blossom. You're awesome podcast episode number 69. Today on the show. Dr chris Bowman is here with us. Dr Bowman is a pediatric chiropractor, author, holistic small business strategist and regenerative farmer. I am so honored and delighted to have Dr Bowman here with us, sharing his wisdom and insights. Doctor Bowman, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Oh I am so excited to get into this with you. Give us a little bit of your background and then we're gonna get into your work and how this can help with all of these elements. Yeah, well backgrounds might be more more appropriate. I'll give you a brief history of of all of them and then you can dive into whichever one seems most fitting. Um So first of all I am a pediatric and family chiropractor. I've been practicing for about eight years.

I have my own practice in southern California called Trailhead. Family chiropractic. I'm a diplomat and chiropractic pediatrics and pregnancy and um we've done dedicated our work here to help moms, kids of all ages from infant all the way through. Obviously they go off to college um and special needs um whether that brain injuries, um pharmaceutical injuries, genetic disorders, birth injuries, um strokes shunts, you know, all the things we we help. Um not just for the sake of aligning the spine like a typical, you know chiropractic conversation might go. But for the sake of um building neurological integrity and adaptability. So that way this person has a greater chance to experience and um and engage with life, you know, as far as their their anatomy and physiology will let them a couple of years ago, my wife when I started first fruits homestead, um we were Kind of bored in 2020 with the pandemic and whatnot.

So we started with getting a couple of pigs and building a big garden and and now we have a massive garden and a couple of cows and a bunch of pigs and chickens and and whatnot. And so we love how that lifestyle pairs with raising healthy kids from a wellness perspective because my kids after dinner on the dinner table, we go out into our farm walk and they leave the other half straight from the vine, whether it's cucumbers or zucchinis or tomatoes or you know, whatever it might be. Um And then finally I wrote a book that came out earlier this year called perspective, Rewire your brain for success and abundance and that kind of combines my life story, you know, up until until now, I'm kind of talking about my success and failure and success again, as an entrepreneur, um my goals as a um as a business owner and a farmer and and really just helping people understand that it's it's not what you have or don't have that matters, it's your perspective that you carry throughout life that will really help get you to where you where you want to go, wow, okay, so a lot of this, I did not know about you and I can't wait to get into this, but I'm like, um we gotta end early hair and I'm like, oh no, how are we going to cover all this cool stuff he does, This is so amazing.

We'll just do episode two sometime in the future. Absolutely. I love the sound of that, that's perfect because this is all just right up my alley. So starting with, I want to talk to you about your book. But first, um, now, you know, you being a chiropractor, there's so much of this, looking at your website and the work you do, like you're saying, you know, um building neurological integrity. I did not. And I think a lot of other people don't realize that we can heal and take care of all of these other ailments. You usually just hear people, oh, I'm going to have my spine crack, you know, in your back cracked and I didn't realize that. So, talk to us about this. Sure. Well, um, yeah, most people kind of chiropractors did it to themselves or to ourselves. We get cornered in this neck pain, low back pain, headache, um car accident type of type of world, but that's actually not how chiropractic started.

Um, you know, back in 1895 when the first adjustment was done, um this guy lost his hearing And uh he said he heard a pop in his spine. And so the very first chiropractic adjustment recorded at least happened. And the guy got his hearing back. And so he advertised chiropractic as a cure for deafness. And so like 20 people came in that were deaf and nobody else got their hearing back but they noticed their stomach getting better there, headaches getting better, their pain going away. And so then chiropractic was advertised as this cure for everything. Um Which obviously ruffled the feathers of the american Medical Association. And rightfully so people were doing stuff without, you know, science and knowing what we're doing or how we're doing it. And so the developer of chiropractic, his name is B. J. Palmer. He was D. D. Palmer son. Um started a research facility. I mean top top of the line but still by today's standards. Um And started doing research on what chiropractic was was actually doing. Um And he was finding out that more than just the the movement of the spine, of the alignment of the spine um mattered.

Then you know, then just the musculoskeletal aspects of it was actually the interaction, the movement of the spine with the nervous system and what we know today is a term called appropriate reception which is your brain's ability to know where the body is in space and then you have the opposite of that. Which is no deception. That's our brain's interpretation of pain or or a stress stimulus that's kind of how your body interacts throughout our our world is is whether receiving nauseous or stress or irritating stimulus appropriate exception, which is more soothing, reassuring stimulus. And when your joints stop moving where they're supposed to do to accumulation of stress, whether that's physical, like a car accident, trip or fall, you know, something like that chemical, whether it's from pharmaceuticals, whether it's from the air, we breathe the water, we drink the food that we put into our bodies or emotional, whether it's, you know, stressful work environment, home environment, um you know, watch too much tv, you know, whatever it is, these dresses start to embed themselves in the in the brain and there's multiple different aspects that I can go into.

But the main thing to remember is the brain will will start this fight or flight or sympathetic autonomic response which is designed to keep the body alive when an immediate threat is present. So when you were a hunter gatherers, you know, if your approach a beehive or you see something stocking you, your blood pressure goes up, your your body's rushed with adrenaline and cortisol and all these stress hormones so that you can get away. You weren't supposed to have this fight or flight response become programmed into this being a chronic daily way that you that you live your life. And so when you have poor movement appropriate reception gets turned off, No exception gets turned on and your body just re wires itself to stay stuck in the state of stress over time that starts to affect other organ systems just like if you have a flat tire at first it affects the rim. But if you don't do anything then the axles and the differentials and the brakes then you know the whole car will start to fall apart because of one system going off the rails and the same thing with the body.

So maybe your blood pressure's off which starts to cause headaches which starts to cause high blood pressure which starts to cause digestive issues which starts to cause immune issues. That starts to cause endocrine issues. And so we go to all these different doctors to try to diagnose a specific pathology. And most medical professionals are experts at at one you know the G. I. System or the heart or you know whatever it is and and that's very valid information that we need. But the work that I do with the nervous system is I take a step back and I say like the nervous system is the most important system to the body. If it's not working well ak if it's stuck in the state of stress, constantly communication, communicating through no deception, The only plausible result of that body is going to be, it's going to be in a constant state of stress and dysfunction. And so we come in, we measure that in office, we do an adjustment so we um stimulate appropriate reception to the brain. That turns off no deception. It turns off for example in the brain, the amygdala which is the fear center turns on the prefrontal cortex which is the rational decision, higher functioning, you know uh executive function part of your brain and all of a sudden without drugs without surgery.

These kids with with autism start talking or these people with that have had headaches since um you know they were 11 and their twenties go away or this really painful period starts to get better or I. B. S. Starts to go away or they lose weight over the weekend. And it isn't that chiropractic is a cure for everything as the early chiropractor is kind of you know marketed it but it is one of the cornerstones behind almost any symptom because if you're nervous system isn't working right, everything else. Just working in a state of stress and in the state of competence. It's overcompensating, it's not it's not working the way it was designed. It's um overworking because of the state of the nervous system in stress. So I'm sure that was way more over the top than you expected. But basically we do an adjustment that turns parts of the brain off that we want off and parts of the brain on that we want on and that encourages your body's self healing mechanism that we all have and and then we just gotta let time do its thing. The body detox is the body re wires itself to be not stuck in a state of stress but to live in a state of ease.

Um and that's when we start to see the symptoms get better. It's not because the adjustment did anything to affect the symptoms directly but indirectly through affecting the regulation automation and and whatnot and and stimulation of the nervous system. Wow, this is so fascinating because you never understand, you know, unless you're a doctor, the intricate inner workings of the system and how, you know, everything kind of correlates. Now tell me, you know, for you, you're this, you're a farmer, you're this wellness doctor, you're doing all of these kind of things. This alternative, where did that, where was that born from for you? Yeah, I mean I started seeing a chiropractor when I was little. Um we started because of, I'm actually a family member of mine. She was getting constant ear infections and asthma and allergies and whatnot. She loved to play soccer. Um She had done the medical route, getting medications and tube surgery and whatnot.

And, and we're actually in a doctor's office for a second consultation um for tubes or you know, just to figure out what was going on after, you know, many rounds of antibiotics and whatnot. And uh lady was also in the waiting room um to see the pediatrician and she heard us, you know, kind of saying what we're here for. And she's like, hey, have you tried a chiropractor for this stuff? And my mom's like, no, but also she was kind of desperate. Didn't, you know that medications are going to cover it up. Like they helped her not be in pain, but why does it keep on coming back? And the chiropractor of the answer. So we got her adjusted. And um, since that day she never had an ear infection, never had asthma, never had allergies and those sort of things. So chiropractic became a part of my lifestyle is I was always in sports, always um, accumulating stress. Chiropractic is a part of our lifestyle to give it an outlet. So that way it didn't become chronic. Um and then when I was looking at uh, you know, my future, what do I want to do after high school? I wanted to be a professional athlete at first. And as I stopped growing, I realized I was gonna take a lot of work for me to be able to get there.

Um and I had a senior project where we had a shadow, you know, uh, a specific profession and what not. And so I asked my chiropractor if I could hang out with him and I love the money that he made. I loved the lifestyle that he lived, I loved the interaction with his patients. And so from that day forward, I was going to be a chiropractor. It started with a professional sports chiropractor. I wanted to travel around the sports teams and whatnot. But it wasn't until my second year in chiropractic school. I was at a seminar and there's a guy from stage, not well known at that at that time. He was talking about the work that he did with kids on the spectrum and whatnot like I do now. And he said a phrase that that continues to rock me to my core every time I hear he said, I can't imagine how frightening it must be for kids to be locked out of the world that they want to be a part of. And then proceeded to tell us all the things that he was able to do with these, with these kids and seeing them heal without drugs without surgery. That these moms were desperate for some answers and they weren't getting them from the medical profession and I knew, man, that's, that's my, that's my calling.

I could help these 22 players on the field continue to destroy themselves. Or I could help moms that are desperate for answers and change kids lives forever and give them the opportunity to play football or go to college or you know, do those things that they just might not be able to get the opportunity if they live a life dependent on the medical system. Mm Now, you know, and this has got to be part of the reason you didn't go into Western medicine. Right. So tell me, is there an aspect of you that so much of it just seems like a band aid, we're not really fixing things. Yeah. I mean what else what else do they have? You know and and it's it's sad and I have a lot of friends that are nurses and P. A. S. And M. P. S. And and some doctors to and and every time I you know we we entered the conversation about schooling and that sort of thing, I ask them like how much nutrition are you kidding? How much nutrition classes and you know it's barely a class or they had a class that was hijacked by you know fighting or to talk about their new drug or um there's no you know um a p a friend of mine that comes in the office he says almost every condition that they come in with, they are first supposed to prescribe diet and exercise modifications but that's all they do.

They don't they don't know actually what diet is good for that. They don't actually know what what exercise program would be good for even a low back issue. And um so I think it's emergency medicine and Western medicine has its place. I mean people fly from all around the world to get you know heart transplants and bypass and shoulder surgeries and the surgeries all the things that are more reactive and and and and life threatening. We have probably the best health care system in the world for that the most well trained doctors. But when it comes to preventative health and living that healthy lifestyle, everyone's going to other countries to figure out how their diet, how they don't have diabetes, their their ancestors don't have Alzheimer's um you know the way the rate of obesity is is much less. The rate of depression and anxiety is much less. They're not coming to America to find that out. They're going to south America or europe or you know, any of those places where it seems like they have preventative medicine, you know, a little bit more figured out. Um And sometimes I'll joke with my patients too. It's like you you have a headache, it's not due to a lack of, you know, etcetera.

Like it's there, it's telling you that something's wrong, let's check things out. And because we have more training and in diet and exercising that sort of thing, we're able to troubleshoot and be a little bit more conservative with our recommendations and actually help get to the root cause rather than kind of like what you said, like the only thing we learned about was this and this medication for this long check back if you still need me or let's do an M. R. I. To see if you have cancer or you know something that is possible but it's it's pretty outlandish for, you know an 18 year old healthy girl that just started getting headaches, you know um And that's that's that's unfortunate because with um as expensive as it is and and as good of people that go into the medical profession, you know, that most people want to go into to help people and to make a difference in the world. And then to get thrown into a system where it's like listen to um you know, essentially a big farm, I listen to the M. A. S. Recommendations because nothing else is um is congruent with the standard of care and if they go outside the standard of care, their malpractice insurance might not cover them.

And and so I think that's why we start to see so many frustrations within the medical system, it's not the doctors themselves, it's not even necessarily the hospital systems as much as the regulation and uh the sponsoring, you know, whatnot behind it. I believe almost every doctor that's in the system wants to help people just, they don't have the right tools because they weren't given to them um you know, in in school and they're not told to go outside and look for more other seminars and whatnot. Mm And now dr Bowman, you know, you're on this wellness path, right? So for people who want to get healthy, don't know where to start, where does someone start. Yeah, I mean, I think it kind of depends on on the the, you know, symptom and where you're gonna go, but I think, you know, maybe drawing from my my book, you know, perspective, I think it first takes the willingness to enter from a um kind of like a sick care paradigm into a new health paradigm that's that's more focused on um not necessarily just preventing system symptoms, but but building health creating life within you.

And once you start asking those questions, the answers start to become a little bit more obvious. So if you type in google, um you know, like what do I do for my headaches? You know, you're gonna get a whole bunch of sponsored results and, you know, kind of filtered, filtered things, but then if you start to, you know, look at it like, hey, what do I need to do to, you know, and um improve, like blood pressure, what exercises are good for your heart or what foods are anti inflammatory or you know, what what kind of what our sugar substitutes, things that I could do instead of, you know, pumping my body full of sugar and chemicals and whatnot. Um those are the questions that we start have to start asking, because if we're not wondering how to build health and we're just trying to get rid of symptoms, you're gonna enter into kind of this, this no man's land where you're trying to use natural things with the Western paradigm and that's where you start to get like a fish oil doesn't work because my blood pressure got worse or my, you know, inflammation got worse or you know, whatever. Um and that's kind of using a natural, you know, supplement in the, in the medical paradigm way, but asking the question a little bit differently, it's like, well what what is your goal?

Like I want healthy blood pressure, what are the things that I need for a healthy heart? You know, it's like, okay, we need to eat fish, we need to exercise, we need to maybe there's some supplements that can, you know, go along with that, but I'm trying to build a healthy heart rather than just trying to lower my blood pressure because when your heart is healthy and working the way it's supposed to the pressure, it's gonna be fine, you know, same thing with cholesterol, the same thing with autoimmune, you know, those are those are big nowadays and even emotional things like what, what do I need to build a healthy, you know, ecosystem, a healthy and mental ecosystem, that whenever all the right pieces are there, you can't help but be healthy. So that's what would be my first recommendation is just ask yourself questions like what paradigm am I living in my trying to cover up symptoms or am I trying to build health? And if I'm trying to build health, what type of things do I need that aren't just going to be good for one specific, you know, symptom but what do I need to help build a living organism that makes sense. I love that.

That is such great practical advice. Um, you know, it's so hard. I think just in our world with everything being processed, I love that you're living off the land. How important is that? How important is diet? How important is it to eat organic foods? Like what are people may missing about this? Yeah. I mean the tough thing about that is, is the labels and the marketing, you know, behind the food that we buy is just is bonkers. You know, you're, you could be paying $8 for some eggs that, you know, we're given from chickens that, that are not really that that healthy, you know, and so that's why we chose to start a homestead. It's like at least we know what our chickens are eating, where they're living, what they're drinking, what they're breathing the same thing with our cows and our pigs and whatnot. Um, so I would say, you know, if you can find a farmers market where you can talk to the farmer, find a co op where you can, um, you know, actually see where the food is coming from.

I think that's way more important than going to, you know, a Stater Brothers or, you know, whatever supermarket that you have and, and buying something that's organic because, um, you know, a lot of us in the alternative world are fairly skeptical about government regulation, you know, the FDA and all that sort of thing, but those are the people that apply the organic labels. Um And so this is a friend was talking to me about um the labeling for like pasture raised beef and whatnot. And and and and eggs, like all you have to do is take a picture with your coop with some grass and you could be pasture approved. And um so the labeling is is hard and it's it's meant to market to you to buy their product, not necessarily to inform you um Until I would go to the people that aren't necessarily trying to market you their food, but the people that want to inform you about the process of growing their food and picking their food. Um Because even when you buy something that's organic, if it's from, you know, I'm in southern California.

If I buy something from organic, you know, that was from Australia or you know whatever. Um it's it's it's not gonna be as nutrient dense because they either had to pick it sooner. They had to freeze it. They had to um spray it. They had to do something to preserve, you know, its integrity. Um So buying as local as you can, growing as much as you can, preserving as much as you can. Um I think that it's really the only way to go anything that you buy from the store most likely has been processed or altered in a way that, you know, you'd rather eat it, you know in a you'd rather eat in a more pure form. Um as far as eating organic and whatnot. You know it goes, I mean I just saw a study I need to to look it up. But um it is a study that researched glyphosate which is the most the active ingredient in roundup. And it said in the study that 80% of the of the control group or 80% of the people that they tested their urine had glyphosate in their urine. And this is a massive study. So are you gonna be able to get a away from you know these these chemicals that are kind of like in our water system and air system and whatnot.

Um just biting organic. I don't think so. But there are things that are more important to organic than than others, you know such as your your fruits and you know those sort of things that they will spray for bugs, um strawberries and blueberries and those sort of things, wow, you are just like in encyclopedia, I need to pick your brain some more. But this is so fascinating because we never you know, you go to whole foods or wherever and you know or safeway whatever it is and you're buying organic but you really don't know kind of that process behind all of that. So it's just really so fascinating to kind of dig deeper and you know, be really learned with this stuff. So that's just really amazing insights there that I think most people are not thinking about now. Um What else what are some tips that you can give us really quick for kind of getting started with our health and looking at alternative means of kind of outside of prescription stuff and band aids.

Yeah. Good question. I mean I gave a talk at a local homesteading conference and I had a slide at the end that kind of talked about you know how hiring people that are congruent with your core values and where you you want to go. You know you're not gonna get a training on on diet nutrition just from a couple hours of google searching. You know there's people that have degrees and and not that you can't learn anything from google but there's people like your chiropractor that could be well known. There's there's homeopath, there's N. D. S there's Petey, there's massage therapist um energy healers, all midwives. You know all all these people that are trying to help you get to where you want to go. And that way you can have a plan and whatnot. And the beautiful thing that covid has done for us is it's taken a lot of these doctors that were previously only available. You know if you if you're in their town or you know whatever but but brought them online and so you I can see a home a path in Wisconsin. I can C. A. N. D. In new york and I'm here in California.

Um I can see he's a PhD nutritionist an acupuncturist, he moved to Tennessee from my town. I can still do phone consultations and whatnot with with him. Um And so I would just you know kind of step outside the medical system and be like who who can answer these questions that you know that I have and and honestly I think learning to plant and grow your own food is a really eye opening process. Even if it's just basil in a in a windowsill you'll be surprised you can't just go get dirt you know and and put a seat in there and water it and expect it to be healthy. You have to start asking different questions you know is my water have chlorine in it? Is that what's doing it does my soil have nutrients in it? Oh it doesn't what's what nutrients doesn't need and you start to ask questions what is the plants need to thrive? And you'll be surprised how similar those questions are for yourself you know instead of asking oh the leaves are green what nutrients do I need to to give? It's like oh you know it's this this this soil is lacking this nutrient or this this water has you know these poisons in it or you know whatever and grow grow building life is building life and so I think that's why I've loved homesteading so much because I'm I'm asking questions of my animals and my plants that I should be asking more of myself.

And it's just um such a such an eye opening experience. And so I think, I think that's what I'd recommend. Go plant something, go try to grow a tomato plant or basil plant, whatever grows, you know, near you and and see what kind of questions you start to ask and what your research looks like. And I guarantee it'll change the way that you view your body and your health system as well. Mm. Oh my God, I love that. This is all such great information. Dr Bowman, I just thank you so much for your time today and I would love to circle back, Do this again. Go deeper. But you've been awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I'd love to, let's let's put it on the calendar. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah.