Unveiling the Hidden Dangers of Opioid Dependence: Why Collaborative Healthcare is Essential

Hello and welcome to Healthy Mind Healthy Life with your host Eric. This podcast is all about exploring the latest research, sharing personal stories, and providing personal tips for improving our mental health and well-being. Each episode will be joined by experts in the field of mental health, as well as individuals who have experienced the transformative power of a healthy mind firsthand. Together, we will dive into a range of topics from managing stress and anxiety to building resilience and cultivating happiness. So join us on this journey to discover new ways to take care of our minds, bodies, and souls, and let's work together to create a healthier, happier world one episode at a time. So let's get started. Hello dear listeners, welcome to Healthy Waves, the live group podcast where we dive deep into the sea of topics with the experts who bring their wealth of knowledge and insights to our discussions. I'm your host and together we will explore the nuances of the mental and the physical wellbeing and also at the same time, uncover the new perspectives and provide the practical advice to help you lead a healthier and more fulfilling life. So. But before we delve deep into the topic, because today's topic is very great, where we'll be talking about from shadows to the serenity, like harnessing the power of your mind to overcome the addiction, trauma, chronic illness, and others. So, uh, but before we do that, uh, I really love to introduce you to all of our guests. So we'll start with Dave. Dave. Maury. So, uh, the listeners, Dave, uh, lives with the bipolar disorder and is the beacon of hope and the humor for many. So as the bestselling author of the OMG That's me mental health books and stand up comic, he teaches others with the mental illness how to find humor in the darkest days. So his journey from hospitalization and homelessness, uh, to becoming a transformative figure in the mental health is nothing short of inspiring. So through his work, uh, Dave shatters the stigma, shares laughter, and offers a message of resilience and recovery. So welcome to the show, Dave. Thank you. Okay. So we'll quickly also introduce you to our, uh, next guest, Micheal Martin. So, uh, like, following a series of life changing events, Michael turned of nature and turned to nature to find that inner peace and heal himself. So after a difficult, uh, divorce, he embarked on a solo backpacking trip that led him to reconnect with the, uh, tranquility and the resilience of the natural world. So his journey of self-discovery and the emotional healing in the wilderness has given him a renewed sense of peace and the purpose which he now shares to inspire others. Also, we have, on the other hand, we have Len Len May. So he is a pioneer in the, uh, uh, medical cannabis industry and the CEO and the co-founder of Endo DNA with over 25 years of experience, Lin has shaped the legislation and culture around the cannabis, and his expertise in genomics and, um, uh, into the system has revolutionized the personalized health and the, uh, wellness. So, uh, his mission is to educate and empower the individuals through the healing powers of cannabis and the personalized medicine. So welcome to the show, Len. And, uh. Uh, Michael. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Lovely, lovely. So to start with, uh, I'll quickly, uh, start with Martin. Uh, so, so, uh, so, Michael, like, uh, to start with, I mean, how do you I mean, how did your solo backpacking trip to the wilderness contribute to your emotional and mental healing after, uh, uh, the phase you've been through? Uh, and what lessons did you learn during that journey? So I think overall through that journey, I rediscovered something that somebody took away from me, which was my sense of self-worth, my sense of self value. And it expanded and really took shape once I learned to embrace the idea of meditation. And once I started working that into my practice of sitting in the wilderness and learning how to befriend myself and befriend the different emotions that I was struggling with, I started to gain a sense of balance and peace and that journey. It's taught me to not only rely on the skill set that I've learned throughout life, but it's also taught me to be open to the different examples that I encounter within the living world around me. Okay. Okay. So, um. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for sharing. Uh, this. Michael. So, uh, I'll come to the, like the, like, uh, uh, so exploring the humor in the healing, uh, if you can share with us, like, how the humor became, uh, pivotal tool in your recovery journey and also, at the same time, how it can transform the lives of those with the mental illness. Um, I had a breakdown in in 1996 and from 1996 to 2010, where my last years, my dark days, uh, suffering in silence. Um, just hiding from from everyone. And then in 2010, I took a stand up comedy class for folks with mental illness, and it changed my life. Instead of, uh, me having the thought and, uh, about a past trauma and reliving that experience, I started to look for the humor in in those triggers, those things that would trigger those, those, uh, memories and, and take me to those darkest places. And once I started doing that, it again, it changed. It changed everything. I, I when the trigger happened, uh, I no longer went to those dark places. I looked for the humor in it, and, like, Lynn was talking. You know, Lynn's talking about cannabis. And I have a cannabis joke. When, uh, when cannabis was legalized in in Oregon, uh, we got a new airline. It's called Air Cannabis, and they don't charge it by how far you go, but by how high you get. So you know, it does a couple things. One, it it it, uh, made a huge difference in my life. And then I teach standup comedy to others, and I see the same transformation in them. And, you know, I'll be able to talk a little bit about that. Um, but it it also helps shatter the stigma. People, when people find out I'm bipolar, uh, you know, they tend to back away and, and actually run away as fast as they can. But by including some humor, it humanizes me. It makes it so much less scary and helps shatter the stigma. Lovely. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah. So I'll come to Len. Um, so after that joke. Definitely. So, uh, we'll, uh, so regarding that personalized health through the, uh, genomics, uh, if you can, if you can share, I mean, how, uh, know DNAs technology harness the power of DNA to provide that personalized, uh, health recommendations and how this can be beneficial for the individuals who are dealing with the chronic illness. Yeah. I just want to say that Dave and I got the orange memo, and I think Mike didn't get the memo, so we're, uh, we're we're very coordinated today. Uh, so, uh, I didn't check my email before this. My apologies. Yeah. I'm sorry. Uh, so I wanted to, uh, kind of take a step back and really explain to people. And I really appreciate everybody's sharing their personal journeys, because that's what it is. Uh, we are all individuals, and we all should be treated personally, individually, and not like one size fits all. Uh, medicine and wellness. That's what. That's how we treat it today. And, you know, focusing on the root cause of something instead of addressing with a pill or a shot. So I just want to say, you know, I always focused on we started with the endocannabinoid system. That was that was my goal because I was noticing I was a dispensary owner at the time, had five different dispensaries under the same brand, uh, in Southern California. And, uh, I was noticing that people would consume the same chemical variety and have a completely different experience. And the first thing I did, I focused on a plant genomics. So doing genetic sequencing in the plant, we named this plan different names, but it really doesn't mean anything. It's what the components of the plant are that you're putting in your body. So once I started realizing that, I started looking at the human genetic side and merging those two together, not defined. You know, what is the ultimate plan? It's to help people avoid or mitigate possible adverse events. So now your DNA is your personalized roadmap. So this is your human, uh, G.P.S. system. It shows you where your own personal potholes are in your road. Where is there your own personal traffic jam. So if you're aware of this, it's empowering because you can then, uh, create lifestyle, uh, modifications to be able to avoid those possible personal potholes along the way. So the way that it works is, you know, we have a it's a saliva based test you swab into your cheek or your register because we're a hippo, we're GDPR compliant. It's medical data. You send it over to our lab, we'll sequence that and genotype that and provide you a report. So like I said, uh, it's it's focusing on your endocannabinoid system first. But now we expanded the whole genome and we're providing precision, uh, wellness and precision therapeutic, uh, suggestions across the board. So we have like, uh, for women. Uh, female hormone health. So looking at predisposition and menopause. Perimenopause post menopause. Extremely helpful to women who have a predisposition to something that they can actually turn off the genetic expression by taking certain things in advance. Also, it helps their significant others because we had a lot of calls from husbands and boyfriends saying, thanks, you saved my marriage because I don't have to deal with my wife going through certain, you know, genetic challenges based on her menopause. So we have a male hormone health, we have neutral genomics or personalized supplements and, and, uh, and vitamins, etc., skin, etc., even even canine, uh, for dogs. But the concept is you book an the experience starting with DNA, giving you a suggestion, then being able to have a feedback loop on how is that working for the individual and using AI to be able to start creating predictive inferences. So the next person...