Dr Catherine Clinton
Dr. Catherine Clinton, a licensed naturopathic physician, has spent over 17 years helping people overcome their health issues. She completed her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine from the National University of Natural Medicine. Diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions and Lyme disease while in medical school, she began the long and difficult journey of healing- a path that led to the commitment to help others to not only heal physically but to return to the relationships we evolved over millennia with for a deeper sense of health and belonging.
Dr. Catherine has multiple articles that have been published in peer-reviewed research journals. She maintains a small practice in Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Catherine teaches doctors, healthcare practitioners and health enthusiasts from around the world in how to apply the principles of quantum biology for health and is a sought after speaker with speaking engagements across the globe.
Her mission is to empower as many people as she can with knowledge of quantum biology for health and help them explore a new perspective in healing.(PLMI).
Listen to the episode on Spotify here or on your favorite podcast platform and check out the Urban Monk Academy here.
HERE is a link to his product line.
Podcast transcript:
Understanding Quantum Biology with Dr Catherine Clinton
Dr Pedram Shojai: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the urban monk podcast. Dr. Pedram, Shojai here with Dr. Catherine Clinton talking about quantum biology. What the heck is that? It’s the future folks, uh, this Cartesian vision of mechanistic stuff that drives blood chemistry exclusively. Uh, BU doesn’t work has been proven to be an inadequate model. So while everyone’s sick.
So we’re starting to understand all sorts of really interesting dynamics that are running energy and capacitating energy through our fascia. , taking energy from the sun and photons, and I thought only plants did that. , there’s this whole wild world of research that’s happening into how we are interacting with the natural environment on multiple levels. Possibly, including quantum entanglement and all sorts of really fun Wu Jedi stuff. , that’s being studied in labs now.
And my guest has been really up on that research. So I said, come on, let’s talk about it. Enjoy.
It is good to see you and [00:01:00] welcome
Dr Catherine Clinton: thank you so much for having me on today. I’m really excited to dive in.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Yeah, I have a big affinity for the corner of the universe that you’ve really parked up in, uh, you are one of the most interesting voices out there looking at these studies and looking at the science of quantum biology. Uh, and I think it’s. Perfectly in line with this thesis of vitality and vitalism and our understanding of health and our place in the universe, frankly.
So maybe a quick primer on what that is and a little bit about how you got so fascinated by it.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yeah, absolutely. Um, quantum biology is a new and emerging field, but it’s just new science that validates these, you know, century old practices that we’ve had to improve our [00:02:00] health, to improve our vitality. And it’s looking at quantum phenomenon The underpinnings those quantum underpinnings in life that explain what we see with our eyes, right?
It’s looking at entanglement. It’s looking at quantum coherence. It’s looking at superposition. It’s looking at all these different quantum effects that give rise to what we see in the world around us and in our health. It’s really simply put, it’s the study of electrons, protons, Uh, photons of light, phonons from sound, and how those things impact our health.
And it was, you know, I was in my second year of naturopathic medical school, and it was sort of that initiation year where they’re weeding everyone out, you gotta be here at 7, if you don’t sign the attendance sheet then you don’t pass the course and have to take it again next year, [00:03:00] sort of phase of the education.
And I got really sick. I was diagnosed with two auto immune conditions and Lyme disease. And in that journey, you know, I was in the perfect spot to sort of put my physical pieces back together and go from that debilitated state to that. productive member of society again, right? I could continue with my education.
I could see patients in the clinic, but I didn’t have that full, robust health, right? So many of us diagnosed with a chronic disease know that getting from that debilitated state to a more, um, productive state is wonderful, but it isn’t the picture of health.
Dr Pedram Shojai: No, no, not, no, that’s not vitality. That is certainly not vitality. Um, what is vitality is what we’re going to talk [00:04:00] about.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . Absolutely. And that’s where I got interested in quantum biology and that field of how the world around us, how that universal flow of energy really impacts our health on a really enormous level. I mean, there’s not a cell in our body that isn’t touched by this. And it’s pretty incredible.
Dr Pedram Shojai: So you talk about some of the greatest hits in a very different context. So we talk about in this quantum biology space, you talk about photons and sunlight. You talk about water and, and so things that. Obviously are already in the lifestyle health gestalt, but with a new level of understanding of what’s happening, the quantum level that really helps us understand better why sunlight is so good for us.
So let’s, let’s start with some of the kind of [00:05:00] essential areas of quantum biology and what we know. About their impact on health.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Absolutely. And that’s a great place to start. start the impacts of light, right? We know now that Almost every single cell in our body has those circadian clock genes, and what that means is our body is fine tuned to our light environment. So if we are working with the light that we have evolved over millennia with, If we are getting natural light in the morning, if we’re getting some natural light throughout the day, if we’re lowering those artificial lights when the sun goes down, then our biology works much more efficiently.
We are making optimum. home hormones. Our inflammatory state is balanced. Our neurotransmitters are balanced. We feel [00:06:00] energized and motivated and calm and happy. And we see that when we lower the lights, we have that conversion of melatonin, that burst of growth hormone. Thyroid hormones go up when the lights are lowered.
All of these different mechanisms sort of work in that circadian swing of natural light and lowering the lights at night, that yin yang sort of daylight and darkness really affecting our health and being sort of the foundation of how we work through our daily biology. And so it’s. foundational that we’re really aligning with the sun and we’re really cultivating that relationship with the biggest source of light in our system, right?
Absolutely.
Dr Pedram Shojai: the
things that always got me, because when you’re in school, you do your bio, you do your [00:07:00] Ochem, you’re, you do all your courses and you’re just trying to get done. Uh, and there was at one point in my education, it hit home that every calorie we ingest is actually coming from a ray of sunshine that was trapped somehow.
Through photosynthesis into a plant and then you eat the plant or the animal eats the plant or however that goes down We are ingesting these photons of light this sunlight Which is powering and energizing us and I just remember having a profound moment where I stopped and said wow, that’s really heavy Right.
That’s that is The implications of what that says about who we are is heavy
Dr Catherine Clinton: . And it brings a sort of, um, Beautiful perspective to our daily life, right? And and not only is that that photon that’s trapped in in that food we eat, right, being transferred from the sun, [00:08:00] but it also it’s informing. Those circadian enzymes as well, right? The food we eat also informs our circadian rhythm.
And that really puts a whole different spin on eating seasonally, right? Eating things that are local to our environment, our light environment, the sunlight in our environment, because it actually tells our body. Hey, this is the time of year, right? So we just walked through the circadian daily rhythm, but there’s an infradian rhythm as well.
There’s a seasonal rhythm that allows our body to go through a bigger cycle and rhythm as far as our metabolism goes and our repair and reset. So it’s such a. beautifully intelligent system that is happening between our biology and, and the sun and [00:09:00] all the things on the planet that are using this relationship as well.
Like the food we eat.
Dr Pedram Shojai: I was in a conversation with Aaron Alexander. And he was talking about if you. Align your body in a way that, that allows for kinks to form and clunkiness to happen. It starts to continually degenerate and power down your system versus if you align your body in a way where the fascia is flowing, uh, it powers up your system.
And it brought me to a conversation you and I had around water and fascia and how the fascia can be used as an energy dynamo. Properly sliding if properly functioning. So I’d love for you to unpack that a couple of days after our exercise day. So people kind of understand the context of all this.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . So, you know, when I was in school, fascia was that thin white covering in you would move away, right? It was insignificant. And what [00:10:00] we are now understanding about the fascia is not only does it provide the scaffolding of our internal structures, our internal organs, but it creates this body wide network and it is communicating, using light, using sound, and using electricity.
It’s, uh, piezoelectric, right? Just like a quartz crystal, when compressed, it creates an electrical charge. And what we see when we look at fascia is it’s connective tissue, which is made up of mostly collagen. And on a very small, small level, you know, at this quantum size level, it creates these nanotubules.
And we’re really used to thinking of that double helix from our DNA, but our fascia creates that triple helix. [00:11:00] It’s called tropocollagen, and it creates these tropocollagen nanotubules. That span throughout the body and it was the work of Gerald Pollack out of the University of Washington and May Wan Ho and some other researchers around the globe looking at the relationship between the water that forms against our fascia and how that interplays and what they found was.
That the water that is forming against our hydrophilic surfaces, our water loving surfaces, meaning it’s not hydrophobic, it does not repel the water away, that water can come up to the surface of the fascia or the cell membrane and readily bump right up against it. And when it does that, as an interaction between the two, it changes its form.
It becomes more organized. Uh, some people are calling it structured water. [00:12:00] Pollock termed it exclusion zone water. Some people are calling it cell bound water, biological water, ordered water. There’s many different names. Um, which would be nice if we decided on one name, but you know, it describes how this water interacts with these surfaces.
And when they looked at fascia, what they found was as this structured water starts to build against the surface. And, and Pollock was the first to find that it was infrared energy that actually built this structured water. And that’s what we are creating when we move. Our fascia creates that piezoelectric charge.
It creates infrared energy. The mitochondria create infrared energy in those fibroblasts of our fascia. And this helps build this structured water. And what Pollock found was As that builds, it kicks [00:13:00] out a positively charged hydrogen, a proton, and creates this water zone that’s positively charged, whereas that structured water building against the fascia is negatively charged.
And that separation of charge, just like a 9 volt battery, he put an electrode in that negatively charged zone and one in that positively charged proton water, and he found that it was enough.
And what’s more is he looked at a collagen tubule and found that this structured water forms on the outside of the tubule. It forms on the inside of the tubule as well. And that separation of charge was able to power the flow of water, of protons, of particles through that collagen tubule. As long as that infrared energy was [00:14:00] present, that flow was there.
And so you start to see that our fascia, if hydrated, creates this Beautiful communication network and flow of information that previously has been unknown and underappreciated. It’s fascinating.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Indeed. So the idea that we need to remain hydrated is kind of obvious in what you’re saying, right? You need the water to flow, but this generation of infrared energy. Through movement through, is it also like a Delta G coming from the production of ATP? Like how do we create this and how do we sustain this so that the charge then keeps the water flowing and then that dynamo works?
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yep. You, you are spot on. It comes from movement [00:15:00] and really we can boil it down to mitochondrial function, right? So what will support our mitochondria will support the mitochondria in the fascia, meaning cold exposure, right? Um, helps increase the number of mitochondria in our fascia, our exposure to infrared energy outside of us.
inside of us, red light. Um, and these things can be found, of course, there’s devices out there, but these things can be found in the daily rhythm of the sun, right? That red and orange light that we see at sunrise and at sunset. Um, of course, the sun is also the biggest, uh, producer of infrared energy that we have.
And it’s something to understand that infrared energy is all [00:16:00] around us, right? So we have the capacity to create infrared energy with movement, with things that impact our mitochondrial function, even, uh, snuggling with someone we love under a blanket, right? You know, these cold winter months that will increase the infrared energy in our system, a warm, soothing bath.
There’s so many different ways to impact our mitochondrial function, to increase that infrared energy and really support that fascial system and communication. Absolutely.
Dr Pedram Shojai: think
of a number of occasions. I did a lot of backcountry backpacking, um, before I had kids and now we get out when we can. Um, I remember distinctly a day where we found this rock out by a lake and just laid out on this rock and absorbed the heat. Through our backs while laying in the sun and, [00:17:00] and at that point you could stop and say, Oh, it’s the soothing, healing power of mother nature.
It’s the chi of planet earth, but as I’m hearing this, part of that translation is, Oh, it’s the infrared energy of the sun stored in the rock. That’s now glowing back into your tissues and powering your piezoelectric energy systems. I’m assuming that is just one of the many places infrared can store and transmit.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Absolutely. That’s one of my favorite things to do here in the summer is get in a nice mountain creek, hop out, lay on that rock that’s emitting infrared heat, and absorb it on the other side from the sun, you know? There’s infrared energy all around us. If we could put on those infrared goggles that allow us to see infrared energy, it’s stored all around us.
And it’s being emitted by things in our environment at all times. [00:18:00] And what we’re really looking for is where can we get the most of it, right? Where can we really get our bang for our buck, right? As far as infrared energy. And that comes from movement and that comes from exposure to the seasonal elements.
whether it’s winter and you’re getting out in the cold, whether it’s the safe sun exposure in summertime, all of those things are really going to help that mitochondrial function and improve that fascial flow. And it’s, again, it’s this beautiful system where it’s not only that infrared energy from the sun when that slips behind the clouds.
I’m here in the Pacific Northwest and we just had a big ice storm and it’s been a cloudy and gray and snowy and icy. [00:19:00] And that will help my mitochondrial function, will help my fascial function and flow if I allow myself to have a relationship with it, right? So many of us live in this 70 degree life where our homes are 70 degrees and we go to the car which is 70 degrees and then we go into work which is 70 degrees, heated in the winter or cooled.
in the summer, right? So allowing ourselves to have that exposure allows for that mitochondrial function. It’s, it’s a beautifully designed system.
Dr Pedram Shojai: That tempering keeps coming up in exposure to cold exposure to heat, um, for hermetic stressors. Uh, there’s something else that keeps coming up and I want to get your take within the lens of quantum biology is breathwork. Are we generating infrared? Are we [00:20:00] allowing for lower diaphragmatic breathing to open up the flow?
Like there’s so many things that breath work can do. What have we learned in all this new science?
Dr Catherine Clinton: . Again, Pedram, you are just hitting the nail on the head. When we are looking at breath work, we see that that deep diaphragmatic breathing allows us. to move that lymphatic system, and we haven’t talked about this, but our lymphatic system and our fascial system are inseparable. They have a intimate and inseparable relationship.
Our fascia guides the lymphatic system, and the lymphatic system is intertwined. with that, that fascia and that flow, that movement. And so when we are using diaphragmatic breathing, we are facilitating one of the [00:21:00] biggest areas of our lymphatic system. of our fascial flow in the abdomen, right? And so that absolutely plays into the importance of breath work and how it impacts our fascial network.
Same thing with getting more oxygen into our system, right? Really impacting that flow of electrons through the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. Nasal breathing. When we breathe through our nose, it increases the nitric oxide in our nasal passages, which allows us to bring more oxygen into the system, oxygenate our tissues at a higher level.
And this not only facilitates our mitochondrial function, but it provides the flow of, um, nutrients and [00:22:00] oxygen to all those tissues, right? So you’re seeing the building blocks to the function of all these systems that we’re talking about. And so when we are breathing through our nasal passages, we are also creating a higher level of hydration.
I think a lot of people don’t realize that when we breathe through our mouth, we are actually losing a lot of moisture. And when we breathe through our nose, we’re keeping that moisture. We are moist. adding moisture to the air that we’re breathing in. And it’s actually a very underappreciated way of staying hydrated.
And that’s how we started this talk. It’s how do we hydrate those fascial networks. And nasal breathing is, uh, a very underappreciated and interesting, fascinating way to do that. So there’s many different things that are happening with breath work, [00:23:00] with breathing, that allow us to support that mitochondrial function and that fascial flow.
Dr Pedram Shojai: One of the areas that you see the word quantum, Headlines now is associated with the realm of consciousness. It’s like, Oh, the brain doesn’t explain it all. Oh, who are we? And there’s been, uh, A tsunami of speculative articles and research that kind of supports some of it curious around this idea of quantum biology and consciousness and what the implications there are.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . Um, and speculative is right. Uh, we I certainly don’t have any hard evidence when it comes to consciousness, and to be honest I’m not sure that that’s something will ever pin down, sort of that observer effect, but what’s happening in the research, um, and [00:24:00] this started with, uh, Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose, and they really, uh, developed this theory, the orchestrated and, Objective reduction theory, where they’re looking at The tubulin in the microtubules of the neurons in our brain and really pinpointing the tubulin as these receivers for energy.
And why the tubulin? Because of these benzene rings, these hexagonal rings, like in a, like you would see in a honeycomb. And these rings have free electrons, pi electrons, and they’re able to oscillate and create quantum effects. And what these, uh, scientists theorize is that as those electrons pick up on [00:25:00] this conscious quantum energy as those pi electrons vibrate, as they oscillate.
And then as that oscillation moves and reduces, as it collapses, that collapse is a conscious thought. It’s what we experience as a conscious thought. And Hameroff is a anesthesiologist. And so he really looks at, and the research they do together looks at how um, anesthesia blocks that transmission through the tubulin or diminishes it.
And so they’re trying to really pinpoint where is Conscious thought happening. Where is it being pulled from? What is the mechanism there? And one of the ways they’re doing that is looking at what anesthesia blocks that [00:26:00] conscious experience. And the interesting thing, you know, when you kind of pull out and look at the big view is that tubulin that they’re talking about here, that’s present in plants, that’s present in animals, that’s present in All these, um, things that we’re talking about here with our, uh, mitochondria and our fascia, it’s in all living systems, so when you start to really look at the concentric circles here and see how vast this theory might be, it really does become mind blowing.
And I love now that they’re doing collaborative research. So that we can get a better understanding of what this all means because it is some pretty fascinating stuff. And it really applies to life in general on the planet.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Certainly does. [00:27:00] Um, curious, and again, I don’t know how deep into his work you are, but are they finding the tubulin in fungal kingdom as well? Like. Is there tubulin in the rhizosphere because you start to see all these different kind of emergent theories coming saying, well, the fungal kingdom was here first, therefore through the fungal kingdom, we have a communication network with all the other kingdoms and our consciousness can tap into these other intelligences through this ancient system. Curious as to whether or not they’ve studied that.
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Dr Catherine Clinton: Now, I am not aware that they have studied, uh, the, microzymal network, right? Mushrooms in particular, but we do know that those, that tubulin is found in the cells of that network. So where there’s not specific research in that kingdom, right? In, in the mushrooms, in the mycelium network, we know that tubulin is present.
from other research, right? So, uh, it is fascinating to think of how all, all encompassing this [00:29:00] research could be if it proves to be true.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Yes. No kidding. And this is early stage for our listeners, but we’re pushing the envelope on what the, the, the really cool stuff that’s coming out of these labs that you can’t look away from. Because these are shifting, uh, not just the paradigm of medicine, but the paradigm of who we think we are. Because it, you know, if, if our consciousness is coming from the, the rattling of some, some intelligence outside of us that then shakes an electron in a hexa, hexa, hexagonal shape in our brain and then drops as a thought, the implications are, are far reaching.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . And, and that’s one of the things that I’ve I’ve really found fascinating about quantum biology is that it is really this beautiful interconnection when you start to [00:30:00] reduce things down, which has always sort of been a pet peeve of mine in medicine, right? Like we reduce things down so. so reductionistic that we have specialists in medicine that don’t talk to each other, that don’t have any idea what the other one’s doing, but this is all a human body, right?
And so when we look at quantum biology, it is reducing things down to a level where this interconnection is spanning across not only systems in our body, but life on this planet, life on this universe, it’s really Sort of trying to uncover that invisible blueprint that seems to be guiding life. And it is endlessly fascinating to me.
Uh, I just love the research that is coming out around it.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Yeah, I’m a big fan of [00:31:00] your feed because you’re pulling this stuff down and sharing it with guys like me who are busy to tell another stories. And it’s just, it’s always been great to see how much of this it’s, it’s almost like it’s going up exponentially. Well, there’s so many more studies in the last decade and people are really looking at this stuff.
So I would, I would. Say that this is an emergent area of science that’s going to become central in 20 years But keep your eye on it now kind of thing
Dr Catherine Clinton: Absolutely. And, and especially, you know, we’re talking about consciousness and this is definitely a controversial and emerging field. But And The mitochondrial piece of it isn’t is not right the circadian rhythm and how that affects us While it’s new while this research is new. It’s pretty definite It’s pretty solid.
And so to see that kind of validation for these quantum [00:32:00] underpinnings in Medicine and in science is really exciting and it gets me excited about the things that are still controversial and emerging and, and really new like this idea of consciousness. And so it, I think the, the range of research that comes that’s coming out is really exciting because there is validation there and that to me as as a doctor and and how do we treat patients how do we get people better is really exciting that we We do have stuff to take action on.
We do have evidence and validation for these, these things that we’ve been talking about for a long, long time. And some ancient indigenous cultures have been talking about, you know, our relationship with the sun and, and our relationship with water. You know, it’s [00:33:00] just, it’s this. beautiful sort of full circle of what we’ve kind of known as humans, and now we are getting some really exciting evidence for, um, with modern science.
Dr Pedram Shojai: get out in the Sun Take a walk always sounded like sage advice now We kind of understand the mechanism why you’re generating infrared you’re sliding your fascia You’re creating energy gradients and the and the water is flowing and your lymph is draining And if you’re breathing deep to your lower abdomen, you’re pumping the bellows.
Awesome. Where are the other Quantum levers, if you will, with health and lifestyle that are kind of the obvious places to bring more vitality into one’s life.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yeah, I think we mentioned one of them about eating seasonally. I think that’s, uh, an easy thing to wrap our heads around in a common sense level, and we also see that it, it’s impacting our circadian rhythm. Forming [00:34:00] those circadian enzymes that. Seasonally produced food that we’re eating, locally, seasonally.
I think also understanding, um, the impacts of sound. Sound has a beautiful relationship with our biology and something as simple as toning or humming a chant can really reset our nervous system. It tones our vagus nerve, which we know the relationship there with inflammation, right? And with inflammation, we know how that is implicated in disease states.
And so this idea That, and the research that’s come out showing that just a simple practice of humming a vowel sound or toning, chanting can [00:35:00] create this nervous system reset, can, uh, decrease inflammation. Again, it increases, uh, that. nasal nitric oxide, which increases the oxygen uptake in our nasal passages, increasing the oxygenation of our tissues and the flow of nutrients throughout the body.
It’s, It’s been shown to increase melatonin, and there’s a lot of research now coming out around how melatonin, while it’s very important for our sleep, is, that’s not the only thing it’s doing, right? It’s impacting so many different biological systems, and it’s really a master antioxidant in the body. And so, You know, looking at phonons from sound and how they impact the biology.
I think that’s a really fascinating [00:36:00] piece of the science and something again that’s underappreciated and free. These things are free and accessible. Absolutely.
Dr Pedram Shojai: If you start to double down on some of the practices that we’ve. Taken for granted. So chanting while practicing gratitude, uh, you know, with people. And that was part of a religious ceremony. And, you know, we don’t do that anymore because they, you know, the religions kind of messed up or we don’t go to church anymore.
But a lot of baby went out with the bath water in some of these traditions that had these built in. We didn’t understand why we were doing it. We did it because mom did it. But now it’s like, Oh, Man, that was a big part of our, our energy hygiene. That was a big part of our vitality. That is no longer a part of our day as we’re thumbing a social feed, pushing dopamine.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . And that’s the beautiful thing about the research that’s coming out. It’s really calling us back [00:37:00] to these relationships. Community, with ourselves, with our, our, our faith, with our internal practices, with nature, uh, with the food we eat, right? With our, our gratitude for being here right now, right here.
Um, all of these things. When you look from a quantum biological lens, there’s new, you know, the latest research validating why these relationships we’ve always had as humans are so important to our health.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Yeah. And it’s not, we grew up in groups. We grew up in tribes. We had collective, you know, we talked about this in the sleep day where. Sleep is a very, very profoundly trusting, vulnerable place. Hey, I’m going to go lie down over there and shut my eyes and hopefully nothing eats me or stabs me. Um, that doesn’t work that well biologically because [00:38:00] one ear is always listening for the tiger.
But if you say, Hey, Bob, will you watch out for two hours so I can sleep and we could take turns? Then suddenly the tribe starts to work right. And all this stuff we’ve taken for granted. And now. Everyone’s alone and we, we forget why we had each other. Um, gratitude being just one of those practices.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that sense of safety that you’re talking about. I don’t think I’ve seen a patient in my practice who isn’t lacking that at some point in the disease process. There is a lack of safety and a lack of belonging, uh, you know, and we can point to the research about the danger signal, the cell danger signal, and how that, uh, really is associated with disease processes, but also we can all really intuitively understand.
We can’t heal if we [00:39:00] don’t feel safe. If we don’t have a sense of belonging and the ability to find that safety in a community, in a family, in a partnership, the ability to find that safety with the rising of the sun or the earth beneath our feet, right? The world around us. is such a beautiful tool for healing.
And it’s one of the things I love about quantum biology.
Dr Pedram Shojai: You mentioned the cell safety signaling. I I’d like to double click on that a little bit because I just want to make sure this is covered adequately within this event in that when that signal, when that alarm is ringing. There’s very specific things that happen with the mitochondria and the systems of the body to say, Hey, this animal might be sick.
This animal isn’t safe. Let’s not grow right now. Let’s not be robust. Hold it back. And if you live in [00:40:00] hold it back, you will never taste vitality. Right? And so it is a very profound thing that you’re alluding to here.
Dr Catherine Clinton: . It’s the foundation of our cellular life and our cellular function. If we’re in that hold it back or danger mode, right? Where we have to attune to the immediate danger or stressor in our life. We’re not repairing, we’re not growing, we’re not taking care of the damaged cells in our system, the cancerous cells in our system, the cells that aren’t working right.
And if you think about that in the lens of how our society works right now. So many of us wake up in that danger signal with that alarm and then the immediate thought of, oh I have to get ready to go do work and then you’re rushing and you’re in traffic and I [00:41:00] mean there’s just danger signal after danger signal and after a while that’s where we live.
And so That state of, of danger, of, uh, you know, putting it off is really synonymous with a disease state. And so making sure that we have adequate safety signals in our environment, um, that sense of belonging, that sense of safety, that sense of pause and rest is so important for our health. All, you know, from a cellular level all the way up to that big picture of a big diagnosis, right?
All of that really hinges on that feeling of safety, that, that signal of safety or danger in the cell.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Which brings people to kind of a juncture saying, all right, I’m going to sell my [00:42:00] possessions, shave my head like this guy, go become a monk. I’m going to run away from all of it because, uh, it’s too much, which is not necessarily an option for most householders. Right? We got kids, we got family, we got stuff.
So aside from learning how to meditate and yoga and kind of the, the, the stuff that It’s already out there in the lexicons like, well, sure you should meditate and pray for better safety signaling. Does walking out in the sun also do it? Does moving your fascia also do it? Like what are all, what’s the language of safety that we can program in and stack against the language of I’m not safe so that the body can tilt the scales
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s important to understand that we’re supposed to have that language of danger, too, right? It’s not only a supposed to be a language of safety. We’re supposed to have that flux. We’re supposed the resilience is It’s [00:43:00] dancing between the two signals. And so most of us don’t need a lesson on how to get more danger signals, right?
So how do we get more safety signals? And it really comes back to those relationships, right? Going outside, getting sunlight, being exposed to those negative ions that are there, uh, in the wind. And if you’re in nature, it, uh, ocean, it’s, spray, waterfalls, rainfall, but even they’re carried in the wind if you’re near trees or a field, right?
Getting that sunshine, being exposed to all the different things that are available in a natural setting, whether it’s those free electrons that line the earth, whether it’s the different microbes that are in soil that are present in natural settings. Those are all [00:44:00] safety signals and we can actually kind of boil it down to safety signals are sort of these relationships that we’ve cultivated over our evolution, the world around us, the natural.
world, nature, these things I’ve just mentioned, the sun, the seasons, getting exposed to different temperatures in a seasonal, seasonal way, uh, sleep and the light environment, right? Making sure that we’re getting darkness at night is a huge safety signal. Um, of course, meditation and mindfulness. But a deep breath and thinking about what we’re grateful for for 10 seconds can really rewire that biology and rewire that.
constant state of danger back into signals of safety.
Dr Pedram Shojai: and [00:45:00] what I’m gleaning from all of this? Is that safety and vitality walk hand in hand. In order to have robust health and vitality, the body needs to feel safe in a very primary way so that it can heal, it can grow, and it can be abundant. So, we’ve learned a lot here and I really love your angle, your contribution to this in the quantum biology realm.
I think it’s just exquisite. Where can people find you? I’m sure there are some people that are like, well, that was interesting. And some people who are looking you up already. Um, just, I want to sign post them to your work. So people who want to dive deeper can.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Yeah, absolutely. I’m Dr. Katherine Clinton everywhere. So my website is drkatherineclinton. com. You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, Facebook at Dr. Katherine Clinton, [00:46:00] and I love sharing this information because I really do think it helps push the needle in our trajectory back where we should be headed in, in health.
So, uh, thank you so much for having me on today.
Dr Pedram Shojai: Amen. Thank you for being here. Thanks for, uh, making yourself available. I know you’re busy. Um, I think everyone who watched this is smarter. After listening. So I will follow your work and I will see you again. Thank you.
Dr Catherine Clinton: Thank you.
Dr Pedram Shojai: No. I got to say, if you haven’t started questioning reality yet, and that would be a pretty good time. So much has changed so much as different, so much. Isn’t what we thought it was. I mean, all the way from guys admitting that they have UFO’s and have seen biologicals from other. Worldly origins may be in front of Congress. To our entire scientific establishment being upended by saying, oh yeah, this is true. So there’s a lot happening.
Um, there’s [00:47:00] also a lot of fake stuff happening and So it’s really difficult separating the baby from the bath water here, and I’m going to take it upon myself to bring on sane voices. That are talking about the coolest stuff, but aren’t making crap up because as I think it was Terence McKenna once said, give me one free miracle and I can explain anything. So there is a lot of weird, crazy, not substantiated in anything.
Talk out there. Um, in the online universe. And then there’s all sorts of really cool real stuff that’s happening, some of which you heard today. So keep a discerning ear. Tuned up and open and let’s explore this together. I’ll see you next time.
Yeah. Yeah.
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