092: Vivica Menegaz - Ayahuasca, MDMA, and Plant-Based Medicines for Healing Trauma

05/04/20 • 64 min

The Natural State with Dr. Anthony Gustin

Vivica Menegaz, a nutritionist and holistic practitioner, comes on the show to share her experience with moving through traumas and shifting to a better mental health mindset using alternative medicines.

These medicines aren’t your typical treatments but they are ones that are growing in popularity due to their effectiveness.

If the title of this podcast hasn’t given it away yet, Vivica is going to share her journey with using substances like psychedelic mushrooms, MDMA, and ayahuasca to heal the traumas she’s experienced.

Vivica also discusses how these traumas could be affecting your health and, even if you work out and eat healthy, they may not be enough to help you feel better overall.

That’s why she believes that starting to address the traumas that are at the root of your health should be something worth considering.

You’ll also discover what else you can do if you don’t have access to these alternative medicines.

For any new listeners who don’t yet know Vivica Menegaz, she’s most known for being a nutritionist, cookbook author, and blogger of The Nourished Caveman, a site that shares a therapeutic approach to food.

She’s even created her own Healing Foods Method to help people transform their health by switching to a whole-foods, low-carb lifestyle.

But nutrition isn’t her only area of expertise.

As you’ll hear more about in this episode, Vivica is also a holistic practitioner who guides people using plant-based medicines like ayahuasca and others.

In this area, she helps people move through emotional and mental blocks and helps them get past traumas that could be holding them back.

If traumas have caused you to retreat and you feel you’re being held back from them as a result, we highly encourage you to check out this episode now to learn more!

Even if you don’t think past traumas are affecting you, we still suggest tuning in since this episode may be a real eye-opener.

These medicines aren’t your typical treatments but they are ones that are growing in popularity due to their effectiveness.

Vivica also discusses how these traumas could be affecting your health and, even if you work out and eat healthy, they may not be enough to help you feel better overall.

That’s why she believes that starting to address the traumas that are at the root of your health should be something worth considering.

You’ll also discover what else you can do if you don’t have access to these alternative medicines.

She’s even created her own Healing Foods Method to help people transform their health by switching to a whole-foods, low-carb lifestyle.

But nutrition isn’t her only area of expertise.

As you’ll hear more about in this episode, Vivica is also a holistic practitioner who guides people using plant-based medicines like ayahuasca and others.

In this area, she helps people move through emotional and mental blocks and helps them get past traumas that could be holding them back.

If traumas have caused you to retreat and you feel you’re being held back from them as a result, we highly encourage you to check out this episode now to learn more!

Even if you don’t think past traumas are affecting you, we still suggest tuning in since this episode may be a real eye-opener.

Previous Episode

091: Dr. Michael Ruscio - Combating Viruses Through Improving Gut Health

With this Covid pandemic still in full swing, Dr. Anthony Gustin and Dr. Michael Ruscio, a best-selling author and Doctor of Natural Medicine, wanted to share a side that’s rarely talked about: combating viruses through improving gut health.

In this episode, Dr. Ruscio shares some incredible research on how certain viruses already respond to probiotics and how your gut health can leave you vulnerable or protected from viruses.

Dr. Ruscio and Dr. Gustin also chat about their thoughts on the current pandemic, how healthcare is going to change over the next five, 10, and 15 years from now, and so much more.

You’ll also hear Dr. Ruscio’s incredible insight into probiotics, including the three main types, the research behind each one, and what to do if you’re not responding well to probiotics right now.

He also shares the top sources of probiotic rich foods and how they compare to taking probiotics.

Since Dr. Ruscio has been on the show before, he’s also going to discuss what’s changed for him in his clinical practice since coming on.

If you haven’t caught Dr. Ruscio’s past episodes or you’re not familiar with him, he’s a Doctor of Natural Medicine, a chiropractor, clinical researcher, and best-selling author.

He’s also a committee member of the Naturopathic Board of Gastroenterology research division and his work has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

To say Dr. Ruscio is a pioneer in the gut-health space would be an understatement.

By tuning in, you’ll learn why your gut health could be the key to combating viruses.

Check out the episode now to learn more!

Next Episode

093: Dr. Nicole Rivera - How Functional Medicine Can Uncover What’s Really Causing Poor Health

Dr. Nicole Rivera is unlike most doctors out there.

Instead of taking one course and broadly applying it to her patients, she continues to learn and get certified in many different disciplines so she can combine a bit of each to help her patients heal.

So she takes an integrative approach that really makes her stand out as a functional medicine practitioner.

As Dr. Rivera shares with Dr. Anthony Gustin in this episode, she faced her own health struggles that most doctors failed to help her solve.

In doing that herself, she realized that she could offer the same type of healing to her patients.

When you tune in, you’ll discover the elaborate testing she does with her patients, why she does this, and how she takes an integrative approach to health.

You’ll also learn more about common therapies that didn’t work for her despite their claims that they’re incredibly effective.

Dr. Rivera also shares alternative therapies and why these may or may not be helpful for patients.

If you don’t know Dr. Nicole Rivera, she’s a leading expert in integrative medicine.

She received a doctorate in chiropractic, a bachelor’s degree in psychology pre-medicine, and she’s graduated from the Klinghardt Academy and the Kresser Institute.

Dr. Rivera is also an active member of the Institute of Functional Medicine and the Academy for Comprehensive Integrative Medicine and she’s the best selling cookbook author of Eat for Your Gut.

She founded the Integrative Wellness Group and the Institute for Integrative Wellness which the former specializes in functional medicine and integrative medicine and the latter teaches other practitioners how to do this too.

Since founding the Integrative Wellness Group, she now specializes in gastrointestinal issues, autoimmunity, lyme literate, hormone, thyroid, and endocrine disorders, as well as mold toxicity, and safe detoxification methods.

Check out the episode now to see how elaborate testing and an integrative approach to wellness can help you address and combat health issues.