Believe Big Podcast

50-Chris Hodel - Healing At The Speed Of Light

• Ivelisse Page with Chris Hodel • Season 1 • Episode 50

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In the information age, we are bombarded by traditional methods of healing that often fall short of supporting our needs. To thrive, we must get back to how our bodies heal themselves naturally through a combination of therapies including (but not limited to) light, vibration, PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field) therapy, manual therapy, and exercise.

Today’s podcast features Chris Hodel, my friend and an integrative practitioner who uses low-level laser therapy and rolfing to treat various conditions. Chris shares a health tip for stimulating the vagus nerve and calming the nervous system. He also explains that rolfing is a type of bodywork that unblocks the body's fascia, and how he incorporates lasers into his practice to enhance rolfing's objectives.

Connect with Chris at 212° Wellness:
https://212wellness.com

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Ivelisse Page:

Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take a deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page and today's episode is on a topic I know you're going to enjoy, healing at the speed of light. We are in the information age where just about anything is at our fingertips. Around every corner, we are enticed by another magic pill. The problem is Americans have never been sicker. Our traditional methods alone are falling short of supporting our needs. In order to thrive, we must get back to how our bodies heal themselves. Today we are going to learn from my friend Chris Hodel, on how he and his team are using lasers to heal you from the inside out. Chris is an integrative practitioner who is also a certified advanced Rolfer, an expert in low level laser therapy. He is the owner of 212 Wellness in my hometown of Fort Collins, and for 15 years Chris has been pioneering rolfing, structural integration along with lasers to treat a myriad of conditions ranging from muscular skeletal pain to gut health, to brain health, his passions for human performance and all things biohacking has put him and his team on the tip of the sword to integrate light, vibration, P E M F, manual therapy and exercise to guide your body to healing you didn't even know was possible. Welcome Chris to the show.

Chris Hodel:

Thank you Ivelisse. I, appreciate so much being here and I'm excited to learn more about Believe Big. It's a great podcast.

Ivelisse Page:

Oh, we're excited to have you. And as with our tradition, we always like to start with our guest's favorite health tip. And I know you have several, but can you share one with us?

Chris Hodel:

This is obviously tough. From my roots, I would say, motion is lotion, get out and move and drink water. But I'm hoping all your listeners already know of that. I'm gonna tell you about vagus stem. I want everybody to learn that they can stimulate their vagus nerve each and every day. I'm gonna teach you about a reflex. It's called the ocular cardiac reflex. Ocular means eyes, cardiac means heart. I would have the listeners place your soft finger pads on your eyeballs, and gently press in on your eyeballs. It should feel really nice for a four count while you take a deep breath in. Hold that pressure for another four seconds. And then as you exhale, have a long four second exhale, and then hold your breath for four seconds on that exhale. So each rep should take you 16 seconds. So it's like a painfully long breath. But it will calm down your nervous system. We are just getting absolutely pounded with stress and fight or flight and all that. And we need this vagus nerve, which is 75% of your body's ability to rest and digest. We need to calm down. So having better vagus system activation and better parasympathetic tone is my health tip for you guys. 10 reps.

Ivelisse Page:

Oh, I love that. Yes. And it's funny cuz Jimmy works with some of the Navy Seals and when I showed him that, he was like, yes. that's another tip that they say they can take into the field with them when they're under high stress. it's for kids too, I think it's a great tool before an exam or if you're gonna be in a stressful situation. thank you for sharing that.

Chris Hodel:

You bet. And I would say when you do that, it lowers your blood pressure and your heart rate. So it's a very specific physiological thing that happens. And you're absolutely right. Do it for kids, do it for pre-sports performance. We all get the jitters. Maybe I should do it before my podcast here. I think vagus stem is something everybody can have and everybody has access to, and it should just feel good, right? So that's my tip.

Ivelisse Page:

It does So before we get into lasers that you use with your clients, explain to those who are listening what is rolfing? I know that was a new word for me when I moved to Fort Collins.

Chris Hodel:

Yeah, Rolfing is named after Ida Rolf. Rolfing is the type of body work with the core value system that leads to our structural and physiological understanding of root causes of pain and dysfunction. We are fascia experts and we know how to, as body workers influence people's fascia to start unblocking the body. So we do that from a connective tissue point of view that we'll talk more about later. Energetics emotional stuff comes up all the time as well too. So I've definitely got my roots in sports performance and a lot of people come in and see me that just have aches and pains and it's help me get better, Chris. I, administer Rolfing on people, but as I'll talk about more later, we have taken it, I think quite a bit further in supporting our rolfing objectives now with laser, which interests people big time.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, definitely. And how is that different than massage or pt?

Chris Hodel:

Yeah, I answer that question a lot too, and I never like talking about massage or pt cuz there's so many wonderful massage and PTs out there and they do it different and all that. But I just talk about what we do as rolfers. It's like we are very systemic, and we fix systems, not symptoms. So even though your shoulder hurts, I'm gonna check your rib cage. I'm gonna check your breath. I'm gonna ask you how your work is going. We have, usually 60 or 90 minute appointments with people. So when I kind of joke and say, when you're trapped in my office for 60 to 90 minutes, we just start talking and things come up, life comes up and I think that's one of my hidden little gems that when people can just kinda, here's what's going on with me. A lot of healing happens, again at an emotional and energetic level, and along with all the myofascial stuff that we do as well. That container of 60 to 90 minutes is a really wonderful asset to happen to allow people to get off the street and kind of get back into their body or what's going on in their head and all that. There's a lot of great different modalities out there and a lot of great different healers and even fellow rolfers, we practice so differently from one another, right? So you just gotta, I think, find a practitioner that goes, you know what they said made sense and that's enough for me and I'm getting better. And that's really all people care about. It's am I getting better? And I think you gotta strip it all away and just are we going somewhere or are we just talking about the same thing every time you come in?

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, I agree. And, we totally understand those who are listening, your philosophy, which is what we try and do in integrative oncology is, the conventional world is all about band-aids and just giving a pill for every ailment. Where in the integrative side or in the naturopathic side, they're trying to get to the root cause. What started that cancer to grow in the first place and how can we prevent it from coming back ever again. And so it's so important that you address the root causes of these injuries or issues that people are having. And we've seen it, live, with our family in so many different capacities. It's just been amazing. I, I love sharing this story with friends because both John and Grace, had their wisdom teeth out when we moved out here to Fort Collins and it was a night and day difference between their experience and Jimmy and Jacobs, our older two. Jimmy and Jacob had like the chipmunk cheeks, pain for several days, they couldn't eat. And I think they were a little jealous of their youngest siblings because you came over the day of their surgeries and put the lasers on and very minimal swelling, if any. And they were fine like two days later and, and we couldn't believe it. Also Jimmy's back, my back, Grace had a sports injury and they told her she would've been out for at least eight weeks and she was back on the field three weeks later. It's just incredible all that the rolfing and the cold laser therapy does. So can you share with those who are listening how cold laser therapy helps one heal like it's helped my family?

Chris Hodel:

First, I'd say two things I'd say, okay, because most people want to talk to their neighbors about this. I just went and did this thing, but I don't know how to talk about it. And that's cool and they're passionate. But I tell'em two things, I say lasers increase cell energy and lasers increase cell communication. And then we can go into the principle is photochemistry, similar to we know sunlight helps plants grow and all that. And we know sunlight from vitamin D helps our bodies, right? So I think, when it comes down to it, we absorb photons. And when this happens, there's a specific photo acceptor molecule in our mitochondria, and we're gonna talk more about mitochondria later. That's a big deal. And when this locking key mechanism happens, there's a chemical reaction that occurs and the end result is your body makes more ATP. So ATP is the currency that we all need to heal, and there's all sorts of environmental factors that make ATP not do its job. There's all sorts of reasons why we get blocked, and so lasers do a fantastic, phenomenal job of unblocking so many different conditions that lead to people getting unblocked and then healing. So kind of make it simple hey, it's about how sunlight makes plants grow. We absorb energy, we absorb light. We are light, and we are using specific wavelengths of light to fix your light.

Ivelisse Page:

I love that. I love that. Yeah. We had Dr. Guillory on the episode a few weeks back talk about P E M F therapy, and that's another way that our bodies, our energy is restored and the stressors and things like that. You also use that a part of your therapy before someone begins the light therapy. But walk someone through that process of using the cold lasers on an injury or on a pain that they're having.

Chris Hodel:

This is a big conversation too, but it's one I'm always asked and a person comes in and they have a booboo, and usually it's brain, belly and booboo is what we like to call it, because we sure care about gut health. We sure care about brain health and we care about your pain that you're feeling going away. But most people don't know of those other two, like, that we can help their brain and we can help their gut. I'll keep it short, but when a person comes in, we have an extensive consultation with them, and tell us about your life. Tell us about what's worked, what hasn't worked. You wanna develop some rapport with people before you start working on'em and just know a little bit about their backstory is super valuable. And then we go through a comprehensive neurological assessment with them. And, I have learned for 15 years and thanks to my mentor AK or applied kinesiology, I'm a muscle tester and I can't tell you how valuable that is because instead of me like, oh, it must be this, or it must be that I can ask your body. You are the key. If I can access your answers in your body, you are a lot easier to help heal. So I use muscle testing for all these neurological conditions. We do a comprehensive musculoskeletal assessment and watch you move and trying to find the movement patterns that aren't supporting your posture. And all these things come together and like, all right, we feel like we can use laser or use Rolfing in conjunction with the two for helping you heal, and as complicated as sometimes this can sound people in my experience, you're like, man, that makes so much sense. Why has nobody told me a nerve, talks to this muscle that won't let go or won't turn on? Or, why this always hurts on me or why my immune system isn't working might be cuz my vagus nerve isn't doing its job. So I have through the years told people, think of me like a bio electrician first and you've got a bunch of breakers that are flipped, down in your basement, and I'm gonna flip those things back on and they should stay on. And then, like you were alluding to earlier, what are those key environmental factors that are like, hey, what you eat matters a lot. Have you taken a food sensitivity test? How's your emotional support at home? Again, the narrative of those things just help cross a bunch of T's and dot a bunch of I's and people just start healing. You unblock the body and the body says, thank you. I'm going to then be on the launch pad. Did I answer your question, Ivelisse?

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. You know that was perfect. I love that you say you're a bio electrician and that you're working to get the breakers flipped. It's exactly right. That's what I've experienced. I come in with this pain and it radiating down my leg and, you put the laser on it and I'm like, okay, if I didn't experience this myself, I wouldn't believe it.

Chris Hodel:

Yeah.

Ivelisse Page:

And I know, that you have helped so many people with so many different things, and I know that many people are interested as far as the cancer side as well, that are listening to our podcast. And some studies have shown promising results for the use of cold laser and cancer patients. So for example, there was a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that found that low level therapy, L T, a type of cold laser therapy you use was effective in reducing oral mucosis that's an effect of the chemo and radiation that patients experience from head and neck cancer. And then there was another one with bone metastasis from breast cancer. And so what are your thoughts in regards to cold laser therapy with cancer patients? Is it safe for everyone or are there certain conditions or limitations to be aware of?

Chris Hodel:

The C word is always a word that we have to tiptoe around with respect to how complex it can be. But I of keep it simple. First, I would say consult with your oncologist and say, Hey, I've heard about cold lasers. Do you know anything about it? Have you heard, I think that's always a smart thing to do. There are other lasers out there that have more of a photothermal effect. I would probably stay away from lasers of that sort, but we have a photochemical effect.

Ivelisse Page:

How are they different?

Chris Hodel:

Photothermal is producing heat, class four lasers. I know there's some fantastic research on Class four lasers, but there's some baggage with them as well too. All lasers are not created equal, and it's not my intention to be like, oh, class four lasers are bad. I'm not saying that, but in regards to cancer research, class four lasers had a little bit of baggage associated because rapid cell growth or cell proliferation in cancer is not a good thing. I think we're at like some 12,000 PubMed research articles, not one recorded side effect or symptom of class two lasers or these photochemical lasers. That's very exciting. So like the worst we can do is nothing. But when you start understanding that lasers stimulate something like interleukin 10, my big thing with cancer in all diseases, your immune system is never needed to be stronger. So it's like the vagus stem matters. Yes. Your brain health matters, lasers, stimulate brain support for sure. We know we can up-regulate things like B D N F, brain drive neurotrophic factor, and which is, we call it miracle growth for the brain. It's like a healthy brain is a big deal. So we're not just saying oh, you should have, you know, positive self-talk, which is critical, but we're talking about the chemistry of your brain needs to be right. Your lobes need to be working correctly. And I would say it's off-label use for how we've been using laser for the brain, but it's so safe and in 15 years of doing it you're seeing brain fog clear up. Obviously we know a lot of medications can have baggage associated with them. If my loved one had cancer, my opinion is they would be getting this type of laser on them for sure. So I think it's worth, anybody who's going through that to look into these class two lasers and be like, I'd like to know more. I'd like to find somebody, which we'll talk at the end of the podcast about how to do that.

Ivelisse Page:

I didn't know that there was differences between them. I know that the ones that you have are amazing at your office. What are some different health challenges that lasers are proven to support?

Chris Hodel:

Yeah. and I'm glad you said proven too, because what I see in 15 years is I could talk all sorts of stuff, right? We don't have wisdom teeth, FDA approvals, but we know for a fact you put'em on those chipmunk cheeks and the kids are gonna be happier, right? Because we know what these lasers do for inflammation and the speed of healing and the mitochondrial health. What they are FDA approved for, Ivelisse is there's, I think we're at 21 of 25 of all low level laser therapy. FDA approvals are owned by Erchonia, so Erchonia is E R C H O N I A. So they are absolutely the juggernaut of research, of lasers do this or lasers do that. A lot of other laser companies with different power and wavelength outputs, site Erchonia studies as hey, lasers do this to try and sell their lasers. And the wavelength and power matters a whole lot, so I like making sure people know that, hey, these lasers that we're putting on you are very researched. And a few of'em, chronic neck and shoulder pain, post-surgical pain, these are all FDA approvals. Acne, circumference reduction in the waist, hips and thighs, cellulite, plantar fasciitis, foot fungus, overall body contouring, chronic low back pain, overall musculoskeletal.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow.

Chris Hodel:

It's very vast and, and a high school kid comes in and they have acne. We wanna have a conversation like, hey, you know what, these lasers that you can't feel actually might help support you. Or somebody has goals for changing themselves from the inside out and wants some body contouring support. It's like these lasers actually do this, and it's all pain free and drug free. We just call these things health machines because they're helping you at an inflammatory cytokine level from the inside out.

Ivelisse Page:

They really do. Light therapy is getting more mainstream with red light therapy that I also use and love. How is cold laser different from the red light therapy?

Chris Hodel:

This is another new one that we're trying to navigate through, because what I like about this is photochemistry is coming, becoming more and more, mainstream, right? Light is healing. I like saying that too. Light is healing, but different types of light has different effect. And clinically we always wanna make sure we understand the dosage, of what we're putting into bodies. And we want all that to be very measured, very consistent. With safety being our prime concern, again, not saying red light therapy isn't safe, I'm just saying what's most effective seems to be coherent, monochromatic light. Monochromatic means it stays at one wavelength. We know 635 nanometers of wavelength does DNA replication, phagocytosis, like a lot of important chemistry happens at 632 to 635 nanometers, so we don't want it jump in, back and forth. So some types of light therapy have different wavelengths that is more of a scattered light and not really consistent light. If you had a shotgun and you went deer hunting, maybe you might get a pellet in that deer, but it's not gonna be as effective as a rifle. And I'm sorry for animal lovers out there. Maybe that was just the Alaskan in me that came out, but we wanna be very specific when we're talking about mitochondria. We want to deliver a specific dosage of energy into that cell. Cause too much power and erratic wavelengths had deleterious effects on cell biology too. I just hope the end result is not oh, red light therapy is not good, but lasers are a different, it's a different ballgame a little bit, and I like the idea of, hey, light therapy is becoming more and more mainstream and I'm happy to have the safest, I think absolutely think most effective form of that light therapy to help my clients.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. And I think both, it's not either or. We can't come into your office every day, but at home. I have something that, those who are not in Colorado like we are, that doesn't have the sun shining, like it's really good for mood. I know for me it really helps me to sleep better at night, the red light therapy, but yours have that healing property to it. I literally see the inflammation reduction. I see the pain reduction when I couldn't even walk. I couldn't even move and it just did miraculous things to my back and Jimmy's. Again, if I hadn't experienced it, I would not have thought that it would've done all of that without, without using Advil and all the other pain relievers. That's the other part too. Yeah, you can artificially add those things, which are not good for our liver, but just using the light therapy alone was incredible.

Chris Hodel:

Yeah, and I appreciate you saying and to Ivelisse, because you're right. people can't come in and see me every day and we need adjunctive therapies that say, you know what, when I do this, I feel better. And it's, it's in line with how our bodies heal themselves. It's not the Band-Aid stuff. So I appreciate you saying that. And I'm behind that too. I always just try and be an expert at laser. And so sometimes compare these two, it's oh gosh, that's dangerous territory, but we have such a small time with people, whether it's in their week or in their month, and we just have to make it a healing explosion happen in that time. We need as much mitochondrial healing to happen as, as fast as possible. So I think maybe that's my point there.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. And what are some common misconceptions about cold laser therapies that you would like to clear up? Are there any?

Chris Hodel:

Definitely, I think a funny one we deal with a lot is I don't feel the laser, is it doing anything? We like to say you don't feel the laser, you feel the effects of the laser, right? When I test you, and as amazing as you are, if we find hey, Ivelisse's brain showed up and this hemisphere you test weak as a kitten. And then we put a laser up on your head for 30 seconds and I make you move your foot or say the alphabet or something like that, or hum happy birthday to drive your neurology. And then we retest you in 30, 60 seconds and go holy smokes. That was a different response, right? It's like your body mitochondria in your brain just absorbed that energy. It linked you up and all of a sudden you muscle tested different. So where the rubber meets the road too is okay, hopefully she comes in and says man, this is better, that's better. And that's how we learn, okay, last treatment was effective and we're on the right path. And then the last thing I would probably mention, Ivelisse, a lot of people think more power is good and the inverse is true. The research is showing more power was less effective than less power. So when I tell people I have a 7.5 milliwatt laser, people are like, boy, that's just seems like nothing. we think of a 60 wat light bulb. I have a 7.5 thousandths of one watt laser. They're like, how is that gonna do anything? How is that gonna penetrate? And what we know is it's all about energy. It is not about power. It is about energy. And that's what the research says. So if people wanna dive into that, more energy was better. There's certain amount of energy you don't want. But that's why the wavelength is so important. It's like it doesn't move into the dangerous area. It stays right in that biological window of your body unblocking itself. For those listening out there, please do not be enticed by, hey, we have the most powerful laser to penetrate deeper. Our violet laser goes through your body in about four quadrillionth of a second. So wrap your brain around, you know, your body is basically made of water and collagen, which are very conductive, and that little laser that you can't feel goes through your body that fast. Why are we talking about how deep things go? Our lasers actually only penetrate a few millimeters, but instantly your cells are entangled and communicated in this network that conducts energy throughout. So I'm not trying to laser your toe to make you have a better immune system. However, lasers are very systemic and you just start getting those things on your body and you start feeling better.

Ivelisse Page:

I have a lot of friends whose kids play sports and concussions, how do lasers affect concussions?

Chris Hodel:

I'm excited, I haven't done my trainings yet, but I'm gonna be a concussion specialist someday soon because I know stopping the inflammatory cascade and sometimes these, high school moms are calling me the night of the game. They're texting me like, your client just got knocked out. and then we try and rent them lasers or I'll come in, on a Saturday or something like that and it's like you have to get laser on them immediately. You have this magical 12 to 24 hour window to stop this, it's called the glutamate cascade. So supplements are important in that first window and laser absolutely is being shown to support concussions, hundred percent.

Ivelisse Page:

Okay.

Chris Hodel:

And vagus stimulation, absolutely as well, the brain and the gut. Here's a funny one too, not funny, serious and scary. When you eat foods that inflame you, it can give you a concussion. So we think of hitting our head and we think of hitting our head as being a concussion. You can have concussive symptoms by eating foods that are just that bad for you or inflame you.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow.

Chris Hodel:

And that's this kind of vagus nerve connection going on. So it's important to laser the belly. It's important to laser the head, the brain that is. So concussions are needing to be supported more than they have in the past.

Ivelisse Page:

And can someone activate that vagus nerve, like with your health tip that you shared at the beginning? If they have a concussion, so they stay in a dark room?

Chris Hodel:

Hundred percent. Again, when I get some training, I'll be like, oh, that's why they say dark room or, I know it's light sensitivity stuff. And it's called the oculomotor nerve constriction dilates the pupil. And when we hit our head, some of these wiring doesn't work. And that's actually some of my concussive tests that I do on people. I've heard from some other experts that say, you do not want to limit activity and you don't want to go jump on a trampoline, but it's do an arm bike or something like that, drive pathways. I'm not giving advice yet because like I said, I want to do training, but it sounds like you being in a dark room might not be the end all be all to support getting that concussion better.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. And so I know that my friends in Maryland and people are listening from all over the country and they can't come to you in Fort Collins unfortunately.

Chris Hodel:

So fly here. Come see your buddy Ivelisse and fly here.

Ivelisse Page:

Absolutely. Everyone's welcome! Yeah. But how do people find a practitioner? How do they know that they're using the right lasers and that they're doing the right processes? What would be your best advice to find a person trained as you are?

Chris Hodel:

My best advice would be, I gave the company earlier Erchonia, so E R C H O N I A erchonica.com, and it says find a physician or find a doctor or find a provider. It says something like that, but then you type in your zip code. And, more and more lasers are popping up all around you guys that are not in Fort Collins, Colorado. Then you go in, you have a consultation and be like, I'm excited about lasers. Okay. How do you use lasers? Cause I, I am pretty progressive with how I've learned how to use my lasers in 15 years and what I care about. And there's other people that are just a little bit more point and shoot. But the cool thing is the studies are showing that point and shoot can be awfully effective. It's just as much as you can be an integrated practitioner, you are going to increase your clinical outcomes significantly. If you can have hands on, to have some inner game conversations about what's going on in their head and their life. You're just gonna support them in more than just, did my laser help you?

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Chris, for taking the time out of your busy day to be on the podcast and share with us about how lasers are so healing and about what you do, and we just really appreciate you.

Chris Hodel:

I think the world of you Ivelisse, and thank you Believe Big, and, I'm excited to keep listening to your guys' podcasts and keep bringing, practitioners on here so we can all learn and get better.

Ivelisse Page:

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