← The Balance Theory
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- [00:00]
Iman Hassan
Food is supposed to be medicine, but the way industrial farming has started to disrupt, we aren't benefiting, which is why most of us are mineral deficient. We used to get all our nutrients and minerals from the food that we eat from the soil. But because the soil is so depleted nowadays, the baseline minerals, all of these things are not available anymore.
- [00:19]
Podcast Host
Today's guest is a founder, CEO and host.
- [00:21]
Podcast Co-Host
We dive deep into the everyday choices
- [00:23]
Podcast Host
that make or break your health and
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Podcast Co-Host
debunk some of the most misleading health trends.
- [00:27]
Podcast Host
Joining me on the podcast today is Iman Hassan.
- [00:31]
Podcast Co-Host
How do you make good choices for yourself from a nutritional standpoint?
- [00:35]
Iman Hassan
Organic. It's regenerative, a lot of the stuff. Even at the best supermarkets, it's been the crop or the produce from the year before. You're paying these super expensive prices for things that were produced last season.
- [00:46]
Podcast Co-Host
Sometimes it feels like, well, the soil is contaminated, like what am I going to do about it? Is there anything we can do on a consumption point?
- [00:51]
Iman Hassan
I'm harping on about this so much myself. This, this year is really working on. Fasting is a stressor. So how adaptive is your body to stress at that moment? You would think, okay, it would help reduce inflammation because you're giving your body a break. It would help your gut health. I personally am in a place in my life that I cannot intermittent fast right now because my stress response has been so high to everything. If you have endometriosis or PCOS and you start intermittent fasting, you will stress your body out so much more and those signs and symptoms will just get worse. All they would do, the OBGYN and the guy would do is put me on birth control and my body was not getting any better. You can be taking in the most expensive supplements or doing the most expensive like blood detoxing, ozone protocols and stuff, but if you cannot fix the health of your cells, then you're not going to get any better. The number one thing that will aid you and keep you sick is.
- [01:46]
Podcast Co-Host
All right. Balances. Welcome back to another episode of the Balance Theory.
- [01:49]
Podcast Host
I'm excited today to dive into a topic that affects all of us.
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Podcast Co-Host
It regards our health, our the quality of years we've got on this planet. And I have someone today who's very passionate to dive into this and share with us everything she's learning about the space and really get us up to speed as to how we can really
- [02:05]
Podcast Host
make sense of this and apply in everyday life.
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Podcast Co-Host
Joining me today is Iman Hassan. Iman, welcome.
- [02:11]
Iman Hassan
Thank you so much for having me on the show on a Sunday and coming into the studio and leaving your beautiful baby girl.
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Podcast Co-Host
Oh, good.
- [02:17]
Iman Hassan
I appreciate it.
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Podcast Co-Host
I love doing this podcast and learning from people like you. So I'm grateful for your time today and I'm very excited to learn from you.
- [02:24]
Iman Hassan
Amazing.
- [02:25]
Podcast Co-Host
I think where is a great place to start and just sort of to set the scene and understand a bit more about you. Before your podcast biohacket became what it is today, what problem were you personally trying to solve in your health that made you want to start this journey?
- [02:41]
Iman Hassan
So it's twofold. I had a lot of health and wellness problems, like health issues growing up. So I was chronically inflamed. I had migraines, I suffered from getting ovarian cysts, constantly getting them. One of my ovaries was reconstructed and all they would do, the OBGYN and the Guyanese would do is put me on birth control. And my body was not getting any better and I was constantly exhausted. I'm a high energy person, but I was suffering from constant exhaustion. In 2022, just prior to that, I had met a functional medicine doctor. He taught me about inflammation, he taught me about peptides. But it wasn't until 2022 that my mom passed away from turbo cancer that I said the way I'm living my life, but also how I'm in service to people needs to shift. And so our PR marketing agency, which was primarily at the time, luxury retail design focus, we started shifting that to health and wellness. And then 18 months after that, I started being like, okay, I wanna start building a show. And it wasn't until I started interviewing guests and learning so much about health and wellness that I started able to apply that to my own life. So my grief with what happened to my mother and Erica, I had seven days from when she died in the UK to take her to Poland, Pakistan to bury her, to go back to work. I didn't have time to process really what had happened, how to deal with it, how I would have better instilled her to do things differently because I didn't agree with her treatment protocol. And it all happened so suddenly. And I built this curiosity. And our moderate biohacket is curiosity heals. It's from my own grief that needed to be healed and it's by asking all those questions. So my own health journey started. She got sick and passed away. And then I was like, wait, I. I think I've been doing this all wrong. And that's where I got really, like, looking at the American healthcare system I realized how much absolute, not only corruption, but misinformation there is and where all these research studies and these, you know, kind of experts are coming from and how a lot of the research that we see today is being funded by Big Pharma.
- [04:47]
Podcast Co-Host
I think in the last few years this has sort of become more prominent where people are starting to maybe question the source or the. Like you say, like the funding of certain agendas. I feel like it's such a big topic, right. And it can feel very overwhelming to think like, you know, modern day health systems and treatments, like they feel very disconnected from nature. Right. Like you kind of see this shift in this trend, like back to what our grandmothers used to tell us or back to like, you know, what is the closest thing to earth in your learnings through your podcast, the people you've spoken to, the changes you've made in your own life. What sort of is that middle ground? Like is it, is it one extreme or the other? Is it something in the middle? You know, I think there's maybe a place or something to say for the advancement and how far modern medicine has come. And obviously there's a beautiful place for it. I'm sure it has a role to play in how long we're living today in terms of hygiene and just in overall quality of life. But what is that balance with? If you want to step away from that, find a bit more of a natural aligned approach that's more like your functional medicine, alternative medicine, you know, like talk to me about where you've landed. Obviously this is a personal choice for everybody.
- [06:02]
Iman Hassan
I think everybody and this would beneficial people across the board is going back to the core pillars that make you healthy. Focusing on nutrition, which is you are what you eat, right? So understanding what you're actually putting in your body. Sleep is a non negotiable. That is doesn't matter if you're going towards traditional medicine or this. Sleep is a non negotiable. That is what heals your body and helps you recover. And then things like little things like hydration, getting in, lowering stress response. Those are the things I think people need to start with before they dive into this medication or that medication or going towards peptides and stuff. And I think we need to understand that we're individuals. One size does not fit all. Because a certain supplement may work for me in a certain form does not mean Erica, that's gonna work for you or the person next do. So I think individualized care, understanding your body, your rhythms, understanding your genetics, where you come from, what you are able to digest and process versus somebody else. Ancestral diets, some of us grew up eating a certain way versus other parts of the world did not. So let's say you will be inflamed if you take in certain sort of foods or open yourself to certain sort of grains versus a part of the world that would not feel the same way. So I think education, fixing your core pillars of health, that would be beneficial to everybody and really looking into individualized care.
- [07:21]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah. And what I love about this, I mean, I interviewed Gary Brecker. I know you've spoken with him at length before as well. What you're saying and what he's saying is very aligned in the sense of it's accessible things we do every day. But it's looking into those things because I think sometimes when we talk about biohacking, Right. As a concept, it kind of feels out of, out of reach for people, maybe from a time point of view or from like a financial point of view. And it's sort of like the bonus, it's the cherry on top. But these, these pillars, they're things we
- [07:51]
Podcast Host
all do every day.
- [07:52]
Podcast Co-Host
We all drink water, we all, you know, consume food. But then looking at the choices we make there, you know, we are both in Dubai at the moment. So talk to me about in general, how you approach making sure you get quality nutrition. Let's maybe start there. In a city that we basically import most things. Right. How do you make sort of good choices for yourself from a nutritional standpoint? You know, whether someone listening to this is in Dubai or not, I think it's useful to understand someone's filter of how they're selecting food. Yeah. And then making it.
- [08:24]
Iman Hassan
So you would be surprised, but when I'm in Dubai, my body feels less inflamed and I can digest the food much better than when I'm in the US that is where I live majority of the time right now.
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Podcast Co-Host
Interesting.
- [08:35]
Iman Hassan
Because even regenerative produce, organic produce, a lot of times it's compromise. Right. So when you look at regenerative farming or even organic farms, right next to it, there might be a massive corporate farm right next to us. Whatever they're spraying on that, that's being pushed over by the wind and crops are getting affected. So one of the things is in the US our food system is so highly compromised that I actually think a country like Dubai, which is importing in better food produce from Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, they're actually getting better produce than we're getting exposed to in the US This Morning I woke up and there was a massive post on Instagra talking about vital farms. It's one of the biggest like free range egg farm that in the US A lot of us buy our eggs from, right? And they came out to say that we're giving our, our hens are basically having soy and corn in their feed. This is the place we go to for organic pasture raised cage free eggs. And now we're being told the research, there was a research site that was done to saying this is what's in their, in their feed. So in a way I feel the buy has a little bit of an advantage because they're importing in from some of the best places that have of what it means to be organic, regenerative. They don't allow in a lot of the herbicides and pesticides that the US is allowing in. That's a massive problem right now. And so I think in Dubai it's actually a win for you. And I think they also have a lot of local, hyper specialized supermarkets. I hear this from like my family, all that lives here. There are farms you can go to. I think they're in Sharjah. There's an incredible dairy farm that people are getting their dairy from. So I think it's about shopping smart, using your local vendors and smaller produce places. But I think generally the produce that's coming into this country is a lot cleaner and not like doesn't have as many preservatives as what we're consuming in the U.S. despite U.S. spending so much more out every week on groceries, despite us having to figure out this farm or that farm overall, it's all getting affected. Agriculture in the US is a major problem right now, which is why a lot of people even want to move out. Because they're like, no matter how clean we want to live, no matter how much we spend on our food, no matter how much overall the country itself is so polluted, our water supplies extremely compromised our air supply. Granted Dubai doesn't have the highest air quality standards, but there's so many other chemicals that are coming into our air supply in the US as well.
- [10:57]
Podcast Co-Host
That's really interesting. Actually. I never thought about that as an advantage for Dubai because you often think, well, things aren't local to here. When I'm shopping I always try and look for UAE local and try and prioritize those things. But meats and things, it's all imported. But that is actually an interesting point.
- [11:14]
Podcast Host
Speaking of all things health and longevity, one everyday thing in the home that
- [11:17]
Podcast Co-Host
we forget to address is our air quality. Seriously, when was the last time you thought about it? I realized that even though I clean
- [11:23]
Podcast Host
pretty regularly, my house somehow still felt dusty and heavy, like I didn't just wipe things down. And I found out that this was because of the air quality in my home. Since then I've started using Air Doctor, the first and only purifier I use in my home. And I've noticed not just cleaner air and bench spaces, but better sleep and much more peace of mind and confidence in the air my family and I are breathing in. Air Doctor's powerful three stage filtration captures extremely small particles, including airborne contaminants you don't want to be breathing in like dust, pollen, mold spores, bacteria, just to name a few. I personally love the whisper quiet operation which is so perfect for a baby in the house. And the auto mode feature and change filter reminders make sure that we have optimal air. 24, 7 Air Doctor won Newsweek's reader's choice award for best air purifier and over 97% of customers feel confident knowing Air Doctor is science backed up, third party tested and certified. If you'd like to try this for yourself, head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code Erica to get up to $300 off today. Air Doctor comes with a 30 day money back guarantee plus a 3 year warranty and $84 value free. Get this exclusive podcast only offer now at airdoctorpro.com that's a I R D O C T-O-R-P-R-O.com using promo code E R I K A. Thank you to Air Doctor for sponsoring today's show. Now let's get back into the episode.
- [12:42]
Podcast Co-Host
For people listening and this is in general, right? Whether you can afford to shop organic or not, or you, you know, are just going to your local supermarket in terms of like fresh produce, what are things we can do to that in terms of like cleaning it or storing it? Like just any like sort of household tips you have for I guess making it as healthy as possible for us to consume. There's only so much we can control, you know, and I feel like right in this conversation sometimes it feels like, well the soil's contaminated, like what am I going to do about it? Is there anything we can do on a consumption at the consumption point?
- [13:13]
Iman Hassan
By the way, there's a brand that I want people to get to know here because I found them super fascinating. It's a brand called Pure Harvest and they are starting a lot of vertical Farming and it's all grown.
- [13:21]
Podcast Host
I feel like I've heard of them.
- [13:22]
Iman Hassan
Yeah, very cool stuff. They have tomatoes. It's a very cool concept. And I think over the next five to 10 years in the UAE alone, we will start seeing a lot more vertical farming. They're trying to find a solution for rather than importing everything. And so that is going to happen regardless. Right. And also bringing in meat from other countries, that's not a problem. You freeze it, it comes in. It's more the vegetables and produce in that capacity that will. And I think they're gonna find a solution to that. Secondly, for anybody, I don't care if it's organic, regenerative, if you are going to a supermarket or even to a farmer's market and you are buying produce, please for the love of God, don't just put it in your fridge and think it's clean and ready to kind of consume. Because they're only once washing it. You know, it's kind of pre washed and things like that when you come home. How I do it in my house is I bring it home. I make of baking soda and white wine vinegar. I soak the produce in there for five to 10 minutes, sometimes 15. I let all the dirt kind of come to the surface, I dry it out. And then what we do for storage is if you actually take paper napkins and keep them a little bit moist and then put the produce in the fridge, they actually last longer. Like wrap the bridges, like wrap it up and we make sure everything is cleaned out and we're storing it correctly. I never use the plastic that I bring in from outside. I never store it in that. I clean it out, I let it air dry and then I kind of like wrap it with this paper on it and put it away in the fridge.
- [14:45]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, well, I'm glad to hear that because that's the same minus the wet paper towel, which is. I'll try that and see if it lasts longer.
- [14:52]
Iman Hassan
And the other thing is, it's simple. Baking soda and white wine vinegar. It's not complicated. You just make this at home. It's super simple. You don't have to buy some sort of a chemical thing, organic thing. You just make this at home and put it, douse it in a bucket and that's it.
- [15:06]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, I'm always a fan of things when it's like household items, easy, accessible, like that's what we want.
- [15:12]
Iman Hassan
And the other thing is like understanding over here. Obviously it's hard because so many things are being kind of brought in but it's seasonal eating, eating what is in season at that time. So it's not stored away. So in America, there's also the thing, okay, it's organic, it's regenerative, all that, unless you're working with a really small farm, a lot of the stuff, even at the best supermarkets, it's been the crop or the produce from the year before or the season. A whole 12 months have gone by. They put into storage, then they freeze, and then they're deploying it to the supermarket. So it's not even super fresh. So you're paying these super expensive prices for things that were produced last season, so almost a year ago in most cases that were then stored, that are then being deployed into the supermarkets.
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Podcast Co-Host
Yeah.
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Iman Hassan
So imagine how much the nutrients and the minerals are also going down in that place. Which is why most of us are mineral deficient, by the way, because previously we used to get all our nutrients and minerals from the food that we ate, from the soil, because the food was getting the minerals from the soil. But because the soil is so depleted nowadays, the baseline minerals, zinc, selenium, magnesium, all of these things are not available anymore. And so now we're having to supplement those things into our diet because we aren't getting it from food. So food is supposed to be medicine. But the way industrial farming has started to disrupt what it means, regenerative farming, we aren't benefiting.
- [16:32]
Podcast Co-Host
So when you started, I guess, on your journey and you were shifting the way you're looking at your health, you're learning about inflammation, all these types of things, you started learning about nutrition, quality. What are some of the biggest changes you made?
- [16:45]
Iman Hassan
Well, it's a change that I wish I could make more of. So the number one thing that will age you and keep you sick is inflammation in the body. Right. So reducing one thing, I would say definitely reducing my microplastic intake, which annoys me a lot when I'm here because all the water bottles are plastic. So one is consciously lowering the consumption of microplastics in the house. Number two is really fixing my sleep. And I would love to kind of preach, I preach it all the time, but I wish I practiced it more, is really getting in that eight, nine, ten hours of sleep. But I will say, from all the research that I've done, the number one thing that will make you sick, that will age you, is chronic inflammation on a cellular level, and that comes from oxidative stress. And for women, as we age, because our hormones shift so much, we go into perimenopause and menopause. Our adaptability to stress completely changes in our 30s, 40s, and 50s versus our 20s. But a lot of times life is getting more and more hectic as we're getting older, but we aren't able to adapt to the same stressors around us. So getting ourselves into a place, into a rhythm, and that we mitigate some of the signs and symptoms of oxidative stress, which is the number one thing that's going to age us and keep us sick.
- [17:52]
Podcast Co-Host
Chronic inflammation, is that something we can, like, physically see in ourselves? Or is it like, you know, you're talking about it on a cellular level? Like, how do you know? Like what, how do you actually find out what level you are?
- [18:04]
Iman Hassan
It a lot of people, when they have gut issues, that's inflammation in their body, right? A lot of times people have cirrhosis or they're having an autoimmune response. That is your body screaming. That is inflammation at a cellular level. So any sort of disease that most of the time, the root cause of that is coming from inflammation, is coming from inflammation on the cellular level. So one of the biggest things I've also learned is you can be taking in the most expensive supplements or doing the most expensive, like blood detoxing, ozone protocols and stuff, but if you cannot fix the health of your cells, then you're not gonna get any better either because your cells cannot retain the nutrients that are putting in and detox themselves correctly. So when you look at your cells and there is this gushy layer around each one of our cells, it's called a cell membrane. And that cell membrane is made up of phospholipids. Now, with all the EMF exposure, microplastics, environmental toxins, that cell membrane has been deteriorated over time and the inflammation and stress that's being caused. So our cell walls, a membrane is essentially stressed out. So one of the products that I swear by and I discovered this, this brand's been around for 40 plus years. It's called PC. It's a full spectrum of phospholip. It, it refortifies your cell membrane. And this is, by the way, a product I think everybody should be on. It's safe for children. I even give it to my dogs. And it re fortifies your cell membrane and helps your cell detox all the junk that's not meant to be in there and bring in all the nutrients that's supposed, that's supposed to help regulate it. Now, when you can regulate the health of your cells, you lower inflammation in your body. Your body's more receptive to the food that you're putting in. It's more receptive to stress and environmental stress that you might get, or personal stress, oxidative stress levels can go down. It's also more receptive to improving your. So everything you do when you reduce that inflammation marker at a cellular level allows your body to respond better to the environment.
- [19:56]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, it makes sense that it would have such a knock on effect. How do we test our inflammation? Like what is the, what are we asking our naturopath gp, who are we going to what, how are we finding that out?
- [20:07]
Iman Hassan
So there's different ways to test it, but it's a, it's your insulin levels. Right. So what is your blood glucose levels? The other thing is hrv. So HRV stands for heart rate variability. One of the markers to know how chronically inflamed you are is your level of hrv. What's your baseline? So if you have a high level of hrv. Right. And by the way, for everybody, it's individualistic, it's not like a, this is good, this is bad, it's individualistic.
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Podcast Co-Host
Right, but compared to yourself, compared to
- [20:34]
Iman Hassan
yourself, HRV is the heartbeats per the space between your heart rate, like between your heartbeats. Right. And the more flexible you are, the more adapted you are to stress, the higher the number is, the lower inflammation you have in your body as well, the better you're able to adapt to the stress in your environment. So all of these wearables, aura, whoop, all of these things have HRV and people are getting obsessed with it. But what they need to understand, a it's individualistic and B, that's a really good place to start to realize how stressed you are, how inflamed is your body, how's it responding to a certain workout? And what I love about these wearables is that you're able to see if I do a HIIT workout 24 hours later, how inflamed is still my body because that's how better I'm going to sleep. What is it measuring at night? And that way it gives you a way to adjust and tweak things within the 24 hour cycle versus waiting to go for a diagnostic testing, going to, you know, your functional medicine doctor or your homeopathic being like hey, can you measure this? Secondly is one of the big things is your insulin resistance, right? How metabolically flexible are you? How long a window can you actually fast and versus not what are you able to, how long a time can you go without eating, eating with it affecting your baseline. So these are like easy little markers you can check to be like, how inflamed am I? What is my level of recovery? Am I being able to adjust my HRV and raise it from like, let's say you're at 30 points one night, can I raise it to 40, 50 or 60 by making these slight low changes and edits. So that's a good way to check how inflamed is my body and what are the immediate steps I can take to mitigate that.
- [22:08]
Podcast Co-Host
That's really interesting on the how long can you go without eating point. Yeah, let's dive into that in terms of women because obviously like doing that at different points in the month depending on your cycle is going to have a very different. Like you shouldn't be doing that at certain points in the points in the month. Like I've had a lot of other professionals on who speak a lot about women's health. And for example, fasting during your period is not recommended. So do you have any insights there? If we kind of take a female specific lens to maybe something like testing the insulin, like you just shared any sort of tips or just comments around that because you know, we were talking before when we came in. It's not just like different cultures and making it an individualistic thing, but it's also like men versus women and our completely different hormones that would have a role to play in testing X, Y, Z. That might mean massive difference.
- [22:58]
Iman Hassan
So I think you've. Have you read Mindy Pelz's book Fasting Like a Girl?
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Podcast Co-Host
No.
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Iman Hassan
She is like the guru when it comes to all things like intermittent fasting and stuff. Now most women, at least for me, for example, I am at a place in my life that you would think, okay, it would help reduce inflammation because you're giving your body a break. It would help your gut health if you're fasting for a certain window of time. I personally am in a place in my life that I cannot intermittent fast right now because my stress response has been so high to everything. So depending on where you are in your life, are you perimenopausal? Are you menopausal? What are the other outside factors affecting you? Is how you decide whether I should be fasting or not. So back to your question is it's not one size fits all. It depends on where you are in your cycle. Actually you would have a better rate of fasting during your actual. When you're actually, when you're actually menstruating. That Week is a week that you can actually lift the highest as well. So you should be actually going to the gym and lifting. The week prior is when you don't fast and you don't even lift heavy weights at the gym. So it's different. So when it comes to looking at fasting, everyone is individualistic. Again, you have to see where your hormones are. So how's your estrogen, your progesterone, your estrogel, your testosterone? That alone, those markers will allow you to understand, am I a candidate for long intermittent fasting? Is it a six hour window? Is it an eight hour window? Is it a 16 hour window? Is it a 48 hour window? There's some women who are able to do 48 hour fasts, water fast and they're extremely beneficial for them.
- [24:26]
Podcast Co-Host
So you can tell how long is an optimal fast for you based on where your hormones are, where your hormone
- [24:32]
Iman Hassan
levels are, and where you are in your frame of like, are you perimenopausal? If you are perimenopausal, you are automatically gonna be a lot more sensitive to longer prolonged fast. So you need more support. So maybe I wouldn't be doing a 16 or 20 hour fast or even a 12 hour fast if I'm perimenopausal and my hormones are not stable. So if you're having massive like spikes in certain hormones or crashes, then you're like, my body's not going to be able to adapt because what is fasting? Fasting is a stressor. It's another stressor that you're adding in. So how adaptive is your body to stress at that moment? Which is why your fasting insulin levels matter so much, because there's a gauge to step back and say, am I able to withstand the stress of fasting? Just like contrast therapy, right? Cold plunging is not good for women at certain times of the month or the cycle, depending if they're going down a fertility route versus not is my body able to mitigate the offset of putting myself through fasting, whether it's six, eight or 12 hours, is my blood glucose level levels stable enough to do that? What is going to be my response to it after? So looking at your hormone profile, testing your fasting glucose and seeing how stable they are are interesting. And then if you are perimenopausal, you do have to be more careful than somebody who's menopausal because your hormones are so sensitive at this point there, if they're not properly supported, that additional stress might put you into menopause faster. So again, it's like not one size fits all. And I think our years between 35 to 45, which is the range that you are kind of going into perimenopause, are such highly sensitive years for us as women that we can't be following any of these dogmatic diets. Whether it's like, oh, I'm gonna go carnivore at this time, you know, or I'm just gonna go pure paleo. That sort of dogmatic approach to our health is what gets us into a lot of trouble. And that's where the point of like being properly guided, understanding your unique genetics, understanding your lifestyle. My lifestyle, considering I'm living between two continents, my sleep patterns, how much stress I have in my environment might be different to your lifestyle right now at the exact same age. So it's also factoring in things like that, that what do I need to properly support my hormone health and my body? And what do you have to do at that stage? Because listen, you just had a newborn baby, your baby's six months old, you're living in one place, your environment and stressors will be completely different to mine.
- [26:54]
Podcast Co-Host
Sure.
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Iman Hassan
So you intermittent fasting right now would be very different to somebody like myself.
- [27:00]
Podcast Co-Host
Sure, yeah, yeah. And it's just interesting to discuss because often these things are fad kind of concepts or they're just trending topics and everyone just sort of tries them out without maybe contemplating. Okay, how's this look different for men and women and then within women, like from woman to woman, like depending on all these things, it can look very different and mean something different. For anyone that wants to personally dive deeper on this, what kind of professional would they want to be working with that can support them to understand these types of things?
- [27:30]
Iman Hassan
You can work with your incredible homeopath or you can look at a functional medicine doctor and why I say homeopathic or incredible. Functional medicine is basically the school of medicine that looks at your body as a whole. So where you have endocrinologists or just nutritionists that just look at one aspect of somebody, what functional medicine does, it steps away and says, I want to look at the whole organism and biology of a person and I want to get to the root cause of if they're having insulin resistance, if they're having certain health issues, if they're having Sibo or Candida, where is that actually coming from and how do I treat that versus just being hyper specialized, like somebody like an endocrinologist who's really only focused on one lens and they don't step back and say, what are other areas where lifestyle or deficiencies are affecting this person to be where they are. So pairing yourself up with a functional medicine practitioner who's, you know, kind of more generalistic and then. Or if you want to go a little bit more holistic, you can go the homeopathic route and then working alongside them to understand a lot of women. By the way, if you are, if you have endometriosis or PCOS and you start intermittent fasting, you will stress your body out so much more and those signs and symptoms will just get worse because PCOS and endometriosis and a lot of people are in not taught. This is a metabolic disorder. It's about dis. Disregulated blood sugar, blood glucose levels, and that's why it can be healed through diet and nutrition. But most doctors over here, you go in and you say, oh, I have PCOS or endometriosis. They're just giving you a pill to solve that problem. And you guys can look this up, you can literally go put it through AI perplexity Claude or chat GPT and say, is endometriosis and PCOS a metabolic disorder? And the answer straightforward is yes. And it can be reverted through signs and symptoms and diet. So if you're somebody who has that and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna do these really long fasts, you're gonna add so much more. You're gonna a make your condition worse. And that's why I always say that you have to be careful in understanding your body, your hormones, and understanding how you're properly also detoxing toxins out of your body to make sure you're not creating that accumulative stress. And if you are chronically inflamed, I would not suggest intermittent fasting is a way to start because again, what are you doing? You already have chronic inflammation. Your body's like or flight. It's not falling into parasympathetic. Then you're adding another stressor on top of your body and saying, now I'm going to do these long fasting windows. 8, 12, 16, 18 hours. What is that telling your body you're not safe? When you give your body that signal, it cannot at all go into the parasympathetic mode, so it stays in sympathetic, which is fight or flight. And the reason why so many women are chronically inflamed and unwell is because we've gone from being in, let's say sympathetic for a couple of hours to now living in that state for 8, 10, 12 hours a day. And the only time we're falling into sympathetic is when we go to, to sleep at night.
- [30:09]
Podcast Co-Host
And sometimes you kind of naturally sleep. Some people need a lot of support like substances or whatever to go to sleep.
- [30:16]
Iman Hassan
And that's why I become a really big advocate and I speak about this all the time. Not only women do have to look at individualized care, they have to look at their hormone profile and where they are in their, in their life cycle. But they have to also start really paying attention to their nervous system and what that means to regulate their nervous system. Because if you're constantly like this, right, and your body's not able to go between a sympathetic and a parasympathetic nervous system, the amount of stress that is causing you day to day, that alone is not only going to inflame you on a cellular level, it would completely throw off all your hormones, it's going to throw off your digestion. You not be able to actually absorb even nutrients from food or supplementation that's coming into your body because your body doesn't know what to do with it. It doesn't know how to take that, digest it and put it to work.
- [31:02]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, you hear that a lot. People like, I have the healthiest diet, but I still have stomach issues or I can't lose weight or all these different things. On this point, if we take it down, you know, dive deeper at one moment. For women specifically and science and sort of research aside, what role does our intuition have to play in our health?
- [31:21]
Iman Hassan
I think when it comes to women it's 80%.
- [31:24]
Podcast Co-Host
Okay. Interesting. Have you got a personal experience on this?
- [31:27]
Iman Hassan
So I do. So last year I went for safari to Kenya and I got Babesia.
- [31:33]
Podcast Co-Host
It got, what's that?
- [31:35]
Iman Hassan
It's basically a parasite that basically comes in. It's tick borne and you wouldn't. I was getting hot flashes at night. I wasn't feeling well, I was getting nausea and I was seeing this incredible functional medicine doctor in New Jersey and they test for everything. So when you're going in to see her, she tests for all tick borne diseases, parasites, all these different markers and you get it from ticks and it stays in your system and it can cause, cause brain inflammation.
- [31:59]
Podcast Co-Host
Wow.
- [31:59]
Iman Hassan
It can get really dangerous if left un unregulated, unmitigated. And so I get Babesia. It gets into my system and I'm getting the nausea, the hot flashes, like feverish kind of response to things. I don't know where it's coming from. I'm like, shit, Iman, have I gone into menopause? I was like, I'm young. I couldn't have gone into menopause. But it mitigates those kind of symptoms for you. And you can get lightheaded and dizzy. I started going up to see her and doing these treatments. I did this protocol called the PK protocol, which is these really intense IV treatments. I'm doing it, it's supposed to get everything out system. They're giving me pharmaceutical grade anti parasitics, trying to get rid of all that stuff. Erica. Because my body was in fight or flight, flying up and down from Miami to New Jersey. And every time one of these, Every time they'd come to give me one of these IVs, my body would be like, no, we are done. We're not doing this anymore. So towards the end of my treatment, they would come to try to give me an IV and my body was like, I'm not having it. So intuitively I was like, this is making me a lot worse. I need. I've done everything. I've spent like $20,000 trying to do these IVs, trying to get this out of my system. They tested me, but because it's still in my body and intuitively I'm like, you know what this is? I'm not taking the right approach. I am doing things all wrong. Let me fly back to Miami and figure this out. I go back to Miami and I start working with another functional medicine doctor. And he tells me, iman, what does your intuition tell you? Why are you not shedding this? Why are you not being able to flush this out of your system? And also I had mold exposure at the time that just wasn't getting cleared out. Turns out I was in such chronic fight or flight constantly that my body didn't feel safe enough to release. No matter what you hit it with, it would not release. It would not clear out the mold, it would not clear out the babesia.
- [33:37]
Podcast Co-Host
And probably then not holding on to it.
- [33:39]
Iman Hassan
It was not absorbing anything. I was taking all the minerals, all of this, all that my body wouldn't absorb anything I was putting into it. And intuitively I realized that I felt so unsafe at this point in my life. I was actually going through a divorce as well. And I was like spiraling and that my body was like, we're not going to play this game with you right now. You have to first fix your environment. You have to fix your stress response to yourself. And then post that three months later when I was able to better regulate my Nervous system, go through the process that I need to and find a bit more common space within myself. And I retested my body, released it. Not because I went and did all these expensive IV treatments or not because I took all these pharmaceutical grade medication. It was time to finally release it. So I think women are governed by their intuition. Men not so much, but women are. We are these beings who are guided from within ourselves. That's what gut instincts comes from. That's why women are supposed to have a sixth sense. But so much of the time because our environment doesn't make us feel safe, we override that and just go into this overly producing, practical mindset versus sitting back and saying what is actually right for me.
- [34:45]
Podcast Co-Host
And I think a lot of women, you know, like we're more independent now since than, than say a couple hundred years ago and that's a beautiful thing. But also we step into very masculine energy where we do it all ourselves and we have to figure it all out ourselves and we have to know all the pieces all the time. And I'm not saying we should, we should just be there and looked after. But being in that feminine energy allows you to connect with that intuition. As you probably gathered, this show is not quick dopamine content. It's intentional, introspective and long game thinking. If you know somebody who values conversations just like that, make sure you send this to them and make sure you drop a comment where you're listening from. I always love to see how global our community has grown to be and so for you, because I actually really love hearing how different people regulate their nervous system. Again, there's no one size fits all. What changed for you in that time period from you not being able to flush out those ailments to being able to flush them out. What did you change in how you regulated your nervous system?
- [35:40]
Iman Hassan
Well, a couple of things. I went through a divorce and intuitively I was super guided. My ex husband and I are really dear friends. But intuitively I was like, this relationship was not right for me. So following my intuition on that place to be like, I need to let this part of my life go. I need to move on to a different chapter of my life. One, two. Making sure my body is working with a natural light. Morning light was super, super important to me. So my taking, making sure my cortisol response was regulated in the morning. So getting up in the morning, taking natural light, giving that to myself 20 minutes after waking up, right away my nervous system felt safe. It would drop into a place of safety. It'd be like, okay, we wake up, we know what we're supposed to do. Three is moving closer to family. One of the big reasons I'm moving back into the Middle east, into the region, is because all my family lives here. So family gave me this sense of community, safety, security. So one of the things is, okay, move towards that. Move towards what feels more like home. Move towards what feels. Feels protective and safe for me. And being around that more and then obviously supporting my body with the right minerals, making sure I'm taking minerals, electrolytes. But that was after my body had to first learn safety within itself. This December, I went to this incredible place in Sarasota. It's called a warehouse. And over four days, we did this nervous system reset. And every day I'd go into the center and it'd be a completely different protocol or modalities or tools and resources they're using. But over those four days, they taught me not only to regulate my nervous system, but they taught me how to create space within it.
- [37:12]
Podcast Co-Host
So what's the difference? Regulating your nervous system, regulating and creating space within it.
- [37:16]
Iman Hassan
So regulating your nervous system is just living from a place that, okay, I wake up, I'm not in constant, like, stress, fatigue, fight, or flight. The other day, having space in my nervous system is slowing down. Having space in my nervous system and creating capacity is. I don't have to rush to do that thing. I have the time and space within my body to come to that a little bit later and not be directed. Because we also live in a world that's constant asking, instant, instant gratification, instant answers. So when you regulate your nervous system, it's that aha moment that you take and your body kind of slows down. It falls into parasympathetic. It teaches your body how to fall into parasympathetic. When you create space in your nervous system, it's one step further to be like, now that I'm regulated, does this warrant a response for me right now? Does this text message warrant a response? Does this email instantly warrant a response? It's able to take your mind through that thinking process to be like, I can step back one step further. Now that I'm regulated, does this deserve a response or not? Do I choose to do this or not? It's also creating more nos in your life so you can bring in the right yeses. So a lot of women don't even know what that capacity feels like anymore. And you brought up a point earlier that I want to touch upon. Women have gone into the workforce. We, you know, got our independence and all that stuff. But I think a lot of times we have been taken out of our natural design. We're overcompensating for men in our lives. We're being forced into situations we don't want to be in, and we're. Our environment is making us feel so unsafe within ourselves. So I think women are living out of design. So when it comes to you saying, when it comes to female health, the reason I think women are also so ill and inflamed is because we're not living in design with who we are and not being authentic about our needs and not voicing. So I think women's health goes back to the core pillars of like, okay, sleep, nutrition, hydration, all of that stuff, but also speaking your truth and being authentic to who you are and communicating your needs to community, to friends, to society, and understanding that you have needs that need to be met and not showing up as men 24 7, which is what we're doing.
- [39:19]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And I think it's important and a really nice point that you've raised. It's not just, you know, the physical things we do for our health in our routine, but it's like, are we setting boundaries? Are we asking for what we need? Like, those things, I know deep down we understand why they play a role in our health, but to actually draw parallels, and that's actually something you can tangibly work on today to make an impact to your health. I think definitely my view makes a difference. When you were able to implement these, regulate your nervous system and make space, what did that allow into your life?
- [39:55]
Iman Hassan
Different things, I think more. More opportunities that were aligned for me, work wise, started coming into my life because I was able to slow down and think through things versus rushing through everything, saying, okay, I have to do this, I have to do that. So it allowed more professional opportunities to come that were more aligned with the direction that I want to go in. I'm attracting in different sort of people into my life, professionally, in my personal life, in friendships, all of that. Because I'm able to come from a place I can meet somebody right away and be like. Like, does this feel safe? Is this person aligned with me? Is this person a giver or a taker? Because there's some people who you meet who just suck the life force out of you. Right. So you have a better filter when you're regulated. You're not constantly in panic mode. Alarm bells are not going off. You can sit back and meet somebody and be like, how do you actually make me feel? Is this a friendship that I'd like to explore? A business relationship that I like to explore? You have a better gauge of understanding people as well. You have a better gauge of catching onto bullshit as well. So, so when you step back and you regulate your nervous system, it's not only that the quality of your life improves, your sleep quality improves, you are able actually to take in the nutrients from your food, all of that stuff is amazing. But also the community around you improves. You're able to make better decisions for yourself because you're able to create safety within your own body.
- [41:13]
Podcast Co-Host
I love that everything's so integrated because it's not like you just fix this one thing and then that one thing improves. It's all such a beautiful knock on effect. Often what we're talking about now in terms of, of, you know, creating a more aligned life, that often comes up in the conversation a lot around mindset and finding your confidence and, and bigger topics like that, but less often in the realm of health. But I love that this has come up in, in today's conversation because it is such a, an important part of creating an aligned life. Our health is inseparable from some of those things.
- [41:42]
Iman Hassan
And I was going to say to that point, when we think about health, we can't look at it like a, like a file in a cabinet. Be like, today I'm just going to take out my supp supplements. It's not your physical health, your emotional health and your spiritual health are all components to make what makes you you. And your spiritual health is just as important as your emotional health. And when we talk about spiritual health, it's not just faith in God, it's your practices. It's how you and faith can mean different things to different people. But it's your belief in something greater than you, that something is outside there helping you, it's guiding you, it's a light in your life. You know, I'm not only looking at from the lens of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism. I'm looking from having that component, a belief system that you are supported by the universe. There's something here that's going to guide you and there's a way that you can tap into the quantum field and take what you need out of it. And it will guide you if you're able to receive from there. So when we look at health as a whole, especially as women, we can't look at it from such a dogmatic lens of being like, if I just do all these five supplements and I fast only this many hours and I get X amount of sleep, all my problems are going to go away. They're not going to go away. Because if your emotional health, you're not regulated within yourself, you can't create that safety, you can't ask for your needs to be met, you can't balance those things out, and then your spiritual health doesn't come into it. All those different things make you you. It's not one thing, and it's not one size fits all. And yes, there are ebbs and flows to life. Some days you have one thing figured out. Other times of the week or year of your life, you'll have other things figured out. But it's about having that adaptability between those different areas.
- [43:16]
Podcast Co-Host
Mm, yeah. I love that. And especially as women, we change so much hormonally in different phases. It's growing with yourself, educating yourself, and I think, you know, coming back to something we both are passionate about, which is being curious and letting that lead you to your own, your own health. You were invited to the White House briefing on the future of alternative health. What surprised you most about how policymakers are currently talking about or viewing the future of this space?
- [43:41]
Iman Hassan
I think the fact that this administration, which is why a lot of us vote, voted for this administration, especially for Bobby Kennedy, was that he was gonna lift the lid and really start digging into things like why are kids, higher rate of autism, adhd, what's going on with big food, big pharma, big agriculture. I think trying to really get to the root cause of things. I think they've done more from that capacity. But stepping back, where I've been a little bit disappointed, is understanding that American politics, no matter who you put in office, it can only shift a certain amount. Because if you step back all the way and realize the lobbies are so strong in America that no matter even the slight changes they make, there are still handcuffs on people. And one administration coming in for four years out of which only two years are really able to make a difference. The rest of the two years, they have to figure out how to stay in office, are only able to do so much. But I think that when you look at this current administration, they have done a little bit more than any other administration when it comes to American health. So, you know, the SNAP program that was extremely controversial, that how dare they affect the SNAP program? But if you take a look at what they're actually removing from SN is highly. SNAP program is essentially the benefits program. Right. So you Have SNAP voucher. You can go in, in the States and you can essentially buy food and produce and feed your family. Right. They're removing things like highly processed drinks, highly processed food, which honestly is causing things like rising rates of diabetes and cancer in children and other things, autism. And so I think what this administration is doing, well is kind of lifting the hood and saying, like, what can we kind of adjust and what can we fix and versus not. But at the end of the day, they have limitations. And I think for us, that is understanding that anybody we vote into office is going to have limitations, but at least they're doing more for the average American health.
- [45:28]
Podcast Co-Host
And what was your. Can you just talk to me through your involvement, like, that day? Like, were you able to, like, what did it look like?
- [45:36]
Iman Hassan
So we were essentially. I was part of the big Maha movement, which essentially brought Bobby Kennedy into office. As much as make it make America healthy again, essentially, that was his campaign that he ran on. Then he kind of joined Trump and that kind of continued. So Maha is all about helping improve the lives of millions of American, the average everyday American. And so that day that I went to the White House, the Maha report was basically deployed where they looked at the different segments of agriculture, pharma, all of that stuff, and how to make changes to improve health across America. And for me, it was extremely amazing because, look, I'm one of the few, I would say South Asians based in the space, living in America, being Muslim and being in this room with 85 of the top health and wellness advocates, like you had Mark Hyman there, Gary Braca, Dr. Wilco, like all the big guys were there and then I was there and I was able to see this momentum picking up in America that A, we're advocating more for ourselves, we're asking for, for more transparency when it comes to our health. But in that room, I realized that the average American is pushing more because they realize there's something really wrong. And they released this report that basically talks about the immediate things that they're gonna start putting into effect. So agriculturally, what they're planning to do, what are they planning to do when it comes to really researching things like kids, autism and what is it being really tied to and why there's been a surge in that versus previous times. Is it tied to vaccines? Is it not? They're not saying we're gonna say it's this way or that way, but what is actually maybe going on under the hood? And so being in that room was extremely, extremely inspiring post motivating Because I was able to understand that America, the average American is finally asking for change and they're asking for transparency and they're asking for things to change in the way that they're living their lives and they're pushing more towards that.
- [47:26]
Podcast Co-Host
If you could see one immediate change that hasn't been rolled out yet that would make a big impact to the system, what would it be?
- [47:34]
Iman Hassan
Well, a change that was rolled out was. Did you see the whole campaign that went on with Kellogg's and you know, the preservatives and her kids cereals? Okay. So prior to this government administration coming in, there was a huge campaign. It was started by the food babe. And she basically went after baked food and said, why is your formulations for America full of all of these preservatives and food dyes and stuff versus Canada or the Middle east or Europe? Why are you doing this in this country? Well, it's to save costs and because people, no one's kicking up a fuss about it. So that has now been moved and now it's basically been putting in different states that they have to take out the food dyes and preservatives out of their food.
- [48:10]
Podcast Co-Host
I think I've seen this certain things in the US like have certain ingredients,
- [48:14]
Iman Hassan
a lot more food dyes and ingredients that they don't have anywhere else in the world. And if it wasn't for that campaign that started actually prior to this election that kind of went into it, that change alone is going to make such a massive difference because. Because all of these preservatives and food dyes that kids are consuming are causing them health issues. Right? And why is it that certain countries have higher food standards for the same exact product for the same price point that they're consuming it at? But we are getting shoveled the crap basically because our government is allowing it in, right? Big, big food, big agriculture is allowing all this stuff into our everyday, into our everyday consumption. And so that is because of the lobbies. So changing policies like that where you have to remove food dies from our food and you have to have certain labels and certain formulations that have to be changed, is forcing these people to approach how they're making consumer goods differently. And if it wasn't for this movement, I don't think this would have happened. And it's the government stepping in to also say, listen, why are Americans, the average everyday American, not getting the same level of food basic needs that other countries are getting?
- [49:17]
Podcast Co-Host
Interesting. And how quickly like a change like that, how quickly do you think you'd see the impact on the general population.
- [49:24]
Iman Hassan
I think it's going to take time to re. Change. Rejig formulations and stuff, but over the next 24 months to three years, we're going to see a massive change on some of these little points. Right. But it's little steps along the way that cause a bigger impact. And I think that's where we get a little bit thrown into the narrative and they get a little disillusioned by that. At the end of the day, it's only four years. It's a four year term. How many big changes will actually be able to happen in such a short span of time?
- [49:50]
Podcast Co-Host
Time, yeah. And then maintained, if not reversed, by the next administration.
- [49:54]
Iman Hassan
Yeah. And that's what goes on you. Somebody comes in, they're like, we're gonna do this. And the other guys come and say, well, we're gonna change this over here. So I think the problem with American health or American politics as a whole is where are we gonna start dismantling the lobbies that are allowed to come in and buy out politicians and incentivize them differently and how do we remove that? So if you look at something like vaccines, I'm not saying yes or no. That's not my stance on it. I think it's an individual choice per family. But if you look at the fact that vaccines and you look at the vaccine schedule in the US versus you look at it in Europe or other parts of the world, it's a massive difference. And there's not been one centralized, random, controlled study done on vaccines that tells you this dose of vaccines over this course of time is actually safe for children. So we're administering children with things knowing very well that there's no full research study done to say this many vaccines between the age of 0 and 18 months are actually safe for your child. And I'm not saying people should stop vaccinating the children. I'm just saying that you have to ask questions and push for more transparency. But a lot of pediatricians offices in the US are incentivized and get paid through Big Pharma through the more vaccines that they sell. That's how actually they make their money. So if we think about that, that Big Pharma is so integrated into the medical system that that is how pediatricians are even getting paid. What does that mean?
- [51:16]
Podcast Co-Host
Say yeah, again, I'm not having a stance for no. But if you peel it back and you remember that there is a business tied everything to like, you know, I think growing up, I was a little more naive in the sense that, you know, it's a health system, it's for our, for our benefit. But as I got older and understood business and big pharma and whatnot, it again, I'm not having a pro against argument. I just think it makes you ask certain questions when you understand that that is an end goal of some people coming at the space, you know, And
- [51:47]
Iman Hassan
I think it's also like, why do some countries have a more conservative vaccine schedule versus others?
- [51:52]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, that's the thing.
- [51:52]
Iman Hassan
And then I just think you should also look at the. Let's say certain countries have different vaccine schedule, but then let's look at also the rates of autism, ADHD and other developmental delays that a country like America is having versus other countries. Compare. Look at what's actually being reported, what's coming out of the doctor's offices. All this stuff is registered. Right. So you can take a look at the end result of how kids are developing in certain regions, in certain parts of the world versus others. If you look at the Amish community, they have very, very, very low, if not almost at all, at times developmental delays and things like autism and ADHD being reported versus the average American child. And why is that? It's their food. They grow their own food. They have access to their own resources and produce. They have a very conservative approach to health and what they allow their kids to actually take. A lot of the population is not vaccinated. So why is it that some of these smaller populations are not getting the same health issues that the average American child is developing?
- [52:53]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, it's just interesting to think about and you know, at the end of the day, it's an individual choice for everyone. Iman, I want to zoom back out, bring it back to the individual person, someone who's listened to this episode today. If they could take away one thing that they could implement in their schedule, in their routine, something that could make a physical change. Straight after listening to this episode. What would you want that to be for them?
- [53:16]
Iman Hassan
I think it'd be two things. And especially for a woman working on sleep quality sleep hygiene is definitely one of them. But really working on it. And I am harping on about this so much myself this year is really working on ways to slow yourself down, down to take yourself out of fight or flight and go into parasympathetic. Whether that's a morning walk with a friend or taking your baby for a stroll, whether it's just being in nature more, whether it's doing a 10 minute breathwork session, but finding ways to drop yourself into a parasympathetic state because everything around you will shift. You'll have better absorption when it comes to your food, better sleep quality, better quality of relationships around you. You will have more autonomy on your side yourself.
- [53:58]
Podcast Co-Host
Yeah, I think that's a beautiful parting note. And I have to say having my daughter has forced me to be so much more present and intentional with my time. And I think often when we're like high performing and go, go go and want to achieve, we often think that that is anti what we're trying to do. But when you actually tap into that, you realize how much of a strength it is because it recharges you so much for everything you want to do. So I would also echo that and I just want to thank you so much for coming on the show. You thank today, of course, put links to your podcast and your socials all in the show notes, but thank you for your time. I've really enjoyed connecting.
- [54:30]
Iman Hassan
Thank you for having me.
- [54:31]
Podcast Co-Host
My pleasure. Thank you. If you guys love this episode and you thought of any topics that came up that you'd love to see us dive deeper on, whether it was something to do with women's health or how you can optimize your sleep, any topics that you really want us to do a deeper dive on, comment in the show notes what you'd like to see in a Part two and we'll make it happen. And if you've enjoyed this episode so far far, don't forget to hit like and subscribe.