Rethink Heart Health: Systems, Not Symptoms with Dr Melanie Icard

What if the clearest path to a stronger heart starts far from the cardiology lab? We sit down with Dr. Melanie Icard, a naturopathic physician and mind-body expert, to unravel a terrain-based blueprint that helps patients stabilize blood sugar, calm inflammation, repair the gut, and improve oxygen delivery so arteries can finally relax. Instead of chasing cholesterol and blood pressure in isolation, we explore how systems thinking turns scattered fixes into a powerful, repeatable plan.

Dr. Mel shares the origin story of her Biohacked Heart Blueprint—born from a patient given two months to avoid an intervention—and why balancing insulin, detoxifying gently, and restoring microbial health changed the outcome. We dig into oxygenation strategies from zone-two training and breathwork to medical ozone and UV therapies, and we show how these combine with targeted IVs to jump-start mitochondrial function and microcirculation. Sleep moves from afterthought to pillar, and simple language shifts break identity loops that keep us stuck in night-owl patterns and stress-driven routines.

Along the way, you’ll hear how nervous system regulation ties everything together. When we downshift from chronic fight-or-flight, the body finally gets back to repair. Retreats, community, and family-style meals become tools, not luxuries, building the safety and consistency that healing demands. From the risks and realities of stents to practical steps you can try now—three-day fasts, mineral repletion, fiber-forward meals, and vagal-toning breath—we keep the focus on what works in real life.

Whether you’re a practitioner looking for integrative cardiovascular strategies or someone determined to reclaim energy without leaning solely on meds, this conversation delivers grounded insights and hopeful next steps. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with someone you love, and leave a review to help more people find a smarter path to heart health.

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unknown 0:11

Recording in progress.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Well, hello, and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we've got a very special guest. Her name is Dr. Melanie Icard, and uh we call her Dr. Mel. She's a naturopathic physician, mind-body medicine expert, and creator of the Biohacked Heart Blueprint, a groundbreaking, terrain-based approach to cardiovascular health that goes far beyond cholesterol and medications. After 10 or more years in clinical practice, hosting international healing retreats and working with thousands of patients, she's known for blending cutting-edge metabolic science, nervous system regulation, trauma healing, and spiritual wisdom into practical, repeatable systems that actually work. Dr. Mel, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I'm doing great, Joe. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Well, I'm really excited to have this conversation because it's really um in line with what uh we do out here at um our nonprofit that we call Gardens of Hope. And we work with a number of healers and physicians and practitioners that it seems, based on what I'm looking at, are very much in line with your thoughts. Um as we get started, I like to kind of hear how our guests get involved in the work they're doing. You seem kind of young to be so wise. Um, I'd like to I'd like to hear your story.

Family Health Roots And Early Beliefs

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Well, I love that. And I am kind of young, but I do have a baby face. So I'm 43. I have a grown son that's 22. So I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit older than I look. But you know, I I grew up kind of just regular, you know, American, you know. Um, our our mom would take us, you know, once in a while. I'm an 80s baby, so once in a while through the drive-thru at McDonald's or Wendy's, and we were like score, right? Um but I I think that she was always a little bit health conscious. And what we're seeing now these days is sometimes what the what uh the TV is telling us isn't actually actually what maybe we ought to be doing, right? But she was very like uh get feeding us chicken all the time, you know, um, and afraid of red meat and stuff like that. And I remember, I mean, most of my life I was I was terrified to eat uh butter, Joe. I was I'm all in now, I'm all in. But you know, I was terrified to eat butter and right, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Margarine and all the low fat, low everything.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I was like, I can't believe it's not butter, but what is it?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

What is it exactly? It's industrial lubricant.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Like, how come we can't have country croc like the neighbors? And and what is that?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

No, yeah, I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

So it was just really regular, but my mother, unfortunately, got really, really sick with breast cancer. And she was 33, right? So back then in the 90s, like 33-year-old young women weren't getting breast cancer. I know it's more common these days, and so if you've ever been through that with yourself or anyone, no one just dies of cancer, you know. It's it's a whole journey and it's a lot, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:17

And it's just just uh a point of acknowledgement. I'm I'm recovering from a very aggressive cancer. A year and a half ago, I had a giant tumor sticking out of my neck. So I know exactly what you're talking about.

Mother’s Cancer And A Life Pivot

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Exactly, exactly. And you know what? My mom was very sweet, she did everything they told her to do, and it was just a long process of declining and then passing away, right? And through and I went through this whole process with her because um I'm the second oldest, I'm the only girl, and she had a baby, so I had to stay actually stay home. I didn't even go to school, Joe, and take care of my mother and her baby. You know, that's what I did when I was in sixth grade. Um, and and so we went through this whole process, which did end up me losing my mother, and then I got uh moved from being with my mother to being with my father, and that was quite a move because we are we're from Alaska, and my father happened to be living in Mexico, right? So I so I got shipped from Alaska to to Mexico into a new family, and man, did my dad mean well, but he was really clueless. So, like a little girl or any kid that loses their mother and it's a loving mother, that's a huge loss. So that was like the big thing. And on top of that, dad, although he didn't explain anything to us, he was a health nut. And back then, and back then nobody was a health nut, right? Everyone was like, right? So he would rant, we would call it rant and rave, you know, about you know he didn't like us having cow milk, he didn't he didn't like NutraSuite, he didn't like MSG, and we're just like, Oh my god, he's so he's so annoying, right? And then and then to kick it off, he would do these 10-day juice cleanses. Nobody was a that, right? In the 90s. And we're like, wait, you're not gonna eat food for 10 days, Dad? Weird. And then he'd be cranky from the detox the first two days. So all of us kids just thought he was a nut, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

And and it wasn't until I have that big boy now, I got pregnant with him, and I said, Well, wait a minute. Maybe dad's onto something here. Like, maybe like what you put in your body and what's in your environment is important because I would hate for this kid to lose his mother, you know, because I've kind of felt like I always had to be like a cat and land on my feet because I I didn't have like that person that always has your back, you know. Um, and so, and so that actually dream came true, right? Like here I am at 43 and my son's 22, he still has his mom, right? Yeah, yeah, and I went to my dad in humble and I said, I'm sorry, I know we made fun of you a lot and we teased you, but I really need to know how to be healthy because I don't want my kid to lose his mom. And then that was the beginning of this holistic health journey for me.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

You know, what a beautiful story that it really kind of both came from both of your parents in the end. Wow, that's awesome. Well, I hope that my kids find some of that from me. But you know, I guess we all want that, right?

Becoming A Parent And Health Awakening

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah, yeah. And and and the same thing with my kid, and then that was another gift, right? Because he actually is a little bit autistic. And that was a gift for me because I really got to learn patience. Because if you met if you know anyone from my family, they would always say, Oh, that Melanie, she's so impatient, she wants everything out, you know, and now I'm probably the most patient one. And so that was a gift from God to get a son who would teach me patience, but um, he would have a lot of problems with inflammation and stuff, and he was very um unreceptive to me as the naturopathic mother, and and it led in combination with other things to a deep depression, right? Because inflammation is a huge driver of depression. And do you want to do this detox with us? No, do you want to do this with us? No, right? No, no, no. And one time I got him to do this uh Tony Robbins detox thing with me, which is like I don't know if it's like a five or a seven day, but they have you do a whole nutritional cleanse and the ice bath. And for some miracle of God, he decided to do it. And I'll tell you if that didn't completely reset him mentally, emotionally, and physically, and now he does more nutrition research than I do. Like he's sending cool stuff because his mind works in a different way all the time that I'm so happy to find. And it was like he like he needed that, and now he knows that when he gets in a funk, all he does is he just does a three-day fast. He does a three-day water fast, yeah, yeah, and it's like a hard reset.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I am the hardest advocate of a three-day water fast. I think it's the most powerful tool you got if you got one thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, yeah, and and that's the thing that I tell people too. If like if especially the if you've got weird GI stuff, just stop eating, just give it a break, give it a rest. Just trust me.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

100%, 100%. So through all this, from from point A to point B, you you went to medical school.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I did.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

I didn't go to school till now I'm in in in higher education and and uh really the highest learning there is. So that's a pretty pretty uh wise.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Full spectrum, full spectrum, right? It's um it's the school of hard knocks, and then you know, a real PhD. And and and and I was really blessed. So I went in, you know, and I was thinking I wanted to treat cancer, right? Because of my of my history. So I'm I made sure that I made best friends with like the cancer doctor, and she was gonna have me on her shift, got in there, and then I found that there was something missing at that program at that time, right? Because yeah, they had all these amazing vitamin C IVs, blah, blah, blah. You you know, but everybody was miserable. Everybody I talked to, like they basically told me they knew they were gonna die. And I was like, wow, yeah, so this isn't working over here. Like, I'm not feeling the way this is going. And and that, and that I did find that I really got into mind-body medicine. So I jumped around and tried different things. Like, I I I there was this really amazing, like cavalier doctor, you know, old school doctor, and she would do home births for like 30 years, and you know, um, and so I thought I wanted to do that. But yes, pregnancy and birth is really cool. The lady was really cool, I think is what it was. But babies come whenever they want, and I'm a person that loves to take naps and sleep eight hours at night. And I was like, you know what? This is this is a hard no for me. I thought like this is good, this is giving me anxiety.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, and so I said this is for somebody else that doesn't like sleeping as much as I do, you know, and and then everyone at school was really excited about prolo therapy. Are you familiar with prolotherapy?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

A little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, so it's like regenerative injections that heal joints. So it's like instead of just having a bad shoulder, having arthritis, getting steroid shots that don't really work, it actually can like tighten the tendons and build joint space and re and basically bring your own stem cells there and rebuild the joint.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Exactly.

Inflammation, Depression, And Fasting

SPEAKER_00 10:12

So I decided to go check out the seminar on on that and all this regenerative medicine in Las Vegas because now I was lost. I'm like, I don't want to do cancer, I don't want to do babies, I don't know. Um, and I go there and it was so cool because everything they were talking about just sounded like magic, like it was really healing people, and then they would break us up into small groups. There'd be lecture and there'd be hands-on. Yeah, and so I I found this doctor that ended up being a mentor of mine, and I said, I don't know where to go because there was like 12 groups. She goes, Come with me. So we went over here, and this this doctor teacher said, Oh, I love teaching C-section scars. Who's got a C-section scar? And I was like, uh, I have a C-section scar. Kind of a mistake, but it was divinely planned, right? Because then here I am, this medical student, and what happens? I have to have be in my underwear in front of everybody. I don't know, right? I'm like, oh gosh, this is terrible, right? And and he's telling me, Melanie, this scar never healed. And I'm like, I don't care, just like let's wrap this up. I want to put my pants on, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

And and he's like, Well, you see how it's big and pink on the sides? This should be a small white line. And I'm like, let's let's go, dude. And and then he's telling me when we inject scars, scars hold a lot of emotions in them. So you you might get memories coming back to you, you might start crying, so just be ready for that. Yeah, okay, let's go. And then he's telling me, and you've got adhesions from this scar all the way up to the top of your rib cage by your sternum. And I'm all whatever, you know. I'm like, let's go. I'm I'm embarrassed. So then he injects it and I immediately start crying. And I remember going to the hospital when I had to have my son because I had to have a C-section. I had never been to the hospital before.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I somehow got the new nurse where she like had a tourniquet on my arm and like an IV in my vein and nothing connected to it. So my blood's like squirting like through the sky. And I'm going, Oh, is this normal? Is this excuse me, ma'am? You know, is this supposed to be happening? Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

And so it was a big offer glasses, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Weird foreign experience for me. And I blocked all of it out until he injected that scar in, right? Then he finishes it up and I and I get dressed, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, and then the next morning, I kid you not, Joe, the pink on the sides of the scar, it was it was all folded up into one white line. Like and then, and I have inflammation all the way up to my rib cage where he said I had adhesions. And that's when I was like, regenerative medicine is for real. I need to find out as much about this as I possibly can. And I went on the mentor and the workshop hunt, and that, and that's what really lit the fire.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Now you're on a mission from God.

Training Paths And Limits Of Conventional Care

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah. I was like, wow, some of this stuff is really for real, you know. And then it's like, and it's constantly like you're in this field. I'm constantly learning stuff and getting amazed by stuff every day. Like I started this journey, what might 23 years ago, and I was pregnant with my son. I learned stuff every day. I even relearn stuff that I forgot about, you know, and then it circles back in, you know. Um, and it's it's it's a constant thing. And then and then we have new uh things that we have to, you know, kind of conquer. Like, you know, there was like the whole COVID thing, the pandemic thing, the long COVID, there's new things, there's there's air pollution, there's new things we have to learn. Well, like, how do we overcome this, you know?

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Right. Yeah, it's it's it seems like there's a dichotomy going on because at one time at one element we're learning so much, and knowledge is increasing exponentially, but also are the consequences of our actions and all the environmental problems and all of the you know the global uh food supply problems, all the gut problems, and and plus we're understanding problems too. So that opens up whole nother doors, you know. When I was a kid, we were just hyperactive. Now we're on the spectrum and neurodivergent and all of these things. We didn't know those words back then, you know. We were just just a hyperactive kid. And you know, the gut biome, we didn't know anything about that. And now it's you know, this gigantic field that I think they're just scratching the surface of.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Yeah, and that is a pillar in my biohacked heart blueprint, is the gut, right? Because it's it's kind of like weird initially to make the connection, but all of our guts are kind of inflamed, right? They're they're they're out of balance, and then that leaks out and causes systemic inflammation, which can affect your blood pressure and your arteries, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So it might seem weird.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Why am I gonna do something for my gut when I'm working on my blood pressure or my heart? Well, it's all connected, and that's kind of what I'm trying to try and teach and bring out there because it's a system of systems. So we've been in this like kind of real boxed in, like, oh, we're oh, we don't like that cholesterol, let's squish it down, or we don't like that blood pressure, let's squish it down. But but what's going on? Why is the high blood pressure high or the cholesterol high? Or is it even really high? You know, like um those are the those are the things that we don't look at when we just focus on squishing those numbers down. And if you and if you work on the systems and you clean up the terrain, the body heals itself. It's kind of amazing.

Discovering Regenerative Medicine

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Well, I think part of the problem, and you know, you're going through medical school, the the institution of medicine is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. Yeah, and I'm not against pharmaceuticals by any means, but their driver is different from the naturopaths driver.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah, you know what I say, because because a lot of times people go they they go for a regular checkup. Oh, your blood pressure is a little high. Well, maybe we'll give you a little, you know, lysinapril or a little sarcastic, name a drug. And then and then you just move on with your life. And and I say that's the midpoint. So just stopping there is like having your family vacation at the truck stop.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

That's lame.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

You gotta go after the source, yeah. And so, you know, you came, you went through classical medical training where they teach you, you know, physiology and they teach you um, you know, drug protocols and things like that, but they don't really talk about holistic approach, you know. At least as far as I've heard, I've talked to my dad was a surgeon, and I've talked to many, many, many physicians, and I get into their training, and it's like, you know, your body healing itself really isn't so much part of the training.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

No, no, and that I mean, like honestly, actually, so I was in conventional medicine um for like 11 or 15 years, and then I went to naturopathic medical school, right? So I've done so I've done both and um and I almost fell out of my chair when I was new at naturopathic medical school, like lunch and learns, and the guy's like, Yeah, I reversed my diabetes. I was like, What? Yeah, hold the phone, right? And I'm I can't even say if I say that on social media, they always like shadow ban me and stuff, but but you probably know people that now we know that you can unwind this stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

But back then every disease you can reverse if you put your body, you know, the thing is is the disease is a it is an out of balance, it's uh or you or you're given a pathogen an opportunity to thrive, and either one of the two or both of those things are happening. So if you can take your body and create an environment where the pathogen or the cancer can't survive, well, guess what? It doesn't. And if you can put your body back into some kind of a homeostasis where its parts, its organs, its systems can start to do what they're supposed to do, it just puts you back together, like you got the code in you how to do it. You just kind of forget, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

If you if we make it really simple, it's just we got to take the the garbage out and put you know the good stuff that we're deficient in in, and then just voila.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

It's so true, and it and you know, simple doesn't mean easy, but simple means simple. And you know, the way you describe it sounds super simple, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Right, and the mind always wants to complicate things, right? That's part of the problem, too, because a lot of the problem is us, like we get in the way, right? I mean, number number one problem is uh patient noncompliance or self-sabotage.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

100%. I've learned some things about cancer that um you know have healed me and and and others who have done it, but when I share it with people and doctors, they look at me like, well, I'm not doing that. And it's just like, wow, okay, I don't know what to say there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

I know they're just they're just not they're just not ready yet. Yeah, so that's that's the thing. So it's it's the new habits, it's it's because we because the mind gets so attached to things. So, like one thing that is getting a little bit more pressed these days is sleep is so important. It's literally a pillar of health, but we've compartmentalized it and like shoved it over there, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

And just been like, Yeah, your body fixes itself while you're sleeping, and that's about the only time it does that. Yeah, and and so I'll sleep when I'm dead, you know. It's like, well, you're gonna be dead pretty quick if you don't sleep.

Continuous Learning And New Health Challenges

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yes, yeah. The night owls, I just tell them, you know, I I I spent a long time on the why it's important, you know, because they're they're so attached to their habits. And then it's like, and then you just have to watch your language because your mind loves to grab onto things. So if you say, Oh, I've always been a night owl, or I've never been a great sleeper, then your mind goes, Oh yeah, we're into this, like we're gonna hang on to this not sleeping thing, you know. So just kind of notice when you say that and pause, and you could say, I liked, I like the the the thumb over the shoulder. I used to, you know, just to kind of um catch myself when I want to say things that I don't want to keep doing in my life.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Well, tell me about the biohacked heart blueprint. That sounds exciting.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Oh, you know, it is exciting, and also the crazy thing is it's kind of simple, but the results are amazing, right? So this protocol was born for a client of mine, and it's really funny because he was probably one of my worst clients. He would show up once here, sort of on a health kick. He never wanted to listen to any of the lifestyle or the nutrition stuff, right? So it's I'm oh hey, nice to see you again. And he was pretty upset because he was told that he had been stacking plaque in his heart arteries, and they wanted to do some procedures on him to open that up, and he was not feeling that. He was getting a hard no on that. And lucky for us, you know, because a lot of people would get scared when told that and jump on the operating table, right? Right, because it's scary. Well, luckily for us, this guy had a strong personality, and he's like, I don't think so. Give me two months, and then he came to see me. He said, I and I know I didn't listen in the past, but I'm real serious right now because I don't want to do that. They gave me two months. What do you got for me? And I said, Okay, and was just present with him, and it just kind of came in like that. It was it was different tools that we had been using over the last decade, but in a certain combination and frequency, and that's how the protocol was born, right? Like, and he was on board. We had to learn how to balance his glucose and his insulin, we had to detox, we had to balance that uh out-of-balance calcium, and then we did certain IV therapies for increasing oxygenation and disinflaming and making the cells work better, and all of that combo makes the plaque go away, right? And and I was really actually surprised that after the two months he was excused from needing any surgical procedure. I was like, wow, that's amazing. Um like I said, he was literally in the running for my worst patient, you know, in the out of thousands, you know. And I said, Wow, if that works great for him, it'll work great for other people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Somebody a little more compliant, right?

Gut-Heart Connection And Systems Thinking

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Yeah. And so, and of course he was happy because you know, and here's the thing I don't know if you know this, and I don't think people know this in general, but the stents they um actually cause the body, they will open up a tube, right? They will, but they actually cause your body to want to make more plaque and more inflammation by being placed. So if you're not in a dire situation, I would encourage you to be like this fella and ask for two months and get serious about changing some of those habits because it's just gonna make more work for you to keep disinflamed once they put the stents in. And that's kind of the double-edged sword of that situation, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

You know, well, you know, we learn a lot of these, you know, standard of care procedures uh have a double edge to them, and you know, they might, you know, handle an acute problem, but they're gonna maybe lead to a chronic problem in the future, and um, or you know, there's so many ways it can go. Now you talk about oxygen, you know, that's a big part of my protocol is therapy, yeah. And and I go at it from a number of different ways from you know, heat to um exercise to ozone to ozone's my favorite. Oh, good. I was hoping so. Yeah, yeah, I love ozone. In fact, I make ozonated glycerin, is one of the tools that I use and I make and I use it all the time. But um, you know, I was looking to invest in that ebo system at one point and just wasn't able to pull it off. But um, I know we don't have a whole lot of time to get into all that, but I'd like to have you back to talk about that at one point.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Oh, absolutely. I have been an ozone girl since medical school, and that was one of the things. Yeah, I'll just tell you really quick because I was a single mom that worked and had a kid with autism and decided to go to medical school, right? Go figure. So I was exhausted, and um, I would go and do those vitamin IVs that some places call them the Marker's IVs every two weeks, and I would feel it pick me up, right? So I would I would just schedule it like clockwork. Then I got a really cool mentor because I went looking for those cool mentors and he was doing ozone with the ultraviolet light. Did one of those, man. It felt like doing 10 vitamin IVs. And I was like, well, if I'm gonna sit down to do an IV, you're gonna bet it's gonna be the ozone with the movie like it.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

I love it, love it. That's fantastic. I'd also like to hear about your retreats. Uh, you know, we host retreats out here at our place, and and I I think it's a fantastic way that you can accomplish just about anything if you set out to.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yes, yeah. The great thing about retreats, I don't I only do small groups because I like everyone to get a connection. I've even had people fall in love on my retreats, you know, and they're like the cutest couple, right? Um, and they're or become family and they're doing Christmas parties and barbecues, and I love that because it's all about connection, and that's a big piece that's missing from modern life, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Yeah, everybody's staring at the little square instead of talking.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yes, and and so and I and and I do everything um family style, right? We sit at a big table, we say what we're grateful for, we say what went well. I feed you, you know, the the nutritious food that's gonna keep your butt sugar in balance, right? So it's a nutritional detox as we're doing all the things.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

I love it.

Beyond Numbers: Fixing Root Causes

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, I do have a hybrid biohacked heart retreat, which is a four-day weekend because a lot of my people they need this, but the part of the habit is they can't pull themselves away from their work and their obligations and the busyness. And that's what's kind of keeping them in that hamster wheel of not reaching their health goals, right? So it's a great way to get your feet wet. It's just most people can squeeze out a four-day weekend, right? You might think you can't, but then you could, right? And we'll give them two sets of these uh power lifter IVs that helped our clients get these amazing results, you know, to make all your cells work better, oxygenate you. You don't get to skip the nervous system reset because we're doing it there together in person, you know, and all of this stuff is equally important, right? Because I've seen people make massive improvements, like crazy improvements, but then they go back to their old coping mechanisms and their old mental patterns, and we and we and we backtrack, right? So we have to reset, and that's fine. That's that's human nature, but it's because the mind is so powerful that we got to keep minding our mind.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Oh, absolutely. And NSR is a powerful tool. We have a practitioner that we work with, she's a uh a Navajo healer, and um she's an incredible NSR practitioner, and she tore me open one time when we just we did a combo ceremony. So I was sitting with you know, this medicine that's derived from a frog, and it causes your body that it scans your whole body, and then you purge out things and you start to open your eyes, and then she did this NSR on me, and uh all of a sudden I'm weeping like a baby in front of people I'd never seen before, and getting in touch with my you know, my child that lives inside of me, and I was just like, whoa, you know, and doing this energy work and pulling things, and I don't know exactly what, you know, I was just sitting there getting work done and powerful, powerful tool.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Oh, I'd I'd love, I'd love to meet her. That sounds absolutely amazing, and it's like that thing that you know that people say, but it's true, like the only way out is in, yes, right? So we're always looking outside of us, but but but but a huge portion of it is just go going inside 100%.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Um, where are you physically um work out of?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

So we're out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Okay. Um, yep. And so the next biohacked heart retreat is gonna be in Sedona, which is absolutely fabulous if you're there. Oh, it's a blessing. Yeah, so and we work with people all over the country. Some people just do the coaching where they can work from their home in Alaska or wherever, and they get massive improvements. And then those that need to do more or want to do more, right? Because a lot of people are more proactive these days, they'll come and visit us in Scottsdale or they'll come to one of the retreats.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Nice. If you ever end up uh in Southern California, please look me up. I'd love to give you a tour around our garden. We've got a two and a half acre botanical garden and a little farm, and it's like a little piece of paradise. We have a stream that flows through it, and it's like uh it's it's a really healing place. We do a lot of um, you know, indigenous plant medicine and and and sacred ceremonies. We have a teepee we put up sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

And oh, I love that. Yeah, my manager is in Southern California, so maybe we could come come visit you something.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

I think that would be fantastic. I'd love to host a retreat out here at one point. Um, but you know, if you had you have so much to offer again, I'd really love to have you come back and go deep into some of these things. But um, if you had one thought to leave this audience with, what do you think that would look like?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

I the the one thought is that the body can heal itself. It's better to be proactive than to be reactive, but people that have already had major events and had weak hearts, not been able to check their mail with simple, holistic methods, have been able to double the strength of their heart, been able to go from checking the mail to going on a hike with their family. And these are just regular people just like you.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Mm-hmm. 100%. Well, that's powerful. And I, you know, I hope our our listeners listen. I we have a wide audience from you know, practitioners to people that are just figuring out, you know, why do I itch every morning? You know, I mean, whatever it is, the thing. And um, you know, we we've opened a lot of minds. That's the purpose of this podcast is to create a community, a family, and you know, we welcome you to it. Is there a way that our listeners can find you, or do you have anything you'd like to share as far as uh publication or access?

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah, I'm on I'm on most social media as Dr. Mel D-R-Mel Holistic, H O L I S T I C. So if you're on any social medias, you can find me there, most likely. And I do have a website and that has a complimentary masterclass. If you're like, I want to know more about this biohacked art protocol, you know, it's on there, and that's D-R-Melanie, M-E-L-A-N-I-E, iCard, I-C-A-R-D.com. So go ahead and check that out. And if you're really interested, there's always an opportunity to book a complimentary strategy session if you're not sure what you need.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Beautiful. Well, this has been a riveting conversation. I'd certainly love to go deeper into it. And I just really love the way that you approach this, you know, and uh I think you're helping a lot of people. And um, just want to thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Thank you, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Awesome. Well, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine. I'd like to thank all of our listeners that make this show possible, and we will see you next week.