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Reclaiming Your Health: The Modern Hunter-Gatherer Approach

• Michelle Kreft

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What if the root of modern health issues isn't just about what we eat, but our fundamental disconnect from nature itself? Dr. Joel Gould returns to share his revolutionary concept of "modern hunter-gatherers" – a framework that reconnects our modern lives with our ancient biology.

Having discovered his own profound vitamin D deficiency that led to years of suffering from Crohn's disease, Dr. Gould takes us deeper into his health philosophy built around four essential elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Each element represents a critical aspect of human health that modern life often disrupts.

"You don't know how sick you are until you get better," Dr. Gould reflects, describing how recovering his health required completely rethinking his identity and relationship with the natural world. His research led him to the forgotten work of Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist whose 1938 discoveries about nutrition and epigenetics could have transformed medicine – if they hadn't been largely suppressed and overlooked.

Through "air," Dr. Gould explains how sleep apnea and breathing disorders develop when our bodies must choose between sleeping or breathing. With "earth," he challenges conventional eating patterns, introducing his "Fast Club" concept that helps people rediscover the natural feast/fasting cycles our ancestors followed, activating critical cellular cleanup processes. "Fire" examines our relationship with light and radiation, while "water" explores fascinating concepts like deuterium – a heavier form of hydrogen that accelerates aging at the cellular level.

What makes Dr. Gould's approach unique is his creative method of sharing this science – through cartoon characters, music, and entertainment designed to reach everyone "from 2 to 92." His mission is to succeed where Weston Price failed: making life-changing health information accessible and engaging for modern audiences suffering from what he calls "separation anxiety from our connection to nature."

Join us for this mind-expanding conversation that might forever change how you think about your health, your environment, and what it truly means to be human in today's world. Ready to reconnect with your hunter-gatherer roots? Explore more at drjoelgould.com and deuteriumrecords.com.

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Michelle:

Welcome to WhozYourMama, a podcast focusing on tomorrow's future, which are our kids, educators, teachers, parents, all encompassing with the goal of understanding that our brain is a muscle that we can exercise to control the speed in the direction that we want. Let's go, y'all. The time is now. Hi, Dr Joel Gould of Modern American Dentistry and Modern Sleep Solutions WhozYourMama. Welcome, back again.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Great to be back. Thank you, nice to see you again.

Michelle:

Nice to see you as well, so let's just dive straight into it. For those people that listened to the first part of our interview and are listening to the second or haven't, or just tuning in now, take us off from where we were before and where we're at now.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Sure. Well, the last episode we talked about a bunch of really strange symptoms that I had that are very common, that I started to see amongst my patients as a dentist with 35 years experience, and they were really kind of weird, and at the end of the episode we came to the conclusion that I discovered I was profoundly vitamin D deficient for the majority of my life and it was the root cause of almost all my illness. And that I came to that conclusion based on discovering another Canadian dentist like me by the name of Weston a price, who published a book in 1938 that focused on vitamin d3 and vitamin K2 and eating a whole food diet and spending time outside and being in nature. And it was a giant realization for me and I was very dismayed that I'd never learned about this other Canadian dentist at my dental school program and that in fact, fact, nobody not medical doctors anywhere in North America that I'm aware of are getting an education on what he had to say, and he was the first person to talk about something called epigenetics.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Genetics are what you're born with your DNA. Epigenetics, meaning above genetics is actually how you control the access to your DNA, and that is through the environment. So we, as human animals, we're technically survival machines and we're sensors for the environment. We're taking in information from all around us through our senses sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. And so when I had this realization, I took a couple of steps back and I thought, wow, we're really still hunter-gatherers. Our biology is completely unchanged since 25,000 years ago, when we didn't live this life inside these boxes that we think are our homes but are technically cages.

Dr. Joel Gould:

And so I started to think about when I discovered what was wrong with my health and I really wanted people to see the puzzle that I had discovered. Imagine, you know, you can't quite see that I was just trying to see the puzzle that I had discovered. Imagine, you know, you can't quite see that I was just trying to find the right light to shine on it so that it would make sense to other people, because I was very frustrated. I was seeing all these very sick kids and adults who were profoundly suffering from the syndrome that I really discovered, and again, mostly that disconnection from being outside in nature, and one of the most important things is the natural sunlight that you would get from being a hunter-gatherer living outside.

Michelle:

Can I just touch on that real quick. When we talk about brain health as life health and all-encompassing, how did that make you feel internally? And what I mean by that is not knowing what was going on or being diagnosed with certain things, but feeling a lack of, so to speak, control, and knowing that there are other things going on, but not being able to pinpoint it from a mental health standpoint.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Well, it's sort of more than that, just because I was following my doctor's orders. Because they were my orders. I was following traditional medical thinking, but I was very unhappy. I was physically very ill and I was mentally completely depressed. Having Crohn's disease is demoralizing and I had just created a sort of a fake life to show that I was doing okay but I was not living well, I was just surviving and it was normal to me.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So, when I fell out of that, when I actually recovered my health, there was a period of even a couple of years where I was really kind of confused. I had to rethink everything because every part of my entire life was based on that sick person, that I had no choice, I didn't know. Like I said, I followed my doctor's orders.

Michelle:

You didn't know until you did know.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Yeah Well, you don't know how sick you are until you get better. I didn't know what kind of pain I was in until it disappeared. And that's the and. So that brought me to my actual real creation, which was my book called the Modern Epidemic, and it's really the disease of modern living that's caused by a separation of the human animal from its evolutionary origins. We evolved living outdoors.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Now I'm okay, I don't want to have my own prey and all that, but I wanted to have a framework for people to understand this, and I came up with the idea of modern hunter-gatherers, because our biology has unchanged since we were hunter-gatherers, but we now live in this modern world surrounded by all of these things that we think are normal but are not. So I really want people to understand that. I wanted them to join their tribe, and our tribe is the hunter-gatherers. All humans on this planet are hunter-gatherers, and so I wanted to create a book that sort of had that greater global understanding of we are really one tribe, and then I wanted to break it down into the most basic elements, and they are air, earth, fire and water, and it's such a great frame of reference to utilize.

Dr. Joel Gould:

And initially because when we got into air. I was focused on how I became aware of this whole entire business, on any level, was through sleep apnea. So air, for me, represents sleep and breathing. Now your body has a choice you can sleep or you can breathe. When you have sleep apnea, you don't do them both. Now, as your body starts to break down from the syndrome that I described in further detail, as you start to actually fall asleep, your breathing starts to be reduced and your body will wake you up over and over and over again. And that's what sleep apnea is, and it's also a big part of insomnia. So for me, air represents sleep and breathing. If you don't breathe, you're not going to survive more than four minutes. I think we said this earlier that you can live for many days without food and even a while without water, but you can't live for more than four minutes without air. So our entire biology is hardwired into this area, our airway, and that's my focus as a dentist. I'm looking at that all day long for the last 35 years.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So when we get to earth, that represents what we eat and how we eat it. So humans evolved to eat whole foods, specifically ruminants. Those are our foods. Those are cows, goats, sheep, anything with a rumen or a special gut microbiome that finally filters the food that we eat. And those are our evolutionary partners. When we discovered these animals in North America they're buffaloes. In Africa they're wildebeests, which we now sort of know as cows. That's our food. We don't eat grass. They eat the grass and they transform it into amazing milk and meat and products. For us. If we use the whole animal, it's a great fit because the animals eat the grass, they fertilize the soil. The cycle of life is perfect Carbon grows in the actual earth and all of the microbes that are supposed to be there are getting fed. And it's a perfect cycle. And you know, we've really ruined it by putting pesticides and herbicides on our farmland. We've killed the soil and it's really it's dying, and it's dying like our gut microbiome.

Michelle:

Kind of like a nature versus nurture in some ways, as far as how we treat our mind and our body.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Yeah, well, you know it's always a combination, always a combination. But one of the things that I really started to think about that I still is more of my focus today is the idea of feasting and fasting. Humans didn't have refrigerators, kitchens or anything. We had a good kill. We ate, we gorged ourselves. So anyone who binge eats, there's an evolutionary drive for this, but then we may not have had food for one, two, three weeks and our bodies were designed in this mechanism. We actually really kill our metabolism by eating three meals a day and snacks. It's wrong. It's wrong fit for our biology.

Dr. Joel Gould:

And as soon as I started to put these pieces together and understand, you know, animals will refuse food when they're sick because they want to heal. We have an entire regeneration program built into us that requires that we actually don't eat. People who don't ever fast for longer periods of time, they're never going to stay as healthy, they're never going to regenerate, because we have this program called autophagy autophagy, self-eating where when we don't have food, our body immediately goes into each and every cell and looks at all the stuff that it already tagged as broken down. We have a bunch of trash in our cells and the only way to get it out is to have calorie, especially protein, restriction and that so that that for me that's my earth component. And I have a program that I think we sort of mentioned called fast club. When I first heard about fasting I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard in my entire life, until I saw the science and then I said to myself anyone who doesn't do this is going to be in trouble. This is going to bring premature aging and dementia on through not having that fasting, and I know it's the least appealing thing. So in the same vein of what I've always been trying to do is, I created something called Fast Club, and of course it's a spoof on Fight Club. First rule of Fast Club is never fast alone. Why it's weird? If you don't have someone to call up on day two and say how do you feel? I have a headache. It's really weird. So that's why my first rule of fast club is never fast alone. Now my second rule of fast club is if you feel sick, stop and eat. Don't be an idiot. The third rule is any length of fast is a success. You don't go to the gym and bench press 300 pounds on your first day you got to work up to it.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So this feasting and fasting thing, it's how our biology works, and one of the books I wrote is actually called the Modern Hunter Gatherer Survival Guide, and I wrote it like an instructional manual of the human body because we don't really have that. Our doctors are telling us these things avoid cholesterol, avoid saturated fat, stay out of the sun, wear sunscreen. That's all wrong information by very well-meaning, caring people Now and again. Modern medicine is incredible. If I get hit by a car, that's where I want to go. I don't want a shaman when I get hit by a car, but for chronic health issues we really want to understand that these are people who have been manipulated by big pharma to sell medications, not to go to root cause medicine and that's kind of it's. It's a very important thing to understand. So doctors are managing us into very poor health with just treating the symptoms of the disease allopathic medicine, all right.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So the next component is fire, and I call fire radiation rules, and they're very important. One of our senses, our sixth sense not ghosts is radiation, because our bodies sense radiation even if we don't know it. So you're being irradiated by different types of radiation, some things you'll feel in your body like infrared radiation. You'll feel as heat. You won't feel ultraviolet radiation, but your body will sense it. So radiation rules is really important and the primary thing to remember is to increase your natural light exposure. Spends, uh, be outside for sunrise, watch the sunset and avoid blue light and artificial lights. Junk light it's like avoiding junk food and that is blue lights, screen time TVs, everything in the evening you really don't want to have anything that's bright blue light. That's why I was advocating for blue blockers. I have mine right here and I put them on almost every day at 8.30.

Michelle:

And about two, two and a half hours before you want to go to bed. That is a blue blocker. The to the past.

Dr. Joel Gould:

I remember that's hilarious right and it's really, it's really important. So so that sort of fits the category by radiation rules, and that means exposing yourself, going out in the sun and doing sawn infrared. These are very powerful hacks on our biology. All right, the last element is water, and water's fascinating because it is. I call it the magical molecule, but what I focus on water biology. All right, the last element is water, and water is fascinating because it is. I call it the magical molecule, but what I focus on water is.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Water is the key to life, and that gets us into deuterium, because most of the deuterium that we're going to find out in the world is going to be in water, which has um parts per million, about about 150. Our tap water is 150 parts per million. That's high. So we want to understand that there's literally three forms of water on this planet and four phases. So we know there's steam, which is gas, there's water, which is liquid, there's ice, which is solid, but there is a fourth phase of water, called easy water. That stands for exclusion zone, and that's the water that exists inside our cells and our bodies and that water is extremely important because it's a gel and we make that water in sunlight and we make it in the sauna, we make it through exercise and motion, and this water is important because it helps our enzymes stay in the right 3D dimension. So you really want to build up your EZ Water. And then the last component, and I don't want to get too deep into this in this phase, but there's three types of water.

Dr. Joel Gould:

You know water is a molecule. It's H2O, so two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom makes water. It's a very unique molecule because it's bent. Oxygen is big and heavy and hydrogen is light and fluffy. So as this molecule is vibrating, as all molecules do, those electrons, they spend much more time. The electrons are spending much more time orbiting around the oxygen. It makes water partially negative and partially positive, so it's a polar molecule. That's very important because that is how our biology works, on plus and minus charges.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So there's H2O regular water there's HDO and D2O, so semi-heavy water. Hdo is one hydrogen atom, one deuterium atom and one oxygen atom joined together to make a water molecule. And heavy water, which is in the news a lot these days, is actually D2O, that's one oxygen atom with two deuterium atoms to make the molecule of water. But that's heavy water. And the reason is because there's three versions of hydrogen Regular hydrogen, which has no neutron, and then you have deuterium, which has a neutron, and you have tritium, which has two neutrons, which is radioactive.

Dr. Joel Gould:

We don't care about it, but deuterium and regular Hydrogen exists on this planet and deuterium is literally the passage of time in your body, so deuterium ages you. That's why in my cartoons deuterium is father time. Now, of course, deuterium is concentrated in sugar, carbs, pasta, pizza all these delicious and a lot of root vegetables that are starchy, so potatoes and that type of thing, and you really want to get rid of your deuterium. It's called deuterium depletion and that's what the majority of my whole paradigm is about, so understanding the elements of life air, earth, fire and water and then being able to reconnect with them, because literally we are suffering from separation, anxiety, from our connection to nature. So I know that's a lot to throw at you, but that's the framework that I started to use and I wanted people to sort of think of us more as a tribal people, and you know I created my logo here for my record label.

Michelle:

So, yeah, so stand up, because I was going to say speaking of connections and everything being intertwined in that circle behind and on your T-shirt. You mentioned before your cartoons and music and we'll definitely. We would love nothing more to have you back on who's your Mama and to come on and do different things. There's many ideas I have in my head about you coming on and speaking to our audience of all ages. Help us translate what you said into how that evolved into music as we get closer to closing down this part.

Dr. Joel Gould:

So the science that I found was obvious. If you go to my website, you can listen to my interviews with some of the smartest, most forward-thinking real scientists. I just put it all together and I wanted it to be framed properly. That's why I came up with the whole MHG stuff and the different design stuff. I built the science in so that as you get to know my characters characters you're going to learn the science, whether you like it or not. The, the logo itself, is a very specific part inside the mitochondria, so your name is pardon me you're.

Michelle:

You're my name, my dj name is marty mitochondria.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Okay, yeah, and so, even though I put all this stuff together in a really great way, I still couldn't get anyone to really listen to me. And that's where the music and entertainment tie in, came in and I decided to open, to create my own record label where my artists are my cartoon characters, and I knew that I could feature them and they would sing and dance and perform and have TV shows and skits and through these characters I knew that I could put these specific cartoon characters into popular culture, understanding that my goal and my job in this world is to take Weston A Price's information that I never saw. His book was probably in the library of my dental school, but I never saw it. I want to take his work, update it, make it much more relatable and then succeed. Where he failed is really get this information out, because we've been all interested in all these conspiracy theories, but in my opinion, the biggest conspiracy ever was the suppression of Weston Price's information.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Had that information made it into medical schools and dental schools, I would not have lost my life. I lost my life due to his information just not being able to be transmitted. There was no internet. He wrote a great book that no one saw. So that's how I see myself, that's my future, and in the next episodes we can sort of talk about how I wanted to incorporate the science and to make this easy for both parents and for kids. You know, people ask me what age is your stuff for? It's for all ages, from two to 92.

Michelle:

People ask me what age is your stuff for? It's for all ages, from 2 to 92. And that's what who's your Mama is. It's about all hands on deck, a community, collaborative approach to sharing information, and I so appreciate you sharing all of this using science, your own personal experience and being vulnerable and sharing that which we encourage music, reaching kids and parents. From that whole collaborative approach. We very much thank you and we look forward to hearing more. We will definitely put on for everyone that would like to know your website where they can find your music, more references to science and and look forward to having you back on and who's your mama? And so I think, from that collaborative approach. I've never done this with anyone, but would you be open to saying with me let's go y'all, the time is now.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Absolutely A hundred percent.

Michelle:

All right, let's do. It All right One, two, three, let's go y'all. The time is now.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Let's all right, let's go y'all. The time is now.

Michelle:

All right, then we'll do it together. Let's go y'all. The time is now.

Dr. Joel Gould:

All right, let's go y'all. The time is now and if I, all right, let's go y'all.

Michelle:

The time is now. I think you're my first Canadian y'all, so if I'm telling my face that it's making me blush. It is because this makes me smile so much Truly, like you make people smile when they come into your office and you're looking after their dental hygiene and just really spreading the word and thank you for allowing me to be part of that to share. So look forward to seeing you again, Absolutely.

Dr. Joel Gould:

Thank you.

Michelle:

Thank you for tuning in to WhozYourMama , and I look forward to collaborating from a community standpoint for the next episodes.

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Michelle Kreft

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