Isometric Power: Natural Secrets to Heart Health
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Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential. Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques, and approaches from both sides of the world to help you optimize your health and live with vitality. Let's bridge the gap between ancient practices and cutting-edge medicine. Let's get started.

Hello everyone, welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Smotley, and today I have Mark Young with me, who is the man behind Zona Plus, and we had a great conversation about, you know, his life in Florida, but just some other great stories, and I really can tell, honestly, that this is going to be a really good combo, and we were going over the notes for Zona Plus, Christy and I,

about the benefits. And you guys had sent me the device. And one of the things was not only the science behind it, but the story behind it too was what makes it just seem just so not only interesting, but it actually gives people hope, especially like people in the military. I mean, to me, that's what it caught because my dad was in the military. And we're going to go over some simple questions that I have for you. But I want to hear about you and about your story, man, because...

I think it will trump everything I'm going to say. I actually think talking about that is more exciting than talking about me, to be honest with you, Chris. But, yeah, spoiler alert for everybody listening. This is going to talk about cardiovascular health.

All things garden. I'm not that interested. But tell us a little bit about yourself, man. Thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate that, man. Like, it's cool to be here. Broadcasting live from the A4M conference. A4M. And I was telling Mark that I'd never been to A4M, and he said it was like, it's the biggest functional medicine conference in the world, I guess, or in the country. And I had a friend that...

invited me to this place and I was just so surprised, like 400 different companies. We went downstairs. It was just a multitude of people there. And then just being able to like connect with people. I was like, it was overwhelming. It's like the who's who. Yeah. And when you look down and you're like, your name's up there and all these people there, I'm like, dude, those are all big dogs. You know what's so exciting about it? I just got off the phone right before coming up here to meet with you. Do you know who Dr. Nasha Winters is?

Lover, absolutely adored Naysha. And we were talking and one of the things we were talking about was actually the functional medicine space, as you call it, like everything's about to change. Really? And there is just such an energy like here and just in the space because, and I will laughingly say that.

We were having a conversation about how COVID changed things for everybody. And so much of that was, you know, people started getting suspicious about like, well, wait a minute, like what's going on? And I don't care where you stood politically or anything else. Like I think everybody came to a realization that my health is my problem. Yeah. And it's not anybody else's problem. And I can't trust the insurance company to take care of me and the government's not going to take care of me. And it's like well-intended or otherwise, like there's a, there's a movement around,

going on right now where you see functional medicine and people who are really taking a look at natural alternatives to the standard of care. Um, and it's, it's changing things right now. And we're just, we're feeling it all over the place. Um, and again, I don't care where anybody stands politically, but RFKs movement into, into making America healthy, like

And it's unbelievable the amount of things that we're seeing in even the social media space. And just natural health right now is poised to make a significant comeback. And I'm watching these conferences and the level of people that are speaking at them and the buzz.

boldness that they're starting to speak with, which is in the past, you've seen people who tiptoe around all their messages and, you know, people like, like Marty McCary now going over and taking over the FDA. I'm like, I don't know if you've read Marty's latest book. He was on the podcast not too long ago. Oh, no kidding. He didn't miss this. The smartest guy too. So cool. Yeah. He's just a great guy. And like, it was just, just finished his recent book. Um,

the blind spots and just, it's so on point and it's all stuff that like no one wants to talk about. Like nobody wants to talk about this stuff, but it's like right now there is just an energy and people who listen to podcasts like yours and people that are craving this type of information, like there's no shortage of it right now. So it's exciting to watch. Man, I agree. I think when you talk about the shift about, you say being bold about like preventative and medicine, when he came on,

I remember some of the clips they had from his because he was speaking out about it because, you know, him being like John Hopkins and being on that and he just sort of spoke out about it. And the timidity that could occur with some doctors now, he just let it loose. And I know you've seen it, too. But like the comments are like unreal. How many from that one clip? Like, yeah, please tell us this is right. We shouldn't be poisoning people.

Now, like whenever I talked to him, I was like, I didn't realize like you talk to him one day and he's going to be appointed to the FDA. I'll probably never talk to him ever again. Well, I have to tell you, I could not be happier about him going into the FDA right now because we'll get to the conversation about Zona specifically, but we've been in the midst of FDA approval and, you know, long story, but

The fact that we've entered into this whole FDA under one chapter and now it's actually going to be under him that we will hopefully receive our approval. I couldn't be happier about somebody being able to make that decision themselves.

than under his leadership. And I'm like, oh my gosh, all of this might be worth the wait. Because I've been wishing the time away for years because it's such a process to go through. It's so bureaucratic. It's crazy. It's insane what you go through to do FDA clinical trials and the amount of just bureaucracy, to be honest with you, to get there. And I understand the FDA is working to make sure they're protecting consumers from making bad decisions because of predatory companies. But

The reality is, is it still creates a lot of bureaucracy, particularly for science, for instance, that has zero negative side effect to it. Like, we're not implanting this in anybody, right? No one's getting hurt by it. But to think that under Marty's leadership, we're going to be able to get that approval is...

I can't even tell you what that does for me. I just, I mean, that was one of the best things that I sent a text message to our board of directors as a group text recently. I'm like, guys, I don't know if you just saw this, but the Marty McCary is taking over the FDA. I'm like, this is the best news that we could receive as a company right now. And I hope everybody understands the magnitude of that. I'm just, to me too, it's like whenever you have somebody that would understand your point of view, because I mean, I've,

I've known some people that have friends that worked at FDA and some of the things like, you know, like say bureaucracy that they tell you about. It's to have somebody that could have like a fair insight into what could actually help people and actually with zero side effects. I mean, why not? Why not? Why not? And when you go into this round, like one of the things I was really telling Christy about

is using something that when you say isometric and you say concentric muscle and improving blood vessel health,

Before we get into that, I always call it the nerd section, which I love, brother. I do. But tell us more about yourself. You're very healthy. You look healthy. You look strong. What got you into it? I want to talk about this and the story behind the Zona. Yeah, that's interesting. So thank you. That's very kind of you. Yeah, I will say that I'm, I'll confess, I'll be turning 50 next year. Look behind you. Yeah.

But the reality is, is that as you age, you know, that's something that comes up. And I'm like, and I would say my journey in natural health personally has probably been, say, the last 10 years, 12 years. Like, it's not been something that in my 20s I paid attention to or even in my 30s I paid attention to tremendously. And it's like, and getting involved, I'm a marketing guy by trade, by education, a psychologist, right?

But Marketing Guy by Trade and Zona was something that came into my life at an unusual time and made me go, hmm, there's something here. But my journey into natural health really started with red light therapy.

And it worked with a client who was doing joint detoxification using low level laser and red light to detoxify joint and relieve joint pain. And I just remember what they went through with the FDA and the FTC and everything about what you can say and not say. If you're selling something to somebody who's relieving joint pain, like who cares? Like what,

Like, what harm are you doing to somebody if, like, you've approved the red lights, you've approved this because all of the technology that's in it is approved anyways. Yeah. Like, if someone uses it and experiences joint pain relief,

Why is that wrong? Like, why does, why is that a problem for somebody to do? And so I remember getting involved in it going, Hmm, where everybody's saying you can't, that's probably where you need to spend a little bit more attention. Like if everyone's saying no, it makes me want to look deeper. Um, and then Zona came into my life just unusually. Um, and I got involved with the company. And then, as I said, I'm, I'm a marketing guy. I actually own my own advertising agency and marketing who works with multiple natural health and wellness products. Um,

And the board of directors had reached out to me and said, look, like you're the guy we want to actually take this company. Like we want to take it to the FDA. We want to do these things. Would you be willing to take this on? And I'm like, yeah, like I can do that. Like I've got a team, like, yes, we'll take this on. And so for the last four or five years now, we've been driving the Zona bus and I'm, you know, I like to say like the hair club for men, right? Like I'm not just a president, I'm also a client. Like I use it.

But I go into all of that and say like just that journey down the rabbit hole for people who are on that natural health journey, right? The people who are just, I don't want prescriptions. I don't live on any pharmaceuticals. Like I just changed an insurance policy recently and the nurse came to my office and she's doing all my vitals and she takes my blood pressure and she's like, oh, your blood pressure is 110 over 72. And she grabs her pen and she immediately puts it to the paper and says, what medications are you on?

And looked up like it was just an assumption. And I went, none. And she went, well, but your blood pressure is 110 over 72. And I looked across the desk. I'm like, isn't that what it should be? And she says, well, yes, but I mean, but you're going to be 50 years old. And I went, is there a different blood pressure reading for people? And I'm almost being sarcastic with her, but I'm like,

Why is this? And she used a phrase and she goes, I know, but I mean, that's really good at your age. And I looked at her and I went, I'm going to tell you that the at your ages are never words I ever want to hear come out of anyone's mouth because healthy is healthy.

And the human body doesn't function in a different way at one age than it does in another, other than the fact that we're not physiologically giving it what it needs. That is our important point. And if we are going to feed the body what the body needs in order to do what the body knows how to do, there is no at your age. Wow. That phrase needs to go away. That's right.

That's a good phrase. Right. Like I was talking to my grandmother who's 85 years old and going through this conversation with her about her blood pressure medications. And she's like, oh, I passed out the other day and the nurse told me my blood pressure was low. And I'm like, yes, I know your blood pressure is low and you're taking blood pressure medication. Like why are you taking antihypertensives when you just passed out because your blood pressure was too low? Well, she told me at my age that was normal. And I'm like,

Like, my own grandmother. Yeah. And I'm like, but how do we eliminate that thinking from people's lexicon? Yes. It's like the thing I love about it is the research you have behind it and the way that you've shown it and a proponent of using the science that you've put together, which is such good, valid scientific background. Yeah.

Put it out there to where people can understand it easily. That's what I love about what even the website, when you go to it, like my friend, Dr. Axe, Dr. Josh Axe. I was just on his podcast two weeks ago. He loves you. And he was talking about some of his individuals. And I had three patients that was using Zona. And we were checking in like Chinese medicine. You do like the heart pericardium check and such. And it was like probably six months ago. And two of my patients had, I know they had some stuff going on their heart, some infection stuff.

but when they came back and you know feel the pulse points to do all the you know all the the checks and i was like what are you guys doing like this is pretty good and they said well we're doing a zona and i was like okay i've heard of that because josh would talk about zona and so i knew that it was like a device that used your your isometric uh muscles but it was like the whole science behind like nitric oxide like you know creating nitric oxide and i was like

Man, that's tough. When you're in practice, you get to where you're doing things, I'm not saying repetition, but you're just trying to hustle. And when you see something like that where they didn't take a medication, and in Chinese medicine, when you make a change quick...

It makes my head pay attention because usually you have to do something sort of like slowly, but this did it quickly. So there's a story when you said with the Air Force and how they... I got to hear about this. It's like holding the rod and stuff. So the interesting thing about Zona is that we're talking about it today, like this is revolutionary science you've never heard before. And it's like, this started in the 80s. Like, you probably don't even remember the 80s, but... I'm into the 80s.

But the reality is like, this is science that goes into the 80s and we're talking about it in 2024. It's a bit revolutionary material, right? And the reality is that, so it started and we call it the accidental discovery because a doctor by the name of Dr. Wiley, Ronald Wiley was...

hired by the U.S. Air Force to study what we call G-Force blackout. And that is like when pilots, and you saw the latest Top Gun movie. Yeah. Remember when he was coaching him and saying like, there's going to be a moment on your ascension that you are going to pass out. And like at the one point during the training, the guy passed out. Yeah. And then he's deliberately trying to wake him up so that he doesn't crash because he passed out in the plane. It's like, that's a natural thing. Why? Because you're moving at such a speed and your blood pressure drops dramatically.

so rapidly that the person passes out due to low blood pressure. That's what G-force blackout is. So the Air Force was like, what can we do to do this? And so Dr. Wiley gets involved in the study to figure out how can we stop pilots from going into this blackout stage because obviously they're vulnerable until they regain consciousness. So they took, and again, you're talking military guys. These guys are already in peak physical condition, right? They did all the studies. They

And while they're researching this, one of the observations that Dr. Wiley had made was that the vitals that existed prior ended up, you know, he compared them to the post-study, everything that they were doing, which had nothing to do with isometrics. They were doing all sorts of other studies. But at the end of the study, he's like, every single pilot here's blood pressure went down and not down during G-force blackout, but their normal measurements all improved over the course of their study. And he's like,

That's just weird. Like if it happens to a few people, fine, but how did every single person in the study's blood pressure end up lower at the end of the study than the beginning of the study? And they're testing a hundred different variables, but this was consistent. So he actually took that research and made it the rest of his life's research to figure this out. And he was able to associate it that when a pilot is moving at that type of pace, they're holding what's called the joystick at the, you know, I think joystick in video games, right? I grew up on Atari. Atari, right?

And so they're holding this joystick at such a compression, but at an isometric compression because they're holding it at the exact same grip strength. They're just squeezing. And what's happening there is over time, their entire cardiovascular system is getting conditioned by that. So when we went through all this research over time,

He narrowed it down and was like, well, this is something related to isometrics, which I feel like we probably should explain what that even means right now. People are listening. So when we're talking isometrics, we're used to thinking of exercise as being a concentric versus an eccentric movement, right? Concentric, eccentric. Concentric meaning I'm contracting a muscle. Eccentric meaning that I'm extending a muscle, right? I'm holding it extended. I'm holding it contracted. So when we think of like a sit-up,

You know, my concentric is my up, my eccentric is my down. Imagine this is a plank. So it's a great ab workout. You're going to get a benefit to your abdominals doing a sit-up or doing a plank, but very different physiological phenomenon in the body, right? Yes. So when you're doing an isometric, it is, you know, Greek words for equal measurement, right? Isometric. Isometric.

Um, you're holding something at an exact grip strength. And I'll say it's a wall sit. It's a plank. It's anything that makes you hold something for a period of time. And if you remember when we were kids, if you knew you did something wrong, the teacher said, you know, you got to put your fist up on the chalkboard and hold it like that. Yeah. And, you know, and that was your punishment. You're like, oh, my fist on the chalkboard or whatever, like, you know, 30 seconds in, you're like, no, whatever. I can do this all day. Right. Right.

a minute and a half and you're like, oh, my arm hurts. It's that same type of thing, right? I say, like, everybody's a beast at 30 seconds into a plank. Yeah. Two minutes into a plank and it separates the men from the boys. Yes. And that's the exact science that goes into this. And that is, we can unpack that physiologically, but...

it's isometric. It's you're holding this device and it's giving you biofeedback throughout the entire session. It's helping you keep it at an isometric rate because we have a tendency to let go or hold on. And I tell people, people are like, oh, I can hold it at a static grip strength. I'm like, imagine that it was kind of like holding the gas pedal at exactly the same speed while driving over hills and valleys. Yeah. Like...

Being able to hold, like the speed is going to go up and down and up and down because your foot and your leg accommodates. And it's just subconscious that you accommodate that way. And what this is doing is it's bringing that subconscious regulation of if something's uncomfortable, I immediately fidget. That's a good point. Right? You're sitting with your legs crossed right now. And as soon as one gets uncomfortable, you're going to switch legs. And you're not even going to be thinking about it. You're just going to move.

And what this is doing is giving biofeedback throughout that session, telling the person, nope, you're squeezing too much. Nope, you're not squeezing enough. Nope, we're going to keep it in this exact same regulated area that we've tested to that algorithmic perfection.

to keep the person where they need to be. And so nonstop feedback from the device to get you to hold it at exactly that same thing, the same way the speedometer would tell you if you were holding your foot at the exact same measurement while going over the hills. Wow, because there's a range there. Like when you guys sent me the device, like I would say, like holding it was a little, after a while, like keeping your... Your work. It is. It's very... I don't care what people would say. I was like, it is actually...

I could see how it would train you to become comfortable with holding it at the rate that it needs to be held. Because I didn't know that there was like a specific range of pressure that your muscles need. So when you say that and like, you're great at explaining it. Like I love how you guys talked about like nitric oxide. So without butchering it, like when your body is like going into an isometric contraction, it's,

Like your body is using nitric oxide in some way to heal your arteries. Is that what you're saying? So two things really happen when you're doing isometric exercise. So Enzona is a very, very controlled way of doing it. So it's not the only way of doing isometric exercises. A nice, well-positioned, good form exercise.

will do a lot of the same things for you. The problem is getting a plank at exactly the same measurement for a two-minute period of time is nearly impossible. Everybody fidgets, right? I see people at my gym, I do HIIT training, it's like they're doing their plank. It's like, well, yeah, I get it that you're not laying on the ground, but, you know, okay, well, your butt just went two feet into the air and now you just fidgeted to the side and now you're on one arm, now you're on the other arm. Like, that's not isometric right now. I don't like it.

I get that you're homing a muscle. But the reality is, again, in a very controlled way. But to the point of isometrics in general, you mentioned nitric oxide, which is the first agent of activation that happens when you're using isometrics or Zona specifically.

That is isometric or nitric oxide is a vasodilator. Yeah. Right. So when nitric oxide is released from the body, what's ending up happening is it's going to increase vasodilation, which means a constricted blood vessel will widen. And it's usually the body's defense mechanism to something's going on and I need to get more blood there.

And, you know, when we say, you know, where blood flows, health goes, right? Yeah, right. The idea that if I need more blood in an area, the easiest way to do it is to open the channel. Yes. Right? It's letting the water out of the dam. Like, we're going to open the channel up, and that's how the body responds when nitric oxide is produced. But nitric oxide only gets produced when you do some things like nasal breathing. Nitric oxide will be produced through nasal breathing. Nitric oxide is produced in multiple different ways in the body with the foods we eat. Mm-hmm.

You know, we can, you know, eat foods high in nitrates and get natural nitric oxide production as well. All of those things are beneficial and produce this. The interesting thing about when you're working with isometrics and zona specifically, again, is you're getting the nitric oxide production. But the reason is, is because there's a nervous system switch that's taking place.

If you've ever, I go to the relatable comparison of holding a plank. If you've ever held a plank for two minutes, it's about the most unnatural thing you can experience. It's a ridiculously unnatural thing because every part of your body's natural comfort zone says, just frigging lay down. Right? Like, why are we doing this? This is ridiculous. But what happens is your nervous system is responding to a very uncomfortable stimulus. And because of that uncomfortable stimulus, it assumes there's danger.

And the sympathetic nervous system response is what releases the nitric oxide. You can be the calmest person in town, but when I put you in an uncomfortable situation, that fight or flight response takes place in the brain, which is what's triggering that nitric oxide production. So you put yourself in that situation, nitric oxide kicks in, you end up flooding your system with nitric oxide, vasodilation takes place, pressure obviously gets relieved.

The interesting thing about that is that I would say that that's a very cursory understanding of how Zona can work in a short-term basis. And that's true. If you do it on a daily basis, you're going to get the benefit of that nitric oxide release the same way you would with any kind of sympathetic trigger. Now, the reality is, is there's a much deeper thing taking place here that I don't think a lot of people who even are familiar with isometrics realize is taking place.

And, you know, we're going to nerd out. We're going to nerd out here, buddy. Let's do it. But the deeper physiology in all of this is that when your body gets itself in an uncomfortable position, so I tighten that muscle, I'm holding that device for that two-minute period of time, which is the algorithm, holding it for that two-minute period of time. What's interesting there is that if you're holding any muscle group at a static level, that muscle naturally wants to spasm.

Because that's uncomfortable. It's just unnatural for the muscle to be in a static position. I mean, if you're unconscious while you're sleeping, why do we move when we sleep? Yes. You know, there's no reason to move when you sleep because it's not voluntary. Obviously, I'm not even conscious. Yeah. And I'm rolling over and fidgeting during the night because my back's uncomfortable or my knee feels weird or my arm is twitched. Something's happening and I'm unconsciously moving because our body moves towards comfort. Mm-hmm.

Um, when you're doing that, that muscle spasm or what would be a spasm actually triggers a physiological response. And this is when I say it's, it's, it's the, the, the three combo shot to the corner pocket in biohacking here. I create an isometric discomfort. Yep. Okay.

Which creates a sodium release at a cellular level. Okay. And that sodium electrolyte release is released into the muscle to stop the muscle from spasming. Okay. Why is it we take electrolytes when we're running? Well, because our muscles will start to cramp. Now, doing this, what am I doing? I'm flooding my body with sodium and I'm doing that in such a way to stop muscle cramping because there's only so much sodium that exists at a cellular level. Okay.

If I'm exerting that beyond what's available to me, I'm going to cramp. So I need to supplement in that way. Well, when you're doing isometrics, that sodium release goes into the muscle. And I'm pointing at my arm because I'm using this with my hand, obviously. But that sodium release is going to go into the cells to stop that spasm. The next part of the combo shot. Yeah. When sodium is released from a cell, there must always be a balance of sodium and potassium at a cellular level.

Sodium and potassium have to always stay at a balanced level. So as sodium is released from a cell to stop that muscle spasm,

You're also triggering potassium release, which is a byproduct of a sodium release. One goes, the other goes with it. Well, backing up a quick second, we've talked about the cardiovascular system as a vasodilation with nitric oxide. But what happens to the cardiovascular system, and we call it age-related hypertension, right? Like this is just, well, as you get older, you know, for your age, like these things happen. And as that's happening at the cardiovascular level,

The endothelium, which is the lining of the cardiovascular system, over time ages, as everything does. Part of that aging process is, imagine that the endothelium is like a sponge that begins to dry up over time. Oh, yeah. The interesting part of the endothelium is it actually functions, I describe it as the thermostat of the cardiovascular system. That is...

If the thermostat is not working, the furnace doesn't know to turn on. Yeah. Right? That's a good point. So it doesn't know to turn on if the thermostat's not working. Yeah. Well, the endothelium in the body functions like your body's thermostat for the cardiovascular system. And that is when your thermostat or your endothelium is dried or hardened, arteriosclerosis we call it, when that's happening, your body doesn't know its blood pressure is high.

So it never responds. That's crazy. So literally, like, your body doesn't do what it knows to do because its data track has been cut off. Wow. Like, it's getting no input. So the data is not going to the brain to say, hey, by the way, our blood pressure is high. And because of that, the brain does nothing to regulate blood pressure. Like, you're literally just...

Getting higher blood pressure because the body doesn't realize it's happening. Almost like if you think of something where like a person loses sense in a limb, you could cut yourself open and you don't realize it. So your body doesn't even know to coagulate the blood, right? Same type of method. Like your body needs that feedback. And when the endothelium is hardened, you lose the feedback cycle that the body needs to regulate blood pressure. Yeah.

back to our potassium. This is great. Potassium, as it's released from the cellular level, actually softens the endothelium. As it passes through the lining into the bloodstream, potassium is the only thing that will actually soften that endothelium. And as you soften the endothelium, your...

I would say it's the anti-aging to the cardiovascular system because you're literally, the endothelium kicks in and I can imagine the brain going, wait a minute, our blood pressure is high. I didn't even realize that. How long has this been going on? He's like waking up. Literally, you're waking up the thermostat and the body is going, oh, our blood pressure is high. We need to deal with this. Yes. And you literally have

hacking your body back into what it already knows how to do. Like life was meant to live. Like we, we're, our bodies respond in ways that go towards life. Yes. And, and if given the right stimulus and the reality is, is when we talk about, I say this is just the ultimate biohack for people who subscribe to that word. And it's like, what am I doing? Well, I'm doing an isometric simulation.

I exercise on my arm, which is causing a, you know, a would-be spasm to force sodium. And the sodium is releasing potassium at a balance, which is moving through the endothelium, which is triggering the body's natural response. And it's like, I said, it's that combo shot to the corner pocket. Like,

If you've ever, I mean, for those of you who are old, the, like, there was a game called mousetrap when we were kids, right? I do remember mousetrap. Absolutely. Like, you knock the little ball at the beginning, and then it goes this, and the boot kicks the bucket, and the bucket flips over, and it knocks this piece, and the ball rolls down the slide. And, like, all of these things happen, then ultimately you trap the mouse, right? Like, something happens at the end because trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger, result. Yeah.

Um, and, and that's exactly what we're doing with this. Like you're, you're 12 minutes a day, you know, a few times a week, do it every day for that matter. Build a habit. There's no negative. Yeah. It's like you do this. It doesn't require an incredible amount of concentration. It's not requiring a crazy amount of time. It's particularly beneficial, uh, beneficial for older people who, for instance, are more sedentary. Yeah. Cause I can sit in their chair and do it. My grandma's not going to do a plank. Right. Right.

So like you can sit and watch TV and do this or do that. And when, what I call it, I refer to it as an active meditation because it's calming your nervous system while you're doing it because it's requiring you to pay attention at some level, but at the same time triggering that sympathetic side, that's doing the nitric oxide release. And, and you can probably speak to this at a better level than me. If I'm able to put myself in a parasympathetic or calming state of mind and then trigger my sympathetic, um,

and then I stop doing the exercise and I release it. I go back to a parasympathetic. I do the left hand. I'm back to sympathetic. I'm back to parasympathetic.

I'm back to sympathetic. Like you do this cycle and you're literally getting vagus nerve response. That's amazing. Yes. Because you're continuously trying to trigger like this set. Correct. Triggering a sympathetic nervous system response is creating systemic change in the nervous system. And so the benefit of this is, I mean, obviously you can count the benefits, to be honest with you. You're getting nitric oxide release, which is everything from muscle recovery to, you know, hypertension release, obviously. But

I mean, nitric oxide is great for people who suffer from migraines. Drug dependency is such a personal thing. I hate it. Drugs have their place. I'm not mad at the FDA. I love working with the FDA. I love that we have scientists that are able to bring things to market that make life more comfortable with us and increase longevity for patients who need it. But we're too dependent. Yeah. I mean, it's like...

When you become dependent, like you said, like they think that you get to a certain age and you should be on a medication or they expect you to be on a medication. And, you know, the thing that is a no brainer is because I say it's very entailed. It's a really great device, but it's also it's like it's specific, but it's easy to use. It's not hard to do that.

When you say like your grandmother can do it, like my mom, she had a stroke about four years ago, five years ago. I'm starting to get her on it because she's a little Korean lady and she'll never watch this. So she'll be cranky at me, honestly. But...

When you have this, what's your average range? I know we give it to our grandma. We do it. But is there an age where somebody would start doing this? Because I know it's healthy for all. Could it be your 20s? You could just start young and start doing it. Well, the thing is, we get people who ask questions like, how old is too old? Or how young is too young? Or what if my blood pressure is naturally low? And my answer is, we didn't have issues with hypertension in our 20s. Most people. We didn't. Why? Well, because everything was functioning the way it should have because we were new. Yeah.

Right. We were new. Everything worked the way it worked. Right. And then the warranty ran out and then suddenly things start not going the way that we thought they were going to. And what this is doing is taking us back to a, to a, to a homeostatic level in our cardiovascular system. Like, so it doesn't matter how old you are. It's just trying to get you back to homeostasis. It doesn't matter if your blood pressure is too low, it's not going to lower it.

It's not lowering blood pressure. It's taking you to homeostasis. It's literally just helping your cardiovascular system be the best it can be by allowing your body to regulate its blood pressure by itself without any additional input. Like, that's what we're attempting to do. Yeah. And that's the science behind isometrics. We've got so many clinical trials on this through Mayo Clinic, from Johns Hopkins, from the Harvard Health Letter, from...

McMaster's University, like you name it, of domestic and foreign universities all over the place have done so many studies on isometrics. And we get on a regular basis, people calling saying, can I buy 16 of these? Because, you know, can I get a discount? We're doing a research project on isometrics and yours is the best device for actually doing isometrics because it's

Not only is it a controlled biofeedback device, but all of it's being stored because, you know, the data that gets stored on the device gets uploaded onto the app where you're able to track progress. You can track it too, yeah. Absolutely. Like all of that is being tracked. All of that stuff is being connected. Like it works out. It's just moving you back to where you need to be. Like it's so well studied and documented. You can't Google. And again, Google will get you some pretty ugly stuff. Yeah.

You can't Google what's the negative of isometric exercise because nothing exists. Nothing exists. There is no negative to doing an isometric exercise. I remember like one old physiologist, I said like back in physiology class, but he studied all about fascia release and he was talking about isometric. And this, when I was reading your website, reading your information and it stuck out to me, he was saying that he goes,

isometrics he goes if you can change the fascia maybe he didn't realize this portion portion of news but he goes isometrics is probably one of the greatest healers that you could possibly do and now and i i remember that i was like that's what mark was talking that's what he's talking yeah when when you okay so it's easy to use you're gonna fda hopefully get fda back on this we pray we're gonna sound you know we're gonna send out prayers um

To me personally, though, too, one of the things that I will say, like, that I really love about this, and this is where we get nerd to. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting, like, hopefully it's not too woo-woo, but, like, when you said taking the potassium and making the endothelial, like, kind of wake up and just do what it's supposed to do, one thing that hit in my mind is, like, I do a lot of homeopathy. Sure. And homeopathy is, like, the concept of reminding the body what it's once forgotten. Great phrase. And one of the...

One of the greatest things that help people, I find, like let's say people have like infection in their head and I'll do all the stuff I can. I'll give them herbs and such and keep going through it. And they still kind of, they do pretty well, but they'll come back and say, hey doc, this thing reoccurred. The beauty of it, it's like, I'll go, okay, well, I'll give you a homeopathic. And what I'll find out is that the kid or the parent, whatever, forgot that a certain infection is now part of them. They just forgot that.

and made it an adaptation to their body they're like oh this is so i'm so used to it now it's just part of me like this strap in my throat it's part of my my body but once you get the the the actual homeopathy treatment they'll go their body goes this isn't part of you this is not and that's like when i saw this like that's what that's what you're talking about because the body goes this isn't my normal routine i need to have that influx to come in and i

To me, it's like when you say the greatest biohackers, guys, it's like, to me, it's like literally allowing your body to do what is once forgotten. This is 100%. Now, I love where you're going with the woo conversation. Yeah.

And I say woo because I love the conversations about the physiological impacts of psychological beliefs. Yeah. Because I believe for a lot of people, they can literally will themselves back to better states of health. I do too, yeah. Because there is absolutely a trauma response that lives at a cellular level. Yeah. Wow.

Love that. I don't know if you know who Dr. Olivia Lassler is. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. I was just spent last week with Olivia. We were at a conference. Everybody, man. It's true. It's true. But she does so much work in that space. And it was super exciting to just have these conversations. As I told you, my background is actually clinical psychology. And just having these conversations about how do we unpack...

this negative belief system because it's almost this placebo effect that's happening on the body. Yes. And I was moderating a panel down at the Wellness, Ultimate Wellness Summit down in Miami a couple months ago. Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah. And I was talking and Sienna Steckle, you know who that is? I've never met. Okay. Yeah. She's awesome. She's actually the doctor that I work on functional medicine with. She's my functional doctor. And she was on the panel and we got into this conversation about how people...

to, and this is off topic, but people start to own their diagnosis. Wow. And, and they, they're seeking a diagnosis and it becomes a label and, and it becomes this, I am diabetic kind of mindset. Yes. Where, and it's like, now it's part of me. And once it becomes part of me, it's one, it's not my fault. Yeah. Because this is just part of my, you know,

you know, life's curse, if you will. So it removes the level of ownership away from anything that I've done to participate in causing this. But when it becomes part of an identity at a cellular level, your body quits fighting it. That is a great point. Your body can literally just quit fighting against something because it doesn't look at it as being foreign anymore. Wow. And I think so much of that happens to people that they've...

You know, I love the way you're defining it, like, you know, reminding the body of what it forgot. And it's like the body knows how to regulate blood pressure. Yes. It knows how to do this. Yes. Did it for decades prior to your prescription. Yes. And the minute you start owning this identity of, well, this is just part of my curse. You know, I'm 60 years old. This is normal for my age. Like all this kind of stuff starts to become part of a person's identity. And it's like then we become almost addicted to our story.

And, and in that, I will say physiologically, my belief, Olivia and I were talking about it. And it's like just this, this idea that I have psychologically become addicted to the story that I've told myself over and over and over. And I'm really sorry. Cause I'm going to get into the space. Cause I just finished a Tony Robbins, Kyle loves the last week. So I'm going to be all into this. I'm thinking about it. They'd be great. I'm not kidding. I'm like way out there right now.

But the reality is that we get into this negative belief system and it physiologically starts to impact everything that's happening in our body. And it's like if we can, you know, using technology, using supplementation, using whatever, remind our body what it already knows and reject the negativity of these diagnoses and reject this type of stuff, like we will just have a happier, healthier society. Yeah.

And I just, you know, going back to our conversation a minute ago, there's an awareness that's taking place right now. And I hope that that awareness starts making people start denying their diagnosis and not in an unhealthy way, but in a way that says this is foreign. My body wasn't meant to function this way. I wasn't born this way. This is something that can be somehow controlled. And I need to figure out what are the actions and stimulants that are going to put my body back to normal.

I, I love where it was going. Cause I love this because when you said, when you talk about Olivia and like even with Tony Robbins, like I was listening to, it hits my heart because I was listening to a, not a preacher, um, practitioner,

When you say like belief systems and it becomes identity. And one of the things that I want to see in the long, like in the long study with some of the patients that are doing this, but when you talk about the heart and it just hits my heart that they say that even in Chinese medicine, some Ayurvedic realms and when it comes to cardiovascular health.

In German New Medicine, they'll say that if a person in their life has to have an identity of life is hard, I have to fight, I have to push hard to fight to work with it. It actually trains your artery system to, of course, expand, keep running hard. But this is crazy. If you have to work with people that are stiff...

It says that you will emulate those individuals and your heart and your arteries will get stiff. Yes. And I think when we forget and we become that, I didn't like, I'm going to have to go to work today and work with people who are injurious to my body in that sense and stiff.

But then you get used to it. It becomes who you are. Yes. Hopefully one day you do something to wake it up and go, you know what? You don't have to work with people who are stiff. You don't have to stay in this position. You don't have to work hard for that grind. To me, it can work in like one full circle, like you just said. And I'm like, that's the conversation. It's like, it's not only fixing your heart, you're fixing your emotions, your spirit. Yes.

Literally. I'm going to tell you a quick story. Let's say Physiolite. I'm not getting into the space of, you know, heal yourself through your brain kind of stuff, but there's something to be said for, you know, if a person doesn't want to be fixed, they're not going to be fixed. I don't care what you do. Yeah. You can do whatever you want. If you work with stiff people and you consider yourself stiff, you are stiff. Yeah.

As a man thinketh. As a man thinketh. Man, okay. I know, but I've got to have another convo. Okay, one day. 100% I'm not, this is good. Okay, so we got to, to me, you're witnessing a bromance. I'm taking plays right now. Seriously, to me, using

I want everybody else there to know that when you can access parts of your psyche and your body to like create change, that's one thing that I think the new forefront of this health movement is coming in our nation. And I hope and pray that more devices like this are,

they're easy to use, but I want you to see the impact. Like he just talked about, like there is something that is so profound about changing your internal portion, your internal writing, your internal programming, because you're just reminding your body about what it could be and what, what's not supposed to be there. So. And,

And then providing the physiological means to do so. Exactly right. And it's like, and give you the, basically the device to tell you how much to press, how long to press. And to me, I'm telling you guys, like when anybody can literally help their brain fog, like my patients and turn on their pericardium, which is nerd talk for Chinese medicine by using advice, it really makes a big difference.

Brother, I would love to have you back on sometime and talk more about how you're talking about this program, the M-I release. But we know everybody here at A-Forms got it wrong because everybody's got these meetings and stuff. But guys, remember, can you tell us, okay, what's in the future? I know you've gotten these things on with the DA. And what's in the future coming up? And where can people find you, brother? Absolutely. So we've got tons going on. The FDA stuff, again, I can't say too much about it because that stuff's got to remain top secret until it's done.

But we're in that process. Like we're in the process. We're so confident of what we do that our investors have put in the money to make sure that we can just go get that perfect stamp from the FDA to be able to go out and tell people what we do. I mean, the device is available at Zona.com. It is completely for sale. Everything that we've talked about has already been validated through multiple different studies. We just want to take it for the ultimate endorsement at this point is our goal. So our future looks super bright.

I'm super excited about getting that taken care of. Yeah. Just putting that ultimate stamp on there because there's, there's something different about saying, you know, let's have this big nerdy conversation about this stuff as opposed to saying FDA endorsed to lower blood pressure. Like people are just like, Oh, okay. Flip. Yeah. There's no learning involved. We're good. So,

So I just want to get to the point that people who are not into the nerdy side of the science like we are, are able to just have that confidence that everything is good because I can tell them everything. I just want the FDA to tell them too. And that's where we're going. But I do encourage you go out there. Go to Zona.com. You can pick up one of these devices. We do have a 90 day money back guarantee. So if someone's not getting what they want out of it, I don't want your money. That's right. Like I don't want your money unless you're getting the benefit. But the one thing I will tell you, you're only going to get the benefit if you do the work. Yep.

Um, that being said, we actually have a, an offer for your listeners. Dr. Motley. Dr. Motley is the code. Just type in Dr. Motley. Now I've got to ask though, is it D R Motley or D O C T O R Motley? D R Motley. So D R Motley is the code we're using and that saves users a hundred dollars off the purchase of the device. Um,

So we want to save people money, but we also just want to save people from these identities they're creating and get the body back. We want to remind the body of what it forgot. There we go. I'm butchering your phrase. No, it's perfect. I'm telling you, I would pretty much guarantee, like I'm doing like work with mom now because she's like, one of the things we talked about like with her just squeezing because she's like, she's mid-70s. I just want you guys to know that if you have blood pressure issues,

trust me, get it. I don't just say that. I just met Mark, but I could tell he has a gentle heart and he's just like, but he's, I'd tell you from my heart, like I would get this. So pick it up. He's Dr. Motley in the code. And I just want to say, thank you, man, for coming in. I want to thank you for being the first person to have ever described me as gentle.

You may not think, look, look, you may not think in the heart, he's like gentle, he's like boisterous, but I will say this, like, I do love Chinese facial diagnosis and your heart shows through a lot. So I just want you to know that, okay? I genuinely care. Yeah, you do. I can tell. So guys, from all of us here at the Inks Health Podcast, I'm Dr. Chris Smotley. Our guest, Mr. Mark Young. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Before we wrap up, please remember that the information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed through this podcast, and the use of information here or materials linked from this podcast is at your own risk. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Always consult with your health care provider before making any changes to your health regimen and do not disregard or delay seeking medical advice for any condition you may have. Thank you for joining us today on the Ancient Health Podcast. We hope you've gained valuable insights into the harmony between Eastern and Western medicine. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review.

Remember, true health is about balance, mind, body, and spirit. So stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to explore how ancient wisdom and modern science can work together to help you thrive. Here's to your health, balance, and well-being. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and I look forward to our next episode together.