I had nosebleed nearly every single day in 1988. It would usually happen midday, and while I got pretty good at predicting it, I still remember bleeding on some very important textbooks, my Iowa Basics tests (old school standardized tests), and my white t-shirts. Eventually, my family doctor did some kind of cauterization procedure and it stopped—hooray!

Every kid has some weird health thing, whether it’s bumps on their belly from the swimming pool or endless streams of mucus from their noses, so I never thought anything of it until 30 years later. I met a guy who had an autoimmune condition that the doctors finally traced back to black mold in his home that started after a flood. I’d never even heard of black mold.

Here’s how it works: Your bathtub overflows, water drips into the floor, and then you clean it up. But the water in the floorboards drips down into the walls and ceiling and it gets moldy. That mold might just sit there, but it might spread. It might stay trapped in the walls, but it might start to get into your heating ducts or get released during construction.

And the problem? In many cases, these molds are super toxic, even neurotoxic. What does this have to do with my nosebleeds? It’s one of the top symptoms of mold exposure, and I was sleeping in a moldy basement at the time. Luckily, my nosebleeds were no big deal, particularly in comparison to the conditions that household mold can trigger in others.

On this week’s show, Dr. Ann Shippy will share her research and best practices for protecting your home and family from black mold.

Listen & Learn:

• Why as many as 50% of homes might have a mold issue
• Why some mycotoxins are not visible and don’t necessarily smell bad
• How mold can cause headaches, skin conditions, bloody noses, and even cause much more serious conditions
• How to take care of you and your loved ones

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Ann Shippy
• CDC research on mold

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Ann Shippy is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Functional Medicine. As a humanitarian and founder of two foundations (Good Food Matterz Foundation and Toxicity Matters Foundation), she wants to help create a world of wellness. She has written two books, Mold Toxicity Workbook and Shippy Paleo Essentials.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• What are the essential supplements

Got Questions?

• Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question
• Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com

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• Leave us a Review on iTunes
  

“Change the way you think about things, and the things you think about will change.” This cliche sums up 80 percent of modern personal development, but it’s about as useful as marital advice that suggests a minute-long daily hug will ensure everlasting love or financial advice that suggests if you skip your morning latte and save the money you’ll get rich someday.

Has any of this ever actually worked for anyone? I doubt it.

If I were to ask you about work or family or your country, you’d immediately have an emotionally-charged response—much of which may be negative. You can flip the script and tell yourself a different story, but those underlying emotions brew below the surface. No one has ever thought their way out of any major crisis. It all comes down to action.

What are you going to do?

With mental health problems, unfortunately, most of us do nothing. We feel depressed or anxious, so we try to wait it out. Our home life is suffocating, so we try a gratitude journal to change the story in our head. The office is a black hole where souls get vaporized, so we spend the day on Instagram trying to change the way we think about things.

On this week’s podcast, we’ll talk about the need for the Mind Detox method. Clear out your head trash and make space for new feelings, new experiences, and a new way of living.

Listen & Learn:

• How food and eating habits are often where mental and emotional problems appear
• How self-care techniques like yoga and tapping can empower you to have some control
• How your past is never really the past unless you deal with it and resolve painful issues

Links & Resources:

• Sandy Newbiggings
  

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Sandy C. Newbigging is a meditation teacher, monk, mentor, speaker, and author. He is also the creator of Mind Detox, Mind Calm, Body Calm and Calm Cure coaching and meditation techniques, collectively known as Calmology.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Frozen Food

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• Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question
• Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com

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• Leave us a Review on iTunes
  

Your dental health is very often the proverbial canary in the coal mine, meaning that periodontal disease is often a red flag that systemic problems exist which could be very serious. Proper brushing and hygiene are essential, of course, but dental health starts from within, particularly with the foods and nutrients you eat.

So what’s the problem? Our modern diets lack essential bone-health nutrients like fat-soluble vitamins D, K, and A. Foods are loaded with sugar and create an overly-acidic environment in the mouth which can lead to decay. On this week’s show, you’ll meet a holistic dentist who advocates dental care from the inside out, proper nutrition, and of course, great hygiene.

Listen & Learn:

• Is Xylitol good for dental care?
• Fluoride vs. no fluoride
• Fat-soluble vitamins A, K2 (4 vs 7) & D3
• Should you whiten your teeth?

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Lin’s Website
• Book: The Dental Diet
  

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Steven Lin is a functional dentist, TEDx speaker, and author of the book, The Dental Diet. As a passionate preventative, whole health advocate, Dr. Lin focuses on the understanding of dental disease through nutritional principles.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Insect Protein

Got Questions?

• Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question
• Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com

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• Leave us a Review on iTunes
  

I signed up for my first 12-day meditation retreat in 2001, and then I dropped out two weeks before the start date. I never drop out of anything. Eighteen months later, I signed up again. This time, I was ready.

It was exactly as you might suspect: a room full of people sitting on cushions—not speaking, not moving—for days at a time. There were no chanting nor prayers, no incense nor gurus. It wasn’t that kind of place. The instructional aspect of the course could easily be summarized in three words: sit, observe, accept.

Within 15 minutes of my arrival, I realized I’d entered a special kind of hell also known as my own head. I sat, and sat, and sat, and sat some more.

On the fourth day, someone sneezed in the meditation hall, and I nearly had a heart attack. By the seventh day, I was convinced I could see through my eyelids. The room remained unchanged for the past week, so for all intents and purposes, I really could see through my eyelids. Open or closed, everything was the same.

The guy next to me stank of mold and armpits. The person in front of me would groan and convulse in discomfort every 15 minutes. At least, I thought, he was suffering more than me. By the end of day eight, I’d re-lived every single unfinished conversation of my life, from the big ones to the most mundane encounters you could imagine. My own mental archives embarrassed me. They were (and are) so petty. On day 12, when we could finally speak again, I had nothing to say. I was hungry and horny; exhausted and thoughtful.

This was my introduction to meditation, and while I wish I could say it was smooth sailing since then, I find it more and more challenging every year; and oddly, the more I struggle, the more benefits I experience. There seems to be an inverse relationship between struggle in meditation and my happiness.

My guest on this week’s show is a meditator, teacher, author, and speaker. I’m a novice, he’s a pro. I think you’ll learn a lot from our discussion.

Listen & Learn:

• How spirituality is about a personal practice of inner transformation
• Why mindfulness means to “remember to wake up” or experience the self in the present moment
• How Jewish culture of suffering, knowledge, and self-inquiry resonates with Buddhist teachings
• Why suffering is an inevitable part of life
• Weapons of peace
  

Links & Resources:

• What’s Beyond Mindfulness
• Stephen’s Website
• Dhamma.org (meditation retreats)

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Stephen Fulder, Ph.D., is a spiritual teacher, author, and founder of the Israel Insight Society (Tovana). He has been teaching Buddhist teachings and meditation practice to thousands of people over the last 20 years. He has 40 years of Vipassana/Mindfulness meditation and dharma practice and Buddhist studies.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Carbonated Water

Got Questions?

• Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question
• Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com

Like the Show?

• Leave us a Review on iTunes