keep those air purifiers in there. They're not all created equal, there's different branches of them, but the one that I recommend to you is bang for buck, it's really one of the best top out there.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, actually we have two here at the studio.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: I saw it.
Shawn Stevenson: And the one that... And is clearly, it's clearly superior is the AirDoctor, and it's a little bit more of an investment for it, but it's not just a air purifier but also ionizer faculty as well. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Right, so it has two different components, the ionizer one is one. So, ionizer essentially just breaks down those chemicals and releases them to inert substances. But the HEPA is the big bread and butter for that, that's catching all of them, that's why you have to change the filter, the HEPA filter. But it's catching all that particulate matter, which is really, really, really important, particularly if you're not good about cleaning your home and you're accumulating dust, that's where all those toxins sit. Not only the off-gassing chemicals, but also things like mold spores, they're in the toxins. So, what I tell people is, if you have a child who suffers with allergies or asthma or anything, skin issues or you do, or someone's sick and no doctor can put their finger on it, they go, "We can't find it," you have to look at indoor air quality, you have to. There's no way around it because it's likely that there's something in the home, it is exacerbating symptoms and causing inflammation in your child, or you, or your dog something. So that's why I always go for HEPA. HEPA's really, really important, and the AirDoctor has that capability, and the ionizing is a nice plus on it.
Shawn Stevenson: Perfect, perfect. I wasn't planning on dropping the name, and I know you curved around it too, but I'm going to reach out to the company and see if I can get some kind of a hookup, and if I can, it will be at themodelhealthshow.com/airdoctor and we'll set something up if we can reach out and get connected with them. But outside of that, even beyond that, there are many other air purifiers, filters, but you mentioned just simply opening a window because of the dramatic difference in indoor air quality versus outdoor air quality. Open a window. Get the air circulating. Let's talk about some simple things that people can do, like simply opening a window, what about turning a fan on?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah, exactly. There's some cheap mechanisms out there where you can put them on your window and it'll have the negative pressure bringing air out from the inside, which will be really helpful, maybe you can have that running for 45 minutes to an hour in your home or something. But opening the windows is so important because the air is going to be able to circulate, it's going to be able to blow out, and a lot of us... Man, I had this friend and she was telling me her parents never open the windows, and we're talking about for years, it's just always closed and there's no air flow and there's absolutely mold in the home. For me, I don't understand even in the winter, like when I was back in Jersey and I was learning about this, it was cold, and I remember when I was in college, my mom used to get mad because I used to open the windows and talking about how messing up the heat, but like 40 minutes, I just let the air flow and then close them all up. But we can do that, that's a simple intervention.
Another one is, especially when you're cooking, open up the window or turn on your air purifier. I don't know if you've used yours when you're cooking, but the beautiful thing about the AirDoctor is, a red light will go on when it's exposed to toxins at a higher load than it wants. So almost every time you cook, it'll sense it because the combustion particles are going in the air and it's sensing, and going, "Oh, whoa, okay, I got to clean up. I got to go on elevation mode, I got to go on four out of four." And making sure that you're opening a window, putting on your air purifier, also getting away from non-stick. Non-stick is a really nasty chemical called PFAS, those are the forever chemicals in there. Have you ever seen the movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo?
Shawn Stevenson: I don't think so.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Well, you have to watch it this weekend. You have to watch it, I'm telling you, it is fantastic. And it talks about Teflon and how Dupont had pushed PFAS into the non-stick, but it made a whole town, and I believe West Virginia, really sick, and how they tried to cover it up, and how they tried to pay off people, and how they elevated lawyer fees and just drew out the whole court case, but those PFAS are nasty and they're non-stick pans. So, if you have Teflon, I would highly, highly recommend throwing that away. And then simple things like utilizing non-toxic cleaners. If you're using bleach, stop, because that can cause asthma in your children, not exacerbate, literally create, and cause asthma in your child. If your child has asthma, you have to throw the bleach away, and get a non-toxic cleaner. You can literally make them at home. You can use Castile soap, baking soda. There's borax, there's lemon formulas, there's essential oils, there's so many things you can use. You don't need to spend a million dollars to do this, you can just make simple interventions and the home air is going to be elevated by exponential amounts.
And taking off your shoes. You got to do that. Mom was right, Grandma was right, your aunt was right. Whoever said that was right because there are studies that show you track in pesticides into the home. If you have a dog, and my roommate does, he knows you got to clean that Doberman's paws every time because she's walking around Venice, there's a lot of those nasty chemicals, but also, just all the stuff out there. But there is a study that showed there's an increased risk of cancer by way of your dog’s tracking in pesticides can increase your risk of cancer. And I didn't know this until I spoke to actually a veterinarian, and I was like, "Get out of here." And he's like, "The article made so many people mad," but really, that just shows you one intervention, take two minutes to wash your dog's feet, little Castile soap, little hand wipes or just kitchen towels, it'll go such a long way. But you absolutely can track in all these long chemicals into the home. Also, children, make sure they take off their shoes and... Literally like, taking off your shoes, how much does that cost? Just bringing awareness to that is really powerful.
Shawn Stevenson: I could see where people be pissed off by the dog information, but this is a whole new meaning to get your paws off me.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Get your paws off me.
Shawn Stevenson: But at the same time, you got to keep it in context, like where is your dog traveling. The same thing, it's just the dogs built-in little shoezies, so the same thing with our shoes, if we can do... Just pay attention to things like this, but I want to bring this also back to something that we both say, which is, we want too just... And I love this about you too, like just start with something, do a few of these things, you don't have to do everything, but when we start stacking the odds against ourselves and we just create this such a toxic environment, can we lean back into the Teflon, for example, what should people look to keep an eye on for something that would be better for them to cook with?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah, man. It's a great thing because people are always cooking at home, someone's cooking at home, unless you're just eating out all the time, which I don't know many people do. There's an importance in bringing high quality. So, I did a review on my show of cookware, I need to update it, I've done it... Did it two years ago, but stainless steel, rule of thumb is pretty good. You just want to get a really good quality one, not a cheap, cheap one. You want to get high-quality stainless steel. There is a risk of leaching nickel, but still much better than Tef... I'm talking about much, much better than Teflon. Cast iron, which can be really good, but if you have any iron issues, iron accumulation issues then it won't be good for you. And then ceramic. Now, I have ceramic. The issue about ceramic is, it's hard to cook with it because the food sticks on it and it's hard to clean with it, but I also know they test for heavy metals and its really low toxins, it's a good one. But those are the rule of thumb, like cast iron, ceramic, and stainless steel would be a really good shift to start moving, if you're listening to this and you know you have Teflon and non-stick, and you can make really nice eggs 'cause they're not sticking, but also understand that your eggs are absorbing those PFAS and it's affecting your health.
Shawn Stevenson: Man. Again, everybody, just take one step at a time. I know it could be a lot, but you have the right to know these things, and we tend to accept things as normal just because we grow up around it, but many things would... Like a cast iron, skillet for example, it's been used a long, long, long time. Like, humans figured that thing out but over decades, we're just getting more about convenience, more about we want everything to be a certain way, and what are we sacrificing with our health to get those things. So, I want to ask you about one other of these seemingly inert things, we just accept as normal, which especially today is one of the hottest things on the streets, which is hand sanitizer.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Hand sanitizer, okay.
Shawn Stevenson: Can you talk about that because I brought it up at the beginning of this pandemic that's on everybody's mind today has really taken over our world, and I was concerned about the overuse because it's designed in such a way, especially with these alcohol bases to basically, your hands have a microbiome, it's not just the microbiome of your gut, your lungs have a microbiome, you have a microbiome of your skin as mentioned. What is that going to do to the natural balance that protects you? And so, I put a red flag up when I saw the hand sanitizer is like $100 on Amazon because everybody was buying it up. What's going on there with hand sanitizer, maybe something else we might not think about and need to consider?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah, but that's a massive point though, the microbiome disruption. It's the alcohol and the chemicals in hand sanitizer, they're really affecting that biome. And I remember when I worked in the hospital, everyone would just put their hand under the automatic hand sanitizer and then just... And it was so easy for that to happen, but for me, I was like, I know I'm going to do rounds in this clinic, I'm going to wash my hands instead of just continuously just putting my hand. It's literally every room we would go to, there would be hand sanitizer and it was like... I'm like, what is going on? But I knew that it was going to affect my biome in my hand, but also.
Last year, there was the concern for benzene, a chemical that is found... A carcinogenic chemical that is found in hand sanitizers, not all hand sanitizers, and a lot of the popular ones don't have it, but there was a massive list of companies that had hand sanitizers that are adulterated with benzene. So, I talked about the list a little bit. I named some of them, but really, if... You should look. If people are using hand sanitizers regularly, look online and type in "hand sanitizer benzene", and you'll see it'll be a nice PDF list that came out last year and just cross-reference if your hand sanitizer is on that list, and if it is, move away from it and just get a better quality one. But really there's nothing like just washing your hands with soap. I would highly recommend that. Hand sanitizer is convenient, but if you have the opportunity, just go to the bathroom, wash your hands with soap. It's going to be better for your hand by biome. It's going to be better at not exposing you with potentially carcinogenic chemicals, and it works better. Three things, three reasons why.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. So that's crazy, a carcinogenic compound like that. And in that alcohol format, which is... Alcohol helps to drive things into your skin even better. It's nuts.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: That was the concern. So, if benzene is in there, mixed with alcohol, that's a problem, and that's why... That I was trying to bring light into that is because everyone at the time, everyone was using it, man. You look around, people who just had it, not only in their backpacks anymore, in their pockets, right in the briefcases, right in their car consoles. I was just like, "Damn, hand sanitizer blew up. I should've put stock in hand sanitizer something what happened?"
Shawn Stevenson: So, nuts, man. So, nuts. And it happened so quickly. Well, this gets to something that I really, really want to talk to you about because you're somebody who's operating from this place, which even with the hand sanitizer paradigm that we're existing in right now, it's still driven by a mindset, it's still driven by a thought process, a perspective about a reality that might not be conducive to our health. And for you in your work and it's kind of the undercurrent for everything that you do is really helping folks to realize how powerful our minds are and how much that matters in our health and in our healing. So, can you talk a little bit about why that's a place of emphasis for you and why we need to focus more on this right now?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Yeah, I guess where it began was when I was doing cancer... When I was just in the world of cancer, and I was looking at all of the elements that have to do with cancer, and two major, major elements that weren't talking about in my residency, weren't talked about in school, weren't talked about in the research enough, where the environmental toxins, which we just spoke about. And we spoke about even on the first time we were together. We were like... We were just hammering it down, but the mind-body is the other part of it, and it is a massive, massive driver of disease, not just cancer. And throughout time, the emphasis just grew and grew and grew, and then I understood essentially that the mind-body connection is the whole part of the glacier. It is underwater and the ones we don't see, we just see the physical manifestations, whether it's an acute disease, something that is like chronic, but not really, really making you sick, sick, let's say like a skin condition or really chronic disease where you really sick. It's a major, major root, if not the root, and it is how your mind-body is connected and how you present in your highest authenticity. And that's it, man.
It's like what I found is that almost everyone walking around is holding in this fear that is a fear of judgment, a fear of not being their highest self, and a fear of just knowing what makes them express and expand the most but scared to show that. And I... And whatever it is. Maybe it's you just dancing all the time, or maybe it's just you wearing crazy clothes, but it's really in alignment with your expression of who you want to be. We lost that sense of really trying to express that self and what I found as I started going deeper into the psychology of it is that it happens most of the time when we're young. It happens... We create this adaptation mechanism where at some point... Look, you have a young kid, but even go back to when he was a child, child and how expressive children are. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven years old. They're laughing when they're happy. They're crying when they're sad. They're yelling when they're angry, right? And they're just so curious about the world and they see a plant for what it is. They have no preconceived notions. They have no other experiences. They have plant. Oh, let me move. Wow, rug. Oh, let me move. Wow, ant." And they move through the world in this beautiful, conscious, curious, expansive observation.
We lost that at some point because we adapted differently. At some point, we were told that maybe crying wasn't safe, maybe yelling is not we don't do that in this tribe, in this family, or maybe a teacher said, "You're going to get expelled if you keep doing this," but you're like, "No, wait, but my body is telling me to do this. This is my authenticity." And children are brilliant, man, because they know how to adapt, and they adapt, and they go, "Well, I need to be part of the tribe. That's evolutionary. That's an impulse that I know, and also I need to eat." And children say, "I'm not going to eat if I don't adapt, so I better adapt, so I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to yell. I'm not going to wear these really weird clothes that I love wearing." And then we just change, and then we make this adaptation, and then it becomes part of our personality, and then 25 years later, we think we're this adaptation, but we never were that damn adaptation. It was true at that time, but it's a story that's been holding us and holding us and holding us and not allowing our true expression.
For me, health. Real, real, real health. Deep, deep health. Glacial health, underwater is allowing yourself to move through life in that highest expression of yourself, the truest authenticity, saying and speaking your heart, speaking in love, wearing what you want to wear, saying what you want to say, go work how you want to work, but that's the power in health because to me, whether or not you're suffering with a chronic disease, you are letting... You are letting go of all the shackles that have been holding you down and many times, many times that is the final domino for your health to start regaining. And if someone is out there suffering with chronic diseases, you check the home air even, everyone's done, you've done all the tests, you've gone to every functional naturopathic conventional doctor, it might be something much deeper. It might be that you're not expressing yourself. An expression of self and authenticity is the root for me and my... Everything that I've done, the root for your highest level of health.
Shawn Stevenson: Man. Thank you for that man. I just picked up something really profound there, which is, we have this tendency to be so expressive when we get here on this planet, and it's just... It's our natural instinct to be so, but then we are conditioned to bottle things right now, and what does that do to our health and so much of it is unconscious, but our unconscious is what really runs our life. We're only conscious of a small bit of what's really happening behind the scenes, maybe like 1% or upwards of maybe 10% and so that's where the work really is. If we're talking about getting from here to being the best version of ourselves, is being expressive, is allowing ourselves to say and to do and to express ourselves authentically, but then we get to the place of like, "How do we get from here to there though?" What are a couple of things that people can consider to really help us to tap into that authenticity and to open ourselves up to be more of ourselves?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Very simply ask if the way you're showing up in the world, in situations at work, in love, in family, in fashion, in what you say, if it's rooted in love or fear. If it's a very simple way, and you'll notice that majority of our life is rooted in fear, majority of the way you show up is rooted in fear because you're scared of X reason that you've experienced as a kid or that someone told you is not the way we do things. But if you understand that you can express yourself in love authentically, that's the liberating part.
So, watch, I can go, "Man, I just... My soul is so creative and so expansive, and it just really wants to express itself through freestyle rapping, and I'm like, God, but I'm not a good freestyle rapper, it's so embarrassing, I never want to do it in front of... " Who cares? It's you, honoring your deepest self, the soul can go, "Wow, I just really want to express myself and wear really bedazzled clothing, but like men don't wear that, I can't wear that." But that is you honoring your soul but see how you start feeling when you do little chips away at honoring yourself, honoring yourself then you'll find it's not just fashion, it's not just speaking up, it's not just rapping, it's speaking up and talking to loved ones and... You might have been conditioned to say it's not safe to tell my dad I love him because my dad wouldn't take it well, but you're honoring your soul to speak love. So, if you're able to speak love to a dad who you know ain't going to take it well and still won't take it well, he'd be like, "What are you talking about son, we don't talk like that."
You're still honoring your soul, you have to ask yourself, are you honoring because everyone listening knows deep down inside, very deep what their soul wants to do. How it wants to express itself, and ironically, it's all in love, the soul is going to express itself uniquely in its own right, for every single person, but the root of it is always going to be in love. Which is the most beautiful thing, because imagine, imagine what the world would be in two days, if everyone snap their fingers and goes, "Wait a minute, am I authentically being me, am I rooted in love or fear and am I honoring my soul? No, no, no. Okay, let me make those changes, let's see how the world is, let's see how my relationships are, let's see how better I feel in my damn body." The world would change in two days, there'd be no more war, there'd be no more starvation, there'd be no illusion of separatism, because we'd honor... I'd honor Shawn, you've got the sporty vibe, I love it, but you know, you speak your mind, but you speak it in love and wow, I'm inspired by you. Wow, I feel really good around you, it's your frequency.
Wow, you're reminding me that I have that in me, let me express myself accordingly too, and change the world. And everyone has that capability, but everyone is taught to live in that fear through parents, through authoritative figures, through social conditioning, through media, we've been... We have the odds stacked against us. We also have the conscious awareness now that we can always make that change, and that I'm telling you, man, when you're in that vibration of health, it's really hard to be sick. It's really hard to have your stomach issues that didn't go away for a long time, it's really hard to have skin issues that don't go away for a long time, or whatever it may be, because you're authentically just ah. Your body's like "Thank you", your body's releasing all that crap that you've been holding in for so long, figuratively, and then that's the power of just making that change to me again that's true health.
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. And speaking of honoring, you've honored us by hanging out with us today, it's always a pleasure, man. Can you let folks know where they could check out your amazing podcasts and also where they can check you out on social media as well?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Man, I'm just, just trying to keep up with you, Shawn. To Heal Thyself podcast, and that's on all platforms, the Instagram is doctor.gonzalez and I have the bio and everything's there, the website. Even now we have The Swell Score, which we do supplements and home stuff, we do like even expanding to candles, air filters, but it's a one-stop shop for the healthiest, hand-picked, curated, straight from doctors, nutritionist and scientists putting it all together so it's very, very intentional what we have on there, but it's the best of the best, in my opinion. So that's what we're doing right now.
Shawn Stevenson: Where's that at again?
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: That's at Swell Score, but it's in my LinkedIn bio, on Instagram, you can just go on it and you'll click it and the whole website is there. It's called The Swell Score.
Shawn Stevenson: Perfect, tag Dr. G on this episode and let him know what you thought of this episode and tag me as well, I’m @shawnmodel and truly, man, it's always a joy hanging out with you, I appreciate you so much for hanging out with us.
Dr. Christian Gonzalez: Man, thank you for having me, I appreciate you, my brother.
Shawn Stevenson: Awesome. Dr. Christian Gonzales everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into the show today, I hope got a lot of value out of this, the biggest message because it underpins everything else in our reality, is really understanding the power of our minds and our perspective and honoring ourselves. That's truly where everything in our lives are going to be stemming from, all the actions that we take, the thoughts that we think are rooted in our beliefs about ourselves and our capacity. And being authentic to ourselves, it takes the stress off, it could be stressful leaning into that, but it actually takes the stress off of us when we are suppressing and holding in the things that we believe about ourselves and our voice, and a feeling of empowerment.
And more so than ever, this is the time, I believe that this time in human history is offering us an opportunity to truly step into our power, to step into our voice, to be courageous, not that it's about being unafraid, but to be courageous in speaking up and standing up for ourselves, for our families and for our communities, but it starts with us. So again, heed this call to action, to share your voice, this is not the time for you to sit back on the sidelines and to watch everything unfold and to land us in a place that you're even more unhappy about. This is a time to step up, to speak up, to honor yourself, honor your heart, your soul, listen to your intuition and let that guide you. Do not allow others to oppress you and to put pressure on you to ignore your heart, to ignore your intuition. When you know that what you are speaking up for and standing up for is right, it's with integrity, it's with love, and it's with the intention of making us a more healthy society, a more connected society, a more sovereign society that takes responsibility for our own health and our own bodies.
And what could be more important than that? So, honoring these basic principles, your birth right of freedom, this is a time to speak up and stand up so please honor yourself, honor your heart, be authentically you, and of course, knowing that that is going to spark that same thrust, that same empowerment in other people everywhere that you go. I appreciate you so much for tuning in. We've got some epic shows coming your way very, very soon, so make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, I'll talk with you soon.
And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com, that's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that this show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much and take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.
Other episodes you might be interested:
Maximize Your Energy
Get the Free Checklist: “5 Keys That Could Radically Improve Your Energy Levels and Quality of Life”
Share Your Voice
HEALTHY MEALS EVERYONE WILL LOVE
The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Family is Health
When you gather your family around the table to share nutritious food, you’re not only spending quality time with them - you’re setting them up for success in all areas of their lives.
The Eat Smarter Family Cookbook is filled with 100 delicious recipes, plus the latest science to support the mental, physical and social health of your loved ones.
Great episode! Lot of great information. I am a big fan. I just wanted to point out the mention of using ceramic cookware instead of non-stick. Ceramic pans are not made out of the ceramic that one uses for cups and plates, etc. The “ceramic” used is actually a silicon dip. I’m hoping you actually do a show about this. If anyone can investigate and bring to light the dangers of these various “labeled safe” cookwares, it’s you! Cast Iron and stainless steel cookware, from my own research, seems to be the only safe cookware available. Thanks for all you do!