Ep. 90 - Dr. Alka Patel - Health As a Verb, Allopathic Care, & Holistic Medicine

YouTube version:

Audio version:

Hey everybody! Episode 90 of the show is out. In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Alka Patel. Alka was introduced to me and she has a very good TED Talk which I’ll link to below. Alka is a medical doctor and through a series of personal experiences began to see that there were other ways she could better help her patients, thus beginning to incorporate other modalities into a more holistic approach. I think it’s wonderful when any type of doctor is open to learning and broadening their knowledge and I think Alka really embodies this emerging field of medicine. She has a beautiful presence and ability to share her wisdom. I think you all will enjoy this episode. As always, to support this podcast, get early access to shows, bonus material, and Q&As, check out my Patreon page below. Enjoy!

YouTube: bit.ly/YouTubeUW

Apple  :  bit.ly/AppleUW

Spotify:  bit.ly/SpotUW

Google:  bit.ly/GooglUW

Amazon: bit.ly/AmazonUW

“I have been a medical doctor for over 20 years and I began my professional career much like many. On a professional high, driven to build my career and find success. But this drive in my professional life meant I put my health on the backburner. Closed my eyes to the signs in front of me.

The result - a collision course with burnout that ended with me spending my birthday and weeks after in a hospital bed, close to shut down.

I found out the hard way that my career in isolation wasn’t supplying me with the energy, resilience, strength and happiness that I needed, and that prioritising my health was by far the most important thing I needed to do to help my career to flourish.

Creativity, productivity and longevity are all achieved when you give yourself the self-nourishment you need to feed your professional soul.

Despite working hard as a Dr to help people become healthy, I realised that healthcare was headed in the wrong direction. An over-reliance on medication as a cure for every illness and a dependence on doctors to wipe away symptoms was detracting from what really mattered.

With my shift in awareness, I discovered Lifestyle Medicine - an approach that focuses on the root cause of ill health through a whole-person approach and that embeds self-care at the root of living well.

And so, through my extensive research and experience, The Lifestyle First Method® evolved – a proven approach for optimal health and happiness with easy to implement rapid actions based on my lifelong passion for health, science and compassion.”

To contact or learn more about Dr. Alka Patel, visit her website at: https://dralkapatel.com/ and for her TED Talk: https://youtu.be/JpFLNk3_Qik

If you enjoy the show, it would be a big help if you could share it with your own audiences via social media or word of mouth.  If you’re watching on YouTube if you could take a second and Subscribe to the channel and Like the video and if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, Follow the show and leave a starred rating and a short review. That would be super helpful with the algorithms and getting this show out to more people. Thank you in advance!

My colleague Merav Artzi (who I interviewed in episode 28) and I are guiding plant dietas in the Sacred Valley of Peru September 14-30 and October 14-31. If you would like more information about joining us and the work I do, visit my site at:

https://www.NicotianaRustica.org

If you are able to and would like to donate to the show to help out with new content that would be deeply appreciated.  For just a few dollars a month you can subscribe through Patreon and it gives you some really nice added benefits like early access to shows, bonus episodes, and a chance to ask personalized questions.

To support this podcast on Patreon, visit:

https://www.patreon.com/UniverseWithin  

Join this channel on YouTube to get access to perks:

https://bit.ly/YTPerks

To donate directly with PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/jasongrechanik 

Music courtesy of: Nuno Moreno (end song). Visit: https://m.soundcloud.com/groove_a_zen_sound and https://nahira-ziwa.bandcamp.com/ And Stefan Kasapovski’s Santero Project (intro song). Visit: https://spoti.fi/3y5Rd4H

And please leave any questions or comments in the comment section or email at:

https://www.UniverseWithinPodcast.com

Thanks and until the next episode!

https://www.facebook.com/UniverseWithinPodcast

https://www.instagram.com/UniverseWithinPodcast

Ep. 15 - Dr. Joe Tafur, MD - Integrative Family Physician, Curandero, Author and Speaker

YouTube version:

Audio version:

Hello everybody.  Episode 15 of the show is out.  In this show, I spoke with my friend Joe Tafur.  Joe and I met in the Amazon where we were both working at Shipibo plant-medicine centers, myself at the Temple of the Way of Light and Joe at Nihue Rao.  Joe is a medical doctor and was drawn to come to the Amazon to work with and learn from traditional Shipibo curanderismo.  Joe is a really interesting guy as he bridges the more ‘Western’ medical model with the more ‘traditional’ plant healing systems of the Amazon.  Joe has immersed himself deeply into both worlds and has the ability to speak to them both and how they relate to one another and how to bridge them together, respecting and learning from both systems.  I always enjoy speaking with Joe and I think you all will really enjoy this episode with him.  And starting in two episodes, I’ll begin releasing extended interviews exclusively on Patreon. So check out the information on that below. Cheers!

YouTube:  bit.ly/YouTubeUW

Apple  :  bit.ly/AppleUW

Spotify:  bit.ly/SpotifyUW

Google:  bit.ly/GoogPodUW

“Dr. Tafur has been an Integrative Medicine activist throughout his medical career, while in medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, and during his Family Medicine Residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After residency, Dr. Tafur completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry. After this research fellowship, Dr. Tafur continued work as a Family Physician in the U.S., and then eventually started his work in the Peruvian Amazon. In 2011, he helped to found Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, a traditional healing center in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. At Nihue Rao, Dr. Tafur underwent traditional apprenticeship in Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine and Shipibo curanderismo.

After years dedicated to his work in the forest, in 2017, Dr. Tafur stepped down as a business partner at Nihue Rao, in order to focus on new projects. In March of 2017, he published his book The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine about his unique journey into spiritual healing work.   

With his colleagues, he also started the nonprofit Modern Spirit, dedicated to demonstrating the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare. In addition to education and community-building projects, Modern Spirit is currently focused on supporting the Modern Spirit Epigenetics Project, a groundbreaking substudy of the MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy research trial. 

In 2019, Dr. Tafur and his colleagues Dr. Amalia Baca ND and Ray Baca opened the Ocotillo Center for Integrative Medicine, an integrative clinic in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The Ocotillo Center offers naturopathic medical Services, integrative medical consulting, counseling, health education and hands-on-healing.

Dr. Tafur continues to lead Journeys to Latin America to experience Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine and Ayahuasca curanderismo. With his colleagues, he leads groups to Nihue Rao in Peru and elsewhere, guiding individuals through the process of spiritual healing and traditional education.

Dr. Tafur is very interested in education. At Nihue Rao, Dr. Tafur has supervised traditional learning opportunities for a number of U.S. medical students and therapists. Building upon ideas presented in his book, he has also developed several lectures and presentations. Working to bridge the worlds of modern science and traditional healing, he has been Speaking at a variety of conferences across the globe as well as at a number of medical schools, including the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine, UCSD, Yale, Southwestern College of Naturopathic Medicine and the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. Dr. Tafur has also been the primary host of the Modern Spirit Podcast, exploring the intersection between biology, emotion and spirituality.”

To learn more about Joe and his work, visit https://www.drjoetafur.com and https://www.modernspirit.org

Joe’s book, Fellowship of the River can be found on Amazon at https://amzn.to/309k3lI

If you enjoy the show, it would be a big help if you could share it with your own audiences via social media or word of mouth.  If you’re watching on YouTube if you could take a second and Subscribe to the channel and if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts to leave a starred rating and a short review. That would be super helpful with the algorithms and getting this show out to more people. Thank you in advance!

If you would like more information on plant medicine and the work I do, visit my site at: https://www.NicotianaRustica.org    

And finally, with the pandemic, most people doing this work have been without access to work since March and the future is uncertain.  If you are able to and would like to donate to the show to help out with new content that would be deeply appreciated.  For just a few dollars a month you can subscribe through Patreon and it gives you some really nice added benefits like early access to shows, bonus episodes, and a chance to ask personalized questions.

To support this podcast on Patreon, visit: https://www.patreon.com/UniverseWithin  

To donate directly with PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/jasongrechanik 

Another way you can support the show is if you are ordering anything from Amazon.com, and you use this link, the show will get a small commission with no additional cost to you: https://amzn.to/2Gw51PS

Music courtesy of Nuno Moreno. See his work at: https://m.soundcloud.com/groove_a_zen_sound and https://nahira-ziwa.bandcamp.com/  

And please leave any questions or comments in the comment section or email at:

https://www.UniverseWithinPodcast.com

This will help me with ideas for future shows.

Thanks and until the next episode!

https://www.facebook.com/UniverseWithinPodcast

https://www.instagram.com/UniverseWithinPodcast