Ep 419: Beating Cancer to Becoming a Functional Medicine Practitioner – With Jayden Pileggi

Jayden was in tip top shape and appeared to be in peak health when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of testicular cancer.  His experience was the catalyst to move him into the career of his dreams as a functional medicine practitioner.  Jayden Pileggi is on a mission to help his clients establish the foundations of health while sleuthing out their symptoms to help them optimize their health. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause interviews Jayden Pileggi on his experience with cancer and bouncing back to support those wanting to optimize their health. 

Resources From The Show:

• Longevity Diet with Dr. Valter Longo
• Episode 143 – The Paul Burgess Functional Medicine Podcast with Jayden Pileggi
• Jayden’s Instagram: JP_functional_medicine
• Book a free consult with Jayden – HERE

Our Partners

Podcast Transcript

JANNINE: [Intro] Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly

fix of tips, tools, and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds, and fit

physiques for life.

Hey health junkies, on this episode of the Health Fix Podcast, I’m interviewing

Jayden Pileggi. He’s a functional medicine practitioner, and he’s got a

great story of coming back from cancer. Now, of course, I’m going to let you

in the podcast to learn all about that.

But today we’re really going to be talking about how symptoms are just signs, things

are off in the body and we want to be paying attention to these things.

We’re also going to be talking about the foundations of health, things to be looking at and of

course, Jayden is going to give us some nuggets on what one can do while they’re dealing with

cancer, while they’re taking chemo to be as healthy as possible and bounce back even

faster.

Now, Jayden has a tricky last name and he gives me some crap for it.

So it’s also a little fun we have in this podcast.

So let’s introduce you to Jayden Pileggi.

Hey, health junkies.

I have Jayden Pileggi on and we are going to be talking about functional medicine.

We’re going to talk about his story of how he got into it and really the big

theme that I want you guys to be thinking about during this podcast is it’s

Never too late to start new things and

Symptoms they do not define you. They’re just clues. So Jayden, welcome to Health Fix Podcast

JAYDEN: Thanks, Jannine. Thanks for having me on. I’m excited to talk about

My journey to where I am now and things that have happened in the past and yeah, we’ll touch a bit

I think and we’ll have a good time

JANNINE: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean obviously you were introduced to me from Paul Burgess and he was telling me boy

this guy, Jayden, you got to talk to him. He was the healthiest dude I knew. And then things

just kind of change for him. And he was like, I don’t know. I think this is a great story

that folks want to hear about because unfortunately in this world, we tend to look at folks who

are epitome of health, right? They got the nice body, right? They’re eating well, they’re

researching health all the time. And then they get sick. This happened to my mom. She was the most

in the states we call it granola lady ever. I never had Doritos. I was the kid nobody wanted to

share snacks with at lunch. Nobody wanted to trade. I always wanted everybody’s Doritos and Oreos

and stuff, but nobody took my apples and twigs and sticks and she ended up with cancer. And so

it’s these kind of things that are mind boggling. So now I’ve kind of given folks a little clue into

to your story, but I would love for you to kind of talk about like being healthy as you

could possibly imagine and then getting a cancer diagnosis. What does that do to the

mind in terms of things?

JAYDEN: Yeah, so firstly, yeah, you obviously know me through Paul and I recommend people go

back and listen to that episode because I actually listened to that one myself and Paul

is very good at simplifying and explaining things and really just putting things back

to like peeling back the layers and that was a really good episode so I recommend that one.

I think it was 411 or 412 from memory. So yeah you touched on a little bit about my story so

yes I was like a well I still am actually a full health guru and exercise junkie although it’s

probably toned down as I get a bit older now although I’m still young. Yeah yep I am dialed in and

and I remained dialed in and then we’ll go through all that.

But there was a period in my life where I went through a health concern,

where I unfortunately I got cancer.

And if you asked anyone around me,

I was probably the least likely person by the way I looked after myself to get cancer.

However, it still happened.

So you don’t normally see people, I guess,

or describe people who probably are extremely healthy.

I’m not talking myself up, I’ve had abs in a nice body and a healthy young looking man

and that diagnosis comes along.

So the form of diagnosis was testicular cancer.

And there’s four types of testicular cancers and I had the most acute or dangerous one,

the one that’s most likely to spread.

So after getting the testable taken out and they do a biopsy, it was found to be that

dangerous cancer and it was decided that you must undergo chemotherapy.

And we need to attack this very hard.

We need to go full blown at it.

So most people would probably see chemotherapy as doing it across multiple months, but in

In this form of cancer, you do it in a couple of weeks.

It’s like six weeks of just every day hitting you every single day.

And over that period of time, across that six week period, they call it two rounds of chemotherapy.

And I’m getting three different types of drugs.

IV’ed into me.

It was very brutal.

and you start seeing from literally the second day your muscle depleting and your skin becoming

more pale and your over week two and three, your hair falling out and you literally become

quite depressed by the end of it literally on the couch, unable to get up. You just,

mutant obvious previous self. But I was able to do a lot of things as well during that

because I had a background of knowledge of, I guess, hacking or biohacking a little bit

with which I don’t like that terminology, but just coming up with some unique ways of managing

the symptoms that I would have been going through, which we can touch on if you like.

JANNINE: Yeah, I would love to hear what you were thinking, because I think a lot of people,

you know, one of the big things when someone gets a cancer diagnosis and they’re super into health

and wellness, they’re going, do I get chemo? Do I not? You know, do I head for a clinic

and do all herbal stuff? So we’d love to hear all of that.

JAYDEN: Yeah, that’s a really good point. And that’s something that was on my mind nonstop.

I didn’t want chemotherapy. I knew how bad it was and how dangerous it was and how it

impact my health moving forward. People who have chemotherapy are more inclined to potentially

to get cancers down the path and amongst other host of issues as well.

And I was feeling incredibly good at that time when I had the cancer diagnosis.

I like wearing Ora a ring and my HRV was, I remember my HRV was like high 80s at the

time of my diagnosis.

heart rate was low, like there was no sign that this was cancer in me. I didn’t have anything.

My bloods were good. I did a, because the one of the drugs impacts your lungs. You have to do

this lung test. I literally have to do this lung test twice because they said your lung capacity

was too good. And we’re unsure that this is, this machine is working correctly.

So it was a real shock and I didn’t want to do chemotherapy.

However, the survival rate for this type of cancer is very, very good.

And on top of that, you are in complete stress when this is happening.

You only can hear the expert saying, Hey, you’ve got this good chance of survival.

We have to do it. We have to do it next week.

It just moved so fast.

From the day of diagnosis to the day of surgery to the day of chemotherapy,

it happens just all so fast and you’re just taken away. So straight away I knew that I

didn’t want to do this. I started looking into every single thing that I could potentially

go by. That is different to chemo. I did not want chemo. And there are things however

it’s there’s there’s no great research and majority of it is n equals one. And it’s

not to say that my body is the same. And the other thing is because there’s four types of

that cancer, everything is just testicular cancer. It doesn’t say what kind of cancer it is.

So it’s something that you’re taking a huge gamble on. And I’m not saying for people not to

go down that pathway or they’re going to make their own decision. But my decision was, okay,

I’m young. I need to go probably through the chemo. Okay, what can I do to offset the damage

of the chemo, my mind pivoted quickly to just to think about different things I can do to

manage the chemotherapy. So some of those things were moving into, I started doing some fasting

quite a bit and this is during the chemo as well, I was doing quite a bit of fasting,

which is difficult when you’re doing such a hectic approach because usually you would you’d fast

in the lead up to chemotherapy. Most people would have chemotherapy maybe once a week

or once a fortnight, once a month. I’m having fun every day so that the fasting is very hard.

But so what I did is I started fasting to the lead up to it and then lowered my calories where

I was having like a really low calorie eating vegetables and olive oil and avocado was basically

veggies and fats. And that, if you want to learn more about that, there’s a gentleman

called Valter Longo. I’m not the, I think his book is called The Longevity Diet. And I

got a lot of it from the idea of that. And they, they, you can actually buy meal kits

from, from this company, which are quite expensive. So you can do it yourself, really, if you

research it. I did buy a couple of kits and then, and then I started doing it myself. I

research other ways because it was almost like a thousand dollars or something for like

three days worth of food. So it’s expensive. So you can research your own and anyway I

basically started doing this fasting and the idea is that people who go through chemo have less

symptoms so you don’t lose your hair as much, you might not get the ulcers in your mouth

that a lot of people get amongst other things.

Apparently you maintain your muscle mass,

although you know, a lot of my muscle.

The chemotherapy just destroys your muscle.

You become lots of muscle and you come a bit pudgy,

if anything, that just destroys your cells.

So the fasting was really efficient.

I did that throughout and that probably contributed

to quite a lot of weight loss as well amongst having chemo.

And then I started doing, I was doing oil,

pulling every morning as well,

because a lot of people get ulcers in their mouth

from the chemo.

So every morning I wake up and I’d start swishing coconut oil

in my mouth, which isn’t the nicest way

to wake up in the morning.

But, you know, there’s a lot of benefits to that.

And a lot of people still do that.

And, you know, it can make your teeth whiter.

It kills the bad bacteria in your mouth.

Make sure you don’t spit it down your drain,

’cause it will clog up your drain,

which I did not do.

As in, I did not, I didn’t.

JANNINE: Didn’t know.

JAYDEN:  No, I knew, I knew, I knew, I did know, I did know.

JANNINE: Oh.

JAYDEN: Fortunately, I did know.

I’m just putting it out there so others know.

And then I was doing things like

vitamin C infusions, which can help with, you know,

just cancer.

I was doing ozone therapy,

which is removing some blood out of your system.

It’s then oxygenating it.

So oxygen on the periodic’s table is O2.

This is like O3.

So it’s mixing this blood up in your arm

and it becomes this real bright red color

’cause it’s mixed with this O3 oxygen

and then they put it back into your system

and the idea is that oxygen will help.

An oxygenated field will help with removing,

getting rid of like cancer doesn’t grow

in high oxygen fields is the theory.

And then I started to wanna, yeah,

and then this is all through chemo,

and I was doing this as I was going through chemo

with just a little bit of guidance,

but just majority of just hardcore research.

JANNINE: Wow.

JAYDEN: Yeah.

JANNINE: That’s impressive.

You know, just having the diagnosis being terrified

and then being like, I’m gonna get into the research

I’m just going to go for it. That’s, you know, unless someone’s got a guide along the way,

you know, it becomes really difficult. And I definitely watched my mom kind of bounce back

and forth going like, this is good. I don’t know. Do I do this? Do I do that until she finally

found a guide, which of course now brings us to you, now, and having the functional medicine

background and working with folks looking back at all the different things that you did. Are you

now as a functional medicine practitioner kind of working in the realm of guiding folks who are

working with cancer or chemo things of that nature or give us a scoop?

JAYDEN: Yeah, so you’re right. The guidance is important because there were things there were other things

I was doing that probably led to a financial stress I guess you know you’re going through a lot and

It probably wasn’t necessary, but there are things that you can do that don’t cost that much,

fasting, for example, and the oil-blinked ulcers. I mean, if you’re getting ulcers in your mouth,

that’s very uncomfortable for anyone. I didn’t get any ulcers. I had people next to me who had

ulcers all through their mouth who were taking their treatment. So it could have been that I was

healthy underlying, or it could have been that this helped and worked. To be honest, I’m not sure,

but it’s something you can control.

And when you’ve taken a lot of out of your control,

it’s nice to try these things and just keep in control.

And it offered me a routine and I didn’t feel great as well,

which was great.

Yep, so now, so cancer kind of was the kick up,

the bottom that I needed to kind of realize

that I just love health and health so important.

And I started, basically became a functional medicine

practitioner, I’d gone through after my treatment. I worked with someone, I worked

with Paul if anyone wants to know he’s great. And I decided, okay, I need to, I need to

study this because I got back into really pristine health really quickly after my

treatment. And I did not look good after my treatment. I assure anyone. But very

quickly I started feeling good again. And my health came back and here I am. So I

I decided to study functional medicine and finish that a few years ago and started my

own clinic.

Yep, so a lot of my clients are people who have cancer or going through it now and looking

for alternative treatments and I don’t offer those treatments but I can offer that guidance

and support and just explain what I’ve been through and what I did, how I also post treatment

as well.

When some people finish the treatment, they don’t feel their best and actually how that

looks and that’s where the real good stuff comes in because anyone who’s gone through

the treatment will realise that your gut is absolutely destroyed, completely taken out.

I could not digest anything.

And when I say anything, I was still eating very healthy after my treatment, but I would

eat things and it would just go through me.

My stomach wasn’t great.

And that’s kind of when I, myself, who knew a lot, decided I’m going to work with someone

here because I think the guidance is so important.

Even if you think you know, it’s important to work with someone and just get someone

who can help you.

And that’s where Paul came in and we worked really hard for a year.

And you know, when I say I wasn’t digesting anything, I mean I was having some vegetables

and it would be breaking, it just wouldn’t feel good.

So it started with, I actually started on a carnivore diet, which is a form of an elimination

diet.

And that’s what it is.

It’s an elimination diet.

A carnivore diet is an elimination.

It’s eliminating foods.

And if you go back and listen to Paul’s episode, he mentions this, I actually have a gene which

is an APO4 gene, which means high saturated fat great for me.

So eating large quantities of meat should only be for a short period of time for someone

who has that allele.

And I didn’t continue on the carnival diet.

I did it for I think a four week period because I could only handle meat.

I literally couldn’t handle anything else.

And when I say eight meat, I ate brains, liver, kidney,

heart, all the stuff that all the awful

and all the other delicacy meats as well.

I did it pretty properly.

And yeah, we did it for a month

and that healed my gut, a lot of bone broths.

And then we started adding things back in

and that’s when I realized that yeah,

This has been an effective nutrition thing for a period of time.

And then we moved into adding foods and, you know, trying to eat everything in

diversity, you want as much diversity in your food as possible.

Because that’s how you get that microbiome diversity and it’s also more enjoyable.

JANNINE: Oh, for sure.

For sure.

I think a lot of people don’t think about how much, you know, chemo does trash the

gut microbiome until they go through it or have a family member that goes

through it. And unfortunately, what I’ve seen happen very often is people will gravitate

towards the processed foods because they’re easier to digest. And they’ll say, I can’t

tolerate the veggies anymore. I can’t tolerate certain things anymore. So it’s good to hear

you kind of explain how the process worked. Were you doing certain types of probiotics

or were you doing it in the form of yogurts, fermented veggies, all of the above?

JAYDEN: Yeah, yeah, just on your first point, it’s very interesting.

So I eat very healthy all the time.

I food is medicine to me.

And I was craving during the process of chemo the most.

Like I’m talking, I was craving sausage rolls,

two minute noodles for whatever reason.

Like, you know, I haven’t had them as a child very rarely.

But I don’t know like how they came to my mind even.

And even when you’re in these hospital settings,

they’re feeding you muffins and toasties.

And these are the foods that aren’t going to help you

at that moment.

And it’s foods that you crave.

And as I was doing the fasting and not eating necessarily,

even I got home, the foods that I had prepared,

it was very hard because I was craving foods

that were simple carbs basically.

it was obviously my body just saying I just need that simple carbs that will break down

and you know it’s simple sugars and whatnot.

Now you need to make sure you don’t sometimes avoid those foods when you’re going through

a difficult approach because it does, your whole system is kind of destroyed.

So heading out of that to touch on the second thing, I was doing all of the above, so it

was a lot of, so it started with obviously, yep, the food,

let’s get the food, let’s get my stomach digesting better

and then let’s add in the probiotics.

So, you know, I was eating fermented veggies.

I love fermented veggies.

I was doing probiotic and it was from memory.

We did the, we did a soil-based probiotic.

So it was microbiome labs, I believe it was,

which is a very good quality brand

and they do a lot of great probiotics

and supplements in general.

So we started with probiotics,

moving into the prebiotics

and trying to get that healthy gut flora back.

And those things contain a lot of

the prebiotics and then we co-set it,

I used after it contained a lot of fiber

and just trying to build that gut barrier back up

and just making ourself and my system a lot healthier.

because it was far from it after that treatment.

But we got there and we did some really good work

and it was around, you know,

my nutrition was always on point.

So it’s just really the supplements just there

to support me and help me just in that little last little push

in addition to just getting that healthy sort of feel

back to myself.

JANNINE: That’s huge, that’s huge.

I think a lot of people and including myself right now

are like, okay, you said,

and I didn’t really kind of hinting at the supplements

want like the big thing for you.

I think a lot of people will gravitate

towards the supplements more than putting more emphasis

in the whole foods.

Are you a big supplement taker to this day?

Or are you kind of like,

hit or miss on certain things?

JAYDEN: Oh no, I take supplements.

And this is the thing right,

because I’m constantly having this conversation

with my clients now.

You need a supplement for what you need as a person

as an individual and how do you find that? So I do a lot of testing and I do some of

the most comprehensive blood testing you’ll find on the market and you find what’s actually

missing in people. So when I say a comprehensive blood test, there are over 100 markers, the

reports are 70, 80, 90 pages long and we sit down and we actually go through every individual

person and actually identify what you need specifically. Because if you just find the

next best supplement that’s been advertised or the next best supplement that’s, you know,

that is emailed there, that’s marketing and that’s marketing to sell you something and

it’s very clever marketing but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s best for you. And my

My approach is what is best for you?

Okay, so I have people who have gone to other practitioners

and they’ve said, you know, they’ve got me on all these

supplements and they haven’t got the basics

and the fundamentals right, yeah.

Okay, well, what are you eating?

Look, you’ve got these supplements going in,

but how’s the gut working?

Now I haven’t been to the bathroom for like one week.

Okay, if you haven’t been to the bathroom for one week,

what do you think those supplements are doing for you?

Probably not much.

So we need to get the gut health

and the function of that right first.

Let’s look at your nutrition.

What are you eating?

And then we find out that eating

maybe muesli bars and chips and things like that,

I’m like, okay, you need to like just try and get yourself

and you’ve got functioning a little bit better,

get the drainage happening.

So we work on, I always work on nutrition first.

Nutrition is a key part to what I do

because majority of people who say,

I’m eating very well.

I find very quickly that they are doing their very best

and they try and very hard and it’s always good

kudos on you, you’re doing better than majority of people.

However, how about we try and change a couple of things

and see how things go?

And all of a sudden you get them on board

because literally in two days they start feeling better.

Oh, I’m waking up getting a little bit well rested today.

I feel like going to the gym, I have a bit more energy.

I’m not feeling tired during the morning.

I’m sleeping better.

you know, things happen very quickly.

And I’m talking about in that first few days

and it used to shock me a little bit.

It doesn’t anymore.

And it’s about getting the fundamentals right.

So if you go on my website, you’ll see my logo.

My logo is, has five things.

And it’s nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress,

and relationships.

And those are the five things that if you can get healthy

and you can fundamentally improve,

then we start to see really good changes,

way more than any supplement.

Now I do take supplements,

and I’m not against supplements at all,

or for the big part of my practice, absolutely.

I use very high quality supplements.

So I do believe in quality.

I think there’s a lot of rubbish on the market

as you would probably agree, Jannine.

Yeah, and it’s about finding the ones

that actually have good research behind them.

So the nutraceuticals sort of options,

which are, you know, generally have research behind them,

scientific research behind them.

And, you know, good botanicals,

which have been around for years as well.

You know, these things aren’t,

these things have been well and truly around for,

before I guess some of the bigger pharma companies.

So, interestingly enough, you know,

these these supplements are beneficial and I think people realize that the

beneficiary that’s becoming a big market when you just go be careful what’s out

there you need to make sure you know you get guidance if you’re unsure

ask someone you know there’s a lot of people who will be willing just to

accept a couple of questions and you know I think people even some of the

bigger pharma companies now are starting to look into buying some of these

companies these nutraceutical companies as well because

You know, maybe they are beneficial.

Maybe they do something for us.

JANNINE: Anytime big pharma wants their hands in it, you can bet that it works.

But of course, you know, like we say, we have to, you know, do our due diligence

and watch what they do with the companies that they acquire.

And I think that’s where a lot of folks just want to be paying attention.

Now, one of the things I’ve mentioned was symptoms.

And even on your website, you were like, your symptoms are an indication of things

being off and going back down the lines of why we would want to take a particular supplement

or why we would want to be working on our gut or if stress is a factor.

All the five things that you mentioned as being core, all have symptoms.

I’m sure you would agree with me on that one.

Tell us a little bit about your theory on symptoms and how you help folks really dive

into their symptoms and tie them back in and use them as a monitoring tool to know that

they’re feeling better or know that they’re on the right direction.

JAYDEN: Yeah, so yeah, it’s a great question and symptoms are something that should not be ignored.

If you don’t feel quite right or you think there’s something wrong and you’ve gone to

your doctor or someone, another expert and they’ve said, Everything’s fine.

I can’t see anything.

Don’t ignore them because you know your body very, very well.

And I say on my website, symptoms are a blessing because symptoms are the first stage of you

realizing that there’s something not quite right. And if you are very in tune and

self aware of your body and self awareness is so important but if you’re

so in tune with your body and you realize and you pick up this early, it’s

much easier to treat early before it becomes more chronic. So don’t ignore

your symptoms if you identify there’s something wrong, reach out, have it

have a consult with someone, ask the questions like and go through it. So

So one of the questionnaires that I give to every single one of my clients is something

called a medical symptom questionnaire.

And it’s purely based on your symptoms.

And it goes through every single part of your body from your eyes and your ears down to

your toes.

And overly long, but it goes into detail about each area of your body and symptoms you might

experience.

And it gives you a score at the end.

once you do that score, you know, you can kind of get an idea of where this person’s

at and it gets them thinking.

And actually it’s really effective because what happens is as we go through a lot, you

don’t also, some people don’t notice the improvements that they’re making.

So when, for example, you’re working with someone and they’re like, Oh, I’m not sure

if it’s like, you know, where we’re at.

What is it?

How are we working?

Because most people are focused on things like weight.

JANNINE: Oh.  

JAYDEN: Weight to me, it’s like going to happen.

Like it’s not necessary easy for everyone to just lose weight, but it’s inevitable.

It is inevitable.

You will drop weight.

But what people don’t see is that they see weight as a weight on a scale and a weight

on the scale is rubbish.

But all of a sudden I get the medical symptom questionnaire back up and I say, okay, how

is your skin looking?

How is your hair looking?

How is your genes fitting?

And then all of a sudden we’ve seen that these things have all dropped down and their

score from this start to three months worth of work has halved.

And I’m like, oh, you’re telling me that, oh, maybe, maybe things aren’t working because

you’re focused on the weight.

The weight will happen.

The weight just needs to reduce the inflammation.

This will all happen.

But we start seeing really good results because the symptoms are reducing.

And they’re like, oh, yeah, actually I am feeling better there.

Oh, I don’t have that brain foggyness anymore.

I’m sleeping better and things have improved.

and it’s a really effective strategy and tool to use

for some people.

JANNINE: Yeah, I love that, I love that, because yes,

I mean, it doesn’t go by without a week or two

where I get an email from someone, mostly women,

saying, It’s been two weeks and I haven’t lost weight.

You know, and it’s like,

Oh, but you just told me you’re sleeping through the night

and you told me this, I don’t care.

I want the weight gone.

It’s like, oh.

JAYDEN: And it’s, you know, and it will happen.

It will happen.

And it’s about being consistent.

It’s about following the guidance of the person you’re putting some trust in.

Now, are you going to remember that the thing that we do is we provide certainty into what

for people, we provide certainty in how you eat and what you drink and what supplements

you take to make sure that you are following a plan that’s specific and individualized

for you.

And it will happen and it just takes time.

And we all focus on the way we look on the outside, because the way we look on the outside,

whatever one sees.

But the important stuff is how you feel on the inside.

I’ve had people, and I’m a really good example of this actually, because the way I looked

on the outside was extremely healthy and fit.

But I had cancer.

And that impacted me, my mental capacity as well.

I– It impacted me.

And the fortunate thing is, because I was so healthy on the overall, I bounced out of

that very quickly.

And I was very quickly in a great state, much faster than I would have ever hoped for.

But just because you’re healthy on the outside, and doesn’t mean that you’re healthy on the

inside and some of those people are the people who are just getting the gym all

day and just spending their entire life in the gym maybe aren’t happy because

they’re always searching for something that will I can always get a better body

I can always look better I can always look better but the important thing is

how you feel and if you’re feeling you’re sleeping and you’re managing your

stress and you have really healthy relationships and you’re eating good

food around happy people that’s that’s priceless that’s health.

JANNINE: There’s a lot to be said about relationships with others and yourself and how much that

really does impact your total health because I’m a gym rat.

I have been for years and I see my friends.

I see different folks.

You can identify them in the gym.

They’re in there 24/7.

You’re like, Do you hang out anywhere else but here?

And they’re like, No, this is what I need.

I need this.

And you tend to go yourself, Okay, great.

– All right, you’ve got the body that people want,

but yeah, where’s the mind?

And I think for a lot of people,

just every day, just who aren’t gym rats,

it is important to think about stress.

When your diagnosis came about,

was there any incredible amount of stress in your life

or strife with emotional,

between relationship with your self-others,

things of that nature?

JAYDEN: No, not really.

I’m actually really lucky I live in a beautiful area

of the world, which is all on the coast and I’m not really a stressy type person.

You know, my relationships are very, very good.

I’ve got like some amazing people.

Actually, I’ve got the best people around me.

I really firmly believe that I’m very fortunate in that department.

The one thing I’d always look back because the one thing I would look back at is potentially

my job.

And I was into this, it’s very interesting.

And I sometimes say to people that cancer, although I wish it never happened, obviously,

and I wouldn’t wish it, I wouldn’t want it to ever happen again, it, I believe in everything

happening for a reason.

And maybe that reason was for me to be pushed into a field where I can offer a lot to others.

I love helping others.

I love helping people get this.

This is like, I don’t feel like I work a day in my life because I get to talk to people

and I get to like see them improve their health.

Health is just the most important thing in the world.

Trust me, trust me.

I know.

Because when it gets taken away from you, all you want is your health.

And the cancer maybe was something that pushed me in a direction where I needed to be.

So I see it as maybe somewhat as a gift now, funnily enough, because I remember I used

to, I love walking down the beach, I used to always think, I really want to do functional

medicine, I really want to do functional medicine.

And maybe if I didn’t have the cancer, I wouldn’t have done it because I had a good paying job.

I was working in a hospital setting, I had a very, very good job.

And I didn’t need to put myself under any stress to go and study and work on this.

But the cancer diagnosis sort of told me that love can be short and you need to do things

you enjoy.

And you know, this was um, this helped me get to where I am now, which has actually

been a really amazing staff and I’ve met some really good people along the way, which

is, you know, the best.

It’s like a very rewarding.

JANNINE: I’m glad you shared that about your previous job.

I was hoping you were going to weave that in here somewhere because I do think that at

the end of the day, you know, everybody’s heard like you are the sum of who you surround

yourself with, but you’re also the sum of what your purpose is in life.

And if you’re living your purpose and you feel good about it, I think there is something

to that versus grinding away in a job that you don’t love.

You’re not called to.

I think that can definitely wear on someone.

And I think that’s just a huge statement for folks

to kind of hear a little bit on that.

I’m sure you probably work in your practice

with folks on their career and career decisions and stuff too.

JAYDEN: Yeah, yeah.

The career thing is the most common thing that comes up.

It honestly is you do something for eight hours a day.

And if you hate that,

then you should consider finding your way out of it.

Now that’s easier said than done, it really is.

JANNINE: Yeah.

JAYDEN: And people have bills to pay and they have families to support.

But it’s about how can I, it’s about planning, I guess.

You need to plan your way out of that to an extent.

And it’s not going to happen overnight, but you can plan for it across a couple of years,

whether that’s a little bit of hard work.

Now, that will pay off in a few years time.

It just needs to be considered, I guess.

I have a lot of people in my clinic who hate their job and it causes them all health concerns.

I’ve had two people probably in the last three months. By the way, the way that my clinic is

set up is I work with people generally for six to 12 months and so I get to really know you and

we change everything about you and we really work. I become a big part of your life and people

really turned to me for support quite a lot, which is part of it as well.

Like your health is not just physical and the way you look.

It’s your mental and your psychological health as well.

And people turned to me for guidance in certain things.

And, you know, I try to offer the best advice I can.

But if you’re getting whipped at work and you’re coming home and you’re

miserable because of your workday, then that money is not worth it.

And if you can find a way out of that and not be bombarded by bills because you’ve taken

another job that may pay a little bit less, but you’re happier, it’s a much better thing

to consider.

And two people in my clinic just recently have left their jobs because their job was

causing them their health concerns.

They, both girls who left their work

are in a much better position now

in terms of their health.

And when you’re in a much better position

in terms of your health and you’re happier,

you start things to start to align

a little bit better overall.

And they both worked out both very well for them both.

And I know it’s easy said and done, I truly do,

but it’s something to consider.

And it’s just about planning,

planning maybe for what’s the next year gonna look like,

what’s the next five years gonna look like,

it might not happen straight away,

but it’s possible.

And it’s a big part of life,

doing things that you don’t like to do is not recommended.

JANNINE: Absolutely, absolutely.

And it’s definitely means something I deal with

in my practice as well.

Symptoms show up when you know the job is really intensifying the person’s really hating on the job

I’ve seen pain to be one of the most common ones, you know on my end of things, but yeah, it’s just it’s

It’s it’s it’s interesting when you get to know people over the course of

6 to 12 months because now you like you said, you know, and that’s why I love working with folks

I love making you know

Creating a good relationship with them because I feel like that’s where we can get to the deep stuff because first day off

you’re not going to be like, well, you got to quit your job.

JAYDEN: It’s a lot of rapport building and trust to come up with that.

And it’s never the first thing you would ever recommend.

So usually my clinic, the first thing we usually will do is look at a nutrition

plan that’s important for you.

It’s the one thing you can control.

You control what you put in your mouth.

So we’ll always look at the nutrition first.

generally start doing some testing, and it’s always a blood test. I always do that comprehensive

blood test, but whether it’s also mold, toxins, stool, organic acid test, it depends, I get you

to do a whole week of questionnaires and I have a look at them and then I can identify the best

test for you. Generally, the blood tests, the mold and toxins are almost essential. People have

have mold in their system now and it’s causing things like cancer and a whole host of issues.

And even some of the, you know, a couple of people have had lately, the parasites have

been really prominent and removing those parasites because they cause the bloating and the constipation

and then you just, the functioning of the gut

is just compromised by removing these things.

We have to remove things out of the system.

So it’s always test and treat with the nutrition first

and then we start looking at how your movement is

and I’m not trying to overwhelm you actually quite often.

A lot of people that I have in are people

who are exercising every single day

and I’m trying to say, well,

pull back a little bit, this is too much,

This is stressing your system.

And we try and find other things that they can do

in that time, because quite often it’s the habit of,

oh, I like to go to the gym.

Well, I want to go to the gym.

It’s what I do at that time.

I’m like, okay, well, let’s put in some yoga.

Let’s put in some saunas.

Can we go for a walk down the beach?

Shoes off, get some grounding on.

Get the sunlight in your eyes.

Get, go for a swim.

There are things that are a little bit more relaxing

that don’t cause stress on the system.

Again, it’s actually reducing the stress.

And then once we get the testing back,

then we can start putting up a proper plan

with what you’re missing, where the vitamins

and the minerals are, how your gut function is,

where’s the dysfunction occurring,

the blood test that comes up literally tells us

where the dysfunction is occurring,

which system it’s occurring in,

how we can then support it best.

So it’s a really methodical way of doing things,

The results are astounding. I’m truly amazed and it’s basically it’s very empowering as well

It’s like what what you put into what I recommend and suggest is what you’ll get out and the people who follow it

More clip like there’s people who are a little bit like me who are like whatever you say I’ll do a hundred percent

I’ll do and those those results that they get are incredible like actually amazing like and I’m talking very quickly as well

So it’s very empowering when you’re putting in the work and the effort

And you get these amazing results from these symptoms

You’ve been experiencing for so long and all of a sudden they’re gone and actually now you’re seeing

Like results that you’re so wanting, you know

You’ve been spending seven days in the gym an hour a day

You’ve never been able to achieve that but in six weeks you’ve achieved those results

And you can go on my Instagram have a look at that

There’s photos there of people who have achieved some really good results.

It’s all through just aligning their lifestyle.

It’s lifestyle medicine at the end of the day, what we do.

It’s not just feeding you supplements and medications.

It’s about actually, here’s you as a person, here’s your genetics, and this is how we should

treat you.

JANNINE: That’s awesome.

That’s awesome.

I mean, that is the hallmark of functional medicine and really what I want folks to be hearing,

because I think there’s a lot of myths with all functional medicine is a whole bunch of tests

and a whole bunch of supplements. That’s not what the idea is. It’s really lifestyle medicine and

helping find what works for you. So, Jayden, we’ve talked about a bunch of different things.

We went down all different pathways. You mentioned your Instagram. Of course, I’d like you to kind

kind of tell folks what’s Instagram handle,

what’s the website, where’s the best way to reach out with,

you know, and see if you guys are,

if you’re a good fit to work with some of the folks

who are listening right now, give us a scoop.

JAYDEN: Yeah, so my name’s long and funnily enough,

we were talking before this about how to say my name

and you started and you said it wrong, so.

JANNINE: Yep.

– Yep.

JAYDEN: So for that reason, my Instagram isn’t my name

because it’s too long.

So it’s JP_Functional_Medicine, JP_Functional_Medicine.

My initials JP, it’s much easier than learning my name.

And my website is jaydenpileggifunctionalmedicine.com.

So that’s the best two ways of finding me.

On my website I offer a free consultation so we can talk about absolutely anything.

You know usually book them in for 30 minutes. They always go way longer than that. I’m very

Free with my time like I like to help and support people and so if you want to consult just

top right hand corner. You can just book that and we can arrange your time to chat

If if anything if you have any questions, you know, there’s there’s my Instagram you can reach out. I’m very very

Reply always reply love to help people so

Those are the two best ways

And hopefully yes some people are wanting to improve the health and I’m here if you need it

JANNINE: Awesome. Well, thank you Jayden. I’ll make sure we get your name right, you know

I just got to keep thinking the Italian part of it

JAYDEN: Yeah. 

JANNINE: not the American version of saying it and then we’ll be good. Thanks again for coming on good work

You’re doing appreciate it. 

JAYDEN: Thank you for having me here. Thank you.  

JANNINE:  My pleasure.

[Outro] (Upbeat music) Hey fellow health junkie. Thanks for listening to the health fix podcast.

If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast.

Subscribe, rate and review and just get that word out.

Thanks again for listening.