57. 5 Keys to Raising Healthy Kids with Dr. Brian Stenzler

Dr. Brian Stenzler 0:04

I know that families that live well together will stay well together. And that's the first step in longevity

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:12

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast, I'm your host Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You're about to hear from Dr. Brian stens ler who is a very distinguished chiropractor who practices what he preaches. He is passionate about helping families achieve true wellness. Let's get started in here more.

Thanks for joining me for another episode of The your longevity blueprint podcast today I have on as a guest Dr. Brian denzler. He is the author of dream wellness the five keys to raising kids for a lifetime of physical and mental health which is a 2021 publication. He has dedicated his professional life towards helping families stay healthy and prevent the need for many unnecessary medications and ultimately, missed school and workdays. He guides parents how to live a wellness lifestyle by avoiding chemical, physical and emotional stressors in and around their households and how to adapt to the stressors that are unavoidable. As a pediatric and family wellness Chiropractor Dr. stens ler serves his communities with three locations in San Diego. He has served his profession as President of the California chiropractic Association from 2014 to 2016, as well as numerous other boards.

He currently holds the position of vice president for the Congress of chiropractic state associations, Dr. Stan learns the illustrious 22 plus career is highlighted with many honors including New York chiropractor councils chiropractor of the year, the world chiropractic Alliance is outstanding service award, the chiropractic Leadership Alliance on purpose Dr. of the month 2012 and 2018, Doctor of the year from the California chiropractic Association, San Diego and the 2015, recipient of their leadership award. And he's been honored with a California chiropractic Association 2019 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. denzler travels the world as a guest speaker at conferences and colleges and lectures at numerous businesses, schools and civic organizations as a wellness expert. He's also been featured on television and radio shows across the country. Wow, that is an illustrious 22 plus year career. So I'm just getting warmed up. And a tongue twister. All right. Well, welcome to the show. Dr. denzler. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Gray. It's great to be here. So before you achieved all those awards, tell us your story. What even drew you to the field of chiropractic?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 2:33

Well, you know, it's funny because if you had asked me when I was 1617 years old, if I be a chiropractor, I would have been a what? I couldn't even pronounce the word The only time I ever even saw that word still can't sometimes it's hard. I think it looks weird, right? And I remember asking somebody in the family because I used to ride my bicycle past this home office. It's a chiropractor or something and I'm like, Mom, or wherever it was, what is the syrup butter or something like that? It's Robin, it used to be a podiatrist. So she didn't know what the heck I was saying. And I think somebody said, oh, they're like doctors that crack people's backs or something. I'm like, Oh, that's weird. That was pretty much it. So like my entire childhood, I knew nothing about chiropractic. And it wasn't until college that I was introduced to the profession, I was originally going to college thinking I was going to be a movie producer. That changed, we won't get into that whole story because that be a whole podcast and of itself.

But when I had made the shift from theater and film, in college, to pre med, to be a physical therapist, because I was introduced to physical therapy, because the Theatre and Film thing wasn't working out the way I wanted to in school. I was spending a lot of time in the gym, you know, I always did martial arts and wrestling always took care of my body as a kid. So health was always very important to me was a very important value. And so when I was introduced to physical therapist, I kind of saw that as being like, Oh, I get to take my personal training experience to a whole new level. Sure, and really started going in that direction. And my mom started dating this guy named Matt, who was a retired NYPD officer for the New York Police Department. And that said to me, was like the first or second time that I met him on one of my holiday vacations back in New York. He said, Have you ever thought about being a chiropractor? I was like, the first time I really heard that term again. And I'm like, No, like, I don't really know anything about it. Aren't they like fake doctors or something like that? Like I've never really heard anything very positive about it. This is back in. I want to say 1991 92 ish. He goes well, I don't really know too much about chiropractic.

But my son just started chiropractic school out in Marietta, Georgia outside of Atlanta, a school called Life college and he seems really passionate about it. You should probably talk to him, because a lot of things that you tell me about yourself and your lifestyle. Sounds like chiropractic would be right up your alley. I was like, Well, okay, you know, I figured I'd entertain the notion of talking to a son and my mom and that end up getting engaged. So this guy's been my stepbrother. Might as well get to know him anyway and talk about chiropractic. So my first conversation with Steve I was blown away everything he was talking about the bodybuilding and self healing self regulating organism. We don't use drugs and surgery to help people, we bring out the natural innate abilities of the body's potential to heal. And all this stuff just resonated with me, more so than physical therapy, not the physical therapy didn't work for me. You know, physical therapy is great. It's a great treatment for an injury. But I love the idea of something being more proactive towards creating health and wellness. And it really got me intrigued. So Steve, and I had multiple conversations while he was in Atlanta, and I was in upstate New York at the time.

And then I was going to meet Steve for the first time at our parents wedding. And Steve planned on he was gonna be home for that whole week, and he was gonna take me to all these chiropractic offices, he was gonna basically introduced me to the chiropractic profession and all of his mentors. So a day and a half before the wedding, that Steve's father drops dead. Oh, unexpected, his first sign of heart. And I end up meeting Steve at his dad's funeral instead of his dad's wedding. In all the grief that Steve was going through, still came up to me and said, Alright, you're ready to go to the offices on Monday. And I was just like, what, like, we're at your dad's funeral. He's like, that's okay, this time degree, he goes, but I made a commitment, and you need to be introduced to his profession. I was kind of blown away that that was incredible. And so I kind of see his dad Nat as the angel that put me on a certain path. And Steve facilitated that. That was the week I became a chiropractor. You know, obviously, I had to go through my training and education.

But everything shifted for me meeting those chiropractors understanding what the professional is about, it literally changed my life. And not only did that get me passionate about chiropractic, but that set my tone for what my life's work would be about. Because that he was in his low 40s. He was a retired cop, he thought he was healthy. He did not know that he had heart disease, you know, because he felt Okay, he thought he was healthy. And it really got to a point where Steve and I used to talk about this all the time, that how you feel does not determine how you function. And you know, that being in functional medicine, or how long? Yeah, exactly, yeah, it's not called sensory medics. And it's called functional medicine, right? You know, everybody looks at how they feel to determine how well they're doing. But it's really how they function. And so that's really where the concept of dream Dr. Iam, which I know you'll touch on later on in this podcast. That's where it really started with was before I even started chiropractic school. And day one was I came up with a concept of what the five facets of wellness would be the five keys to along this lifestyle.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 7:21

awesome story, you did have some divine intervention there. Without a doubt. Yeah. So what drives your passion specifically for helping families now i'm sure part of what you just shared, but expand on that. Yeah,

Dr. Brian Stenzler 7:33

that's a huge part of it. You know, I mean, I see so many parents, frustrated with their kids health, maybe the kids are at a school with runny noses, and coughs and ear infections. Some of these kids are already showing signs of chronic illness forming something you can see they're getting obese already, diabetes, diets are out of control with fast food, snacks have horrible ingredients, and they're just loaded up on sugar. Many of these parents are really trying to do their best, but really, they're clueless, they really don't understand and it's not fair for the kids do suffer from this, you know, and so regardless of their attempts, you know, when I ask the parents like what they buy at home, and how they speak about these things, I typically get a blank stare, there's not enough consciousness at home. Sometimes I just want to look at the parent and tell them to look in the mirror, metaphorically.

And other times, literally, because the kids are a reflection of them. And they'll almost always follow the leader. So I know that families that live well together with stay well together. And that's the first step in longevity. You know, there's more centenarians, you know, there's more centenarians in our in our world right now than there have ever been in the history of time. And centenarians. People over 100 years old, and you know what all those centenarians have in common? Probably family, they're living with their parents die. Yeah. They didn't die. But you know what, when I asked somebody, you know, do you want to live to 100? They're like, heck no, because they look at the people in the nursing homes, right? I'm suffering because when they were born 100 years ago, the life expectancy was 50 6070 years old. They did not

Dr. Stephanie Gray 9:02

think aging is depressing. Aging should be amazing agent, chaps. We all are going to age. Yeah.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 9:08

Yeah, it's all about aging gracefully. And if they knew that they were gonna live to 100, they probably would have made different choices in taking different action. And so this is my passion, because the kids that are born today, will very possibly live to 100 and beyond. And I don't want them to dread that I want them to be excited about it to healthy

Dr. Stephanie Gray 9:25

ones. So let's talk about what health is or what wellness is. Yeah. How do you define wellness? Yeah,

Dr. Brian Stenzler 9:32

so wellness, a lot of people use health and wellness interchangeably, but they're not the same. Like I think the World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, social and mental well being not merely the absence. Right, exactly. Yeah. And that's a great definition of health. But that's not the same thing as wellness. So well. This is really the integration of mind, body and spirit, affecting not only the visible body parts, but also the trillions of cells that make up your entire body, I refer to as being the proactive approach that creates physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony. It's much more than how you feel it determines ultimately how you function. So wellness is the lifestyle that will either bring you more or less health based on the constructive or destructive choices you make throughout that lifetime.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 10:15

So I have a feeling you're gonna tell us about this wellness lifestyle, we need to be living right?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 10:18

A little bit. The book really entails, we got about 85,000 words, I don't think we could cover in this podcast. We can we can brush on a couple of things later on about things that I do. And I recommend, well, let's

Dr. Stephanie Gray 10:29

talk about specifically what you do. So let's focus on chiropractic care for a minute here. So why is chiropractic care so important in health care, and actually, you may not know this, but chiropractic care is the topic of chapter two of my book, Your longevity blueprint. So in my book, I'm comparing really the the framework of the home to the musculoskeletal and the nervous systems of the body, right. So we have to have a strong, we have to have the framework be very strong. And to have a strong foundation, which I'm comparing to gut health. And in chapter one of my book, you have to have a strong, strong foundation, then you have to have that framework upon which then to build health. So I'm sold, I believe in chiropractic care, I go every month, but you tell our audience, why chiropractic care is so important.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 11:11

Well, I love that I'm so excited to hear that. It's not that often that we hear people outside of chiropractors in the health care and medical world talking about chiropractic, because they just don't know enough about what we do. And the truth of the matter is you've said it, the nervous system, many chiropractors. So if you go to a chiropractor that only takes care of musculoskeletal injuries and stuff like that, well, it plays a role in health care in terms of making sure that you feel right, and that your posture is good and all that that plays an important role.

But the way that many chiropractors practice, which is based on how chiropractic was founded back in 1895, is its ties to the nervous system. And ultimately, every single person lives life through the nervous system, which means that every organ, every muscle, every gland, every tissue, every cell in your body knows exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it because the brain tells itself, right? So if for example, if the brain wants the heart to beat brain is going to send an electrical message down the spinal cord out the nerves of the heart and tells it to be if I were to cut the nerves that go to the heart, what happens to the heart, web doesn't ask, Is that good or bad for your health? Well, that's bad, cuz you're gonna die.

Yeah, it's really bad. It's really bad. Now, instead of cutting that I was going to heart What if you were to choke up but stress on the nerves could go to the heart? Do you see how that would affect the health negatively and people like, yeah, of course, the signal is not getting sent perfectly. Well, one of the things that chiropractors work on what we call vertical subluxations, which is a vertebra that has moved out of its proper position, putting pressure on the nervous system, not allowing optimal communication between the brain and the body. When somebody has subluxations in their spine, their communication between the brain and body parts is less than optimal. And they will experience a lower quality of health, whether they feel it or not. And the reason I say whether they feel it or not, is because the trillions of the trillions of nerve cells that make up the entire body.

Only 5% sense pain, and you'd have a special receptor on it called the nosy sector. And so 5% of the nerves give information about pain. 20% of the other nerves that are sensory respond to sight smell, sound, temperature, vibration, but 75% do motor function that controls your organs, your muscles, your glands, autonomic, your your parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system and all of that, and they feel nothing. So if we put pressure, if you have interference to a nerve, that is a motor nerve, you're not going to feel that in terms of pain, possibly until it's the last symptom, and then you definitely perish. So we can't rely on how we feel when only 5% of our nervous system gives information about pain, using pain as the market determines when health and quality of life is a poor measure. Sure,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:43

let me go back for a moment here to I'm gonna go back to that bio that you had. So you've been on several different boards throughout your profession. So So tell me why you do that. Why do you spend so much time on those sorts of boards,

Dr. Brian Stenzler 13:55

I'm very passionate about the profession. I think if you kind of get that sense, and I want chiropractors to be the best that they could possibly be, I want to see a higher quality of standard of care. I don't necessarily need standardization of our profession. Our uniqueness is what makes us so special. chiropractic is founded on the pillars of a science, art and philosophy. So we all don't have to be the same. You know, some can focus on musculoskeletal care. Some can focus on nutrition, some can focus on raising Healthy Families, no matter what it is, we have to have certain things in common.

So being on these boards, it gives me a platform to be able to help other chiropractors be the best that they can help state associations B is as functional and producing as they can be, and just helping the quality of not only chiropractors and how they practice but how they communicate the chiropractic message to the communities that they serve. If the community's new, everything that your podcast listeners are hearing right now, I think many more people would be on the chiropractic care because most of them most of them have been taught by chiropractors, oh, if you have a headache, go to a chiropractor, but neck pain or back pain, go to chiropractic. But who's said your nervous system controls everything. So everyone benefits from a fully functioning nervous system. So whether you're a month old, a day old or 100 years old, you would benefit the same as anybody else by being checked by a chiropractor to make sure your body is functioning at its optimal level. Love that everyone

Dr. Stephanie Gray 15:13

benefits from a fully functioning Nervous System couldn't write that fast enough. That's right. So what are some deal breakers for you when it comes to diet and eating? So as part of wellness lifestyle, you didn't tell me what your deal breakers are?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 15:26

Yeah, so my deal breakers are these are things I will I will not put into my body unless it's like a gun to my head. And even then I might take the bullet Because ultimately, these are slower bullets, as far as I'm concerned. high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial food colorings, artificial sweeteners, and gossip.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 15:43

Hmm. So I didn't expect that last one.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 15:47

Yeah, because when people think of diet, they think of the food they consume. But I define diet is everything that goes into your body, from the outside world to the inside world. It's everything you eat, drink, taste, touch, smell, feel, hear all the movies you watch, all the people you spend time with, is just as much part of your diet as the food you consume. And if you remember that old computer term Gago garbage in garbage out, Hmm, well, if we put garbage into our bodies, whether it's through our mouth, through our eyes, through our ears, we get garbage out.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:14

It's so good. I followed some of what Dave Ramsey preaches. And I know he's in some of his podcasts has said he doesn't allow any gossip in his organization, right? I'm gonna gossip, you're gonna get fired, you're not gonna work there anymore. And I learned that when you have a business, and I have a business as well. And I learned that with my staff very early on, gossip is toxic, it's toxic to the environment, it's toxic to the patients, something that I also do not allow in the work environment, and not just professionally, but personally. So I

Dr. Brian Stenzler 16:40

thank you for bringing that I have a whole section on gossip and how it leads to drama, and how it's so bad for your diet. So that's all in the book too.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:47

Unique, haven't heard that. That perspective, going back to healthy families as well, you know, I, I also kind of pride myself on eating very healthy, when I had a child, I didn't quite realize, you know, you buy these organic food bars or whatnot, you don't always catch some of the ingredients that are in there, they may look like they're healthy. But upon further diving into that label, you find some of these things do have some of the ingredients that you were mentioning some of those dyes and whatnot. And so I now this past year, more than ever am starting to read labels. And I've interviewed some guests on my podcast who have dived into that as well, because I think that's super important. And, and kids are, we have to set the example we are the leader in the family, right? So we need to not eat crap. So the kids don't want to eat that crap. But we also need to not provide that. To them, we do the grocery shopping, right? They're not the boss of the house parents to make those decisions.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 17:37

That's exactly right. And, and people see the label organic, so they think it's healthy, but they're loaded in sugar and other issues and stuff. And that'll be one of our bonus offers is a label reading, you know how to a bio hack of basically how to do that, because people don't know how to read labels, they think because it's organic. Now, sure, being organic, helps better write a lot better, but it could still be loaded with sugar could still lead to diabetes and all these other chronic health problems.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 18:01

What I find, especially my son is even if I give him more sugar, even if it's fruit, right, even if it's natural sugar, he gets a little more hyped up right, as maybe a little more temper tantrums. I mean, I'm noticing just just small amounts of additional sugar can make big changes. So that is it's important to watch that. So tell us about you mentioned about your diet like what are deal breakers for you that you do not let touch your body. But what are other things you do on a regular basis to stay healthy? And well?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 18:30

That's a great question. And first off, you know, the book title of dream wellness Dr. Am is basically an acronym for the five keys to a wellness, lifestyle being diet, relaxation, exercise, being an adjustment, mental wellness. So diet I explained already as being you know, everything that goes into your body from the outside world to the inside world, relaxation is giving your body a chance to call timeout to reset, repair, regenerate rejuvenate yourself, E is for exercise, any activity that correlates physical or mental exertion, skip a for a second, M is for mental wellness, that's about connecting your inner purpose and passion, your outer goals and tasks in all phase of life being right with self esteem, self worth self values, and so on and so forth. When you have a strong d r e m, you should stay in adjustment, which is being imbalanced mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally and having low brain body communication to the nervous system. So everything I do I have to look at where it categorizes in my dream lifestyle. So I look at everything in the B do have situation right?

We know that different people could do different things and get totally different results. And that is because who you are determines how well what you do works. That's the bottom line. Two different people could do the exact same thing the same way, but get a different result because they be different. So being is about starting with the mindset. So I pray regularly I meditate. I surround myself by positive people and I avoid that negativity and the gossip and the drama and everything else. As far as my diet goes. I really eat a wholesome diet about 95% of the time. I drink water pure water regularly. I exercise about four to six times For a week, I've been doing that for over 30 years, I get massages anywhere from two to four times per month, depending on whether I'm getting a one hour once a week or two hour every other week.

And quite possibly the most important of all, is I keep my nervous system free of interference, because I do get checked by a chiropractor on a regular basis. Because as a chiropractor, I can't adjust myself, I want to make sure that my nervous system is adapting to stressors as well as they possibly can. So those are some of the things that I do in my life on a regular basis. anyone that knows me, personally, I don't want to use the word intimidated, but I don't have as many friends as I used to. I'm not one of those people that makes it like if you do if you don't do this, if you don't live this lifestyle, you're thinking I want to hang out with you. But the truth of the matter is, I want to surround myself by the people that are most with Jim Rohn.

That said, You're You're the sum of the five people you spend most time with. So I do want to spend time with the people that think like me and move like me, and the same lifestyle possible tone on but I don't I don't do it from a judgmental way. I just do it by setting an example. So some people that are newer in my life, hopefully they rise up, and they start making changes because that's what they want their life, they see how my wife and my son, how we live our lives, and they, you know, get with the program and stuff, or they just don't feel comfortable hanging out with us as much. And that's okay, too. But we don't come from a judgmental perspective, we come from a loving perspective that we know that everybody can reap the benefits of this wellness lifestyle.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 21:21

Let's talk about your son. So I mentioned I have a son, how old is your son, he he'll turn five in a couple of weeks. Why here he was born at home, he was very few people have home births, at least where I live these days, so. So tell me what made you and your wife commit to that choice and commit to really raising him differently than so many other kids these days.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 21:40

My wife and I, when she was nine months pregnant, we were at a very prominent legislators house and a fundraiser in San Diego. And the President of the California Medical Association past president was there. And he had some interesting questions for us about why we were doing a home birth. And when my wife was asked, she goes, Well, the hospitals where all the sick people are. And he just kind of looked at her and didn't quite know what to say, you know, fortunately for me, my wife was born at home. So it didn't really take a lot of convincing our parents, you know, thought a certain way, you know, based on their spiritual inclination and stuff. I've always wanted to do that coming from the healthcare perspective.

But ultimately, we want to deliver our child in an environment that is peaceful, one that we can control with as many variables as possible, including, you know, avoiding unwanted medical interventions, you know, we can control the lighting, the sound, the positioning, the love that's in the air, we didn't want to be another number, you know, with an insurance thing and another chart, we actually wanted to be a family and have that family together. Of course, we had contingency plans ready to go, God forbid something was going to go wrong. We weren't being irresponsible. But we were very much acting in faith, that births have been happening for quite a long time, even before there were medical interventions for it. We know not all of them worked out that great, I'm aware of that. But the body has an innate ability to actually, if you can conceive a child and make the child, you know, God's helping us with all that I think we can deliver them to so as few interventions as possible was our goal. And it worked out quite well for us.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 23:13

Well, congratulations. I think that is amazing. And how else would you say you raise your son differently. So many friends also are few friends.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 23:25

He's in preschool. So he's got a lot of friends. What's funny is, you know, when when we would watch him like at birthday parties and stuff, and like the parents would take pictures and stuff, while the kids were eating cake and stuff. He'd be eating a cucumber. So he assimilates very well with other kids. He doesn't judge other kids and stuff like that. But there are times that a kid will ask do you want this like a Cheeto or something like that? And they'll say, No, that doesn't make me healthy. It doesn't make me strong. So he's on board with the values. It's really interesting, because it's easy to say that not a lot of people believe it. But when they actually see it in action, like hell, we'll be in a store, and he'll say does have corn syrup. You know, his or he knows when he was two, he could identify the non GMO or the organic label. And like any other kid kids like sugar, they like sweet stuff. But like if we're in Costco together or something, and they have a lot of organic stuff there, you might ask for something.

And if I say no, it's not organic. He's like, Okay. with it. Yeah, you know, we're teaching him these values. early on. He's been getting adjusted at the second he was born literally with our homework. I caught him, you know, and he got his first adjustment for I even handed them to my wife, Brock, you know, he sees me exercise at home, you know, especially during the COVID times when gyms are closed and stuff. So he'll get on my back and do the push ups with me and he'll do some setups and he's done yoga postures. Since he's two, he does mindful moments at school. So I love that meditation aspect to it. He has been praying, you know, for as long as as long as he can understand what prayer is about. So really the values that we teach in the dream lifestyle, Take it home. And, you know, we can't say that it does everything perfectly, it's pretty darn close. He sets a really good example. And I pray, and you know, envision that this will continue that it will go on because we have not seen any signs of any slipping. And all of his years everything has progressed to a certain way that he gets it he gets the lifestyle and why we do we do. That's just how he's raised. And he appreciates it and welcomes it.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 25:23

I think that's amazing. I, my son's a lot younger, barely talking at this point. But but for his birthday, your family will, you know, bring over sugary cake whatnot. And you know, he just, he didn't even really know what to do with it. He's like, give me the fruit. You know, give me the he wanted the fruit. That's what he knows what he likes. And I hope that we can raise our son similar to how you're raising yours. And I don't want to say indoctrinate but you know, teach him.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 25:47

It is doctrinaire, yeah, you know? Yeah, one of my sections of the book is called brainwashing. And it's basically the unwashed saying, you know, we've been brainwashed to believe something else. So now it's time to clean our brains into a whole new concept of indoctrinated into health and wellness, you'll get a copy of my book, you'll get a signed copy and everything, you can start living that and doing it, I'm sure you're already doing things great. But one of the things I talk about in the book also is kids don't know how yummy sugar is, if you don't give it to them. You know, and the US government just came out with its new guidelines, saying that no amount of sugar is safe for a child under the age of two. Yet we see kids at that birthday, first birthday party, you know, oh, let me give you some ice cream, let me give you a birthday cake. And all that stuff is like Why? You know, I know you want your kid to love you. You know, I know you want them to be happy and to enjoy these great things in life. But they don't know the difference between the sweetness of an apple and the sweetness of a chocolate cake. And they're gonna have very different effects on their life later on.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:44

So we've kind of talked about your lifestyle and your family's lifestyle. It's not about your patients. So how do your patients follow your advice and remained discipline.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 26:52

So obviously, it's challenging to do everything right all the time. And that is not what I expect. I define discipline as turning something that would be considered deprivation for one person to empowerment for another, when my families that I take care of when the Why is big enough, it's easy to make those choices, right? If practice members value a lifetime of physical and mental health for themselves and their kids, then they're going to practice excessive goodness, and just a little bit of the bad stuff. So you know, I have families that I take care of, they come in for all different reasons. For some, they just want to get the kid off medications. For some, they just want to live the highest quality of life and then everything in between. So it's not my job to make them do the things it's to provide them with the information.

Every decision a person makes is ultimately value clarification, right? You're just someone's values based on what they're doing. What are they spending the money on? What are they spending their time doing? What choices are they making, and if their values are not in alignment with what I'm educating them on? That's on them. I've been very fortunate very blessed to attract families that value it, either they're already on this path, or they want to get on this path, and they truly want it. So most of our families are very compliant with the lifestyle. And that's why I say not everything in moderation. Because I say, you know, once you lick the lollipop of mediocrity, you'll suck forever. And a mediocre life leads to you know, you get mediocre results, right? So I say excessive goodness and a little bit of bad stuff.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 28:16

Interesting. Let's let's transition to talking about longevity here as we kind of wrap up the show today. So I've heard you say that the inability to adapt to chemical, physical and emotional stress, ages, people. So can you expand on that?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 28:30

Yeah, so basically, our lives, you know, we're bombarded with stressors every single moment. So examples of chemical stresses could be foods that we that we might have an allergy to, or pollution that we breathe in, or drugs that people take, whether they push to prescribe alcohol, those are all examples of chemical stresses, we all enter chemical stress, no matter how clean, you try to make your diet, even just breathing the air. Sometimes air quality might be for physical stresses could be a car accident, not exercising properly, or not exercising at all, maybe talking on your phone like this or being on your devices like this and getting forward head posture, a fall falling down the stairs, kids, you know banging their heads. They're constantly having physical stresses, we can't avoid all them. And then there's emotional stresses, you know, those could lead to that could be finances, it could be relationships, whether it's with spouses, whether it's getting bullied at school, romantic relationships can cause emotional stress.

So we all endure chemical, physical, emotional stress, I'm sure you're pretty much familiar with the autonomic nervous system where you talk about fight or flight and rest and digest. So ultimately, when somebody is in a stress mode, right, most of the time, they are going to deteriorate much quicker. their body's going to be producing more cortisol, the adrenal glands are not going to do what they need to do get into adrenal fatigue and all this other stuff. And not only will that cause and lead to the visible aging, but also what you don't see on the inside. So what we need to do is really be able to maintain our stress levels, right so this way Staying balanced between our sympathetic and parasympathetic, our fight or flight rest and digest, which is a pretty heavy conversation in and of itself. When we don't adapt to stress, our body ultimately deteriorates, begins to break down and show the signs of aging both internally and externally.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:18

You may likely have heard me talk about one of my favorite products in several episodes called adrenal calm. It contains a unique blend of botanicals and nutrients that support the stress response, particularly promoting cortisol balance. Specifically adrenal calm includes a blend of adaptogenic botanicals and nutrients formulated to counteract the effects of daily stress and support healthy energy levels, and also contains phosphate tidal searing and l theanine, both of which reduce that half life of cortisol or in other words, call them adrenaline. I love using this in the afternoon if I've had a stressful workday or before public speaking, I can also be taken on a daily basis as many of us have more daily stress now than ever before. If you're interested in learning more about adaptogenic herbs, read chapter six of my book your longevity blueprint and check out our product guide info sheet at your longevity blueprint comm forward slash product, Ord slash adrenal hyphen calm to get 10% off adrenal calm or elfine us code calm at your longevity blueprint calm.

Now, let's get back to the show. Just since you're a chiropractor here, and I mentioned this in my book, I, I feel like I can adapt to whatever stressors come my way and better when I'm getting adjusted regularly. I know even just sitting at my desk kind of just going through a workday. I just feel revved up. I feel like my nervous system, not that I'm gonna explode, but I just feel more juiced up more, more anxious and sometimes eating adjustment. I'm just like, oh, that was great. That was like it released some tension or pressure or whatnot. So I am drinking the perfect Kool Aid. Although it's not KoolAid we'll say it's coconut water. Something that's healthy, I'm drinking? Yes. Because I do think that that that getting adjusted, which is the adjustment part of your five facets of wellness, I guess I don't know what to call it.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 32:02

Yeah, then the five facets of wellness, the five keys to the wellness lifestyle.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:05

Sure. I think that's so important. So let's but and what's interesting, though, it's

Dr. Brian Stenzler 32:09

not even getting adjusted. That's not the A it's being an adjustment. getting adjusted is a way of getting an adjustment. You know, eating the right foods is another way of being an adjustment and staying in adjustment. Sure. So adjustment in the dream as more of an adjective than a verb. It's all part of it, though.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:27

You also say that longevity is less about genetics and more about lifestyle. So expand on that. I know some people think, Oh, I inherited this gene, I'm, I'm doomed. What not? Important lifestyle is?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 32:39

Well, I think that they say that, um, maybe 20 to 30% of your genetic makeup determines aspects the future, the rest is lifestyle. And that's why you have this whole field of study called epigenetics that basically demonstrates how your lifestyle choices will actually help turn on, turn off certain genes, and potentially even change your genetic makeup. You know, my friend, Steve, the one who introduced me to chiropractic, I used to ask him all the time, when we were in chiropractic school, why he would always go outside in the really cold weather wearing shorts and a T shirt. He said, I'm trying to change my jeans, my kids, you know, would need to wear a jacket or something like that. I don't know if that actually works or not.

But it's the concept of epigenetics that the choices that we make throughout our life can have a tremendous impact on so many other other aspects where we don't have to fall victim to our genes. You know, one of my friends, mentors, James chestnut says, you know, so many people blame their woes in life on bad luck bedrooms and bad genes. When it really comes down to bad choices. You know, you want to be around for a long time, whether it's avoiding an unnecessary accident, or a health crisis. You want to make good choices, good lifestyle choices, that'll keep you on this planet quite a bit longer. And not only it's not only about adding years to your life, but also about adding life to your years, happier you are the more functioning, what better function you have of your body and your nervous system belong you'll be around and the better you'll be around. Because again, living to 100 and being miserable in a nursing home is not the same as getting there gracefully.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:08

Hmm, I agree. And for the listeners, if you want to learn more about genetics, and specifically epigenetics, which he mentioned and a new nutrigenomics kind of how nutrition can influence your genes, check out chapter three of my book where I'm comparing the electrical work of the home to genetics in your body because you do want certain genes or lights turned off certain times of the day and other genes may be turned, or vice versa. get my drift. So check that out. I have to ask where Steve, what happened to Steve is he still practicing his chiropractor, Steve is practicing in Long Island, New York.

Dr. Brian Stenzler 34:38

It's funny because he was 36 hours shy being my stepbrother. And meanwhile, I was in his wedding party. He was in my wedding party and we are brothers. You know, we've stayed he's one of the few people you know, since I live in San Diego now is one of the few people that I actually keep in touch with on a regular basis in New York. He's got a great family, great wife, great kids, and he's living the dream lifestyle, the way He does in New York, and half is anything. That's great.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 35:04

So let's review. Lastly, again, those five facets of wellness. Can you just I know you mentioned them quickly, but can you just run through that list one more time for our listeners?

Dr. Brian Stenzler 35:13

Yeah. So diet, everything that goes into your body from the outside world to the inside world. So it's everything you eat, drink, taste, touch, smell, feel, here are the movies, you're watching all the people you spend time just as much part of your diet is food you consume. Relaxation is giving your body a chance to call timeout to reset, repair, regenerate and rejuvenate yourself. He is for exercise, any activity that causes physical or mental exertion, right? So not only working out in a gym, but also doing mental exercises, doing crossword puzzles, and reading stimulating books that are good for your mind and keep your mind youthful. A being an adjustment is about being in balance, mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. And having optimal brain body communication through the nervous system. And then M for mental wellness is connecting your inner purpose and passion to your outer goals and tasks in all phases of life, being right with your self esteem, self worth, self values, and so on and so forth.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 36:04

All of which is expanded in your book. So tell us about your book, where the audience can find it as well as you Yeah,

Dr. Brian Stenzler 36:10

yeah. So if you go to dream wellness book.com like dream at night, Dr. Am dream wellness book.com, you can get into, you know, how you buy it on Amazon, and everything else. We also have a parent's community, for those that might have children that you're still raising that are under 18, will be communicating on, you know, on Facebook and some other mediums, because that's always changed. We don't know what's going to be in social media, but we'll always have a community. So parents can talk to parents and get some good advice. The book itself has a quiz that goes with it. It's a lifestyle health predictor, essentially called the dream score.

And it's about 100 questions all about your lifestyle. And you'll get a full report that basically shows where in the book you should reference in order to increase the score. And basically show like in a battery, for example, like you look at your phone battery, and you know, if the battery is charging or depleting, you know, it's charging when you plug it in, and you know, it's depleting when you're getting into the right area. So you'll get an idea of whether your health battery is charging or depleting. And that will help protect not only your health, but also that of your children.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:14

Very cool. Very cool. Last question here. What is your top longevity tip, if you had to pick one, you've given us several. But what's your top longevity tip,

Dr. Brian Stenzler 37:24

I guess if I had to pick one top longevity tip, it would have to be to have a chiropractor on your healthcare team. It's not the direction that I thought I was gonna go. But the truth of the matter is, if you don't know if your nervous system is functioning optimally, you're missing out on it and a huge part of your life because the nervous system controls every other system in the body. So I look at the five facets of wellness as being the five wheels of a car, right, you got two tires in the front, two tires in the back and you got a steering wheel in the middle. Okay, hearing wheel is gonna dictate all your wondering where that fifth wheel, that's where the fifth wheel is. And so ultimately, if you eat all the right food in the world, but your brains not allowing your digestive organs to function the right way that food might be, you know, leading to still malnutrition because you're not breaking it down and processing it properly. Right, you can do all the exercise in the world.

But if your brains not communicating with the nerves that feed, say the bicep muscle or the heart muscle, then you could actually be doing more harm than good. So making sure the nervous system is functioning optimally is a key component to it. So I'm gonna have to be biased here and I'm gonna say, just hire a chiropractor to check out. If you need corrective care you get under corrective care if not, chiropractor may invite you back in about six months to get checked again. Awesome.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:35

Well, this was a joy to interview you lots of fun. I look forward to reading your book. So thank you for coming on the show today and sharing with our audience. What chiropractic care did I even say that right chiropractic care can do for their health, as well as thank you for encouraging us to live this wellness lifestyle. So thank you for coming on the show today. Thank you Dr. Gray. It's great being here. Well, there you have it another awesome episode with a chiropractor. My first episode when launching this podcast was with a chiropractor, CJ clean and I've had several others on since like Dr. V, and you know, they never disappoint. Even though our trainings are different. I think we have very similar perspectives on health. Everyone can benefit from a fully functioning nervous system. So find a well trained chiropractor near you so that you can get your spine in line and everybody go out and grab a copy of Dr. denzler. Book dream wellness the five keys to raising kids for a lifetime of physical and mental health and visit dream wellness book.com to get your first copy for 99 cents plus has reduced screen use for kids ebook and the digital detox for parents workbook. All can be found at dream wellness book.com Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck.

You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book plus for a limited time Not only is the course 50% off, but you also get your first consult with me for free. Check this offer out at Your longevity blueprint comm and click the course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show and leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests, or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. A podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative. As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting.

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai