WEBVTT
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What we know, like from a evolutionary standpoint, is that we belong as part of a tribe.
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We are an ecosystem, we are a dynamic, connected ecosystem, and if you are resonating as part of a community and you felt seen, you feel purposeful within that community, that is having a direct impact on your hormones, on your neurotransmitters, on your serotonin, on your dopamine, on your oxytocin.
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This is not just psychology, it's you know living biochemistry.
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Arguably, longevity is a side effect from, you know, of a life where you can repair and regenerate better.
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So we should be looking at how we repair and regenerate better and enabling time for that.
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Take 10 minutes off and breathe.
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And the change in your breath changes up your blood biochemistry.
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That is recharge.
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And I think we should encourage that a bit more.
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We are live from the 2025 Longevity Summit at the Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas.
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And today our guest on the podcast is Dr.
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Tamson Lewis.
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Dr.
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Tam is a physician and longevity specialist with over two decades of clinical experience across hospital medicine, integrative health, and personalized prevention.
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Trained in both conventional and functional medicine, she brings a pioneering lens of bioharmony, recognizing that physiology and psychology and environment interact as one dynamic system.
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For Dr.
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Tam, longevity is not the destination, but the natural outcome of a life well lived, with balance, courage, and vitality.
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Her work is driven by a die-hard motivation to see people flourish physically, emotionally, and in their fullness of their human potential.
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Dr.
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Lewis, welcome so much to our podcast.
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It's a pleasure to be here.
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I'm very glad that you're here.
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So, Dr.
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Tiem, I'm gonna call you Dr.
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TM, tell me uh about the journey that brought you to the place where you believe that emotional health is one of the most important factors in longevity.
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It's something that's not talked about enough.
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Yes, that's exactly why I'm trying to talk about it and break through some molds.
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I would say obviously, my background is training in psychiatry postgraduate when I was a medical doctor.
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And I realized that the specialty that gave me the most opportunity to spend time with patients was actually psychiatry.
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And I developed this sort of brain-based approach to health, given that the brain is the central governor and that you know everything from the brain determines behavior, determines what we do, and behavior, like the sum of the the total sum of our behaviors in a day, add up to creating, you know, health span and longevity, right?
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And many people have, all of us have to some degree, you know, um self-soothing behaviors, sabotaging behaviors, whether it be eating or staying up late or workaholism or gym scrolling.
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There you go.
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Anything, you know, it's it's hard work to sort of stay above the addictive environment that we we live in.
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So what seems to matter most is, you know, your harmony with which you go through life, your nervous system, how regulated you can be under the face of stress, how you can buffer stress in life.
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So um I've I've sort of used my experience as a former psychiatrist, but also as a professional athlete where I put myself in a lot of very, you know, hard situations and developed a lot of resilience.
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Also a survivor of some degree of childhood trauma, which many people are, and you know, have used um my journey and what I've learned, lived experiences, as you said, to really help and support others with kindness, compassion, and you know, authentic, you know, truth about being what being human means and how we can influence it.
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Right.
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That's interesting.
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When I was in medical school, psychiatry was probably my favorite rotation.
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And uh, for a minute I thought maybe I'd go into psychiatry.
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I went to family medicine, which is a little bit broader scope.
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But you know, I think that there's just something really beautiful when you can spend time with people talking to them about their thoughts and their feelings and really digging deeper.
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And I love that the integrative medicine world um not only supports um or is focusing more on emotional resilience, but can integrate, you know, not just the mind but the body and the spirit all together.
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And you know, I think about longevity in the current context where it's become very popular in the medical world and it's a buzzword, and everyone is doing whatever they can to, you know, achieve longevity.
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But I think about my grandmother, who lived to be 103 and didn't do much.
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She came from Cuba uh in the 60s, uh, maintained a close connection with Cuban friends that lived in Miami, volunteered till she was 95, continued her diet, but I think that relationally and emotionally, she wrote a lot of poetry, she read a lot of books, she appreciated nature.
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So I think that she really had a very beautiful life in community and in relation to others.
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And we know that community is such an important part of cultivating longevity, like as we see in the blue zones.
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Yeah, I think what we know, like from an evolutionary standpoint, is that we belong as part of a tribe, right?
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We are more than the sum of parts.
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We need to, you know, part of our role of being on this earth of being human is to help co-develop the it doesn't seem like this sometimes because many people are hellburned on destroying the earth, but actually we are an ecosystem, we are a dynamic, connected ecosystem.
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And if you are resonating as part of a community and you felt seen, you feel purposeful within that community, that is having a direct impact on your hormones, on your neurotransmitters, on your serotonin, on your dopamine, on your oxytocin.
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This is not just psychology, it's you know, living biochemistry, which I don't think enough people talk about this whole connection between the dynamic play between how we relate to our environment and to each other and how that impacts our biochemistry, our hormonal systems.
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It's not just about what you take, it's about how your system influences how you know hormones work in your body, but also how you can naturally change your hormone levels by changing how you relate to and with others.
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And that often takes work.
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Yes, and I think especially in the way that the world is currently with our very modern and brushed world, you know, we don't sit time to eat, spent spend time sitting and eating with our families.
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We don't gather around tables like you know, generations passed for many hours.
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And I even with my own family, I you know, would see these long dinners with my parents' friend groups, they were all immigrants, and they would spend hours around the table just talking and laughing and digesting.
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And, you know, that does release a lot of really good, feel-good hormones.
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And so I think that that's a lost art that it's worth cultivating again.
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I think the problem is we the way we live our life has accelerated so much.
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We are obsessed with achieving and creating.
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And actually, sometimes I think about the Mexican fisherman's story.
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Look at it, look it up.
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But, you know, what is true, what does it mean to be truly happy and engaged with life?
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And I think we're so obsessed with the small wins, you know, the hacks, the the dopamine drive of our day that, you know, it seems like it's a i it's excessive to want to spend hours having a lunch, just you know, chewing the fat as it were.
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But this is this is, you know, we have fast-forwarded years of evolution um by this, you know, that we can't keep up with our life and the lights and all the artificial nature, and we're forgetting to do the things that our biology actually gives us.
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That we were made to do.
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Yeah.
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I remember when I was writing my book, I did a lot of research on um tribal living.
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And what I what I saw, and I'm sure you've read this as well, is that uh in in in most tribes or in specific tribes, the ones that I was studying, um, the men would go and hunt for two to three hours a day, very intense, right?
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So high sympathetic nervous system at that point reaction.
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Um and then the women would stay most of the day in community doing their work together, taking care of the children together.
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And and then when the men would get done, they would stay in community with the men and the women would be doing all of their work the whole day within community.
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So you're you're just constantly supported.
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Or if there's this sympathetic drive, it's only for a few hours.
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It's not 24-7 like it is now.
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So, can you talk a little bit more about the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system and how we're in hyperdrive and how we can balance it?
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Maybe some easy things that people can start working on, because it can feel overwhelming, right?
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If you're consuming social media, um because you feel like you have to do so many things.
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There are these memes of women that are trying to check everything off.
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You know, drink their water, do their deep breathing, eat their protein, do all the you know, all the strength training.
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It it just feels like so much.
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It it is.
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And one of the reasons I've sort of coined this term bioharmony is a sort of counterposition to biohacking, because you know, even as a former athlete, I'm I'm very well versed with protocols and programs and training and rigidity.
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But what I see with these, you know, a lot of people who are now obsessed with becoming a longevity person or a biohacker is, as you said, it's this intensity, almost like an obsessive-compulsive disorder around the the to-do list.
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And, you know, there's no time in that for repair, regeneration, and relaxation and expansion, which actually, and you know, I've learned this personally the hard way, and also professionally when I look at patients who do are doing everything right on paper, you know, they they go to bed, they're you know, almost Brian Johnson-esque, and yet their system is floundering in the sense of, you know, in as I said, intensity.
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And you mentioned sympathetic nervous system, which is, you know, it's your hormonal system in the body, which is meant, as you also rightly put, to, you know, to get us up, to get us going, to get us, you know, focused, to get us to go out and hunt and gather.
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But then, you know, this fascinating book, by the way, called Z Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, is this sort of ability to switch from sympathetic fight, flight, drive, adrenaline, cortisol, the more medium-term um sympathetic nervous system hormone, into oh, it's okay, I'm safe.
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But nowadays all we do is stay on this track of oh, everything's everything's a danger.
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Everything's danger.
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Yeah, you know, our nervous system is triggered constantly.
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And you know, many people will track their HRV.
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I wear an ultrahuman ring.
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Um, I've worn an aura for many years, although um, yeah, I'm trying other options at the moment.
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But, you know, so you become very aware about heart rate variability, which is measuring a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic.
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I'm sure you've covered this in the podcast.
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But, you know, the point is in order to check into the parasympathetic, you have to feel, you know, you have to enable yourself to feel safe in your body, and that can take work.
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And I use this term co-regulation quite often because sometimes it's just stepping out of your day and you know, seeking out a friend or or someone that you feel safe with and just breathing together and just, you know, looking at each other, engaging, co-regulating, and that calms your system.
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Right.
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Parasympathetic nervous system is where you repair and you regenerate.
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Right.
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Arguably, longevity is a side effect from you know of a life where you can repair and regenerate better.
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Right.
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So we should be looking at how we repair and regenerate better and enabling time for that.
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Right.
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So we can, you know, I love breath work.
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I love being able to do breath work because it gets you into the meditative state because you know we're high achievers.
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We have a monkey mind that goes 100 miles an hour.
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So if you can, I use an app or the other ship, or I use Calm.
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Um, a friend of mine created that app, he's amazing.
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And you just enable yourself to take 10 minutes off and breathe.
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And the change in in your breath changes up your blood biochemistry, turns off your default mode, monkey brain.
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And you can, you know, that is recharge.
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Yeah.
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And I think we should encourage that a bit more.
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So, how can we build emotional resist resilience over a lifetime?
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Because if you're talking to, you know, an audience of, say, patients and also practitioners.
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So you've got a you know, split audience of people who in their practice want to help their patients achieve more co-regulation, more parasympathetic nervous system balance.
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You've also got viewers who are just interested in their health.
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You know, what can both of these groups of people do that are pretty low-hanging fruit that don't feel overwhelming?
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Because I think the checklist, like you were saying, that drives more sympathetic nervous system drive.
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And whether it's perceived danger or real danger, the brain can't really tell the difference.
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And also you you frame yourself as if you're, you know, it's very binary that checklist.
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It's like I can either do this or I can't.
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I'm that person or I'm not, you know, is how you identify.
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So, you know, low-hanging food is is is the way.
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And we, if we live busy lives, just getting out the door often, and I talk and and post quite a lot about this, like it's small wins.
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And making an effort to sign up to something with a group of people, you may not even know them, right?
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We're all busy, we have disparate lives.
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But if you can do a social sauna session, if you can g go for a walk in the park with a group, you know, you're you're getting out of your own head, out of your own ego, you're getting your heart rate up, um, you're getting a physical benefit.
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And we know that physical resilience and emotional stress resilience are closely tied.
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So the the the stronger your physiology is, the fitter your cardiovascular system, you know, the the better you can buffer emotional strain as well.
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And that's simple, simply to do with your autonomic nervous system as well.
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So I I say that to people.
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I would, you know, have a group of, you know, develop a WhatsApp group with accountability.
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You know, it's another one, you know, go to the social genre instead of the bar after work, you know, or you know, plan.
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You have to plan.
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We all have to plan because we're busy.
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So plan in, you know, a retreat or a group holiday or or something.
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But, you know, even if it's just getting out the door in the morning and taking your morning calls outside, I often tell people to do that.
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Um, look up rather than look down because it's panoramic vision, it's very parasympathetic.
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Um, and those those would be the main things.
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I think there's there's quite a few in there.
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I think that to your point, as far as group work, um, we know that loneliness is a driver of morbidity and mortality.
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Yes.
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And I think that we are probably living in a world where people are more lonely than they've ever been before because we've lost the village, we've lost the tribe.
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So I do think that we have to work to cultivate that, and whether that's through uh maybe fitness groups or hobby groups or church or faith groups, I think that we have to work hard to cultivate relationship because it doesn't come as easy as it used to in generations past.
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And technology has definitely impacted that, uh possibly in some good ways, but also negatively because we're we're able to isolate so much more and use our technology almost as a crutch without you know making us rely on other people.
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It's even worse than that.
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I think the technology with all its filters and the you know the fake world of it is is actually driving insecurity because you know, when you actually show up in person, you can't look someone in the eyes and you can't feel into them.
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It's it's you know, we it you're right, we have to work at it, we have to practice the art of being in relation to others.
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And if you look at the countries that you mentioned, the blue zones, but other places like Japan and um and Taiwan and and all of those countries, they they you you walk out the door in the morning and there's group exercise every morning, and everyone is doing it.
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And people are 80 and they're doing that.
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I don't know what it's like here, but you know, in in the UK, we never see people in the park over 50 doing exercise to bring it.
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Really not like that, and definitely not in group settings.
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I think rugged individualism is has some benefits, but also has some costs.
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I think there's a lot of costs, and I think it comes from our need to control our environment, because if we feel that we can control our environment, you know, there's less there's less risk and there's less chance that things might go wrong.
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But in that is this, you know, isolational effect on the nervous system.
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And the nervous system is is everything, right?
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It's our charge and it's our cellular charge that really lights up, lights us up.
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And um, you know, we're trying to fake that by going on red light beds and and in saunas, but actually, yeah, we need to think more about you know how we inhabit our bodies and how we go through life.
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Yeah.
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I often tell my patients that the solutions are pretty simple, that the system was designed simply, but we've just overcomplicated it.
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Yeah.
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Um it's hard because I like you, you know, we have this clinical experience where we tell patients, right?
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And I I moved from doing just clinical work to doing more workshops and retreats because I learned when I was working um with a company in Spain, being resident, that you, you know, if you show, if you if you do things with people, and patients respect us, you know, generally, you know, we if the doctor comes with a heavy weight often, you know, and so there's a an implied trust.
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And if we can show people how it feels to do certain things, then they're more likely to adopt those behaviors and take them away.
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And then the memory has been imprinted in the body, right?
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Of hiking with their doctor or their group and the breath work and the potential, otherwise it becomes, oh, I could do that, or I could do that, but it's hard.
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And it feels overwhelmed to change patterns and behaviors, right?
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Absolutely.
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I thought a lot about that over the years.
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Um, how neat it would be to host retreats, or you know, there was even a time when when I was thinking um working with someone that would do these 30-day interventions, you know, where you just go and live somewhere for 30 days and just work on nervous system reset, on you, you know, deep nutrition.
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Um it's hard to do though.
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Yeah, I'm just gonna do it.
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And it takes our lives to accelerate and become so busy, and then all of a sudden, you know, something's happened.
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You become sick with something, and then you become, you know, a patient, you know, and then it's like this stepwise, and sometimes you just need, you know, you need to wake-up call.
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And wake-up call for many people, including myself often, is is illness, right?
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And then it's like you have to do something.
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Yeah, there's no choice at this point.
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The the inflection point is either this way or that way.
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There's not really a middle ground degree.
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I'd like to touch on trauma because you based you you did speak about that, and I think that that's probably undervalued uh in many clinical settings.
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Uh how people's trauma, uh childhood trauma especially, but any any kind of trauma really can impact epigenetics and nervous system and feeling safe.
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And I think I also want to add as a caveat, I also think we live in a generation where many people are talking about everything is trauma.
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And so I'd love to I'd love your ideas on that and how you can support someone who does have you know severe trauma, how can they work through that to feel safe again?
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Um Yeah, I'd love to know what you what you think.
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This is a this is a big topic, and I totally agree with one sentiment, and I'd like to sort of highlight that is that if we if we stay in the narrative of our trauma, then our our system can feel defined by it.
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:54.640
Right.
00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:55.599
More victim, right?
00:19:55.839 --> 00:20:04.640
And I feel that sometimes when I've been in the presence of Gabo Marte and some of his lectures, I come away feeling so heavy and so sad.
00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:18.640
And my message is that I do feel that we need to allow some of the emotional memory associated with the trauma in a safe environment to be felt.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:20.880
And that can be painful.
00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:30.240
It is less painful under the influence of uh certain psychedelics, as you know, in in clinical trials, some are becoming legal, some not so.
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:41.519
Um but the idea is that you move through it and you allow yourself to reset the narrative of that that happened to me, therefore I am.
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:41.839
Right.
00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:58.000
And many people, and I saw this in my psychiatric practice, but I also see it in daily life, is that we hold on to the stories and they define us, and then we use that as an excuse to l allow us to do the self-soothing behaviors because oh, that was so bad.
00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:03.680
There's a lot of bad things that happen, some worse things, and please don't take this in the wrong way.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:11.839
I have ultimate compassion here, is but if we allow these stories to constantly define us, then that's it.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.759
You know, we go on one trajectory when really there's so much possibility in life and expansion.
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:41.920
And um I've seen people truly uh shifted and moved once they decide that they can be different, that they don't have to do the self-soothing behaviors, the excess work, the relational difficulties, the you know, the the food addiction, the the whatever the addiction, right, that they can drop some of those and they don't have to drop all of them, right?
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:57.119
It's just when you know the positive, uh what we call eudaimonic behaviors can come in and you can feel safe in eudaimonic behaviours as opposed to hedonic, which is seeking outside, it's uh coming in from inside out.
00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:59.440
So I really do see people change.
00:21:59.519 --> 00:21:59.759
I think.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.079
I think plant medicine in specific settings has been really helpful with people with trauma.
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.839
The degree and complexity of the trauma determines how you approach someone.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:11.599
Sometimes you have to go very slow.
00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:39.839
I work with somatic psychotherapists, which I didn't even know was a thing, even though I then read Peter Levine's work and some other people, but actually just being in the presence of a safe human breathing together and talking yourself into your body and noticing that certain emotions come up just by the act of being and being held and seen by someone, another safe human.
00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:49.920
And I've I've been constantly surprised by this whole concept of the body keeps the score, the body keeps the story, because it it it really does.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.599
And we don't know how.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:53.440
And science hates not knowing how.
00:22:53.599 --> 00:23:00.960
How do we imprint a psychological memory and incidents that happen to us in the cells of our organs?
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.319
But we'll the science will catch up and it's there.
00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:17.279
And I've seen the expression of different trauma through breath work, through somatic work, through cathartic exercise, that's you know, using a lot of sound and movement to move emotion um through the body.
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:21.920
And people literally shed a skin, and that's so that's so profound.
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:23.519
Yeah, it really resonates.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:31.599
Well, I think you know, the fact that we know that the brain is plastic, and we know that the mind can be renewed, and I think that should give people hope.
00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:32.079
Yeah.
00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:44.240
But I do I I agree with you where people who are dealing with trauma can really label themselves as that, and then, like you said, then you get stuck in that cycle.
00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:46.319
It's it's really difficult.
00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:53.279
I think what some of the you talk about neuroplasticity, this idea that the brain can, you know, create new pathways.
00:23:53.359 --> 00:24:06.640
And I remember an analogy that Michael Pollan, who wrote the book How to Change Your Mind, wrote, was about the snow globe analogy that we had as kids when you shake up the snow globe, and then all of a sudden when the snow settles, you can see new paths in the snow.
00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:08.559
And that that is profound.
00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:12.319
You don't have to use the psychedelic substance, but you you know, breath work can take you there.
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:15.039
This walking, you know, exercise movement.
00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:21.440
Yeah, altogether, you know, you're changing up the brain chemistry, but it does take a bit of work.
00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:33.039
It also takes, you know, the right nutrients, you know, the right neurotransmitter precursors, you know, it might daylight, you know, or it the the the human is a is a dynamic system, right?
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.920
It's dynamic, adaptable, which I think gives a lot of hope.
00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:38.400
Yeah.
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:51.119
Um, but I think also to your point, um, because because we need so much support, like in my practice, I'll often tell my patients that I'm trying to sometimes I'll say, my analogy is a bonfire.
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:58.880
And I in our work together is to figure out the logs in the fire and then to pull them out to help that fire diminish.
00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:06.799
Um, and that can include trauma, genetic predisposition, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, hidden infections, etc.
00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:17.200
Um, but I think that we often can get stuck in these, we can get siloed.
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:20.640
Um, general conventional medicine can get siloed in these different pieces.
00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:24.799
But that's why the beautiful part of integrative functional medicine that we're looking at the whole.
00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:33.440
And that, you know, we should be really thinking of all of these parts to help people come back to you know their center.
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:37.039
Yeah, and I I agree, and I love functional medicine for that reason.
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:43.759
Although some people, you know, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the the sheer amount of things that can potentially be wrong with you.
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:44.640
Totally.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:55.519
But if we frame it that we can, you know, the the the you know, for example, the work that the Vibrant are doing with the labs is that this is this is information that allows us to course correct.
00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:56.240
That's right.
00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:11.680
Um, and I think the more people that uh gather this information, the more um the the more weight it can hold for people in understanding that you know we we can influence our biology um substantially by various different inputs.
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:14.000
But it does need, you know, personalized.
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.119
You need a guide, it has to be personalized, it's hard to do on your own.
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:21.119
Yeah, which is you know time and and financially expensive.
00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:26.160
But you know, as with anything, the the cost is coming down over time as more and more people adopt it.
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:26.880
Right.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:39.359
So if you could list out a few things that people at home could start doing for their resilience, that they could start doing, say, after they watch this episode, what would what would be your top three?
00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:48.000
I would encourage someone uh to do something that you a form of exercise or movement that you haven't done before.
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:50.400
So we all like to get into comfortable patterns.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:57.839
So it could be that you know, maybe go swimming or maybe pay paddle or you know, do something slightly out of your comfort zone.
00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:00.240
Um I think that would be one.
00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:08.480
To join a group of any sort, whether it's singing or church or um, you know, a local group that does any type of activity.
00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:10.640
I would even a reading group, right?
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:12.480
Some kind of mindful activity.
00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:16.960
Obviously, I like to encourage people to move and be outside as much as possible.
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:18.000
Yeah.
00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.640
But I do like to encourage people to go outside.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:28.799
I feel um that we get we spend far too much time inside now, and our biology is very sensitive to light.
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:34.240
A lot of people think sunlight is about vitamin D, and it's way more than that, going back to the charge.
00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:39.359
Um, so I think get outside, get off your phone for a period of time.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:42.160
You know, the message is always still going to keep coming.
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:50.880
Um put it on airplane mode, never, never sleep with your phone on by the bed, um unless there's obviously you're expecting an emergency.
00:27:51.119 --> 00:28:03.680
And um, you know, prioritize your relationships and working on your relationships because we often keep going and keep peace, but that simmers away frustration and anger and all these different, you know.
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:19.759
So I would encourage people to work on whether that's with a professional or you know, one-on-one with your with your partner or whoever your the important person is, really do prioritize that because there will with that will come a sense of of ease in your life.
00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:25.279
And a lot of us live with a state of dis-ease, which then creates disease.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.000
Right.
00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:34.240
And I think that's very telling, especially uh in a world where we want to achieve nonstop and have been told that achievement is so important.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:44.240
Yeah, and sometimes it feels like cultivating relationship or deep relationship or forgiveness it can feel like a little bit of a waste of time because we're not as productive.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:48.000
We're not you know producing anything during that, although we are.
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:55.920
Yes, uh productivity addiction is something that we all need to need to work on, but uh yeah, it's a tricky one.
00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:56.319
Yeah.
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:01.839
What would you say is your number one tip for someone who wants to cultivate a longevity mindset?
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.799
I would say spend time outside of your own ego.
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:11.519
And whatever way you can get there is the way.
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.680
And for many, that is breath work.
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:28.640
Uh for many it is a form of group exercise, but that longevity mindset is compassion, it's it's curiosity, it's expansive, it's not narrow, it's not rigid, it's not inflexible.
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:33.519
It's about flourishing, expansion, noticing curiosity and connection.
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:34.720
Oh, beautiful.
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:36.880
Thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:38.559
It was really wonderful to speak with you.
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.200
Likewise, I think we have a lot of shared experience.
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:42.480
Absolutely, I think so.
00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:42.880
Dr.
00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:45.440
Tam, thank you so much for being on here today.
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:48.559
Everyone, make sure to follow her on Instagram at Dr.
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.160
Tam and visit her website, weljevity.com.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:05.839
And whether you're a provider looking for patient solutions or patients looking for a root cause, make sure you go to vibrantwellness.com and you can learn how our tests like the hormone zoomer, gut zoomer, and many others can get you the answers that you've been looking for.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:12.319
Be sure to like and subscribe for more great podcast content and follow at Vibrant Labs on Instagram to see what we're up to next.
00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:13.839
See you next time.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.200
What we know, like from a evolutionary standpoint, is that we belong as part of a tribe.
00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:23.839
We are an ecosystem, we are a dynamic, connected ecosystem, and if you are resonating as part of a community and you felt seen, you feel purposeful within that community, that is having a direct impact on your hormones, on your neurotransmitters, on your serotonin, on your dopamine, on your oxytocin.
00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:28.879
This is not just psychology, it's you know living biochemistry.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:34.960
Arguably, longevity is a side effect from, you know, of a life where you can repair and regenerate better.
00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:40.399
So we should be looking at how we repair and regenerate better and enabling time for that.
00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.119
Take 10 minutes off and breathe.
00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:47.200
And the change in your breath changes up your blood biochemistry.
00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.479
That is recharge.
00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.119
And I think we should encourage that a bit more.
00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:12.000
We are live from the 2025 Longevity Summit at the Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas.
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.480
And today our guest on the podcast is Dr.
00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:15.760
Tamson Lewis.
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Dr.
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Tam is a physician and longevity specialist with over two decades of clinical experience across hospital medicine, integrative health, and personalized prevention.
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Trained in both conventional and functional medicine, she brings a pioneering lens of bioharmony, recognizing that physiology and psychology and environment interact as one dynamic system.
00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:35.280
For Dr.
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Tam, longevity is not the destination, but the natural outcome of a life well lived, with balance, courage, and vitality.
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Her work is driven by a die-hard motivation to see people flourish physically, emotionally, and in their fullness of their human potential.
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Dr.
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Lewis, welcome so much to our podcast.
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It's a pleasure to be here.
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I'm very glad that you're here.
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So, Dr.
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Tiem, I'm gonna call you Dr.
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TM, tell me uh about the journey that brought you to the place where you believe that emotional health is one of the most important factors in longevity.
00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.120
It's something that's not talked about enough.
00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:13.840
Yes, that's exactly why I'm trying to talk about it and break through some molds.
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I would say obviously, my background is training in psychiatry postgraduate when I was a medical doctor.
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And I realized that the specialty that gave me the most opportunity to spend time with patients was actually psychiatry.
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And I developed this sort of brain-based approach to health, given that the brain is the central governor and that you know everything from the brain determines behavior, determines what we do, and behavior, like the sum of the the total sum of our behaviors in a day, add up to creating, you know, health span and longevity, right?
00:02:49.680 --> 00:03:02.000
And many people have, all of us have to some degree, you know, um self-soothing behaviors, sabotaging behaviors, whether it be eating or staying up late or workaholism or gym scrolling.
00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:02.960
There you go.
00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:09.439
Anything, you know, it's it's hard work to sort of stay above the addictive environment that we we live in.
00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:20.159
So what seems to matter most is, you know, your harmony with which you go through life, your nervous system, how regulated you can be under the face of stress, how you can buffer stress in life.
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So um I've I've sort of used my experience as a former psychiatrist, but also as a professional athlete where I put myself in a lot of very, you know, hard situations and developed a lot of resilience.
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Also a survivor of some degree of childhood trauma, which many people are, and you know, have used um my journey and what I've learned, lived experiences, as you said, to really help and support others with kindness, compassion, and you know, authentic, you know, truth about being what being human means and how we can influence it.
00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:55.120
Right.
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That's interesting.
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When I was in medical school, psychiatry was probably my favorite rotation.
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And uh, for a minute I thought maybe I'd go into psychiatry.
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.840
I went to family medicine, which is a little bit broader scope.
00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:13.439
But you know, I think that there's just something really beautiful when you can spend time with people talking to them about their thoughts and their feelings and really digging deeper.
00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:26.959
And I love that the integrative medicine world um not only supports um or is focusing more on emotional resilience, but can integrate, you know, not just the mind but the body and the spirit all together.
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And you know, I think about longevity in the current context where it's become very popular in the medical world and it's a buzzword, and everyone is doing whatever they can to, you know, achieve longevity.
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But I think about my grandmother, who lived to be 103 and didn't do much.
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She came from Cuba uh in the 60s, uh, maintained a close connection with Cuban friends that lived in Miami, volunteered till she was 95, continued her diet, but I think that relationally and emotionally, she wrote a lot of poetry, she read a lot of books, she appreciated nature.
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:10.560
So I think that she really had a very beautiful life in community and in relation to others.
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And we know that community is such an important part of cultivating longevity, like as we see in the blue zones.
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Yeah, I think what we know, like from an evolutionary standpoint, is that we belong as part of a tribe, right?
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We are more than the sum of parts.
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We need to, you know, part of our role of being on this earth of being human is to help co-develop the it doesn't seem like this sometimes because many people are hellburned on destroying the earth, but actually we are an ecosystem, we are a dynamic, connected ecosystem.
00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:55.839
And if you are resonating as part of a community and you felt seen, you feel purposeful within that community, that is having a direct impact on your hormones, on your neurotransmitters, on your serotonin, on your dopamine, on your oxytocin.
00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:12.720
This is not just psychology, it's you know, living biochemistry, which I don't think enough people talk about this whole connection between the dynamic play between how we relate to our environment and to each other and how that impacts our biochemistry, our hormonal systems.
00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:26.959
It's not just about what you take, it's about how your system influences how you know hormones work in your body, but also how you can naturally change your hormone levels by changing how you relate to and with others.
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And that often takes work.
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Yes, and I think especially in the way that the world is currently with our very modern and brushed world, you know, we don't sit time to eat, spent spend time sitting and eating with our families.
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We don't gather around tables like you know, generations passed for many hours.
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And I even with my own family, I you know, would see these long dinners with my parents' friend groups, they were all immigrants, and they would spend hours around the table just talking and laughing and digesting.
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And, you know, that does release a lot of really good, feel-good hormones.
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And so I think that that's a lost art that it's worth cultivating again.
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I think the problem is we the way we live our life has accelerated so much.
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We are obsessed with achieving and creating.
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And actually, sometimes I think about the Mexican fisherman's story.
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Look at it, look it up.
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But, you know, what is true, what does it mean to be truly happy and engaged with life?
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And I think we're so obsessed with the small wins, you know, the hacks, the the dopamine drive of our day that, you know, it seems like it's a i it's excessive to want to spend hours having a lunch, just you know, chewing the fat as it were.
00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:50.800
But this is this is, you know, we have fast-forwarded years of evolution um by this, you know, that we can't keep up with our life and the lights and all the artificial nature, and we're forgetting to do the things that our biology actually gives us.
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That we were made to do.
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Yeah.
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I remember when I was writing my book, I did a lot of research on um tribal living.
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And what I what I saw, and I'm sure you've read this as well, is that uh in in in most tribes or in specific tribes, the ones that I was studying, um, the men would go and hunt for two to three hours a day, very intense, right?
00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:14.240
So high sympathetic nervous system at that point reaction.
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Um and then the women would stay most of the day in community doing their work together, taking care of the children together.
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And and then when the men would get done, they would stay in community with the men and the women would be doing all of their work the whole day within community.
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So you're you're just constantly supported.
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Or if there's this sympathetic drive, it's only for a few hours.
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It's not 24-7 like it is now.
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So, can you talk a little bit more about the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system and how we're in hyperdrive and how we can balance it?
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Maybe some easy things that people can start working on, because it can feel overwhelming, right?
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If you're consuming social media, um because you feel like you have to do so many things.
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There are these memes of women that are trying to check everything off.
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You know, drink their water, do their deep breathing, eat their protein, do all the you know, all the strength training.
00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.080
It it just feels like so much.
00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:04.960
It it is.
00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:17.519
And one of the reasons I've sort of coined this term bioharmony is a sort of counterposition to biohacking, because you know, even as a former athlete, I'm I'm very well versed with protocols and programs and training and rigidity.
00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:33.919
But what I see with these, you know, a lot of people who are now obsessed with becoming a longevity person or a biohacker is, as you said, it's this intensity, almost like an obsessive-compulsive disorder around the the to-do list.
00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:58.159
And, you know, there's no time in that for repair, regeneration, and relaxation and expansion, which actually, and you know, I've learned this personally the hard way, and also professionally when I look at patients who do are doing everything right on paper, you know, they they go to bed, they're you know, almost Brian Johnson-esque, and yet their system is floundering in the sense of, you know, in as I said, intensity.
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And you mentioned sympathetic nervous system, which is, you know, it's your hormonal system in the body, which is meant, as you also rightly put, to, you know, to get us up, to get us going, to get us, you know, focused, to get us to go out and hunt and gather.
00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:31.120
But then, you know, this fascinating book, by the way, called Z Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, is this sort of ability to switch from sympathetic fight, flight, drive, adrenaline, cortisol, the more medium-term um sympathetic nervous system hormone, into oh, it's okay, I'm safe.
00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.279
But nowadays all we do is stay on this track of oh, everything's everything's a danger.
00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:38.480
Everything's danger.
00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.600
Yeah, you know, our nervous system is triggered constantly.
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.519
And you know, many people will track their HRV.
00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:47.279
I wear an ultrahuman ring.
00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:53.600
Um, I've worn an aura for many years, although um, yeah, I'm trying other options at the moment.
00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:59.440
But, you know, so you become very aware about heart rate variability, which is measuring a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic.
00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.279
I'm sure you've covered this in the podcast.
00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:12.480
But, you know, the point is in order to check into the parasympathetic, you have to feel, you know, you have to enable yourself to feel safe in your body, and that can take work.
00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:27.840
And I use this term co-regulation quite often because sometimes it's just stepping out of your day and you know, seeking out a friend or or someone that you feel safe with and just breathing together and just, you know, looking at each other, engaging, co-regulating, and that calms your system.
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:28.080
Right.
00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:32.000
Parasympathetic nervous system is where you repair and you regenerate.
00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:32.240
Right.
00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:38.399
Arguably, longevity is a side effect from you know of a life where you can repair and regenerate better.
00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:38.639
Right.
00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:44.000
So we should be looking at how we repair and regenerate better and enabling time for that.
00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:44.240
Right.
00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:47.279
So we can, you know, I love breath work.
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:53.200
I love being able to do breath work because it gets you into the meditative state because you know we're high achievers.
00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.600
We have a monkey mind that goes 100 miles an hour.
00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:59.360
So if you can, I use an app or the other ship, or I use Calm.
00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:02.000
Um, a friend of mine created that app, he's amazing.
00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:06.399
And you just enable yourself to take 10 minutes off and breathe.
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:13.200
And the change in in your breath changes up your blood biochemistry, turns off your default mode, monkey brain.
00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:15.679
And you can, you know, that is recharge.
00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:15.840
Yeah.
00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.000
And I think we should encourage that a bit more.
00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.639
So, how can we build emotional resist resilience over a lifetime?
00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:28.879
Because if you're talking to, you know, an audience of, say, patients and also practitioners.
00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:38.159
So you've got a you know, split audience of people who in their practice want to help their patients achieve more co-regulation, more parasympathetic nervous system balance.
00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:40.960
You've also got viewers who are just interested in their health.
00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:46.559
You know, what can both of these groups of people do that are pretty low-hanging fruit that don't feel overwhelming?
00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:52.000
Because I think the checklist, like you were saying, that drives more sympathetic nervous system drive.
00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:56.639
And whether it's perceived danger or real danger, the brain can't really tell the difference.
00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:02.240
And also you you frame yourself as if you're, you know, it's very binary that checklist.
00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:04.000
It's like I can either do this or I can't.
00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:07.200
I'm that person or I'm not, you know, is how you identify.
00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.320
So, you know, low-hanging food is is is the way.
00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:17.919
And we, if we live busy lives, just getting out the door often, and I talk and and post quite a lot about this, like it's small wins.
00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:23.519
And making an effort to sign up to something with a group of people, you may not even know them, right?
00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:25.440
We're all busy, we have disparate lives.
00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:38.159
But if you can do a social sauna session, if you can g go for a walk in the park with a group, you know, you're you're getting out of your own head, out of your own ego, you're getting your heart rate up, um, you're getting a physical benefit.
00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:44.159
And we know that physical resilience and emotional stress resilience are closely tied.
00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:52.799
So the the the stronger your physiology is, the fitter your cardiovascular system, you know, the the better you can buffer emotional strain as well.
00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:57.120
And that's simple, simply to do with your autonomic nervous system as well.
00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:58.960
So I I say that to people.
00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:04.080
I would, you know, have a group of, you know, develop a WhatsApp group with accountability.
00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:10.159
You know, it's another one, you know, go to the social genre instead of the bar after work, you know, or you know, plan.
00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:10.960
You have to plan.
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:12.399
We all have to plan because we're busy.
00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:16.720
So plan in, you know, a retreat or a group holiday or or something.
00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:24.720
But, you know, even if it's just getting out the door in the morning and taking your morning calls outside, I often tell people to do that.
00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:30.159
Um, look up rather than look down because it's panoramic vision, it's very parasympathetic.
00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:32.799
Um, and those those would be the main things.
00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.559
I think there's there's quite a few in there.
00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:43.200
I think that to your point, as far as group work, um, we know that loneliness is a driver of morbidity and mortality.
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:43.600
Yes.
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:51.679
And I think that we are probably living in a world where people are more lonely than they've ever been before because we've lost the village, we've lost the tribe.
00:14:52.399 --> 00:15:09.840
So I do think that we have to work to cultivate that, and whether that's through uh maybe fitness groups or hobby groups or church or faith groups, I think that we have to work hard to cultivate relationship because it doesn't come as easy as it used to in generations past.
00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:27.600
And technology has definitely impacted that, uh possibly in some good ways, but also negatively because we're we're able to isolate so much more and use our technology almost as a crutch without you know making us rely on other people.
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:28.879
It's even worse than that.
00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:40.320
I think the technology with all its filters and the you know the fake world of it is is actually driving insecurity because you know, when you actually show up in person, you can't look someone in the eyes and you can't feel into them.
00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:47.279
It's it's you know, we it you're right, we have to work at it, we have to practice the art of being in relation to others.
00:15:47.440 --> 00:16:01.360
And if you look at the countries that you mentioned, the blue zones, but other places like Japan and um and Taiwan and and all of those countries, they they you you walk out the door in the morning and there's group exercise every morning, and everyone is doing it.
00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.840
And people are 80 and they're doing that.
00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:09.600
I don't know what it's like here, but you know, in in the UK, we never see people in the park over 50 doing exercise to bring it.
00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.320
Really not like that, and definitely not in group settings.
00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:19.360
I think rugged individualism is has some benefits, but also has some costs.
00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:33.360
I think there's a lot of costs, and I think it comes from our need to control our environment, because if we feel that we can control our environment, you know, there's less there's less risk and there's less chance that things might go wrong.
00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:38.240
But in that is this, you know, isolational effect on the nervous system.
00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.200
And the nervous system is is everything, right?
00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:46.879
It's our charge and it's our cellular charge that really lights up, lights us up.
00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:58.480
And um, you know, we're trying to fake that by going on red light beds and and in saunas, but actually, yeah, we need to think more about you know how we inhabit our bodies and how we go through life.
00:16:58.799 --> 00:16:59.039
Yeah.
00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:05.759
I often tell my patients that the solutions are pretty simple, that the system was designed simply, but we've just overcomplicated it.
00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:06.480
Yeah.
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:13.279
Um it's hard because I like you, you know, we have this clinical experience where we tell patients, right?
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:38.960
And I I moved from doing just clinical work to doing more workshops and retreats because I learned when I was working um with a company in Spain, being resident, that you, you know, if you show, if you if you do things with people, and patients respect us, you know, generally, you know, we if the doctor comes with a heavy weight often, you know, and so there's a an implied trust.
00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:48.480
And if we can show people how it feels to do certain things, then they're more likely to adopt those behaviors and take them away.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:51.759
And then the memory has been imprinted in the body, right?
00:17:51.839 --> 00:18:00.480
Of hiking with their doctor or their group and the breath work and the potential, otherwise it becomes, oh, I could do that, or I could do that, but it's hard.
00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.599
And it feels overwhelmed to change patterns and behaviors, right?
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:04.240
Absolutely.
00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:06.319
I thought a lot about that over the years.
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:21.839
Um, how neat it would be to host retreats, or you know, there was even a time when when I was thinking um working with someone that would do these 30-day interventions, you know, where you just go and live somewhere for 30 days and just work on nervous system reset, on you, you know, deep nutrition.
00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.000
Um it's hard to do though.
00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:24.960
Yeah, I'm just gonna do it.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:30.960
And it takes our lives to accelerate and become so busy, and then all of a sudden, you know, something's happened.
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:40.559
You become sick with something, and then you become, you know, a patient, you know, and then it's like this stepwise, and sometimes you just need, you know, you need to wake-up call.
00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:45.200
And wake-up call for many people, including myself often, is is illness, right?
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.599
And then it's like you have to do something.
00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:49.440
Yeah, there's no choice at this point.
00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.960
The the inflection point is either this way or that way.
00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.119
There's not really a middle ground degree.
00:18:55.839 --> 00:19:04.480
I'd like to touch on trauma because you based you you did speak about that, and I think that that's probably undervalued uh in many clinical settings.
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:14.640
Uh how people's trauma, uh childhood trauma especially, but any any kind of trauma really can impact epigenetics and nervous system and feeling safe.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:23.440
And I think I also want to add as a caveat, I also think we live in a generation where many people are talking about everything is trauma.
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:34.720
And so I'd love to I'd love your ideas on that and how you can support someone who does have you know severe trauma, how can they work through that to feel safe again?
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.359
Um Yeah, I'd love to know what you what you think.
00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:54.240
This is a this is a big topic, and I totally agree with one sentiment, and I'd like to sort of highlight that is that if we if we stay in the narrative of our trauma, then our our system can feel defined by it.
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:54.640
Right.
00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:55.599
More victim, right?
00:19:55.839 --> 00:20:04.640
And I feel that sometimes when I've been in the presence of Gabo Marte and some of his lectures, I come away feeling so heavy and so sad.
00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:18.640
And my message is that I do feel that we need to allow some of the emotional memory associated with the trauma in a safe environment to be felt.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:20.880
And that can be painful.
00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:30.240
It is less painful under the influence of uh certain psychedelics, as you know, in in clinical trials, some are becoming legal, some not so.
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:41.519
Um but the idea is that you move through it and you allow yourself to reset the narrative of that that happened to me, therefore I am.
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:41.839
Right.
00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:58.000
And many people, and I saw this in my psychiatric practice, but I also see it in daily life, is that we hold on to the stories and they define us, and then we use that as an excuse to l allow us to do the self-soothing behaviors because oh, that was so bad.
00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:03.680
There's a lot of bad things that happen, some worse things, and please don't take this in the wrong way.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:11.839
I have ultimate compassion here, is but if we allow these stories to constantly define us, then that's it.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.759
You know, we go on one trajectory when really there's so much possibility in life and expansion.
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:41.920
And um I've seen people truly uh shifted and moved once they decide that they can be different, that they don't have to do the self-soothing behaviors, the excess work, the relational difficulties, the you know, the the food addiction, the the whatever the addiction, right, that they can drop some of those and they don't have to drop all of them, right?
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:57.119
It's just when you know the positive, uh what we call eudaimonic behaviors can come in and you can feel safe in eudaimonic behaviours as opposed to hedonic, which is seeking outside, it's uh coming in from inside out.
00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:59.440
So I really do see people change.
00:21:59.519 --> 00:21:59.759
I think.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.079
I think plant medicine in specific settings has been really helpful with people with trauma.
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.839
The degree and complexity of the trauma determines how you approach someone.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:11.599
Sometimes you have to go very slow.
00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:39.839
I work with somatic psychotherapists, which I didn't even know was a thing, even though I then read Peter Levine's work and some other people, but actually just being in the presence of a safe human breathing together and talking yourself into your body and noticing that certain emotions come up just by the act of being and being held and seen by someone, another safe human.
00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:49.920
And I've I've been constantly surprised by this whole concept of the body keeps the score, the body keeps the story, because it it it really does.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.599
And we don't know how.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:53.440
And science hates not knowing how.
00:22:53.599 --> 00:23:00.960
How do we imprint a psychological memory and incidents that happen to us in the cells of our organs?
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.319
But we'll the science will catch up and it's there.
00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:17.279
And I've seen the expression of different trauma through breath work, through somatic work, through cathartic exercise, that's you know, using a lot of sound and movement to move emotion um through the body.
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:21.920
And people literally shed a skin, and that's so that's so profound.
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:23.519
Yeah, it really resonates.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:31.599
Well, I think you know, the fact that we know that the brain is plastic, and we know that the mind can be renewed, and I think that should give people hope.
00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:32.079
Yeah.
00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:44.240
But I do I I agree with you where people who are dealing with trauma can really label themselves as that, and then, like you said, then you get stuck in that cycle.
00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:46.319
It's it's really difficult.
00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:53.279
I think what some of the you talk about neuroplasticity, this idea that the brain can, you know, create new pathways.
00:23:53.359 --> 00:24:06.640
And I remember an analogy that Michael Pollan, who wrote the book How to Change Your Mind, wrote, was about the snow globe analogy that we had as kids when you shake up the snow globe, and then all of a sudden when the snow settles, you can see new paths in the snow.
00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:08.559
And that that is profound.
00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:12.319
You don't have to use the psychedelic substance, but you you know, breath work can take you there.
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:15.039
This walking, you know, exercise movement.
00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:21.440
Yeah, altogether, you know, you're changing up the brain chemistry, but it does take a bit of work.
00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:33.039
It also takes, you know, the right nutrients, you know, the right neurotransmitter precursors, you know, it might daylight, you know, or it the the the human is a is a dynamic system, right?
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.920
It's dynamic, adaptable, which I think gives a lot of hope.
00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:38.400
Yeah.
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:51.119
Um, but I think also to your point, um, because because we need so much support, like in my practice, I'll often tell my patients that I'm trying to sometimes I'll say, my analogy is a bonfire.
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:58.880
And I in our work together is to figure out the logs in the fire and then to pull them out to help that fire diminish.
00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:06.799
Um, and that can include trauma, genetic predisposition, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, hidden infections, etc.
00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:17.200
Um, but I think that we often can get stuck in these, we can get siloed.
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:20.640
Um, general conventional medicine can get siloed in these different pieces.
00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:24.799
But that's why the beautiful part of integrative functional medicine that we're looking at the whole.
00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:33.440
And that, you know, we should be really thinking of all of these parts to help people come back to you know their center.
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:37.039
Yeah, and I I agree, and I love functional medicine for that reason.
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:43.759
Although some people, you know, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the the sheer amount of things that can potentially be wrong with you.
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:44.640
Totally.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:55.519
But if we frame it that we can, you know, the the the you know, for example, the work that the Vibrant are doing with the labs is that this is this is information that allows us to course correct.
00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:56.240
That's right.
00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:11.680
Um, and I think the more people that uh gather this information, the more um the the more weight it can hold for people in understanding that you know we we can influence our biology um substantially by various different inputs.
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:14.000
But it does need, you know, personalized.
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.119
You need a guide, it has to be personalized, it's hard to do on your own.
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:21.119
Yeah, which is you know time and and financially expensive.
00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:26.160
But you know, as with anything, the the cost is coming down over time as more and more people adopt it.
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:26.880
Right.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:39.359
So if you could list out a few things that people at home could start doing for their resilience, that they could start doing, say, after they watch this episode, what would what would be your top three?
00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:48.000
I would encourage someone uh to do something that you a form of exercise or movement that you haven't done before.
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:50.400
So we all like to get into comfortable patterns.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:57.839
So it could be that you know, maybe go swimming or maybe pay paddle or you know, do something slightly out of your comfort zone.
00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:00.240
Um I think that would be one.
00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:08.480
To join a group of any sort, whether it's singing or church or um, you know, a local group that does any type of activity.
00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:10.640
I would even a reading group, right?
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:12.480
Some kind of mindful activity.
00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:16.960
Obviously, I like to encourage people to move and be outside as much as possible.
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:18.000
Yeah.
00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.640
But I do like to encourage people to go outside.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:28.799
I feel um that we get we spend far too much time inside now, and our biology is very sensitive to light.
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:34.240
A lot of people think sunlight is about vitamin D, and it's way more than that, going back to the charge.
00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:39.359
Um, so I think get outside, get off your phone for a period of time.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:42.160
You know, the message is always still going to keep coming.
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:50.880
Um put it on airplane mode, never, never sleep with your phone on by the bed, um unless there's obviously you're expecting an emergency.
00:27:51.119 --> 00:28:03.680
And um, you know, prioritize your relationships and working on your relationships because we often keep going and keep peace, but that simmers away frustration and anger and all these different, you know.
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:19.759
So I would encourage people to work on whether that's with a professional or you know, one-on-one with your with your partner or whoever your the important person is, really do prioritize that because there will with that will come a sense of of ease in your life.
00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:25.279
And a lot of us live with a state of dis-ease, which then creates disease.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.000
Right.
00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:34.240
And I think that's very telling, especially uh in a world where we want to achieve nonstop and have been told that achievement is so important.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:44.240
Yeah, and sometimes it feels like cultivating relationship or deep relationship or forgiveness it can feel like a little bit of a waste of time because we're not as productive.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:48.000
We're not you know producing anything during that, although we are.
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:55.920
Yes, uh productivity addiction is something that we all need to need to work on, but uh yeah, it's a tricky one.
00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:56.319
Yeah.
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:01.839
What would you say is your number one tip for someone who wants to cultivate a longevity mindset?
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.799
I would say spend time outside of your own ego.
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:11.519
And whatever way you can get there is the way.
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.680
And for many, that is breath work.
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:28.640
Uh for many it is a form of group exercise, but that longevity mindset is compassion, it's it's curiosity, it's expansive, it's not narrow, it's not rigid, it's not inflexible.
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:33.519
It's about flourishing, expansion, noticing curiosity and connection.
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:34.720
Oh, beautiful.
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:36.880
Thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:38.559
It was really wonderful to speak with you.
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.200
Likewise, I think we have a lot of shared experience.
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:42.480
Absolutely, I think so.
00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:42.880
Dr.
00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:45.440
Tam, thank you so much for being on here today.
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:48.559
Everyone, make sure to follow her on Instagram at Dr.
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.160
Tam and visit her website, weljevity.com.
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And whether you're a provider looking for patient solutions or patients looking for a root cause, make sure you go to vibrantwellness.com and you can learn how our tests like the hormone zoomer, gut zoomer, and many others can get you the answers that you've been looking for.
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Be sure to like and subscribe for more great podcast content and follow at Vibrant Labs on Instagram to see what we're up to next.
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See you next time.
