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The Root Cause Of Disease That Nobody’s Talking About With Dr Zach Bush #298

Sep 27, 2022 2h 5m 33 insights
I believe that conversation matters; that long form nuanced conversation is what we need now more than ever, to make the world a better place. And for me, part of that means exposing ourselves to new ideas, new concepts and new ways of thinking that we may previously have not been exposed to. This week’s guest on my Feel Better Live More Podcast is someone who fits that bill perfectly. Dr Zach Bush is a medical doctor and founder of the non-profit Farmer’s Footprint, created to find root cause solutions for human and ecological health. His passion for education reaches across many disciplines, including genomics, the immune system, and gut brain health. Zach spent many years as a conventional doctor, specialising in internal medicine, endocrinology and hospice care. Disillusioned with the state of Western medicine, he began taking an integrative approach, studying the body’s microbiomes in relation to health, disease and food systems. Today though, Zach describes his life and work as ‘dedicated to the health of humanity and the planet we call home’. In this conversation, Zach makes the case for a revolution in how we understand ourselves, our fellow humans, our healthcare and farming systems – and how we save the world. This episode is a rollercoaster ride through biology, physics, philosophy, economics and environmentalism – all sprinkled with a good dose of inspiration. Zach and I share the view that healthcare needs radical change. It can no longer be about doctors telling patients what’s wrong and prescribing drugs and treatments that don’t look at the whole person. We discuss how traits of ego, individualism and competition aren’t really human at all. And Zach explains how the realisation that all living beings are energetically connected and interdependent is the key to transformation – we cannot thrive as one species if we wipe out others. We also talk about saving our soil and our food systems through regenerative agriculture, and encouraging individuals, farmers and big industry to work together to save the internal and external ecosystems that none of us could live without. Yes, these are big topics. But ultimately, Zach’s message is one of hope. He’s not afraid to put forward big solutions, and they’re all made up of steps each one of us can start taking from today. This is a really special conversation. It's honest, evocative and at times, provocative. I hope you enjoy listening. Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com. Show notes https://drchatterjee.com/298
Actionable Insights

1. Allow Yourself to Feel

Stop suppressing your ability to feel and allow yourself to experience emotions, as this is the pathway to finding solutions for depression, pain, and everything else.

2. Practice Daily Solitude

Dedicate time each day to solitude and silence, allowing yourself to feel, trust, and respect your emotions without judgment, enabling them to process and leading to a deeper connection with yourself and the universe.

3. Be Present, Listen to Self

Cultivate presence and listen deeply to your inner self, recognizing your divine self-identity as a source of information, which is the foundational first step towards achieving health.

4. Acknowledge Your Inner Scream

If you feel overwhelmed, confused, or a deep void, acknowledge and respect the ‘scream’ or intense feelings within you, as this is an authentic signal demanding attention and indicating a disconnect from your true self.

5. Trust and Process Feelings

Acknowledge and trust all your feelings, even uncomfortable ones like depression or anxiety, as they are valid expressions of your inner state; allow them to surface and process through them to find deeper truths and solutions.

6. Embrace Life’s Intensity

Be willing to feel the full intensity of being alive, even when uncomfortable, as this willingness to feel and process emotions leads to deeper truths, richer life experiences, and a sense of abundance and connection.

7. Cultivate Inner Stillness

Train yourself to achieve inner stillness and silence, allowing you to access a ‘sixth sense’ of deep resonance within, which provides a profound sense of self and well-being.

8. Be the Architect of Health

Take ownership of your health and happiness, becoming the architect of your own well-being rather than depending solely on doctors, who should act as guides and partners.

9. Nourish Self from Fullness

Approach lifestyle changes from a place of self-love and fullness, recognizing that true self-care naturally leads to nourishing yourself with quality food, movement, rest, and sleep, making these changes effortless and permanent.

10. Fill Void with Love & Nature

Address feelings of emptiness or lack by cultivating love, community, family, and connection with nature, which can reduce the need for competitive behaviors.

11. Reconnect Deeply with Nature

When facing health problems like depression, headaches, anxiety, or cancer, actively and deeply reconnect with nature as a primary step towards healing, as disease often stems from a lack of nature.

12. Ground Yourself in Nature

Spend 10-15 minutes daily breathing fresh air and allowing your bare skin (e.g., feet) to touch the earth, which helps reintroduce beneficial soil bacteria to your body and rebuild biodiversity.

13. Radically Change Environment

To address persistent health issues, consider radically changing your physical environment (e.g., moving to a different climate or ecosystem for a few months) to alter your microbiome and disrupt disease patterns.

14. Re-diversify After Antibiotics

If you’ve taken antibiotics, understand that the need for them often indicates a poor ecosystem; immediately and significantly increase your exposure to diverse natural environments to redouble or quadruple beneficial bacterial species.

15. Avoid Monotonous Environments

Be mindful of living in overly isolated and monotonous environments (e.g., sealed, air-conditioned spaces with artificial light and chemical off-gassing) as this reduces biodiversity in your microbiome, leading to health issues.

16. Nourish Four Pillars of Health

Prioritize the four pillars of health: food, movement, sleep, and relaxation, as optimizing these can lead to the disappearance of various symptoms and diseases.

17. Adopt Holistic Health Approach

When addressing health issues like migraines or headaches, take a holistic approach to understand the root causes rather than just masking symptoms with medication.

18. Reconnect with Food Sources

Re-establish a connection with your food sources, understanding where your food comes from and the labor involved, to overcome the disconnect from soil and humanity.

19. Plant a Backyard Garden

Cultivate a garden in your backyard to reconnect with the soil and understand the process of food production, fostering respect for nature and the labor involved in growing food.

20. Embrace Aging and Wisdom

Challenge the societal resistance to aging and wrinkles, and instead embrace the process of becoming an elder and gaining wisdom, rather than fearing the self-reflection it might bring.

21. Embrace Play for Cooperation

Engage in play, which is described as the most evolved form of cooperation, to foster creativity and synergistic possibilities in your life.

22. Regularly Expose to New Ideas

Make an effort to regularly expose yourself to new ideas, concepts, and ways of thinking to broaden your perspective and improve your understanding of the world.

23. Tune to 432 Hz Music

Consider listening to music tuned to 432 Hz, which is described as the original concert A and is more in tune with natural frequencies, potentially fostering a deeper connection with nature.

24. Heal with Resonant Frequencies

Explore the therapeutic potential of resonant frequencies, such as being in the presence of a beehive (which thrums in the key of C), to help retune cognitive dissonance and alleviate conditions like PTSD.

25. Recognize Your Energetic Nature

Understand that you are fundamentally energy and physics before biology; acknowledge your body as an electromagnetic field that tunes to resonant frequencies, informing cellular function and connection with nature.

26. Utilize Creative Expression

Recognize the human brain’s capacity for creative expression and engage in activities that allow this creativity to manifest, leveraging your unique ability to process and organize information.

27. Step into Harmony with Nature

Choose to step into life by embracing harmony with nature, recognizing our fundamental connection to the natural world as the source of our existence.

28. Practice Open-Handed Receiving

To truly receive the gift of life and overcome the fear of death, cultivate silence and an open-handed posture, allowing yourself to receive rather than grasping or resisting.

29. Be a True Tone for Children

By finding and expressing your authentic self (’true tone’), you empower your children to develop their own self-identity and curiosity, rather than conforming to external expectations or your metrics of success.

30. Be a Resonant Truth

Strive to embody your authentic, resonant truth, as this inner harmony acts as a ’tuning fork’ that can positively influence and heal those around you, fostering cooperation and shared purpose.

31. Collaborate for Ecosystem Health

Encourage individuals, farmers, and big industry to work together to save internal and external ecosystems, recognizing that our survival depends on their health.

32. Practice Regenerative Farming

For farmers, stop spraying chemicals and plowing, and instead plant diverse cover crops (15-30 species) to support biodiversification, allowing the soil to recover its natural metabolism and eliminate problematic weeds.

33. Realign Economic Values

Advocate for and participate in economic systems that align with natural principles and value connection to nature, rather than being based on extraction and metrics disconnected from true well-being.