The God Shot: Rewiring Trauma and Reclaiming Your Life

What if trauma isn’t something you have to manage for life — but something your brain and body can actually heal from? In this episode of The Better Body Lab Podcast, we explore the science of trauma, resilience, and recovery with Dr. Eugene Lipov, a pioneer in innovative PTSD treatment.

Together, we examine how trauma reshapes the brain and nervous system — and how the stellate ganglion block (SGB), often called the “God Shot,” may help regulate the body’s stress response and restore a sense of safety. This conversation moves beyond stigma into the biology of healing, offering a new lens on recovery, performance, and long-term wellbeing.

We unpack the neurobiology of trauma, including the role of the amygdala, stress hormones, and nervous system dysregulation, and explore why reframing PTSD as a Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) may reduce stigma and increase access to care. We also discuss emerging treatments, including psychedelic-assisted therapies, and the broader human ecology of healing — where biology, mindset, and environment intersect.

Dr. Eugene Lipov

Dr. Eugene Lipov is a leading expert in trauma treatment and the pioneer of using the stellate ganglion block (SGB) to address PTSD/PTSI symptoms. A published researcher and recognized authority, Dr. Lipov has testified before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and has been featured in major outlets including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and NBC. His work continues to reshape how trauma is understood — from a lifelong condition to a treatable physiological injury.

For more information on Dr. Lipov, visit:

https://dreugenelipov.com/

https://thegodshotbook.com/

Follow Dr. Lipov here: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elipovmd

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreugenelipov/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenelipov/

Key Timestamps:
00:00 — Trauma Culture & Awareness
06:24 — Trauma & Brain Function
14:58 — Genetics & Epigenetics
21:27 — SGB Explained
33:43 — Treatment Effectiveness
44:30 — PTSD vs PTSI
53:16 — Intergenerational Trauma

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Dr. Taryn Marie: www.resilience-leadership.com/

Mike Alden: https://www.mikealden.com/ 

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https://bioaccesslabs.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I grew up in a culture, it sounds like you did as well, where it's it's you know, suck it up mentality, right? Like, you know, I grew up really tough, but I've realized now at 50 that I've experienced pretty severe trauma and it's had a negative impact on my life, right? How I react to people, how I respond, how I speak, how I sleep, how like everything, right? So I'm I'm just discovering this now. This is why I'm so excited to talk to you about this. But why is it as men, at least, that we just think that we we just need to suck it up?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I think to me, man is supposed to be resilient to certain types of occurrences. Doesn't mean you have to ignore it. Resilient is different than ignoring it, right? And the whole concept, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That's what gets in resilience. Uh, I think it's a to me, I celebrate all the trauma I had. I think it taught me a lot. By the way, in the next generation, I don't think 20-year-old men would have the same perspective on trauma as you and I do. Because it's a cultural way people are trained to respond to traumatic events. Like, we were like, okay, suck it up, baby cakes. Like, I do a lot of work with special forces, rub some dirt in it and keep moving on.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Better Body Lab Podcast. We are delighted to have Dr. Eugene Lipov with us here today. And he is, I wonder if you've heard this term, a psychophysiologist. He's gonna explain to us what that is. He's also the co-founder of the Stella Mental Health Center out of Chicago with now international offices. And Dr. Liphoff, we're so excited and delighted to have you here with us today. Before we get into technical terms, like what is a psychophysiologist? We also know that trauma has been very personal for you. And I wonder if you could give us a bit of the backstory of what happened before you became Dr. Lipoff, the psychophysiologist and co-founder.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Well, thanks for having me on, guys. Really appreciate it. Um I think hopefully this will be interesting for your viewers. Uh so unfortunately, I have a lot of traumatic experiences in my life. So I'll just give you two which have the most impact on me. Uh, the f my one of my biggest experiences in trauma was to get hit by a propeller blade. I lost about half of my blood volume in about five minutes. I had an out-of-body experience, I was in the tunnel that people talk about. So it was an interesting experience. And if I didn't have medical training, I would have bled to death by I had to put pressure on bleeding points. Um, and then I thought my trauma was behind me. And then a year later, I was operating in um one of the hospitals as a surgical resident, and my mother took her life you know, three months after I finished medical school. So my father called me and said, Yeah, your mother took her life. So that completely derailed my surgical career and completely upended my um life. So I had physical trauma, mental trauma, so it's a very uh personal experience for me. I also had something called fugues. For those of you who don't know what fugues are, basically, somebody who is significantly traumatized can be functional in one environment and very non-functional in other environments, basically walking around like a zombie. Um, so body of mine figured that out. I had treatment, poof, and I sit here today.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

And did you did you know based on this accident that you had with like a propeller on a boat? I mean, this man I know you I know a bit about your story. This man basically hit you and you had this physical trauma, you almost bled to death, and then your mother took her own life. And even though you weren't present when that happened, you were deeply traumatized by her suicide. Did you know that you were carrying around trauma from multiple experiences with you?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I thought being traumatized in normal, normal lifestyle. So I came from Ukraine, so my father was highly traumatized during World War II. So he had a 10,000 people in his squadron of aviation that were dropping bombs on German ships. So out of 10,000 people, 100 came home. So he was always very twitchy and angry and you know, mercurial of mood, shall we say. It's being polite. Um, so I had secondary trauma from him, so I always thought this anxiety and tension was a normal lifestyle from when I was five or six. So then I had physical trauma. Physical trauma really was not a big deal. You know, I had a hundred stitches, I almost bled to death, I was limping. Okay, so that's that's life, that's not a big deal. Uh losing my mind.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

No big, no big deal. No big deal. We just keep going. Stiff up our body.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

That's how I was brought up. I mean, it's like, you know, why wine? Something you can't change. But seeing my mother dead on the floor was really a big problem. So, you know, that was that that completely took the wind out of my sails. Because to do to be a trauma surgeon and to do like jones surgery is extremely intense work. But I mean, I've seen my father was a surgeon, so I mean, okay, so that's suck it up, baby cakes, move on. Uh, but you know, seeing my mother dead on the floor was extremely damaging. But I didn't realize the impact of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Can I ask you a question about trauma specifically? Well, it's almost a two-part question. Uh, one is can you define for us what that is? And then the second part of it is, you know, you kind of jokingly said, no big deal, hit by a prop. You know, my dad suffered, you know, okay, it was the one, you know, one, you know, one 100 of the of the 10,000 that made it back. You had the secondary trauma. Um, I think it, you know, as men, we think that's how we think, that's how I think. I grew up pretty tough, and I would say, oh, well, you know, it's no big deal. This, that, that, all these other things happen. But so first question is, what is trauma? And then the second part is, why is it that men, I think, I don't know if it's the same for women, but I think men think, oh, no big deal. Like as you said, suck it up, move on.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Well, there's like a bunch of questions in this allows break it apart.

unknown 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

But there's a different type of trauma. Physical trauma is obvious broken leg, broken arm, propeller blade, blood loss, trauma. Simple. Emotional trauma, people define as something amorphous, nothing specific. The way I see emotional trauma as physical neurobiological change in the brain, that has been described on brain scans. When people talk about invisible wounds of trauma, it's invisible if you have the wrong scanner. If you have the right scanner, like functional MRI, PAT scan, next scan, you can actually see brain, neural neurobiological changes. So to me, it's a continuum. So trauma is basically a for lack of a better word, something that's that's an occurrence and that is leaving scars behind. There's physical scars, there's emotional scars. Emotional scars are also physical scars. You just need a better imaging modality. Did that answer your question?

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Well, yeah, but but but the other part too is I think you know, you I grew up in a culture, it sounds like you did as well, where it's it's you know, suck it up mentality, right? Like, you know, I grew up really tough, but there are much worse situations. You grew up in the Ukraine, you know, you know, war-torn, like all sorts of things, atrocities you've probably seen your father's scene. I grew up tough, but nothing like this, but I say, Oh, it's no big, I always say, Oh, it's no big deal. But I've realized now at 50 that I've experienced pretty severe trauma and it's had a negative impact on my life, right? How I react to people, how I respond, how I speak, how I sleep, how like everything, right? So I'm I'm just discovering this now. This is why I'm so excited to talk to you about this. But why is it as men, at least, that we just think that we we just need to suck it up?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Well, let me let me take a guess at it. You and I both being male, and we can have uh Professor Tarin give us her opinion from her education and her being female. So I think to me, man is supposed to be resilient to certain types of occurrences. Doesn't mean you have to ignore it. Resilient is different than ignoring it, right? And the whole concept, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That's what gets in resilience. Uh, I think it's a to me, I celebrate all the trauma I had. I think it taught me a lot. Now, ignoring it is a different story. I think ignoring symptoms. So the question is so I think the the reason men were brought up, by the way, the next generation, I don't think 20-year-old men would have the same perspective on trauma as you and I do. Because it's a cultural way people are trained to respond to traumatic events. Like we were like, okay, suck it up, baby cakes. Like I do a lot of work with special forces, rub some dirt in it and keep moving on. Right? That that's a different thing. Now, that's okay in a certain amount. It is not okay when you can't sleep and you have sexual dysfunction, you have all that, I'm not saying you, but when you have all types of things that are happening which are not good, ignoring it, that's stupid. That that is just stupid. But not necessarily wallowing, it's like, oh, look at what happened to me. That's an excuse. Like to me, when people have excuses, it drives me absolutely crazy. The worst excuse would be for me to make excuses. I cannot do this because I had that happen to me. Well, that's already in the past, you should let go of that. But if there are scars, physical scars, okay, you may need surgery for that or do something. If there are mental scars that you know you can see on the skin, maybe you can do something about it. And this is where I come in with stuff I do. That's why psychophysiology is kind of to me, is a study of understanding what happens to the brain from physiological trauma, which is you can see somebody being blown up right next to you, but what happens in the brain, what happens in the body from that? That's the part I'm really interested in. Physical trauma is simple, right? Broken leg is really simple.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, that makes that makes a lot makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

How how do I know if I'm if I'm a person out in the world at a high level, I've had some bad things happen to me. How do I know that those experiences may actually be more than just a bad thing happening to me? And that I might actually be suffering from trauma that's impeding my ability to have relationships, to feel calm, that may be impacting, you know, my physiological functioning, whether that's, you know, something like a day-to-day activity or we talked about sexual dysfunction. How how do I know that something bad is maybe just more than that and actually something that I could get treatment for because it's trauma?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Right. Well, I well, before that, let me let me just let just keep in mind what happens. So the same, let me just give you an example. Let's say there are two special forces guys. Let's say there are six of them go out in a battle. Four get killed. And there are two people left. One gets severe PTSD, and we'll talk about the term. Another one gets nothing. Totally normal function, can sleep, his sexual function is normal, he's calm, everything's good. Why does that happen? Some people are more sensitive to traumatic events than others. So not everybody's the same. Like certain people cannot get PTSD regardless of what you do to them. It's just impossible to give them that. So let's just start with that. So, but let's say somebody has symptoms of PTSD, such as hypervigilance, looking around, looking for threats. If you look at the vets, a lot of them who have PTSD cannot sit in the middle of the restaurant. They need to have their back to the wall. If you can't sleep, you have nightmares, you have mood is non-predictable, right? It goes up and down, all of that. So those are signs of that. One of the things, one of the ways to do it. Not a great way, but you know, it's the only thing we have currently. You can use PCL5, PTSD checklist. And if you are above 40 on that scale, you have PTSD based on standard definitions of it. So, but basically it's symptomatology. There will be a day where you will get a DNA test that will say, hey, you have a high chance of developing PTSD. That day is not far away. We already have that type of information. It's not clinically available. There's also going to be scans where people will take a scan and go, hey, you have this psychiatric problem, this psychiatric problem, this psychiatric problem. You have all those problems going on, and this is where we're at.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

You had mentioned you said that that the two soldier example, one comes back, no PTSD, can't get it for whatever reason. The other one uh does. Um, are you saying that it's that there are certain people in this world that no matter what happens, that the we'll call them traumatic events that happen around them will not be uh uh impacted by it uh at all?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

It's like they're resistance to it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let me give you an experimental model. So you can take a rat and you can induce PTSD in the rat, let's say it's true. The way you do it is pretty brutal. You waterboard them. Basically, you toss them off the water, and when they give up and they start sinking, pull them out, and they have PTSD. It's interesting, you can treat that using procedure I pioneered to style a gang down block, and then they'll swim, they'll survive. If you go inside the brain of rat and cut out the amygdala and keep throwing the water, do whatever, you cannot give them PTSD. And the way PTSD presents, and then they become immobile. So in order to develop PTSD, you need a functional amygdala. So if somebody has amygdala dysfunction, then they may not be able to develop PTSD. The other part is uh uh, for example, my grandfather was born in Ukraine and he went through a lot of horrible things.

unknown 15:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

That actually changes the DNA. It's called epigenetics, epigenetics change. And that people uh that makes people more vulnerable. So my DNA came from my grandfather, then to my father, and then came to me. So the saying goes, Nature loads the gun, circumstance fires it. You may be vulnerable to PTSD, but if I didn't have my mother's death, didn't get hit by a propeller blade and a lot of other trauma, I mean I would have developed it. But right?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

That's fascinating. Nature loads the gun and circumstance fires it.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

No question. That's definitely true. I actually know which part of it's VEL 66 VEL. If that substitute becomes meth, meth 66 meth, poof, your chance of PTSD is much higher.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

From the same event as somebody else next to you.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Now we've been told the general public that if you have trauma, you know, if you've experienced post-traumatic stress, that that actually is going to be a lifelong condition. It's not about treating it or making it better. It's just about figuring out how to live with it. What's the greatest lie we've been told about trauma?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

That it is a lifestyle. So PTSD, and again, we'll talk about the term, is doesn't have to be a lifestyle. And we are programmed, or most people are programmed that once you've been traumatized, once you enter the field of standard psychiatric treatments, you're gonna be there forever. And there is no other choices. That's the lie. There are choices, there are choices that work, the choices work rapidly, and I can actually save your life. Not only will you be less miserable if you get it fixed, but you can actually live longer because PTSD kills in real ways. For example, if somebody has PTSD, their chance of dying of heart attack is twice as high compared to somebody who doesn't have PTSD. Likely I haven't I haven't been able to find relative articles on that. PTSD changes the immune system. So let me tell you what happens in the immune system. So when the immune system is whacked, people develop autoimmune diseases, ulcer and colitis, things like that. But the reason so everybody produces cancer cells, right? That's a fact. The reason not everybody has cancer is because they have scavenging. Meaning in the autoimmune system chews up cancer cells because they don't belong there. So if your immune system is sleeping, the guardian who prevents cancer is gone, so the chance of cancer increases, and so on. So it's basically misery. And there are new treatments available that can reverse PTSD mental changes. You can see on a brain scan, the brain actually changes back to what it should be, and people can live a much better life.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

You know, uh in a second, I want to talk to you a little bit about um some of those treatments, what what they are, and how you've pioneered some of those treatments as well. We have on uh the Better Body Lab podcast Dr. Eugene Lipoff. He's the author of the book, by the way. Love the title. It's called The God Shot. It's available uh everywhere where books are sold. It is a very interesting book. Um, we're gonna actually probably dive a little bit deeper into it in uh in a second again. So if you want some more information about uh Dr. Eugene Lippoff, you can actually just Google him, but there will also be uh right within the notes. Uh there's gonna be uh some websites you can go to so that there are some um uh some tests that you can take also to learn maybe uh where you're at in your trauma journey, uh so to speak. So um make sure you just uh check out those notes. And again, you can just find uh the book anywhere where books are sold. If you've been listening or watching this podcast, you already know that we don't chase hype. We focused on what actually works, real science, real results, and real quality. And that's exactly why we've partnered with Body Care MD. Body Care MD is built around one simple idea: give people access to high-quality, thoughtfully formulated wellness solutions with all the noise and all the confusion that's out there right now. So whether you're focused on weight loss, recovery, longevity, or just feeling better day to day, they've actually created products that are actually designed to support your body, not just market towards you. And the best part is they make it easy. So if you want to check them out, go to bodycaremd.com and use body25, that's body25 for 25% off of your first order. Now, if you've been waiting for a sign to dial things in, this is probably it. You know, um I met you through uh Dr. Taryn uh as well, and and I started to look a little bit into you know your treatments and some of the things you do. Could you tell us, you know, what you have really kind of pioneered uh in the world of trauma and and and what it's doing for people today?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Sure. Well, thank you. That's a great lead-in. Um I am not a psychiatrist. I'll start with that. So my training was in surgery a couple of years, and then I did an seizure, and then I did pain medicine. So there is a procedure called stellaging block, which is an injection of local anesthetic in the neck. Here um and it turns out there is a nexus in the neck, it's called stellaginglion that controls fighting flight system in the brain. So when somebody has trauma sufficient enough to produce certain substances called NGF, nerve growth factor, extra nerve fibers can grow inside the brain and produce too much norepinephrine, which gives all the symptoms of PTSD like. So if it persists, it can persist 50, 60, 70 years. So it turns out when you do local anesthetic, you can reverse those changes, even though somebody's had it for 70 years, which is fascinating to see. So the whole premise from my perspective is that a large part of PTSD is overactive fighting flight system. They get stuck in that position. If you can unstick it and reboot it to pre-trauma state, people's lives are transformed.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Wow, you know, um Dr. Taran, like, you know, you you've been public about, you know, you know, you have a TED talk out there about the trauma you've been through. I mean, man, I just think about the people that have been through some some really tough events, and they probably don't even know this exists.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Right? That is a true statement. I still see people, I've been the first time I published a paper on this was 2008. About 10,000 special forces guys have been treated using this approach. Some by me, but a lot in other places. It has been a challenge to bring it to light. I think there are two reasons. So one is this is disruptive technology. If you think of horse and buggy industry, did not embrace metal T particularly well. There's a lot of money, power, prestige is in the line, so to speak. Also, it's a weird concept, right? So, why would anesthetic techniques that's been done since 1925 become a significant treatment component to this kind of thing? It's like it's it's weird for people. People ask me often it's like, you know, why you, as opposed to all the other doctors have been doing since 1925? You're not that smart. I usually tell people I'm smarter than you, but you know, whatever. Um, but in all reality, though, it was it makes perfect sense if you think about it, because fight and flight system is very well known to be overactive in people with PTSD. And if you can reverse it, which is doable, and I'm writing a textbook right now, and there's a lot of details about it. Turns out it has cell ganglion block has ridiculous impact on many systems, like autoimmune system. It changes a bunch of different things. It can change the heart, it can do a lot of really positive things.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Amazing. So I want to break this down for our listeners who, you know, maybe that maybe you as a listener don't have a medical background or a mental health background. So let's say that one of our listeners, um, they've had an experience, they've had some bad things happen, they recognize that those experiences have been traumatic in some way. And maybe you as a listener recognize, like, huh, maybe I do like to sit with my back against the wall or I'm having trouble sleeping. You know, for me, I don't like the dark. I'm afraid of the dark, right? Like Mike wants to put these blackout curtains in my room and I'm like absolutely freaking hot. Like, you know, I don't like the dark. I want to see the light come in. It's disorienting for me. I certainly don't generally want to sleep with like a sleep mask over my eyes. I don't like having my eyes covered, right? So I've got some of these like symptoms of trauma. So I come to Chicago, I come to you, Dr. Lipoff, at the Stella Mental Health Center. I have the stellate ganglion block. What am I gonna notice? What are some of the things that are gonna happen for me? How is my life gonna change in kind of real and practical ways so our listeners can really envision this?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

First of all, we have a beautiful neck. So technically it should be easy to do. So I appreciate it. I've been adminuring that neck for years now. Simmer down. Feel back. Um podcast over now. We have to talk. Um no, realistically, this is let me tell you the typical things that people describe. Like, for example, when I had my blog done, uh, I had this feeling of a cold hand holding my heart that I couldn't take a deep breath for years. We're talking about 50 years.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

So that went away. So a lot of people describe feeling emotion first time in their lives. Because I feel it's blah, but I think that's normal, blah, and all of a sudden, well, hold on. I have feel joy, I have sadness, I can actually process emotions. What? Uh some of the memories come back and you can process them. And what's interesting is that one of the, I'll give you a specific example. So the second person I ever treated was an operator from Chicago, or from Peoria. He had to shoot a child in line of duty in the rock. He came home, tried to kill his wife a few times. It was a complete disaster. And what happened was we do the block. Ten minutes later, he says, his name is Jason Brown. He has some videos out there. Um, and this is 17 years ago. He said, I remember shooting the child, but it's now black and white. I can deal with it, no problem. The emotional oomph is gone, so you can process the memory, which is a huge deal, number one. So considering the experience you've had, I bet you if you think about it, and then the when the light is out, your hypervigilance can do its job. So, how can you see the person coming if there's no light? But the question is, what's making you hypervigilant? That's an amygdala telling you, hello, I'm overactive. What? That amygdala is screaming, and that's why you can't do it. So you cannot get as deep of a sleep. Now, what does it do physiologically to you? It suppresses your melatonin level. Melatonin is needed to go to sleep. Melatonin also protests protects you from breast cancer. Melatonin gets concentrated in the breast. It has a lot of other really positive effects, but considering the blackout shades you cannot tolerate, then that's holding you back. And then when you get in the stage, you probably have to, I mean, you publ, you publicly you you speak often and all of that. I bet you you have this little part inside of you going, you know, am I really good enough? I have this machine, I have to calm myself down. So that part will probably go, I'm chill. The other thing that's big that a lot of, especially women, say, I have not been able to take a deep breath for years. Now I can really breathe with my whole body.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

That's I I have two questions. Um, sorry. Uh, first one is is you're talking about this uh part of the brain called the amygdala. If you could just you know tell us what that is and why that's important. And the second part is so as Dr. Tyron said, someone comes to you, gets the shot. Is it a one-time thing? Um, how quickly do people notice an impact? Do they have to do it multiple times? Um, so what's the amygdala? And if we get the shot, how long does it uh how long does it last? And do we have to have it more than once?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

But we, I mean, if I was gonna do it, I would have to do two different people, not not not you guys are not that connected. Sorry. A little ill humor.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

We have you know what we could we we could have a whole other podcast about there. We actually are, but that's okay. Uh I'm using the the royal we.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

I understand. Okay, you do it. Okay, hello, hello. Uh well, there are two things. So one is amygdala is part of the limbic system. Limbic system is reptilian brain, people call it whatever. But if you think about antelope, that's let me give you a fist. So it's actually sits like in the middle. So if you draw a line kind of in the back of the head and hear somewhere, that's where the amygdala lives, right in the middle of the brain. Its job is to predict and protect from danger. If you hear a little click and you're an antelope, you start running. Why? Because they're afraid. Amygdala is the one that takes in all the senses like seeing, hearing, touching, feeling, and integrates and says it's time to run. It does two things. One, it you start running, it activates also nucleuserulus, which is the basis of fight and flight system. So if you're running and you're hyperventilating, you're looking around, that's amygdala. Uh hit danger button. That's what amygdala does. It's actually looks like an almond for whatever the reason. But it so it's a limbic system. Again, if you cut that out in an animal, you cannot give that animal PTSD. No amygdala, no PTSD. So it's a core part. So if you do a brain scan, even Tyrant's brain scan probably will probably show overactivation of amygdala. And if I show you a dark spot, you're going looking at it, it's going to light up more. So when you're feeling this discomfort, when he wants to turn off the lights, when you're feeling this discomfort, amygdala, that's amygdala telling you things are not well. If amygdala isn't happy, nobody is happy. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

You earlier you talked about you know the physical trauma and the emotional trauma. And then you also said that the emotional trauma also is physical trauma that you can see in a scan. So so if someone has an overactive amygdala uh and from traumatic events, um, do these scans now actually show a physical manifestation of that? Can you see it for lack of a better term, like scarring uh in that area?

SPEAKER_00 32:01

It doesn't look for scar. That's not what you're looking for. When keep in mind, think of a brain like a computer, right? So if the brain is a computer and part of the brain is overheating, part of a computer is overheating, like a CPU. You're not gonna see a scar, but you're gonna see more heat coming off CPU, right? Okay in the brain scan, what it'll do is amygdala is over, like for example, in Tyrone's, he's trying to keep her safe. And all her memories now the amygdala is working harder. So when a part of the brain works harder, it takes in more water. We can trace that on the functional MRI. So it's working harder, it lights up. So instead of a small blob on a scan, now it's a big blob on a scan. Let's say we did treat, we treat Tyrone and we do the scan again. Now instead of big blob, now you have a small blob. Now that amygdala is normal size, it's now overactive. Now she can actually sleep through the night with the current drone because she doesn't have this association that has not been processed yet.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Okay, so we get the shot. When I say we, I'm saying a person. Maybe or both of you, whatever. Someone who wants to who wants to no longer suffer, someone who wants to live their life in a in a in a much happier, healthier way, and is tired of the not sleeping and tired of the fear and the tired of the fight or flight stuff. They come to you, this shot, um, you know, this is you know, I'm guessing, right? We're not guessing, but we're calling this the the God shot. Someone, someone takes this shot. Is it once? Do we do have to do it multiple times? What is it, what it what what should someone expect when they get it?

SPEAKER_00 33:47

So don't know. So let me give you a broad, I mean, it's like it's a broader quiz. Like the first person I was talking about, he had two blocks, two injections 17 years ago. Still doing pretty good, right? So we treated, for example, a policeman from Chicago. So here, severe PTSD. We did the block, he was doing great for a year. Then he was in line of duty, had to shoot somebody in a line of duty, he had to come back. So the point is it depends on three things. Depends on your genetics, it depends on what you do afterwards. Do you do right after the procedure, the psychotherapy is a lot more effective. You can do years of psychotherapy, it doesn't work because you have broken amygdala. You need to fix that amygdala before it's like physical therapy before you fix the knee. Fix the knee, then do the physical therapy. Uh-huh. Right? Not not instead, but it makes sense to do it like that. And number three, what happens to you? If everything's great, perfect. If things are not great, and you have to, you know, let's say you're operator and you're in the field and you have to shoot somebody, that may trigger you back. I don't know. The point is it's unknown. But compared to conventional therapeutics, let's compare and contrast this approach compared to conventional therapeutics. If you take drugs with psychiatric conditions, it takes at least six weeks if you're lucky to see any kind of impact. This will work in a day or two, typically. Maybe two weeks, but that's as long as it takes. You know pretty quickly if it works. It's a totally different mechanistic. And you don't have to keep doing it every day, right? You know, average number I would say per person are two and a half and five years, or maybe ten years. I don't know. It's variable. We do children as young as eight years old, and uh done people as old as eighty-five years old. So that doesn't seem to matter. The length of PTSD doesn't matter. If you had it for a year or 50 years, in fact, the worse a PTSD somebody has, the better this works.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

So you've pioneered something called the God shot. And if that doesn't get people's attention, I don't know what will. What is the god shot and what does that actually mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Well, if I may, let me tell you the story of the term. I did not come up, I'm not that inventive. So I took care of a Marine years ago, and he said his body he had stalaganglion block, which is an injection of the neck, which I do, and he called it the godshot because it changes lives. So only antiday can change life would be God. That's why he called it the godshot. So then Playboy somehow or rather heard about it, and there was an article written about it in 2016 by a military guy who's actually a superb writer.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

I typically only read Playboy for the articles. I don't know about you.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

I typically don't read Playboy. No, I'm just kidding. Are we talking about the O shot? I I'm confusing the shots now.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

I'm just kidding. People would always say, Oh, I read Playboy for the articles.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

I know. Well, I mean, actually, the the first month Playboy had no nude women in it was the month that my article was in it, or not written about me and uh Stelly Ganglion Block. Anyway, so Stelly Ganglion Block is a technical medical term. It's called Stellate Ganglion Block, which is it looks like the sun, which is fighting flight nerves in the neck. That's some of it is imaginative. Anyway, so the Playboy was used that term, and I thought it was a beautiful term. Plus, I love the idea of changing people's lives. Considering my lose loss of my mother, I love changing people's lives for the better for obvious reasons. So um again, what is it? It's putting local anesthetic on a fight and flight nerves in the neck. Did I answer the question?

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Absolutely. That's amazing. And that is the God shot is the stellar ganglion block.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Correct. So yeah, it's it's a colloquial term used by the military before. And you know, I I really love the term of that because again, to me, whenever I hear that, some people say, you know, are you saying you're goddess like absolutely not? Uh, are you talking about any kind of religious experience? Absolutely not. This is just it means changing lives. So you can change lives by doing an aesthetic procedure in the neck, physical procedure, no woo-woo anything. There is a lot of science behind it. I can bore you with great details, what it does, how it works, what are the evidence, blah, blah, blah. But we have seen transform transformation in people's lives anywhere from eight years old to 85 years old.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Dr. Leboff, in a second, I want to talk to you about some of the other kind of innovative treatments that have come to the forefront uh in just a second. Again, folks, uh, we have been on with Dr. Eugene LaBeauff. He is the author of the book The God Shot Healing, Trauma's Legacy, The Science, The Stories, The Solution. You know, all of us have suffered some form of trauma, and I'm sure we know people that have suffered some form of trauma. And maybe you don't even necessarily know that you were suffering trauma. I actually didn't really think that I had much trauma. Turns out I did. And this book, just reading it, just a few chapters of it, it has already changed the way I think about trauma, and is certainly I know what's going to change, change my life as well. So if you'd like some more information about Dr. Eugene and Lipalov, you can just google him first. You can also just write in the show notes where I have a bunch of different links where you can uh we can learn more about Dr. Lipalove. But also, this book is available where all books are sold. Amazon, Bonds and Noble, etc. There's also an audio book uh that's available. So again, go to Amazon, check it out, pick it up. This book is going to change lives, and uh it's already changed mine, and Dr. Chairman as well is also excited about it. So um, LSD, MDMA, Ibigaine, ketamine, uh DMT, these things we're starting to hear about. Uh what is the impact of these psychedelics that we're seeing now? There are there are there are publicly traded companies now that are that are that are developing treatments for people. What are your thoughts on some of these more innovative treatments?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Well it depends how you define innovation. Psilocybin will be used for thousands of years successfully to treat depression. So it's really, I'm not sure if it's innovation. It just it's called rediscovery from my perspective. I think psilocybin is a great drug, personally. Uh psilocybin has been shown to improve uh mood and help depression. So I think uh psychedelic drugs are depends which ones. So there is a section in the book that talks about psychedelic drugs, at least my perspective. I'm not saying I am a super duper expert on that. I as an anesthesiologist, I'm pretty comfortable with ketamine. Our clinic uses ketamine infusions. What's interesting is a combination of ketamine plus stellate is synergistic, they work very well together. Um, so I think psilocybin and stellate probably will work well together. I have not had access to it. Uh Ibigain, I really like that drug. There are a couple of cautionary tales to that. Number one, EBigaine, I think, is marvelous for addiction. That's great drug for addiction, treatment of addiction, not to get addicted to. Uh however, you need to be careful. So eBigain can give arrhythmia or you can kill somebody if the heart goes and cycles in the wrong direction. So if you are if you're gonna do it, uh get it done in the right place where people are reputable, it needs to be medical. They need to give you magnesium intravenous first, and they need to monitor you. So if you're gonna do IB again, make sure it's medical. Do not do it in the back of the cave, is my point. NDMA is really not a true psychedelic. I think that's not the right direction at all. I'm not a fan of NDMA, just telling you up front. Uh LSD, again, another natural, uh somewhat natural drug, comes from fungus, among us. And um, I think it really has capability. It has unfortunately a pretty bad kind of emotional connection. It's looks like CAA used it in Vietnam and all this kind of stuff. So I think the two drugs which are on the front front right now is psilocybin and Ibigaine. Um, Stanford is doing studies currently on Ibigaine safety, how to do it for depression. They also are using it for traumatic brain injury. Yeah, uh, it has a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to that being used. And again, to me, the premise is you're using drug to actually work. Right? They've been around a long time. There's no real specific weirdness that's gonna figure things out. You know, you compare it in contrast to current psychiatric armamentarium or like antipsychotic drugs, which have all types of havoc, and they don't work. So there is risk, but the reward is minimal.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Amazing. I know we're coming up on the end of our time. There's something really powerful that you've talked about in your work that I want to make sure we spend some time on. And you've talked about that actually within just a minute or two, we might be able to save. Our own life or the life of someone else simply by shifting a letter, simply by shifting a letter from PTSD, which stands for post-traumatic stress disorder, to PTSI. Can you talk to us about the crusade that you're on to shift this letter and how our listeners in just a minute or two may be able to save their own life or the life of someone they love?

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Thank you. It is a project near and dear to my heart. So PTSI stands for post-surmific injury, meaning there is a biological change in the brain that occurs after trauma. So if you think about it, injury is what happens to you. Disorder, it is wrong with you. What's wrong with you? So I did a study on 3,000 people. We asked on the survey what would happen if you change the name to PTSD post-ring stress disorder to what's postering stress injury. And by a significant margin, people said the majority said that they will have more hope, they will have less stigma, and they will get more care. So if you think about it, stigma kills. I did not. And then he went to American Psychiatric Station and said, please change the name. And they said no. That's in 2013. I went in 2024, it was armed with my study. I was all happy that they'll change the name. And they said no, thank you very much. Need a lot more information. So I'm I'm gonna crusade, as you you are correctly saying that, that uh I would like to get 10,000 to maybe 100,000 responses to get as many people to fill that out so that I can go back to the APA, American Psychiatric Surge says, please change the name. Uh and that will be uh, I think a significant reduction of the misery associated with the stigma, and that can actually truly save lives. Because if that's official, that will have a significant effect. I know it's true. 3,000 obviously wasn't enough, which to me sounds like a pretty good number, but I'm shooting for a hundred thousand.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Amazing. As we come to the end of our time together, and I just want to mention with uh the transition of the name PTSI, or sorry, PTSD to PTSI, um, there is a website that people that you can go to within the show notes uh to actually be part of that survey. It just takes one or two minutes to complete the survey and get behind this, and you could save your own life relative to stigma and having more hope and less stigma and the ability to get more care, or the life of someone that is near and dear to your heart. So you're going to go to www.itsitsi.com, fill out that survey there. And as we come to the end of our time, Dr. Lipoff, what's one additional thought that you would like to leave with our listeners that we didn't have a chance to really touch on today?

SPEAKER_00 47:31

Yes, I have another strong opinion. You you know me well enough, I have opinions. Anyway, the term secondary PTSD. It's possible to catch PTSD from somebody else. Like my father had PTSD from World War II, he gave it to my mother, who killed her, which killed her. That's a problem. Right? People go, like I have a number of, especially women, go, I've never been to war, I've never been raped, I've never really had trauma. It's like, how's your childhood? Oh, terrible, terrible, terrible. And how's your spouse? Well, you know, it's gonna have to walk on eggshells all the time. That type of lifestyle can give you PTSD or PTSI, so you don't have to go into battlefield and see explosions. You can actually get it at home. You can think of like an infective agent. In fact, the way we treat that, usually we bring the whole family in. We bring in the spouses, sometimes I bring the children, and we treat everyone. Because if you treat one, it's gonna come back. So it's like STD, right? Sexual transmitter disease. You need to treat everybody involved in the circle and then it stops. Then you can have a marvelous life. And I'll tell you a really quick story. So there's a gentleman I treated, and his daughter sent me a video message. She was five years old, she says, Thank you so much, Dr. Lipo. My fa my daddy is back, and he's so nice. His wife says that the temperature in the household has a bit reduced. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to be relaxed and sit around and just enjoy life as a family? It's possible. But first of all, I think you need to realize it's happening. Second of all, you need to seek appropriate treatment.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Amazing. Amazing. Um, Mike, would you like to bring us home and stuff out for today?

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Yeah, you know, I you know, I wish we could keep you longer. Um, it's really been an informative show. Thanks for spending the spending the time with us. I'm looking forward to to finishing the book. Uh and thanks for, you know, thanks for sending this to us as well. Again, we've been on with Dr. Eugene Leboff. He really is uh a pioneer in the world of treating trauma. Some of you have probably never even heard of some of these treatments, especially which is the title of his book, The God Shot, Healing Trauma's Legacy, The Science, The Stories, and the last part, the solution. Folks, if you're looking for a solution, if it's you, a family member, a loved one that is suffering with addiction, that is crippled with depression or anxiety, or maybe they're just on edge all the time and they don't know why. This book, The God Shot, is going to give you the answers. The book is available wherever books are sold. That's Amazon, Bonjour Noble. There's also an audio book as well. Um, this has been just an amazing, an amazing episode. I'm really, really excited that you came on. My name is Mike Alden. That is Dr. Taryn Maurice Dayskull, and that is also Dr. Eugene Lip Off. Um, thank you again for listening. Thanks for watching. This has been an episode of the Better Body Lab podcast.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

So, Mike, we just had Dr. Eugene Lippoff on the show, and he is the co-founder of the Stella Mental Health Center in Chicago. He is a pioneer of the Stellet Ganglion block, known as the God shot. And he's also a psychophysiologist, which is someone who looks at how the structure in our brain is injured or changed based on the trauma that we experience in our life and how he can actually remediate or treat those structures in our brain like an oversized or overactive amygdala to help reduce the experience of trauma symptoms in our life. I thought that was a fascinating interview. What stood out for you? What did what did you learn today?

SPEAKER_02 51:26

Yeah, it was great. I think uh, you know, early on I asked the question, you know, because it was closer to home, so to speak, is, you know, he talked about how men, um, he didn't say men specifically, but he was talking about himself and his father, about basically kind of like this suck it up mentality that we've all been taught as as men, like, hey, you know, just move, you know, like he also said, you know, rub some dirt in it and and move and move on. It's a kind of a military-style mentality. And he also said there's there's there's value in that as well. There's a there's a delicate balance, but I think that, you know, what he also acknowledged is that there's just a uh too many people that um you know are suffering, you know, especially men, uh, you know, and not necessarily realizing it. So for me, as I was thinking about that, I I thought about myself personally and then other people that I know. I thought it was really interesting that, you know, you know, we all have some sort of trauma, you know, in our lives, and it's just whether or not we're able to recognize it and see it. I thought it was pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Yeah, I think what I really took away from that conversation is the idea that uh trauma is not a normal lifestyle. Like it's not normal to not feel calm, it's not normal to feel on edge, it's not normal to be scanning the room actively for threats, whether that's in our home or out in the world. It's not normal to be afraid of the dark. It's not normal to feel like, you know, we're so, you know, agitated inside that we could blow at any moment. But I think what happens, especially when we experience trauma at a young age, as a child or an adolescent, as I have and as you have, is that becomes our normal frame of reference. And we don't even realize that we don't have to live in that state, in that trauma as a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

Yeah, and that's what he was saying. He thought it was normal when he was a kid.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

You know, uh, the other interesting thing I I found interesting, and you and I talked about this offline before, is that the epigenetics, uh, you know, you're the you're the neuropsychologist, but but like how you can one person's DNA can actually change as a result of a traumatic event, and then that can be passed on genetically. Their DNA can be passed on to someone else, and it can continue. Like to me, that was like, whoa, like that was a that was a big I think about my family, and it's like it makes a lot of sense. Like everybody in my family is like has some sort of mental health challenge that it's and it's all like rooted in trauma, dating back to at least that I know, at least World War II, uh, that my grandfather was in.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

Yeah. Yeah, there's actually some really interesting uh research that's been done. I'll see if I can find a link that we can drop in the show notes here. There's actually some really interesting research that's been done on Holocaust survivors and looking at the epigenetics of the genes in those families where someone survived a Holocaust and the enhanced sort of uh development of autoimmune disorders or uh medical concerns as compared to like sort of a normal population.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Yeah, yeah. It's uh it was interesting. Uh, I'm glad we did it, uh, and uh I'm looking forward to continuing to do more.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Well, thanks everyone for tuning in to the Better Body Lab podcast. As always, I am Dr. Taryn Marie. This is my co-host, Mike Alden. And if you have a moment, just go ahead and you know, hit uh like or subscribe here. Um, we're bringing this podcast forward for all of you because we fundamentally believe that in order to have a better body, in order to have a better life, uh, that it's really based on accessibility, accessibility to medications that can change our life, to knowledge, to education. And so go ahead and just take a moment and think about maybe one person that you could share this podcast with. Maybe it's a friend, a neighbor, a relative, uh, your male man or male woman, um, somebody that you know at the dog park, and uh change their life if this episode and this podcast has changed yours. Thank you so much, and until next time, I'm Dr. Taryn Murray, and this is my co-host, Mike Alden.

SPEAKER_02 56:06

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