Dr. Neera Nathan and Dan Hodgdon | An Integrated Approach To Hair Wellness
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Today, Dr. Neera Nathan and our returning guest, Dan Hodgdon emphasize the impact of the integrated hair wellness approach and how to stimulate dormant hair follicles and restore growth naturally. Stay tuned for more practical and easy self-care recommendations that improve whole-body health and wellness! Vegamour is the sponsor for the Live Greatly podcast.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
Why it’s important to take an integrative approach to hair wellness?
What can we do to regrow hair naturally?
What is the ENSO Collection and how is it unique?
Clean beauty movement: Definition, purpose, and precautions
What is Prejuvenation and why should you do it?
Self-care tips to improve your overall health and wellness
Disclaimer: All information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast & the Live greatly website are purely the opinions of the authors, and are not intended to provide medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast & website are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified health professional when you have any questions regarding your specific health, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions. Recording this episode was part of Vegamour's paid sponsorship package with the Live Greatly podcast.
Vegamour has sent me free products to try which I loved!
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
About Dr. Neera Nathan and Dan Hodgdon
Neera Nathan, MD, MSHS is a Harvard-trained, board-certified dermatologist and a paid consultant for Vegamour. While completing her residency in dermatology, she had the privilege of learning from international leaders in hair loss, aesthetics, laser medicine, and medical dermatology. She has authored more than 25 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, and book chapters to date and has presented her work at both national and international forums. She has received scholarships or scientific grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. In addition to her academic presence, she has been frequently featured in the media for her expertise, including the New York Times, HuffPost, Forbes.com, ABC News, and the Harvard Health Blog. She is passionate about the science behind hair and skin health, medical blogging, and patient advocacy.
Dan Hodgdon is an emerging leader in the clean beauty movement, helping to shape the future of a massively influential industry. As CEO of VEGAMOUR - one of the world’s fastest-growing hair brands - the Los Angeles-based executive has created a first-of-its-kind line of plant-based hair-wellness products for women, revealing entirely new possibilities at the intersection of sustainability and science.
Founded in 2016, VEGAMOUR takes a uniquely holistic and science-driven approach to hair health, formulating all its products with non-toxic, organic, wild-harvested ingredients used in amounts clinically proven to boost hair density and volume.
Connect with Dan and Dr. Neera
Website: www.vegamour.com
Instagram: @vegamour
Facebook: Vegamour
Use code GREATLY20! and get a 20% off on your first purchase at www.vegamour.com.
Kristel Bauer, the Founder of Live Greatly, is on a mission to help people thrive personally and professionally. She was recently featured in Forbes as a top 10 influencer of 2021. She is a corporate wellness expert, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Keynote Speaker, Motivational Speaker, TEDx speaker & Physician Assistant experienced in Integrative Psychiatry and Functional Medicine.
Follow her on:
Instagram: @livegreatly_co
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LinkedIn: Kristel Bauer
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Watch her TEDx talk on Redefining Work/Life Balance in a COVID-19 World here https://youtu.be/ydV16gF88N8
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Episode Transcript
Dr. Neera (Teaser)
Clean or natural ingredients at the proper doses that are backed by science can come into play. And that is what clean beauty means to me. It is thoughtful, it is effective, and it is safe.
Kristel: Guest’s Introduction
If you're interested in health and wellness, you are going to learn a ton from today's episode with Dan Hodgdon and Dr. Neera Nathan.
I'm really, really pumped about this episode.
It's the second time I've had Dan on the show who’s a CEO and founder of Vegamour and Dr. Neera Nathan is a board certified dermatologist. She's Harvard trained. She's a paid consultant for Vegamour and we are going to have an amazing conversation about an integrated approach to hair wellness, about clean beauty.
We're also going to be talking about pre-juvenation. So what that means is actually preventing problems with your hair. Like hair loss. So many people experience hair loss in their lifetime, and it's so incredibly important that we take care of our hair. Just like we take care of the rest of our body.
I'm really, really excited to dive deep into this topic. Vegamour is a sponsor for this podcast, and I'm really excited to share it with you.
So let's jump right into it and welcome Dan and Dr. Neera to the show.
Dan and Dr. Neera, I am super, super pumped to have you both here today. Welcome to the show and thank you for joining me
Dan:
Thank you.
Dr. Neera:
Thanks so much for having us.
Kristel:
Okay. So to start, I would love for Dr. Neera for you to introduce yourself, Dan you've been on the show, but in case people didn't check that episode out. I also would love for you to do a quick intro after we hear from Dr. Neera.
Dan:
Absolutely.
Dr. Neera:
Okay. So hi everyone. I'm so excited to be here. My name is Neera Nathan and I am a board certified dermatologist in Boston, Massachusetts, and I am very passionate about the science behind skincare, wellness, and just overall I'm happy, happiness and wellbeing.
Kristel:
Amazing. And you are a consultant for a Vegamour as well.
Dr. Neera:
That's right. I'm so, so excited to be working with Dan and his wonderful team. Kristel:
Amazing. And then Dan, if you could just give little tidbits about yourself and any new, exciting stuff that's going on in your life.
Dan:
Oh, my God. Okay. Well, I am Dan. Thank you for inviting us here again too.
It's a pleasure. My name's Dan Hodgdon. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Vegamour. We're a hair wellness brand. We are the mission to redefine what haircare can be and super excited to have Dr. Nathan working with us. Making great products even better.
Kristel:
Amazing. Okay. So let's start out by talking about integrated approach to hair wellness.
And this is something near and dear to my heart because I trained in integrative medicine and I studied with Dr. Andrew Weil. And, you know, we touched a little bit on hair and skin and dermatology, but we didn't dig very deep. It was more kind of the general, um, integrative approach to medicine. But this is also really interesting to me, because when I was practicing as a physician's assistant, I worked a little bit in dermatology. I did, I did it right before I had my kids. So then I was home with, I was home with my kids for six years. Um, but thatwas, I was plastic surgery. And then I had just started dermatology job.
And then I ended up being home for six years. So I love this topic and I really didn't know that much about integrativ wellness, um, at that time and now I do. So I want, I would just want to hear from both of you and know why do you think that this model is so important and what is it, you know, for the listener for like, what is an integrated approach to hair wellness?
What does that even mean? So, um, Dr. Neera, if you could take this first, that'd be great. And then we can hear from you, Dan.
Dr. Neera:
Great. So, you know, I kind of echo your passion, you know, about integrative care and crystal, there is there's this undeniable connection between our physical and emotional health and our hair.
So if we start with our physical health and we know that physical triggers ranging from severe illness, childbirth, as you mentioned, as well as a very crappy diet conductive void of nutrients can all lead to hair loss. And also new, our emotional health is like so critical here. And, you know, there really is growing evidence.
Really well done studies that show that our body's response to emotional or psychological stress can have detrimental effects on the hair follicle and cause a fair hair follicles to go to sleep or to stop losing hair the way they should. And we're also learning interestingly that the hair follicle itself can respond to stressors from the environment and then send those same signals back to our brains.
Which can then perpetuate the stress response and negatively affect your overall wellbeing. So it's all connected. And you know, like at times like this in the middle of a pandemic, we're learning and seeing that we also lose just our natural built in coping mechanisms for chronic stress and our body's ability to respond to these constant triggers. Just continues to decrease. We are no longer as well equipped to fend off the stress hormones like cortisol. And this can just have lasting negative effects on our physical health. And that does include our hair and our skin. And that is why it is so important to take care of our health by doing things to really mitigate that stress level, improving the quality and quantity of your sleep. Meditation, mindfulness, eating well, and then using science backed ingredients for your hair and skin. I mean, these are all really critical parts of truly integrative hair.
Dan:
I don't know. I feel like there's much to add. I mean, there's a really thorough definition. I think, I think we sort of like try to, I approach it from, you know, I'm a software engineer by education. I'm not a doctor that's making that very clear, but I look at problem solution, you know, and solving problems.
And for me, it's always been like, we, when you see hair loss, you see unhealthy hair. You know, hair that's not shiny and adult, you know, what's causing that. I mean, we tend to always look at the symptom and like, you know, try to address the symptom, but like what's causing what's the underlying root cause of that.
That's causing that to happen, to manifest that way. And so, like, I think everything that we in Vegamour more than we do, we've come to it with that approach. And, you know, can we. If you, you can like stem the, the, the, the symptom, but like, but if it's just continuing to the thing that caused that underline, that, that symptom to, to manifest, if you don't address that, then it's never going to go away.
So like, what are the all looking at it? You know, emotional health, your nutrition, your how much exercise or movement you get into your, into your it's, your daily routine, how much sleep you get, all these things, like she said impacted. And if you can't think about hair or any kind of wellness without taking about it holistically and taking all these things into consideration.
So that's been our approach from day one and, you know, and, and, and I think it's, it's, it's the future of it's the future of health and, uh, you know, uh, in, in our medical system, I think, I think it's the future of, of skin.
And hair.
Kristel:
Amazing. Okay. Well, both of you shared a lot of incredible information there, and I want to backtrack for a moment because something you said Dr. Neera really stood out to me and I think it was the word detrimental. It's like the scary word, like a detrimental effect to your hair follicle. And it's going to make your hair follicle go to sleep. So that you said something about your hair follicle going to sleep.
So that basically made me think about, okay, well, if our hair follicles are asleep, can we wake them up? You know, is that something where it cycles. If you've gone through a really stressful period, which our whole world has just been going through a stressful period over the past couple of years with the pandemic, what can we do then to ignite our hair, to start growing again?
You know, obviously supporting our stress response, but besides that, any other tips that you have?
Dr. Neera:
So absolutely the good news is that, um, you know, a lot of these changes can be reversible. So when we see stress induced hair loss, when we see it, as you said, so commonly with the pandemic after childbirth, after a surgery, even high fevers, any physical or significant emotional stressor can cause us stress induced hair loss, and you have two things happen.
You have one, the follicles, all kind of go into that resting or sleeping phase, you know, and that's when you see a lot of hair shed several months after you have one of those major life events. But the follicles themselves over time after repetitive stress and repeated insults can really kind of go to sleep.
So absolutely you need to do things to awaken them. And I think one of the reasons integrative care is so important, is that one of the ways to truly awaken those hair follicles is by managing your stress crest. Also, it's like, you know, you, you do need to sleep more, you need to eat well, you have to take care of yourself.
You know, our bodies are complex, you know, it's such a complex, you know, combination of organs that need to be high functioning at all times. So if you think of your, if you're mentally stressed or physically stressed, one of the last places your body will send energy and nutrients is to your hair. So your hair will suffer, your body's going to preserve the brain and the lungs and the heart, but not the hair.
So we really have to take care of yourself. And I think, you know, in addition to taking care of your self. You know, there are some really exciting top goal, natural vegan ingredients that you can use for hair loss. And, um, you know, we can get into these more later. Um, I'm particularly, and I was chatting with Dan about this.
I'm really excited about caffeine, the data or topical caffeine and that stress induced hair loss, that hair follicles going to sleep. I mean, the data is just mounting that caffeine can really reawaken the hair follicle. And that is just really, really exciting. Um, also, you know, a lot of, um, different anti-inflammatory ingredient gradients like curcumin or turmeric can also help, you know, kind of mitigate, you know, our stress hormones or inflammatory hormones, turmeric as an anti-inflammatory.
So those are just some examples. Um, Um, of things we can do and there absolutely are things we can do. And you know, that potentially can lead us into our discussion about, you know, pre-juvenation, because, you know, once the hair follicles go to sleep, you can wake them up, but it's going to be an uphill battle.
So it's almost better to kind of start out strong and really, you know, kind of build up your reserves to be as resilient as you can and take care of your health, your hair, health, and skin health, and overall health from day one. So that. Ideally, you know, you can kind of, you know, really mitigate the effects of stress and ultimately hair loss.
Kristel:
Amazing. And you talk about caffeine. It's interesting. It's like what we consume actually then topically can have some of the, it sounds like similar benefits. You know, you think you have your caffeine and it perks you up. It wakes you up and then tumeric and curcumin. That's something that I would recommend for an anti-inflammatory for some patients as a supplement.
And it sounds like it's going to do the same thing potentially for the hair follicle, which is so cool. And you know, I, I love this idea of having different options depending on where you are in your life. So if you're listening and you're like, all right, I, I have had some hair loss. My hair has suffered from, you know, maybe the stress that you've been under or whatever it may be.
You know, there are things that you can do and managing your stress definitely is going to be really important. But then also like topically, Dan, this is going to be geared more towards you with Vegamour. I mean, you have your grow line and that's, I've been using that and I love it. And so I feel like that's more geared towards people who are wanting to address concerns. Right. And I'm gonna let you take that, but then you also have some really exciting news because you're launched today a new line, which is more preventative, pre-juvenation, Enzo line. So I'm gonna kind of hand this over to you, Dan, so you can share a little bit about that and the differences between your grow collection and then your new and so collection.
Dan:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, we're super excited. Today is mark the launch of our new Enzo line, which is a, um, uh, actually it's a personal line of, uh, of haircare products that, that, that we're quite excited about. It follows our same philosophy in terms of like, you know, 360 holistic approach to hair wellness, but with absent, the, the act is that we use in our grow line and grow plus line of does it necessarily have to like, act as that, that are for promoting hair, hair, hair growth, or dressing or feeding, but it's more about it's one of the preventative or what Dr Neera Nathan mentioned before about pre juvenation. It's like getting ahead of the problem before. Everyone's going to be faced with hair issues at some point in their life. Right. It's inevitable. It's like aging captains, right. Our bodies change. And so like, what can you do to make sure that you're best prepared to, to want to stay that off there as long as you possibly can?
You know? And, and in my day we used to lay out on the sun and, you know, and then we started maybe using a little bit sunblock, you know, and then we know now that that's the worst thing that you can possibly do. My, and my. My mother's generation would use baby oil with iodine and those big metal reflectors that cats how they could be.
And so we know that it's inherently bad. And now what we see now today, especially in the skincare, like space, uh, women, young women in their twenties, they start, you know, my niece is 14 years old and, and uses her mother's eye serum because she wants to, we were like, what are you using at $600 serum? I don't want to have these lines of my mother has for as long as possible.
So what can we do to stave it off? And so just because you don't have a hair concern now necessarily doesn't mean that you shouldn't be thinking about what you're putting that's into your hair and onto your scalp. And so your scalp is doing this absorbent parts of your body, that the poor they're larger, you have to make the combinations for your hair follicles.
So given that and your, and your hair is like a big net, collects all the pollution, all the environmental hazards, that surrounded, especially in big cities and bring that directly into, into your body's ecosystem. And so what can we do to, if you may, you may not have an issue now, but like what can we do to create an optimal hair?
Um, so that this beautiful hair that you have today continues to be so long into your forties and fifties. And that's what Enzo's all about it is. It's setting you up for success by creating, uh, products that are you specifically for your hair type. And that's another thing we've sort of taken the Liberty to redefine.
Um, one does haircare typically, it's like, oh, you have this shampoo and conditioner. If you have oily hair, this one, if you have dry here, this one, if you have damaged. And so this one, if you have like scalp issues and we we've decided that no, we're going to rewrite the script on this and we're going to, like, everyone has a particular hair attack.
You've got. Fine here. It's medium hair. It's thick care or it's, it's a particular curl type. Right. And so we address each one of those types of hair first, and then we have another treatment series coming out later, which addresses those particular concerns. Is it dry? Is it damaged? Is it, you know, we want to be concerned about color protection and things like that.
So, but, but this vine actually made with like all of our beautiful, you know, Organically harvested ingredients that promote hair health, skin health, healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp. And so we think about that first doctor, Dr. Nathan says that your hair is an extension of your skin. And so therefore let's think of it as we think of in similar way that we think of our skin.
I'm so super excited to have a line that you know, where people in their, you know, twenties, thirties that are, don't think they have a concern. Now they have something that they can use that specifically tailored for their type of hair that won't like, you know, clog up their pores with silicon's or, or, you know, poison their body with Pilates and parabens, synthetic fragrances, all the things which in this very absorbing part of your body, aren't things that you want to be like intaking because they will eventually just those things alone can impair, impede healthy hair growth.
Kristel:
Amazing. Well, I'm so very excited to try it. And I mentioned to you this before Dan, that when I tried your grow products, my kids were using the shampoo and conditioner in our shower because it smelled so good. And they had to be like, no, no, no, that's mommies. And they had to like put it on a different shelf.
With it because it smelled so amazing. So I feel like this is just such an innovative approach to hair health, because I really haven't heard many people talking about, or really at all people talking about preventative care for your hair, you hear it a lot about your skin. You hear it obviously for your body and, you know, getting your, um, your annual exam and all of that.
But this is something that I really love that you're bringing to the forefront and you're doing it with a clean beauty approach, which is amazing. So. I would love to just gear a little bit towards clean beauty, because that's something that's like a buzz word these days. And if you're listening, you probably have heard this phrase clean beauty, but you may not know what it means or why it's important.
So I would love to just touch on that. And Dr. Neeraj if you could give your thoughts on that and then Dan, you know, you can share your insights as well.
Dr. Neera:
Sure. So, so Kristel, I think we are all thinking more about not just what we put inside of our bodies, but what we are putting onto our bodies. And in my field in dermatology, you know, we've been thinking really critically about the effects of topical products that we put on our skin.
Especially as we're finding that a lot of the over-the-counter products that we have been recommending to our patients for years can actually get absorbed into the blood and have the potential to cause harm inside. And that is always concerning, right? So, and that's really where clean or natural ingredients at the proper doses that are backed by science can come into play.
And if that is what clean beauty means to me, it is thoughtful, it is effective and it is safe. And I think one of the common misconceptions and Dan and I discussed this is that, you know, natural products like don't do anything or that they're ineffective. And I want to give you an example, an example that I hope that your listeners can relate to. Poison Ivy is natural.
And if you've gotten a rash from poison Ivy, you know how powerful it can be and all we want to stay away from that type of natural, really curated, natural ingredients can have a very powerful, wonderful effect in a positive direction on your skin health, on your hair health with really minimal to no side effects.
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Kristel:
Amazing. And Dan, anything you would like to add on that? The clean beauty movement and you know, why. You're at why it's important to you to have these, you know, really high-end safe, organic ingredient.
Dan:
Yeah, no, I mean, echoing on top of what Dr. Nathan said, I mean, yes, super important that it's clean, that if we have an option to use a synthetic fragrance versus an EO, I mean, there's a lot of reasons why I would take over a synthetic, not just because it's smart, cleaner, safer, but also because of the impact those molecules, have you mentioned the scent.
Smells that lives molecules actually impact different parts of our brain. Sometimes crossing that blood-brain barrier and cause us to can be relaxing, can be stimulating, can be, you know, restorative. Uh, and so that's part of theof the holistic approach. You know, there are fighting sides in some of our products that we use that are, you know, basically EO drives from like Cypress or, or live, which are calm lower court is all levels and booster in case cells. But I think in one of the things, I think the clean beauty movement today is it's very entrenched, very on trend, but it's just, and this is one of my, the reasons why I started Vega more is because there are people that make these call-outs, you know, we use this oil or this particular ingredient or bioactive, but you know, What is the source of those ingredient? What strains are you using specifically? And then how are you making them bioavailable? So they actually can be absorbed and used by the body in a favorable way. Just having clean ingredients lists or on your eeky deck is wonderful. It's a step in the right direction, but like how effective are they?
And without, you know, stop fullness around bioavailability about how they work together. Because in many cases you can have a certain level of impact with one Ingredient. When you in tandem with others, but the right ratio is that's when the effects are far more efficacious. And so I think that clean beauty today, it's almost like those are table stakes.
It didn't used to be when we started, but like, everyone's claiming that, but like, let's be thoughtful about how we're, you know, how we're using those ingredients and making sure that we're using the right one, derived from credible sources where they're pure and because just because something is natural as it, you know, depending on how it's harvested and how it's treated, it can have rural oil for example, is one of those things where, you know, it's people it's very hard to process properly because you have to crack it up. And if you use a crusher on those nuts, there's an enzyme called lipase that starts to germination process the oil instead of having full of antioxidants becomes full of free radicals at that stage.
And like, so you have one thing that's like amazing for you. The same product can actually age you if it's not handled properly. So that's why clean beauty is great, but responsible, clean beauty, I think is that's bioavailable is also equally as important.
Kristel:
I remember, we talked a little bit about that Dan when you were on last time.
And I, after the episode, I was talking with a bunch of my girlfriends. I was like, you wouldn't believe this. And I was sharing that because it was so eye opening to me that just the importance of educating yourself about the products that you're using and the companies that you're buying your products from making sure that you know, they're ethical and that's one of the reasons I resonated so much with Vegamour with you and with your mission is because I felt like, wow, they're really doing such an incredible job and bringing these amazing products in the right way for people that actually are effective. So thank you for that. Amazing.
Alright, so we are coming closer to the end and we're going to do a really fun wellness lightning round, where I ask you both some fun questions that I get some quick answers from at the end.
But before we do that, I just wanted to see if there's anything else that you would like to share any kind of last comments before we move into that round.
Dan:
I mean, I love if Dr. Nathan would say a little bit more about 3g elimination, because I think this is such a, I mean, it's something it's like, um, it's a moment in the derm space, I think, but no one hasn't caught on in the hairspace and I think that's really.
Dr. Neera:
Okay. All right. Of course, Dan and I am just as excited about this.
So I will say that the term is credited to a very prominent Boston dermatologist, not me, not different Boston dermatologist, and really was used in coined in the context of skin aging and this dermatologist actually, um, bear with me here, authored a scientific paper nearly 10 years ago. About when is it?
“Show early to start thinking about cosmetic procedures or reducing the signs of skin aging stage”. And the conclusion that he came up with is that it is almost never too early, but in some cases, you know, the question really is when is it too late? And I think the concept is that some of the treatments that we use for skin aging can be used to treat.
Can be used to drastically slow the signs of aging years before they ever become apparent or noticeable in the mirror to you or to others. And now of course, that's in conjunction with best practices, like maintaining your skin health, staying out of the sun and moisturizing. But this is truly preventative medicine for our appearance and it makes total sense for the skin.
So why are we not talking more about this concept for the hair? As Dan mentioned earlier than hair is a skin appendage, it is part of the skin. It goes hand in hand and it deserves the same care. And we knew what we also know is the amount of hair that we have from the time we are about. It's on a natural downward decline after puberty.
And you know, that may be slow in some and faster in others, but eventually, and sadly, we all lose our hair to stop extent all of us. And, you know, some experts have noted that some folks will actually need to lose more than 50% of their hair, 50% before they notice a difference. And at that point it can be such an uphill battle, such a battle, fully restored.
So why not combat the aging process in our hair that is inevitable before it becomes noticeable. And we do that by maintaining the strength of the hair, preventing breakage, treating it well, as well as that integrated approach to care that we talked about mitigating stress, sleeping better, eating, right?
And then using ingredients that are clean and natural and proven to maintain our healthy hair.
Kristel;
Okay, that was amazing. And I'm sold. I'm sold, you know, I think for you listening, you know, you have all this wonderful information now, so you are empowered to take ownership over your hair health, which is really, really incredible.
If you want to get 20% off, they get Mars products. You can use the code greatly 20. I'm going to put a link also in the episode details. And I'll put that code in there too. So if you're like, wait, what, what is that? And you can just go ahead, click in the episode details and you can access that. All right.
So that was amazing. Are you guys ready for the wellness lightening round or is there anything else that you want to share before we move into.
Let's do it. Okay. So let's start, I'm going to go back and forth. So I'm going to start with Dr. Neera, What is a self care practice? That is a non-negotiable that you do on a regular.
Dr. Neera:
So, yeah, I practice meditation and I actually practiced TM, transcendental meditation, and it has changed my life. I actually went to a teacher of this type of meditation a few years ago, who kind of walked me through the sessions and I will take responsibility to do it twice a day.
I'll be honest. I only get to it once a day and some days I miss it. I not perfect by any means. It has just kind of changed my mood, the way I feel, the way I treat others around me. And I will tell you, even with my, you know, kind of my own personal skin problems and hair problems, like I truly believe that it has helped improve just my overall health from the inside out.
So I am a huge fan of TM, everyone check it out. Um, and for me, it's an absolut.
Kristel:
Amazing. And that I've explored a lot of different meditations myself. I've never explored that, but isn't that the one where you get like a mantra, like your own personal mantra.
Dr. Neera:
it's supposed to be a secret. I think I Googled it once.
I was like, what would my beat? And then on top of that, you know, I like, there's always like a hundred things running through my head per minute. So I thought it was a person who just couldn't meditate. I was like, meditation is not for me. Like there are too many thoughts, but with TME, learn to embrace the thoughts and it's just.
I know you don't fight the thoughts out of your head and it is just absolutely amazing. I am a strong believer between the connection between meditation and mindfulness and our overall skin and hair.
Kristel:
Amazing. Amazing. All right, Dan, you're up. So what's a self-care practice that is non-negotiable for you.
Dan:
Oh, my gosh.I mean, meditation is also, I mean, I'm a Vipassana meditator, and so I've sat many times in the 10 day silent meditation retreats. And that was a game changer for me. It becomes everything to me. It's like, is that SLAs even the matrix movie. And the first one, when Neo finally sees the matrix and he sees all the zeros and ones, the bullets are flying at him and then suddenly.
They were really fast and like there, so, so that he can pick them up and just like, look at them. And that's what meditation does for me. It slows all that input and stimuli. They're coming at you a million miles a second, just like, and I thought of sleep three minutes after my head hits the pillow. If I meditate during the day, if I don't, it's a different story. I have a different result. The other new thing that I'm, as I get older, It was like eating tenor before 6:00 PM is a huge difference on digestion and being able to sleep the entire night sleep to me as I get older has been like the number one, I guess the priority for me is being able to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep.
It's really a challenge sometimes, but I find the most important thing that I can do to like, you know, reduce cortisol levels, you know, and that impacts there that also impacts like weight gain and all these other things. And this also makes me a nicer person to be around, that's what my wife says, and, you know, intermittent fasting, there's more and more research coming out about that.
And, and when people hear about that, it doesn't have to be. Really long periods, you know, if you're eating dinner at six o'clock or before six o'clock and then you're not having breakfast until whatever seven or something. I mean, there you go. You're doing your own. I do this, I skipped the breakfast part, so I started about 11 o'clock.
When you get to be my age, you got to do all the hacks you can possibly think of. And that has been to me that helps with intermittent fasting helps with like brain fog, you know, find himself more alert. And it's, uh, also, yeah, I think it's, there's so much research that's coming on it recently and, you know, I defer to Darren or anything like that, but like, it's been a game changer for me as well.
Kristel:
Amazing. All right. So second question, Dr. Neera. So you're on a deserted desert island and you can only bring three foods with you. And that's the only thing that you're going to be able to eat the whole time. You're there. You don't know how long you're going to be there. What would the three foods be that you would bring?
Kristel:
Okay, so. For sure too. So I am weird. I have English breakfast tea every single morning, strong, strong English breakfast tea with almond milk. And I am so used to the type of, you know, really released against strong tea that I drink. And I'm so used to the type of almond milk that I drink, that I would need to bring those exact brands with me.
I'm a third day. That concept too. And then the third thing is honestly, my tea kettle. I would make a hot and use my. Over a fire because I must have boiling boiling water. And if I had my tea and almond milk, and you can even talk to my fiance about this, like it is, you must for me, no matter where we go.
Yeah. It's part of my ritual, sipping tea also can release L-theanine, which is, you know, um, stress reducing. So, you know, the benefits of tea, you know, are also very wonderful, but I just personally. I like the taste and it's my ritual. I'll have a few cups in the morning and I really can't start my day without it.
So my kettle, my almond milk, and my I'll give you another one, cause I don't want you to go hungry. So it doesn't count. It'll just, you can bring the kettle. Okay. I can read. Okay. So as far as, okay, so as far as food, my one food that I couldn't live without, I'm going to sound so lame, but I love chicken. I mean, I use my chickpeas and salad.
I use my chickpeas to make comments, to make falafel, but I can also eat chickpeas, just plain Sochi chickpeas that are cooked. I would need the boiling water from my cuddle to cook my, there you go. I would say that would be very food. They're wholesome. Lots of fiber, lots of protein. So that would be, and I think I could survive off chickpeas.
Yeah. There you go. Perfect. All right, Dan, how about you? Well, I'm glad to have a little time to think about it. It's like, just for survival. It's like, because it's my favorite thing, but I would, it would be papaya, avocado and macadamia nuts or some kind of nuts and walnuts. Yeah. We'd need to be able to be on the other island together, Dan.
So we could check if you share your cheat with me then absolutely.
So good. I don't really eat it often. It's only when I'm on vacation, but I, I love it. So good. All right. Last question. So let's switch it up. Let's start with you, Dan. So we can get back to near a little break. What is a habit that you're currently either trying to break free up or a new, healthy habit you're trying to develop.
I'll let you choose. I am trying to develop the habit of like incorporating. And, you know, exercise and so daily routine, and it's just, I have to do it in the mornings. First thing, you know, during this pandemic is we started, you know, that going to the gym, but like then having, working with, having people come over and teach us at home, and I think it's just movement and regulated breathing.
It's just. It's something that I see people as they, my age, or maybe not. I think if you stop moving, you're going to get stuck. And I feel like I don't want to get stuck. And just that movement is this lovely. So we have like yoga, Pilates, and then we also, I, we tie with a, you know, twice a week as well, and just every, I have one day off.
Don't do it, you know, but like movement, some kind of daily exercise. It's very obvious, but like I'm very much like making sure I'm consistent. It's a consistency that like I tell myself, oh, I exercise all the time, but if I keep a journal, I'm like, oh yeah, only did it twice last week. But my brain will fill in all the spots and like, you know, like, you know, I exercise every day when I did, but if I'm honest with myself, Honestly, moving at least, you know, doing some, you know, concentrated effort, a movement at least 45 minutes a day.
Kristel:
Amazing. Fantastic. And Dr. Neera, how about for you a habit you're either trying to break free of, or a healthy habit you're trying to create. Yeah. So it's a combination of both. So, you know, so Dan, so in the room, it's a great one, you know, I would say I am really trying, especially. On the weekends or on vacation to reduce my screen time and kind of get out of my emails, you know?
And, and I'm probably with too also, you know, self-proclaimed workaholics, right? It is, you know, we are always online and in touch and my fiance and I chat about this, all the timber, both in the medical field and we are constantly. On our phones, responding to emails or responding to patients like respond, you know, looking at things for research projects, like thinking about someone we saw earlier today, our minds are constantly going with work.
And I've noticed that if you don't kind of take a step back, close the computer screen, turn off the phone. Your brain will keep cycling. It'll interfere with. It interferes with your relationships and interferes with your ability to be mindful and present in the moment you're on a lovely vacation. And you're thinking about work.
You're thinking about where you're at work, and you're not even thinking about that. You're thinking about the next step. So I've really tried to make an intentional practice and I've been her smile into emails late at night. So don't judge me. Dan's like, I'm trying, I'm a work in progress, but I feel like it's so important for us to just.
Be in the moment and also to take care of ourselves and, you know, to put work away, put the screens away at times, enjoy nature, enjoy really the beauty of life, harmonious relationships, because life is really too short otherwise, and we know burnout is real and we know it's not good for our health. So I am working on that.
I'm a work in progress and I hope I have a chance to keep you posted on how I'm doing. Amazing. I mean, that's something, honestly, I think every single person that I know can work on myself included for sure. So with the current world, like that is just detaching from technology is such, you know, it's hard to do, but I agree it's super, super important.
Well, this has been amazing. And I so excited about all the information that you both shared.
Kristel:
So thank you so much, Dan and Dr. Naira for taking the time with me today to share all of your insights, really appreciate. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much for spending time with me today.