Curious how one man's journey from heartbreak to self-healing can inspire you? Discover Chris Terzakos, a passionate athlete and author who turned his life's challenges into a blueprint for natural health and personal growth.

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Show Notes

• Welcome to Better Than a Pill podcast with special guest Chris Terzakos.

• Chris Terzakos: entrepreneur, self-healing coach, and author of three books: "Hernia Without Surgery," "Natural Testosterone After 60," and "Belonging To Yourself."

• Chris shares his personal journey with hernias and his methods for natural healing.

• Chris discusses his experience with a hernia he had for 14 years and how he managed it without surgery.

• Importance of Epsom salt baths and massage for hernia treatment.

• Wearing a hernia belt as part of the healing process.

• Reducing inflammation through diet and natural remedies like ginger and aloe vera.

• Avoiding foods that cause inflammation, like dairy and fried foods.

• Significance of stress management and supplements like ashwagandha.

• Tips on living a healthy, active lifestyle despite having a hernia.

Key Takeaways

1. Non-surgical hernia treatment: Chris shares his methods for managing hernias without surgery, including the use of Epsom salt baths, massage, and a hernia belt.

2. Inflammation management: Avoid foods that cause inflammation and incorporate natural remedies like ginger and aloe vera into your diet.

3. Stress reduction: Use natural supplements like ashwagandha to reduce stress, which can exacerbate hernias.

Transcript

Welcome back to Better Than a Pill. Today, I'm so excited to have Chris Terzakos on as a guest, and Chris is an entrepreneur, a self-healing coach, and the author of three books. One is Hernia Without Surgery, then Natural Testosterone After 60, and the third is Belonging To Yourself. Chris has been an active athlete most of his life.

He has a passion for health and fitness, which started early on in his life. And after losing loved ones in several relationships, Chris realized that he needed a shift that would change that relationship he made with himself.  So he shares these experiences in his book, Belonging to Yourself. And today he dedicates his life to self healing and self growth.

And today we're actually going to focus in on one of Chris's expertise and areas of focus, which is hernias. So I'm really excited to have him on because I know a lot of people out there listening may struggle with this, and we haven't talked about it yet on the podcast. And I'd like to hear a little bit about…Welcome!

Okay. Good.  Thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate it. 

Thanks, Chris. And I would like to just have you share a little bit about your story as it pertains to the hernias and you can tell us about that a little bit to start. Okay. Okay. I have had a hernia for 14 years. I first got a hernia at the age of 52.

I'm 65 years old now, so I have a 14 year hernia. How it happened was, when I turned 50, I was going through a midlife crisis. I was making a lot of different changes in my life. So one of them was, I stepped up my game at the gym. By doing that, lifting heavier weights, I  inflicted the hernia. That's where I got the hernia. 

So I went to the doctor,  who looked at me, examined me. He says, we have to schedule you for surgery. I said, really? He says, yeah, you've got a inguinal hernia.  I said, okay. I say, but I'm not getting surgery. He says, you need surgery.  So I said, all right, I'll think about it. I didn't want to argue with the doctor.

He's a conventional doctor. I left  and I said to myself, I'm not going to do this. I'm not, I'm not going to go get surgery. They're not going to put something in my body. I'm a self healer.  So I did a lot of research. I spent hours and hours up all night  doing research. I experimented.  And I started to treat my hernia. 

So  today, 14 years later, you can hardly see my hernia.  The hernia will always be there  because what you did, what you do is you, you perforate a hole in your abdominal.  So the hole won't close on its own, but what will happen is I'll tell you a couple of my methods. What I did, one was I did Epsom salt baths for about, I'm going to say 30 or 40 days straight, every single day.

Epsom salt beds to take down the inflammation.  And I did a lot of massaging. I had essential oils and I kept massaging down, never massaged the hernia up, always down, pushed it in and kept massaging. By doing that, what happens is the muscle around it  will strengthen.  And then keep the hernia suppressed, or keep it in.

By doing this, I realize now after 40 or 50 days,  that my remedy is working.  How? So, another thing is,  you have to wear a hernia belt.  For, uh, I wore my hernia belt the moment I woke up in the morning, to the moment I went to bed. I had it on for a good, say, 17, 18 hours a day. Here's the hernia belt.  You put this on in the morning.

This pad goes right against it, nice and snug against your hernia. So what you're doing with this, you're trying to push the hernia in. So that's like a training method. So the hernia understands, listen, the body understands what you want it to do. So, you know, whatever you're going to do with your body, it's going to understand it.

So by pushing the hernia in, you're actually training the hernia,  basically telling the hernia, this is where you belong. You belong inside, not outside.  Okay, and when I first got my hernia, it was pretty big. It was like maybe a little, maybe three, like the size of a baseball. Now, as I mentioned, my hernia is about the size of a, maybe like a little walnut, very small.

And what happens is,  you know, in writing the book, I wrote the book as simply as possible. I think a fifth grader could read the book. It's very simple. I was cut to the chase and you got to be determined. You have to have patience. You can't have drama and go, Oh my God, what am I going to do? Just face it.

You got it.  Accept it.  And just be determined that you can do this. Okay. You want to come up with your own remedy, but you can do it. You don't have to follow mine, but mine did work. That's why I wrote the book. So I'm here to express myself. To your audience and to most people there have been a lot of parts. You don't really need the surgery.

You just need to treat it. You don't want to go under the knife. You don't want to put a mesh because that's what they do. They put a mesh, you know, over the hernia inside your stomach. Now that mesh, it's in your body for the rest of your life. That's what I didn't want. I didn't want anything foreign in my body. 

So that's why I decided I'm not going to do this. Now, another thing about the mesh,  if you're not careful,  you can tear it and then you're back in surgery again because they have to repair the mesh.  So that's another situation that I didn't want. Because I know me, I'm still active in the gym. I go to the gym four days a week.

I wear my hernia belt every time I work out in the gym. I'm not lifting as much weight as I did in my 50s. I was, I think, bench pressing 400 pounds. Today I bench pressed 180 pounds. I'm happy.  So I don't overdo it.  That's powerful. And as an exercise physiologist, I've seen a lot of hernias over the years and treated people with hernias and worked with them through exercise.

And the number one thing is not pushing the limit, making sure you're breathing. And I love what you said too about surgery is not the only answer, right? So a lot of people, there are people listening right now that have had the hernia surgery. I know I've seen it. I've seen people get the mesh and also then need to have an additional surgery.

too. So to know that there is another option available, but even if they've had, you've had the surgery, you can still do things to help your body. So it's fascinating to actually have, and it makes sense to me what you're saying about, about to actually push the hernia in, but it's fascinating. They have a specific hernia belt so that those listening today, you can get a special belt just for the hernia.

That's great. You can. Yeah, and the massaging. That's wonderful. Massaging is important. Another big factor is inflammation.  So try not to eat foods that cause inflammation, such as dairy or fried foods, because once you have the inflammation, your hernia will flare up  because it's reacting now to the inflammation in your body. 

So one of the ways to reduce the inflammation is I eat fresh ginger every morning before I eat anything.  I go, I chop up, actually my wife chops up the ginger. I use a teaspoon which is equivalent to four ounces. I have four ounces of fresh ginger. every morning. That starts the day because that reduces the inflammation.

It's good for dopamine, ginger, and increases testosterone. I recommend people should be eating fresh ginger. Organic actually. I'm a hundred percent organic.  Yeah. No, ginger is very healing in a lot of ways and it can't be for different people. That's awesome that you're doing that and that's working for you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I also make a homemade Aloe vera drink.  So I also drink aloe vera every day.  Aloe vera is good for inflammation, detoxification, antioxidants,  anti aging, and great for skin. So I make my own remedy at home. and I have a glass every day of aloe vera. Yeah, awesome. No, you hit it on the nose.

Who doesn't need to eat foods that don't lower inflammation these days? Inflammation is linked to  everything. Now obviously it can affect the hernia, but, and again, it can be very individualized as to what we need to do for our own bodies. I feel like God made us Individuals and how we respond may be different from one person to the next, but certainly eating whole foods, getting rid of foods that may not be so good.

Processed foods, fried foods, getting rid of the sugar. Yeah. Did you get rid of the sugar? Yeah. I didn't. You can't get sugar in my house. There's no sugar allowed in my house. That's great. And it's just me and my wife. And my wife is big, she's a big  advocate for eating healthy and being healthy herself.

Yeah. There's no sugar in my house. Insulin levels don't go up here. We watch what we eat. We do eat grass fed meat once a week. We have a grass fed meat steak. every once a week. So we watch everything we do. Even so, I don't know if you're familiar with toothpaste and toothpaste. You see there's a black stripe here. 

Carrie, do you know about this? Yes, I am familiar with problems. Well, I've had to make changes for toothpaste for thyroid issues. So I get fluoride free  And I'm very cautious about that just because there are many things in there. I don't know what you're going to share, but just that can affect our bodies and cause autoimmune diseases.

That's why I watched the toothpaste, right? Because of the toothpaste, right? If you see a black stripe, I think this one is a black stripe right there. Black, black means it's a hundred percent chemicals. You know what, what it does to your body. Now I have another one here. It's green.  Green means no chemicals, all natural toothpaste.

And that obviously that's what we use in my house. We use all natural toothpaste. So everything that we do, we watch inflammation. We watch, we just watch everything from pollution. People don't talk about all the cremations today that we're breathing toxic air from cremations. Everyone talks about automobiles.

They talk about plastic toxins. But Norman talks about the cremations that are going on, how cremations now quadrupled in time and we're breathing toxic air from cremations.  Yeah, that's the first time I've actually heard of that, Chris. Like, I'm definitely curious. So there, tell me a little bit more about that.

Like it's a big, cremation  toxicity. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's big because once the body dies, you become toxin. Your body starts to rot, decay, and then they burn you. And now, where do those toxins go? They go up in the air. Yeah. When they burn you in the furnace, it goes through the ducts, goes out in the air, and now all of us are breathing it. 

And it's more toxic than other types of burnings is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, those are just factors that you need to take care of yourself on the hernia part. Again, there's a lot of things not to do, it's all written in the book. Don't go to the gym and start lifting weights again and you think you're going to be, you're not that person anymore. 

Yeah, but you can still be in good shape. I still have a six pack. I'm in great shape. I go to the gym four or five days a week. You can still live a normal life. I have had a hernia for 14 years as I mentioned earlier so you can have a normal life. You just gotta make a couple of Changes in your life and changes are good.

Yes. Yes, changes are not always easy  And they force us to become different people and adapt new habits. And that's what you've done, which is awesome to see and hear. And so specifically you had an abdominal hernia. I had the inguinal that's by the groin area.  There's another one I call the umbrio. The umbrio is by the belly button.

That's that. I think that's the most severe. hernia because you can strangle the intestines. And if the intestine strangles, you will die.  It's interesting. Wow. That's not good. So would you, okay. But I know at one point I was, I had something going on in my body. This is interesting. Maybe you can help me understand this, but, and I called the naturopathic doctor I was working with at the time and he could do manual adjustments.

He said, you have a hernia and he adjusted it, put it back in. You're fine now.  I'm like, okay.  Oh, yeah, I know about that. They don't really call that a hernia because  You know, it's called another name. I just don't know the name of it But yeah, and the reason why is because your hernia I'm going to call it hernia But it's not really called a hernia when it comes to a lady Uh, it didn't perforate all the layers of the skin  Okay.

I know about that. Okay. That's good. Yeah. Okay. Well, you know what I'm talking about. Oh, oh, for sure. I'm glad you brought that up because yes, there is a hernia that doesn't perforate all the layers of the skin  and you can actually push it back in. That's what happened. I know about that. Yeah, because I was having some type of acid reflux or burning, a lot of something was going on.

I'm like, this is not right. And then that went away, just an adjustment. And I guess there's another name for it, but he called it a hernia. So yeah. Yeah. No, there is another, there's another term for that. It's not called a hernia. It's called something else. Matter of fact, um, a lot of women, when they give birth,  they get hernias similar to what you had. 

Because they're pushing some to penetrate all the layers and some don't. That's how I know. That's how I know about what you had.  And with the inguinal hernia, is there, is that, is there common  things across the board for other types of hernias? Because people may have different types. Hiatal is a common one.

that I've a lot of. Yeah, they're all, they're all different types of hernias. They're all okay. They're not the same. They're all different. So you're writing specifically for the treatment of this certain type of hernia. Yeah. Okay. That's what I want to make sure. Yeah. Did you see the cover of my book?  No, I didn't.

But say the name of your book for those people. Show us and then say the name of it for those people listening that aren't watching too. Hernia without surgery.  Okay. There's nine steps. Awesome. And where is that on Amazon? Can people get it on Amazon? Okay. You can get it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or you can go through my website.

That's awesome. Yeah. And we have the healing warriors. com website. It's going to be included in this episode, everybody. So those of you that are listening today can have access to Chris's book there. Thank you. That's awesome. Yeah, no. And it sounds like, so you've got the aspect of the diet, the nutrition, which all makes sense to me, the massage, just overall.

being aware of what causes inflammation, what can affect us, our environment toxins, all of those things, which makes sense from the standpoint of healing. And I'm on board with that. Listen, a lot of times it takes a health issue for us to be like, become aware. Okay. So they, oh yeah. So what else is going on?

What they don't, a lot of things. That's why I do this podcast. Right? Exactly.  Exactly. So yeah, I'm going to be putting a lot of content out on Instagram  and my YouTube channel. I'm going to show people the exercises that I do with the hernia. Right. Just so they don't hurt themselves if they want to take a look at what I do.

They should mimic what I do because I'm really careful. That's awesome. Yeah. Having careful instruction is a very important thing. And yeah, so that's awesome. You're going to be doing that along with your book so people can read the information and then go to your YouTube channel for a visual.  That's awesome.

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. No, you know, it's good. I think you give hope to people today because there is a solution other than surgery and I commend you for that. Let me ask you, I'm just curious, what other things have you done and do you feel that prayer was a part of that for you?

I'm just curious.  Prayer. No, well,  every morning when I wake up, I'm, I'm blessed. When I had this, I said, I have to accept it. You know, God's always going to be with me and whatever I do, God is, he's right next to me. Yeah. Yeah. You could say, yeah, prayer. Okay. Yeah. There are supplements.  There are certain supplements that I take and I'd like to share one of them is the ashwagandha. 

Okay. Are you familiar with this, Gaby? I have heard of it, but tell us a little bit about why you take it and what, how it can help the hernia. Okay. It's all natural. It's all natural. It's from India and from the Himalayas. What it does is it  suppresses stress and anxiety  and that's what you want to do with the hernia treatment because if you have stress.

That hernia will flare up just by stress. Yeah, that makes sense. This is all natural. I don't believe in conventional medicine. I don't remember the last time I ever took conventional medicine. So it's all natural, like I said, and if you want to reduce your stress and anxiety or everyday life, you take one or two a day and you're good with nature.

And that's what's helped you with your stress. It sounds like you're an advocate for it. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. Stress is the number one killer besides inflammation. Yes. You know that. I do. I do. I hear you a hundred percent. Yeah. So the most you can do is reduce stress.  And your body understands you're good.

You're going to have a good day. You have good moments. Just reduce the stress and watch the food that you eat because food will cause, you know, food affects the brain.  Oh yeah. You're eating certain foods. It's going to go right to the brain. So, you know, just watch what you eat.  And I'm curious, just taking a real step back just before we finish up, what do you feel actually caused?

This hernia that you have, what was the root cause? Was it going to the gym and pushing too hard or what caused it? There were numerous things. And I'll tell you what they were. I wrote a book about my life. I was coming out of a long term relationship.  I just turned 50. So I was going through some transformation, like you can call it midlife crisis.

I stepped up the game at the gym. Rather than lifting certain weights, I went to heavy weights, what they call that ego lifting, which I strongly don't recommend. If you're listening and you're a guy out there or even a woman, there's no such, you don't need to ego lift. Okay. Just do what you can do. My ego lifts.

That's what caused my hernia. So stress caused a hernia on the body, put pressure on the body, weight lifting, and I'm running a business at the same time.  Okay. There you go. So that, so definitely heavy stress component, heavy overexertion with weights component. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you put all three together and boom, I got a hernia.

Okay.  And the good news is that you're living proof that You can manage this hernia naturally and without pills, but maybe some supplements, natural supplements, and everything we talked about today. So this has been, it's been great having you on here, Chris. I just want to thank you so much for sharing.

so much for having me. Yeah. You have a lot of knowledge. And like I said, everybody looking for Chris's book, the link to his website will be included in this episode. And again, thank you so much, Chris, for coming on. Thank you for having me. And for those of you listening today, if you are ready to live pain free, if you want to enjoy your favorite activities with confidence, let's connect for a consultation.

I provide you with personalized insights and I will help you get started living pain free. An injury free life. You can schedule your consultation by clicking the link in this episode or by reaching out to support a movement craft. com. The consultation is normally valued at 195, but because you are a listener of the better than a pill podcast, it is 97.

And remember, we do new episodes every other week on Wednesday, and I truly look forward to having you join me then.