Just what does the stress of 30+ years of caregiving do?

I've been doing something for the last two years that I haven't told a lot of people about, John.

Don't get nervous. I don't know. I don't want to know, man. I do. I do. I trust you implicitly. You know that my wife, Gracie, has a lot of health issues. So I hear you. For those of you who don't know, this is the reason I do the show is because I've learned on the job, caring for a woman now for 33 years who's had 80 surgeries that I can count, about another 100, 150 smaller procedures, 80, 90, 100 doctors have treated her, 12 different hospitals, seven different insurance companies, and 10 million plus dollars that I can count.

Well, that's fairly significant. Well, what does that do to the human body to go through that many surgeries, that much anesthesia, and that many antibiotics? I mean, she has really high powered antibiotics that she's had and so forth. So some friends of ours came along to us and they said, look, there's a different way of treating this now. The doctors have thrown all these chemicals at her through pain management, everything else, and we understand that, but the body can be... There are a lot of paths that this body can be damaged than just through surgery and then you get an infection, you get an antibody, you can get it healed up. We've got to go down to the cellular level. We've got to get healthy from the bottom up.

And Gracie started working with them on this regimen of these nutraceuticals. And I was a little bit kind of like, everybody's always told me they got the next best thing. Well, I did it with her as well because the stress on caregivers is significant. I mean, case in point, look at me and don't let this happen to somebody you love.

So what does it do to a human being to go through the kind of stress of caring for somebody through what I just said? And what can you expect from that? And so I invited Mark Harris to come on to the show with Mark, you with me? I am here, Peter. Thank you.

All right. So the starting point of our conversation this time, we've talked about Gracie. We've talked about the progress that she's made, which has been pretty astonishing considering that she was really at death's door less than five years ago. And I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking today about the ancillary impact of going through a healthcare crisis, which is on the caregiver and what it did to me and what it, you know, the stress levels that are still there. Let's first off, before we get any further, let's talk about what stress does to the body and on every level. Can you mind that with us a little bit?

Well, sure. I think primarily we can start at a foundational level that everyone has to endure and struggles with something called oxidative stress, which is just simply a function of metabolism. When we eat our food, even healthy food, when we're walking, when we're breathing, when we're running, when we're exercising, or just sitting in a chair using brain power, our body is metabolizing that energy and creating combustible materials and some pretty nasty waste products that when we're young, the body's very effective at eliminating those. But as we age, that system becomes compromised and the accumulation of those biochemicals, and some of them are very similar to the same things coming out of your tailpipe and your automobile carbon monoxide and dioxide and methane and some nasty stuff that you don't want clanging around in your cells, our bodies as we age become less effective at dealing with the accumulation of oxidative stress or the free radical damage. And so there's actually an acceleration factor as we age, roughly the age of skeletal maturity, we crest at the top of optimal health. And you don't have to think back very far to think about how great you felt at 18 and 21 compared to now, whether you were a caregiver or a caregivie, you realize that we seem to be getting older, the older we get. And so that's the foundational level of metabolism, this oxidative stress. And that's why we feel more poorly in our 70s and 80s and 90s. And especially if we are facing something chronic, like pain or a disease state.

So that's the starting point. And then when you take on emotional strain and mental strain and the consistent marathon of giving care for others and my wife and I come from a ministry background and I it's very similar. When you're in a ministry community and you are providing support, ministerial support, whether you're in a local church or a missionary capacity as we work, that can generate an accumulation of emotional stress. And that manifests its ways in all kinds of biochemistry difficulties and muscle pain. And that begins to manifest itself over time in really unfortunate ways. And we all are familiar with as we age, what that begins to bring to us, not able to function optimally.

And over time, we began to see several years ago that we were watching men and women actually compromised in the purposes of God for them and their families. And we were looking for solutions for that kind of dynamic. Well, and this is what brings me to the table, because as a caregiver, I will tell you, and my situation is such and grace you back me up, we never know quite week to week what we're going to be dealing with.

We have a pretty good idea because we've dealt with so many different things. But for example, right now, she's having fairly significant problems with her right leg and with getting sores and blisters. We're working on that with her prosthetist to get it fixed.

But what does that mean? Well, it means that she can't walk very well. That means that she can't get out and do things. She's going to be more wheelchair bound with her prosthetic leg and more out of commission as much as it needs to be. So I mean, that's just a little thing, that's just a little thing.

We have a pretty good idea because we've dealt with so many different things. But for example, right now she's having a fairly significant problems with her right leg and with getting sores and blisters. We're working on that with her prosthetist to get it fixed. But what does that mean? Well, it means that she can't walk very well.

That means that she can't as it needs to be. So I mean that's just a little thing and then you deal with the constant pain and so forth and they're just always on the go and I feel like that my brain has to fire, you know, all day long from the moment I get up to the moment I put my head down, my brain is firing pretty hard. That wears on you after 33 years, I can tell you.

It just does. And I have heard so many people talk about different things over the years, this is the next greatest thing, but I quietly did this for two years myself, still doing it. And I saw something in me, I don't, I'm going to throw out some figures here and then you tell me, I am 55 years old. I do not take any medication and yet I live with soul-crushing stress. But for two years, you guys have had me on a pretty strict regimen of what I'm supposed to be doing and I've done it. And now I've got a couple of markers that I need to work on, which is, those are diet-driven and we're not going to get into judgment, Marc. And I can bring down my cholesterol, but it is moving in the right direction. Cholesterol's moving in the right direction and sugars are moving in the right direction.

But all those other things are shown normal at 55, living with 33 years of relentless stress, I mean of high intensity stress. And so I thought, okay, there's something to this stuff. And what am I taking and why am I taking? What is it doing for me to help me understand? Because I want to make sure I communicate this clearly because I know that caregivers right now are struggling and they are tired and they stay tired. And so I want to make sure that they understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

And I used me as a guinea pig. It's not a miracle drug. It's not some kind of, you know, super secret thing that we got to go meet behind the dumpster and talk about. It is natural and it is effective for a different reason than we think. It's all about building up something.

So what am I taking and why am I taking and what's it doing? Yeah. Well, let me clarify and address your previous concern. I'm with you. I'm 54.

I feel better at 54 than I did at 24, I'm sure. But I should give the disclaimer. These particular products are not intended to treat, cure, mitigate, prevent disease. The FDA only allows pharmaceutical companies in the United States to make those claims.

So we were very careful to not make those claims. And so I just want to make that perfectly clear. But our flagship product was developed with the idea that your body is already making the sense chemistry chemicals at the cellular level. And those are called enzymes. One of the most powerful enzymes, the master regulator, the master antioxidant of your body is something called superoxide dismutase, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Joe McCord when he was a graduate student at Duke University in 1969, discovered that enzyme.

In fact, it's measured in McCord units. His role was so significant in pioneering a field that we now know as the antioxidant. He's the father of free radical biology. The antioxidant theory came from Dr. Joe McCord. He is the one who began for 40 years pioneering this science, trying to find a way to get the body to induce the body's ability to create these antioxidant enzymes like glutathione and catalase. And if you're a practitioner or you're a scientist, you're already familiar with some of these words. If we can do that, rather than trying to introduce them externally, if we can get the body to do its own heavy lifting, well, that's a much more elegant and efficient method.

Well, that's exactly what happened at the University of Colorado in Denver several years ago. ABC News had heard about this development and it was purported to them as an anti-aging formula. Well, that of course is preposterous and so they flew out an investigative journalism team featured by Emmy award-winning John Quiñones and he walked in the door and he said, hey guys, I'm John.

I'm with ABC News. I'd like to ask you some questions. I watched that report several years ago and I was shocked when the doctor said, come on in and have a seat. And so Quiñones with ABC said, so we hear you've got an anti-aging formula?

And I said, well, no, that's ridiculous. It's not an anti-aging formula, but our research deals with the process of aging and this oxidative stress biochemically. And there is a definitive link now between what your body's doing on its own and the ability to reduce that oxidative stress, which leads to disease and incidentally aging. And we've developed a formula that's based on five natural ingredients that have been around for centuries that are doing something very unique. In 6,000 years of recorded history, we've never been able to measure a significant increase on an order of magnitude beyond the sum of the parts. So antioxidants have been around for 20, 30 years.

We've all taken antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin C, resveratrol, mangosteen, and all those are great, turmeric, et cetera. What the scientists were finding was that this particular formula was activating the body's own system at the cellular level communication channel called the Nrf2 channel. It's a transcription factor.

Nrf2 is a protein messenger. And when that is active, it acts like a thermostat and it looks for issues and where there is irregularities biochemically, it begins to manage those irregularities. If enzyme or genetic expression is too high, for example, it will bring that down. If it's too low, it automatically senses that and begins to induce the body's ability to create more of that gene expression. And so with particular disease states, let's say for colon cancer or atherosclerosis or Alzheimer's, the body creates a fingerprint or that disease state creates sort of a fingerprint of incorrect gene expression. So what the body begins to do, if it sees that problem like a thermostat in your home, if it's too hot, it just kicks on the AC.

If it's too cold, it just kicks on the furnace. And that is the best metaphor I can give for why this particular technology, again, it's all natural, which is mind blowing to me, actually is effective. So that's a pretty good description though. I think you've really, and I don't want to, I hate to even cut you off because you're on a roll here, but I also got to come up to the break here. So I love that concept of it and this is what I've been doing. So this makes perfect sense that this is equipping me to rebuild because the stress hasn't left.

The stress hasn't left me. And so this is why I do this. And this is kind of an intro that I just wanted to have to my audience for you to come and just talk about this. I'm going to put this out there on the podcast as well and on our website. And then you can go to ahealthierlifeforyou.com if you want to see more about it right this moment, ahealthierlifeforyou.com. And I would suggest you take advantage of this. Mark, can you come back? It would be my pleasure to come back, Peter. Absolutely. Listen, Mark Harris, and he has been working with us through this and working with me, spending time with me and the team that has been working with me to help me get healthier. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers, folks. And today's a great day to start. And I don't think you're going to be able to do this all on your own. That's just 33 years of experience.