The body is the tool trauma uses to create symptoms of depression, anxiety, and more. It’s not just poor sleep, not enough B12, or lack of sunlight exposure—it’s all of those environmental stressors combined that synergistically create poor health. Justin Bethoney from Integrative Mental Health joins Justin Benton, Janet Benton-Gailard & Latara Parker to talk about how the Functional Medicine approach to mental health symptoms covers lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, exercise, and stress management. Produced by PodConx Justin Benton - https://podconx.com/guests/justin-benton Janet Benton-Gailard - askjanet.org Latara Parker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lataraparker/ Justin Bethoney - https://www.justinbethoneynp.com/ https://101hempinnercircle.com/ www.themiracleplant.org info@101CBD.org Join Our #HealTheWorlders Messenger Tribe at https://bit.ly/TheMiraclePlant_Messenger
The body is the tool trauma uses to create symptoms of depression, anxiety, and more.
It’s not just poor sleep, not enough B12, or lack of sunlight exposure—it’s all of those environmental stressors combined that synergistically create poor health. Justin Bethoney from Integrative Mental Health joins Justin Benton, Janet Benton-Gailard & Latara Parker to talk about how the Functional Medicine approach to mental health symptoms covers lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, exercise, and stress management.
Justin Benton - https://podconx.com/guests/justin-benton
Janet Benton-Gailard - askjanet.org
Latara Parker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lataraparker/
Justin Bethoney - https://www.justinbethoneynp.com/
https://101hempinnercircle.com/
Join Our #HealTheWorlders Messenger Tribe at https://bit.ly/TheMiraclePlant_Messenger
[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Miracle Plant Podcast, where we discussed this miracle plant with so many names and now helping people in so many extraordinary ways. Well, I'm Justin Benton, the owner and founder of The Miracle Plant Podcast, and we are having another great conversation with another healer.
On Journey. I also wanna, his name is Justin Beth, but I also wanna welcome back my Janet and Who're. Happy. Well welcome, Janet. Justin, la How is everybody doing this?
Excited to together, learn new information.
Yeah. Can you hear me? We can. Hey everybody. . I had sent the message in the text all quick. I'm getting ready to log in for work, but I am so happy to be here. Um, so happy to listen in with, um, you guys and Justin, and, um, I am here. I'm ready for this. This is a very interesting topic, , uh, great. I'm, [00:01:00] I'm excited to be here too.
This is Justin. All right. So let's, let's dive into it a little bit. Um, you know, tell us a little bit about your journey. Justin. Tell us about how you got into the practice that you're in and, uh, helping people with their mindset and take control of their health. Yeah, great. Uh, so I'm a nurse practitioner, uh, in Oregon.
Also have a, in California. And been practice about 10 years midway through nursing school. On my way to becoming a, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I discovered functional medicine through various blogs. Um, I was always into, uh, plants. I had a herb garden when I was a kid and was always making myself green tea, so I just always had an interest in that.
And then halfway through my conventional medicine type training, I discovered functional medicine and um, just kind of kept on it, kept learning the integrative side of things. At the same time I was learning conventional side of things, so I always had this angle, and then I got into practice. [00:02:00] And in practice there's definitely the medical model and algorithms and you follow that.
And then, then I found the integrative and functional medicine stuff really fit in between the wedges and, and help get better outcomes for people and help my patients use less lower doses of meds or maybe avoid meds or get off meds. So it's been. Been great to kind of give people more holistic care over the past 10 years.
And then, uh, in 2020, I published self-published a book entitled The Mental Wellness Diet. And, uh, we can talk more about that. Let's do it. Well, my mom's also on here, Jenna Ben Gall, who's a, uh, integrative nutritionist as well as a holistic healer. And, uh, I have a funny feeling you're gonna learn a tour thing about this raw miracle plant, uh, juiced in the raw CBD acidic form.
But, uh, let's hear more about, uh, the book. Great. Uh, the subtitle of the book is Ancient Wisdom, evolving Science, modern Day Options. It's all about trying to get the fit again. [00:03:00] You know, uh, our modern day life isn't the best fit for our genetics and our evolution as a species. So, you know, there's so much missing and we, we could all name a few.
You know, there's things that don't really belong, like, um, our cell phones, our, our social media, our, our busy schedules, uh, commutes. Pollution, all those kinds of things. And then there's a lot that's missing, uh, stronger communities, more time for eating food, like actually how many minutes you spend eating.
Um, extended families, uh, more physical movement and challenges in life. And so the book's all about trying to stitch together the past with the present. That sounds very nice. Very nice. Well, I'll, I'll, I'll great. Uh, Go ahead. No, I was just gonna say you guys talk. I'm, I'm sure my mom has a question or a comment cause you guys are on the same path.
Okay. Uh, no, I just thought it was really nice. Uh, just. [00:04:00] Hey, so many people aren't aware of our genetics and how we don't change quickly. I deal with that all the time where people think you can suddenly have a totally different diet or a totally different way of life, and somehow our body's going to adapt to that quickly and our body's evolve, but very slowly.
And so that's a huge issue I come across all the time with all the change and, and things like food, but also when medication, not a big fan by the way, and just expecting our bodies somehow to adapt and adjust. So I think that's just an excellent point that's never mentioned often enough. Yeah, I think a great example would be insulin and our body's mechanisms to store calories for later.
Uh, you would wanna have a mechanism to store calories for later when winter's coming, when there's periods of famine. , and that's, you know, very common for how we evolved, you know, centuries ago, uh, that doesn't exist anymore. So, but that mechanism within us with insulin and, and other signaling molecules still exist, [00:05:00] but we never provide our body with the en environmental stimulus, um, for, to, for it to match in that way.
So that would be, you know, insulin is a great example of the gene. That we have, that we evolved ha to have and currently have aren't quite a fit for our modern day lives. And there's no way any genetic. Evolution could ever match with the fast paced of how our life's changed just in my lifetime from growing up on a farm and growing our own food, and we didn't call it organic, we just used manure for fertilizer and those sorts of things.
And then now where everything, I'm not sure any of it's food anymore, where the majority of what most people eat, all the hyper processed and full of pesticide type things. So yeah, there's no way to mirror our. And it's showing up in our ill health and our obesity. Obesity would be one of my current things, uh, to focus on massive issue in America that's not well addressed.
So I assume you work with, work in that area in terms of, um, [00:06:00] helping people adjust what they're eating and things like that for that issue? Yeah. I try my best. Not every patient who comes to me has read the book. Has come to this understanding, or it even believes or is maybe they believe, but they're not quite ready to change.
So I take everybody and I, I work with them as they're ready. Whatever they're ready for, we kind of, I give 'em the information and, and challenge them to make some changes. That could be really helpful. Um, I, I think, um, just the knowledge itself is really helpful and so a lot of what I. more than, uh, treatment with these interventions is just education, just highlighting and, and people are learning so much nowadays through social media and blogs and the internet, and there's a lot more of this information out there.
So, you know, actually I've noticed a, a lot of my patients are much more informed these days, which allows us to have greater in depth patient education on the instruction manual. We all need to manage our, our mind and our. [00:07:00] What are some of the main reasons people come to you? Yeah. My practice is mental health, so anybody could come to me.
Uh, the most common diagnosis that walk through my door, children and adults, A D H D, anxiety, depression would be the top three diagnosis that I typically see. Do we have a solution for you? No. uh, no. That's that's fascinating. Kind of related to more neurological type issues. Um, I was expecting things, like you say, like being overweight or some kind of a physical illness or something.
Yeah, I, my scope is a little bit limited per, um, state and federal laws and regulations. Um, I'm there to treat mental health, but you gotta treat the whole person and the whole body and the whole mind for any illness. So, you know, we take a holistic approach here. , well, from your lips to God's ears about
Mm-hmm. [00:08:00] treating the whole body in the holistic approach because in modern, uh, Western medicine right now, uh, I would argue that is not the case. That is not going on when you go and meet with your, uh, family physician, if you will. And, uh, when there's a, and especially when there's some type of issue. So I, I think, you know, I, I'm sure you could speak to this, I, I, you know, talk about a softball question, but, uh, obviously when something happened in early of 2020, The spike in, um, just mental health and stress and anxiety and how to handle.
uh, this, uh, incredible challenge that we, uh, found ourself in as a whole world, um, tried to grapple with, um, you know, the virus and the shutdowns and the travel restrictions and people not being able to physically be around each other, uh, social animals. Uh, how was that for you? Obviously, your book just came out, but was there a huge, you know, spike in, uh, in, in stress and anxiety in, in coping?
Oh yeah, totally. And then the, the [00:09:00] statistics out there show that the rates of suicide and rates of depression are, are going up. Um, yeah, I di I didn't stop working, you know, at all. Really? Uh, I didn't even take one day off. Uh, we have the opportunity for telemedicine and so everything was just really quickly switched to telemedicine back in March of 2020.
and yeah, we didn't skip a beat. Um, and business was busier than ever. Uh, I think it's, it's really interesting, um, the things we take for granted, we only are aware of once we lose it. And that's socializing. A lot of my teenage clients now will talk about they felt like being home. It's, you know, uh, can't go to school, can't see anybody.
It's online homework. The homework's kind of watered down. There's no challenge, there's no interaction. You feel lonely. Some of, some of them say they, they lost social skills, which, which is pretty interesting for them to have the awareness of the, their level of social skills and then feeling like [00:10:00] they, they declined in their ability to socialize.
And, uh, I think we're seeing how destructive that can be for, for. I think that's really important, and especially for teenagers who are determining their social skills and where they fit in their teen community and things like that, and especially a more anxious child, uh, than not having that practice and developing confidence in themselves.
That seems to be like a horrible recipe for a really badly developed child with increased anxiety and problems. Yeah. Well we've all baked a cake That didn't come out well and you know, like that, that was the experience over the last. Three years for our society in the world maybe. Absolutely. Uh, I did a quick question too.
So when you're working in this mental health area and you mentioned theres like anxiety and a D H D, what are your typical recommendations or solutions that you, you use most often? Well, it's tailored to, uh, every patient comes in with their own belief set. And so, uh, [00:11:00] as a provider, I have to live within that, that world of their belief set.
and then I try to nudge and encourage them to, you know, towards that holistic treatment plan. So some people will start off with medications, uh, sometimes that's actually helpful because of how urgent, you know, most people don't call me until the 11th hour. It's, that's just kind of part of human nature.
You know, these, these problems kind of fester for a while. Nobody really calls when they're just beginning to feel depressed or just had a few panic attacks. Usually it gets to a really critical point. . So, you know, we need a, a more urgent, stronger intervention. But for anxiety and depression, you know, we cover sleep.
Sleep's really important. We cover blood sugar, uh, balance. So getting the blood sugar in, in a, uh, in the optimal range for as much as possible throughout the day, that actually really helps people with anxiety and sleep and depress. Uh, exercise is another one. Stress and, uh, [00:12:00] stress management, whatever they like.
Could be meditation, could be vacationing, could be, you know, whatever's, you know, for them that actually works to reduce the stress for a period of time. And then we do cover, I do cover with people some meaning and purpose. You know, I think that's important for people, especially with depression, anxiety.
And then there's, you know, there's more targeted interventions as we do assessment. We uncover, uh, issues here or there. We, we target those physical detox and gut bacteria imbalances and the immune system, chronic inflammation, all that stuff. So, you know, we start with the basic sleep, diet, exercise and then dig in from there and then, you know, kind of put people back together with medication as needed.
Sounds great. Yeah, I'm just trying to process it all. Yeah, there's a lot of, um, , a lot of information there, uh, different approaches. That's kind of a wide approach. How much do you focus on, like [00:13:00] diet? I assume that's part of it. Yeah. Again, well, I, I'd put diet right behind religion and politics for trying to get people to change.
So I do, I do focus on diet and people will ask me. Uh, it's interesting, you know, people will ask the question in a certain way. I find like, which food, uh, or which food's plural. . Um, and that is true there, there are certain foods, and I know you guys have a edible food that you're interested in, that can be really powerful.
But a diet is a larger thing than it, it tends not to be just all you have to do is eat tomatoes for the lycopene and you'll never get any illness. That wouldn't work. You can't just eat tomatoes, although tomatoes in the lycopene are very powerful. It's, it's about a diet and so it's more about shopping than eating in a way.
It's more about selecting and choosing and, uh, creating a diet that overall may have a little sugar here or a little trans fat there. But overall, it's given you the, the nutrients that your brain needs and [00:14:00] craves to so you can feel and function at your best. , do you have any like, strong preferences in terms of like plant-based, you know, versus meat eating or just kind of any general, uh, recommendations?
I do, I do. I, I think, uh, first and foremost, whatever a patient believes is the right diet for them is the right diet for them because, you know, beliefs are powerful and, and we, there's that book, the Biology of Belief, so whatever you. Put into your mouth. If you feel like it's gonna do you good, then it will do you good, even if it doesn't actually do you any chemical.
Good. So that's really important. And move, helping people move in the direction that they desire is, is a, is a major principle for me. But if you read the book, you'll find, uh, that it's. It's animal based. It's, it's animal meat, muscle meat, it's organ meats, uh, connective tissue, which is like the collagen peptides, glycine, uh, rich foods, fermented food for, uh, [00:15:00] bacteria, fruits and vegetables for the polyphenols and flavonoids and um, and you know, beans and grains if you tolerate it.
And that's kind of the diet. . Okay. Absolutely. Thousands. Well, and I know for everyone. Yeah. And I know, I know that, um, you know, the, with the food and nutrition is certainly, and I, and I love the fact that you're obviously taking a very holistic approach, um, with, with this, and I think it's really good for our audience.
uh, to to hear this and, and, and hear from your, from your expertise. Obviously, we'd be remiss not to talk a little bit e even just for the sake of, um, sharing some of our insights with you, uh, as you're helping people with their mental, well, uh, mental health. Um, you know, people, you know, like I said earlier on with my son, we were looking.
uh, for basically a miracle. Um, because at the time there was really no, um, science research even, um, uh, reasonable hope to, um, overcome a severe autism diagnosis. It was really Copen Barrett deal with the, [00:16:00] give him some type of life skills and on your way you go and, uh, obviously as his father, and he was healthy at one point before he lost language in communi.
And, uh, engaging with the world around him. I wasn't gonna, uh, live with that as an answer and, and eventually led us to, you know, finding Dr. William Courtney. Who was juicing cannabis to help people with late stage cancer with tremendous results. And then of course, the, you know, the Charlie Peggy story out of, uh, Colorado, uh, which really set off the, the cannabis revolution, um, because no longer people could deny that when you took a plant and it got rid of seizures and epilepsy, that why shouldn't people have access to that?
That's a very common, I mean, that was just black and white. And so that's when the farm Bill of 2014 and 2018 allowed hemp to be grown, just like George Washington grew. , uh, here in our country. And so with that, that's what we found using it as a food. Really it is a food. And, uh, there's not a lot of re uh, there's not a lot of research because actually you couldn't re, you couldn't study it because up until 2018, uh, hemp and cannabis, whatever you wanna [00:17:00] call it, was considered a schedule one drug.
Even though all the big pharmaceutical companies own all the patents and the different, and the government owns patents on cbd, uh, as well. So again, we do live in the system that we do live in, and there are trillions of dollars at stake. And obviously the conflict of interest is when we're trying to take care of people and actually have people's best interest in Hippocratic Oath and do no harm where we find ourselves in this situation where we certainly are doing harm, uh, with the current system that we have out there, but, Um, that's why we, how I'm so excited that you're thinking of these holistic ways and helping educate people on not just taking a pill, AOL, all because as we all know on this call, uh, that there is no pill that is going to fix you.
You are the only person that is going to fix you, and you have to make sure that you're aligning with health practitioners and educated people that have helped other people. Take control of their health and, and giving them that responsibility. And so I, I would love Justin to send you, and by the way, I love your name.
Uh, I would love to send you some of our [00:18:00] products for you to try cold pressed hemp and see for yourself how it works with you and, uh, to actually have something without side effects. And to have something that helps balance our endocannabinoid system, which balances the other major nine, uh, systems in the body, and, uh, helping our own body heal.
And find that homeostasis. So there's a product that we, um, make called Chillax, which actually has a little organic passion fruit, uh, not passion fruit . We have passion fruit in our front yard, uh, passion flour, uh, that is, uh, in, infused in with the organic cold pressed hemp and hemp oil. So I would love for you to try that.
And, uh, we actually have a place where any of you or any free, anybody can try it for free at, uh, Uh, chill cbd.com and you just pay for postage. But, um, I know you said you were in Oregon and you obviously there was a revolution in Oregon, uh, with cannabis. Have you had much, uh, experience with, uh, hemp C or What we sell is called hemp, C B D A.
[00:19:00] What's been your experience up there in Oregon? Yeah. So, uh, in Oregon it's, it's legal and there's, uh, plenty of shops up and down every street you drive, where I live in Bend, Oregon, and, um, you know that you can just kind of buy it. T HC included products and it's legal. So, um, yeah, I remember when I first was 10, 12 years ago in school, it was, you know, marijuana was bad and that's what I needed to tell people.
Whether I think I, you know, smoking a lot of marijuana, there's definitely thc. You can have some negative consequences from that. And I guess it could be a gateway drug. But then, you know, as I got out and started practicing, it became legal. So that was kind of a conundrum because I was supposed to tell people it was bad, but then people would tell me how good it was, and it kind of seemed true.
And so, um, I just kind of haven't really commented on it. And then in Oregon, there are some restrictions on. Me recommending it as a medical provider, as a nurse practitioner. So, you [00:20:00] know, I, I'm kind of more listening for, you know, I've had some patients who, uh, had kids with seizures and they took the CBD B oil and it was life changing when all the meds were toxic and didn't work.
And um, you know what I think is really interesting is that the body has an endocannabinoid system. this plant, when you look at it, you, you can even Google endo cannabinoid system and check out all the images and you, you can see, you know, an outline of the body and all the arrows of all the different places where there's receptors for cannabinoids.
So what does that tell you? That tells you that it looks like this belongs in the. Somehow some way. I mean, I think there's endogenously made endocannabinoids, but um, it also comes in the plant. So really interesting kind of tuning, tuning tool. Uh, cannabinoids, it seems like, you know, it, it really kind of, it, the body's always looking for homeostasis and it seems like with the [00:21:00] CB one and the CB two receptor, , there's so many products out there that you could probably share more that help tune and, and pull us away from one extreme or the other to back towards optimal health.
Cuz optimal health is always found in the middle. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You, you're singing our song here and so, um, I've been actually by holistic healer for too long to count, and I'm also a psychologist. Working with mental health is issues. But yeah, so I've tried everything, every natural thing, everything out.
In the world to try to help people. And then just finding the holistic approach to hemp C B D, which is then the C B D A, the unheated. And so, you know, I assume you know that with T H C A, that's what the plant makes and you have to heat it to get T H C, which is then psychoactive. But the C, b, D, there's no reason to heat the ham if we want the C B D A.
And so you'd mentioned the endogenous system. So our bodies make a, uh, endocannabinoid called two a g. And [00:22:00] it actually, many neurologists believe that the two ag level in your body is what's responsible for any neurological condition from MS to autism to, uh, neuropathy in your foot or whatever. And then the C B D A literally is considered a mimic or an analog.
of the two Ag our body makes. And so it's just this amazingly perfect fit. It's the most powerful things I've found in decades of research in terms of helping the human body. So it literally goes every cell on your body. Uh, THC tends to go to the CB one receptor. and then the, uh, C B D tends to go to CB two receptors, but the C B D A goes to every receptor and it does control homeostasis throughout the body, including all of our systems like our um, immune system.
It balances little levels of inflammation, it balances levels of antioxidants. . And to me, the coolest thing that it does for my work in physical health and mental health is that Lilly can regenerate nerves that have been damaged. It [00:23:00] can repair nerves that are damaged. And if you have a systemic illness like MS or Parkinson's or those types of diseases, it Lilly helps protect from further damage.
And then again, too, being the strongest anti-inflammatory by balancing your body's inflammation. It's really amazing for autoimmune, which is kinda the basis of so many things that we deal with. Then the homeostasis, like you say, it balances the serotonin levels, so if you're anxious, it brings you. Down to neutral and if you're depressed, it brings you up to neutral.
And so to me it's just kinda like the golden winning product or for all my years of research. And so we call it The Miracle Plant cuz we literally see miracles every day. And so again, too, we're, I get so excited sharing because we know that it works and the research is out there. The research has shown that C B D A is 10 to a hundred, up to a thousand times more effective than c, b or thc.
And so, . Um, I don't care if adults use th HC and you know, if you [00:24:00] want to have that experience or whatever, but I'm very powerfully against people who recommend, um, c uh, th HC for especially children like with autism or a d h ADHD or anything like that. And so anyway, it's a, it's a new frontier and there's more and more research about.
I think there's 20,000 articles. It's about C B, D or whatever and C B D A in the last few years. Uh, so anyway, I just say do some research on that and just be aware of it and no differences between the T hc C B D and C B D A. Especially for you. You're in a position to recommend and educate and so it's fascinating to me to add that into your large repertoire, and I can't wait to read your book and see what other insights you have.
Absolutely. Well, Justin, I really appreciate you coming in. Um, as I said, I knew there was gonna be an opportunity for us to align and talk and, and help educate, uh, each other. I know that, uh, uh, you know, obviously you're another brother on the path. He's out there helping, healing, [00:25:00] caring about people, giving them their options, and uh, I'm just so happy that we had a chance.
To meet and have you on the Miracle Plant Podcast. Um, any other final comments? Uh, or, or before we, uh, before we wrap or the title of your book again, ? Sure, yeah. The Mental Wellness Diet, ancient Wisdom, evolving Science, modern Day Options. So it's, it's, you know, the, the villain in the book is modern day life and, uh, so much falls under modern day life.
This, uh, tangled network of crazy laws that you guys fear are impeding people from, you know, reaching their optimal health and having the freedom to do so. And, you know, all the technology and the social media and just all this, uh, worldly stuff, it really pulls us away from kind of like a natural state of being.
And then our, our brains, our brains are so powerful and, and we can do so many things and be so organized and be so analytical. , but at the end of the day, sometimes that shatter, it can be really destructive and anxiety [00:26:00] producing and make us feel bad. Uh, just the scatteredness just kind of exponentials with our, our modern day life.
So that's what I see. I see a lot of people, uh, even see to myself, you know, just trying to do your best and getting caught up in modern day stuff. And, um, we all need a break. And some of my patients have really benefited from cbd b d and small doses of THC and other, other forms of hemp. And then all the, all the, you know, teachings in my book to give themself a break just to relax, to recoup, to recharge the battery.
So you can come back and, and fight it again the next day. So that's what I hope for people. Uh, the book is on Amazon. Uh, the website is www the mental wellness diet.com. The mental wellness diet.com. Got a few blogs. Uh, you can download the audiobook on that website and, um, you can get the book on Amazon.
And then, yeah, I think. Uh, keep, keep up the great work. We're just trying to get everybody to their, to their optimal health, [00:27:00] so absolutely, that's part of it. I'm really excited about your book. Not everybody excites me, but I'm really excited about your book and your approach. very unique and it sounds very, very interesting.
I can't wait to read it. Thank you. Absolutely. Well, at the end of every Miracle Plant podcast, we say Heal the world cuz that is the mention to reach a billion people by 2025 about the power of this miracle plant, especially in the raw form and help people take control of their health. So everyone on stage on the county three, we're gonna unmute our mics and say, heal the world.
And. , those of you that are listening right now, join right in cuz we wanna raise that vibration. We wanna raise the level of consciousness to help people realize that there's more alternatives. And this isn't actually alternative health. This is the original health. The alternative health is the health that came along the last hundred 50 years.
So on the count of three, let's say heal the world, everybody, cuz people, they need a healing more than ever, whether it's physical, emotional. Mental, you name it, we all need a little bit of help and we're here to help you. So on the count three, let's say heal the World. 1, 2, 3.[00:28:00]
Hello. Alright, thanks everybody for joining the Miracle Podcast. Be sure to join us next week and we are here on Clubhouse, sometimes Twitter spaces. But, uh, make sure you find us, you can find us also at the Miracle plant org and everybody be a blessing and happy, healing