The Whole Health Cure Sharon Bergquist, MD

Most competencies that will help you in your life, like communication skills, negotiating, and resolving conflict, can be learned—and the key is to break them down into bite size skills. How do we begin? In this episode, I sit down with Adaira Landry, MD, MEd, and Resa Lewiss, MD, to learn about microskills.

“When it comes to navigating the workplace, our professional lives, our personal lives… you have this very large goal, right? Like, ‘I want to be better at taking care of myself.’ But how do you do that? And there are small skills that you can take to move in that direction.”

Adaira and Resa’s new book, "MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact," is a guide to identifying and refining these often-overlooked tools. Both authors have backgrounds in medicine and mentorship, and they describe the project as the “how-to” book they wish they had while navigating their own careers.

As Adaira explains, “I had gone to seminars that said, ‘This is how a network is important for you.’ But I never really felt like anyone sat me down and said, ‘This is how you would build a network, nurture a network, and help the people in your network.’”

From networking, procrastination minimization, communication, and workplace conflict resolution, Resa and Adaira provide actionable guidance on building your personal tools for success. As Resa says, “We believe that every big project, big goal, big task items… can actually be broken down into small, concrete, fundamental building blocks.” Using this perspective can aid in taking the first steps toward growth.

Listen to the full episode to learn more about Resa and Adaira’s writing process, how to assess your starting point, and train your microskills.

Here are the details of our conversation:
[00:01:46] Navigating life’s challenges through mentorship
[00:05:29] Getting started on your career journey
[00:09:50] Breaking down microskills
[00:12:01] Most difficult microskills
[00:16:45] Acquiring healthy communication habits
[00:17:55] How to raise issues in the workplace and beyond
[00:24:59] Timeline to train a microskill
[00:28:53] The book writing process

It’s The Whole Health Cure’s 200th episode! To celebrate, I am joined by my friend and colleague, Krystyna Morgan. This will be a “mic swap” style Q&A, meaning that unlike our usual episodes, I will be the guest and Krystyna will be my interviewer.

Krystyna and I began this podcast in 2018 with the goal of sharing health and wellness practices with listeners and championing leading experts in the field of lifestyle medicine. Six years later, we are sitting down to discuss the most impactful lessons from the show and where we predict health trends are headed in 2024.

“When you start something, you have no idea where it's going to go. And it's just grown so much in the time that we've been doing this. I mean, we are now on 69 platforms and in 131 countries, which is probably not something we even had a plan for when we started this.”

One of my favorite parts of hosting this show is that it allows me to connect with the lifestyle medicine community. Not only do I meet brilliant minds ranging from startup business owners and best-selling authors to public health scholars and medical researchers, but I also continue to learn about the groundbreaking findings each field is actively uncovering. The magnitude of impact that lifestyle has in disease prevention, the growing awareness of the gut microbiome, the importance of food quality, and the biological effects of nature on our health have been central topics in recent episodes. As the show has gone on, we have shared information that is at the forefront of scientific research for each of these areas, and we look forward to continuing to investigate new developments as they arise.

Additionally, in conjunction with my work as a researcher and clinical physician, I have identified shifts in health trends and the healthcare system that I expect to gain prominence in the near future. Sleep and mental health are becoming better understood as critical aspects of wellness among our patients. Further, digital health technology, physician coaching, and tailored diets all offer opportunities for individualized care and optimization beyond a doctor’s office setting.

“I think we're going to get more tailored advice for people based on their personal health condition or preferences, hopefully with some genetic or microbiome data. So a shift from less of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ to more personalized information.”

With these predictions and lessons from the show, I want to thank our listeners and guests for their support over the past six years. I have learned so much over this amazing journey, and I can’t wait to see what the next 200 episodes hold!

Here are the details of our conversation:
[00:00:00] Introduction to Episode 200
[00:03:40] Starting The Whole Health Cure
[00:05:14] The podcast’s growth in six years
[00:06:31] Connecting with the lifestyle medicine community
[00:07:57] Challenges with podcasting
[00:11:15] Four main themes from our guests
[00:17:38] Rising topics in wellness and health
[00:21:28] Health trends in 2024
[00:27:50] Coming up for The Whole Health Cure

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn is a physician, best-selling author and former Olympic rowing champion. Dr. Esselstyn has been a surgeon, researcher, and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic for more than 35 years and is the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association in 2009. Dr. Esselstyn summarized his pioneering research in his best-selling book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and has written for more than 150 scientific publications. He currently directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. He is also is a lecturer for the CNS and eCornell Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate.

In this conversation we talk about not only preventing and arresting, but also reversing heart disease. Dr. Esselstyn walks us through the science, evidence, and his experience in cardiac disease reversal. He helps us understand the meaning of a calcium score, the role of nitric oxide, and the function of endothelial cells. In that context, Dr. Esselstyn talks about the role of the diet, and shares the evidence available comparing various diets in their effectiveness to promote heart health and reverse heart disease. Finally, Dr. Esselstyn shares specific strategies you can apply today to improve your heart and vascular health. Tune in to learn more!

David Goldman, MS, RD, CSCS, CPT, is the Chief Science Advisor to The Game Changers. He has a dual Ivy League graduate degree in physiology and nutrition and helped build Facebook HQ's nutrition program from scratch. David has years of experience as a dietitian and strength and conditioning specialist that spans from obesity research to coaching Olympic athletes and celebrities.

David talks about the evidence-based nutrition science for optimal athletic performance, addresses some common myths and beliefs around exercise, and shares what he learned from both his research and stories of the athletes that he works with personally.

Zach Bush, MD is a physician specializing in internal medicine, endocrinology and hospice care. He is an internationally recognized educator on the microbiome as it relates to health, disease and our food production systems. Dr. Bush founded *Seraphic Group to develop root-cause solutions for human and ecological health and extend his passion for educating the world on topics such as the state of our soil - including the need to eradicate toxins such as glyphosate from our farming chain - and the importance of gut/brain communication as a vital part of our overall health/wellbeing.

Dr. Bush is a respected speaker and authority in the health and wellness space. He travels the world speaking to medical and farming communities as well as consumers who are interested in taking proactive control of their health.

In this conversation, Dr. Bush discussed his career journey towards becoming a triple board-certified physician who studies the microbiome, his discoveries around the influence of microbial environment of soil and gut, and the healing that is possible in the right conditions.

To learn more, please visit:
ZachBushMD.com

Robby Barbaro, MPH, graduated from the University of Florida and is the cofounder of Mastering Diabetes and Amla Green. He worked at Forks Over Knives for six years before turning his attention in 2016 to coaching people with diabetes full time. He is the co-host of the annual Mastering Diabetes Online Summit, a featured speaker at Whole Foods Global Headquarters, VegFest LA, Plant-Stock, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, and has been featured on Forks Over Knives, Healthline, Medical Medium, Vice, Thrive Magazine, Diet Fiction, Thrive Global, BestLife, and the wildly popular podcasts Plant Proof and Nutrition Rounds. He is the author of the instant New York Times Bestseller book Mastering Diabetes with Cyrus Khambatta, PhD. In this episode Robby shares his personal story of living with Type I Diabetes and how his curiosity and experimenting with different diets led him to discovering plant-based nutrition, starting his coaching career and writing a book with his business partner Cyrus Khambatta, PhD. Robby describes the path of physiology of diabetes, addressees common myths and misconceptions, explains the different types of diabetes, and shows how different diets can help to either worsen, improve, or even reverse diabetes. Tune in to learn more!