Chronic Fatigue, Leaving the Marines, and an 18-Day Water Fast w/ Michael Vasconez Chronic Fatigue, Leaving the Marines, and an 18-Day Water Fast

Introduction

[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show. We are talking to my buddy, Michael Vasconez, who has worked through a serious time with chronic fatigue.

He is actually someone who is local to me. We’ve only seen each other a couple of times in person. But this guy has a heck of a story, long enough and interesting enough that we actually ended up doing two parts here. There was another reason we did that. It was kind of two separate topics.

Today in this first part, we’re going to be covering a lot of his health journey, the symptoms that he went through, and then all of the various things he had to learn to get to where he’s at now. With that all said, although this story is amazing and would be incredible for anyone to listen to, even if they’re not in the functional medicine space, what I want you to keep in mind is one thing.

Michael had to go through the ringer, and experience all this different stuff, try so many different healing modalities before he found something that worked for him. This is the entire point of us doing this podcast. FDN is a proven system. It has been around for over two decades. We have worked indirectly with tens of thousands of people.

The Amazing FDN System

I say indirectly, because it’s not like FDN the company is working with these people. It’s our practitioners that are out there doing this work. It’s probably over a hundred thousand at this point, I would imagine. But I’d rather underestimate that kind of stuff, because the number is still impressive. I know Reed Davis alone, the founder of FDN, has worked with over 10,000 people in his time doing this work.

It’s pretty crazy to think about how many people that is to work with and look at their labs. That’s nuts! I know it’s hard to manage even 10 people sometimes, let alone go through 10,000 in any amount of time, let alone in two decades. With that all said, Michael had to go through a lot of different things to finally find something that works.

That’s why we bring you FDN. It is a system, it’s predictable. It’s something that works every single time. It might not work a hundred percent the first try or just one round of labs and the person’s a hundred percent better. That might not be the case. But it is very, very rare that I see someone that goes through the FDN system, gives it an honest try, and is not seeing themselves feel 80% plus better within just a matter of months. That’s how amazing this thing is.

A Little About Michael Vasconez

Then guess what, if you’re one of those people that can’t get to 100% with the I’ll call it, quote unquote “basic stuff”, although it’s certainly not basic. Fundamentals would be a better word. We still have the other things here for you to course correct and figure out what that last 10% or 20% might be for you.

That’s why we have the advanced courses. That’s why we have the additional mentorship. That’s why we have our group of professionals who are available to you post-graduation if you choose to join that group.

With that said, though, there’s a lot of things that Michael’s going to share in his story that might be a little different than what we do at FDN, but it’s still very useful. It’s an incredible journey. I think if nothing else, this is going to inspire you to hang in there because this person was at a pretty low place with their health, with the relationship.

He’s been able to turn this around. I think, again, if nothing else, it’s really inspiring. That’s why I’m really happy to be able to bring you this episode in two parts. So, a little bit about Michael himself. He began his journey as a coach at a young age by coaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, boxing, and various other martial arts.

He used martial arts as a way to kind of reach kids who were in need of a positive activity and to bring some positive transformation to their lives. Through proper education in the raw, living food lifestyle, realignment with his core values and mentorship, he is now a professional certified coach who has dedicated his life to helping humanity.

Michael’s Accomplishments

Michael is a professional lifestyle medicine and life coach. He earned a Lifestyle Medicine Certification from Hippocrates Health Institute, which is kind of a cool place. I would recommend looking that up. It’s a little different than what we do, but I find it fascinating, the stories that come out of there. If I’m not mistaken, we’ve had one other person on the podcast who went through that.

I actually know someone locally who went through that and had an incredible cancer transformation with it. He also got a Life Coaching diploma from Noble Manhattan USA. He’s an Accredited Practitioner Coach through the International Authority for Professional Coaching and Mentoring. Additionally, because of course we needed some more stuff here, he graduated from the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans program from Purdue University and is a member of the Simper Fi and America’s Fund Business Apprenticeship program.

Michael was a Marine. So, kind of cool. I have found it fascinating how many people we’ve had on this show that were in the military. I don’t know what the correlation between that is and holistic health, but it seems to be happening.

A few staples that Michael has in his life that he thinks are really important and he wanted to share with you are that he has a steady practice and study of Ashtanga yoga. He has mentorship from one of the closest people in his life Taita Pedro, who is a traditional indigenous ancestral doctor, and simply continuing his education on top of all this.

Michael continues to seek self-improvement because he lives under the understanding that a candle’s light can only be as strong as the size of the flame. I think that’s pretty interesting. I hope that doesn’t sound cheesy to you because Michael is the real deal.

Authentic and Refreshing

The life coaching thing is something that could get thrown around a lot. Maybe people don’t like it. They kind of think it’s cheesy. There are certain people though, who have mastered certain things in life or done very well in them that I think they’re worth listening to.

Michael is one of the few people I know that I would absolutely say that is the case. I actually had him on a radio show that I used to do that was all about health. I did that before I started doing the FDN podcast and people loved that episode. This guy is as real as they come. He’s just raw. There is nothing that he will not tell you.

It’s so authentic. I think it’s very refreshing. There’s no image that’s trying to be put on. There’s no ego involved. It’s just a human being sharing the many falls that he has just like the rest of us. Then we’re able to learn from that and those experiences that he had as he worked on these things.

So, without further ado, let us get to this amazing interview with Mr. Michael Vasconez. Here we go.

All right, what’s going on my man? How are you?

[00:06:10] Michael Vasconez: What’s up Evan. Great to be here.

Unbelievable Stories

[00:06:11] Detective Ev: We have with us, Mr. Michael Vasconez, and when I was doing my health radio show, before I started the podcast with FDN, he was one of the guys that came on.

People loved that episode. I’m not just hyping you up, man, because I talk to everyone on these podcasts. It’s public. People know that I don’t just flatter everyone. You’re one of those people I can count the amount I’ve met in my life that have just so obviously done the work that they say that they’ve done.

You just don’t even believe some of the stories that you share. And that’s a good thing, right? You’re like I went through this, I did that. I had this happen. I remember driving back in the car with you from the radio show. I’m like, what did you do?

You’ve used that in the most positive way to impact your life and I know Nikki’s life as well, your wife. We’ll shout her out at the end because she’s doing some interesting things that aren’t necessarily health related, but I feel like will be well received in our community. So, we’ll shout that out too.

With that said, we always start with the same question on this show and what that is, is just, what did your health symptoms look like? And when did they start for you?

Extreme, Debilitating Chronic Fatigue and More

[00:07:15] Michael Vasconez: I’ll start off with, when did they start and then I’ll get into what they were. I got medically separated from the military in 2013, 2014 when I left the Marines. I left that because I was so chronically ill that I was not able to function. I was completely debilitated.

I’d pass out. If you told me to lift something over like 50, 60, 70 pounds, I literally would just pass out. I would be so tired. If you told me to walk to the mailbox and back, I would have to go take a nap. Essentially, what it was is extreme, debilitating, chronic fatigue.

I had liver failure symptoms going on. I would wake up in the middle of the night, I’d start dry heaving. I’d have watery in the mouth. Typically, that is a sign of your liver being extremely bad off without getting into the medical terminology.

Then my adrenal glands were pretty much failing. They couldn’t support anything. That’s why my blood pressure was so messed up. I was really sick, full of chemicals and full toxins in my body. I had parasite problems. I mean, I had it all.

All that was from when I was in Afghanistan, I was exposed to some really nasty stuff, not to mention the foods that we were eating sometimes were not cooked all the way. They weren’t hygienic sometimes. I had an alcohol problem an extreme binge drinking problem, which anybody knows you don’t have to have any real sense to know that that destroys your body.

Coming out around that timeframe, I was 26 years old, and I thought my life was over. That’s pretty much where I was at before I started down my journey of getting better.

Chronic Fatigue and Utter Chaos

[00:08:58] Detective Ev: I was just about to ask, because I know that you’re certainly not an old guy now. I’m like, how old were you back then? It’s crazy to think. I’m 26 now and this was all going on where you feel like basically your life’s over already. I can’t even imagine that feeling at this age. Like you feel like you’re just getting into it in a sense.

[00:09:12] Michael Vasconez: Then depression and anxiety and all that kicks in because, 26, you’re a baby still, you know?

[00:09:19] Detective Ev: What led you to going and serving in the military?

[00:09:21] Michael Vasconez: The closest person in my life, he pretty much left me. He took his own life. He was my brother and my best friend. Then I didn’t really know what to do in the world. Now I was just a complete and utter chaos. I figured I was either gonna end up dead or end up in jail, one of the two, just the way that I was living.

I was like, you know what, what can I do here? I was into mixed martial arts pretty heavily. I was a very physically fit man. I went in at 21 years old. I was 185 pounds, six foot. I mean, I was exactly what they wanted. I just went into the recruiting office one day and said, hey I want to join.

I joined the infantry, pretty much few months later. I didn’t talk to my parents about it, my girlfriend, who’s my wife, at the time. I just shipped out, I needed to get away. I needed something hardcore to snap me out of what I was in. Went off to the Marines and that was my saga with that.

Chronic Fatigue and the Military

[00:10:14] Detective Ev: I’m assuming you meant wife, that was the girlfriend at the time.

[00:10:16] Michael Vasconez: My girlfriend at the time, is now my wife. I’ve been with the same girl. I might have said that backwards.

[00:10:25] Detective Ev: I’m just messing with you because obviously I know that, but it came out funny.

The health issues don’t discriminate. You’re going to get all backgrounds. Had quite a few people that served in the military, and I’m always interested in how people get into that and if that has any relation to the health stuff. I know that that’s not a place where you go, and it’s not really the ultimate example of health.

Many people with certain conditions can’t even get in. Technically, I don’t subscribe to these diagnoses that I got at 18 anymore at all. But certain diagnoses that I had would not allow me to get into the military. I think that’s because they know that you’re going to trigger a lot of these issues if you go eat the crap food and just work people to exhaustion. It’s not going to go well.

[00:11:09] Michael Vasconez: The modern public doesn’t even know the half of it. I’m not talking down to the way that we’re treated, but I mean, your body is pushed to the utter limit. You have no time for recovery most of the time.

The food that we were living on is something called MREs. We literally lived on this food. When we were in Afghanistan that’s all we ate. Then even when we’re back home, I’d say for guys like me, 80% of their diet is out in the field and you’re eating MREs too. You know that food’s got a 10 to 12 year shelf life, easy.

Chronic Fatigue – Out of Commission

[00:11:50] Detective Ev: Yeah, you’re going back and forth between 10- and 12-year shelf life and stuff that’s barely even cooked.

[00:11:54] Michael Vasconez: That’s your diet. Then when you’re in Afghanistan, you drive by like this little hut and some guy’s selling you this piece of pita bread with God knows what on it. You’re just so hungry.

You’re sick of eating the same thing and you’re just like, I want it for 30 cents. And you just ate some nasty stuff. Years later it turns out to still be in you.

[00:12:15] Detective Ev: Exactly. Quite literally. That’s kinda scary. That’s not going to be great for health.

So, you were feeling as good as you could feel, I guess before this. Probably not mentally and emotionally well with all the things that happened to you. But physically, like you said, you’re doing the martial arts. Everything is going well.

You get out of the military basically because of this health stuff. At what point though, because maybe it was that point, maybe it wasn’t, when do you realize that you have a serious problem going on?

[00:12:39] Michael Vasconez: I knew it when I couldn’t function. I was sleeping 20 hours a day. I couldn’t deal with anything because when your body’s in such a compromised state, then the anxiety, depression, and all that kicks in because you’re wrestling with yourself. A grown man, and literally you carry your wife’s groceries in and were done for the day. You’re walking on eggshells about everything that you do.

You choose in your day what to do. Am I going to go to the grocery store today or am I going to go to the post office? Cause I only got enough in me for one. That’s pretty much where I was at.

Trying Everything with Chronic Fatigue

[00:13:13] Detective Ev: That’s real chronic fatigue and more obviously, It’s serious stuff. I think unfortunately in today’s world, the average person might not understand that, or they hear that and are like, what does that even mean? It’s a really debilitating thing for people. There’s not a whole lot of support for it, from the Western side.

That leads me to my next question. So, you know there’s a problem. What is the first thing that you actually do about this to help this out?

Did you take a more traditional route to begin with?

[00:13:38] Michael Vasconez: I tried everything under the sun, everything under the sun. I mean every single Western medicine. I saw every doctor in the book. They didn’t know what to do with me. Really what started me down the natural holistic side of things is my wife was working at a wellness center at the time and I did my first enema.

Now up until that point, I slowly started to realize. Oh, I’m going to back up. I watched a documentary called The Miracle of Life. It was on Netflix before it got banned. I don’t know if it’s on there anymore. The Miracle of Life talked about the Gerson Therapy.

The Gerson Therapy, I’m sure a lot of people on here heard about it. That man did amazing work.

Detective Ev: I actually have that so feel free to get into that.

Michael Vasconez: Dr. Gerson, 76 out of 100 stage four lung cancer patients became completely free. This guy’s protocols were amazing. Enemas were a huge part of it, special juices, detoxification protocols.

Natural Protocols – Getting Better from Chronic Fatigue

When I came across that video, I started to just implement some of this, started to change the way that I was eating, and I started to get better. I started to connect the dots between lifestyle, food, stuff that I never was told. We don’t think about that stuff. I started to change that.

Then I did my first enema and I felt like this fog lift out of my brain. Then I dove into researching bowel cleansing. I started to study Dr. Bernard Jensen, Dr. Morris’s stuff, Arnold Ehret’s stuff. I even looked into Gandhi’s work when he was fasting.

I started fasting. I started juice fasting. I started to not just like do it, but I studied it. Then I got the wellness center that my wife worked at. I went through some protocols with them. I started to realize supplementation is a tool and how to use all this stuff. They just was like gasoline for me.

At that point, I was fueling my own fire and I just went down that path even more.

[00:15:39] Detective Ev: That’s so cool. I mean, cool might be the wrong word. It’s interesting to me.

Michael Vasconez: Oh, it’s cool!

Detective Ev: It just stinks that you had to find all this stuff through this suffering. But then at the same time, people like us almost universally always say that we’re so glad that it happened because it led to this life with purpose.

My Own Science Experiment with Chronic Fatigue

[00:15:53] Michael Vasconez: 100%. It connects us. I mean, even you, your story, the whole mental health thing from when you were a kid, if we don’t have the trial by fire, then, our lives are the greatest testimony, the greatest medicine on the planet.

I’m a man that, I roughly care about science, but not really because anecdotical evidence for me – experience. If I have 10 people tell me that this works for them but yet there’s no science to back it up, I don’t care. That doesn’t even come into my brain. If 10 people tell me and I talked to them and I inquisitively questioned them, and I learn that this thing did help those 10 people, I don’t need any more proof. I’ll try it. I am my own science experiment.

[00:16:40] Detective Ev: There’s a lot of validity to that, Michael. Someone has to do that. Yes, I think we need people that do the studies and read this stuff that has application as well. But we would never make progress, if there wasn’t people like you.

How do you form a hypothesis if there’s no one that’s looking at anything, but the science? You would never have science without that.

[00:16:56] Michael Vasconez: Right. That’s what I mean. There’s people from both worlds. I’m on this side of the world. You know?

Asking the Questions & Forming the Hypotheses

[00:16:59] Detective Ev: That’s kind of what I’m saying. In a sense if you actually think about it, if people think about it, science kind of can’t exist without people like you. Because it’s the people that are in the world actually asking these questions and saying, wait, maybe that works.

That forms the hypothesis to be tested by the scientific method. If you don’t even have that, chances are, you’re not just coming up with something randomly. Chances are you saw, it seems like when I go do that or when I do this, this seems to work. Maybe I can prove this. Oh, well that thing works here. Maybe this works here too.

So, it actually all starts with that. I think that has a lot of validity. I appreciate you sharing that with people because you have great results for yourself, and you get great results for your clients.

The one thing I want to back up on a little bit. When you got out of the military and you’re dealing with all this health stuff, were you eating a completely standard American diet, at least initially?

The Standard American Diet & Chronic Fatigue

[00:17:46] Michael Vasconez: Yeah. I mean, when I came home, I was drinking, I was eating the typical stuff. I was not as bad as you possibly could get, but I had no idea that food had anything to do with my health. I did know that cause I used to go to the gym. And I used to have to cut weight all the time for my competitions and everything.

So, I knew what eating lean was, and I knew how to like take weight on and off. But when it comes to like your internal landscape, the functioning of your liver, your kidneys, your gallbladder, the digestive track that is your small and large intestine, like the internal landscape of all that, no, I wasn’t eating for that.

Like I said, what changed me literally overnight, I went and threw everything out of my fridge, and I went and bought new stuff was that Miracle of Life documentary that I saw. That is what game changed me. I stopped. I knew the fast food had to go. I knew I had to start cooking my own meals.

I knew I had to start drinking only water. That was my biggest thing, I quit drinking. I quit the soda. I quit any liquid that wasn’t a fresh fruit or vegetable juice. And I drank only water. That was one of the biggest steps that I made.

[00:18:56] Detective Ev: Holy cow. I got two things for that. One is when you got to that documentary was that sheer luck in a sense, or were you actively seeking? Like, hey, I know the Western stuff’s not really working for me, so I need to keep trying alternative things?

Chronic Fatigue & the Internal Guidance System

[00:19:09] Michael Vasconez: I was so sick. I was just seeking and seeking and seeking. And I think that’s an element that I love working on with my clients, because I call it the internal guidance system.

Like in my heart, I feel that the internal guidance system is the only thing that can truly heal someone because the internal guidance system is the road signs in your life that’s going to take you to where you need to go.

And it’s a blessing for guys like us that work with people in the capacity. Because if we realize that we could be a steppingstone for someone (we’re not the end all be all), but we are in that path for them to find their true healing, then it’s a different role to play.

I worked with them to figure out what wants to happen within their human body and their consciousness. And that’s what was happening within me. It’s like I found a first steppingstone and then everything just started to compile. Literally I’ve had books fall off the shelf for me and I pick it up.

Well, I’m not gonna say it fell off the shelf, but like I fell over one time and this book was sticking out just like a little bit and my eyes went right to it. I went and bought it on Amazon. That was a book also that like changed my life. So, when I say books fall off the shelf, I mean, like stuff stands out to you in that way. I just started to follow the breadcrumbs.

The Dots Connect When You Look Back

[00:20:31] Detective Ev: I think generally speaking, that’s a really well-received type of thing on this podcast. I know I’d kind of mentioned something like that before, and I certainly know it’s well received by me.

Steve Jobs had talked about the dots always connect when you look back. But I found when we increase that awareness or have that maybe internal guidance system that you’re talking about, you actually can kind of get to this point (and I’m sure I have plenty to go with this). But I got to this point where I can see the dots as they’re happening. You realize instantly the significance of that book that you just saw. You’re like, holy cow, something good’s coming. And it happens live right there.

Now of course, to me, it always makes even more sense when I look back. I’m like, wow, this had to happen in this perfect way, and it led me to where I need to be today. But I find this so often with these people I talk to on here with their healing journeys. It is so hard for me to buy that this isn’t exactly what they’re supposed to be doing.

Because everything that led to this gives them this passion and this life and this vibrancy of love for their career or things that are so unique, it seems, unfortunately for most people. But it’s universal in this space. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s just cool. I like to believe if nothing else, that we kind of chose these paths and we’re exploring and learning while we’re here on this earth, in this human body, these dots are happening.

Tapping Into that Right Feeling

[00:21:43] Michael Vasconez: I just want to say one thing though.

Detective Ev: Please.

Michael Vasconez: You know, we’ve had an explosion of information in the past, especially since the pandemic hit. Like everything is online now. It’s like when we tap into that internal guidance system, you have an infinite library of knowledge to sort through. The only way to sort through it and define what’s right for you is to feel that and to tap into that right feeling. Otherwise, you’re going to get overwhelmed.

[00:22:06] Detective Ev: Yeah. Well, you know, obviously you’ve seen this locally. I believe Eric talked about this, my partner with the light therapy studio. Dude, I don’t really tell people this, but obviously I’m willing to with this group.

This came, the whole studio. I was meditating. I was asking for what I needed to do next. I had never thought about a light therapy studio before. Twenty minutes later, I’m driving. Bam. I’m like, okay, that’s good. I call Katz. I said, hey, you wanted to do something with lights before. Right? He’s like, yeah. I’m like, I will be honest where this idea just came from.

I was totally meditating. Like I have nothing to back this up a hundred percent yet, but I’m pretty positive about this one. And you know I’m skeptical with that stuff. So, when I say it, I mean it. He’s like, let me know how much it is. We’ll figure it out. And here we are. Like, that’s actually how this started.

Eight years ago, nine years ago, to me, that would have been borderline schizophrenic. I would feel like you are out of your mind man and need medical treatment.

Utilizing Enemas with Chronic Fatigue

But it is so weird how all of these perfect things happen when you learn to tap in and trust those dots as they’re happening. I said, I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but something’s here. Of course, you know, people are reaching out to us and hitting us up all the time. Like, oh, I wanted this. I can’t believe you guys have this or are doing this here.

You just learn to not be worried. It’s actually a really great state to live in, even though trials and tribulations have come up with this. It’s going to be fine. This came to me, it’s going to be fine.

[00:23:21] Michael Vasconez: That’s it. Perfect example.

[00:23:25] Detective Ev: You had mentioned the enema thing. I’m glad that helped you so much. FDN actually teaches about coffee enemas and stuff like that. Probably, out of all the things I have done in this program, I did everything religiously. I have not gone with that yet.

Maybe it is time because from my understanding, you even got Eric to do it.

[00:23:41] Michael Vasconez: I recommended it to him cause he was just talking to me about some issues he was having. I know you put him on a parasite thing, I think. Whenever anyone is on any sort of protocol, our colon starts to dump and try to evacuate what it is we’re scrubbing out of the system. The enemas just facilitate so much.

The beauty thing about the coffee is it stimulates that nerve up into the liver. The liver really dumps all that bile that could be trapped up in there and everything. You don’t want to overdo it on the coffee enemas, but they are a beautiful tool to have.

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – Stopping Drinking

[00:24:19] Detective Ev: All right. I might have to give it a shot.

[00:24:20] Michael Vasconez: You’ll feel better, man. And if you don’t want to start with the coffee, you just start with distilled water enemas.

[00:24:25] Detective Ev: I think that might be a good move for me. Yeah, take it slow.

So, you watched this documentary, things changed, and, oh, I wanted to ask that as well. You said you stopped drinking. Was it really that much of a, hey, I’m just gonna stop the next day?

[00:24:37] Michael Vasconez: Overnight. I stopped overnight. I stopped drinking. Yup.

[00:24:40] Detective Ev: I don’t want to use this word, but I think I already know this because you told me this before, and I’m assuming if you’re binge drinking daily, that classifies as addiction, right? Just to be clear.

[00:24:51] Michael Vasconez: It was a total awakening. I woke up and I don’t want to say I never will touch it again, cause that’s like pressure on myself. I just say, I don’t foresee myself ever wanting to touch it again. It’s not that I even look at it as bad, but certainly like the way I was treating myself with it, it wasn’t good for my life.

I woke up the next day and I just didn’t look at it the same. That started to change everything.

[00:25:15] Detective Ev: I know how powerful this stuff can be. Did that awakening as you call it, did that lead to a lack of withdrawal or was it just an ability to withstand the withdrawal?

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – No Withdrawals?

[00:25:23] Michael Vasconez: I didn’t have any. I mean, as bad as I was feeling I could have. Because not only did I feel that bad, like I was sick all the time. The gnarliest flu and cold seven to eight months out of the year, I was in that state when I came home.

I was always, always, always sickness, upper respiratory, like ears, just eyes gooing. Like I was a mess. I could’ve been going through some of that too. I wouldn’t even notice the difference. I was just bad.

[00:25:56] Detective Ev: How does this eventually lead to going to the Hippocrates Healing Institute?

We’ve had, I believe, one or two other people on that have been through that program. I could be wrong here, so, correct me, please if I am. To me, you going to there and learning about that stuff, that was probably a pretty pivotal moment for you with the health stuff, correct?

[00:26:13] Michael Vasconez: That’s when I knew I was going to start working with people. That’s what connected me to knowing that that’s where I wanted to take my life, cause Hippocrates is very niche.

Some people they hear about it, and they want nothing to do with it because it’s very niche and it’s very intense.

Commercial Break – Try FDN for Free

[00:26:32] Detective Ev: Hey guys, it is Detective Ev here popping in really quick. I know that you’re loving this episode and you’re thinking, wow, he is totally right. This is very intense and very niche. But maybe you’d like to go do something like this.

Here is the good news. You don’t have to get intense, and you don’t have to get super niche to be an FDN. If you’ve been considering the course or thinking about doing this type of work, and maybe that’s why you listen to this podcast. We now have a way that you can try the course completely risk-free, no credit card required, nothing like that.

We know for a fact that there are people out there who really want to do this thing, and we need to make sure that those people can see it. If you don’t want to do it, then there’s no harm, no foul. But the people that actually like this and are like me, they get to try the course and they’re thinking, wow, this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Well, you’re going to sign up and everyone’s going to win. Everyone’s going to be happy. What you can do is go to fdntraining.com/tryfdn. That will actually allow you to try the first module of the course. That is fdntraining.com/tryfdn.

Okay. Back to the episode.

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – 18-Day Water Fast

[00:27:37] Michael Vasconez: It’s beautifully intense, but it takes dramatic lifestyle changes.

I decided when I was researching fasting, I started to research what Dr. Shelton was doing and I slipped into a fast. During this time, right before I slipped into the fast, I pretty much broke my back. So, I had a lot of pain going on too. I herniated like three or four of my disks right in a row, in my low back. Which, I am able to connect the dots into that was part of the reason I was so sick is what caused that. It’s our gut and our back and all that. But that’s another thing down the road.

So, once I connected those things, I slipped into a water fast and I did like an 18-day water fast. I’m in my water fast and I’m feeling better and better and better every single day that I’m fasting. I just feel my body turning back on.

The whole time I’m fasting I’m down in California seeing a special chiropractor. I was getting adjusted four times a day while I was fasting. I knew in my head, I’m like, I need to dedicate all the energy to my adjustment. When I’m fasting, my body’s in the best healing state.

My chiropractor kind of looked at me like I was a little bit nuts cause I was starting to look like I was fasting after about two weeks. But it was amazing the healing that my body went through. I probably, years of healing in a month.

I’m sitting there and I start reading this book, or maybe it was a video on Hippocrates, and it just clicked on me. I’m like, I need to do that.

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – Learning to Help Others

The diet, essentially. I came home after my fast, I redid my kitchen. I went all in. Then I went and I studied with them. I got a life coaching diploma from a company that partnered with them and also their lifestyle medicine and mentoring certificate. I studied with them for almost two or three years in their different programs that they had.

Then I was just all in there for people. I learned deeply their supplementation protocols or detoxification protocols. I mean, we grow our own plants in our home. I teach people how to grow the plants, how to juice them, all sorts of stuff. Their protocols, I help people bring into their life. That’s how it all happened for me.

[00:29:52] Detective Ev: 18-day water fast! Was that any calories at all? Or just like salt water, stuff like that?

Michael Vasconez: Just water.

Detective Ev: Did you use electrolytes?

[00:30:00] Michael Vasconez: No. Just water.

[00:30:02] Detective Ev: Wow! Okay. That’s all right.

[00:30:03] Michael Vasconez: It was beautiful.

[00:30:05] Detective Ev: Geez. It kind of makes sense in a way. I do think the electrolytes work very well. I don’t think you’re going to like ruin your fast with that of course. But at the same time, I also realized our ancestors who would have had to fast at certain points, they’re not putting the sodium and potassium in and the magnesium and all these things. So, I think if you have the right quality water, you could probably avoid that.

Healing from Chronic Fatigue: Animal-Based vs. Plant-Based

Now, just to be clear for everyone, I rarely say this on the show, but with this one it’s especially true – not medical advice. Don’t be trying to 18-day water fast without the proper supervision or getting checked first. And there’s ways to end those types of fasts that’s different than a 48-hour water fast, folks.

You end an 18-day the wrong way you might end up in the hospital.

[00:30:42] Michael Vasconez: You will be damaged.

[00:30:44] Detective Ev: Yeah. It can be a beautiful thing if it’s done correctly, that’s for sure.

Now I want to break down the Hippocrates thing a little bit. This is what I love about this job if we can even call it that. I feel like job’s associated with something we don’t like. I absolutely love it. So, I don’t know if this counts as that.

In the world of FDN, we do interview a lot of FDN practitioners on here. We have people with incredible stories, cancer remission, auto immune remission, it’s all the time. Most of those people, not all, the vast majority though, have done this with an animal-based diet. From my understanding, Hippocrates is the exact opposite of that.

Now I promised myself when I got into this space, because I realized how much misinformation there was and dogma there was. I am never going to become dogmatic. I am like you in this sense where I want to know who got results. I don’t care what you did. If you said I jumped on a Pogo stick five times a day to heal my body. I want to know what worked. And you have legitimate results. I know this just from knowing you, I can verify this, right?

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – Raw, Living, Plant-Based

To me, I don’t care if it goes away from the normal thing on this show and what you are about to hear, guys, might not be for you and that’s fine. But I want to know what worked for you because you have some of the most exceptional results that I’ve seen.

So, Hippocrates, yes, is from my understanding a raw vegan thing. I’ll leave it at that. What else is Hippocrates?

[00:31:59] Michael Vasconez: The difference that really makes Hippocrates what it is, it’s not only raw, plant-based, but it’s living foods.

When you go and you do their three-week transformation there, which they take in any sort of condition that you can probably have as a human being at this point. They have a process for you that the foods that you eat, they’re not just raw, but they’re still alive when you eat them.

What that means is 80% of your diet on 100% Hippocrates, like you are all in. You need to heal a real serious issue. It’s going to be sprouts. 80% of it will be freshly juiced, vegetable juices, special juices with sprouts. Also, you eat special sprouts.

When you eat sprouts, they are still alive, fully alive. They’re still growing. They’re biophotonal energy. You can still see with the special cameras, they’re still glowing. They’re still alive. And when you consume these plants, the consciousness of the plant, the biophotonal energy of the plants, go into your system and that life force binds with your life force. That’s where the healing comes from of the body.

Healing from Chronic Fatigue – Hippocrates’ Quantum Healing

You learn all that when you’re there. You learn how to grow them, and you learn how to implement them into your life. That’s essentially the workhorse of the process. But when you’re there, you’re going to be doing it in plants of wheat grass, two times a day.

You’re going to be getting a colonic or lymphatic massage almost, I think, a couple of times a week, depending on the protocols you’re on. They do a lot of quantum healing. They have a lot of quantum healing machines and bio-scanning machines and all sorts of things that they don’t really advertise that work wonders with people.

Like they’ll pick a parasite out of your body, specifically, the one that you have. Or they’ll pick a shockra out in your body that is weak. Or they’ll pick an organ out of your body that is weak or something. That way you know really what to target. They do really cool blood testing on a very micro and macro nutrient level that actually shows how your cells are absorbing the nutrition. Not just that it’s in your body, but actually how your cells are taking in all the different organic minerals and vitamins that your body is taking in and how it’s converting to energy. They really look at things on that scale.

But the workhorse of the Hippocrates program is the food.

Stay Open to Other Ways of Healing

[00:34:28] Detective Ev: That’s just so much different than even a lot of the people in the holistic space.

And you’re not the only person I know personally, let alone what I’ve heard online, that has had incredible results by going and doing stuff like that. So, guys, am I all for FDN training and becoming a practitioner? Yeah, that’s a wonderful way to be able to do this work.

But I think any good FDN is going to be able to really not get locked in that box that probably got you your own health issues. You had a practitioner or practitioners that were so stuck in the one or two modalities that they use, that they couldn’t see what else might work for you or ever learn that stuff.

So, yes. I mean, this is probably one of the best ways to become a trained practitioner to actually help people. I do believe that. But always make sure that we’re open to other things as well. Cause it worked very well for you and my friend. I don’t know if you know her, do you know Connie Garren?

Michael Vasconez: No, I do not.

Detective Ev: Okay. Connie Garren’s local. She’s in Doylestown. She went there as well. She had breast cancer, no Western intervention whatsoever at any time. Didn’t even start with that. Went down there, 12 years cancer-free still to this day.

Sending Out Good Practical Advice

[00:35:30] Michael Vasconez: It’s very, very, very common, the same story. Because women just need to get that lymph draining. Also, what Hippocrates teaches you is how to live. Like what’s toxic in your life and what’s not.

Just pertaining to that is if women only knew how damaging deodorant, bras – the bras that they wear, are to their female body. I mean, just those two things, you stop wearing the perfumes, the dirty makeups, and the deodorant, and those bras that stifle and clog your lymphatic system, so your lymph up here doesn’t get all clogged.

Just doing those things you will minimize your risk so much.

[00:36:15] Detective Ev: Cool. You’re really smart because I’ve gotten so technical over the years. You just gave a message that everyone wants to hear. What man or woman does not want to hear, go braless?

You’re sending good messages out there. I’ve been trying to teach about the sun and all this biochemical crap. I should’ve just asked people; do you want to be tan? They say, yeah. All right. I’ll tell you how to be tan then. Then you get all the benefits as a side result. So, we’re sending good messages here on the Health Detective Podcast for sure.

How were you feeling by the time that you got to Hippocrates? I know that you still had some work to do, but like were you in that crazy messed up place, or were you doing overall pretty good?

Chronic Fatigue, Diabetes, Etc. – Impossible Possibilities

[00:36:48] Michael Vasconez: By that point, I was doing really good. I did a lot of work on myself up until that point. I was pretty much like living the diet, but what Hippocrates taught me was just how to dial it in.

It gave me the science behind it. It gave me how to implement it with people. It really made me like a professional at it. At that point, I kind of was like, you know, we can only take ourselves so far. But then I was meeting people like Dr. Gabriel Cousins who gave a ton of lectures in the course that I took.

He runs a center out in Arizona. This guy, hundreds of people, he has diabetes gone, you know. That’s what his center specializes in, even Type I, II. I think two out of three people he’ll get off insulin.

[00:37:32] Detective Ev: I’ve seen it in Type I. It’s not something many people were talking about.

[00:37:35] Michael Vasconez: We were not told this stuff. We are not told that these are possibilities. So, it doesn’t matter what route you take. It’s like when you hear someone that has gotten better from an element that you possess too, you can follow the same path. You might not have the same path, but it’s always a place to start.

Cause you go that way, that’s you overturning a rock? The universe is going to be like, oh wow, you’re serious. You’re going to do it this route. And then it’s going to send you another sign that that might not be exactly for you. This guy might be better for you.

Giving Hope – Encouraging Healing Stories

I learned all these different doctors or nurse practitioners, or there’s a lot of people that work there that would come in and speak. Gerald Pollack, He wrote the book on the fourth phase of water. I mean, that’ll blow your mind if you really think about what that man says and what he did. Because a bunch of other scientists tried to prove him wrong, and they all came up with the same conclusion he did.

Which is that energy in our water, in our blood, and how to maximize that for our life. It’s absolutely mind blowing. So, when I got exposed to all that, I just kept going down all these different rabbit holes that I learned about. It just kept growing for me.

[00:38:51] Detective Ev: So cool, man, it’s just a beautiful thing.

It’s so much fun going through the process, especially when we’re on that upside. You only need a little progress to be truly inspired by this. When you’re binge drinking and feeling all this crap, then you get that first 5%, you’re like, wow! I’m onto something. This is good.

What you talked about is just the idea of knowing that this is possible. That’s one of my favorite reasons for doing this podcast is regardless of what someone’s coming on with. Yes, we do have a ton of people from the FDN program having these incredible healing stories. But to me, it’s just the simple idea of having another human being come on and share some stuff that others are dealing with right now.

They think that’s like an ultimatum, they’re stuck there. It can’t get better. In fact, the opposite. It’s only gonna get worse. Could it be farther from the truth for most conditions?

Sickness Comes Out in Many Different Ways

[00:39:35] Michael Vasconez: If people only just get away from the 5G, go outside and get in the sun, put your feet on the ground, and eat healthy. Vegan, non-vegan, whatever. Whole food, pure, non-processed is the place to start.

That’s an easy decision for you. Get out in nature away from the news, away from that stuff that plagues your mind. Because when the physical body goes to get sick, it comes out in many different ways. Everyone can live the same lifestyle, but your body is damaged in different ways. It’s going to come out with different symptoms.

That is not the problem. Look at your life and always resort to the inner landscape of your body. It’ll guide you.

[00:40:22] Detective Ev: Gotcha. I know that you’re obviously someone who is always learning and studying. But man, I mean, again, even when I talked to you a couple of years ago, let alone now, you just seem like a vibrant guy full of energy, full of life.

So, when did you get to that point? Was that post Hippocrates or even before that, were you like that? Because you’ve really figured this stuff out, it seems.

When We’re Sick, We’re Not Feeling

[00:40:38] Michael Vasconez: When I met you, I had been on the path for a couple years. I’m 34 now. I think I studied with Hippocrates when I was only like 28, 29. It’s been about five years, I think, since I’ve been done with them.

I really went out and started working with people. I’ve talked to you about this before. You said I could bring it up. Iowaska was a huge catalyst that kept helping my consciousness evolve to bring in the new information into my life. It’s been with me for every single step of the way ever since I’ve found it. That is what turned on my guidance system. That is what really sparked it for me to find those feelings within me.

The taita that I work with (taita is kind of another name for a shaman), he’s from Columbia. He said to me, when he first met me, he goes, you’re very sick. He goes, but I’m going to help you see what’s in front of you. You’re going to learn to feel your life. I didn’t know what that meant. But when we’re sick and especially guys coming out of the military, our feelings, we are cut off from our feelings.

When we’re sick, we’re not feeling. Our feelings will guide you in life. And we are told the complete opposite since the day that we’re born. But the feelings come from the higher and those feelings are the signal for you to go left or right on your road, or straight or up or down or whatever, if it’s right or wrong for you.

Results with Healing Chronic Fatigue

Once I tapped into those feelings and I started working and building a relationship with Iowaska during this whole time, that has been a huge part of my life. It’s a huge part of my work when I help people integrate their experiences into their life, with the life coaching that I do.

Just all of it was just a big, beautiful woven experience for me during all that.

[00:42:22] Detective Ev: We haven’t talked about it much on the podcast, but we had a guy, Cory Firth. He was released not that long ago, a couple of weeks ago. He is someone who is an FDN, he’s a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner.

But he also added on this side with the psychedelics, and I mean, he had a huge role at the Canadian Psychedelic something. I forget what it’s called off hand. But yeah, he was doing some big things with that.

Does our course teach about that or talk about that at all? No. No one’s talking about that. But the point is we still believe in bringing on, again, people with the results and people who talk about it professionally.

Cory and Michael are not people that are hippies getting high in the woods, you know? This is something, you’re like, no, I’ve done that actually. I’m kidding. But the point is, it’s used in an appropriate way. If we’re going to talk about ancestral living, which we do all the time with the world of FDN or this podcast, well, we got to talk about all of ancestral living.

Bringing Awareness & Hope – Things Can Be Healed

I hope people realize too, because I’m not against it, I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve never even like planned to do something like that necessarily. I still find it fascinating. And just like I’m not a raw vegan either. I don’t even eat a vegan diet whatsoever. I still think it’s important to share those things because what might work for me might not work for another.

What I’m all about is what we talked about, bringing awareness to the possibility that these things can be healed. So, regardless of the Iowaska itself, I’m still curious about the result that it’s given you with this guidance. It’s so clear you and your wife, Nikki, are just deeply spiritual people, but it’s real.

That’s what I love about you guys the most. It’s so authentic. It’s real. And that’s not a condemnation towards others as like trying to say, oh, well, you’re not real or you’re fake. Maybe I’m even in that category where there’s still this huge phase of like, there’s a lack of trust in it. It’s not truly integrated into their life. Where I feel like you guys, man, from the outside at least, it just looks like you flow wonderfully through this because of the work that you’ve done.

How can someone get there and how can they do that maybe without something like Iowaska? I know that you’re a guy that thinks. I mean, I would believe that you believe probably that the psychedelics can be a great tool, but maybe someone doesn’t want to do that or that’s not for them. How can they try to tap into something like that?

Getting Aligned & Getting Healed

[00:44:24] Michael Vasconez: Sure. Yeah. I just want to say that not everything is for everybody. Again, like what we’ve been talking about, sometimes when people have experiences, those experiences aren’t just for themselves, which is why we share our testimony. When someone comes to you and they simply share their experience, we can learn so much from their experiences.

Maybe we don’t have to go experience exactly what they experienced. We just listen to them. When it comes to relationships, one thing. The reason why literally our relationship is one of the greatest lights in our life is because there is a level of transparency in our relationship that I can honestly say many people don’t have in their lives.

I can honestly say, there’s not a single untruth in our life or something that I will not say out loud to my wife. If a man has a dream about sleeping with another woman, do you think he’s going to go talk about that with his wife the next day? Well, I do.

Detective Ev: I would assume most people would not do that.

Michael Vasconez: Or if she has a dream about that.

During my sickness, I had many affairs during all that, because I was lost. When all that had to get aligned and we went through our healing with all that, there is nothing in our life that we cannot talk about. It created a level of transparency that you can pretty much put a projector to each of our brains and there wouldn’t be anything on there that we have to hide from each other, let alone the world. There’s nothing that we hide from each other. I mean, we’ve gone through healing, deep levels of toxification.

Vulnerability – Powerful or Weak?

So, there’s nothing to hide about the physical body. There’s nothing to hide about our soul. The purpose is coming through in our life. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t hard, but it was a choice. When you start to walk down the path of being so vulnerable that you start to transform the vulnerability into power. Because when you are vulnerable, that means no one can take anything away from you.

But if you want to be vulnerable by the world standards, that means that you’re weak. Because the world knows the more vulnerability people allow themselves to have, the more powerful they’re going to be. So, when you let go of the programming that we were brought up to be about, not airing out your dirty laundry, or don’t tell the world this, or she doesn’t need to know that or anything like that, that’s all the stuff that you need to be talking about.

When you allow yourself to become powerful in that way, you’ll liberate yourself and you’ll become extremely close to the closest reality in your life, which is your relationship, whoever you’re with.

[00:47:06] Detective Ev: I would assume that you believe the strength of this relationship and the healing of the relationship has a direct impact on one’s physical health, correct?

[00:47:12] Michael Vasconez: Yes. A hundred percent. Once you become aware of it. Sure.

Healing In Relationships Lead to Better Health

[00:47:17] Detective Ev: Then how about this? I know that you and I had said before, if it was just flowing, let’s let it go because we have the ability to do that. I’m flowing with this. I’m loving this. I’m hoping that you’re in the same boat.

That’s what I’m saying. So, let’s do it. We got a two-parter here, my friend.

You know what, it’s actually a really appropriate transitional time because I was kind of hoping that this would come up and I’m glad that you brought this up. When Michael had come on the radio show that I used to do, it was only a 30-minute segment at the time. It wasn’t a full hour yet.

People loved what you said, and most of what you said had to do with the relationship that you have with your wife, Nikki. Even what you just brought up, if no one else heard anything else, they’d be like, whoa, sleeping with another woman or sleeping with another man, that’s not something people talk about or overcoming the affair.

I think this is just such a cool time to transition and offer people some guidance with how healing the relationships in their lives can lead to better physical health. I know that’s something that you help people with too.

Michael Vasconez: That’s part of the work.

To Be Continued…

Detective Ev: Okay, cool. Let’s dive into that. First of all, I think we got to unpack one thing. How the heck did you even expose these affairs to Nikki in a way that she didn’t just walk right out the door? Because most people would do something like that.

You guys have one of the most solid, obviously authentic relationships I’ve ever seen. And I mean that. I can think of two other people, Vince and Carly. My friends, Vince and Carly, have a very similar thing. You guys are up there. Something like I aspire to. So how the heck did you even present something like that?

Conclusion

All right, guys, that’ll do it for part one of our interview with Michael Vasconez. I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I enjoyed talking to him. He is one of the few people in life that, I don’t know, he’s just done such deep work on himself that I cannot help but completely look up to this guy and really just try to absorb every little lesson I can get from him when we’re talking.

Now in part two, which will be out on Monday (We normally release on Mondays and Thursdays. It always comes out at around 4:00 AM EST. So, you’ll have all day to check it out pretty much.), we’re going to take a different route. It’s going to be about some pretty serious relationship stuff that him and his wife Nikki went through.

There’s also a crazy trip to South America. I mean, literally and figuratively. You’re going to hear more about that in that episode. But man, this was fun already and it’s about to take a completely different twist. It probably didn’t even need to be two parts. I almost guarantee that you would have listened to this the entire way through. But I will not spoil anything. I will just say. Look out for that episode.

Make sure you’re subscribed, if you’re not already subscribed to the podcast. Maybe this is your first episode listening. But you will automatically get the notification and the download then when this comes out on Monday at 4:00 AM EST. With that said, I hope you guys have a great weekend.

We are looking forward to talking to you guys again soon. Take care until then.