Revitalizing Wellness Through Chiropractic Care and Holistic Health - Jason Gilbert

Join us on a journey with Jason Gilbert, a veteran sports chiropractor, as he unveils his transformative path to health and wellness. With over 30 years of experience, including two decades with the World Surfing League, Jason's story is both compelling and inspiring. Through personal battles with back pain and mercury toxicity, and witnessing his mother's incredible cancer recovery, Jason learned that true health goes beyond just how we feel—it’s about how we function. Discover how embracing physical, emotional, and chemical health has redefined Jason's approach to wellness, and how chiropractic care became a cornerstone in his recovery. This episode is an enlightening exploration of moving past symptom suppression to truly enhance energy, happiness, and well-being.

Uncover the critical role of movement and spinal health in achieving overall wellness. Jason discusses how a sedentary lifestyle can impact everything from mental health to digestion, drawing parallels between restricted city-dwelling lifestyles and the freedom of life on a farm. He shares insights on how simple movements can be profound and why spinal alignment and mobility are essential for preventing long-term issues. Learn about the often-overlooked significance of spinal health and its surprising effects on life quality and pleasure. With Jason’s practical advice, we explore how better health can open the door to more joy and fulfillment in our lives.

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Chapters

• 0:02 The Pleasure Principles of Health
• 8:11 Importance of Movement and Spinal Health

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everyone, welcome to Pleasure Principles, the podcast where we explore the vibrant intersections of health, wellness and the pursuit of joy in every aspect of life. I'm your host, avik, and today we are diving into a conversation that's all about harnessing your physical, emotional and chemical health to unlock the true pleasure. Our guest today is Jason Gilbert. Welcome to the show, jason.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Thank you very much, avik. It's a pleasure to be here, thanks for the invite.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Lovely, lovely. So, jason, like before we start our conversation, I'd quickly love to introduce you to all of our listeners. Dear listeners, jason is a sports chiropractor with over 30 years of experience, including two decades with the World Surfing League. So he's dedicated his career to helping people avoid spinal surgery, teaching them how to move well, think well and eat well. But his journey isn't just about helping others. It's deeply personal. From overcoming debilitating back pain and spinal surgery to detoxing from mercury toxicity, he has transformed his challenges into powerful insights on healing and the wellness. So he is here today to share how health impacts every aspect of our lives, and from our energy, our energy levels, to our libido, happiness and the self-worth. So if you are ready to find out how Better Health can unlock more pleasure in your life, then stick around for this enlightening episode. So let's get started. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Thank you, maya, thank you very much. Thank you for that intro as well, lovely, lovely.

Speaker 1: 2:03

So, jason, like, uh, your journey is fascinating. So if you can tell us, like, how did your personal challenges with back pain and uh, mercury toxicity shape your passion for the health?

Speaker 2: 2:17

sure. So when I was very young I, in my memory, around seven years of age I started to suffer from back pain and not always associated suffering back pain, it was low back pain with sport, running, playing football, surfing and more. Yeah, and there's two parallel stories because our family had a health food store and I worked in a health food store around whole foods and supplements around my teenage years. So I always had, I guess, pain and symptoms from not only my back but also gastrointestinal problems. And I'm not sure why I had those, but I would imagine it's because I probably, you know, I took too many antibiotics when I was a kid my mom didn't know and other things that caused the dysbiosis plus that pain. And with time, I guess, being at that health food store, I was exposed to so many healthy people, especially healthy elderly people, and I was fascinated about what they were doing to be able to, for example, have great postures at the age and stage of life they were or be dynamic or interesting or intelligent, or just having something that encouraged me to do the same thing. So the other parallel story is that back problem that really stopped me in my tracks when I was around 17. And in the health food store and, I guess, surfing as well around the same time. There's a few things that weren't a coincidence, that all pointed towards me going to a chiropractor and but back then I'd never heard of chiropractic. I went to chiropractic. After a couple of sessions my pain was gone and I this is incredible that person just used their knowledge and their hands to be able to help my body heal itself. What I didn't understand back then is that no successful intervention only focuses on pain or symptoms. Okay, and that took a long time in my practice to understand that our society focuses on relief. You know, like if we're talking about pleasure, we're talking about a degree of loss of pleasure for us to stop and, unfortunately, look at what we can do or take to feel better.

Speaker 2: 4:35

And then I started to challenge the definition of health. Is the definition of health based on how we feel or is it really based on how we function? And so we go many years down the track. I've had had spinal surgery in that mix as well, but also had my father who had cancer and she had late stage lung cancer and they they wouldn't do chemotherapy because she was too, too advanced, so all we could do was focus on her health. You know, because we knew that first we had no choice. Secondly, focusing on the disease was not going to make her healthier and our chance was that if we focused on her health and we did that properly, then quite possibly she'd have the strength to recover from that. And that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 2: 5:20

You know, I took her to Brazil. I had her uh work with functional medicine, doctors that I've learned functional medicine with in brazil and my mom, happily still alive seven years later. Okay, now what I will say is that it wasn't only from uh, holistic and natural interventions. Eventually she started doing immunotherapy, which has been incredible, but I, initially, before we did that, we we observed a 10 percent decrease in her tumor size in the first month, you know.

Speaker 2: 5:52

So this over time, with my own health and my mom's and other people that I care about, my clients it's so important to remind everybody how unique to focus on your physical, emotional and chemical health it's usually not just one of those, it's a combination of all of those, and we need to challenge our definition of health in recognizing that it's not based on how we look or feel, because many people are feeling great today but they might pass away later on of a heart attack.

Speaker 2: 6:24

You know, once again, like when I questioned that, I really went deeper and I was forced to see on myself with severe mercury toxicity and others, that our only true chance of getting healthy is by focusing on health and not suppressing symptoms.

Speaker 2: 6:43

And just lastly, on this first answer to the question, I noticed that my spiritual, emotional health, I guess, and development would only I felt actually before it happened, that I felt that it only get to its potential when I looked after my physiological health and obviously my pleasure and my happiness suffered a lot because I didn't have energy, I didn't sleep well, you know, I just didn't have that love for people and life the same way that I'd had before. And a beautiful thing is and I'm sure people who are listening can relate to this if they've been through this is that as you improve your health and you do it with the solid foundation of health, you watch and you observe and you see how your pleasure, your happiness, your joy increases gradually due to the fact that you stop trying to turn the symptoms off and you focus on the true pillars of health.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Correct, exactly, yeah. So I want to hear one more thing how does improving our physical health, like better movement and exercise, translate into more pleasure in other areas of life?

Speaker 2: 8:10

Yeah, that's a really good question. It's not always obvious, is it in a world where we live that's so sedentary. However, we need to look at the fact that movement is one of the most important nutrients, one of the most important requirements for our health. Okay, so to understand this in a simple way, imagine taking, let's say, a domestic animal, like a dog who's been living on a farm, and then you put the dog in a small backyard in a city. Is it a happier dog? Of course not. It's not a happier dog. Okay, it's not moving, and it's not only because it's conscious of the fact it's not moving. It's because movement stimulates the movement center of our brain, the cerebellum, and the cerebellum is a homeostatic center of the brain. So movement stimulates the homeostatic center, which actually influences almost every other brain function. Now, it's very obvious that we need oxygen. We understand how important oxygen is in cells. We can look at red blood cells and see how they work and transport oxygen, our energy processes. However, it's not always that obvious of the connection between movement and health and movement and pleasure. Now you get any. Actually, here we go.

Speaker 2: 9:32

And another angle on this one is that look at the countless studies of movement and depression or anxiety. Where people weren't moving, they weren't exercising, they start to do a minimum of exercise. When we talk about exercise and movement-wise, we're not talking about going to a gym and doing something that you might not necessarily want to do. We're talking about you just simply getting out and moving and doing your best. Quite more. There's people listening thinking well, I can't walk that far, I can't walk an hour, that's okay. Walk what? Walk as much as you, okay. Or I can't use my lower limbs without pain or for some other reason, okay, move your upper limbs. But as soon as we recognize the importance of movement, we could actually then relate it to the physiological influence that it has over so many of our bodily functions, from cardiovascular health, to hormonal health, to mental health, to sexual health, to digestion, you name it. It is such an important element of those systems.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Exactly. And also you emphasize on the spinal health. So for the listeners who don't think much about their spine, why is it so so central to overall well-being?

Speaker 2: 11:00

Yeah, so that's also a really good point because it's different to the teeth. We can't see our teeth, oh sorry, we can see our teeth, we can't see our spine. So because we can't see it, it we can see our teeth, we can't see our spine. So because we can't see it, it's out of sight, out of mind, but in reality, let's start with the fact that the brain is the master organ. The brain controls every single function of every cell and organ in our body. Okay, and the brain is that important that it is protected by a very thick, immobile bone, or many bones together, called the skull. Now, the skull, the cranium, does a really good job because it doesn't move and when we go from the brain encased within a structure which is the vertebral column, okay, our back, the spine, which is mobile, and because it's mobile, it can't protect the delicate neurological tissue in the spinal cord and the nerve roots, as well as what the immobile cranium protects, the brain. So what happens is that if we we now apply our mobile spine to the fact that we live in a sedentary lifestyle, so we're not living as much we can, we can assume postures that aren't conducive to spine, maintaining the spine the way it should be Okay. And when I say that I'm talking about the curves, when we look from the side, laterally, or the alignment that we should see where the spine, we're looking at the spine from the back. Now, when it's aligned, all those nerve roots that I'm talking about are actually able to be transferring messages from the brain to the body without interference. But if we go back, let's say, and here's some examples, so the first phase of our life, we have more than 2000 falls on average, learning how to walk, learning about life. Then we're kids, you know, we play games and sports with other kids. There's traumas there. Then we can throw in in a modern day posture, laptop, computer, desk, writing, all the rest. It's basically life. And then we recognize that that spine, due to the demands and accidents and impacts we put on a place upon it, it loses its ability to fully protect the nervous system.

Speaker 2: 13:32

Yeah, and this is probably one of the most important points I'll say here that we could think well, hang on, if something's compromising our nervous function, nervous system function, wouldn't we feel pain? Wouldn't we feel symptoms? Wouldn't feel pain, we feel symptoms. No, very rarely. We often have a fall. It hurts at the time. We might even have another tissue or limb that suffers worse, and often we will not feel that problem until it is 90 progressed, meaning that I often get people in their 60s and 70s that come and tell me they've had pain for a week but they've got decades and decades of degeneration on their x-rays and MRIs that show that it's been degenerating slowly without them knowing about it.

Speaker 2: 14:21

You can't rely on pain, exactly yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:27

And obviously if we're talking about about pleasure, we're talking about the fact that pleasure is compromised when we feel pain or symptoms.

Speaker 2: 14:32

But isn't that a shame, because that means that we have a high degree of pleasure and and an apparent functionality to a point where sometimes, like a heart attack that's sudden, that also happen with our spine, where one day you're fine, the next day you've got pain, and then you're in this situation where you're in a lot of compromise around how much you can enjoy your life, and of course it's like having your houses on fire.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Of course you're going to focus on the flames and you're going to put the flames out, and that's with an allopathic intervention via surgery or medication. But who's going to help you rebuild the house? That's up to you. If you don't rebuild the house correctly with the right people. Unfortunately, your degree of pleasure and all the happiness you derive from the things that are important to you in your life will slowly diminish with time. And look you know, avik. I'm saying this relating to 30 years in my profession, not only working with spinal problems but also functional health, but also the 10 or 15 years before that, when I'd work in the health food store and I observed it. I've always been a keen observer of health and what successfully healthy people are doing compared to those who aren't.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Wow, and also like what's a common health myth or maybe misconception you would like to bust out? I mean for our listeners, yes.

Speaker 2: 16:03

Yeah. So the number one. Most definitely, I'll highlight it again Don't wait for obvious symptoms to guide you towards caring for yourself. Please know that, not only spinal problems, but pathologies in general. Let's think of someone who smokes their whole life, and let my mum, for example. She smoked her whole life, 60 years, not one symptom, not one. And then all of a sudden she coughs up blood. So our body is not always efficient at causing symptoms to guide us towards an underlying problem.

Speaker 2: 16:39

Okay, so that's the number one misconception is that if you're sick you'll know that's not the case. It's slowly degenerative. More than 75%, 80% or even more, okay, percent of our problems are lifestyle. They're lifestyle related, they're slowly degenerative and because they're slow, we're losing it that slowly that we're not perceiving less energy, less pleasure, lesser quality of sleep, digestive problems that might start mild, that worsen, you know, concentration problems, hormonal problems, let's say a woman's period, whatever that is. Usually it's slow.

Speaker 2: 17:23

We can't rely on our body to let us know that. Hey, we can't rely on our body to let us know that, hey, you've got this problem. Give it attention now. So it's up to us right now to follow resources like the one you're presenting on your podcast, to read books, to go deeper and understand that you need to learn how to look after your own health, and by doing that, you need to challenge this is the other misconception okay, around the definition of health Health is 100% direct function Okay, so please look at that and look at the same way you might look at saving money or your finances or security and look at it in a way that you need to invest in your future now, meaning that if health is 100% correct function, you need to recognize what toxins you have in your life and what nutrients you have in your life or maybe not have in your life.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Boost those nutrients, boost them in every way that you can through diet, exercise, mindset, sleep quality, stress levels, water quality, air quality and then, at the same time, look at the toxins which could be some of those could be poor water or air, lack of exercise and diminish, reduce those toxins, get them as low as possible and get your nutrients as high as possible, so that every decision you're making around health is a conscious decision. It will either lead you towards health or away from it.

Speaker 1: 18:58

Wow. And so if someone listening is overwhelmed with where to start, then what's the simplest first step they can take to improve their health today?

Speaker 2: 19:11

yeah, and you know, the timing of that question is so good because I think we're at a time now, I think, where some people can be daunted, thinking, wow, there is so much to focus on, there's so much to worry about, I don't't even think I'll start. So let's start with a really easy principle, and that is that if there's negative habits in somebody's life and they're aware of those, and then what they're to start changing those habits, that's okay. Start to introduce healthier ones. Can you move more? Can you walk 20 minutes to a day? Can you drink more water? Could you drink better quality water? Could you make better food choices when you go to the markets? Could you buy organic? Could you introduce positive things and leave the negative things, quite possibly, which would be, hey, smoking or drinking alcohol or certain foods that you're not ready to stop. Understand that many people don't even try to get healthy because they think that they equate it with what they're going to miss, what they're going to suffer through not enjoying the pleasure. But remember, please, that these pleasurable things are often short-lasting, with long-lasting consequences in a negative way.

Speaker 2: 20:26

Okay, so let's just start with a positive. This is really important. Secondly, the beautiful thing is that what we're seeing is that it's back to basics. We can go online, we can listen to many podcasts about new biohacking techniques and expensive equipment and expensive supplements, and there's so many of them that are great and I use them so many of them every day. However, I get my most value from getting out, getting natural sunlight on my skin, when there's sun moving, breathing through my nose okay, because that puts me more in a parasympathetic, relaxed state as opposed to a sympathetic, stress state. So we've got knowledge to be able to help us deal with situations. Yeah, we've got discipline to help us stop using technology late at night time or if there's blue light. Hey, we don't need to spend lots of money. Even if we don't have blue light blocks of glasses, we could actually just avoid that light, or we could change our light globes and put red light in Okay. So there's strategies that, when we understand the requirements of our body, we can actually cheaply and easily introduce these positive aspects. And, as I'm saying, it's simple Okay, every choice around food.

Speaker 2: 21:49

It can be positive or negative, toxic or a nutrient. Yeah, every choice around movement same thing. Water quality same thing. Stress okay, stress is a tricky one because we've got so much on our plates these days through quite possibly balancing a job, a family and other things, so that does take a little longer to be disciplined in regards to hates, trying to calm this mind down, trying to minimize the amount of stimuli that we have from laptops, from mobile phones, from various apps, from working at times that aren't too late in the evening where our body would be conducive, you know, more towards sleep as opposed to productivity. Once again, back to basics. It's not rocket science, okay, and these basic measures will bring huge returns in regards to your investment, not only with your health, but also your pleasure and happiness got it okay, great, sweet.

Speaker 1: 22:53

So, uh, that's an incredible conversation. Jason, thank you so much for sharing, uh your wealth of knowledge and personal journey with us today avic.

Speaker 2: 23:03

So welcome mate. Thank you very much and you had great questions. It's always really nice to work with someone who's knowledgeable and can guide the interview in a really nice way for people to learn, and that's impossible.

Speaker 1: 23:14

Lovely, lovely, and from the importance of spinal health to the transformative power of detoxing and the three pillars of health you have given us so much to think about. So, for the listeners I'd love to mention, like, if this episode has resonated with you, don't wait, start small, make changes and invest in your well-being. So remember that health isn't just about living longer, it's about living better. So if you have loved this episode, don't forget to subscribe to pleasure principles and leave a review and share it with someone who could use a little more pleasure and health in their life. Until next time, this is your host avik, reminding you to prioritize your wellness and discover the joy it brings to every aspect of your life and keep finding player. Thank you so much.