Dr. Tanya Painter discusses the connection between health and faith, specifically focusing on the field of neurotheology. She explains how our religious and spiritual practices can impact our brain function, chemistry, and overall health. Dr. Painter emphasizes the importance of incorporating spirituality into our healthcare and how it can positively affect our physical and emotional well-being. She also encourages individuals to educate themselves about their bodies and take an active role in their healthcare decisions. Dr. Painter suggests exploring online programs and resources that provide in-depth knowledge and guidance on specific health conditions.

Takeaways

• Incorporating spirituality into healthcare is essential for overall well-being.
• Engaging in regular spiritual practices can positively impact brain function, chemistry, and physical health.
• Educating ourselves about our bodies and health conditions empowers us to make informed decisions and advocate for our own well-being.
• Online programs and resources provide in-depth knowledge and guidance on specific health conditions.
• Finding healthcare providers who are open to discussing and incorporating spirituality into treatment can enhance the doctor-patient relationship.Keywords

Connect with Dr. Paynter here and listen to The Christian Clinician Podcast here

Are you a high-achieving Christian woman feeling overwhelmed by the demands of daily life? Do you long for more peace, joy and purpose? Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman, a podcast dedicated to helping you align your life with your values and faith, letting go of the hustle and anxiety and experience a richer, more fulfulling life.

Discover How Your Life Can Change:

Imagine stepping off the achievement wheel that's sucking the life out of you. Picture a life where your goals, values, and faith align, creating space for more joy, calm, and purpose. By shifting how you live your life with the guidance from Faith Fueled Woman, you can experience profound transformation.

Join host Kristin Fitch as she guides you on this journey of spiritual growth and transformation. Each episode is designed to support and encourage you as you navigate the adventure of pursuing God’s plan for your life. From finding calm in the chaos to building a business or career God's way, we cover it all.

What You Can Expect

Christian Encouragement: Inspirational stories and practical tips to strengthen your faith and help you put God first in your daily life.

Intentional Living: Strategies for simplifying your life, slowing down your pace, and rediscovering your passion and creativity.

Faith Stories and Testimonies: Hear from pastors, authors, and faith-focused women who share their journeys and insights.

Holistic Wellness: Tips for nurturing your physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Overcoming Hard Seasons: Guidance and support for navigating difficult times with faith and resilience.

Kristin is a Christian Life & Leadership Coach, Inspirational Speaker, Author, and Podcaster on a mission to encourage women through real-life adventures. Whether through speaking, podcasting, writing, coaching, or mentoring, Kristin points people to Jesus and the adventurous life God has called us to live. Join her as she shares practical tips, heartfelt stories, and spiritual guidance to help you live a life aligned with God's plan.

Next Steps:

Download the Free Joyful Living Devotional Journal: https://kristinfitch.com/devotional

Download the Free Reignite Your Passion Workbook https://kristinfitch.com/passion

Ready to work with Kristin? Book a free consultation

https://kristinfitch.com/services-2

Instagram @kristinfitch

#mindbodyspirit #neuortheology #christianhealth #powerofprayer #meditation #healthadvice #christfollower health, faith, spirituality, neurotheology, brain function, physical health, emotional health, healthcare, education, online programs

today on the podcast, I would like to welcome our guest, Dr. Tanya Painter. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in cellular and molecular biology before attending medical school at Baster University. She graduated in 2012 with her naturopathic medical degree and entered into private practice in 2021. Now she runs an online program to help women struggling with chronic migraine who

are finding that conventional treatment approaches are just not working and are looking to find a way to heal their body, not just control their symptoms. Most recently, she's been exploring the connection between health and faith, diving into the field of neurotheology. Our religious and spiritual practices can change our brain function and chemistry and the impact it has on our health in general. She has recently developed a program for Christian women with chronic anxiety and overwhelm to discover how to heal themselves by strengthening their relationship with Christ.

And she's also the podcast host of the new show, The Christian Clinician, which talks about health and faith. And I'm so excited to have her on today because I think it's such an important conversation. How can we take better control of our health? The importance of our spiritual practices in our actual physical health and how our body can heal. And so I think it's an important conversation for all of us. And I think you're going to get a lot out of it. So welcome Dr. Painter to the show. Thank you. It's so good to be here.

Absolutely. Can you first just tell us how you started, you decided to get into naturopathic medicine? Well, so I've known that I wanted to be a doctor since the fourth grade, my first biology class. But I remember sitting in a parking lot one day and my mom called me, this was after I had graduated from University of Washington. And she said, hey, have you ever heard of this naturopathic medicine thing? And I was like, huh?

And yeah, the rest is history. So I went to medical school and came back and I've absolutely loved it. First of all, I loved it. That little glimmer or kernel that kind of slightly shifted paths or at least put the idea in your head to look into naturopathic versus a traditional medical route.

So how amazing is that? And some of us might say, right, that's like a little God wink, right? That it was kind of that idea was inserted into your head. So first of all, I love that you shared that with us. That's so great. So tell me, you obviously your show, your podcast, and then the way you practice is the Christian clinician. So you obviously tie the faith in all of our spiritual, our emotional, and our physical health together. So when did you tie in or start beginning?

to tie in the faith component to practicing the naturopathic medicine. Yeah, that's more of a new kind of path that I've started down. I've been a Christian my whole life, but I don't know that I would actually truly say I understood what that meant until the last probably five to 10 years.

And as I've been growing in my own faith, I've been curious because I've noticed my own health changing in a positive way since I've really started developing a relationship with a deeper relationship with God. And so then the geeky, brainy person in me wanted to know, you know, well, do we have any research about this? Like, what kind of health effects do we see from this?

And wow, that really opened my eyes to this new thing. It's not new, it's been around for a few decades, but neurotheology, which is actually the study of how our brain and neurochemistry and our physical bodies, our physical health changes as we engage in regular spiritual practices. And neurotheology is not Christian specific. It's basically any religious practice, but there are thousands of studies, of published medical studies that show

that people who have active faith lives really have a different level of health. And they have better outcomes, they have longer lives, they have a better quality of life. And pretty much every research article that I read that had a conclusive, that found some of these changes happening in these patient populations.

they all across the board recommended this is something that we should be looking at including in every single health visit. And so, I just really started, I just have been fascinated by it. And so over the last probably five years, I've really started to incorporate that in how I practice because, and legally there's some gray area there. Your doctor isn't necessarily allowed to talk to you about your faith. That's kind of a no -no.

but you can absolutely bring it up to them. And so, you know, I make it very obvious that I am a Christian and that I'm very open to talking to my patients about the religion, you know, having things on the intake questionnaires about their religious beliefs, and then asking, are you interested in having a conversation about this in your health journey? And then once that door has been opened, then I can...

approach it and talk to them about it. But that's not very common. You don't see that very often. And so, yeah, so I, and I found some amazing, there's a piece there when you connect on a spiritual level with another human being and you have these conversations that really deepens that therapeutic connection between the doctor patient. And it's pretty amazing to watch. So I've just kind of observed that over time and just seeing the impact that that can have.

And honestly, when I started broaching that, or when my patients would start broaching those subjects with me, you could see some of the changes that started happening in their health, things that they'd been stuck with for so long that we just weren't able to get over the hump. And then suddenly, miraculously, as we start engaging in these conversations, they're starting to show improvement in those areas. So it's just really been cool to kind of watch over the last few years how my practicing has changed and how that has positively impacted.

my patients. Well, I love it. First of all, I have read some not nearly as many studies as you have on, you know, what's called neuro theology. And I'm fascinated by it as well. And I'm so glad that over the last many decades, they've been studying this, because it's kind of quits quantitative or I guess qualitative data for what many of us already kind of knew or there was some connection, right, that prayer life and sort of

the power of healing, you know, and basically even what their scientific stuff says, right, about epigenetics. So to me, it's so interesting, but I think so many of us don't really know much about it. We just know, well, yeah, I've prayed or, you know, gosh, everybody was praying for this person and there was this amazing outcome. And not that it always turns out that way, but the point is, even if someone's outcome isn't miraculous, there's often...

so much more peace or there's some healing in their body, right? Not everything's going to be cured per se. But so first of all, I love that you're digging into that and that you're going to share more with us about that today. And the interesting thing is when you're talking about that, I thought, you know, when you go to the doctor's office, they do ask you what your religious affiliation is, but I think they're only asking you to collect data. They're not asking you because they're going to have a conversation with you. And like you said,

maybe legally, you know, they have to be careful. But I've always thought that was odd that they asked me and I'm kind of like, why are they asking me because no doctor, I mean, not a traditional doctor's ever asked that. So anyways, first, I guess, what would you just share with us about why it's so important for us whether we're, I mean, obviously, this is a Christian podcast, but it's Christians, but even if somebody wasn't aligning at this moment as a Christian to stand up for and our beliefs and our values and have a key.

that's tied into our health. Why is this so important? Yeah, well, if we look back to the data, to the studies, we see that across the board, the people who are engaged in regular daily spiritual activities, so that can be meditation, that can be prayer, Bible time would count, any of those types of things, and even church attendance, all of those things were correlated with some really crazy reduction in

cortisol levels. So, if someone's not, not familiar with that cortisol is basically, it's our biggest stress hormone. And so we tend to be very high stress society. We are busy all the time. We don't take any of that self care time. And what ends up happening is our cortisol levels elevate that impacts blood sugar, blood pressure, heart health, you know, cancer risks, immune function, all of it. I think, I honestly think food and cortisol, you know, stress are the two biggest things that.

negatively impact our health or positively, depending on how you're approaching it. And so if we look at the data and how those practices positively impact our cortisol levels and bring those levels down to what should be, what is a normal state, what should be normal for our bodies, then we start seeing all these other high cortisol problems such as high blood pressure,

insomnia, anxiety, we start seeing all these things starting to diminish. So we can see, and there's actually been multiple studies that have shown a reduction of cortisol by 50 % or more for at least three months. Like, so this one study in particular did it in police officers, very, very, very high stress, right? Very high cortisol levels. And they were taught how to meditate. This was not even a spiritual exercise. This was just meditation.

So it was from a secular standpoint. And within that three month period that they measured, their cortisol levels reduced by 50%, which is amazing. And then it persisted, even if they stopped the meditation, it persisted for an additional three months after that. So to be practicing this in a regular basis can have huge impacts in our overall health, but also understand, like there was another study

that said that people who practiced meditation had better health outcomes than people who didn't practice meditation. And people who practiced a spiritual -based meditation, like God -focused, versus a secular meditation like breathwork or focusing on how the sun feels on your skin, something not relating to God, the people who did the religious, the spiritual meditations had better outcomes than those who did the secular meditations. So we saw this progression.

And very clearly involving God in all of this, there's a piece that's missing in healthcare when we're not addressing our spiritual health because it's so tied into our physical and emotional health as well. We're complex beings and he made us that way and he made us to have a relationship with him. Yeah, so good. Thanks for sharing that. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it today. I read some article.

it was months and months ago, but it was talking about that regarding depression, that way back we used to actually address people that were feeling depressed. We would address also their spiritual health, their spiritual framework, or if you will, but that's kind of been removed from mainstream medicine, unless you're going to maybe a Christian therapist. And the reason that that's a real harm or concern,

is that we're trying to help people, for instance, with something like depression, but we're not addressing the spiritual side of that being. Have you heard any, have you seen any data on that? I mean, I just, I remembered the article, but I couldn't find it to pull up any specific information. So from a, from an emotional standpoint, depression was the number one thing that research is showing has that spiritual practices have the biggest impact on depression.

So yes, absolutely. And again, going back to the neurochemistry, the chemicals in our brain that make us feel happy or sad or depressed called neurotransmitters, they are changed when we engage in conversation with God, when we're praying, they show functional MRIs. So they're looking at blood flow and activation of the brain in these MRIs. And they can see different parts of the brain lighting up.

when someone is doing a spiritual meditation as opposed to a regular meditation, as opposed to no meditation. So there's definitely something very, very different happening when we're engaged in a conversation or a relationship with God that is extremely important to us as humans. And I think that we've gotten away from it because there's such a push, such a move to the science, right? I think that that, and I think that that's probably built in by a certain someone who wants to move us away from God, right?

The God of this earth does not want us engaged in that relationship with him. And so I think it's really important for us to be aware that just because we don't practice things doesn't necessarily mean it's the best practice. And we do have the data to back it up. It's just for whatever reason, it's frowned upon.

you know, there's this pervading thought that faith and science are at odds and they're very much not. Great, absolutely. So let's say that somebody's hearing this and saying, my gosh, I had no idea. Like maybe I pray sometimes or I used to, but I've gotten away from it, you know, whatever it might be, but we all want better health, right? Whether we're making active good choices to do that today or not, we all in some way want better health, whether we're doing it or not.

What would just be some easy ways that we would ease into having some of these better spiritual practices? You mentioned meditation, but focusing on God or prayer. So would you just say it's starting a daily practice or what would you just share with people about that? Yeah, so I think there's a misconception about what meditation is. I think most people think of meditation as you sit down, you crash your legs and ohm or whatever.

trying to clear your mind. And actually the Latin root for meditation means to focus intensely on. It is not an emptying of the mind. It is a thought pattern that happens, right? And so one of the biggest things when we're looking at wanting to start some sort of practice like this, absolutely it's a daily habit, right? We have to be very intentional and as most people know, habits are hard to develop. Well, bad habits are easy, good habits are harder, right?

But, but if we, if we carve out say just 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, when ideally when you first get started, if you can get up just a little bit earlier and make that an intentional God time, you don't fill it up with anything else. Like it's not to catch up on, you know, whatever it's, it's intentionally to ghost it out. Like I grabbed him a cup of coffee and I will ghost it out on the back deck and I will just say hello to God.

Just say, hi, good morning. Thank you for this really great day. This is a beautiful day. Or even if it's rainy, thank you for bringing the rain to feed these beautiful flowers, you know, in my garden right now, you know, whatever it is. And then I just have started having a conversation with him. And that's what I found for me is easiest. but I know that, you know, sometimes mornings are super chaotic for people, especially if you have small kids that you have to get ready for school. And so, podcasts can be a really great way to just kind of start, start getting into it. There are so many different.

Christian faith based podcast, whether you want to make it about health or maybe you want to make it about something completely different. And then maybe on your commute home, you think about that podcast that you listen to, like, don't just consume it. Just sit there and meditate on it. Right. Think about it. What does that mean? How does that impact my belief system? How does that impact my, you know, my relationship with God? How can I utilize it? And so as we start to become more introspective in those ways, we'll start to see, you know, our desire starts to grow to

to learn about him more and to develop that deeper relationship. And again, if you're a reader reading a book, one of the books that I really loved and there's very mixed reviews about it. Some people love him, some people hate him, but is Rick Warren's A Purpose Driven Life? And they're broken down into 40, it's a 40 day study.

and the chapters are, you know, three to four pages long. And there's some questions at the end of each chapter where you can just sit and kind of meditate on it. Do you stew on it a little bit and think about how do I apply this to my life? That was a great way to kind of kickstart some stuff for me. So there's a lot of different ways to do it. The point is you just have to be intentional, figure out what you enjoy the most. What's not going to be a chore for you. And then carve out 15 minutes a day and do it just.

set your alarm and this is the time that you're doing it and you just do it. And it'll stop becoming something you need reminding of and something you look forward to every day. Absolutely. I love that. And I'm glad you said set an alarm because the only way we're going to start doing it consistently is, or for some of us, is if we set an alarm or we put it on our calendar, especially if you're not doing it first thing in the morning. And for me, I do all sorts of different things at different times. Like I'm redoing.

Mark Patterson's draw the circle 40 -day You know like well he has books circle maker, but anyways, and so I'm doing that So it's kind of like a 40 -day dimensional, but it's for me It's been just being intentional with my time for those 40 days on top of other things I'm doing but I also do walking meditations, you know, I don't call it that all the time But that's what it is. And so I'm glad that you're explaining that a meditation isn't just

sitting there where we have to be quiet and you think you're doing a terrible job because you can't clear your mind. Most people can't clear, I mean, we weren't really designed that way. And so I'm glad that you brought that up. And really I'll just walk in, I'll have a conversation sometimes with God or I'll keep, I'll have a gratitude walk if you will. But it's kind of just having a, saying all the things I'm noticing, being aware, being present. And just - Being thankful. Yeah. Being thankful. Yeah.

to your point, but it's really letting us have that connection or that time with God. And so that's really what you're getting to. And so I love that. And that's a good point. I'm sorry. I was just going to say the walking meditation. I think a lot of people are confused about that, but that's exactly what it is. It's walking and it's just enjoying, like looking at nature and just praying and being with him. That's all a walking meditation is. So that's a good example. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Okay. So tell me, I love

this idea that you talked about neuro -theology and I love that you're digging into it more and you're incorporating it into your practice. So what other tangible ways can we tie this in our own lives? Meaning, you talked about that the doctor -patient relationship really benefits when there's a conversation around their spirituality or their faith. And so I guess my first question around that would be, how do you recommend that we broach that topic with our doctor or is it that we find a different

doctor over time, or another health practitioner. So I guess one is that is how do we bridge the subject and why should we? And then I think the second part is, do we talk to them about like, well, just praying help me? In other words, like, how far do we take that, I guess is the question. Yeah, I think that brings up a really good point.

there are definitely not a lot of doctors that are open to engaging in that kind of a conversation with their patients. And so I think that it's going to be very individual. When I mentioned that I was open and I saw an improvement in the patient -doctor relationship, it was with other people who believe the same thing I did.

So there's definitely going to be, you know, if you can find someone, if someone's listening that is not Christian, if you find, you know, a Hindu or you find somebody from an Islam or whatever, that can be really helpful to kind of bridge that relationship piece. If you're with someone who doesn't believe the same thing, that might be a point of contention, right? So that might not be the best therapeutic thing to do is to bring that up because if there's tension there and if, you know,

they're not able to support you in your belief and in your walk, then that's not going to be, that's just going to bring a bad feeling. So I think it definitely depends on who you're seeing, and making a judgment call there, right? Engaging in some prayer, find out, is this something I should broach? And then if it's something that you're like, you're, you're hearing this and you're like, I really, really want that. That sounds so amazing, but you don't think that your doctor is open to it or you kind of get that bad bedside manner. Like he's really smart, but he doesn't really,

know that interpersonal skills, we've all had doctors like that, then yeah, there's nothing wrong with finding somebody else, even if you've been with them for 25 years, right? There are a lot of really, really smart doctors out there and people that will share your same beliefs that will be open to having those conversations. So there's nothing wrong with switching, even though it can be a pain, but in the long run, it's really, really worth it to do that. So.

so again, that's going to be a judgment call for the individual and what's going to work best for them. As far as approaching that conversation with their doctor, if you feel like their doctor, your doctor is open to it. Then it's just a conversation you can bring up one day, you know, and just say, Hey, I just was wondering what you think about, having a conversation about how my faith plays a role in my health. Is that something that we could talk about sometime? And you know, you can just gauge their relate, their response, and decide how, how you want to proceed from there.

Yeah. Well, and have you found that, let's say you're the people, whoever you're seeing as a health professional, you know, you don't align or they're not comfortable talking about it, which I would think is a decent number of them, but not all. But this is something where you might then tie, just talk to someone, whether it's a pastor or someone else important in your life, that in your faith life, that you talk to them. In other words, I get that they're not health oriented.

but you could talk to them just about, you know, maybe what you're walking through in your health journey and about your faith or your spiritual practices. I mean, have you seen people where we just, we maybe lean it that way instead? I haven't personally, but absolutely. I mean, it's not necessarily that the faith piece has to be a part of your doctor's treatment plan, but it should be a part of your treatment plan. So

If your doctor isn't open to it, you're not comfortable talking to them about it. You don't want to bring it into the healthcare piece because you think that they should be separated. All of that's fine. But what we really are looking at is, and again, these studies didn't say that it was when you were seeing your doctor that you had these conversations. It's just that they had a regular spiritual practice. So they can be completely separate as long as the individual person is incorporating it.

on their own. And if you understand and know how to do that, and that's not a problem that you need to talk to your doctor about, there's no need to include them if you don't want to. So, yeah, you've got pastors, you've got preachers, you've got all kinds of different religious leaders that can help you kind of navigate those pieces and you can kind of keep them separate, but in reality, they're not really separate, right? They're working together for the benefit of your body. Absolutely. So let me ask you this, what's the importance of

us really learning more about our bodies, about our health, about how we can take more control, right, of our having our best health, you know, so which is going to be our best life, especially with the way the medical landscape is today. So what can you share with us about that? Yeah, I think I think it's a double edged sword. We are living in we have never had more access to information than we do now. That can be good and that can be bad, depending on, you know, what you're looking at. So I think that for me,

I think that we're past the, my doctor told me so, you know, that, that used to be how medicine was. The doctor would prescribe something. You would absolutely take it. Cause that's what the doctor told you to do. Now we have the opportunity to empower ourselves with an understanding. Okay. What does this medication do to my body? How, what side effects can I look at with it? How is it going to benefit me and outweigh the pros and the cons and decide which is the best route to go for me as a person? Because I can't tell you the number of people that.

respond poorly to the recommended standard treatment of care. And so, you know, we need to be able to advocate for our own health plans with our doctors. And your doctor should absolutely be open to hearing your input because no one's ever gonna be a better, no one's ever gonna know your body better than you will, right? This is your body, you own it, you know how it responds to stuff. If you have a doctor who's not open to hearing your input,

Now, granted, they're going to have the medical knowledge, but if you know like this, this antidepressant is not going to work well for me. What other options are there? Well, you should take this antidepressant, but it's not going to, I'm not going to do well with it. Right. Well, you know, this is the standard of care. So this is what you should do. Well, that's not someone who's being open to hearing what's good for you as a person. So, so I think that it's really important that we find doctors who are going to be open to our input and take that under advisement in their entirety of their plan.

because we should be partners, not dictated to. And your doctor is essentially a hired professional who has the education around how to properly treat a human functioning human body. And you have kind of the owner's manual to your own body. And so then you can hire them to help you navigate that. But your understanding of how you respond to different things is absolutely vital to having a successful outcome.

So I just really encourage all of my patients like question me if there's something that I say to you and you're like, I don't think that's gonna work for me. Let's have a conversation about that. And then let's maybe find an alternative option because there's always an alternative option. Sometimes Western medicine doesn't seem like they have that, but there is. I love it. I mean, so many times, I mean, I don't go to the doctor a ton.

But when I do, they'll try to prescribe me a medicine for something. You know, I've talked about my head injury on the podcast before. They tried to prescribe me stuff and I wasn't having major headaches. I mean, I had some symptoms, but they weren't anything I couldn't manage for the period of time that I had them. And they were trying to give me like, it was like anti -seizure medicine or something. And I was like, I'm good. And he's like, well, you can just have a prescription, you know? And I'm like, I'm good. And I explained why. Like, I don't want to take things.

that are not necessary. Like if I was in a car accident, you know, and I needed, of course I'm gonna take life -saving medication when I'm in hospital, but I don't wanna take things where my body's gonna heal itself or food as medicine or there's other alternatives. And so I will tell the doctor that, you know, like I'm really not comfortable taking, you know, some of these prescription medications and here's my reasoning for it, you know, especially if there's alternatives. And so I love how you shared that in the way you shared it because

I think too many people really are afraid to say, I'm not sure I want to do that or no to their doctor, but I've got very good at saying, that's not for me, regardless of what you want to give me. And I appreciate that, but it's not something I want to put in my body. Absolutely. And if you get to the point where you feel like they're dismissing you or they won't return your calls or you're the squeaky wheel and they're just not giving you what you need, like that's time to find a new doctor. It's just not a good fit for you or for them. Right.

Again, that therapeutic relationship has been shown to be very important. You need to trust your doctor. You need to feel like they're a partner and that they have your best intention on your side. And we've all, I'm sure that we've all had experiences. I've been personally medically bullied by somebody. And if I didn't, like they, there was literally a doctor when I gave birth to my son, my first born. And he basically told me if I didn't do a certain thing that my son was gonna die.

And I knew that was absolutely not true. But as a mom, like he played on my fears and I would almost caved to it. And I prayed about it and I felt like strengthened in the saying, no, but I couldn't believe that he would do that. And it was not in the best interest of my son. It was just standard of care. So, you know, it's, it's really important that, you know, we don't feel bullied and intimidated and the more knowledge that we have about our bodies and the different options out there and how, how we can feed our

our physical bodies with the nutrients and the foods and the herbs and the supplements, and then utilize some of these other tools that we have. When we start understanding what some of these other things can do and the impact that they can have, then we can start feeling more confident in questioning the medical professional and say, hey, I read about this. What do you think about it? And nine times out of 10, the response is, I don't know anything about that. So you'll have to find somebody else who does. Maybe it's time to find somebody else who does, you know?

I mean, this even happened to one of my in -laws many years ago, but they had a lot of stress in their lives at the time because of some other relatives. I mean, not their doing, but it was a lot of stress. You know, people were going through a lot of things. And so it was reasonable, the level of stress that my relative was feeling. But the doctor immediately, first conversation prescribed antidepressant, anti -anxiety, like three things.

They were highly addictive medications. The one he was prescribing didn't recommend counseling, didn't say like, this is normal because of everything that you're going through. Like it was a lot. And, and I, so when, when I heard about them, I said, my gosh, I'm so worried because the person was, you know, maybe at the time 65, 70, but you know, they're not going to research or educate. They just started taking it. I'm really worried about this. Anyways, we found a, some other alternatives, some meditations and some things. And actually.

they ended up not taking the medicine or maybe one or two times in trying these other therapies and they completely worked. But my point being is instead of sometimes doctors trying the smaller, easier solutions first, they give you like the big gun, but there wasn't really any conversation about what are all my options. It was here is the option. And so I just encourage people, you know, you don't have to start with.

the first thing they give you because there are a lot of other options. And that's why I think we have to educate ourselves and we have to be our best own health advocates. For sure. And then I know that you and I, before we started recording, talked about one way we can educate ourselves. And so I'd love for you to share a little bit more about some of the new ways that we're able to do that nowadays online. Yeah, absolutely. Before we do, I'd love to touch on the point that you just made. Sure.

When, and especially as an ND, people get really surprised when I say medicine, like medications, like prescription medications are actually a tool and they're very appropriate to use in certain situations. So I don't want anything that I'm saying to be misconstrued to say, well, I should never take a medic, a medication that my doctor prescribes because sometimes it's absolutely essential. And I will actually tell them, tell my, my clients I'm currently as, as you mentioned, I see people online as more of a health coach, as opposed to a doctor.

and so I will say, you know, you need to go get this medication, that medication, whatever, like that is in your best interest with where you're at right now. So I do want to encourage people to utilize those tools, not to be afraid of antidepressants or anti -anxiety meds, if that's something that they need in the moment. But the, and this is always my big, but is that you should never be given those and not given a way to get off of them.

They are not meant for you to be on for 20 years. They are meant for you to be on for a couple of, you know, six to eight weeks, 12 weeks, however long you need to, as they are, were as your doctor is helping you to work on those other areas, like the supplements, like the dietary and lifestyle changes and those types of things. So the big thing is, you know, if you're given a prescription, great. If it's something that you feel like is appropriate at the time, given your circumstances, absolutely take it and tell the, to ask the doctor, what are my steps?

for getting off of this medication. That should be like the day they prescribe it to you, you should be asking that question. What are the steps I'm gonna be taking so that I can get off of this medication? And there's always, with the exception of certain permanent conditions that you might need to have long -term medications for. Otherwise, if it's antidepressants, anti -anxiety meds, hormones, whatever, there should always be a plan of how am I coming off of this? What is this looking like? So I just wanted to mention that real quick.

So regarding some of the ways that we can educate ourselves, I think that really in the last five years, and especially since COVID, which I guess is about five years ago now, four and a half, but there's been kind of a boom in telehealth and a boom in these online health programs. So a lot of doctors, usually functional medicine, naturopathic type doctors are

kind of frustrated in the standardized care where you see a patient for five, 10 minutes, you can't educate somebody in a five to 10 minute visit, you just can't. And so a lot of them have started, and me too, I started doing this as well, started creating a kind of a video series to teach people about a specific condition and how to support their body with diet, exercise, meditations, supplements, herbs, medicines, whatever it is, and have started

kind of explain it, you can almost think of it like a college course for that specific condition, right? And so there are programs online that can help you kind of learn about the biochemistry imbalances, the problems with detoxification, the problem with your particular genetics, helping you to kind of dig a little bit deeper into how to uncover some of these things and where some of your particular problems might lie. And

and then also what to do about it. So it's kind of a way that you can kind of navigate through some of these. Like, I don't know how to, you can go online for sure. There's tons of resources on YouTube and podcasts and all kinds of stuff, but it's all just kind of thrown at you, right? There's no plan to get from point A to point B. These online programs offer kind of that plan from point A to point B. So I have really found that, you know, I specialize in migraines.

I've really found that by kind of laying out the basics and, you know, we get started with, you know, certain things and we work on, you know, maybe some dietary stuff to begin with, but then we need to work on the mitochondria function. We've got research showing that that impacts migraines. Then we got to, we got to work on, you know, hormone balancing. We got to work on detox and liver support. We have to work on how your adrenals are functioning. Nobody talks about that in migraines, but it's absolutely essential. And we have this, the research that shows it. So.

as you learn more specifically about your specific problems and how your body is out of balance and how you can get it back into balance, then you feel empowered, you have a plan, and then you can utilize your doctor to help support you through that with various dosing or if there's a medication that you need. And then you can also, now that you're more educated in this area, then you can have that educated conversation with your medical professional who then can help you try to navigate things

specific to your condition. So I find that they're really, really helpful. I was always very successful with my in -person patients when I was actively in practice in clinic with the migraine piece, but there was just, I saw this gap. They didn't understand why I would prescribe things to them. And I've always tried to teach my patients, like I want them to understand their body. So they're not always reliant on somebody else.

My goal at the end of my migraine program is that they understand what's happening in their, in their body when they're having a migraine and they know exactly how to treat it with the tools that they, that they learn about. And so then they don't need me anymore. They can go off and live their life and then they address things as they come up and they can refer back to the things that they learned about their body and how to keep it in balance so that it's no longer a mystery why they get a migraine. It's, I get it. It's because of X, Y, and Z. And this happened and that happened.

So I need to support myself by doing this and that. And it's just wonderful, as a teacher to see your student go from, I don't know how to do one plus one to solving differential equations. You know what I mean? Like it's just, it's amazing to see that progress. Yeah, I love that you brought that up. I have done more than one course like that about different things going on in my body. And there are many others I've looked at recently considered,

digging into. And I think it's as simple as even, you know, when you're, you know, a young teenager, you know, going into adulthood, a lot of us women, we don't really know much about our monthly cycles. We really don't because you know, but then I've learned so much in the later years. I think I was having my third child when I was like, I don't even know. Wait, what? What? Yeah, like just like what happens during your cycle, right? Like different things that I don't just mean like, like very specific.

but we're really not educated to that level about something that every woman goes through. And so that's kind of what we're talking about here is so many of us are really, we're not educated about how the functions in our body works if we don't have a degree in medicine of some sort or a health degree. And so I think that's why I think this type of education is so powerful. And there's so many reputable doctors or health practitioners that are offering these classes. So I love that you shared that. Thank you.

Yeah, and now in the world of like telehealth, like this is a thing and it's here to stay. COVID helped us with that at least. But it's wonderful to see like all the different options out there. So it's not even that you have to find somebody in your local area, especially if you're rural and you don't have a lot of choices. Now suddenly, you know, the whole nation is open to you. Well, the whole online nation, I guess, is open to you to be able to find some of these resources and educate yourself. And then in a lot of cases,

My clients are educating their doctors about migraine and then I'll get them calling me saying, hey, what's this? And so, you know, a lot of the doctors are open to learning and hearing and understanding. It's just that, you know, if that's not their specialty, then they're not focused in on that, but you know, so, so yeah, it's just wonderful. I've just been a big fan of that, that not everybody is, and I get that, like a lot of people just really want that one -on -one and that's absolutely fine, but this can be a really great way for, especially for people who love to learn.

and they wanna know more about their bodies and how they're working, these can be wonderful ways to do it. I just think about it as like a college class that you're taking and you're getting kind of that level of information. Love it. Okay, so what might you just wanna share with us as we wrap up today, just to encourage people in that intersection of health and faiths as we try to live our best, healthiest, fullest lives.

I think the biggest thing is remembering that God made us with a physical, emotional and spiritual body, right? We're three in one, just as he is. And we can't come to our full physical health potential without incorporating the other two. And I think general medicine is starting to get better at the emotional part, right? It's not so taboo to talk about the anxiety and depression and some of those other emotional issues that are getting more frequent, unfortunately.

But we're still, again, it's taboo essentially to talk about faith and our spirituality. And I think that it's just really, really vital for us in order to feel our fullest and to meet our fullest potential, whatever that looks like. I'm not pushing Christianity, although of course I'd love for everybody to turn there, but.

you know, if that's not something, if you're not comfortable with that, if that's not something that you're ready for, or even interested in looking at, it's really just about tapping into what does that spiritual life look like seeking the face of God, and seeing what does that look like and allowing him to kind of guide your path, to, to knowing him and just incorporating those things into your life. and, and he'll draw you closer to them.

And so, but it just starts with you reaching out and just kind of looking for him and wanting to include that as part of your daily walk. So good. Well, thank you so much for coming on and joining us today, sharing with us about neurotheology and just how we can really tie those three parts of our health together. Can you share with everybody, how can they learn more about you and your programs and how they can connect with you online?

Certainly. So as you mentioned, I just started a podcast called The Christian Clinician. And so basically we're going to be talking about incorporating faith in our health journey, having some great conversations with some clinicians who are able to do this and some things about that, as well as patients who have had some significant journeys, yourself being one of them, Kristen.

on just how they were able to utilize their faith to help them overcome some major, either trauma or physical or emotional trauma. So yeah, so you can find that at christianclinician .com or on Apple, what iTunes, Apple podcasts, the usual areas. Sounds good. All right, wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I appreciate your time and expertise. Thanks so much. It's been a pleasure.