19: Alcohol, Self-Awareness, and Root Cause Health: A Real Conversation with Dr. Su & MaryJo

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What does alcohol have to do with functional medicine?

More than you might think.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Su sits down with patient and guest MaryJo for one of the most honest, human conversations the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast has had yet. No agenda, no judgment, just two people peeling back a topic that comes up in almost every social setting, yet rarely gets talked about with any real depth.

MaryJo has been sober for ten years. Her journey away from alcohol didn't start with a dramatic rock bottom, it started quietly, with her body telling her something wasn't right. When she was deep in her Lyme disease journey and fighting to feel well again, anything that wasn't helping her heal had to go. Alcohol was one of the first things out the door. And looking back, that clarity, that decision to listen to her body, was one of the most powerful things she did for herself.

Dr. Su brings his own honest reflection too, including his own gradual shift away from alcohol, the growing conversation he's having with patients about it, and why he thinks this topic belongs squarely in the root cause medicine conversation.

Because here's the thing, functional medicine isn't just about your labs. It's about your whole life.

4 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Root cause goes deeper than symptoms. Alcohol use is often a form of self-medication, sometimes for anxiety, ADD, stress, or emotional pain that hasn't been addressed yet. When the root cause gets treated, alcohol often stops being such a pull.
• Your body has been giving you signals all along. MaryJo knew from her teenage years that alcohol never quite served her. That quiet internal knowing, when you finally listen to it, can be the beginning of real change.
• Sobriety doesn't have to be a dramatic story. Some people don't drink because it genuinely doesn't add to their life. That's a valid, even inspiring, path, and it doesn't require a crisis to get there.
• Self-awareness is a root cause tool. Whether it's alcohol, doom scrolling, or emotional eating, we all self-medicate with something. The question Dr. Su keeps coming back to is: does this serve you? That one question can change everything.

IN THIS EPISODE

Dr. Su and MaryJo talk about what it's actually like to be the person not drinking in a room full of people who are. They talk about the social pressure, the curious questions, the moments of clarity, and what it feels like to show up for your life completely present. MaryJo shares what ten years of sobriety has taught her, including watching her sister walk through a serious substance struggle and come out the other side into a life that is, as MaryJo puts it, fruitful and beautiful in ways she never could have imagined.

Dr. Su connects it all to the bigger picture of root cause medicine, the idea that our emotional and behavioral health is just as important as our physical health. A patient who is depressed enough doesn't care about treating their labs. Mental and emotional health comes first. Always.

This one is worth a listen, and probably worth sharing with someone you love.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only.  Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Transcript

Why Talk About Alcohol

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome again to the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast. I'm Dr. Mark Sue. This is Mary Joe Anderson. This is our first chat post. Mary Joe, you're sharing your three-part story of going through a lot of travail, a lot of challenge, a lot of suffering, difficulty, but with a message of hope that healing can be and often is achieved. But uh and there's a lot of that journey there, there's a lot of pieces to that. But here we are, we're shifting. And so I think today we're gonna just we're gonna talk about alcohol, okay, by you? As we like to joke with our with our family, my brother-in-law is he likes to call it booze. Booze. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

We're gonna talk about booze today. I think so. I'm excited to talk about booze. I am oddly enough.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

So let's let's start with uh why are we talking about why are we talking about alcohol? Why are we talking about booze? How did this go? How did we decide this is this needs to be brought to the forefront? Why?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

I think you and I had talked about it a couple times prior to this conversation, but um, it's a conversation that comes up so frequently in my life because I'm such a social person. And so I'm in a lot of social with my family, with friends, just in a lot of social settings all the time. I always have been. And so the conversation is always brought up because I don't drink. I haven't drink in 10 years. It's been 10 years. Um, but I really started pushing away from it when I was pregnant with Jackson, which was 19 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

So for being a very social person and it being such a socially accepted thing in our world, it has always been like a little bit of a predominant conversation in my life, alcohol. And so I'm just excited to like have a conversation with you about it and share it more on a broader scale with um my community and your community. Um, because I think it's super enlightening and inspiring in many ways to have a tough conversation about alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah. So when we chatted about it before, it was kind of I think it was kind of haphazard. It wasn't like intentional. I don't even remember how it came up. Do you have any recall? I don't, I don't, I don't think so. Because that's to me, that's almost an interesting reflection on what you just said. Like you said, I'm in these conversations all the time. And I'm thinking, yeah, we kind of just randomly talked about it, but I can't even remember why. Like it's that's it.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I think it was if I think about if I really think about it, I think it was at my home. I could be wrong, but does this ring a bell? I think it was at my home when we were having a social gathering with all the people that are um in our kids' community. And I think something was said either after the aftermath of the gathering. I don't know, I think it was piggybacking off of something like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I can't, we it's been more than once. Yes. I remember I remember us having a chat in your driveway once when it was just us, but I think I can't remember how that came up. And then it was more like, hey, that's something like, what do you think what do you think about that? And then we end up chatting about that, right? So all right, so we're how about we start with um the so what are a couple of your more recent one or one or two of your more recent experiences on how this came up and why it, you know, an example of how it's a somewhat recurring or frequent experience for you in cut of conversation or point of focus

The Social Pressure To Drink

SPEAKER_01 3:07

or whatever. Is that a fair starting point?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Of course. Yeah, I think that's a great starting point. And I it's funny because it's hard to pinpoint exactly which uh situation I've been in because I have been in so many different months. My most recent one was I was sharing with you earlier last weekend when I was in Colorado visiting my son Jackson, who is a freshman and who is part of a fraternity. And it was like a mother-son weekend full of different social events. So you can only imagine that being back in a college atmosphere around in a fraternity with my son who's a freshman on campus and exposed to so much what that really looks like. Can't imagine what that looks like. I'll roll it up for you. But it was wild and crazy three days, things that I participated in, but the drinking aspect of those three days I don't participate in. But the social gatherings that they had, I was there, I was present, I was with Jackson, I was with many other moms. And the conversation around alcohol came up because yeah, everybody, everybody's drinking. And it's a very highly, it's a it's a place where where that that's what's being done.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Um is that it's not a dry frat?

SPEAKER_00 4:11

No, it's not, it's not a dry frat. They have do they have those?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

I don't think so. I can't imagine. They might.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

You think so? They might. They might. I think every frat in every um every college is so different, but I hope that they do. I hope that they do, because that would be a pretty positive experience. Not that this is a negative experience that I was in, but it was something that I am familiar with because I have experienced fraternities and college life and all those things. But being sober, and I choose to use that word because I there was a time in my life where I did drink and drank drank excessively, uh, socially, in other ways. And so this is just the other spectrum of it where I'm completely sober and um and and very aware of of myself and where I'm where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

So can we go back to that a little bit? I mean, let's go going back in time a little bit, right? We'll come back to the Colorado experience. Yeah. Perhaps let's just go to what what made you it was it intentional 19 years ago when you were first pregnant? What made it was there was was the pregnancy the reason, which is common, uh, I dare say, uh project out that's probably not uncommon that women are making more they're making some choices that are a little bit more intentional, you know, in thinking about getting pregnant or being pregnant. Was that the reason or something else happened? And then secondly, why then did you like basically cut that out around 10 years ago, you say?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

It's funny because I can go back even further than 19 years, and I always love to say this and share this when I do when I am in a conversation about alcohol, but I can always remember at an early age because I was exposed to it. The city that I grew up in was definitely it was just definitely like a very common thing that people drank socially and partied at a very young age. But I didn't grow up in a household where it was super predominant between either parent. Um, but I was exposed to alcohol at a very or introduced to alcohol at a very early age, as early two older sisters who definitely um experimented and and did all these things. So as early as you know, 14 and 15, I was exposed and introduced to alcohol, right? But I can always remember it not feeling um, not just because I wasn't at the legal age, but I can always remember feeling

A Sober Weekend In College Life

SPEAKER_00 6:10

that it didn't serve me. Okay, didn't make me feel good. I didn't it didn't feel like even as a teenager, didn't love it, didn't feel like I needed it. I was a very extrovert of a person. I always have been since I was a little kid. So I remember I always recall like not needing it, not enjoying it, not feeling completely comfortable around it, but doing it anyways to fit in. And so um Can I ask you?

SPEAKER_01 6:31

D did you ever talk about that at that age with your sister or somebody else?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Conversation at 15, 16, 17, 18 was never it was it was about fitting in and doing what's happening. But you had awareness. I had awareness of it. I always felt like, yeah, this is always a joke. And I don't I'd love to ask you about this too, because I remember being um, you know, opening one, taking a sip and then just putting it down and never going back to it, never officially.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

You said that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

No, that that's what that's how I treated alcohol. Oh, I see. You know, from early on, I can remember it just being like this wasn't this wasn't something I enjoyed. Um, and so I'd have like a sip or hold a can just to like you know fit in or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So I was gonna ask you, did you feel like it was um did you observe anybody else doing that or was it just you?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, I just you know just yeah, just my only observation of myself. But um fast forward to when I was pregnant with Jackson um 19 or going on 20 years ago when I was pregnant with Jackson, I can remember, yeah, initially knowing that alcohol was the first thing that needed to go for pregnancy. And I was always just drinking for the sake of being pregnant. Yes, yeah, yeah. Always just prior to that, always just drinking at like a social level. And that was it.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So it really wasn't, I mean, because you know, I've never asked you before, but dare like it's never been what you consider problematic for you. Right. It'd never been, right? Okay. So even from coming from a place where it wasn't causing dysfunction in your life, you still were like from child from teenage years, you were just thinking this it's not necessarily necessary thing for me.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah, I completely agree with that. I did have dysfunction around me. Uh one of my sisters had a substance abuse issue. So it wasn't that I was completely alert to it, but I did recognize excessive drinking through a sister of mine and things that were happening that didn't always feel right either. So I can I can go back to those memories and thinking, yeah, there was a lot of uh feelings around alcohol. It did it wasn't serving me, I didn't enjoy it. I saw people all around me kind of abusing it or or utilizing it in different ways that just didn't feel completely right to me. So yeah, that was my first initial experiencing with it. And yeah, fast forwarding to when I was pregnant with Jackson, it is something that I cut out of my life pretty quickly upon realizing that I was pregnant and kept it out of my life for the first few years of having Jack and and Reese.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

And so then how do you define the difference when you say roughly 10 years ago than it was really just having drinking alcohol in 10 years? Like what was why the more definitive change there and because it sounds like it wasn't like a humongous shift of one draw going over the line.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

I wasn't drinking that much to bing begin with. I always kind of knew in the back of my head that it wasn't serving me, it didn't make me feel good. Um, I didn't really truly need it in order to be so social. So 10 years ago, and this ties into my line journey and the discussions that we've had about that, but 10 years ago when I started feeling symptoms and didn't know what they were, anything that didn't make me feel well or contribute to me feeling well was an immediate no. I mean, there was there was most days for many years when I was initially sick that I couldn't even really get out of bed most days. So it was like I wasn't gonna, you know, contribute to not feeling well by drinking alcohol, being hung over or feeling just not well. And that was one of the things that was like, oh gosh, this is easy. There was so many different things that I cut out of my life, but alcohol was an immediate like this can't be part of the life.

unknown 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

So close to 20 years ago, it was more for someone else. Yes, your son being pregnant, and then 10 years ago it was for you.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yes. Yeah. And it's always been a very positive experience. Like every time I've leaned into it, it always feels like it's the not drinking. Yeah, not drinking. Yeah, it's always felt like, yeah, this feels really right. And again, it goes back to as you know, when I was a young teenager, like, yeah, I've always felt that way. Okay. You know, we've talked about reflection. It's like when you just put

Early Exposure And Pregnancy Choices

SPEAKER_00 10:10

all these pieces together about your life and your story and what's always felt right and not felt right. And that is one of the things that I'm like, yeah, that this makes total sense. This feels really good all these years later to be sitting here and having this conversation with you.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And so for you, the alignment was both it was both physical and I don't know, call mental, emotional or just uh internal value. And not even quite value. Well, maybe a little bit of values. I don't know, a couple of different levels though. The alignment is on more than one level line.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I agree. Absolutely. Um, can I ask you what your first experience with alcohol was? No, I can't. You're not ready for that question.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Um, so I'll say, um, so I think I mentioned too before. I I almost feel weird saying it, but Jessica and I have neither of us have ever been drunk. So I grew up. So, first of all, the the background um for me, I I have vivid memories as probably in high school, I don't think it was early than high school, of my dad having a beer sitting there like, try some. Like literally at dinner saying, try some, right? It was either coors or PAPS or something. Okay. It's it was probably coors. He likes coors best. Okay. And I mean, did I try some? Yeah. It was disgusting to me. I just I just didn't like it, right? So it was just natural for me. I I've never liked beer. I still don't like beer. I just can't relate to it. So it's just, it just is, it just is what it is. As far as the college experience, you know, uh, I was just uh sheltered growing up, I think, you know, uh, for multiple reasons. And then um, quite honestly, I was always a little bit more afraid. Maybe it just felt so uncomfortable for me. You know, if we I think we've joked about this, like if you want to make me wig out and feel very uncomfortable, just tell me there's gonna be dancing involved, number one. And then number two, tell me it's gonna be a party. Even if it's friends of mine, I know very well it's gonna be if it's more than 12, 10, 12 people. If you say it's gonna be a if you call it a party, I don't care who's there, I'm gonna be kind of like, right? And if you say there's gonna be dancing too, now I was like, how can I find my way out of this? And if you say there's gonna be alcohol too, and it's people we don't know, and it's gonna be a party with alcohol, then I'm like, I'm not going. Yeah. I'm not going to do it. Growing up, I I just I don't, I didn't, I just wasn't there. But it's a lot of it's because of social anxiety. So um anyway, long story short, is um it took me a long time before I even got familiar with wine. And I still, I just don't know. I just don't like white wine. I don't. So I drink some white wine here and there, but I've never I still don't like beer of any kind. Guinness, I just don't like any of that. So it just, I don't know, it's just what it is.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I think maybe a lot of people might feel that way. You know, that they've never enjoyed it, that it's just maybe, you know, I I just this is my awareness that it's so incredibly socially accepted and normal that we just confine to that norm. That's not that's the way I felt for a long time. I can't speak for everybody else, but I can't be, you know, in the conversations that I have, you know, half of them go where people are very intrigued by it and want to learn more about it. And and that conversation always blooms, right? Like learn more about um, learn more about like alcohol or just be awoken to how socially normal it is, yet maybe it's never served them. Maybe they've never had that conversation. But the conversations that I'm in over many years are always uh it's always a 50-50. People are inspired and want to have the conversation. And then I always feel like a lot of my conversations are you know, there's something wrong with me. With you? Yeah, you know, like why don't you drink drink? It's usually are you pregnant? Right. That's a question that a lot of people ask women. If you're not drinking typically as a woman, somebody might ask you, Are you pregnant? Yeah, yeah. That's that's nine out of ten times. That's probably the first question.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Do you do you get the question about is it because you've decided you need to be sober?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah. Yeah. That's usually that's it's not as forward as that because that's a very bold question to ask somebody, are you sober or do you have a problem with it? It's always a feeling. It's always something that kind of comes along with the conversation. Um it's sometimes sometimes I e actually even play into it a little bit. You know, I'm always not that I'm I'm stretching my truth at all, but it's sometimes I'm like, yeah, it's never served me. And in all the situations that I've put myself in when it um when it is around alcohol, I always feel like something has gone sideways a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, and what does that look like? Yeah, I've been a lot of situations where where there's alcohol or drugs involved, where it has gone, things have gone sideways. Things have not been, you know, it hasn't been a good night, whatever it is. You know what I mean? There's a million examples I could give you.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

It's interesting that you bring that up because as I it makes me reflect on now part of that, like I say, like the uh for me personally, the discomfort that I have with it. And and I'm and I'm remembering now on emotionally about one of the reasons it feels so uncomfortable for me um around it, around other people. It's not it's not a judgy thing, it's more, but why do I feel uncomfortable even if I'm not drinking or whatever, it has nothing to do with me. Why is that why is it a little uncomfortable for me? Because we've all had experiences where someone something goes goes a little wry, right? Or they're or for me, it's just like it's not who they are. It doesn't it doesn't seem when the person I'm with or people I'm with and it gets beyond a certain threshold and then they're out of character, it just it just feels weird to me. And I don't know how to describe it. It's not it's not that I have an issue with the person or people, just it just feels I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I think it's always had something to do with a little bit of control, right? I don't know how to act around them. Like I agree. I don't know how to act. I agree. Yeah, over the last 10 years that I was ill and I have taken uh alcohol out of my life completely, it really has shown me when I am because I'm still continuously in social settings. It's just in a different, in a different way. I'm showing up in a different way. I'm so highly alert, you know, I'm so clear in what I see and what I um what not what

Quitting For Health And Clarity

SPEAKER_00 15:30

I think is I guess I don't want to say normal, but I know, I know I'm just so clear in my body, I guess, when I'm in social settings. And so when I see things happening around me, I'm not being judgmental of it. I'm just so highly aware. And so I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but I think that's what happens when um, you know, when we talk about things going sideways or people acting or doing things, it's like, you know, so aware of that. I see all of it. And so I tend to guess I I've removed myself from a lot of social settings where I know alcohol is going to be really present. Um and you know, I've I've done events because I i I always feel a little uncomfortable. So I don't I I don't always put myself in those situations anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Not because you're the outlier.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Not because of that.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Right, right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

So there's some kind of similarity, I think, that we experience there. I mean, to back up just a little bit for me, so uh so it was only probably in the last less than five years or so that uh that I learned I started trying even more hard liquors. So I've decided I've I realized, oh, actually, I like margaritas. I remember think realizing I like sangrillas, okay, red wine, red wine, right? Um, and then at at some point it's it was something where uh it was probably like roughly once a week. I would actually look for an opportunity, you know, on a weekend or whatever, with dinner or whatever. It's just it was family, it's not it wasn't anything meaningful, it's just like one drink, right? But I I enjoyed it. Okay. And then at some point I started to observe that uh as you know, it was 6 a.m. Saturday morning basketball. I started questioning and observing with more confidence with several observations that it's just not the same on Saturday morning. I'm not, I'm not, it's just one drink. Okay, I'm a lightweight, but it's just one drink. It's not like I feel differently. I mean, maybe I feel a little bit, you know, my head's not quite as clear, but that that night on Friday night, but it just was like, it's not worth it same in the same way that you say about serving, really having interest in that affecting Saturday morning as little as it is. Because I'm not starving or anything already. Like it just I just didn't like the experience. So then I started looking at Saturday night instead of Friday night, right? And then but then after some point, and I don't remember why, I was just like, it I just don't know there's value. And I think some of it, and I think this is a good next talking point, perhaps somewhere here is um you know, there's been a lot more stuff in the in research and news and then the general surgeon and et cetera, et cetera, about um, hey, even little amounts can have a negative effect. And then of course we talk especially about brain health and all the stuff. And I hear more and more people as patients talking about it, and I hear more and more patients telling me, intering to me, that they're trying to reduce cutback or they're thinking about the topic. And I think we've bantered about that just a little bit. So then it's I was you know, it's funny, our brick and mortar office staff got me a um one of those home machines like made your own cocktails, and I was like so excited about that. And then like nine, three quarters a year later, I was like, I barely used this. Yeah, it just and it just kind of organically evolved that way. And so now I it's it's not like I purposely don't at all, but it's pretty rare. And I'm kind of more mindful about it when I about like, yeah, uh, I don't think I'm doing that much damage to my brain just because of this. But um, it's still in my mind to kind of go, yeah, I don't even know if I need this.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Just reflecting on what you just said about waking up on Saturday mornings and being a little bit foggy or recognizing that that's how it was making you feel. I can remember that so distinctly. It resonates so deeply when I had Jackson 19 years ago. I can remember kids kids don't care what happened the night before if you had a drink or whatever. They're waking up at 6 a.m. and they're looking you up in the eyes and just they need their mom, right? And I can remember so distinctly feeling like tired, on and off, obviously lack of sleep with a newborn. But I also remember if I did have a drink or two, I would wake up even more tired. And I can just remember looking at Jack and Reese when they were little and they didn't, I didn't want to give them a tired mom. You know what I mean? That's something that was it was more important to me to give them a mom that was lacking sleep and rest and all the things, but like I wanted to give them the best form of me. Yeah. And so there were that was something that I was like treading very lightly with deciding whether I was gonna have a drink or not at any point, socially or not socially, when the kids were young. It was like I wanted to wake up and be the best mom that I could be. So full of energy. And so it's like when you want to wake up, basketball's very important to you. Those saddy ones you've been doing for 15 years, or I you've been doing it for a long time. That's something that you enjoy and it's it's um it's important to you. And so you want to show up in your best way. That's something how I felt when I when I had children. It was like, yeah, this has got to go because this is altering how I'm showing up for my kids in the morning. You know what I mean? Like I wanted them to have a mom that that was again full of energy and and ready to go. Um, and then 10 years ago, I could just going back to that, um, anything, anything that was making me feel less than it was like it had to go. So that was like kind of like a defining moment for me. And something that I'm actually proud of. I feel confident talking about it. And um, you know, because it was a health crisis. And with health crisis, things change. And so that was one of the things that changed. And it was just, it was a very easy change because again, it wasn't a huge part of my life. But yeah, it was, I needed to give myself a fighting chance.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And anything that was contributing to um the opposite of that had to go. Yeah. So yeah, that was um, that was something that happened 10 years ago. But just to touch upon real quickly, this conversation that we're having, I'm having it a lot with a lot of different people. But yeah, in the news, there's there's a lot of information on social media. There's a lot of information about sobriety, a lot of people talking about it. Um, and it's it's really enlightening to me and it's really inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, so that's it's perfect timing because I was thinking the same thing. If we bring it back to, oh, okay, these are our personal experiences, but why are we talking about it again? Like, what's the point for you know, why is it a big enough deal that we decide to make this a discussion today?

Mark’s Relationship With Drinking

SPEAKER_01 21:08

And so um, so there's a couple of those talking points for your point of perspective. I'm still in my mind, I'm still wondering like how I mean to be almost a little bit devil's advocate or you know, or challenging, like why still, why is it um either why has it come up so often for you or why even it comes up, but why is it such a meaningful topic for you to say, yeah, let's talk about this topic.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

So I think just me personally, cutting it out of my life or or having it really at bay all those years and then truly being um, you know, sober the last 10 years, I'm just so clear eyed. It's like I I understand it. And I've been around it enough to see how socially accepted it is and how people utilize it. So we have teenagers, and we talked about whether we wanted to share about that. But like I have a teenage son that is highly exposed to it through college and through house. School. It's just right in front of me. I have a sister who's um who's been sober for nine years, and she's sober because she had a serious issue with it. So it's it's something that's kind of at every perimeter of my life.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

So here's a here to be a little challenging. Yes. Because so, you know, off camera and such, we've talked about that, hey, there isn't an there's no intention for you or I individually or collectively to it's it's not like there's a there's an agenda here. It's not there isn't there isn't a message here of we're trying to passively aggressively push people to not drink. Right. That's not the point here. That's not the point. So if that's not the point, is it is it just is it just that interesting and reflective for you that it's such an anti-establishment or anti-norm to not drink, or is it more, you know, what what is the end message for any given number of people who might be listening, right? Saying, is it is it, hey, for me, it just any little bit that can make my life I can get more juice out of my squeeze in life, that's what that's that's what I experienced. And hey, I think other people, you might be thinking, and I'm just not hearing it yet, you might be thinking or experiencing, I've had enough conversations with other people where I'm seeing them also decide, not because I'm trying to suggest it or push it or encourage it, but they've decided also to cut back or or stop. And I'm observing that they're also getting more juice out of their squeeze in life, right? Or is it more just the fact, is it just literally, this has just been an interesting experience for me, and I just find it fascinating that it's so rare that someone like me doesn't I'm the only person out of 300 people at a frat party or whatever, or you know, just in social gatherings, and I just it's more it's just fascinating as a sociologic observation. Or is it more like I wonder how many more people might be having a similar experience, but not willing for any or ready for whatever number of reasons to take further steps, or maybe something else?

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Yeah, I think it's all of those. Oh, all right, then I think it's all of those. Yeah, it is this conversation that I'm having with you. I have so many times. So it's something that I am a little bit passionate about. I see it on every perimeter of my life. So why why not speak it out loud? Why not have a conversation and share it with a bigger community?

SPEAKER_01 24:03

I think there's a question. Why is it why is it so passionate? Why are you so passionate about it?

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Because it's again, it's in it, it's something that was in my personal life. I'm witnessing my son experiment with alcohol and now my daughter, who are both teenagers and high schoolers. So it's just for a mother that's extremely frightening. Um, I've been there, done that. So it's also like I come from a place of non-judgment of anybody for anything. I have a sister who's not only um very close in age with me, she's my bestest, dearest friend. And so I've watched her battle for many years and and now come on the other side of it, which is like in the most inspiring story. Um, you know, I we always say, like, I I've gone through so much with her. I'm 40, 45 years old. She's 40, maybe 47. She's lived like 10 lives, and and this life

Alcohol As A Cultural Default

SPEAKER_00 24:52

that she has now, nine years sober, is so drastically different than the lives that she had before. And it is so fruitful, so beautiful. And it's so inspiring. And this is someone who had a real issue with alcohol. And so I look at myself and I say, oh my God, I feel so much clearer and better. And um, and I know that has a, I know that's a contributor. I know it is. And then I look at her and I'm like, oh God, like her fruitful life that maybe she never or we never knew she would even have is just, oh my God, I I wish that for anybody that deals with maybe a substance abuse issue, right? Like you wish that for everybody. You pray for that. That's something that I prayed for my entire life for her. So to see that that come to fruition, maybe not through my prayers or just through her own choices and in God's path for her, has been like, it's just incredible. And so, like when I say I have it on every perimeter of my life and why do I want to talk about it? Jesus, it's something that I'm having conversations about it. I see it in my personal life, through family, through my children. Um, and it's like, yeah, I I like this conversation. I'm not afraid I'm not afraid of this conversation. And I'm excited for the for the thought that it could inspire and help someone else.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

So that's that's what I've heard just now, right? I'm asking, why are you so passionate about this? Right? Because it's not a huge deal. It's not like you personally went through a a dark journey with alcohol and then are are here now. It's not like the like your Lyme story, where it's like this was overwhelming and controlling me, and then here I am on the side. It's not that. But you've nonetheless seen someone you're very close with go through that. And then what I'm hearing more further is um because you're a you're a very vivacious person, you you love life, right? And I hear that um holy crap, there's you can get that extra squeeze, not even extra, but you can get just even the squeeze out of the juice out of that squeeze with this one topic. You you've seen it enough, not just with your sister, but no doubt other people. And I and that's where I relate with this also, that for you and I who if we're passionate about life, or when we're passionate about people, and we're passionate about the potential within each individual, and the maybe the the wiring, the gifting, the mission and purpose for any given individual, much less collectively. And if there is if that can be unearthed and uh brought to the forefront, and the authentic or full potential of that individual can now be unleashed, all of a sudden that's what I'm I'm hearing. I could I could definitely connect with you both personally and to the degree I know you that is something that you find an amazing, not just stimulating us to trivial uh fueling to to to just witness in somebody else, not even just yourself.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

I think over the last 10 years, there's been such a shift with um in reflecting on the shift so much in the last two years that I've been feeling better and well. And what are the contributors to me feeling well? And then looking at just everything in my life and that uh and the people in my life that are also on the path of clarity, enlightenment, right? Like getting the squeeze out of life, like living life to the fullest and feeling good, feeling well, like living long, like all these conversations that you and I are having. Um, and now we're just, you know, like getting a little bit more in depth with it. But the conversation on alcohol to me is like it's uh it's such a social norm, and it is at the like the top of what is socially normal out of everything that people do in the world, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Like there's so many as far as my considered vices or getting that's a little more right.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I do feel like it's at the top of the pyramid about what is so socially normal. And I'm not judging anybody for something, you know, for something that they're choosing to do in their lives um that's serves them or doesn't serve them. It's it's such a personal, personal topic. Yeah. But I do think it um once you kind of bring down the veil a little bit and have these conversations, it'd be really inspiring about having, you know, just having a conversation about alcohol and like and having people just reflect on it a little bit more. Does it serve me? You know, is it fruitful? Like, I don't know what my what's my relationship with it. Those are reflections, personal reflections that I've had. Um I've witnessed my sister having them. And I and on the other side of it, it's just there's clarity. I I just I I just know it. Yeah. I'm just so clear thinking all the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

So here, you know, what the one of the two missional foundations for the podcast, right, is to talk about so we talk about the reality of functional medicine and we kind of go, okay, well, what does alcohol have to do with that? Well, because functional medicine isn't just about physiologic and biologic health, it's very much behavioral health as well. There's a huge mental and emotional piece to our health. I mean, we I could argue that it's more important than I've always said mental he emotional health takes precedent over physical health. A diabetic who is severely a severely diabetic who's depressed enough does not care if they're treating their diabetes, right? And so there's the tie-in, right? Um, there's the good, the bad, the ugly of life in general, function medicine specifically. But in this case, as we're talking about self-awareness, which is a huge piece of our health journeys, our our life journeys, okay. We tie we can tie this in and say alcohol it can be, hey, it's not just is we're not casting it just as a sort of bad guy in a sh in a in a shadow per se, right? We're not making necessarily making value assessments on this. We're saying you've had an experience, and I've had an experience in a kind of more trivial way with basketball. I mean, like, it's not that huge of a deal, okay? But we've had experiences where, hey, we're self-aware enough to go from you, even from teenage years, which is not common, right? Doesn't quite serve me. Don't really feel that awesome. Doing this kind of more out of social, not even pressures, just to fit in, right? But how much is it worth it to me? Right. And that's where everybody's going to differ, right? Because we have different, how much do we feel uh we need to fit in? Some people don't feel need at all, rarely, but most of us do on some level, because we will like to be accepted, we like to be liked and loved, right? And so then it's well, how much is that necessary to feel that way, right? And that's a whole nother topic. But my mind now goes to, well, why do what what why do some of us, and I I guess we don't have to go that way in this direction for you, but from my observations professionally, I f as you just said, this is maybe one of the top societal

A Sister’s Recovery And Hope

SPEAKER_01 31:12

sort of norms. And beyond the fact that I'm sure you've had this conversation with your own kids as well, like we talk a lot about how much would this not be such a big deal if we had laws that were different, like in Europe, the age thing. Part of it just in our society, in my opinion, it become because it's taboo, because we're we're humans, right? If you're not supposed to, then we kind of want to, right? If you're supposed to, then we kind of don't want to. Don't tell me what to do, right? Especially in America. I'm independent, don't tell me what to do. And if you tell me not to do it, I kind of want to do it. And then there's also the whole, I mean, again, not to be judged at all, but I know from personal and observational experience over and over and over, Catholicism is a huge part of our history culturally. And there's a that's a very historically, there's a lot of people who have a feeling of law, you know, sort of more rigidity, or do this, don't do that, right? In all kinds of religious and other spiritual, whatever, other kind of frameworks, but especially in that regard. And so again, if it wasn't made to be that big a deal, would it be that big of a deal, especially in the teenage years? Good question, right? But fast forwarding, if we go into adulthood, right, why is it continue to be a thing for some people more than others, but for in general in society, where it's it's a very big centered, it's a big central part of social events, of weekends, activities, and whatever else. And I just go, I'll just wind all that down into saying, find I always go back to this conversation of we're all we all tend to self-medicate. I in my opinion, we all self-medicate on some level with something. Alcohol tends to be really common. Hey, these days, marijuana, maybe that's for another time. That's super common too. But it can also be eating, it could be shopping, it could be doom scrolling, as the kids like to call it now, right? Doom scrolling. I mean, even adults and you know, you will say use that term now. Um, just vegging out, right? Video games, whatever it is, we we tend to numb out a bit with something. Yes, right. Part of that's just life, it can be stressful. Right, right. Okay, and so there's the question with the question on land here is go is to say, what do you think about um either by personal experience or observations of others you feel safe talking about? When you talk about hey, I feel clear, I feel feel clear and I'm myself. What about have you ever had an experience yourself? Let's start there, where you didn't like to be yourself, where you know, there's a little bit of a compare-contrast to say because it's it there's an inherent there piece there for me where you like life clean and clear. But I know many patients who they don't like life because it's too painful, yeah, or it's too stressful. I I I that's the whole point. I'm trying to escape, and that's what I mean by the self-medicating part. Um, and so it's not to say, what do you say or what do I say to someone, okay? I'm in that position a lot as a doctor, but you know, I I know that's not something you're having discussions about. Going back to this whole thing about the conversations you have a lot. I know you're not having a conversation going like, have you ever thought about or you should, that's not you, right? Right? That's not you. Right. Um, and so uh I'm just curious more first, have you observed or been in conversations where somebody has outright just said that's the whole point, right, Joe? Like I don't want to, I don't, I I like I kind of want to get away from that for a bit.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

It's funny, in conversations, I that I know exactly what you're talking about because I I'm in so many of these conversations and that does never come up, but it has come up specifically with my sister.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Because we've talked, I've walked alongside her through so many different things in her life um with substance. And now that she's on the other side of it and sober, that that is something that she is outright said. Yeah, I wanted to escape. Sure. What was her her very beautiful mind and it doesn't stop. And so that was like using substance was the only thing that would make it stop. It was the only only way she would be able to fall asleep at night or pass out at night. So she has specifically shared those things with me, which are very personal. She's actually writing a book right now, which I'm very proud of her for on a lot of topics. But yeah, this is probably the the thread that goes through all of it. But yeah, that is something that just personally I've experienced with her in conversation about why she utilizes it. It's no, I I have never felt that way that I want to escape anything. And so I don't know if that's a privilege or something that, you know, you know, in my personal life that I haven't had these really I've had hard things, but not really hard things that have, you know, I've utilized substance and to escape or, but in my sister's instance, yes. That is something that she has shared. Pretty forthcoming that that that that's the only way that she could turn sure things off. And uh we should have her on the podcast sometimes, but she's got a lot of that she's got a lot to say about it, but in it in her perspective is completely different than mine. Her lived experience is completely different than mine. That's why it's super hard to um to touch upon or judge or or think very much about everybody's personal experiences because they're they're just so different. I mean, I grew up under the same house with the same parents, went through all the same schooling, was on all the same sports teams as her, yet we are two totally, completely different people and have two completely different lived experiences. And when we talk about the alcohol topic, it what she shares about it is so much more in depth than than what I can say. You know, how it has served her.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

And how it has eventually not served her.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Um and it eventually has brought her to an incredibly fruitful life, which is fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Yes. It because when, you know, in this whole functional medicine world, people are always talking about root cause, root cause. And I love talking about root cause of mental health stuff. Okay. When people talk about like, who doesn't talk about being anxious, stressed all the time, right? Anxious, depressed, whatever. The kids these days, you know, our kids, they use those terms

Self-Medication And Root Cause Thinking

SPEAKER_01 36:46

loosely, right? I mean, kids are all commonly saying, like, my anxiety, my depression, and they don't really mean legit like dysfunctional anxiety, okay? But they use these terms all the time, right? And and I'm always thinking about, okay, so first level, and I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole right now, okay? But you know, I'm always thinking first level. So is this a circumstantial driven thing, or is this a total non, I don't want to say just chemical thing, but effectively that's what people understand. They understand what I'm saying. Like it doesn't add up, right? Why do I feel anxious all the time and I really don't have legit like strong things to be anxious about, right? That's a different story, right? And that that goes into the whole alcohol thing where I like I said, people are we're we self-meditate all I self-meditate, right? It's just not with alcohol. Like I'm saying, I know when my when my on the Sundays, when my Apple when my phone says, your screen time has blah blah blah blah blah, I'm like, yeah, I have been playing too much of the tune blast, right? Because like I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I just need to numb out, right? There's better ways I could you know, I could meditate or whatever, but it's hard. I mean, I I'm no different than anybody else. I don't know about you, but it's not easy to do things that are more sometimes. It's not easy to do what I know is better for me. It's just easier to sit numb out and play tune glass.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

And when you share the short list or maybe a little bit of a longer list of the things that we self-medicate, you know, with whether it's doom scrolling or substance or like I always am like, oh God, yeah, I have my things. Are you kidding me? And we can talk about those on the next episode. We can talk about doomsday scrolling because I absolutely do that. We can talk about like shopping addictions, we can talk about all the things that, you know, like that we self-medicate with. Yeah, there's an array of things. And we talk about the pyramid, it does feel like socially like alcohol might be at the top, but there's they're hand in hand with many others that are right there too. And yeah, I do think when we have this conversation, it all ties back into like an emotional health, right? And awareness and having that conversation on like, why do we do these things? And what are the things that we self-medicating with that are extremely harmful to our health, contradicting it, like what we're trying to, how we're trying to live, right? Like how destructive they can be for our our physical health, our mental health, how they destructive they can be for our our family, our friends, our relationships. Like it's such a huge conversation. I'm interested in it and I'm passionate about it because it is, again, it's in a lot of avenues of my life.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

But again, it comes, in my opinion, it comes back down my observations, uh again, it comes down a lot to self-awareness. Right? Because it's it's not usually a sudden overnight change. And so it's a gradual change, as with many things in life. And then once we're in it, it's it's hard to see the forest from the trees until bad things happen. Right. Right. Right. And that's when all of a sudden, okay, well, you're so deep in the hole commonly. Yeah, going back to your I I that for me that came out of hearing you talk about your sister because I have seen a number of people who come to awareness, self-awareness, that either A, oh yeah, I'm I'm just self-medicating refectively, right? I'm just that's my de stressor. And it's nice to feel just more free and dis disinhibited, whatever. And uh that makes me think about plant-based medicine, all right, psilocybin and stuff like that. That's been in the news recently too. Positive research ways, okay, another time. But and I've had more and more patients doing that now, okay. And with my not just support, sometimes suggestion, right? Okay, another time, but also there are people who they're self-medicating like significant anxiety or ADD, even okay. I've had a number of people who come to realize I have uh, as you are however defined clinically, ADD, ADHD, and that's driving this like secondary anxiety also. And then life is just so disorganized or whatever, and I was just so struggling, and then like I just need to escape it. And then once once they like address that in whatever way it is, whether it's prescription medication, whether it's coaching, it's combinations, whatever, you know, better life support, structures, life rhythms, whatever, all of a sudden, like, yeah, the alcohol's not such a big deal. And it's not even a fight, you know, like it's not that they're going sober per se, but it's just not an issue. So I can take it, I could leave it. And for me, it's I think what I um on the tail end of what we said earlier about you, my um suggestion to you that what I hear from you is I love to see people's potentials come out. I love to see like life be at its fullest, not just for me, but for other people. For me, I love in the same regard as a shade of gray there. I love to see people like be able to break free and be free. To be free of something that just, as you kind of alluded to this, it just isn't not a I'm not being I'm not a servant of that something else. You know, it's sometimes it's a mild level, sometimes it's a severe level. But man, freedom is I think I think it's a human thing. People value freedom. And that's that's beautiful to me.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

When you talk about root cause and kind of getting to like that next level of why, right? Like um, that makes that's such an interesting conversation because you know, you as a doctor, it's like you you probably have those conversations and knowledge around all of that. But just you simply sharing it right now, it's like I kind of have a little bit of knowledge of that, and that makes all the sense. Like the root cause of something, we gotta take it like we got to peel it back 10 layers before we get to the actual reason of why we're doing it, right? Which ties into mental health in the conversation that you're talking about. But I I don't, I'm not even sure that conversation is really predominant right now. Like, even just hearing you say that, that that's a conversation that I think is incredibly interesting. Like you might think you're doing this because of this, but let's peel it back. Like maybe it's not 10 layers, maybe it's just like one layer at a time to address what the real issue is, which potentially could be something. I mean, it could be anything, right? But um, that when I think about all the different situations that I've been in, specifically, I always kind of go back to my sister. It's like her the root cause of what she's gone through all these years is is something that's being identified like in current day right now. You know?

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Wow. So Yeah, that's what keeps life jerk. I mean, not to not to minimize it. Yes, right. I mean, that's what for me keeps life so interesting because um, yeah, we there there used to be a guy in town. I don't we've never talked about him. He's moved years ago now, but uh, I've always found him to be so almost overly reflective, and not in a negative way, but just it was so challenging for me because he was so present, overly present, right? And in it really interesting gentleman, but just he always made me like like this, he would ground me into life. Just not not purposely, intentionally, it's just like by him, just his presence and the way he would talk about things with his own experiences, so grounding, right? And it would make me realize that uh with these, how I would always, even now, regularly with patients, when we talk about root cause, root cause, root cause, right? Because this it's almost an overused term. In social media, any anyone's tapping into healthcare stuff, you know, on social media, it's all over the place. What's the root cause? But there's different depths of root cause. Self-awareness, like I've always said, even that gentleman I'm talking about, he's always said, and I know it because he's uh he's always talking about people who are even more grounded and present and meditated than him. We're never gonna run out of depth of self-awareness. I mean, you could be 99 years old, and if you're putting effort into it, there is more depth of self awareness to be discovered. That's it's a bottomless pit. Now, some people, like I said before, they're not interested. They're not interested or they don't want to go down that road. And that's a whole nother fascinating thing for me. Why? Right. Because it's not always like a trauma thing. Right. Is it just a wiring? I just don't it's just an internal alignment thing that I don't care to know or I Don't want like I'm afraid of myself, or I'm afraid of the depth of humanity, and I don't know. I don't know, right? That's not that gets deep. But commonly, um, I I do think that's an issue where uh number one, it goes down either side. One is I don't want to or don't like going down that road for various reasons, and that's unfortunate because trauma and stuff like that of that nature is not easy to keep on scabbing, right? Okay. But on the other side of the coin, um, how many people like you were describing have enough of an experience at some point that wow, there's a deeper level of self-awareness that I feel aligned with, and it's a positive feeding to make me want to even do it more. If we haven't even experienced that on some degree, then it's it's hard to keep in sight that. But once you experience it, if you're a person who you do want to get the most out of life and you do appreciate being more aligned with yourself, that's so fueling to me. It is, it is like the juice of life to me. Okay, but the root cause thing with with mental health is is almost endless. It it's it can be fascinating from an academic perspective or just uh, you know, sociological whatever. But if you're a person who really wants to, again, get the most out of life for yourself and just tap the untapped potential,

Self-Awareness, Suffering, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 45:15

that's that's a bottomless pit.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

I always go back to our one of our first conversations where I was really in a health crisis. Personally, this health crisis forced me to suffer. And suffering brings you to a lot of things. One of them specifically is an enlightenment, right? And I don't I would never say I'm the most enlightened person, but yeah, that suffering for so long brought me to healing, brought me to a a lot of things and enlightenment and what comes from that is something that I just want to continue with for the rest of my life. I just want more enlightenment, I want more knowledge, I want more awareness.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Like it's I love that term that you brought up just again. Yeah. You brought it before, but I I love that in this moment.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

I do feel like when people go through really hard things, you know, there's blocks, and this is something that, you know, is maybe ties into the mental health conversation. Like you can, I don't know if people are are blocked off from it. They're hurt so badly or they're suffering so badly and and so they're turned off, right? I always feel like, you know, I I have another person that's very close to my life that I feel like she she's gone through so so much and she's hardened by it. Right. And so how does she you know take that next step into healing and enlightenment and book cause and all these conversations that we're having that would take her to peace and all these things that like in her life that could be on the other side of that? It can be to get to enlightenment and all these things, you know? It's like sometimes you can't even get over the hump of life is hard.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

No, it is.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Really hard.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Yeah, it's an interesting connection to think about um that you know, in your first three chapters and the sessions, we talked about the the pain and struggle you've had on a on a physical health level, right? And that's something that, as you know, and and maybe more now than you did a few months ago, there's a lot of people who've gone through something of that sort. Everyone's story is different, everyone's journey is different, but there's some similarities.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

But how things can be so hard that it they can really shut people off. I mean, I can speak to it um because of personal experience about alcohol. And I do really enjoy hearing other people talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Um, because I think it could be inspiring. It might, you know, it might feel negative for a lot of people to have the conversation because of everybody's own personal journey with it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

That's a good that's a good um down spot there. I mean, I I was kind of challenging us to narrow in on okay, what's the what's the real message here, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:55

Yeah, just to wind it up, I do feel like, you know, having this conversation with you, I enjoy, as weird as that might sound, I enjoy having a conversation about alcohol because it is a part of my life in different aspects.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Isn't that funny? I don't I don't I don't really enjoy alcohol itself, but I'll enjoy talking about alcohol. That is unusual.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

It is unusual, but it it is true. And you're not even a therapist. And I enjoy talking about it, listening to people talk about it, inspiring in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

It's like taking a veil down from something that, you know, is just so normal, yet isn't really normal and doesn't feel really great in my personal life. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I just like saying that out loud. It's freeing for me, and maybe it could be freeing for somebody else. Maybe it can be inspiring or enlightening for someone else. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

I always feel like hope that's that's my foundational hope for these conversations, is that maybe it could inspire someone else in a positive way in their own personal life. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it triggers some people because I think it it can do that too. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Yeah, for but I don't um personally I don't think about or having experienced um the triggering of it. I mean, I I this conversation, as I alluded to before, it has come up for me uh more often, it feels like, subjectively, it feels like I'm not sure if data or whatever, but in the last half year, maybe a year, it feels like it has been coming up more often, I think, as a result of various media and social media influences. And I think it's a positive thing. But um, but yeah, I'm with you. Uh I I love, I think you and I are the same. A lot of our intention in our conversations obviously is to, you know, especially as we shifted more now from your personal story and that that it's the normity of that, now shifting into other conversations of discussion, right? Whether and a lot of that's still gonna be uh personal experience related, maybe not as heavy and deep, but in in many other aspects that we all share we share with many other people in society. But ultimately our our our intentions are to provide inspiration slash hope, right? In some kind of way or another. And then number two is to um well, because I mean that's that's the whole message for me with your first telling your own story about your line journey, right? There is hope, right? And uh yeah, I think that goes a long way. I think there's a there's so much value in that, especially in this day and age.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

I knew you just I I don't want to bring it back so so much, but I know you just mentioned in the past like year or so the conversation is coming up for you, but you just being a doctor and talking to patients on on a regular basis and just your own knowledge around the topic, uh it's probably been a conversation with a lot of patients, right? Alcohol use or anything like that. Not I don't know that for sure, but like is that something that when people that you you have that conversation with patients? Yeah. Not like in depth about alcohol specifically.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Sometimes in depth, but uh yeah, you're asking just like what the what those conversations look like.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Yeah, or just you know, it you know, what would be I guess like um I always feel like when you're at the doctors, it's the first question's always like, Do you drink? How much do you drink? There's always these questions when you're at a doctor's office, like filling out the forms about how much you drink, do you smoke and all these. I'm always like curious on you know, if that's a conversation when you're talking to patients.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

We don't have forms with that those specific questions. Um I think uh we try to cover so much. I'm I'm thinking more about like physicals. And you know, our is a little different, so the visits are longer, and so we get into some pretty good length about things or depth about things. You know, I think it's just um in one way or another, whether it's about the um like sleep difficulties or anxiety, depression, you know, life function, brain fog. I mean, the alcohol topic can come up easily, right? I mean, nowadays that's just the newer bent is hey, when we're talking about longevity medicine, right, and anti-aging longevity, et cetera, and the quality of life, length of life, et cetera, it comes up easily there too, right? And it's not not even of my own initiating that conversation and people bring it up to me. That's a little bit of a newer phenomenon. But it's cool, right? Um it's not a j it's not a value judgment thing, again. It's just uh, like you say, I I haven't used those terms. It's not how my thinking or wording is, but like, you know, are are you does it serve you? Did you know how does it serve you, et cetera, and how much, you know, et cetera. But I think it I think they're good conversations, right? And um I think that's a lot of our our your intention, our intention is to uh we could say raise awareness, but at the deeper than that would be to either maybe self-awareness, create more self-awareness, challenge ourselves to to have more self-awareness, to know there's hope, or to perhaps inspire anybody to tap into those directions, right? To to then perpetuate and positively fuel those directions where we just get more juice out of the squeeze in life because we're only living this life once. Fair?

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Very fair. I appreciate you, Sidney. I appreciate you having this conversation with me. Yeah. Thank you. I feel like we could talk for a couple more hours about this stuff. Yeah, we have to. Maybe that'll be a part two.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Yeah, we gotta find a point to just uh call it call to close. But yeah, a few other cans of worms that we opened there that we might um explore later. But so yeah, this may not be directly as related to a lot of the uh past conversations we've had already about yourself with Lyme disease and other more common or frequent stereotypical quote-unquote functional medicine topics, but it is certainly um an insight into that root cause goes beyond the more typical topics we hear about in social media and otherwise. It goes into behavior health. Certainly, a lot of stuff we we try to bring all that to the table whenever we can within the time and energy and capacity and to the much the degree that patients will allow us to. So again, if you're uh if you're looking for some extra help in your health journey in whatever kind of way, it could be physically, it could be mentally, emotionally, et cetera. Rootseekhealth.com is where you can find our our practice. We'd be privileged and honored to step into or w hel help walk in that journey with you. And um otherwise we'll look forward to the next conversation. Thank you, Mark. All right, thanks, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Thanks, everyone.