810: The Lazarus Method: How to Create Your Own Health Playbook & Gamify Healthy Habits

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The Lazarus Method: How to Create your own Health Playbook & Gamify Healthy Habits
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810: The Lazarus Method: How to Create Your Own Health Playbook & Gamify Healthy Habits
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Today, I’m here with Dr. Ryan Lazarus, the founder and clinical director of the Lazarus Method, a cutting-edge health program where he teaches his seven essential elements of health. Dr. Lazarus is a board-certified functional medicine practitioner, certified nutrition specialist, personal trainer, and rehabilitation specialist. After facing a near-death experience that led to life-altering health issues and a long recovery at 18, he decided to delve into the health and medical world to help others.

In this episode, we talk about how he came to this calling, the pillars of the Lazarus Method, and how to create your own health playbook and gamify healthy habits. There are a lot of practical takeaways you can use to improve all areas of your life, from sleep to nutrition to connection and so much more.

Thanks for listening to this episode.

Episode Highlights With Ryan Lazarus

  • The life-altering event that drastically changed the course of his life and led to the work he does now
  • An indoor soccer injury that led to severe health problems for him including type 1 diabetes
  • What he learned in his own recovery and how this led to him helping people 
  • His epiphany that led to incredible results in his work
  • The four reasons people make changes: you have no other choice, when you learn enough that you want to, when you are inspired to by witnessing others do it, and when you receive enough that you are able to
  • What the Lazarus Method is and how he uses it with patients
  • Pillars of his system: Movement, Rest, Nourish, Learn, Connect, Challenge, Spark
  • The importance of reasons over rules when it comes to health
  • How he relates health to a game, including playing offense and defense 
  • Ways to gamify health and wellness to create lasting habits

Resources We Mention

More From Wellness Mama

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Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this episode is about the Lazarus Method, which is how to create your own health playbook and gamify healthy habits. I’m here with Dr. Ryan Lazarus, who has been a patient as long as he’s been a doctor when at 18, he faced a near-death experience from an injury that led to life-altering health issues and a long recovery, during which he learned so much and decided to delve into the health and medical world to be able to help others. He’s now the founder and clinical director of the Lazarus Method, which is a cutting-edge health program where he teaches his essential elements of health. He is a board-certified functional medicine practitioner, certified nutrition specialist, personal trainer, and rehabilitation specialist. And we delve into his method and the results he’s having today. And there’s a lot of practical takeaways that you can do to improve all areas of your life, from sleep to nutrition to connection and so much more. So let’s join Dr. Ryan. Dr. Lazarus, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

Ryan: Hi, Katie. Thank you. I’m really happy to be here.

Katie: Well, I am excited to jump into all of some topics that we’re going to get to go really deep on today. But it seems like for context and background, for anyone who isn’t already familiar with your work, you have quite the incredible story of how you came to do what you do now. And so for context, can you kind of walk us through what that journey was for you?

Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. It would be considered a life-altering event when I was young. This is when I was 18. I was an athlete and it was supposed to be a routine play and it was anything but. It was just a typical Sunday night and I was playing indoor soccer. Getting ready to go to college to play soccer. I was hit and checked up against a wall, a half wall in indoor soccer and rolled over the wall and had immediate pain in my abdomen. And as the time went on, minute by minute, started to get very, very serious to the point where I was very, very ill. And nobody knew what was going on. So they rushed me to the hospital and the pain had got so bad, it was the most excruciating pain of my life. It’s like a calf cramp that would not let go in my abdomen and started to panic. Something is not right and everyone started to panic.

So the long story really, really short is that they did an emergency CT scan. They had realized that I had crushed my pancreas in half. And the pain had kind of subsided and I wasn’t really there, but they did an emergency surgery. They cut me open and they removed my crushed pancreas and my spleen. And I woke up in ICU, spent a week in the hospital and spent a couple of weeks at home. And then they said, all right, kid, go get them. Everything should be fine. And everything was not fine. I became a diabetic. I had digestive failure. I was very, very ill. I lost a lot of weight. I went down to 129 pounds. And my life had changed like that. And I was a diabetic. I was sick. I was scared. I was angry. I didn’t know what to do. I was very, very confused. And a lot of people that are listening, if you’ve ever had any health crisis, be it serious or where you just don’t have any answers, it’s very, very scary.

And so I just went from clinic to clinic and doctor to doctor and expert to expert. And they just said, I don’t have to tell you. There’s no textbook for crushed organs on what you need to do. You need to take these pills. You need to take these medications. It doesn’t really matter what you eat. It doesn’t really matter what your lifestyle is. And it just sounded absolutely ridiculous to me. And I was scared and confused. And all I wanted was my life back and have some answers. And I wasn’t getting them. And conventional medicine saved my life but was not telling me what I needed to do.

And so, I just had to make a decision. And that decision was, I’m going to have to figure this out myself. And so I spent the next 25 years and now where I am still figuring it out and then implementing this plan with other people. So I decided I’m going to figure, this is going to be my profession. This is going to be my career. This is going to be my mission. And so, went to school, became a doctor of chiropractic, went into functional medicine, became a nutritionist, taught graduate students, got a master’s degree, did all of the really important education and started to create my own clinic in the Napa Valley and treat people. And it was very fulfilling and I saw good results.

But I had an epiphany. And that’s kind of what led me to where I am today in the epiphany is this, that if you want great results, you have to understand why people make changes. And I believe there are four reasons why people make changes. Number one is what I had is when you’re hurt so bad and you’re in so much pain that you absolutely have to. Your back is against the wall and you have no other choice. And this happens in all aspects of our life, right? It could be in our career. It could be in our family. It could be in our relationships. It’s just where we don’t have any other choice and we just need to make a decision and move on. The second one is when you learn enough that you want to, like this podcast and books. When somebody is interested in health or anything, you learn, you acquire knowledge and wisdom, and you want to. The third is when you witness enough, you’re inspired to, watching people do great things, listening to other people do amazing things. So there’s that. And then when you receive enough that you’re actually able to.

And so the realization of this allowed me to say, okay, you know what? I have all the plans. I have all the food plans. I have all the supplements. I have the functional medicine paradigm. What I really need to get to is what’s in here and what’s in here with my patients. And so that was that was really the genesis of the Lazarus method. And I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. But these are universal things that I think we’ve all been through. And my goal now is to inspire and educate and teach people.

Katie: I love anytime I get to hear a story of someone having their own struggle or pain and then finding healing and then turning that into a way to help others. I think incredible results happen when we get to go through that journey ourself and then transmute that into a way to help others. And like you, my health struggle was Hashimoto’s and I can resonate with some of those things you were told, especially about food not making a difference, lifestyle not making a difference. I was told I would have it for the rest of my life, which I don’t.

But I think that all points to questioning the paradigm or asking better questions to get better answers. And something listeners have certainly heard me say before is that we are each our own primary healthcare provider. At the end of the day, the responsibility lies with us and the choices that we make daily have the biggest impact and we are the ones making those choices. And I also believe an extension of that is we are each our own healer. And in both cases, we can work with practitioners. And I feel like that’s very valuable when we can, especially practitioners like you who understand the deeper causes of things and the multifaceted approach that’s required. But I just love to, anytime I get the chance to say, we are still at the end of the day, our own primary healthcare provider. And we, when we step into that responsibility can have the biggest results. So you mentioned the Lazarus method. It sounds like it was very much inspired through your own quite incredible healing journey. I would love to go deeper on that and have you explain some of the pillars of the Lazarus method and how those come into play in your practice.

Ryan: Yeah, well stated. I think we learn a lot about ourselves when we’re back, our back is against the wall and we need to pivot. We need to improvise. We need to adapt. And I believe everyone should take responsibility of their health. But health can be very confusing and it can be a lot of pressure. Think about all of the health information that we’re exposed to right now. It is all over the place. It’s conflicting. It’s polar. And it creates a lot of paralysis by analysis. The more I learn, the less I understand.

And so the Lazarus Method is kind of my mission. This is my journey. This is what I’ve witnessed with patients over the last two decades of working with thousands and thousands of patients. And it is a holistic framework and everyone has a different framework. And so this is a flexible formula. It’s not a fixed formula, but it encompasses seven essential elements and it’s nourish. So nourish is what we put in our body, right? And I know you’ve had many conversations with very educated people. It’s our food, it’s our hydration, and it’s the supplements that we need and often the supplements we don’t need. And there’s ways to now personalize that.

It’s our rest. It’s our sleep. We all know how important sleep is. But the research in the last decade is amazing about what it actually does to the brain and our hormones and our neurotransmitters. So that’s the rest pillar in the Lazarus method. And then move. Movement is obviously exercise, but it’s way more than exercise. You don’t need to be on a treadmill every single day or, you know, go into the gym seven days a week. I can get into the different pillars of movement, but that’s the bottom of the Lazarus method. Move, rest and nourish.

On the top, these are a little hard to quantify, but very, very important. And that is learn and learn is gather information. Also, challenge conventional wisdom. Challenging conventional wisdom is very, very important. There’s so much information, like I alluded to, and most of the health information right now is really designed to sell you on something or convince you of something. So it’s just being open to being logical and taking information and applying it to you. This is also where neuroplasticity occurs in flow states. So it’s not necessarily health information. These are experiences. These are different events. Health and learn broadens your perspective.

Another one is challenge, having challenges, which basically, you know, create motivation and inspiration. And you can create micro and macro challenges in our life. I have I just released a book and it goes through all these different micro and macro challenges. And then there’s connect and connect to yourself, connection to nature. This is kind of where what I call mental fitness comes in. And that’s kind of my term for meditation, which is understanding consciousness. And then the middle is the spark. And that is our purpose. That is our soul. That is our reason for being.

And so each one of these is very important. And you know, I used to think health before I began this journey was diet and exercise, all the normal things, right? And my personal experience in learning all of these great healing paradigms was the birth of this method that is holistic and every one of these elements is important. So ultimately, what I do with my patients is I put them through an intake questionnaire and we do exams and we do labs and we do a handful of different questioning that kind of shows their strengths. And their vulnerabilities within these. And then I give them different responses and different treatments based on that. So, that’s kind of the Lazarus method in a nutshell. I can get into so much more too.

Katie: Yeah. And you guys listening, stay tuned because we’re going to get to do a second interview that goes deep on the specific pillars. But I think there’s so much wisdom. I love that you especially put in things like learn and connect and challenge. I think there, and you’re right, you touched on, we get so much conflicting health advice and even just scrolling Instagram, I feel like in 10 minutes, you’ll get the, you need to be vegan. No, you need to be carnivore. You need to avoid the sun. No, you need to get lots of sun. You need to hydrate. No, you’re going to deplete your minerals. It’s like constant bombardment of conflicting health advice. And I would love to kind of build a framework in this interview for how we learn to sort through that and to ask better questions and specifically like kind of understanding the health game. I think you had a quote about not having rules but having reasons. And I would love for you to explain that because I think there’s a lot of freedom when we can make that mental shift.

Ryan: Yeah. Not many people like rules, especially with food, right? I eat this food plan. I eat this diet. I’m in within this column. There is confinement. I know you know, and probably many of your listeners know are familiar that food is way more than fuel. It’s connection. It’s bonding. It’s information. It’s medicine. There’s obviously bad foods. But, you know, understanding that being in a very, very tight confinement for long periods of time can sometimes create these brief diet moments and then kind of bouncing around. And I’ve seen a lot of that.

And so, you know, to your point and your question is reasons, not rules. When I say I want you to sleep and do this, I want you to move this way. I want you to wake up and set an intention and practice mental fitness. I’ll explain why. What is the return on investment? What’s the ROI on these? Why are you doing this? And really, it really comes down to, you know, what is each individual’s belief system? What are their priorities? What’s their version of success? And that’s where just, you know, sitting down and talking to people and understanding why they’re doing these things and then giving simple explanations about here’s the reason why I would do it rather than, OK, I looked at your labs and you do X, Y and Z. You know, once we start tuning into what we need and you have a partnership with a holistic practitioner and there is a synergistic alignment of what your goals are and I can provide exactly what you need with lab tests and, you know, different food plans and different personal training plans and prescriptions, that’s where a lot of power comes in. So a lot of analogies and metaphors and just making it simple for each patient to understand.

Katie: That makes sense. And I love that you also touched on how individualized it is and how each person is somewhat different. I’ve seen in the past 15 years of being in the health and wellness world, kind of the pitfalls that happen if we latch onto any particular approach as if it were a concrete black and white blueprint versus using it as a starting point to figure out our own best system. And I think that there’s a duality there. I think there’s incredible wisdom that we can learn from, in my opinion, literally everyone we encounter and certainly all these people sharing their experiences and their stories. But I think it’s important to keep that framework of understanding that’s a starting point. And it’s why I am hesitant to share in great detail, like here’s my own exact supplement routine. Here’s my own exact anything routine, because I wouldn’t want someone else to just try to implement that exactly as is, because I believe it wouldn’t have the same results necessarily for them. I think the wisdom lies in being able to take the knowledge and the understanding that other people have learned and then apply that to ourselves, do our own experimentation, like you said, use our own labs and dial in our own approach.

And I also love your approach of questioning things because I do definitely have rebel tendencies. And like you mentioned, if I try to give myself really rigid structure and rules, I find my psyche wanting to rebel against it. And the opposite then becomes appealing strictly because it’s forbidden. And certainly any parents might have experienced this with their children as well. Do you have any suggestions for learning that balance and learning how to walk that line and to create things that help us to really anchor in our reasons versus rebel from our rules?

Ryan: Yeah, it’s a great point. And that’s really the fundamental part of health. I believe health is balance and consistency. It’s not perfection. It’s just making progress. So balance is huge. It’s literally its entire chapter in my book. What is balance? I mean, balance is walking the line between chaos and order and too much order is unproductive. We know this, there’s ancient philosophies like Taoism that have said yin and yang, right? This is surrender versus control or proactive versus reactive. And so when somebody is just, it’s all order and it’s all organized and they’re robots, they might be able to sustain that for short periods of time. But we know that the human psyche cannot maintain and sustain that for long periods of time. So there needs to be flexibility there.

So, you know, I’ve used the analogy offense and defense. I really explain my health in my book and in my program like a game. It’s literally a game. It’s no different. We wake up and we want offense, right? This is, I have a goal. These are the things I need to accomplish. These are my intentions for the day. These are my responsibilities and my tasks. And there’s momentum and you wake up and you start going through your day and then what happens? Inevitable setbacks and issues happen. There’s never a day where everything is perfect and that’s defense, right?

And so stepping back and saying, okay, recognizing I’m on defense, I’m not on offense, can I adjust? Okay, and you absolutely can adjust if you have a defensive game plan. So I coach my patients to have balance in their health, to have an offensive game plan and a defensive game plan. And this is what I call like floors and ceilings. So setting a ceiling goal is I’m on offense, I’m leaning forward, I have momentum, I’m accomplishing things, it feels great. And defense is I’m pivoting, there’s issues, there’s problems. I need to fall back and I need to make a different decision because here’s what happens. If you have ceiling goals, you’re trying to accomplish this, whether it’s career or family or health or all what you’re trying to accomplish. And you’re on defense and there’s a gap there. And that gap feels like failure and disappointment. And we don’t like that. And that does not feel good. And people will bail on their plan or be frustrated. And so, you know, knowing, okay, I’m on defense. Now it’s time to pivot to a floor goal. That’s a game plan that is sustainable, that is consistent.

So, you know, the long answer to your question is how do we maintain balance? It’s through having a game plan through offense and defense and knowing that we need to be flexible and not putting pressure and so much judgment on ourself when everything isn’t laid out and perfect.

Katie: I love the analogy with playing offense and defense in the game. And I would love to go deeper on, you talk about habit formation through gamification. And I think this is really valuable because I read somewhere that if we try to do something through just willpower or brute repetition, it takes, it varies, but somewhere from 180 to 300 days to actually integrate that habit. Whereas if we do it through play and gamification, that can happen in as little as 10 days. So I think what you’re touching on is super actually valuable to the science of making habits stick and making them enjoyable. So how do you walk people through or how can we build good habits through bringing in this element of gamification?

Ryan: Well, so many great books out there on habit formation, right? And I’ve read them and I’ve implemented them and I’ve used them with my patients. And I truly believe that we are just the aggregate or the sum of all our decisions. And if you really want to decide, do I have a healthy lifestyle or unhealthy lifestyle? You literally just audit your decisions every single day. And if you’re making a lot of good decisions and you’re not making a lot of bad decisions, that would be considered a good, healthy lifestyle. And these are just habits. These are rituals that we do.

And the habit formation through gamification is making that process enjoyable and making sure it’s important to you. I have everyone fill out literally their values in that moment because our values and our priorities change throughout our life. And it’s a quick audit. It takes 15 minutes. And it’s just things they think about, talk about, are inspired about, read about. And it kind of falls within eight categories of our lives. And this is our career and our family and our relationship and our health and well-being, our social, our spirituality and our personal development. And if you audit that and you kind of know where your values are and you can set some goals, then we can go in and we can start making a game around it.

And I will take that information that somebody has provided and we’ll make it, we’ll try these little micro challenges based on this value. We’ll wake up in the morning, we’ll set this. And then at the end of the day, we’ll kind of reflect. And it’s powerful what happens. Most of the time, people are not executing it, which are not failures. They’re just lessons. But those lessons end up growing and growing. And the next day, they apply it again. And this progress, this momentum can start to occur. And if it’s just confinement and a rule, and you’re not enjoying it, and it’s somebody else’s values and beliefs, you’re going to have a hard time latching on to that.

So in short, it’s your values, it’s your goals. It’s kind of understanding your version of success and waking up and saying, these are a couple of things I’m going to work on. These are intentions. I’m going to have fun with it. I’m going to reflect on my day in a tiny couple minutes. And then the next day, I’m going to apply that. And then every day just becomes kind of a game. And then ultimately, they blanket, it’s been a week, three weeks, and they’re ingraining it as their rituals.

Katie: Yeah, I really love that approach. And I think this is valuable, like you touched on, in all areas of life. And this is why years ago I stopped setting New Year’s resolutions for myself because those felt more constricting and very black and white. And I now instead, I take time every new year to make a list of anything I think I believe with some certainty. And I go throughout each one of those throughout the year and question them and try to read things that conflict to help both understand an alternate viewpoint and see if I could have been wrong about those things.

And I also build in challenges, even outside of health and wellness, either monthly or quarterly, something that’s new and out of my comfort zone and that challenges me because I think that’s valuable, that learn piece for neuroplasticity and for just that experience of doing something challenging that’s a little on the edge of our ability or comfort zone. So for me, that’s been simple things like I took voice lessons once. I’ve learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Just things that I feel like challenge me are a fun way to re-engage and get out of my comfort zone.

And I don’t know if you have kids, but a lot of these things you’re talking about, I always think through how can I also integrate these in my family culture and help my kids have a solid framework of these things from an early age. And it seems like with gamification, this is going to be such a fun way for kids to learn about these things and integrate them in their own life. And I think it’s that balance with kids of educating them and recognizing their incredible capacity to understand and make good choices while also honoring their autonomy in making these choices. But if you do have kids or even if not, like any suggestions for, you know, translating this into how we raise our kids, of course, modeling it, but anything else we can do to help them build this in.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah, you learn a lot about yourself with kids, right? Yeah, I have a 14- and a 12-year-old. And as you know, and as many parents listening know, there’s all unique stages and phases. And they’re all great and they’re all challenging in themselves. Yeah, I have a lot to say with raising kids and health. We kind of created our family values and whenever something comes up that they’re learning, they’re deciding on, they’re disputing and we talk about it as a core family and we discuss it within our core values.

And so the gamification I have used since they’ve been little, you know, putting the greens juice and saying this is Shrek juice. And, you know, I bet you can’t drink that Shrek juice. Those are little hacks that we do that it’s more manipulative than right. But gamification now with a 14- and a 12-year-old is is setting challenges for them, be it school or sports or friendship and getting out of their comfort zone. You know, right now in their adolescence, there’s a lot of internal conflict and they’re figuring themselves out.

And so, you know, we just sit as a core and we talk about all of these and together we’ll set challenges about their headspace, their school, their friends, their relationships, the voices in their head. I really get into understanding, having them understand the roommate in our head that is always talking to us and no matter where we go saying, you should be doing this or you shouldn’t be doing this or you’re not good at this. And so with a 14- and 12-year-old now, it’s really a different type of lesson. It’s a different gamification where they’re they’re open. They understand they’re a witness and observer of all these thoughts and their emotions. And that’s been huge for them at that age. And that’s the mental fitness part that I believe any kid at any age from about five years old and up is very valuable to be able to learn and listen to those voices in our head.

Katie: I love it. And I feel like kids are naturally wired for that because they come out of the box so creative, willing to ask the question why over and over and over as any mom of toddlers knows. And so I love that if they can build these habits and understand these things from younger and younger ages, I feel like that’s going to help really create lasting change with future generations. And I also know from researching for this episode that you have quite the incredible list of success stories from your patients and people you’ve worked with on this. Can you briefly touch on some of the results that people you’ve worked with have had and also where people can find you online if they want to continue learning about these different pillars?

Ryan: Yeah, of course. Yeah, I’ve had 20 years of blessings of working with all different types of people and people that I connected with and will never forget and change their life and people that I did not connect with and learn from and how can I get better? Part of my story is me healing myself and then healing others. And so it’s probably the most fulfilling career I could ever think of. It’s my mission is to share my story and my method with people. You know, ultimately, my goal is to be able to connect with them in here and in here. And there’s so much surface goals. I feel like I have the ability now to really discuss what is driving them to do these things. And there’s vulnerability there. And, filling out a couple of these worksheets that we give them in our program really helps reveal why they’re doing this. And they might not even realize it. But when somebody puts aside their ego and looks inside and says, why am I doing these things? That’s where the magic can really occur. And so I’ve been honored with to work with a lot of people with this.

The Lazarus Method is, there’s a book out, it’s called The Essential Health Playbook. And it kind of outlines the gamifications, the reasons that rules, the offense, the defense, all these different elements. And we have, you know, coaching programs that people do that is from fully automated all the way to, you know, one-on-one functional medicine, you know, deep lab testing. It really just depends on the person and, you know, their willingness to dig deep and get healthy from a functional medicine lens. But yeah, there’s various resources we have. We have, you know, toolkits and quizzes where you can audit your health and see where you fit, you know, in the essential health elements. That’s free. You can see it on a polar chart, you know, where your strengths are just by, you know, answering a few questions. And then we have toolkits that kind of say this is these are the guidelines for optimal nutrition and sleep. And, you know, those are all complimentary as well. And that’s all on the lazarusmethod.com.

Katie: Awesome. And I will make sure all those links are in the show notes at wellnessmama.com for any of you guys listening while driving or working out. And stay tuned for our next conversation because we’re going to get to go deeper on each of the pillars and get some specific, actionable advice related to each of those. But for right now, Dr. Lazarus, thank you for your time. It was incredible to hear your story and also to get to delve into gamification and habit formation and everything we talked about today. Thank you so much for being here.

Ryan: Thank you, Katie.

Katie: And thank you for listening. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

This episode is sponsored by BiOptimizers. I love all of their products and I have been mega-dosing their Masszymes for a variety of reasons. But today I want to talk specifically about Magnesium Breakthrough because you might’ve heard me talk about or write about magnesium before. And once I started taking Magnesium Breakthrough, my sleep completely changed and I wake up feeling so energized. It also helps me wind down at night, although I am one of the weird ones that I prefer to take magnesium in the morning and find it really supports my sleep when I do. And here’s why this one’s different. Other forms of magnesium might only be giving you one or two types of magnesium. But Magnesium Breakthrough contains all seven forms designed to calm your mind and help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed. And over 75% of the population is magnesium deficient. And this is important because magnesium is vital for hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the body. And what most people don’t know is that even if we’re taking a magnesium supplement, we can still be deficient because we’re not getting all of the forms. And Magnesium Breakthrough is the easiest way I found to get all seven forms in one supplement. So not only does it help me sleep better and calm my mind and body and stay relaxed during the day, it also helps me to have better digestion to recover quicker from exercise. And magnesium is well studied to also support bone density. Most magnesium supplements are ineffective because they only contain a couple forms. And Magnesium Breakthrough is unique in that it contains all seven forms. And I noticed a big difference from this one. For an exclusive offer just for Wellness Mama listeners, go to bioptimizers.com/wellnessmama. Your brain and body will thank you. And if you use the code wellnessmama during checkout, you will save 10%.

This episode is brought to you by Mito Red, which is a great option for red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation, which is something I have been fascinated by for a very long time. If you’re not familiar, red light therapy is a therapeutic technique that uses low wavelength red and infrared light. It’s become really popular in the health and wellness world due to its many potential applications and its incredible safety profile. This form of therapy harnesses the power of specific light wavelengths that are believed to be absorbed by specific chemicals in a cell, which improves their function and energy production. Mito Red light therapy is known for its ability to stimulate collagen production, reduce inflammation, and accelerate the healing process. The effects were first discovered by NASA scientists during research into plant growth using red and infrared light. One accidental finding was that researchers who spent hours exposed to the light sources experienced noticeably faster healing of cuts and abrasions. And since its initial discovery, there’s been extensive research into how red light therapy works and its benefits.

Researchers believe that these specific wavelengths of light influence cellular function by their impact on the mitochondria, which as we know, are the microscopic powerhouses of our cells. Red light therapy is thought to enhance mitochondrial function by stimulating cytochrome C oxidase, which is a key enzyme in mitochondria that is sensitive to these specific wavelengths of light. And this is believed to increase activity, thereby boosting cellular energy production. This enhancement is what research believes may cause many of the effects that people experience from red light therapy, like improved cell vitality, increased healing, and reduced inflammation. It’s also thought to stimulate the release of nitric oxide, which is a critical signaling molecule involved in numerous physiological processes. Nitric oxide plays a role in vasodilation, blood flow regulation, and oxidative stress response.

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Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

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