Show #95: The Dirt Cure and a conversation about healing with Maya Shetreat, MD

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

JOIN THE CLUB VIA PATREON – Yay! The Low Tox Club is here and YOU decide how much you want to spend to be a part of it.

You can become a Low Tox Life club member on Patreon for as little as $4USD a month. We have some awesome extras planned for our Patreon supporters, but first up, you join a private Low Tox Life chat group and join whatever challenge we’re setting ourselves this month! You’ll be able to unlock these Patreon extras when you sign up HERE to become a Low Tox Life podcast “patron”. I’m really excited to see where this takes us all. Come and join us there for group challenges to accompany the weekly shows, special brand offers to make your low tox switches easier and meaningful chats about the low tox life.

And onto this week’s show!

This week’s guest is – simply put – awesome. We have such a wonderful chat about her book: The Dirt Cure, as well as a general exploration into the power of connectedness with our earth, neurology advances, healing and more. Dr Maya Shetreat is a neurologist, herbalist, urban farmer, and author of The Dirt Cure: Healthy Food, Healthy Gut, Happy Child, which has been translated into ten languages. She has been featured in the New York Times, The Telegraph, NPR, Sky News, The Dr. Oz Show and more. Dr. Maya is the founder of the Terrain Institute, where she teaches Terrain Medicine™, earth-based programs for transformational healing. She works and studies with indigenous communities and healers in Ecuador, and is a lifelong student of ethnobotany, plant healing, and the sacred. Dr. Maya’s philosophy is that the health of our inner terrain—our bodies– is a reflection of the health of our outer terrain, the natural world around us. Gut, immune and nervous system—and the many microbes therein—are a direct reflection of the food we eat and where that food comes from, from the soil it’s grown in to the water it swims in to the synthetic chemicals that it’s bathed in. Fresh food, microbes (that’s right, germs) and elements of nature—soil, sunshine, water, and fresh air—make children resilient and prevent or reverse their illness. I hope you enjoy the show.

 

What questions do I ask Dr Maya this week?

1. So back to little girl Maya – were you born and raised hippy, playing in the garden, making mud pies or did an epiphany of connecting with nature happen later for you? 

2. Med school and the study of Dirt don’t (YET!) go hand in hand – what attracted you to medicine and specifically neurology

3. Now… your awesome book. In The Dirt Cure, you talk about how we are sanitizing our lives, and that it’s leading to significant health problems. How do use of antibiotics, hand sanitizers, and bleach impact the health of our terrain? When it comes to antibiotics, sometimes they’re required so a) how do you best recommend we rehab after a course of them b) in our long game, how do we best build infection resilience to depend less and less on them and bounce back better: Let me guess, dirt, right?

4. Inflammation is a HUGE issue at the moment – so many chronic diseases stemming from inflammation… What starring role can dirt play in fighting chronic inflammation?

5. You talk about a sacred partnership between nature and our bodies, and consider time outdoors as a critical part of your treatment for a host of chronic illnesses. How does time in nature impact our health and happiness?

6. Now you’re interested in a LOT of other topics and your brain sounds as “oh that’s exciting, oh that’s awesome too” as mine!… So I want to ask you a bunch of things about several other areas of interest…

7. Plant Medicines – What have been some of the most powerful realisations for you in terms of examples of plants that heal / or enable our bodies to heal?

8. Indigenous Healing – We think that all the things we’re inventing are bringing us closer to health, often the opposite is true. What indigenous healing rituals and practices have most fascinated you on your exploration into those? Are there any that you use as a neurologist?

9. Heart Intelligence – Our heart has its own documented intelligence, governing awareness, understanding and intuition. This connection has been explored both in the scientific literature as well as in traditional knowledge. How can we strengthen the conversations we have with our hearts?

10. Terrain Institute – The one to many to carry out your work. Tell me a bit about how that got started?

11. If you had to think about all the best ways someone can enhance their health, and an overwhelmed person could start with just 3 simple things, what would they be?

Other helpful links?

Find out more about Maya Shetreat, MD HERE

You can get her book, “The Dirt Cure” HERE

Access a the free Heart Healing meditation guide HERE

 

 

My book is OUT NOW! Europe to follow August 8th and the USA via Amazon early September Grab your copy HERE