Three Steps to a Healthier You – Dr. Mike Van Thielen

Mike van

Miriam: [00:00:00] All right guys, I am excited to have with us Dr. Mike Van Theen. He’s from Belgium and he is a treating physician for the Boston Neuro Pain and Psych Centers. We’re just gonna talk through some of the interesting things you’re doing in terms of optimizing health and anti-aging, regenerative medicine. All of its super fascinating. So thank you for giving your time to us today.

You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

[00:00:26] Journey To Medicine

Miriam: My first question what got you interested in medicine initially? And then what got you interested in optimization of health?

I’m obviously not necessarily for conventional medicine. I do quite the opposite. I get people off medications. I, I help people regain control of their health, optimize their health. And then, you know, today I’m basically known as a biohacking, mentor

so I speak at a lot of biohacking conferences and the aging conferences, those types of things. And I mentor people. , to get there because most people are obviously in ill health.

But it [00:01:00] all started in Belgium. I was a competitive swimmer. I’m still swimming today. Um, and so got exposed to supplements and those types of things.

, but I went to school, physical education at University of Brussels, which was fun because I went to sports. But what are you gonna do with, , the green physical education? Not much. So I decided to do physical therapy afterwards, and that’s how I got to the United States because they were short of therapists.

And that happened after I traveled with the Belgian Olympic swim team in preparation for the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

Holistic Nutrition

So I came in as a physical therapist and then, gradually I saw the benefits of what they call alternative medicine, which is the original medicine, of course. But I saw the benefits of, you know, combining conventional medicine with food therapy and acupuncture and chiropractic, et cetera.

So I decided to go back to school, to the College of Integrative Medicine. I got my, acupuncture license. Doctor of Oriental medicine, port certified in Chinese, herps, homeopathy, and all that stuff.

After another thousand patients, I realized that these procedures are less harmful and [00:02:00] less invasive than conventional medicine, meaning drugs and surgeries.

But I really didn’t feel I was getting the long lasting results either. So I had to go back to basics and I got my PhD in holistic nutrition

[00:02:11] Regain Control

Miriam: and then fast forward to today, I mentor people. Basically in three steps regain control of their health.

Balance their body and make sure there’s no pain or no medical conditions in other words, get back to normal.

The next step is optimize their health. , now we wanna be strong and vital and energetic and and being optimal health.

And then the last step, which is very interesting, is once you’re in optimal health, we can help you basically maximize the benefits of what we call biohacking, which is objectively reverse your biological age. And that’s my field of expertise.

So that’s what I do.

Wow, that’s a mouthful. What I have seen with certain health conditions is that, sometimes it’s a bit of a mystery and, you know, people will have a lot of [00:03:00] non-descript symptoms, , often fatigue, huge amounts of fatigue.

And the question is what’s going on?

And when you go to, say, a traditional m. , I have not found them to be particularly helpful with the nondescript symptoms.

A lot of times they’ll say, you know, reduce your stress, get better sleep. Why don’t you go see a therapist? Yeah. . And, I appreciate the, the space of integrative health.

Can you just describe a little bit about what is happening with medicine in America today?

Big Pharma

Well, it’s, it’s never been great, right? Because again, I mean it’s the big pharma that decides what the curriculum is for our doctors.

It’s the big pharma, pharma that lobbies.

It is a big business. They want you to be on drugs. They want you to get injections and surgeries, but they don’t want you to be cured because then, , you’re not a customer anymore and they don’t want you to die either, because then you’re not a customer either.

So it’s being in, in the system, and I, I see it every day. People are in the [00:04:00] system, they’re on the list of medications. It’s just a vicious cycle of more and more problems.

That’s why I’m an advocate of the Health Freedom Movement is people need to take control of their own health and make their own decisions.

[00:04:12] Find The Solution

Miriam: You mentioned that you know, conventional doctors usually don’t have a solution.

They don’t because they have a very, very small toolbox, and if medicines or injections on surgeries can help, they say, you know, there’s nothing out there. They’re not aware of the. Hundreds of thousands of other things that are out there that could help somebody. Cuz as long as you’re alive, , Miriam, , your body will try to heal itself.

It’s the law of self-preservation. Your body’s gonna do whatever, but it’s up to us to put that body in the correct or in the right condition so that it can heal itself. So we need to figure out, What tools does it need? Right?

And, , usually no matter what clients come to me with or what condition or diagnosis, it doesn’t really matter because to me, there’s only one cause of disease and therefore there’s only one solution.

And that solution always works. And so we need to look at the much [00:05:00] bigger picture when we are trying to resolve an issue of fatigue, as you said, and, and, and not gonna chase the symptoms

so what is your philosophy of the one, the one issue and the one solution?

Toxemia is the cause of all the, all disease, and toxemia literally means toxins in the blood, but in a little bit more detail, what it means is as part of our daily life and metabolism, we obviously create toxins and waste products in our body, but our body eliminates those, so no harm is done.

Toxemia

However, today in our society with all the pollutants and even electromagnetic frequencies, radiations the manmade foods and drinks, we ingest and are exposed to far more toxins than the body possibly can eliminate.

So now there’s an accumulation of toxins in the body, and that’s really what toxemia means.

And toxemia does two things. Number one, it causes free radicals to spawn, it causes free radical damage. And we all heard about free radical damage, right? , causes damage on A [00:06:00] D N A level. And the reason why it does that, because those toxins that are now not eliminated, but flowing around, they’re stealing an electron from a healthy atom.

And that healthy atom then becomes unstable, which we call a free radical.

So that’s number, number one.

Number two, when those toxins are floating around, our body is in a constant state of emergency. And in conventional medicine, they label that as systemic inflammation.

And even according to conventional medicine, now systemic inflammation is responsible for over 90% of all disease.

It’s actually a hundred percent right? So systemic inflammation is a, you know, an emergency situation. And so when that happens, You know, we get diseased, right? Because the body cannot take care of what needs to be taken care of. It always has to put out fires. So this toxemia causes free radical damage, systemic inflammation, the cause of all disease.

Keep It in Check

So if we don’t wanna get disease, we need to control or check toxemia. And so theoretically it’s, it’s pretty simple because what we need to do is we need to reduce [00:07:00] the intake and exposure to toxins while increasing the nutrients that fight theoretical damage.

Repair DNA and fight systemic inflammation, and if we can keep the toxemia in check, we will be disease free.

All right. So I agree with you in theory about everything except the, um, well, you said in theory it’s

pretty simple. I’m gonna go with, it’s simple, but it’s not easy. I have read quite a few books on all of these sorts of things.

And I’m like, yes, yes. This makes sense. You know? It’s so hard.

[00:07:36] Our Freedom

Dr Mike: The reason it’s not easy because we have become slaves of making the wrong choices. See, that’s what separates us from animals. , animals have an instinct and they act according to the laws of mother.

They in their best interest and in the best interest of their species.

But we, we humans, we have the freedom to choose our response and we have become slaves of using, of choosing the wrong response over and over again, which just [00:08:00] has put us in ill health, right?

Yeah. Um, so. We are addicted to food and drink and sugar and, and you know, , now even social media, which gives us a dopamine overload and those types of things.

But, luckily we have that same freedom to choose our response, to turn it all around and stop all that nonsense and regain control of our health and become superhuman.

And that’s, Possible today. So I agree with you, it’s, it is easy because I know exactly what would need to be done. It’s not easy because we are addicted. , you know, to so many foods and things out there,

the, the thing that people need to realize is we can turn those bad habits around into good habits in just a few weeks, because once you’re healthy, you get addicted to feeling not fatigued, feeling full of energy and vitality.

And not no brain fog and focusing and getting things done and getting the project done and, and crushing a sales [00:09:00] presentation or whatever it may be. And that becomes the addiction.

So I’m with you, but at the same time, it doesn’t take that much effort and time to turn things around.

[00:09:10] Accountability

Miriam: Yeah. Where, where I think that people get stuck, is that some people do not have maybe accountability – you almost need to like sign up for a detox bootcamp to get you through the withdrawals of the sugar or whatever.

I, as you listen to people talk about health, longevity, it always seems to come down to sleep, exercise, nutrition, and then, you know, perhaps supplementation and stuff like that.

And they seem to feed each other in recidivistic positive way or negative way. You know, when you don’t get enough sleep, you’re super cranky and so much more willing to eat, you know, the sugar for the boost and it’s like, ah, I don’t feel like going out.

Dr Mike: That Or a vicious cycle up. Yeah. . I wanna talk through Like the beginning person who doesn’t do anything for their [00:10:00] health, where do they need to start? The person in the middle who really does a lot of healthy habits, but you know they can optimize toward the next thing.

Miriam: And then the person who is at the top of their game. What is it that they need to be paying attention to?

So start, with the people who are doing nothing.

Well, those are the three phases

we’ll figure out where they are, which phase they are. And unfortunately the majority is in the first phase, right? Because they’re overweight or they’re in pain. Or they have some diagnosis and we gotta get rid of that first. , but for those people, there’s some basics.  I wrote a book in 2014 called Help for Life User Manual because all your appliances and your cars, everything comes with a user manual.

But when you were born, you don’t have a user manual.

[00:10:40] User Manual

Miriam: So I decided to write a user manual with all the. Basics on, you know, on the basics of eating, but not just eating. Um, you know, I got clean living principles and clean stands for C stands for control emotions and Feelings

All those negative emojis have a detrimental impact on our health. So that’s something that, , that we teach. ,

l stands for listening [00:11:00] to the warning signs of our body, but most of our warning signs, they’re out of sync because we have been, you know, tampering with this system.

You know, our biological clock is off, , and we have diseases, so it’s not working right, but we gotta get back to balancing that so we can listen to the body, because the body will tell you what it needs. At any given time,

E stands for enough rest, sleep, and sunshine. You know, it’s, it’s light and rest. We, you just talked about that A stands for active lifestyle, but no over indulgences or No over stimulation.

And N stands for natural and clean air, water, and food. So those are the basics, right?

And so, Everybody goes at their own pace. Basically in my book, my last chapters are always action plans and they have checkoff boxes and so you don’t have to do everything at once. It doesn’t work as you know.

That’s like too much of a change, too much of a transformation.

Continue Working

Yeah. But you’d start with one thing and you check it off when you did it, and then you go to the next thing.

And some people make that transformation in 60 days. Another take a [00:12:00] whole year. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you’ll continue to work on implementing and making those transformations, you will be successful.

Yeah, as someone who works with, behavioral health you definitely need a roadmap and you have to just do the stuff, take action.

I think where sometimes people get discouraged is, for many people, it’s not a linear just straighten up to the right.

It’s more of like a w you know, where Sure. Three steps forward and two back.

What have you seen as being the difference in men and women as they approach this health journey?

[00:12:38] Changing Habits

Dr Mike: Well, , I see many, , changes, , differences in individuals.

, not necessarily women and men, but if I have to say something, I think when women put their mind some to something, , they usually are more committed. , I see men are usually pushed towards doing something like they are pushed going to the doctor. Guys in general don’t want to go to the [00:13:00] doctor, right?

So it’s their wife or their girlfriend, or significant other. It’s time that you go, I don’t want to hear it anymore. Right? ? but usually it’s more of an individual thing.

You talked about behavior and behavior modification, right? So in order, there’s three components to be, I mean, to change a habit.

, number one, there needs to be knowledge. You know, you gotta know you have a problem, and then you gotta know what to do about it.

Number two is skill. You gotta acquire the skills.

. But the third component is willingness, right?

Yeah. The willingness has to come from the client, has to come from you. And so in the past, for example, I, I did, I had a good stop smoking protocol. It was 95% successful because I did not accept the people that I interviewed that I know wouldn’t succeed. That’s why the high success rate, you know, why do you wanna stop smoking?

Your Why

Oh, my wife’s tired of me. Well, I can’t help you. Mm-hmm. , why do you wanna stop smoking? Well, I’m getting a day older and, , I just got two grandkids and I want to see them grow up and I’m, I want them, I wanna be there when they [00:14:00] get married. Okay. I can help you, right? Yes. So what is, what is the reason behind you wanting to be helped?

And if it’s a sincere personal reason, we can help you. Um, and so that’s usually where the individual, , differences lies. Why do you want to change? And, and, and, and how committed are you? Because I can help you. I can coach you, I can give you the knowledge and the skills, but ultimately I can’t do your pushups.

Miriam: That’s right. I, I say to my kids all the time, ah, I wish I could hire someone to work out for me. .

Dr Mike: Yeah.

What you are learning about. Um, The psychology of pain, the neurophysiology of pain, and then how all of these optimizations impact that.

Because sometimes we run across folks that have chronic pain that isn’t, you know, , as straightforward as, you know, some other things, I guess.

Yeah. Acute

pain usually goes away, right? Sprained the ankle. You do something about it, you rest and, and [00:15:00] things go away. Chronic pain, obviously, you know, the, the acute, the acute inflammation is no longer there.

But your pain receptors have changed, so your brain perceives still that there is something going on, even though we really don’t see anything but degeneration or maybe some scar tissue, which shouldn’t cause that high level pain, but the brain perceives it that way, so the patient perceives it that way.

Reprogramming

Right? So that’s kind of a reprogramming. So that brain needs to be reprogrammed, which there’s many things that we can do to actually do that.

On the other hand, much of the chronic pain is that systemic inflammation that we talked about, right? Because it’s the inflammation. Causes the pain is the inflammation that causes a low immunity.

It’s the inflammation that causes, , you know, , obesity, right? , so that’s a vicious cycle too. When the body is inflamed, you know, your fat cells are gonna. Um, excrete more cytokines, which are pro-inflammatory. So it’s a vicious cycle. So when I, when I have a client that needs to lose weight, I’m not [00:16:00] focusing on weight loss, I’m focusing on reducing that systemic inflammation, which we can objectively measure with a blood test.

We just send them for some C r p creactive protein, see what the levels are. We implement, , dietary changes or modifications, and six weeks, six months later, we do that blood test again. And if. If the C R p or the inflammation in the body drastically reduced, we not only know, , that , that person now is far less prone to getting any disease, so weight loss to me, again, it’s, it’s, I, I don’t approach it at losing weight. I approaches it. Let’s get the information in your body down, let’s get you healthier. And as a side effect or adverse reaction, you will lose that weight and it stays off unlike any other diet because we address the cause of the excess weights and , not the symptoms.

Organic Food

Makes sense. How would you, speak to or address maybe people who do not have access to what you would call clean foods or for example, [00:17:00] the smaller the town you go into, the less options you have about organic food or varieties and different things.

Some of these inner city places or people who don’t maybe have the resources, how would you say, you know, if money is an issue, where do people start with this?

[00:17:19] Hunger Vs. Appetites

Dr Mike: Yeah. There’s two things I wanna

address here because, you know, I, I always get organic food. I can’t afford it, okay? Mm-hmm. , there’s a few things that I usually explain. Number one, we’re only supposed to eat one good meal a day. That’s just, , biological and physiological factor. Romans, the Greek, Jesus, Moses, all animals in the wild only eat once a day or digestive system, biologically and physiologically.

It’s only designed to have one meal a day.

But we confuse hunger with appetites. And again, there’s, there’s our propaganda.

We need to have breakfast because we need milk and milk mix our bone groves and we need to have food and we need to eat to stay strong. And then we have the gym rats that says, oh, we need, we have a high metabolism. We need to eat five or six [00:18:00] small meals per day, which is all bogus. Right. So, so we only really need one need to eat one meal a day.

And when we put that in our current society, that should be early evening because our digestion takes several hours. And we don’t wanna be digesting when we’re sleeping because when we sleeping, we need to repair, regenerate, renew, right?

Um, so if we eat a meal early evening, we digest it, then go to sleep in the morning, we should have all the energy in the world. Because we have all the nutrients from that, , meal and we are repaired, renewed, and ready to take on the day.

One Meal

So ideally we only eat one meal a day. And you won’t be hungry unless you confuse appetite for hungry because you’re gonna give your body all the nutrients that it needs. And if it, if you give your body all the nutrients that it needs, then it’s not gonna send the hunger signal. It’s only when you eat empty calories.

If you only eat that burger it digests, then you’re gonna be hungry again because your body didn’t get the vitamin, see it, didn’t get the [00:19:00] omega3, and therefore it’s gonna say, dang. I need, I need more food. And so it’s gonna continue. The, the, the worse you eat, the more you’re going to eat because you’re gonna continue to have those hunger signals.

So when it comes back to the money, you know, one, one more expensive meal versus three or four cheap meals is gonna end up being the same amount of money. Okay. Yeah, so that’s the first thing to consider. It’s redirecting your spending, number two, when you are in those areas where you can get to get organic food.

Yeah, I would say, you know, I mean, if you have a yard, I mean, there’s aquaponics, hydroponics. You can grow a lot of things inside your home now too, right? It doesn’t even have to be. Um, out there. So there’s, there’s different options you can consider for sure. So those are cheap options, but now you gotta put in time, right?

Learning Curve

You gotta make sure you, you care for your herbs and your plants and your vegetables, whether it’s aquaponics, hydroponics, or just in your yards. , but in those remote areas, there’s less [00:20:00] pollution. So your ground, , may be much better, , to produce healthy vegetables than, than closer to the cities where all the pollution.

Miriam: Yeah, I would say that that is, um, , the easier said than done. And it takes some practice. As one who tried to grow some things several years in a row and the dog ate it or you know, whatever. I do have a hydroponic thing going now, and it’s going better than anything yet, but it takes, there’s a learning curve to all of this, you know?

It is, and I think that’s part of the adventure. I. Pooing people are talking about their health. They get so overwhelmed or discouraged by their apparent failures. And I like to say to people, yeah, but look back this year versus last year, and if this year was healthier than last year, than you’ve won. And next year can be healthier even still.

[00:20:52] Success

Dr Mike: So any success is in incremental steps. . Every success is little step by little step. And if you set [00:21:00] those little steps, you can attain them and then you get much faster to your big goal. You don’t wanna take big steps because you’re not gonna be able to. Yeah.

Miriam: Yeah, absolutely. There’s been so many developments that are pretty exciting in the biohacking sphere. Mm-hmm. from then till now, I mean, it’s. Going crazy. Talk about a couple things that you’re excited about in the biohacking world. Well,

Dr Mike: yeah, I, I, first, I always was what I call on the edge of medicine. So, you know, in the early two thousands it was the alternative medicine, the bioidentical hormones.

You know, the lasers, the acupuncture, the Chinese herbs, and then it came into, then the A four M, the,, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine started doing a lot of conferences. So, I went there and learned everything, and then regenerative medicine came. So, from 2015 till Covid started, I was a c e O of a stem cell clinic where we did regenerative procedures.

So that was. You know, stem cells are the future of medicine, and it still is. [00:22:00], but now we’re in the biohacking era. And biohacking, you know, basically means we, we, we, me and you, the, the average person has access to technologies, compounds,, that are objectively or can objectively reverse your biological age.

Hydrogen

So, the hundreds can be the new 30. And I believe that to be true. But, but first you gotta regain control of your health. Then you gotta be in optimal. And only then can we take advantage of these biohacking techniques? Right. And, and some of these techniques go back to those foundational things that you talked about.

You know, water. All right. So for example, at home I have a,, hydrogen gas infused water system. So, it, it, it cleans my water because I don’t want all the toxins from the tap water, right? But it also infuses it with hydrogen gas. It has an outlet so the oxygen can go out so it doesn’t bind back to water.

But if you go to hydrogen studies.com. There’s so many benefits to hydrogen for the [00:23:00] brain, for the gut. I mean, a lot of my clients have,, gluten intolerances, dairy intolerances, celiac disease, which supposedly is genetic, which it is. But again, if you know about epigenetics, which means is we can change that, right?

It doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about it.

I have a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at my home. I do far infra-red sauna. I do cryotherapy cold baths, which doesn’t have to cost anything. You just cost standing on a cold shower, or I got a chest freezer that I bought secondhand so it doesn’t have to cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

Next Phase

Um, you know, and I take. I take biohacking compounds, right? And so when I have my clients, I just see where they are and I, I don’t have my own products, I don’t have my own technologies, but I know what’s out there, so I advise each and every individual client or how they would benefit in that particular phase to move to the next phase.

I talk to a lot of patients and so it’s, you learn a lot talking to people. [00:24:00] There’s such an excess amount of people with anxiety, depression, a D H D, right?

And so, , in my next upcoming book, I talk about a dopamine overload because that’s plaguing us, right? And about purpose of life. I’ve been thinking why are these people and, and even young people amongst us so depressed and anxious and worry and fear, because they don’t have any purpose in life. You know, everything’s thrown at them. They know they don’t know where they’re going.

They know, know what they’re doing.

Passion

I would be depressed too. So I’m really helping anybody first find their purpose in life because society pushes us one direction, meaning you gotta go to. You gotta go to college, you gotta get a job and work for somebody till you’re 65. Then you gotta buy an rv.

Hopefully you didn’t have a stroke yet so you can enjoy the last few years. They called the golden years that society. But then we have our parents and our teachers, our parents. If dad’s a lawyer wants you to go to law school. If mom failed medical school, she wants to leave [00:25:00] vicariously to you and send you to medical school.

And so nobody asks you what do you want to do? And so we need to really sit down and ask, am I doing. What I like to do, what I’m passionate about, and unfortunately, most people don’t know or say, no, I’m not doing what I’m passionate about.

So we need to change that.

[00:25:19] Purpose of Life

Dr Mike: Once we know what their purpose in life is. It sets the stage, it’s their goals and dreams. And when you wake up every morning with a plan and a strategy and you know that the finish line is there, it doesn’t matter if there’s a hurdle because we are gonna attack it instead of throwing up our arms and saying I can’t do this.

It’s not meant to be. Why is the world against me and get depressed and anxious and not knowing what’s going on?

number one, purpose of life.

Number two, a plan and a strategy, and then we can attack those obstacles and worry, fear, anxiety, all of that stuff goes away.

Having somebody like myself that, knows the pitfalls and can help you with your plan and [00:26:00] strategy, and also has an inner circle and knows which people that you may need to reach your highest potential.

Because I came here without a mentor and, got knocked down so many times.

Miriam, you have no idea. But that’s why I came strong and my motto, became, I never lose -I win or a learn. Yes.

And so every time I got knocked down, I learned something and I did it again and again, but it took me quite some time. So I wanna help people not taking a shortcut, but say, oh, don’t do this.

There’s a pitfall.

And the last decade I had like-minded people around me. I have people around me that are mentors for me in certain areas, because I know my weaknesses. And so

We can talk about medicine and we talk about therapy and we talk about supplements, but most of the anxieties, stress and all that is simply we don’t have a purpose in life.

Yeah.

Technology

You know, one thing that I think that is very difficult about what you are saying, I coach a bunch of therapists who [00:27:00] see kids like this all the time, and part of the problem is they don’t even have the will to figure out what their purpose is. I mean, I really appreciate your passion and your energy as you’re talking about that.

And I’m thinking, man, I wish I could put him in a room with some of these kids. These kids are there because their parents make them come there and they’re on their phones twenty four seven. Mm-hmm. .

Every time I am around. Someone with a little person, like a really little person in a stroller, I’ll pass them wherever that kid is on a phone and they’re under two, they’re not even verbal yet, Stacey.

Right. And they’re on a phone and I’m like, what is that doing to their brain? With this dopamine overload, yes. It feels a little like, which comes first in terms of the chicken or the egg? It seems to me. That you have to address that. At the same time as you’re addressing someone’s purpose, at some point you have to say, Hey, will you get off this device and actually get into the world that you [00:28:00] live in?

Yes. And most of ’em say, meh. And what do you do with that?

[00:28:05] Don’t Settle For Ordinary

Dr Mike: We we’re back to that willingness, but sometimes it’s not their, but sometimes it’s not their fault. So we gotta, we gotta show them the alternative. Right. Because they don’t have an alternative. They don’t see it.

High school students, they listen. , it’s like, look, what was your, what was your super. Or what superpower did you want it when you were a kid? What were the dreams about who you wanted to be? Because at that time, you knew without a doubt in your mind that you could be that person, or you could have those superpowers until somebody told you, most likely your parents, that’s impossible.

And that’s when we settled for ordinary, right? Yeah. So, so we need to kind of go back and say, what were your dreams? Who did you want to be? And kind of make ’em remember those things. That would be my first step. The second step would be just ask ’em, who’s your idols? Who are your idols on this world?

of course it’s probably gonna be some kind of rapper that is really not talented, or [00:29:00] it’s gonna be some N b A player that’s, that’s entitled. , but anyways, there are idols, right? So, so then it’s like, okay, would you wanna be that person? Right? They’re probably gonna say yes because you let them tell ’em who you, who their idol was.

Well, you’re not gonna get that by doing what you’re doing now.

Make a Choice

This is how you get there. Let me show you. You don’t have to do anything, but let me show you on how those people get there. Right? And so that’s the way, probably how would kind of go from step by step again, is, is let ’em see another option.

And eventually they still have to make a choice.

But once they make the choice to go this way, we can guide ’em that way. Um, but yeah, you gotta educate ’em on what dopamine overload is, right? Where, you know dopamine is the reward hormone, right? So when your brain squirts a little dopamine, it feels good like having a pet on your back.

That’s why people reach for sugar. That’s why people reach for energy drinks and coffee. But that’s also why we are now on social media because if somebody likes your posts, if somebody hearts your [00:30:00] Instagram picture or somebody likes your comments, it’s that squirt of dopamine and we like it, so we are gonna seek more of it.

And that’s the addiction to social media. But what does dopamine overload mean? We have five intelligence hormones, dopamine. Serotonin, epinephrine nor epinephrine and acetylcholine. And when we wanna focus and produce at maximum potential, those five hormones need to be balanced and at, and an optimal range.

Dopamine Overload

But when there’s a dopamine overload, it means like, it means that those five intelligent hormones are out of balance because there’s an overload of dopamine. And, and that results in what? In brain fog. Fatigue. Lethargy. Lack of focus easily distract. Can do your homework, procrastinating, fidgeting, and you keep naming it.

And so it becomes a vicious cycle because then they’re gonna reach out to more sugar and more energy drinks and more of it, right? So the first thing is, again, is for them being aware and having the knowledge that that’s what’s causing the [00:31:00] fatigue and the brain fog.

We can put things in place that don’t cost money. , You know, , eliminate those distractions. If you gotta do your homework or work on a project, you gotta designate a certain area in your office or your house. You tell people not to disturb you, you put your phone on airplane mode, put it in a different room.

There’s several techniques that work for some people don’t work for others.

[00:31:21] Techniques

Dr Mike: An example, a known example, is the Pomodoro technique where you, you know, have no distractions. Your phone is another room, but you have a timer. You work 20 minutes focused, the timer goes off. You have a five minute break. You can go out, you can check your phone, you can walk the dog, whatever.

But at five minutes, not 4 59, not 5 0 1, you go back in 20 minutes again and you can do four or five cycles of that. So there’s many tips and strategies that we can implement to avoid those distractions and actually get some work done. On the other hand, there are some nootropics, which means natural supplements that really help with balancing, those five intelligence hormones, optimizing [00:32:00] them and getting you, you know, helping you getting into the zone.

And so, That’s one of the things that I take, when I need to perform. You know, unlike smart drugs like Adderall, because A, all of kids are reaching out to Adderall too. Adderall seems to work, for what it’s designed for. I never took it. I just hear it works, but I cannot recommend anything that increases your blood pressure.

Increases your risk for heart disease, causes,

psychosis and maybe personality disorders in the long run, right? So that’s why a person like me looks for natural alternatives that can really help you focus on getting things done. And so I’m taking a supplement called Focus Plus, which is all natural, that has four neuro agents.

Mike’s Passion

That work in 30 seconds is very safe, no jittery effects, no adverse reactions, and get you in the zone for about six hours. So many golfers top athletes, CEOs, business people, and people with anxiety, depression, A D H D, that can concentrate, benefit from these types of things. [00:33:00] Yeah.

Okay. Where do you come by your passion and enthusiasm?

Well, I always like to help people, but I’m one of those, People that tries things themselves and many things that are advertised out there, as you know, they don’t work, right. So I gotta test things for myself, give things to my friends, see what they think, and when it’s something that can help humanity or people.

Again, usually there are tools that your regular doctor doesn’t have. Then it’s something that I will promote or, recommend to other people.

Like if you go to my website, I don’t, I don’t sell anything myself except my mentorship programs. But, but I’ll recommend many things.

I have a shop on my website, but those are links to, certain technologies or devices that I personally use. I won’t recommend anything else.

Where to Find Mike

Mike, thanks so much just for this time, why don’t you share it with our listeners where they can find. Course it’ll all be in the show notes too.

Yes. The best thing is my website. It’s mvt mike van [00:34:00] mvt online.com or even easier to biohacking unlimited.com.

Same website. My seven eight books are there. My speaker bio is there. You can get now until it’s full, you can get a 20 minute free zoom call with me. We just talk about where you are, what your goals are, and see if there’s a mentorship program that you may be interested in. Reach out anytime. I’m always here to help.

Awesome. This was great.

You’re welcome. Thank you. Anytime.

End Credits

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Music by Tom Sherlock.

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