Transcription:
Bill Gasiamis 0:00
It is Bill from Recovery After Stroke. And it’s been a while since my last video, it’s been since 2020. And what a year to forget, but it looks like 2021 might be another year to forget.
Bill Gasiamis 0:17
That being said, there are still a lot of things you can gain from the type of year 2020 was with the pandemic and the rest of it.
Bill Gasiamis 0:30
There’s an opportunity to learn a lot about you, yourself, and what’s going on in the world. With regards to how other people are responding to the COVID situation, lockdowns, restrictions, and all the craziness that you hear in the media, which is making people well, I’ll speak for myself when I say it’s making people potentially loopy.
Bill Gasiamis 0:48
Because I certainly went through some strange times, and some difficult times in my acceptance of what was happening in the way it was being reported by the media. Now in Melbourne, Australia, we had a six-month lockdown pretty much where there were restrictions on movement.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07
And the majority of that time, there was restrictions on how far you could travel from home, and what time you could be out at night. So I learned a lot about me and reflecting back now that it’s been two or three months, that our state has been relatively COVID free.
Bill Gasiamis 1:25
So in a population of about 5 or 6 million people, they would be lucky if there was two or three cases. And in the entire country of Australia, right at the moment, there would be lucky if there was 50 or 60 cases, and we have a population of 20 million.
Bill Gasiamis 1:40
So to say that I’m very blessed and lucky is certainly something that I reflect on. And I tried to remember. But there was a time where when I was in the thick of the shutdowns and the lockdowns that I wasn’t feeling blessed and lucky.
Bill Gasiamis 2:01
And that’s mainly because things were tough, and they were tough physically, emotionally, mentally, from a work perspective, they were tough in every way, shape, or form. And that was tough for all the people around me and all the other people that were going through COVID, all my family and friends.
Bill Gasiamis 2:18
And as a result of that, that affected me as well. Three of my friends separated during that time their marriages fell apart. And as a result, they were coming to me for how shall I say nicely to vent rather than to receive guidance or counsel.
Bill Gasiamis 2:39
And as a result of that, that was very difficult for me to go through and listen to, nonetheless, I still did, because that was the way they wanted to be supported at the time. And they’re not the kind of people that would normally vent in that way. And they’re not the kind of people that would normally turn to me for that type of support, so I helped them out.
Bill Gasiamis 2:59
And what a better thing to do for somebody when they need it, then to support them. So hopefully 2021 can start to ease into being a year with less drama, less challenge and less COVID restrictions.
Bill Gasiamis 3:16
And hopefully we can get to that point where we can move on with our lives and look back on the lessons that we can gain from difficult times, you know, stroke survivors are always learning lessons from the difficult times that they’ve been through. So I’m going to treat this the same way.
Bill Gasiamis 3:36
Except that it’s not something that’s happening physically to my body that’s causing me to stop and reflect. It’s something that’s happening that is out of my control again, but it’s external. It’s not me, it’s someone else. So I’m going to try and be calm and be like a boat or like water, as Bruce Lee says.
Bill Gasiamis 3:58
Now, another reason why I wanted to make this post today was because I was asked about whether or not functional medicine is something that is beneficial to people who are recovering from stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 4:12
And before I give you the answer to that, let me just say I’m not a doctor, so don’t take anything I say seriously, with regards to health and nutrition. I’m not a medical professional of any kind, but my experience tells me that functional medicine is a great thing for stroke survivors to be looking into.
Bill Gasiamis 4:29
There are two great functional medical doctors, Dr. David Perlmutter that you need to look at. And Dr. Mark Hyman that you need to look at and listen to and they talk about all the amazing things that functional medicine can do for healing the brain and reducing inflammation.
Bill Gasiamis 4:50
And I personally went down the path of using functional medicine as well, but not solely and totally so I combined functional medicine. with Western medicine, because without Western medicine I’m pretty much stuck, there’s no recovery from three bleeds in the brain and brain surgery.
Bill Gasiamis 5:08
And let’s be grateful for the amazing scientific research. And the hundreds of years and hundreds and thousands of hours and people that have spent into researching how to open somebody’s head and take a faulty blood vessel out like they did for me, and then patch them back up and get them back to some kind of life.
Bill Gasiamis 5:32
So functional medicine was really good, because it taught me about nutrition, I thought I was eating healthy before. And I wasn’t when you look into what healthy eating is, it’s not what you’re being told by the corporations like Kellogg’s, or Kraft or any of those major corporations that are selling, packaged food.
Bill Gasiamis 5:53
That’s not what healthy food is all about. Functional Medicine teaches you how to get back to truly healthy food. And that is what I learned. And I did that 12 years ago now. So I’ve got a really good foundation in what is involved in doing great things for your body via nutrition, which is the cheapest way to really look after your body and your brain.
Bill Gasiamis 6:20
And I’ve done a little course, and I’ve created a little course called Five Foods to Avoid After Stroke. And you can get that from my website recoveryafterstroke.com and you can watch those five modules and interact with me in the comments section. So that you can get a bit of an understanding of how I went about functional medicine.
Bill Gasiamis 6:44
And perhaps I can give you more ideas about the things that you don’t know that you need to know about nutrition that you should seek a functional medical expert out for. And that you should ask, once again, it’s my opinion, and it’s what I went through, it’s not what I would recommend.
Bill Gasiamis 7:00
And if you’re going to do anything regarding your nutrition, during recovery from anything, please consult a healthcare professional, whether it’s a doctor, or a qualified and trained nutritionist, or a functional medical expert so that they can guide you better.
Bill Gasiamis 7:18
But I did put together these five interviews with a nutritionist and a personal trainer, where we discussed why we should avoid those five foods. And those five foods we called the fun five. And they included caffeine, dairy, alcohol, sugar, and gluten.
Bill Gasiamis 7:40
And removing those foods out of your diet is a big deal. But you can do it. And it’s not something that you should do all in one go. You shouldn’t just go cold turkey in all of those in one go because you’re going to really struggle with wondering what you can eat.
Bill Gasiamis 7:56
And there goes the dog in the background. And I did that over three or four years, I slowly but gradually decrease the amount of dairy, caffeine, sugar, alcohol and gluten that I was consuming, and I became a much healthier version of myself.
Bill Gasiamis 8:13
And the most important thing is that it helped to decrease the the effects of fatigue. And the things that I took out first, which really made a massive difference on how I experienced fatigue was sugar and gluten.
Bill Gasiamis 8:29
So all gluten that came in wheat based products, whether it’s pasta, or bread. So that really made a massive difference on how I experienced fatigue. And then that really decreased inflammation and helped me get more active and become more able to do more things more quickly.
Bill Gasiamis 8:50
So functional medicine is a really important part of recovery from stroke. And if you are going through a stroke, and you want to know more about it, get in touch with me. But if you want to get in touch with a functional medical practitioner, you can seek out one of them from your local area, just make sure that they are highly professional, and that they’ve got a great reputation in their field.
Bill Gasiamis 9:19
And they’re not supporting the conglomerate and selling you a diet that is all about you know fast foods and packaged foods, and all that type of stuff. But if they’re any good, that won’t be that kind of thing anyway.
Bill Gasiamis 9:33
So as far as I’m concerned, functional medicine is an amazing tool. And most of what you’ll learn from functional medicine is stuff that you can do at home and stuff that doesn’t have to cost anything extra.
Bill Gasiamis 9:46
Now some of the other things that functional medicine will do is they’ll do some blood tests and they read the results a little bit differently than how a medical doctor might read the blood results.
Bill Gasiamis 9:57
Usually a functional medical doctor will take a different view on what is normal blood results as opposed to what are results that need to have something done about them. And those normal results, usually normal results that doctors consider normal because the majority of the people who they get blood results for are sick people.
Bill Gasiamis 10:28
And when they compare your blood results with sick people, and your “in the normal range” in the middle of the range, or at the top of the bell curve, that could potentially be a little bit inaccurate as to what is exactly going on for you.
Bill Gasiamis 10:47
Now, if you want more information about what that means, let me know get in touch, ask me a question on messenger, or direct message me wherever you see this video. And I could give you a little bit more information. But basically, the average results of a sick population going to doctors and getting blood tests is not the way to gauge whether or not your blood tests are normal, and whether you’re in the normal range.
Bill Gasiamis 11:15
And functional medical doctors, professionals, practitioners will look at those results with a different perspective and a different point of view. And they may find answers to questions that doctors haven’t been able to answer. So use them in conjunction with your medical professional.
Bill Gasiamis 11:33
And I think it is necessary for you to use as many tools as possible to help heal in your stroke journey and not to take anything for granted. And that’s what I did. So I’m nearly nine years post stroke now, and I’m going strong.
Bill Gasiamis 11:55
Of course I have some deficits that most people can’t see, but I still experience. And I think stroke recovery is a ongoing journey. I was 37 at the time. And I’m 46 now so we are still recovering from stroke and we are still looking for ways to improve and get better and better.
Bill Gasiamis 12:17
And I’m looking forward to the next nine years or more. Thanks for watching and thanks for listening. And if you want to learn more about Recovery After Stroke my Instagram page and me go to recoveryafterstroke.com where you can listen to some podcasts, download a course. Get coaching for help to get you going on the path to recovery after stroke. I’m Bill Gasiamis. Thanks for watching.
