Hosting Dr Madiha Saeed

Salam aleikum. I'm Hala Benoni Welcome to inspirations with Hala Banani on Hooda tonight Bismillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. The food we eat is either killing us or healing us. Our food consumption will impact not only our physical health, but our mental and emotional health as well. Food is the biggest driver of dysfunction in the brain, which impacts our attention, memory, behavior and mood. And this is not just hypothetical, there is a whole department at Harvard called nutritional psychiatry and its department in Stanford called metabolic psychiatry. Mental illnesses such as depression, and anxiety are inflammation of the brain. When we eat a healthier diet, we feel

more energized and less lethargic. Dr. Hyman, the leading expert in the nutrition field shared shocking statistics about the impact of food on people in prison. When prisoners were given healthy food, there was a 56% decrease in criminal violence. When they were given vitamins, there was an 80% decrease in violence. If healthy eating has this kind of an impact on the prison population. Imagine what it can do for us and our families. We will be less irritable, less angry, less sad, and less worry. So not only will your health improve by eating better, but your relationships could also improve Inshallah, if you or someone if you or someone you love is suffering from any sickness, a

lack of energy, moodiness, memory loss or mental health issues, you've got to watch this episode. For those of you who may not know me, I am a faith based counselor with over 25 years experience helping 1000s of Muslims all over world Alhamdulillah and I'm the founder of the mindful Hearts Academy, which is my mentorship program helping women to be their absolute best. We will take a short break and when we return, I will introduce you our exciting guests for today's show.

Jobs are impacted, marriages are impacted children are impacted communities are impacted. You have to want to know how to deal with the changes you have to be eager to meet some successful Muslim you can't live in this world and not be mindful of your purpose. I think we can all use some inspiration.

I'm your sister Khalid Banani trailblazers, changemakers community builders, we will meet the men and women who have left an impact on our Muslim society, the role models the activist and the modern day heroes. This is a show where you'll meet some really interesting people, psychologists, athletes, artists and entrepreneurs, successful Muslims that are being themselves and having insightful conversation. If ever there was a time that we need faith and motivation from real people in real situations. It's now join me live every Sunday 4pm Central midnight Mecca time on Hooda TV.

Jobs are impacted, marriages are impacted children are impacted communities are impacted. You have to want to know how to deal with the changes you have to be eager to meet some successful Muslim you can't live in this world and not be mindful of your purpose. I think we can all use some inspiration.

I'm your sister Khalid Banani Trailblazers changemakers community builders, we will meet the men and women who have left an impact on our Muslim society, the role models the activist and the modern day heroes

This is a show where you'll meet some really interesting people, psychologists, athletes, artists and entrepreneurs, successful Muslims that are being themselves and having insightful conversation. If ever there was a time that we need faith and motivation from real people in real situations, it's now join me live every Sunday 4pm Central midnight Mecca time on Hooda TV.

Assalamu alaykum Welcome back to inspirations I'm your host Hala Banani it's a pleasure to have our guest today Dr. Muddy has said eat who also is known as holistic mom and D on social media. She is a practicing board certified family physician in the USA, an international speaker and a best selling author of several books including Her most recent book, The Quranic prescription As Salam aleikum, Dr. Madiha and welcome to the show. My name was Salah Muhammad Allah Who medica who does aka him for having me this is incredible honor mashallah, it's a pleasure to have you and you always have mashallah so much enthusiasm and energy that you bring with you.

Guys, and I'm very passionate about this topic. So Subhan Allah, I can't wait to discuss this today. Allah 100 Allah, you know it, you're very passionate about the subject because it's impacted your life directly. Can you tell us about it? What is what are some of the health issues that you have faced and how did you go about healing yourself? Absolutely. As a family physician here in the United States.

In residency, I dealt with severe digestive issues, eczema, acne, that then progressed to multiple autoimmune conditions, including Hashimotos, and even lupus, which really attacks every cell of your body can and it can eventually kill you. And I continued on that hamster wheel just like everybody else. Until one day, I walked into the daycare provider. And she was basically I walked into the month every every mother's worst nightmare. The lights are exam, the daycare providers rocking back and forth in her chair, and I heard really eerie silence was broken by my child's mom in the back. And when I went back there, I saw that my firstborn my gift from Allah was almost being suffocated

to death, I immediately picked him up and I ran out. And on that day, it was like a sharp reality check. Where I said, y'all Allah, you say, My child this day, I promise I'm going to take care of this child the best that I know how but then I had to take a step back and say, How am I going to take care of this child to the best that I can if I myself as a family physician is completely falling apart. So I made it my mission on that day Subhan, Allah promised to Allah that I will take care of myself and my family the best I possibly know how. And that's where I really dove into this world of holistic functional integrative medicine Subhan Allah so your health was suffering, you

were dealing with all of these illnesses. Then you had the wake up call of your life, seeing your your son suffocating and you made that commitment, you made a promise, and that's where the passion that's where the passion and then as a family physician, I am seeing the world around us. We have an epidemic of chronic disease, our health, our futures held the future of humanity, the future of the world is at stake. And we are all silently suffering. If you just look at the statistics every 40 seconds someone is dying from heart attack or suicide.

In 30 seconds, every 40 seconds. We saw hon Allah Subhana Allah, you know, six and every 10 Americans are adults have a chronic health condition. And you know, our children are suffering. 54% of American children have a diagnosed chronic health condition. They say these numbers are continuing to rise to 80%. If we continue at the current trajectory by 2025, and if that wasn't enough, but one in every six are dealing with some sort of more neurodevelopmental disorder, and then even autism is on a rise. We're currently it's one in every, you know,

30 I think that the last statistics I saw was one in every 44

where children have autism? Is it continue at the current trajectory, one in every four children will have autism by 2033. Now, that's a lie that is shocking. That is mind blowing. Shocking. It really is. And so all of these illnesses are happening. And people are thinking, this is the norm, that this is to be expected as you age, you get certain illnesses, as you get, you know, all of these things are seen as normal, but yet they're not. And you were trained as a medical doctor, as you said, I'm curious to know, in medical school, how much training did you have on nutrition?

Really non medical school, I think a couple of hours we had. And when it came to residency, we also had probably a couple of hours. But really, it was never put any emphasis on. And it was more here's a problem, here's a pill, here's a procedure, here's some basic lifestyle, things that you could do. But mostly it was

things that were not sort of in our control as patients.

It was just really continuing. It was all mainly about controlling the symptoms. And so your passion, you were trained as a medical doctor, and you turned to holistic medicine, what created that I know, you made a commitment to a lot you're like, from now on, I'm going to take care of myself, I'm going to take care of my baby. And Hamdulillah you had that wake up call, because you're not just taking care of yourself and your baby, you're taking care of mashallah 1000s of people worldwide. So tell us is that, like, how did you turn to holistic medicine as your passion? So then I started looking for answers, because I knew that yes, conventional medicine is amazing for acute

care. But when it comes to conventional and like chronic disease, there's some pieces that are missing. But I didn't discover that until I was really not given much hope. And as a Muslim that didn't set with me that side of the optimistic. For lupus, the only thing you can do is take this medication and this and when I read the side effects, I'm like, Oh, my God has caused cancer. I'm like, that's what I'm an even death. That's what I'm trying to prevent. So yes, and we can use those medications to help control the blaze, but in the fire, but to really get rid of the blaze and try to figure out exactly what the underlying root cause is. Because when I went to these doctors, as a

family physician, I wanted to ask, What can I do to stop these conditions? Right, right, what can I do, and Subhanallah when I started looking into that, that's when it dove I dove into integrative holistic functional medicine that you can you there's so much that you can do in your own lifestyle, from the foods that you eat, to the stress that you can manage from the sleep and the social, the spiritual, the detoxification, that you can just incorporate into your daily routine that can help to lower this chronic inflammation that we'll talk about lower chronic inflammation and prove not one of the symptoms within all of them simultaneously. And anybody can do this in conjunction with

our conventional care. Mashallah, so this is a way of really empowering your patients, because

sitting and waiting, and what is this medicine going to do? And I, I always get humored by, you know, when they have those commercials of medications, and people are like skipping through the field, but then it's a may cause you know, all sorts of symptoms, and one of them may be death. And it's scary, right? So you are putting the empowerment into the client into the patient's saying that you know what, you can do something about this. And tell us some of the things because you have written some Muslim a best sellers. If you could tell us the names of your books, I had the pleasure of endorsing, I think a couple of them you tell us about the beautiful books that you have. You have

written Subhan Allah on this journey of trying to heal, improve my own health and help my patients health. I first wrote the book first book is called the holistic RX, your guide to healing chronic inflammation and disease. That's the best of functional integrative and holistic medicine all under one source covering over 80 conditions for all ages, martial law, the holistic incorporate or onic vs. It's it's a way of combining medicine and Islam. Right. Yeah, absolutely. So that when I was going through all my other research for those books, and when I wanted to educate the Muslim audience, I recognize that oh my gosh, exactly what I've been telling and educating my patients

Since over the last 13 years, Allah has told us in the Quran, and so this is

a beautiful book that for on prescription. Very nice, very nice. And, you know, as soon as you sent it to me, my son took the book. And he was so fascinated, he's like, it's just so incredible because there's so many health books out there, but the fact that you incorporated with the Islamic principles is just is so heartwarming and comforting. Absolutely. And it really tells us that there is so much hope, you know, because as an Omar, Allah has made us balanced, right, right and given us so much hope, but it is when we disturb this balance, when we lead to chronic diseases of every stripe. And so, unfortunately, when we disturb this balance through the food, the artificial foods

that we eat, the lack of stress management, the increased toxins, the negativity in our environment, the lack of,

you know, all of that can actually put our bodies out of balance. And it actually leads to something called chronic inflammation. And inflammation we know is in those two different types of acute and chronic acute right is doing a good thing. But then constant might moderns life, daily exposures triggers like chronic stress, all these things that we talked about can actually drive disease destroying this miracle, right, known as chronic inflammation and chronic inflammation actually damages tissues and organs leading to chronic diseases of every stripe, so and it can even destroy your brain chemistry. It can this there's two main pieces of decision making your prefrontal cortex

and amygdala crime, both to make a rational decision. But this is an Allah because of our imbalanced lifestyles, that's leading to chronic inflammation, it's actually disconnecting our prefrontal cortex from our amygdala. So they were aware of making irrational limbic system driven decisions, unfortunately. And so this is where these putting our lifestyles back into balance specifically, you know, struggling with you know, I always like to start with zero Bacara number 172, where Allah tells us in the Quran that yeah, you are loving Armand and eat a wish that is by Yep. What Allah has provided and be grateful to Allah, if it is indeed Allah that you worship. And I have found that

this ayah Subhan, Allah if I can get people to just these are like the key basics if we can get them to eat real food. And hi, yep, so define that for our audience. What would be classified as tired food? Because before you define it, I think it's very critical what you said about all that it causes because many times people think, Oh, well, I'm just eating junk. And they're just like, well, I don't care if I get fat, right? So it becomes more about appearance. And if someone doesn't care about their appearance, and they just stay let themselves go, but you don't realize all of that inflammation, how to fix your, your psychiatry and your you know, your mental health and, and all of

the illnesses. So tell us about Thai. Yep. What is classified as Thai yet food Subhan Allah. So we have to first understand that foods are changing our biochemistry, with every bite, we take influenced, please repeat that again. So everyone can grasp this because it's critical. These foods that we're putting into our bodies are changing our biochemistry, with every bite that we take, constantly influencing how we feel. And so basically, these nutrient poor foods are destroying our health and our brains down to our microbiome and our genes. So what they have is by YouTube is real foods, pure foods, good and nutritious, safe foods. And

here we can classify that as non GMO and our organic because remember things you can read right? I think a easy way for people to know what's real, if you can read the label, what's the name gradients, there's water, there is carrots, you know, and you know those ingredients but then when you have those long list of engraved those are all the processed foods that we need to stay away from you need to stay away from because Subhanallah if we can just start to add back plenty of foods of what Allah has provided, right? Our everyday daily routine, we can really influence our microbiology to for the better,

actually help heal you and my mitochondria, lower inflammation and optimize your immune system. Artificial fake food that

Habib food is actually leading to more and more sickness today. It's actually displaying our gut microbiome 70 to 80% of our immune system lies in the gut. We have 100 trillion bacteria that live in the gut lining and these bacteria are responsible for digestion immunity they make 90%

percent of the dopamine so they really do influence our help and how much money was the limit?

At the worst vessel we can fill as our stomach. But unfortunately in today's world, we are filling it without even thinking that reading the label right now science has proven that

your the health of your body really does start in the gut, in the gut and when I heard that the serotonin and dopamine which are the happy hormones are created in the gut and I had a gut issue I'm like, that's when I'm gonna get serious that woke me up because I can't No one can mess with my dopamine and serotonin levels. So it's so important and mashallah, I know that your your kids have a podcast that they are hosting. Tell us about that. And tell us first of all about your, their ages, right? How old are your kids who are doing this podcast on holistic health, right? It is called the holistic kids show. And they're interviewing some of the biggest names in functional medicine world,

which is really amazing. MashAllah Tabata Cola, tell us about how they got started in doing this Suhana law. So they started, you know, obviously, as a mother, the more that I learned, the more I taught and more educated my children. And this is something that they've slowly started to adapt as I was learning it, they were doing it and you know, incorporating into their lifestyle. So when the pandemic hit, I'm really wanted to take their knowledge and you know, really take it to the world because I think our children need this now more than ever. We're educating your children on these very complex topics, but very simple things like food and nutrition and lifestyle.

And putting emphasis on that. So we started the holistic kids show podcast, where my How are they? How old are they, when they started? We started at two years old, so they were 12 to nine and 712, nine and seven is nine and seven. Okay, it was two years ago. All right. Allah, masha Allah, and they've been doing it for the past two years, two years, we have over 75 episodes, sha Allah, that is that is really phenomenal. And it doesn't stop there. Because you also have your mother in law on Facebook, and she has holistic, or do MD and educating people worldwide. And it's three generations that's leading the social health revolution. What do you mean by health revolution.

With the state of the OMA today, there's so much that we can do to help optimize our health. And it starts with simple things that you can do today. Gratitude, positivity, stress management, getting out in nature, you know, eating plenty of foods, blowing the toxins in our environment, subhanAllah, there's so much that we can do to really help lower chronic inflammation that is leading to and driving all these chronic health conditions in ourselves and our children. Right. And therefore, if we truly were in charge of our own health, we can create that healing revolution, stretch ourselves, and then create that trickle effect that ripples out into the world. And I love that I love the

concept of a healthy revolution. Everyone, I imagine people protesting with carrots and bananas

in their hands. You know, we need to really bring awareness to our own map because there are too many people who do not see the connection between the food they eat, and how they're feeling. Yet they believe that a piece of small medicine can change their whole biochemistry. So the food that we're consuming is so critical. And we're all have been under so much stress. I mean, especially since the pandemic, so whether it's financial stress, whether it's you know, people having a lot of marriages or are falling apart issues with children and and so the stress is just ongoing. Can you tell us the impact that this ongoing stress will have on a person's health?

Let's let's just say a 90% of the complaints that come to primary care physicians are due to stress 90% 90%

are due

stress. So we know that stress raises your cortisol levels or raise your blood sugar levels that actually weakens your immune system. And it just destroys the gut, good gut microbiome leads to things like insulin resistance and pre diabetes. So starting with, you know, just optimizing your stress levels, and that to what I have my patients really do is surrender that stress to Allah trust in him. He'll with nature, you know, mindfulness and meditation, prayer DUA and Vica. Yes, but the key is that mindfulness piece, and I love that.

I love that, because that's my, that's my passion. And this is why, you know, I created the mindful Hearts Academy just to teach people to live in the present to be aware, too. And that's the way to generate any, if you're mindful about your thoughts, your words, your actions, even what you're consuming, what are you thinking about, and surrendering that to Allah, it is so powerful. So I'm glad that you brought that up.

Absolutely, we as Muslims are supposed to be a people of dukkha, and mindfulness and fear of Allah, and we are supposed to be walking that path looking for those, ensure that doesn't hit us. And so Subhanallah very similarly, we need to be eating the way mindfully the way that Allah has told us to buy your foods, less quantity of foods, we need to be stressed managing the way that Allah has told us limit the toxins. So there's and being positive and grateful, being back getting back to people of 100 in that all of those pieces, even sleeping and the social, you know, positive social support. Yeah, we're stressed and a right. It is critical in your healing journey. And just by doing these, I

no longer deal with the chronic conditions that plagued half my life. Over the last two years in practicing this type of medicine, integrative holistic functional medicine, chronic medicine, I have seen like, I love Assad, Quranic medicine, that's fit that you were able to heal yourself from the autoimmune disorders, you had Hashimotos you had the lupus and you were able to heal, and how empowering that now, you get to heal your patients and see the impact, the impact of this knowledge, it is so powerful that something so small, can make such a huge benefit in your life and your children's life and then trickles down into you know, even the law. It's

you know, and when we go back to the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi. Salam and, and how he lived his life and how, you know, he said that to put a third for your food, a third for water, a third for breathing, not to overstuff yourself to have that activity, the exercise I find, that's my biggest stress relief, because I have a rather demanding job. And I find that when I release all of that tension through the exercise, it's like, it's amazing, you get totally empowered.

Absolutely, but yep, lifestyle really does heal you and the planet. Yeah, there's

these pieces back into your lifestyle incorporate just start by gratitude, and incorporate foods that the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam has been mentioned in the Quran. Because that in and of itself, if you look at the scientific studies of the

mentioned the Quran, it's mind blowing. And so just start with these simple things, you know, swap out, like, for example, honey instead of sugar, because we know that honey

is is healing. So he told us that. And if and we know that sugar actually drives a lot of these chronic health conditions. So these are simple things that we can incorporate into our everyday daily routine that can really lower chronic inflammation, optimize our mitochondria, and heal the trauma. And the key is to eat to heal, to feed yourself as an as in a way of being able to function because a lot of times and you know, we've all been guilty of it of having those emotional eating for emotional reasons and grabbing the things you're you're craving. But when you're thinking about this as my body, my body is an Amana and how can I best take care of it, it changes everything. So

there's a paradigm shift that has to happen. Absolutely, that this body is a gift. And Allah has told us in the Quran that barely Allah

I will never change the condition of people until they change voters within themselves. So number 13 I am number 11. So it really does start with us. You know, we need to truly start to live a life according to Quran and Sunnah eat according to Quran and Sunnah wake up according to Quran and Sunnah you know sleep according to Quran and Sunnah live our everyday moments according to Quran and Sunnah. And now science has proven that when you do that, and I have seen it the results over and over over the last 13 years, miracles have humbled that can happen just by living a life according to Quran and Sunnah. sha Allah, masha Allah, just like Allah heron, Dr. Murthy has said eat for your

time and your wealth of knowledge mashallah inshallah we have all been inspired to eat healthier and take better care of our health with the with the intention of wanting to please Allah wanting to take care of this beautiful Amana that we've been given. So may Allah reward your effort and if in the effort of your entire family Michelle, it was such a pleasure to have you on Zakah lawfare thank you so much for having me on. It's been an honor. It's an honor to have you Masha Allah we loved having you Inshallah, we'll have you back on again.

Why Yakko by so let's stay tuned we will take a short break and return to Zack Allah Hayden.

Jobs are impacted, marriages are impacted, children are impacted communities are impacted. You have to want to know how to deal with the changes you have to be eager to meet some successful Muslim you can't live in this world and not be mindful of your purpose. I think we can all use some inspiration.

I'm your sister Khalid Banani Trailblazers changemakers community builders, we will meet the men and women who have left an impact on our Muslim society, the role models the activist and the modern day heroes. This is a show where you'll meet some really interesting people, psychologists, athletes, artists and entrepreneurs, successful Muslims that are being themselves and having insightful conversation. If ever there was a time that we need faith and motivation from real people in real situations. It's now join me live every Sunday 4pm Central midnight Mecca time on Hooda TV.

Welcome back to inspirations What a fascinating discussion we had with Dr. Mehdi Hassan aide, telling us about what it means to eat Thai. Yep, take it it's or onic prescription, make sure you check out her books do Quranic prescription, check out the podcast that her children are running. And if you are interested in the holistic or do mashallah wonderful points on how the food that we eat impacts us not only the way that we look, because usually we emphasize on our maybe on the appearance on what you're eating. However, it has a profound impact on our health, on our mood on the irritability, even depression and anxiety. And we find that the food that we eat is either

killing us or healing us, our food consumption will not only impact our physical health, but our emotional and psychological health as well. So we need to realize that the food is the biggest driver of dysfunction in the brain, which impacts our attention, memory, behavior and mood. So if you want to feel better, you want to be more energetic and improve your relationships. You've got to focus on healthy eating and some of the points that Dr. Murthy had was saying is that when you focus on what it is that you're consuming and not just the food that you're taking in, looking at it from a sunnah perspective that first of all our body has

been given to us as an Amana Allah has given us this body I love to use this analogy that if someone they lent you their Ferrari and they said for the next month you get to have this Ferrari How would you take care of it? What would you do? What kind of fuel would you put into it? Would you would you tear up the leather in the seats? Would you go off roading? Or would you take impeccable care of this car? Obviously we would take care of it because we know that we would have to answer for it. We will have to give our you know the Amana back. We have to give that trust back and now our body is an Amana that is worth millions and millions of dollars. Subhan Allah when we look at every organ

that we have, that Allah has blessed us with, when we take care of it and when you can live a healthy life. How amazing is that? And when a lot of times we take our health for granted until something goes wrong until you get sick even with a small headache, then that is when you take your health and you appreciate it the way you're meant to be. So let's take care of this Amana by eating the foods that are type type our foods like Dr. Medina was saying they are fresh, they are real. They you can read the ingredients do your best to stay away from the processed food. And you can do a replacement if you like certain let's say sodas. Instead of having sodas have sparkling water. If

you said of having sugar, have something healthier, maybe have the honey. And when you make the small adjustments in your diet, then you will see the difference. You will feel the impact because you are no longer eating to just serve your maybe your cravings you're eating to heal yourself, you're eating to be energized, and you're eating to be your best. And this is one of the wonderful things we can do to show appreciation to Allah to have gratitude for Allah is that we live our life in a way that is pleasing to Him and we take care of our armadas. And so not only do we need to take care of the foods that we're eating, but also stress management, as Dr. Murthy has said 90% of the

health issues are because of stress. And we are impacted. Whenever you sit there you're catastrophizing, you're thinking about what if this happens? What if I don't get a job? What if my child doesn't get married? What if What if What if you are creating stress in your body, and your body doesn't know your brain cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not real. So what it will do, it will react as if it's actually happening. And our bodies we cannot afford that we have enough real stress. We don't need hypothetical stress. So if you're going through some challenges, whether it's in your financially, whether it's in your relationships, make sure either

get professional help address that. Make sure that you are releasing the stress by either walking or exercising being in nature, and something very important that Dr. Murthy have brought up. And what I believe in firmly is mindfulness. You have to be mindful, mindful of your thoughts, mindful of your behavior, mindful of everything that you do, and the food that you put in your body and the way you spend your time because we have to take care of ourselves. And when we do it shows it shows in our appearance it shows in our even in our spirituality, we feel more connected, we feel more enlightened and energetic and when you are energetic, you can worship your Creator better. So let's

all have the intention from this moment the pen regardless of how you've been eating, regardless of how you've been living your life, let's make a commitment now that we are going to take one step towards a healthier life now that can be having more salads having more food that is tight. Yep, maybe stop catastrophizing and it could be I'm gonna walk 10 minutes, 10 minutes a day. These are things that all of us can implement. And little by little what will happen is that it will become addictive, but this is a good addiction. When you're addicted to eating healthy and exercising, managing your stress, you will be a better version of yourself and when you're a better version of

yourself. All your relationships will improve, you'll have more energy, you'll be less less irritable and you will less be less angry and inshallah Allah will put better cuts in your life because you're doing it with the intention of pleasing your Creator and taking

Care of Your Amana so just like a lock in and for all of you who tuned in, it was a fascinating discussion in sha Allah may Allah bless all of us and all of our health and help those who are suffering with illnesses chronic pain, chronic illnesses, and may we in sha Allah take steps towards our good health, just like a love affair and for tuning in and in sha Allah. Join us next week for another episode of inspirations salaam aleikum