Partnership Is The Key To Empowered Health! | Ep 73

Melissa Deally: 00:00:07

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be? Like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong.

Melissa Deally: 00:00:30

No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait for your wake up call.

Melissa Deally: 00:01:07

Welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. My name is Melissa dealey. And I am super excited that you are here with me today. This is the first episode of a new theme. And this theme is ideal partnerships. So the next four episodes 7374 7576. And in fact, 77 Because there's five Saturdays in the month of July 2022, which is when these episodes are coming out, I'm going to be bringing you some great content on ideal partnerships. But before we dive into that, I just want to share another wonderful testimonial that I received from a client. And I know that in sharing testimonials, you might hear something that triggers you to think oh, you know what, I know someone else who's going through that. And now I know someone who can help them. And that person would be me and you can refer them to me, especially if they're struggling to find the help that they're looking for. So this lovely client, who is gone by the initials of a bee or retired professor from Duke University in North Carolina said there is no question Melissa, Delia is the one to call if you want to do a functional medicine detox. What a blessing that my breast cancer coach recommended Melissa services to me since my diagnosis, surgery and radiation treatments a year ago, I knew it was time to turn my attention to integrative health care and to learn as much as possible about nutrition and detoxification. For starters, we needed to determine which tests I needed. During our discovery call. Melissa figured things out right away. Within days, I had my test kits and got rolling. Melissa has steered me through the detox process with clarity and care. Turns out I did not have the estrogen dominance issue we suspected but I had other issues including mold in my gut. Melissa recommended the 21 Day Detox designed by Dr. Steven Cabral. And I followed a yeast elimination protocol and then a mold detox protocol right away. I said yes, yes, yes, let's do it all. During the five months, I've worked with Melissa, my health has improved dramatically. Melissa style is warm and friendly. She is superb ly well organized. And by the way, she must be a great cook, because she gives you fabulous, easy recipes. So thank you, thank you for that testimonial. And I love sharing easy recipes with my clients. Because when you're changing the way you eat, that can be difficult. You've eaten one way your whole life. And then now you're being asked to eat a different way. And it feels hard and you don't know where to start. And you've got your brain talking back at you even asking you why you're doing this. But when you have some really great recipes to start working with, it just makes it all so much easier. And that's part of the ideal partnership I offer when I work with my clients. But as I said, I'm going to be bringing you some fabulous guests this month. So from a fellow who helps companies offer holistic health benefits to their employees in Canada and we definitely need more of that, as well as a feel good story from a blind fellow who was on the 76th floor of the World Trade Center on 911 and managed to get out safely thanks to the partnership of his guide dog, as well as as well as a lady who specializes in helping you expand your wealth beyond your dreams. Because health and wealth go hand in hand. What is the point of having your health if you don't have

Melissa Deally: 00:04:39

your wealth if you live for a really long time, that's wonderful. That's I know what I want to do, but that costs money. So you need some wealth to go with it. Right? But then also what is the point of having your wealth if you don't have your health and that's what happens more often than not is that we work so hard to build up our wealth, but we sacrif face our health in the process. And that's not good either. So we want to have both right. And so these are some of the guests that I will be bringing you this month. But today, let's just dive into ideal partnerships. And of course, there are all sorts of ideal partnerships in life, from romantic partnerships to business partnerships, sports partnerships, but have you ever thought about health partnerships before. And what I mean by health partnerships is you taking responsibility in your health, and working with a number of practitioners. So for many people, and I know that I was raised this way that you get sick, and you go to the doctor, and the doctor makes you better. And as you've heard me say before, that's not the doctors responsibility to make you better, right? You need to work in partnership with your doctor and take some responsibility and not give up all your power and not put all of that responsibility on your doctor. And even better, don't just wait until you get sick to go to the doctor. But actually step into taking that responsibility for your health to do as much as you can so that you don't even get sick, and you don't need to go to the doctor as often, you should still go to be running your labs every year, absolutely. But you don't have to go as often because you're not getting sick, because you're taking preventative action, and learning how to do that comes from being in partnership with your doctor, with someone like myself, a health coach, integrative health practitioner, and other healers that you have in your circle. And we all work together in partnership for you to be able to optimize your health. And when you do that, you truly can optimize your health. And when you optimize your health, you can then go on to do everything else that it is that you want to do in your life. Because you feel amazing, you wake up with good energy, you have that energy last all through the day, there isn't any brain fog, you don't have joint pain, etc. You're not needing an afternoon nap. How amazing is that? Right? To be able to do exactly what you want to do and get it all done in any given day. Because you have that good energy and you feel amazing. But when you've got things going on with your health, that slowing you down, you're not feeling as great, you've got low energy, maybe you've got joint pain, maybe you've got stomach pain or gut issues going on. And all of that hinders your ability to be able to focus and get everything done, because your mind is elsewhere. Especially when it's got issues because the gut brain connection that can definitely be causing brain fog, headaches, et cetera, et cetera. So when we take the attitude that our health is our greatest asset, and we treat it like any other asset, or house, which we take the garbage out, we vacuum we clean, we fix things we renovate for our car, we service we give it oil changes, et cetera, et cetera, your body is equally as important as your car in your house. And when you treat it as such an important asset and you look after it as well. And you do that in partnership with people that can guide you that way. You don't have to, you know, learn everything yourself. First. You can work with people that can guide you, that health partnership will allow you to live your best life. And is that what you want to live? Or are you here to live your best life? And is your health worth that to you? Because it should be. So let's talk about how leveraging partnerships improve your chances of achieving your goals. And there's so many reasons that it does. So whether your goal is to be losing weight, whether your goal is to you know, optimize your health for longevity. And that's really important, because the reality is that in our world today, the average North American spends about 10 years at the end of their life in a nursing home. And that is no longer a quality of life at that point. 10 years is a long time. What if you could have those 10 years back to live them fully, and not have to be in that nursing home? Well, that's where health partnerships can help get you there. So if you want to have those 10 years back like I do, then definitely keep listening. And if you know others that want that, then share this episode with them. And if you know others that may not know if they want that yet or I've never thought about that. Then share this episode with them because for some people it might be a little bit eye opening to think about the idea of a health partnership and proactive health and taking those 10 years Back, people may not realize that the average person is spending 10 years in a nursing home.

Melissa Deally: 00:10:06

So with partnerships, you have increased accountability. And with that comes increased support, right. So you're not alone, you're not trying to figure out a path for yourself, you're not going to Dr. Google or to the internet to research things. And just that is really powerful. Because when you are struggling with a health issue, and you're trying to figure it out, and you're trying to do it on your own, you are in a stress state, because you're concerned about this issue. And you're not sure if you're doing things the right way. And when we're in a stress state, the body doesn't heal. In fact, in that stress state, our immune system is shut down. But when you can, instead be guided into the next steps that you need to be taking on your health journey, you can relax into the process, feel supported by your various practitioners. And when you relax, that's when your immune system can function at an optimal level, and your body can start healing. When you work in partnership, there's more ease, you are using less effort. Because it's a combined effort, everybody's working together towards the same goal. So more ease for everyone. And again, more ease means less stress, right. And you're also feeling more inspired to stick to any protocol or program that you have. And with a Health Partnership, especially when you have a health coach or an integrative health practitioner, and you're seeing them more regularly than you might see your doctor, you're also able to ask questions along the way to do check ins to reach out when maybe you're having a bad day, maybe you need a little bit extra support. Our medical industry is so overwhelmed that a mainstream medical doctor doesn't have time to do that for you. But that is the role that I provide, and that other health coaches and integrative practitioners like myself offer is that ability to support you and connect with you, between appointments with your mainstream medical doctor. Working in partnership, at a gives you access to more resources, including a larger network of people who know people that can help you. So it's not only resources in terms of information, which it definitely gives you more access to information to the knowledge of each of the health practitioners that you're working with. But like I said, a larger network. So for instance, if you were working with me, but you were on some prescription medications that you wanted to come off and start to use natural remedies instead, I cannot guide you in coming off those drugs because I'm not trained in doing that. However, I have a colleague who is a concierge pharmacist, and that's exactly what she does. And her name is Dr. Melissa Bella's and, and so I would refer you to work with her so that she can guide you through that process of weaning off your prescription drugs. And then we would work together to make recommendations for you on natural remedies that you can be using instead, that have far fewer side effects than many pharmaceutical drugs. If you have an addiction, I would refer you to my addictions master coach, colleague, Tricia purrito. So addictions is not something that I work with. I have worked with clients with addictions, and I have referred them to Trisha and she is fabulous. That's her area of expertise. No one of us can know everything, right? There's just too much information in the world for any one of us to know absolutely everything. And so we all have our specialties. And I've built a network of other people, other healers around me so that when I have clients that need something that I can't offer, I know who to refer you to.

Melissa Deally: 00:14:19

If you have kids and you're struggling with their behaviors, or they're struggling with learning at school, I can run lab tests to look at how, you know they might be deficient in vitamins and minerals. They might have imbalances in their gut, there may be food sensitivities involved. I can rent all of that so we can be looking at the nutritional side of things. But I would also be referring you to my colleague Jackie cinnamon have no problem parenting, and I call her the child whisperer because she really is fabulous at working with parents in improving relationships and communication with their children so that it really does become No problem parenting and parenting doesn't have to be a battle. But instead it can be a joy. If you're healing from breast cancer and need some support and community of others who have gone through it, I'm going to refer you to my colleagues at the breast connection. That's I actually was instrumental in bringing those four women together. And in twin, late 2021, they formed a group called the breast connection, and now support people going through breast cancer, three of the four of them have gone through it themselves, all very different stories. And then one of them is a massage therapist who is also written the mastectomy guide, because as a massage therapist, she was seeing so many clients that had had mastectomies, and afterwards, there was no resources, or support for them. And so these four women have come together to support women on that journey. And again, as an integrative health practitioner, I can't actually work with someone who is undergoing cancer treatments, without the consent of their oncologist. But I can certainly refer people to the breast connection and to that community for support.

Melissa Deally: 00:16:12

Now, if you're wanting to get to the root cause of your symptoms, and truly understand what is going on with your body, I can run lab tests for you and provide a wellness protocol. And then you can share that with your doctor. And that's, you know, bringing your doctor into the partnership so that they have information from those labs, which they don't typically run or have access to. And then you would continue to see your doctor to have your regular blood, work, run, et cetera, et cetera. And so now you have a really nice, well rounded look at exactly what is going on inside your body. Your doctor uses their blood work to, you know, look for disease, look for anything that's you know, out of range that they need to be helping you with. And they can diagnose disease or illness. I don't diagnose anything, I am simply looking for the deficiencies in your body, the imbalances in your body, which are shown in the lab tests that I run. And when we understand that we know how to support the body and coming back into balance. And then once it has come back into balance, it will heal itself. That's what the body is supposed to do. However, our modern world has us getting out of balance because of high stress, poor sleep, poor nutrition. And then the body is too deficient to be able to bring itself back into balance. But when we understand those deficiencies, we can help it come back into balance, and then it will heal itself. So another thing too, is that if your doctor is suggesting that you lose weight, or change your diet, or do more exercise, or get more sleep, or lower your stress, but you have no idea how to start, that is where I can partner with you and your doctor, and again form an ideal partnership of support for you. Because as I said earlier, your doctor is run off their feet, they have 15 minute appointments with you. So they can tell you what to do. But they don't have time to show you how to get started and help you change your habits provide you recipes. But I can do that for you. It's what I offer. And that is how medical doctors and integrative health practitioners can absolutely collaborate in partnership to ensure your results. In addition to that, as I said, you have greater access to information when you work in partnership. And it also gets you out of tunnel vision mode. Because you know how when we're just in, you know, working by ourselves or thinking by ourselves, we're kind of in a silo and we don't necessarily think of all the possibilities, or all the solutions. But when you work in partnership with others, that just opens up, you know, another world of possibilities that you may not have known about because again, you can't possibly know everything, you have your area of expertise. And I have mine and your your medical doctor has theirs, et cetera, right. And when we bring all of that together, that's what opens up possibilities and choice for you.

Melissa Deally: 00:19:31

Working in partnership also creates the ability to save money, because you can actually get to the root cause of your issue more quickly and resolve it. And you might think, well, it's costing a lot of money right now. However, if you can resolve that quickly and get back to feeling amazing again, then you have the ability to get back to living your life fully and making more money for yourself as opposed to dragging it all out. And having it taken way longer while you feel, let's face it crappy for longer, and you're looking here for a solution, and then here and then here and then the here and you're trying to figure it all out on your own. And in the end, you actually spent more money and more time trying to resolve your health issue. And you may or may not get there. And it's not just about the money, it's about the time and what is your time worth to you? And how would you like to be spending your time? Do you want to be spending your time feeling miserable? Or do you want to be spending your time, you know, playing with your kids or getting out in nature and hiking and traveling, whatever it is that you love to do, which you can do once you get back to feeling amazing again. And it also means that when you work in partnership, you actually become a higher level of value to your family and your community. Because now you have increased resources to draw upon, right. So when you have loved ones that might have health issues, well, if you've gone through this yourself and worked in partnership, now you can refer people that you've met healers that you've met through your partnerships to other members in your family in your community. Plus, you've learned a lot along the way, right. So you might have some remedies, some suggestions, recipes, whatever it is that based on your experience that you can share with them as well. And so that's wonderful, because we all want to help one another, right. And when we've gone through something, we've learned a lot ourselves, it's natural to want to be able to share and help. And now you can versus if you were doing it all on your own, and you weren't really sure, and you didn't really get results, you're not going to share that because that wasn't helpful to us, so you're not going to share it to someone else. Now, something else to think about is that partnerships can be looked in another way as well in the idea of focusing on your physical health, your mental health, and your mindset, all in partnership. And this might be a relatively new concept, but it's a really important one to discuss, because your mental health is impacted by your physical health. For instance, if we talk about the gut brain connection, and your physical health is impacted by your mental health, so the thoughts that you have, where we put our focus amplifies. So if our thoughts are always fearful in a place of stress, that stress causes our immune system to be shut down and weaker. And then that can play havoc on our gut health, on our sleep, and more. I've shared recently that 90% of all doctor's visits are related to stress. And we used to be told that if your grandmother and your mother had breast cancer, you'd get breast cancer too.

Melissa Deally: 00:22:54

But we now know that isn't true. It's not necessarily true. And that's due to the science of epigenetics, which is new science in the last 10 years. And what we know to be true today is that our genes are only five to 10% of that equation. And the other 90 to 95% of that equation is actually the environment we create inside our body. And so that environment is created by the food that we're putting in the toxins that are getting in what we're drinking, the lack of things that we're putting in, if we're if our diet is nutrient deplete, for not getting enough omega threes, anti inflammatories, we could have inflammation going on. So all of these things are impacting the health of the inside of our body, which we never stop and think about. And yet, 90 to 95% of our health outcomes are impacted by the environment we create inside our body through our lifestyle factors. Now, that's really powerful, because it means you have a lot of control over your health outcomes. And what it also means is that it isn't necessarily true that just because your grandmother had breast cancer and your mother had breast cancer, that you're going to get it too, you can choose to learn how to create an environment inside your body where that cancer can't grow. And where inflammation levels are at normal levels versus chronic levels. So the inflammation doesn't trigger cells to turn your genes on that are predisposed to that breast cancer. So you literally are in the driver's seat. We didn't know that before. And we thought it was hereditary. We thought it was all just based on genes alone. And we would hear it all the time as women Oh, if your mother had breast cancer, your sister had it or your grandmother had it then you're gonna get it too. Well, that also played havoc with our mind and our mental health. Because where we put our thoughts matters See, if we are living in that fear of everyday running in the back of our mind, I'm gonna get breast cancer, I'm gonna get breast cancer, I'm gonna get breast cancer, that's going to actually start to potentially cause that breast cancer to happen. We can manifest positivity in our life with our thoughts. But we can also unknowingly manifest things we don't want, by dwelling on them. And so that's something that's a really important message that I want people to understand is just because someone else in your family had a certain illness, doesn't mean you're going to get it. And don't think that change your thoughts. I don't have to get that because I'm going to choose to take proactive action with my health, and learn how to do that so that my genes don't turn on that disease. That's the thought process that you want to have. That's empowering, that's freeing, as opposed to the person that gets stuck believing they're going to get that disease because it's in their genes. Our thoughts really do matter. And just on a much more simple notion, you've probably all heard somebody say, I always have bad luck. Well, guess what,

Melissa Deally: 00:26:17

if you keep telling yourself, I always have bad luck, that's what you are going to make happen, because you keep focusing on that. But if you switch that around, and start telling yourself, you always have good luck, you can start to see what happens. And so I don't even really like saying these words out loud here in this podcast as examples, because I don't want to be planting them into my mind, right? So I'm going to be talking, I'm going to, you know, leave this podcast and talk to myself about having good luck and good health, et cetera, et cetera. And something that you can do is you start to create awareness around your thoughts that you're having is when you notice yourself saying something negative that you don't want to have happen, that you don't want to dwell on, you can just say, cancel, cancel, cancel, and you can reframe it into something positive. Takes a little bit of practice, because first of all, we have to start being aware of our thoughts, those 70,000 thoughts that we have every single day. And how are you talking to yourself? What are you saying every single day, start to pay attention and catch those negative thoughts that can be, you know, actually making things happen, that you don't want to have happen and change those thoughts into positive thoughts around things that you do want to have happen. So there is a very deep connection between our physical health and our mental health and our mindset and the way we talk to ourselves. And we need to look at all of this at the same time in partnership, and not treat them separately, because one absolutely impacts the other. I mentioned the gut brain connection through the vagus nerve. If our gut is not healthy and not in balance, then it's very hard for our mental health to be imbalanced because serotonin and dopamine are made in our gut. In fact, 90% of serotonin is made in our gut, and serotonin and dopamine are our feel good neurotransmitters. And if our gut is not imbalanced, then it's not functioning at optimal levels, which means it can't necessarily produce serotonin and dopamine at optimal levels. And therefore, we're not feeling our best because we're not getting our feel good neurotransmitters. And so that can impact our mental health. And we can go to the doctor and say, I'm not feeling great. And we might come out with a prescription for an antidepressant or an anti anxiety drug, an SSRI, and they haven't had the time and 15 minutes to ask you more about what's going on in your life and your lifestyle and understand how your lifestyle might be impacting your gut health. And when we address the gut health, that we can actually rebalance the gut before having to go on to a chemical drug. And let's start with natural healing protocols that can rebalance the gut and in that process, improve and boost our mental health. So do you see how they're connected and in partnership with each other, and we need to look at them that way as well when we're working on our health. So in the next episode, actually in Episode 75, the next episode I will have a guest in Episode 75. I will be sharing more with you on the importance of partnership between your medical doctor and health coach or integrative health practitioner and why you need both in life as well as some questions that you can be asking your doctor. Sometimes you just don't know what to ask. So I've put together a list to help you. So thank you so much for joining me here today. I hope Have you enjoyed this episode as we start talking about ideal partnerships and how that is just as important in health as it is in other areas of your life. And thank you as always for listening as I said, please share this episode with somebody that you think that it can help. And join me again next time for episode 74 When we start to talk about expanding our extended benefits in health beyond just pharmaceuticals and into a holistic approach to supporting employees in their health, thanks for joining me.