Yoga With Jake Podcast

This is a segment on improving men's health that I'm featured on for the "Better Off Podcast" by For29 Philly. It is hosted by Drew Anderson and sponsored by Independence Blue Cross. Please listen to their podcast, they are doing great work providing practical tools to help improve your health. I'm joined with Dr. Rodrigo Cerdá, Senior Vice President of Health Services and Chief Medical Officer at Independence Blue Cross.

This is a great, down-to-earth discussion about all things involving men's health, from men's mental health, what men should do as far as exercising as they age, my men's yoga class in Philly, building community, the misconceptions around men's health and the little quirks that make men different while approaching their health. I am thrilled with how this conversation went. 

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Charles Raison, MD, is a Professor of Human Ecology and Psychiatry in the Department
of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Raison also serves as Director of Clinical and Translational Research for Usona
Institute, as Director of the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center, Director of Research on Spiritual Health for Emory Healthcare and as Visiting Professor in the
Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Raison’s
research focuses on the examination of novel mechanisms involved in the development
and treatment of major depression and other stress-related emotional and physical
conditions, as well as for his work examining the physical and behavioral effects of
compassion training. More recently, Dr. Raison has taken a leadership role in the
development of psychedelic medicines as potential treatments for major depression. He was named one of the world’s most influential researchers by Web of Science for the decade of 2010-2019. With Vladimir Maletic he is author of “The New Mind-Body
Science of Depression” published by W.W. Norton in 2017.

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Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Ph.D. has been fully engaged in biomedical research on the
efficacy of yoga and meditation practices in improving physical and psychological health
since 2001. He has practiced Kundalini Yoga since 1971 and is a certified instructor. He
is the Director of Research for the Kundalini Research Institute, a Research Associate at the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, a Research Affiliate of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He has conducted clinical research trials evaluating yoga interventions for insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic stress, and anxiety disorders and also for adolescents public schools and workers in occupational settings.

Dr. Khalsa works with the International Association of Yoga Therapists to promote research on yoga and yoga therapy as the chair of the scientific program committee for the annual Symposium on Yoga Research and as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. He is medical editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Report An Introduction to Yoga and chief editor of the medical textbook The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care .

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Sarah Platt-Finger is the Director of Chopra Yoga at IIN, and the co-founder of ISHTA Yoga, LLC. Sarah coauthored the book Living in the Light with Dr. Deepak Chopra, which has received international acclaim as one of the most practical and inspiring guides to modern day yoga. 

Sarah received her 500-hour Yoga certification in the ISHTA lineage in 2004 and was initiated as a Yoga Master by her husband, Kavi Yogiraj Alan Finger, in 2013. Since then, Sarah has made it her life’s purpose to share the authentic teachings of yoga worldwide. She helped develop one of the most renowned Yoga Teacher Training programs in New York City that expanded internationally to London, Sweden, Germany, Japan, and Australia. Sarah most recently helped develop and teach as a Lead Trainer in the Chopra Yoga 200-hour Teacher Training with IIN, a fully digital yoga course that is accredited with the Yoga Alliance.

Sarah believes that the practice of yoga on the mat is a reflection of the reality we create off the mat, and that a deeper awareness of our physical, mental, and emotional patterns can bring us closer to the essence of our being.  

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Ryan Whited, a dedicated Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist since 1996, has a profound passion for his work. Armed with expertise in athletic performance and injury prevention, along with certifications in Gait Analysis, Mobility, and ongoing education in Neuro-Immunology, he ceaselessly enriches his knowledge through diverse courses. His profound grasp of biomechanics, human performance, and pain neuroscience informs the foundation of the Training as Treatment approach at Paragon.

In each session, Ryan infuses his extensive training experience to benefit clients, for their athletic goals, pain, surgery concerns, or struggles with injuries. As the visionary founder of Paragon Athletics, he  coaches clients to sidestep surgeries, recuperate from injuries, and transform pain, empowering them to joyfully return to sports and cherished activities. Reach out to him at [email protected] to embark on your transformative fitness journey.

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Brett Larkin is the founder of Uplifted Yoga® and the author of Yoga Life: Habits, Poses, and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst the Chaos. Her Online Yoga Teacher Trainings have set the standard for quality online certification since 2015 and matriculated thousands of yoga teachers. Brett’s award-winning YouTube channel with over half a million subscribers and Uplifted Yoga Podcast empower you to actively design your life using yoga’s ancient wisdom. Yoga enthusiasts love her courses on Kundalini Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, and the Uplifted Yoga® Academy. Learn more at BrettLarkin.com

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Christopher A. Lowry, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience, and Center for Microbial Exploration at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), with a secondary appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a Principal Investigator in the Department of Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System, VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, & Clinical Center (MIRECC), director of the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Laboratory at CU Boulder, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Military and Veteran Microbiome Consortium for Research and Education (MVM-CoRE). He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Wyoming where he received training in comparative endocrinology. Dr. Lowry was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Dr. Lowry’s research program at CU Boulder focuses on understanding stress-related physiology and behavior with an emphasis on the microbiome-gut-brain axis, designed to lead to novel, microbiome-based interventions for the prevention of anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dr. Lowry has been a principal investigator on 6 NIH grants, and numerous foundation and industry-sponsored projects. His research accomplishments have been recognized through many awards, including recognition by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for Top 10 Advancements & Breakthroughs by Foundation Grantees in 2016. He is a Co-founder of one CU Boulder startup biotech company. Importantly, Dr. Lowry has mentored numerous undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to successful independent careers in academia, industry, and medicine. Christopher Lowry Lab

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Katharine Phillips, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, DeWitt Wallace Senior Scholar, and Residency Research Director at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Attending Psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Phillips is internationally recognized for her expertise in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). She has been conducting research studies and treating patients with BDD for more than 30 years. Her studies have included investigation of BDD’s symptoms, prevalence, morbidity, course of illness, and relationship to other disorders such as OCD. Because no BDD-specific measures were available, she developed and tested BDD screening, diagnostic, severity, and insight measures. She has also conducted and published most of the medication studies of BDD, and she has co-developed and tested CBT for BDD. Her scientific studies on BDD were continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health for more than 20 years.

 Dr. Phillips led the effort to include the new chapter of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders in DSM-5. She has published more than 350 articles and chapters in scientific journals and books, and she has authored or edited 11 books, including multiple books on BDD. She has given more than 600 presentations around the world and more than 500 media interviews. Dr. Phillips has received many honors and awards for her research, clinical work, and other academic contributions. Her awards for her research studies on BDD include a Special Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association and the Outstanding Career Achievement Award from the International OCD Foundation.

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Known for his love of donuts, dirt, and running with a massive smile, Tim Tollefson is a professional ultra-runner for CRAFT Sportswear that is facilitating difficult conversations around mental health in sports. Throughout his career he has won ultramarathons across the globe in distances from 50K to 100 miles. Tim is a 3 time USATF National Trail Champion, and a 2 time US Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier. While on the surface he carefully curated a balanced life of perfection, for more than 20 years he has battled body dysmorphia, OCD, general anxiety disorder, and an eating disorder. Tim is a licensed physical therapist at the Mammoth SPORT Center and founder and head crafter at Mammoth Trail Fest - a community oriented trail running event hosted in his home of Mammoth Lakes, CA every September.

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Click here for the video that accompanies this podcast. 

Dr. Maren Nyer is the Director of Yoga Studies and the Associate Director of the Research Coordinator Program at the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Her research interests include the treatment of mood disorders and associated symptoms, specifically developing and evaluating innovative and complementary and integrative treatments for depression. She completed her pre-doctoral psychology internship at MGH/HMS. After that, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the DCRP, until obtaining a staff position in September, 2012. She holds a BA in Psychology from Cornell University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Click here to view Dr. Nyer’s research.

She was the principal investigator for the clinical trial on how hot yoga may reduce depression, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Here's what Nyer said about the study: This study was a more rigorous follow up to an original, open study that we did with heated yoga. The results suggested antidepressant benefit, so the next step was to do a controlled study with a larger patient sample. We recruited 80 patients with depression, and randomly assigned half of them to heated yoga (which they could attend at any of two affiliated yoga studios that collaborated with our team) and the other half to a waiting list as a control intervention, both for 8 weeks. Patients were encouraged to attend at least twice weekly or more, depending on their schedule and availability of classes. We found that people who received the heated yoga intervention experienced a significantly greater improvement in depressive symptoms, compared to the patients who were assigned to the waiting list. They received these benefits attending only approximately one class per week.

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