Dr. Caplan:

Hey, everyone. Dr. Tiffany Caplan here, from Caplan Heath
Institute and Center for Integrative Health. And today, I wanted to discuss the
connection more between mind and body, because sometimes we get so
caught up in looking at the physical body, and structure, and some of the
physical stressors, like food sensitivities. But there's a whole other side to
health and healing that we need to talk about.

So, I thought what better expert to discuss this with than Dr. Ameet Aggarwal,
who is an expert when it comes to looking at healing the mind and body
together. And really the perfect person to learn from, for this very important
topic. Dr. Ameet is a naturopathic doctor, a psychotherapist, an homeopath.
And the bestselling author of Heal Your Body, Cure Your Mind. So, I’m excited to
pick his brain. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Ameet.

Dr. Aggarwal:

A pleasure. And greetings from Kenya, everyone.

Listen to the full interview on Dr Ameet Podcast

Watch the full interview  on Dr Ameet YouTube Channel

Dr. Caplan:

Awesome. So, I want to talk about something that a lot of
autoimmune patients struggle with is mental health issues. And I know that’s
an area of expertise for you, looking at depression and anxiety. And, so many
people just kind of feel hopeless when they're dealing with autoimmune
conditions or chronic health issues in general.

And, with people that are dealing with mental health issues, what's your
typical approach? How does food sensitivities and things that we’re talking
about in this summit, kind of correlate with that? But, give us a little bit of
background about that, like what you do, and how you kind of tie in the
physical body and mind, and all of the aspects of health together.

What is natural support in mental health 

Dr. Aggarwal:

Okay. So, the mind and body are interconnected. There's no
real separation. And mental health issues comes from both inflammation, and
a brain chemical imbalance in the body, as well as from emotional trauma,
from your past, from your childhood, as well as family entanglements or
ancestral trauma, which we’ll talk about later along with how to heal trauma in the body.

And all these are possible to heal so that the mind and body heal together,
rather than separately. And if you only focus on healing the body, with
supplements and food changes, without healing the emotional trauma that’s
stressing your body, then you get halfway results. So, it’s really important to
integrate it.

And with mental health, so we start with the gut, let’s just say. We all know
that when you have leaky gut, so, basically when you have too many
antibiotics, too many toxins, and eating the wrong foods, that triggers
inflammation and damages your gut lining. And when you damage the gut
lining, and you get leaky gut, you get toxins flowing into your bloodstream,
which causes inflammation throughout your body. Leading cause of asthma,
eczema, arthritis, etcetera.

All those toxins and the inflammatory response goes to your liver. And your
liver takes a big hit. And your liver becomes sluggish and produces less bile.
When you have less bile, you get poor digestion, more gas, bloating,
constipation, which damages your gut further. You can check out my holistic medicine books on how to heal leaky gut in 2 weeks.

And a lot of people make the
mistake of only taking probiotics and trying to heal the gut, without healing
the liver. It’s super important to heal the liver as well so you get the right
amount of bile flow, to create the right environment in your gut, for the good
bacteria to grow better.

And so, when your liver becomes stagnant with too many toxins and too much
inflammation, what happens is, you also get a hormonal imbalance, because
in Chinese medicine, your liver controls your hormones. And with a hormonal
imbalance, usually it’s a progesterone deficiency and an estrogen excess.
You're more prone to anxiety, depression, PMS symptoms, breast tenderness,
cramping, clotting, irregular menses, etcetera.

And now, with this excessive toxicity in the body, excessive inflammation,
what happens is, your adrenal glands and all your other cells are pushed to
make cortisol, because cortisol manages inflammation. And so, over time, with
chronic inflammation and chronic unhealed food sensitivities, what happens
is, you get a cortisol imbalance.

And when that happens, all your brain chemicals start dropping - serotonin,
dopamine, GABA, melatonin. Leading to more anxiety, depression, OCD
symptoms, suicidal thoughts. Those sort of things. So, it’s not your
personality that’s messed up, if that’s what you're thinking when you're
anxious or depressed. It could be something simple as food sensitivity,
toxicity, inflammation, which is easy to heal.

Dr. Caplan:

Got it, yeah. I know you will talk about natural remedies for anxiety and depression as well. 

Dr. Aggarwal:

And that’s the physical side of things. And then we can talk
about how the emotions, and trauma, and everything also affect the physical
system.

Dr. Caplan:

Right, because any of these things, any of these aspects, whether
it is a mental, emotional, a chemical, a physical. Like, all of these different
things are stressors. So, they create the body having the work harder, trying
to compensate, trying to fix things. And they are roadblocks for people being
able to heal and have the body just function at its best. And something you
bring up is like, a trauma - past trauma, emotional traumas. How is trauma
connected to autoimmunity or even food sensitivities?

Natural remedies for Adrenal fatigue

Dr. Aggarwal:

Okay. So, trauma, number one, puts you in a fight or flight
response. And, even childhood trauma that’s unhealed, so we call it adverse
childhood experiences. All of those stay in your nervous system and your
limbic system. And when you're traumatized, you go into fight or flight. And in
fight or flight, you make more adrenaline, which is produced by your adrenal
glands. And unhealed trauma keeps your nervous system in fight or flight
mode.

So, you're always trying to produce adrenaline or stressing your adrenal
glands. And that also sends you into an adrenal and cortisol imbalance. And
that messes up your brain chemicals, leading to anxiety and depression,
number one.

Number two, the cortisol imbalance actually interferes with your thyroid
function and the conversion of T4 to T3. And what happens is, in your gut,
the good bacteria, and the cells in your intestine, need higher levels of T3 to
keep your junctions, the cell lining, tight and healed in your gut. When you
have a cortisol imbalance, the T4 to T3 conversion doesn’t happen so well. So,
you have lower levels of T3, the active thyroid hormone. So, your cell junctions
are weaker. So, you're more prone to leaky gut as well.

So, you can see how trauma and stress throw off your cortisol levels. And
therefore throw off your thyroid levels, leading to a worsening of leaky gut.
And imbalanced cortisol levels also mess up other chemicals and other
hormones in your body. So, that leads to chronic disease as well.

Dr. Caplan:

Right. And even having a higher demand for cortisol in the
body, you use up progesterone, which is the precursor to cortisol. So then
you're talking about estrogen dominance again. And then the liver is what
helps convert and metabolize a lot of those hormones like you were saying.
It’s so connected. Also, generational trauma is something that you bring up, and family
entanglements. And that’s something that I know you mentioned in like your
book, and Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online, and everything. How are those aspects of trauma also tied
into autoimmunity and dysfunction in the body?

The Connection Between Food sensitivities, Trauma, and Autoimmunity

Dr. Aggarwal:

Great question. So, before we go on to that, I just want to
mention also with food sensitivities, people actually get food sensitivities from
specific traumas sometimes. Because maybe when they were experiencing
something stressful, they were eating a certain meal. So, their body
subconsciously associates that food with a stressor. So they react that way.
And those are things that you need to heal.

It’s very good idea to heal all your traumas from childhood up to present,
using Gestalt psychotherapy. I use homeopathy, family consultations therapy,
to remove all these layers of trauma, so that you become more resilient. And
you're less sensitive or reactive to all these other triggers in your body.
And, when it comes to family or generational trauma, what science is showing,
and epigenetics is showing, and new research is showing, is that, we inherit
trauma from our ancestors. It’s passed down from generation to generation.
And, we’re almost loyal to the pain and the traumas that our ancestors felt,
without even knowing that.

What is Family Constellation Therapy

And in family consultations therapy, what we do is, use healing sentences and
really feel the energetic field around clients, to sense where some of their
issues are coming from. And which entanglements they have with certain
family members, in their system. So, there are certain rules or observations
that we make, that when these rules are broken basically, disease sets in.

For example, not acknowledging everyone in your family system. If your
mother had a miscarriage or an abortion before you, and you think you're the
first child in the system, and you don’t acknowledge the child before you, even
though the child was not born. You will often have anxiety or a sense of
overwhelm, because you're assuming the first position, and you're doing
everything. And when you realize that you're actually the second child in your
family system, your nervous system just suddenly relaxes.

They're also showing that children born of parents who were holocaust
survivors, or 9/11 survivors, their nervous system is primed differently. And
they are more prone to OCD, and anxiety, and panic attacks. Because
remember, if your parents or grandparents were exposed to stress and
trauma, then their physiology changes. They're more responsive to loud
noises. They're more careful, etcetera.

And their sperm and their egg then also change, due to epigenetics. And so
that, when you're born, your physiology is affected by what they were feeling,
and they were experiencing. So, you're primed now more to respond more to
loud noises, for example. Or certain stressors. And all of these things can be
healed using energetic medicine. So, I love family consultations, I love
homeopathy. Because homeopathy can really peel away layers of trauma as
well.

Dr. Caplan:

Awesome.

Dr. Aggarwal:

And then I combine that of course with EMDR, and regular
trauma work, and psychotherapy. So, it’s a very synergistic approach.

Dr. Caplan:

Very cool. Yeah. Can you talk more about homeopathy? I know
you're an expert in homeopathy, and that’s something that can be a really
good tool for people. And something maybe people watching are not so familiar
with. Can you kind of explain what it is and how you use it?

Dr. Aggarwal:

Absolutely. So, I talk more about homeopathy in Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online. But homeopathy is a system of medicine developed in Germany by Dr.
Samuel Hahnemann. And it’s based on the principle of like cures like.
So, homeopathic remedies are made by diluting substances in nature. It could
be plants, animal products, or like saliva, or dog’s milk, or something like
that. Or even mineral products. And you dilute it multiple times so that the
final medicine doesn’t really have any of the original substance or the
molecules in it, but it has the vibrational memory of it.

And, what everyone is finding out now is that homeopathy goes so much
deeper than just physical, chemical medicine, because, we’re all vibrational
beings. And when we’re traumatized, our vibration shifts. Any person in a
disease state is vibrating in a certain state. And the remedies that go deeper
are the remedies that can match the frequency of the disease state.

And that’s why homeopathy provides much more long-term cure than just
taking supplements to manage symptoms. It really shifts the vibration or the
state of a person so they’re out of the disease state. And when I say like cures
like, for example, if you cut an onion, and you sniff it. You’ll get watery eyes
and a runny nose, for example. And so, if somebody comes to me with an
allergy. I’m oversimplifying, but this is how it works.

When somebody comes to me with watery eyes and runny nose, and their
symptoms are matching that of like being exposed to toxic amounts of an
onion, then if I give a severely diluted form of the onion that matches the
frequency or the picture of the person. That diluted form will actually ease the
symptoms that the person’s experiencing.

What are the remedies for anxiety, depression, and trauma?

And then, in the Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online, I cover a lot of remedies for anxiety, and
depression, and trauma. Because homeopathy can actually heal trauma
from the past. There are remedies for example, for sexual abuse. We have
Ignatia. We have Natrum Muriaticum . We have Aurum. These are all remedies
you can use to heal trauma from the past.

If there's a financial loss in the past, or a girlfriend breakup, boyfriend breakup,
abandonment by your parents, being betrayed financially. All of these things
have a certain response. People respond differently to these traumas. And
because the response is different for each person, people have found different
homeopathics that are specific to those type of responses. It’s amazing.

So, somebody comes to me, for example, even with eczema. And the eczema
started after the mom was abandoned by a father who was cheating on
mother, for example. There's certain remedies that can treat that sense of like,
loyalty to your mom, or fighting between your parents, or a sense of
abandonment in the family system, or sense of betrayal.

Versus somebody who had a stomach ulcer, who came to me with chronic
pain. And different remedies were not working. Every single liver detox,
tincture, every single gut healing protocol. Nothing was working. And when we
found out that his stomach pain started after he suppressed anger because he
felt betrayed by his wife. We did some expressive movement, using
psychotherapy, to release the anger. And we gave him homeopathy as well, for
that sense of suppressed anger and betrayal. Within a week, symptoms
released.

Dr. Caplan:

That’s awesome.

Dr. Aggarwal:

So, it’s treating the root cause rather than relying on only
supplements.

Dr. Caplan:

Yes. Always getting to the root of why it’s there. And it sounds like
it makes it very challenging, because bio-individuality, like everybody’s
different. Their body responds to the same types of traumas differently. How
do you even start with figuring out, like, if there's something vibrational going
on, or imbalance?
You explained it a lot better. But how do you even start with figuring out what
would be the best route for that person? So, based on their symptoms?

Dr. Aggarwal:

Yeah. Based on the symptoms. But I also take the emotional
history of a client, whenever they come, from birth till present. Because every
single layer of emotional trauma or experiences they’ve had, adds another
layer of vibrational compensation in their system.

And then, even though they come with joint pain, etcetera, and they’re taking
supplements, and maybe turmeric, or healing the gut will help. Their vibration
is still compensated by all the layers of trauma. And when we heal these
layers of trauma, they heal much faster.

And then the physical remedies actually work much better. Because, like
you're saying, we remove the blockages, so the body’s not so busy dealing with
blockages. And it’s more vibrationally healthy to utilize all the beautiful herbs
and supplements you're giving a person then. So, you're not working against
resistance. The body’s more capable of ingesting and processing stuff.

Dr. Caplan:

Awesome. Yeah, getting to the root. And do you kind of start with,
if you can trace back somebody’s history, to where it may be started, do you
start there? Or, is it kind of like an onion. Peeling the layers and treating one
thing at a time, to kind of get to the root. Or do you start with what you can
find at the root?

Exploring the Connection Between Trauma Healing and physical health

Dr. Aggarwal:

Awesome question. I love that question. So, usually, it’s obvious
that this issue started after this trauma. And then I’ll heal that trauma. At the
same time, I’ll focus of course on supporting the body physically, by healing
the gut, making sure that the liver’s detoxified. And if need be, supporting the
adrenal system, which are usually burnt out due to chronic inflammation and
stress. Because, if you only focus on healing a trauma, without supporting the
physical as well, then you get halfway results. So, it’s important to combine
both.

And, I’ll heal that first layer of trauma that’s obvious. But, if they’ve had a
recent trauma, and their mind if busy. So, for example, their eczema started
in childhood, because of mother issues. But recently, they broke up with their
partner. And they're getting anxiety and panic attacks. I’ll make sure that we
heal what's present, what's a priority in the system.

So, I’ll give them a remedy like ignatia for example, to heal the betrayal and
the panic attacks they're getting from the breakup. And then, when they calm
down, then the other parts, the more vulnerable parts are more ready to heal.
And we’ll combine psychotherapy and homeopathy to go to those deeper
levels.

Dr. Caplan:

Awesome.

Dr. Aggarwal:

So, you really support what the body’s ready to do at that time.

Dr. Caplan:

Yes. Meet the person where they’re at. Meet their body where it’s
at. You can’t bully the body into doing something. So, it’s just going to create
more problems, more stress.

Dr. Aggarwal:

Exactly.

Dr. Caplan:

So, Let’s talk more about too, the liver. Because that’s another big
area. Moreover, that ties into autoimmunity, hormone imbalances, the food
sensitivities. A lot of times people are reacting to food because they're not
digesting well, which could be they're in fight or flight, or they're not making
the enzymes. So, what do you do to look at the liver, to address it? What's
your approach for that?

Remedies for a poor liver function causing food sensitivity

Dr. Aggarwal:

Okay. So, most people’s livers are stagnant. And it’s really
important to healing the liver, every time you're healing the gut or anything else
in your system. In the Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online, I cover all the remedies, but I’ll mention
some of them briefly.

So, in Chinese medicine, the liver is the master controller of almost
everything. And even in Western medicine. It processes hormones. It activates
your immune cells. It helps with blood sugar regulation. It stores iron and B
vitamins. It produces bile, and activates your enzymes in your intestine. So,
it’s necessary for everything.

And when you have liver stagnation, you likely have either breast tenderness,
PMS symptoms, foggy brain, waking up feeling really fatigued or unrested.
You can get anxiety, like liver stagnation. So, the body processes glucose and
other energy into lactic acid. And then the liver processes lactic acid back into
glucose. And if the liver’s stagnant, for example, it will not convert lactic acid
back to glucose, or to glycogen. And you'll have higher levels of lactic acid,
which are shown to create more anxiety. That’s one example.

The liver of course processes estrogen and progesterone. And if your
progesterone is low, then GABA will not work well in your brain. The
neurotransmitter GABA, the anti-anxiety neurotransmitter. And so, most
people are trying to take GABA or other supplements to heal their mind, when
it’s really a progesterone deficiency. So, when you heal the liver, then
progesterone regulates, then GABA works much better. And you've treated the
root cause of your anxiety or insomnia.

So, I’ll use things like, first of all, removing inflammation, because that’s
causing the liver stagnation. And healing the gut. And then there are specific
herbs. For example milk thistle, or dandelion root.

Then I’ll use specific homeopathic remedies such as nux vomica, Lycopodium,
and other ones that I mention in the Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online and in the holistic medicine books. Those go specifically and
basically go deeper into the liver. And really flush the liver out.
And then of course, making sure you're eating a lot of fiber to grab those
toxins out of the gut so they're not reabsorbed and harming the liver. Then
there are certain foods like broccoli, or sulforaphanes. Certain foods that have
sulfur compounds that help detoxify the liver. Then you have the bitter foods
as well. Bitter foods are great for stimulating bile flow. So, just being
conscious of using really liver friendly foods.

And then remember, your liver’s always processing toxins, so it’s under
oxidative stress. So you need your antioxidants as well. Your vitamin A, alpha lipoic acid, glutathione. I don’t throw everything at the person. I energetically test what they need. And go in layers. Otherwise the body just goes into
resistance and it’s too much.

Dr. Caplan:

Right. It’s overwhelmed. It’s stressed. Too much of a good thing is
not a good thing. Exactly.

Dr. Aggarwal:

Exactly.

Dr. Caplan:

And you can use food as medicine, like you were mentioning
certain foods that have detoxing properties, like the cruciferous vegetables and
stuff. And so, just trying to eat a clean, healthy diet, remove anything that’s
causing the inflammation. So, it could be the food sensitivities. It could just be
you're not digesting things well. Being able to get into a parasympathetic
state, when you're eating. Things like that can all play a role in why you're
having these problems, why the liver’s not working so well.

How does trauma affect the liver?

Dr. Aggarwal:

You mentioned something very important, going to the
parasympathetic state while you're eating. So, most people are in sympathetic
state, fight or flight. And that is why trauma healing is really important.
Because the more traumas you heal, the easier it is for you to go into
parasympathetic, that’s your rest and digest state.

So, in that state, your gut works better, your liver works better. No more leaky liver, no more leaky gut. Your vagus
nerve works better. And the vagus nerve is super important for controlling
your digestion, your intestines, your liver. And also in a parasympathetic state,
you're breathing deeper. And when you breathe deeper, your diaphragm goes
lower. And when that happens, you massage your liver with your diaphragm.

So, most people who are stressed, are breathing very shallow. So they're only
using their upper muscles. So, they get tight shoulders. And then they get
liver stagnation. And that causes hyperacidity, or GERD, gastroesophageal
reflux syndrome, an imbalance of the microbiome. Everything happens when
trauma is unhealed.

Dr. Caplan:

Yes. You mentioned deep breathing and stuff right now. What
other tools do you have for people that are watching this, that are maybe just,
they feel so stressed out. Like, what are some things they can start doing at
home right now that they don’t need a practitioner or go anywhere? So, they could
just start doing it themselves, to start dealing with stress better.

Stress Management at Home: Ways to Prevent and Relieve

Dr. Aggarwal:

Depends on what's causing their stress. Sometimes, there's a
suppressed anger. So, a lot of people are not giving permission to express
anger. Anger is very stigmatized in modern society.

And so, if I sense that a patient has been abused or ridiculed, there is a lot of
shame around that. But behind the shame, there's also a potential for anger.
And I call it potential because it’s beautiful potential. The potential of anger
and aggression, when accessed, then starts creating a boundary, pushing
people away, so that the soul can feel itself again, rather than imbibing or
taking on the insult and abuse from other people.

So, I’ll get them to either beat a mattress or express certain things. I have a
sensitivity where I can feel certain words that need to be said, that create a
shift. A paradigm shift for the person, so there's more of a deeper release. So,
I would encourage people to really practice saying sentences, even swearing.
Or saying, “Stop! Really stop!” Or like, shaking.

Or saying, I forgive myself for even believing that nonsense. I really deeply
forgive myself for taking on those insults, or taking on that information from
my mom, who was maybe dysfunctional or abused by her father. And she’s
basically pushing her anger onto me. And I was taking it on out of loyalty
because I’m used to taking stuff from my mother. She breastfed me, she fed
me. So, unconsciously, in automatic mode, I’m just imbibing stuff.

And then, giving yourself permission to say, “You know what, stop, Mom. I can
feel myself. I’m still your son, or I’m still your child, even if I don’t absorb
everything from you.” Then you see your mom differently and you see yourself
as an individual. So, developing that autonomy, that individuality, really
resets your nervous system and gives your health back.

Dr. Caplan:

Awesome. Yes. And, it sounds like just identifying where your
stressors started, what you're holding on to. Kind of going inside yourself. We
see all the time, people are like, their best advocates or they should be their
best advocates. Because they know their body better than anybody else. They
live there all the time.
So, sometimes just kind of figuring out where they're feeling it or holding on to
it, or where stress is coming from, sounds like a good starting place. So, I
know you do a lot of community work in Africa. Moreover, you're in Kenya. So, can you tell
us more about what you do and what you're working on right now?

Dr. Aggarwal:

So, I started with mobile clinics a long time ago, driving a jeep
in remote communities. And then, I wrote a book, and Free Holistic Medicine Courses Online to
help fund some of the community work. Right now I’m working on helping
kids with disabilities, with homeopathy. Hoping to detox vaccine information.

Some of these kids have cerebral palsy. They’ve been abandoned by the
villagers or by people, by their parents because in certain villages, these
children are seen almost like a curse or too much of a burden. So, they're just
left alone. So, just trying that out as well. And hoping we can get some results
and get them a bit more functional, or being able to live a bit more normal
lives.

Dr. Caplan:

Well, that’s awesome. Yeah. Like you mentioned, the ACE study,
like the adverse childhood experiences, how could lead to people
developing these chronic health issues later on in their lives. So, if you could
help children, that’s amazing. Moreover, to give them a better chance and a better start.
That’s awesome.

Dr. Aggarwal:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Dr. Caplan:

Very cool. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Ameet, for discussing
this with me today. It’s a pleasure to speak with you and learn from you. And
for those of you wanting to learn more about Dr. Ameet, and his work, you can
check out his website, DrAmeet.com. I’m Dr. Tiffany Caplan, from Caplan
Health Institute, and Center for Integrative Health. And I’ll see you next time.

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