How To Take Control of Your Health & Future with Kate Kunkel on The Healers Café with Dr. Manon Bolliger, ND

In this episode of The Healers Café, Dr. Manon Bolliger, ND, chats with Kate Kunkel who is a vegan nutritionist and health coach, I am also a vibroacoustic and harp therapist, a Reiki master, and Mindfulness practitioner. 

Highlights from today’s episode include:

Kate Kunkel (01:11):

Why I began the harp was really what led me to everything. I had a very stressful life in Hollywood and Palm Springs, California. And there was a night when I came home from one of the gazillion meetings I had to attend all the time and I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. I was working too hard and nobody cared and nobody loved me anymore. So, it was very serious. And I was driving across this wash the washes. They are very deep. And there was a bridge over there and just for a millisecond, a nanosecond, I thought I could just drive off this bridge and that would be the end of it. And of course I shook myself out of it and I went home and I thought, Ooh, you know, I really need some help here

Dr Manon (06:30):

it’s so fascinating to me how you’re describing that it’s his music played through your hands, you know, and it’s interesting. because one of the works I do is it’s a physical therapy. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Bowen but there’s set moves that one can do. And then there is a connection that changes everything. I relate to what you’re saying and that’s why I’ve been so thrilled to have an opportunity to ask you a million questions and really deeply understand that the power of, of sound, in healing that’s one piece, the other piece is the interconnectedness of sound itself. And could you speak a little bit about that?

Dr Manon (46:30):

Well, for me, it’s a choice, who’s to government to tell us what goes in our bodies ,doesn’t make sense to me on any level. It just does not.

About Kate Kunkel:

My journey has been filled with twists and turns, something I think most of us can relate to. I started out in the legal profession, then moved to writing and into the television and movie industries.  It was fun and exciting, but … fulfilling? Not really.

In 1992, I had a life-changing experience and was given a dream in which I played a harp. It was then, finally, that I began to hone in on my life’s purpose.  I began working with the harp as a healing instrument, then learned about vibroacoustic therapy.

As a result, for the last nearly three decades, I have nurtured the gift of music, with my harp and sound therapy, and shared its power through programs and coaching.  During this time, I also became a Reiki master, and integrated Reiki with my sound and harp therapy work.

When my Mom was diagnosed with dementia ten years ago, a whole new dimension was added to my life, and I began to research and study this terrible disease.

What I learned spurred me to become vegan and to institute serious lifestyle changes that helped me regain my own memory AND in the process become much healthier (and happier!)

Because I felt so awesome, and had so much more energy, I decided to study formally, and became a vegan nutritionist and health coach so that I could help others protect their own brains.

The lifestyle changes that I instituted to protect my own brain in response to my Mom’s diagnosis became a program that I now share with clients who are also concerned about brain health. I also share that information in my blog and in the book that is being released this summer of 2020.

My mission is simple: To share all that I have learned about protecting the brain and the power of music and words to inspire and heal with anyone who is called to work on their own health and happiness.

I offer you what I have learned to empower YOU to take the steps that YOU need to take to be all that you can, and should, be.

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About Dr. Manon Bolliger, ND:

Dr. Manon is a Naturopathic Doctor, the Founder of Bowen College, an International Speaker with an upcoming TEDx talk in May 2020, and the author of the Amazon best-selling book “What Patient’s Don’t Say if Doctors Don’t Ask.” Watch for her next book, due out in 2020.

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About The Healers Café:

Dr. Manon’s show is the #1 show for medical practitioners and holistic healers to have heart to heart conversations about their day to day lives.

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TRANSCRIPT

Dr Manon (00:02):

So welcome to the Healers Cafe. And today I have with me Kate Kunkel, and she is a vegan nutritionist, health coach, and also a harp therapist, a Reiki master, and a mindfulness practitioner. And her focus is really helping people with to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s with music mind and matter. And I’m really excited, especially about the harp…..so somewhere in there we’re going to take a music break I want to focus on the music piece and that may not be where your journey started. So how did you decide to help people? Where did that start in your life protocol?

Kate Kunkel (01:11):

Why I began the harp was really what led me to everything. I had a very stressful life in Hollywood and Palm Springs, California. And there was a night when I came home from one of the gazillion meetings I had to attend all the time and I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. I was working too hard and nobody cared and nobody loved me anymore. So, it was very serious. And I was driving across this wash the washes. They are very deep. And there was a bridge over there and just for a millisecond, a nanosecond, I thought I could just drive off this bridge and that would be the end of it. And of course I shook myself out of it and I went home and I thought, Ooh, you know, I really need some help here.

Kate Kunkel (02:08):

So I cried myself to sleep, but as I was crying myself to sleep, I put my energy out there and said, if there’s anybody out there, please, I need some help. I’m really not very happy. And I know this isn’t what I’m supposed to do with my life, went to sleep. And while I was sleeping that night, I had this dream and this dream, I was playing harp. I’d never seen a harp in my life in person, only on television, Harpo, Marx and old movies, but I was playing his harp and it was, my heart was full. And my, my soul was at peace in the dream. When I woke up, I said to my husband, okay, I got to get a harp, bless his dear heart. He said, Okay.

Kate Kunkel (03:02):

We found a harp. It took a little while to find one that was reasonably priced. because I didn’t know about these harps back then everybody thinks of the harps, the big fancy ones with the gilding and everything. And that’s what

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And that’s what, that is what I did play in the dream. But it took a while and I found it one year later after we got my hands on that first little harp, we closed our business, shut everything down in California and moved to Las Vegas. And the year after that, we began playing as a harp and guitar duo in the Excalibur hotel, which was quite the thing at the time. And I was so lucky. I got to play some amazing gigs. One of which was an engagement party. And this is where the whole healing thing comes in at this engagement party. This couple sat and watched me the whole night and the man’s name was Steve.

Kate Kunkel (04:00):

And they loved all the old music. Then about six months later, I get a call from the lady whose engagement party we played for. She said, do you remember that couple…….of course it turned out Steve was very sick with cancer and there was nothing anybody could do. It was no treatment, but his wife said to him, what can I do for you? And she said, he said, I’d love to hear that little girl on the harp again. So of course that was me. So I schlepped all the way from the North of Las Vegas, all the way up to Henderson after work. And I get there to the house and the whole family’s they’re waiting, he’s on his bed, in the living room. And I went in and i played for him and something miraculous happened. He, his energy somehow came into me and we played the harp together. I always say it’s like, it was his music. My hands were just the vehicle and that, wow. He passed away while I was playing. And when he was gone, I always get choked up because it was such an incredible experience when he was gone, the music left, it was gone. No more of that. Music came from my fingers. So I just played something like amazing grace or something. I don’t even remember. It was for the family. And then I left and I sat in my car and cried for a long time. And that was the beginning of the healing work because I figured, well, there has to be something there. That’s the reason I was given that dream. That’s the reason I played for that party. That’s when everything came that I was supposed to use that gift of the harp for healing and everything. Since then, everything has come because of that.

Kate Kunkel (06:12):

That’s the story.

Kate Kunkel (06:14):

Goodness. And you know, I always feel like if I, if I go away from it and I did for a few years, I did other things. I hosted a TV show. I did some other things, but whenever I go away from it, my heart is empty. My heart feels empty.

Dr Manon (06:30):

it’s so fascinating to me how you’re describing that it’s his music played through your hands, you know, and it’s interesting. because one of the works I do is it’s a physical therapy. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Bowen but there’s set moves that one can do. And then there is a connection that changes everything. I relate to what you’re saying and that’s why I’ve been so thrilled to have an opportunity to ask you a million questions and really deeply understand that the power of, of sound, in healing that’s one piece, the other piece is the interconnectedness of sound itself. And could you speak a little bit about that?

Kate Kunkel (07:36):

Well, I really feel because everything’s vibrating all the time. Yes. We’re all vibrating. this mic, everything is vibrating and that frequency connects all of us all the time. Yes. And if we, if we interject a tone, even a tuning fork, the one this note down here, I mean that you can feel that you can hear it where we are thousands of miles apart, but that’s traveling, it’s even outside of the microphone, it’s traveling, right. It’s out there in the universe. And so I really feel that every time you express and it works with words too. Whatever we express that found that frequency, it’s all going to connect and we are connected. I think that is the, to me, anyway, it’s the easiest way for me to connect with energy. When I do Reiki work, I have to have my music and I usually start my Reiki sessions with a little harp music just to get the client and myself in that beautiful healing zone. And that’s the beginning of it because that sets everything up that vibration of healing and connectedness because yeah, we’re all just vibrating at whatever…….. that’s what vibroacoustic therapy is all about, is getting into that nice wave together.

Dr Manon (09:02):

.So can you share again, no names, nothing like that, but Stories of what you’ve seen possible with people that you’ve been able to help?

Speaker 2 (09:16):

Sure. there’ve been a couple,… the first one shortly after my experience with Steve I started really examining what the harp could do for many things. And I learned that this doctor Ron price, who was a professor of music he had had, severe Parkinson’s and he was not able to play his trumpet anymore. He was like, first it was the walk, the gate was problematic. And then, you know, other things, you know declines and it got to be, so he couldn’t play trumpet anymore. That was his, his instrument. So somebody suggested to him, why don’t you take up the harp? I hear that it, it helps. And he did. And he reversed his symptoms to a large extent. So I read about him. And one of the people we worked with at Excalibur, his wife had MS. And she was very young. at the time, she was probably only about 42, 43, and she was already in a wheelchair and she was not able to write her name even anymore. So as an experiment, I said to her husband, let’s get her a little harp that we can put in the wheelchair. She can hold it in the wheelchair and see if we can’t work to reverse it. If it worked for Dr. Price, surely to goodness, it can work for other people. So we did that twice a week, I’d go over to their house. And at first, all I was doing was basically guiding her hand on like just to do glisses kind of on the harp. And, but I’d always get it right against your body because it’s all about the vibration. Yeah. So you want to have that frequency, that vibration.

Kate Kunkel (10:56):

So we did that and pretty soon I could get her to pluck with one finger and then we could get to do two fingers. And then I was able to get her to do two hands with one finger. And eventually she was able to type again, that was, that was kind of our goal was so that she could write because she was a writer so she could write again. And so we worked and we worked in, we worked in God, so that now they only had, he only had one contract with us at Excalibur, which was only six months. So I only got to work for, with her for about five months, but I truly believe, and I know they took the harp with them. I don’t know what happened after that, but in that time from not even being able to write her hand, she was able to pick out simple little tunes and she could type again on the computer so she could regain some creativity and express herself again, which was really pretty cool. And it was a great way to start my in the healing power of music.

Dr Manon (11:56):

I’ve had some experience with it too, which is why…. Not anything professional whatsoever? I just, when I was diagnosed with stage four cancer, I found I did complimentary things because I chose not to do hysterectomy or chemotherapy or anything invasive. And I did a lot of internal work, but something that came to me absolutely naturally, I just couldn’t help it. But for the first 48 hours after getting the actual diagnosis, because I didn’t know something was wrong, you know, I couldn’t tell there was anything actually wrong. And what I did is I hummed, I vibrated and I just could not helpIt…… Was like waves of humming frequencies right. Through my entire body. And it’s funny because I I’ve seldom told that story.

Dr Manon (13:05):

I didn’t think about it until, I mean now, I had other things I was doing as well, but without any training in it and I, you know, I played a little bit music, but I have a hard I don’t, I can’t repeat. I’ve been told, Oh, don’t sing you can’t follow a melody, you know, which is possibly true. I can’t hear it that way, but I can sing my own songs. I create my own things. because then It’s coming straight from me. So I realized that it has such deep healing, you know, to be able to, to allow your body to fully vibrate, you know? do you have anything more to explain that phenomenon,

Kate Kunkel (14:04):

It’s right back at the frequencies, right. You intuitively knew obviously what kind of frequency your body needed because I’m sure you know about Royal Raymond rife. Do you know of him with the cancer?

Dr Manon (14:18):

No, I haven’t done any research on that. So please educate us.

Kate Kunkel (14:24):

Well, so Royal Raymond rife was back in the thirties, he used frequencies to actually ………..get, I hate to use the word explode, but to disintegrate, I guess there’s another word. Although the stuff was still there, cancer cells and it was really quite miraculous. He used this special machine and I think they used bars at the time that they held a little bit of R I F E, right? Yes. Okay, So they used those and, and it would actually disintegrate the cancer cells or reassemble them or something. Anyway, you weren’t, you didn’t have a problem anymore. So I think my guess and my intuitive feeling is that probably that’s what you were doing on a deeply personal level because whatever frequency you needed, thank goodness. You were able to tap into that, just knowing, just feeling and doing that and whatever else you were doing that would only magnify it. Yeah. So if you were doing like nutrition, if you were cutting out all animal products or whatever it is you were doing in terms of nutrition, cutting out sugar, because of course that’s a huge cancer feeder. Whatever else you do by adding the frequency, you’re just like magnifying the good that you’re doing otherwise.

Dr Manon (15:47):

I was at that time, you know, a licensed naturopathic doctor. Right. You know, so I already knew all kinds of things that are helpful and the ones I chose were helping me homeopathy because it made a lot of intuitive sense to me. And I had also seen lots of results in my own practice. And the other thing I did Bowen therapy receiving treatments, you know, and what I have noticed though, those are the main two things other than internal, which is not to be diminished looking at what were my stressors in my life, of course. because that has to be a thing. But, my operational connection has been really big. And when I teach now students how to do this work, I didn’t realize until quite recently that not everyone hears frequencies.

Dr Manon (16:51):

I thought, Oh my gosh, it’s a gift because when I touch a body, I can hear feel them. I don’t know what else to say. So sometimes colour. when you gave that example of your hands being taken over, it’s funny, I’ve not had an opportunity to really discuss this before. So when I read, you know, your……… What you’re talking about, I thought, Oh my goodness, I can ask so many questions. So when you do homeopathy, when you offer that, it is a frequency frequency of the stress………. You’re matching.

Dr Manon (17:50):

The, whole person picture to a remedy that is similar so that the body mounts a reaction. Right. And then it goes back into order, but it is a frequency that goes through water. Right. And through our fascia, through interstitial fluid, through all of that. So we are so much water, so of course that’s our communication system. And I imagine that same thing with vibration it’s in that, that it plays, the frequency must be playing at that level. You know, that’s all I can feel, you know, but I’ve not, I’ve not pursued any deeper knowledge on this or deeper understanding.

Kate Kunkel (18:39):

I can offer from, from my work as a vibroacoustic therapist and a vibroacoustic Harp therapist, So as, as I play for people………….I love………. I’ll go right to the heart VibrAcoustic. So what I do is I put people on a bed that has four transducers in it, and the transducers conduct the sound from either my harp or recorded frequencies. I prefer using the harp because then I can monitor the client and see how they’re responding, and then I can adjust the music accordingly. But it’s really interesting to see how those frequencies………..we work in the lower frequencies, 30 to 120 Hertz when we’re working in those little frequencies, that’s setting up a resonance. And because you mentioned about water, then that’s what it’s sending it through. Yeah. I think about dropping a pebble into a pond and those, those waves go out the same with sound with a sound wave.

Kate Kunkel (19:36):

It does the same thing. It goes into the water of our body and all the cells. And it expands. And even if the transducers just say hitting behind the back of the leg, that frequency goes through and, and I can tell from the client and they in their feedback, okay, do we need more? Do we need less? Do we need a lower note? Can we put something higher? And it’s all in it all feeds back in frequencys. Everything is about what is making them feel comfortable, what is making them? And sometimes it’s a twinge or it’s something that sets off a little bit of a pain or whatever. And that’s because we know we’ve hit what we need to hit.

Dr Manon (20:15):

So is there is there any that you’re aware of? I mean, again, research usually comes much later to me. Practice is if you see it over and over again, you start to understand that the work works. But is there any any research that you’ve come across that might explain this phenomenon

Kate Kunkel (20:44):

Well, there’s a lot of research on vibroacoustic therapy. I do know that because I teach a course in that,Dr Lee Bartel from Toronto Canada who works with Willfrid Laurier, and they’ve done work on alzimmers and vibroacoustic therapy. So they’re using 40 Hertz and the client is actually on the bed. Now they add music usually as well, because it helps an Alzheimer’s patient relax, you know the familiar music, but then it also has just the vibroacoustic and they’ve found that they’ve been able to reverse, which is a very cool thing, reverse some of the symptoms Alzheimer’s. So the agitation they’ve been able to improve memory, you know, cognition just with 40 Hertz vibration. I mean, that’s incredible why that works.

Kate Kunkel (21:47):

I haven’t seen anything that tells me why lots of research on that at work pain reduction lots of pain reduction, fibromyalgia responds very well to it. I think because of the emotional component with, with the music and the vibration, I think that’s a big deal for fibromyalgia, but yeah, there are many places that it works, why it works. We’re kind of just watching, you know, because it’s not something you can do a double blind placebo effect, you know, to replicate that exact situation. It’s really hard to know what it is that the causality, I guess, is what we’re struggling with.

Dr Manon (22:28):

it is difficult sometimes to find out how to do the research on this, in what I do as well with Bowen therapy, I mean the results are there, but really it’s very hard to figure out how to run the research, to include all the factors that are in the interplay to be able to make any statements. So I was curious about this. But if you after our interview, if you have a few what do you call it references then I’ll definitely add it below for people who are listening to this and are fascinated and maybe want to know a bit more, or also your own course, you know, you can give us a link for people, that feel that this speaks to them, I think it’s, it’s fascinating. So go on.

Kate Kunkel (23:25):

To me sound what the does to us, I have to…….maybe your listeners would be interested in this. What, kind of a reaction do you have when there’s a terrible noise? Like a leaf blower ….. or ……”they’re my worst” or a car beside you when you’re at the light. And there’s like, like a they don’t call it rap anymore. What are they call it? Hip hop. And that, that deep bass is going to boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Think of what that does to you. How does that make you feel when you just think about that, then you have to think, okay, what’s the opposite. So if you feel that negative that maybe anxious and you might not even know why you’re feeling anxious, but then if you stop and you listen and you go, Oh, that’s, what’s making me feel anxious and maybe a little bit angry and then you can think about, okay, how do I counteract that? That’s a big thing that I recommend to people because our bodies were vibrating all the time. So we are so susceptible to whatever is causing dissonance.

Dr Manon (24:38):

I think it’s that dissonance. And then I don’t know that it’s the same for everyone. I mean the leaf blower, maybe, you know…………. Some music irritates me to no end and I’m very sensitive. So there’s some that I just can’t, I cannot be around or the quality of even like the mix or music played out of a radio tin box. That’s not high quality. it doesn’t matter if it’s classical music or, you know, hip hop or whatever. It doesn’t matter. I can’t stand it ,just irks me so profoundly.

Kate Kunkel (25:22):

your obviously very sensitive to the frequency.

Dr Manon (25:25):

Exactly. And I think it’s true that we don’t always appreciate that. You know, some people have television in the house constantly and, and you think about what impact that would have on the children who didn’t choose it, you know, who are brought up with a constant level of noise and frequency interference, if you look at sound, it’s very, I think it’s a huge part of us that we don’t fully acknowledge all the time.

Kate Kunkel (25:58):

For. Alzheimer’s cause that’s really what I’m focusing my work on nowadays, especially with my mom just passed away with dementia December 29th. And she’s the reason I went in this direction, working with Alzheimer’s and dementia, but one of the big factors that can contribute to the likelihood of you developing adult dementia is your Sonic background. People who live near freeways. Now there are two things going on there, there’s the toxins toxins from the fumes, but there’s also the sound because there is research and I have ton of research about that and it can affect the mind over time, how it can affect the body and that affects it causes inflammation, it causes all kinds of things. So that is a huge contributor and people don’t even, it’s one of the last things people think about when they think about brain health, but the frequencies of sounds that we’re surrounded by can really trigger, you know, horrible condition. It’s just one of those things that would be relatively easy to fix if you knew that it was a factor.

Dr Manon (27:16):

And what about white noise and or I know we had once a light bulb and I could just feel it…….., Can you speak to that a little bit like that

Kate Kunkel (27:36):

It’s partly noise, but that’s also the EMF. Yes.That is a huge thing. Especially if they’re those fluorescent, you know, those really bad, not good. I can’t be around them. I cannot have them.

Kate Kunkel (27:52):

in my home. I can’t have them at all. I just gives me a Blinding headache to have them. Yeah. LEDs aren’t that much better, but they are better. So it’s more the EMF, I think, but it’s also sending a frequency, electromagnetic frequency. That’s…… And that is another thing that can affect. And they actually have done research on using red infrared light foreign to red and infrared light to treat Alzheimer’s and they have a blue light. They have a helmet kind of thing that sends 30 or 40 Hertz in the ears, the found the like a frequency tone and the blue light going up the nostril. So it gets through, into the brain, those frequencies together work to actually reverse the effects. Some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s that’s a guy in Toronto doing that.

Dr Manon (28:53):

I think, you know, my goal here is to interview people doing also things that people may not know about and, you know, get to meet meet you and have discussions. And also if there’s anything else they can follow up on….. The name of the person you mentioned was it Lee Bartel .

Kate Kunkel (29:22):

So much research on all of these things. And it’s so sad that when you hear people talk, like if you, if you went to the doctor with your mom or your dad or your grandpa, and they were given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia, and you would say, what can I do? Well, we can give you this pill, but I’ll only do, it’ll slow things down a bit. They’re very seldom told that there are other ways of dealing with this, that you can actually reverse this. So especially if you catch it early and a lot of people are afraid to go because they don’t want to lose their license, or they don’t want to, you know, there’s a stigma attached, but if, if we go early enough and we catch it while all the things that I talk about preventing dementia also helps reverse it. So whether it’s blue light therapy, vibroacoustic therapy, whether it’s a whole foods, plant based diet, exercise, sleep, all of those things together, they can all help us, you know, and, and sound is a huge, huge part of that. Music is huge dancing. Oh my gosh, dancing is one of the best things you can do for your health generally, but for your brain, it’s really good. You know why? Because we’re doing complicated steps, right. That puts a different part of our brain into gear.

Dr Manon (30:44):

Yeah. Well, it’s like learning a new language except it’s with your body

Kate Kunkel (30:49):

Learning language is a good thing, too. Learning to play an instrument, learning to play an instrument, Dancing learning a new language. All of those things are amazing for helping prevent prevent dementia, but also to help slow it down after there’s any kind of a diagnosis.

Dr Manon (31:08):

I was going to ask you a little bit now about……. You’re a vegan yourself and and how long have you been and what have you seen as helpful or is that part of what you recommend people to a diet you recommend they follow?

Kate Kunkel (31:30):

Especially for anything that has to do with inflammation because I was a vegan when in 1989, I went vegan. Back then we didn’t have the access to the information we have now. And I became a very sick vegan because I did not know how to, you know, where all the nutrients were coming from. And back then it was even in California where I was living at the time, it was difficult to find places where you could get anything other than a salad and a baked potato. Well, that doesn’t give you the nutrients you need. And I was working basically 16 hours a day, seven days a week. So I got really, really sick. So I had to go back and I became more vegetarian. And I realized over the years that cheese was not, my friend cheese is not good.

Kate Kunkel (32:19):

And now that I’ve done so much research in the last 10 years, since my mom was diagnosed, I realized that it was probably one of the worst things you can eat for inflammation and for diabetes, oddly enough. And of course, diabetes is one of the, the huge impacts that a huge risk factors for developing dementia and Alzheimer’s so, yes, vegan, because whole foods and as much organic as you can, because there’s so much bad stuff in the sprays and everything, we know that it’s carcinogenic and all those things. So I recommend if possible, and I know it’s not possible all the time, because personally it’s hard to find everywhere even here in Ecuador, I live where there’s ample produce everywhere, but it’s a little bit of a challenge to get organic all the time. So I know I’m just building a garden, so I’m going to grow my own, but the ants like it too.

Kate Kunkel (33:16):

But yes, absolutely a vegan diet is highly recommended for Alzheimer’s and also to cut out grains, things that cause anything that causes inflammation. So a lot of grains, and I don’t know whether that’s because so many of them are GMO or glyphosate or whether it’s just the grain itself, but, and I’ve read enough research and learned enough about it, that I try to stay away from it myself completely. But I recommended also to my clients what has it done for me, man? I’m 62 years old. I have more energy and stamina now than I did when I was 40. Absolutely. I was 32 when I became a vegan the first time. And I switched to vegetarianism a few years ago and then two years ago I became strictly vegan. Again. I could just see that all of these other things weren’t working and here we are an Ecuador on the coast where there’s seafood everywhere, it wasn’t working either.

Kate Kunkel (34:19):

I just couldn’t do it plus the animal rights…….. You know, I can’t handle that whole thing. So I just I feel amazing, really good. And I sleep better. I’m like, my husband is only five years older than me and I tease him. He’s like, he’s 20 years older because he, you know, I just go, I love it. I’m happy. I, I exercise a lot. So that’s another big thing though with it. I swim every day for at least 45 minutes. And I walk, we have a little rescue puppy here that I’ve had to walk and it’s good. It’s good because I get on the beach twice a day and I want the puppy. So exercise and a vegan diet.

Dr Manon (35:04):

So what were the the main mistakes that you made at that time? because It was not well known.

Speaker 2 (35:13):

So a lot of bread now that I know what I know that was not a good thing. And pasta, because then I could put oil on it, you know, and I would put some Basil and tomatoes, and, but there were basically no nutrients like, except for the basil and then tomatoes there, wasn’t a whole lot of nutrition there. So I think the wheat, all of the grains. And I didn’t, I didn’t know about mixing how to mix the beans and the rice and everything. And I really didn’t know anything about legumes. I knew nothing about them. I didn’t know how to cook them. I, you know, once in a while I put chickpeas on a salad. So you really have to think when you go this way, you really have to be conscious of what vitamins you’re getting.

Dr Manon (36:00):

And B12 is difficult when you’re vegan. So you do need to supplement some things. You need omega 3 and you need some B12. Otherwise you’re going to run, run out a little bit. So I do do those supplements. But other than that, it’s just a, it’s really conscious of protein is an issue. People say, Oh, where do you get your protein as a vegan, but there’s protein and all kinds of stuff. You know, like leafy greens, lots of fruits and vegetables of all kinds, white potatoes, not so much, but it’s not going to kill you more colour the better. Right. I just tell people, make it colourful, make it purple and orange and, you know, whatever colours you can get in there.

Dr Manon (36:46):

I think those are all good points. What happens. So if people can’t do Legumes because there’s a lot of people who cannot because it causes inflammation. Nerve damage in quite a few people. So what do you then recommend? I realize that obviously other things have protein, but what would you substitute or have you come up with anything?

Kate Kunkel (37:13):

Unfortunately, well, fortunately I haven’t run into any of my clients that have that problem. We’ve been able to work through it, but I would imagine that you just have to really double up, but again, you’ve got problems with calories because you still need enough calories, If you’re not getting them from, from beans and lentils and those sorts of things, it’s going to be hard to get enough calories, you know, I’d have to, I would have to think about that. I would have to sit down and really do some research because I just haven’t had that come up in my practice. But if I figure something out, I’ll be sure to let you know. Okay. Sounds like a plan.

Dr Manon (37:54):

One more question, this is completely different. How is this whole COVID situation in Ecuador?

Kate Kunkel (38:05):

Oh boy, what’s happening there. So they tried to take a very proactive stance because it’s a poor country. This is not a wealthy country by any stretch of the imagination. And they simply do not have the resources to look after a lot of sick people.unfortunately somebody came in from Spain, returning Ecuadorian and she was infected. And that just started the whole thing in Waikiki, which is the biggest city. And a lot of people were hearing stories about bodies on the streets and stuff. So in that big city, it was a bit of a problem because they also did a big lockdown, right off the, off the bat. So there were cars you’re only allowed to drive one day a week, according to your license plate, we had a curfew from 2:00 PM to 5:00 AM. No restaurants, nothing like that open the only thing that was really open grocery stores and some of the markets. So in places where there weren’t regular stores, they allowed the metacarpals to open.

Dr Manon (39:18):

It was a real hardship. And we have a lot of very hungry people here now because of it, because they have not been able to work when they make, you know, they would be out on the street, they sell shoe laces or whatever, and they make their 10 or $15 a day. Well, they couldn’t do that. So we have a lot of hungry people. So I’m actually working with a lady here, an Ecuadorian lady that we’ve been raising money and helping to feed some of the people in our neck of the woods. But it’s difficult, and a lot of the country is still in a form of lockdown. Our pure curfew is only lifted till 6:00 PM from 6:00 PM to 5:00 AM. So it’s still hard to get things done. And most of the restaurants aren’t open, and I own a retreat centre here.

Kate Kunkel (40:02):

So I got to tell you, this is really hard for business because we have nobody traveling and tourism is a big part of Ecuador’s business, right? So it’s going to take a while to recover, but I have great faith in my new countrymen, and I know that they are resilient and we will get through this together.

Dr Manon (40:21):

And what role do you feel like that health and good immunity plays in this……..

Kate Kunkel (40:29):

Immune system is everything I get annoyed when i hear people keep saying, Oh, we’ve got to have a vaccine. We’ve gotta have a vaccine. Like, no, you have to look after your immune system, you know, eat good food, get fresh air exercise, do some mindfulness techniques, stress reduction. Those are the things that will boost your immune system. And I think that having people locked up and people eating, sitting on the couch, eating all day is not gonna help. You know anything that builds your immune system is going to help against this and make people, I mean, we know that a lot of the people who have succumbed to it were overweight, diabetic had some kind of lung issues or of course we’re aged but that tells you pretty well what we have to do to fix it.

Dr Manon (41:28):

so is the health of the general population Of Ecuador good? Or have they succumbed to the, you know, American ways junk food everywhere? Like what is it like for people?

Kate Kunkel (41:45):

Well, when you’re in the Sierras, when you’re in the Highlands, the, the health is much better. They are not so junk food addicted here on the coast. It’s a bit of a problem because it’s a lot of tourism and it’s a lot of, there are a lot of expats living here, a lot of immigrants from North America and Europe. So with all of that has come Coca-Cola and Kentucky fried chicken, and the Ecuadorian people love Kentucky fried chicken. It was the only stand left, opened in the mall where people could get takeout. So it is an issue. And diabetes is becoming a real issue here. It never was before, but it is now, but the staple diet of most Ecuadorians is rice and beans and lots of vegetables. So until this nonsense with the North Americanization of the food system happened, they were much healthier. And the rate of Alzheimer’s here very low, like it’s like 140 seventh in the world because of the diet. But, that’s not gonna stay that way because the diet is changing just like so many other indigenous areas. Our colonialization has not done them any favours.

New Speaker (43:06):

and how much trust do people have in this vaccine solution

Dr Manon (43:12):

Here? Well, it depends on whether you’re talking to Americans or whether you’re talking to Ecuadoreans Ecuador, the Ecuador Americans are just waiting for that Batman magic vaccine. The Ecuadorians are pretty suspicious. They’re kind of suspicious of government initiatives generally, because like so many South American countries there, it has a history of being taken over. And Ecuador has been relatively nonviolent. That’s why we chose to live here because it hasn’t had a history of violence, but it does have a history of corruption. You know, you get all the jokes about it, but it’s true. And so the Ecuadorian people don’t have a lot of faith in things that come on high from on high. So that might be a good thing because they will when a bridge washes out in the mountain, it’s the people who build it up again. It’s not the government. Right. You know, people do their ropes in there and they fix it. So that tells you just about all you need to know.

Dr Manon (44:17):

It’s a very graphic reflection, but it’s interesting because I live in Canada and there’s, it’s mixed, and in the States also mixed. I mean, there are people, you know, looking at it, of course, I’m going now this, you know, especially if the vaccine has a retrovirus in it, they worked on it for 30 years. How come now they’re going to find the magic solution in just in time,I think people are waking up to questioning, what the status quo is. So it’s a time for huge potential change as well an opportunity for more people to question things, but we’re definitely not in a culture that has a lot of critical thinking or that questions, things. And, many of my European friends who, especially if they’ve been in areas that are that they’re used to government control, or they came from Russia or they came from China or Polish friends, they’ve, experienced something before, like the,re a little more, you know, cautious or conscious and ask more questions so that’s why I was curious.

Kate Kunkel (45:47):

It’s my dad, my dad is German. He was born in Germany. And my grandmother who has been gone many years now, but she always said to my cousins and I” you watch Katie you watch”, they come back and they will be the same. She was so adamant that what had happened when she was a young woman would happen again. And she was absolutely distrustful of any kind of politician or government control of anything. So I grew up with that. So I guess that’s why I’m so much the way I am, because I just, I figure we know best for us.

Dr Manon (46:30):

Well, for me, it’s a choice, who’s to government to tell us what goes in our bodies ,doesn’t make sense to me on any level. It just does not.

Dr Manon (46:49):

I think maybe……. And you probably …….because you do come North America that this idea of this control that they’re talking about so much, do you think it’s helping with those of us who do alternative therapies? because I’m getting a lot more people contacting me now about stuff about even taking the training for the sound therapy, because they are getting more suspicious, I guess, of the status quo. Do you, do you find that?

Dr Manon (47:20):

I feel that that is what’s happening and not in, like now I have closed my practice, but I run Bowen college. So I teach a hands on therapy, which is the one thing in our social distancing that we can’t do. So I don’t know, don’t ask me how they’re doing, I’m in touch somewhat regularly. And it’s very frustrating because, you know, if you know that something can help and we’re actually not allowed to say…………….immune system, we’re not allowed to say anything that could help COVID-19 right. So even if we have 30 years plus experience helping people’s immune system, we literally have a gag order. So it’s very interesting this situation, but I think what it is doing is making people go, well, why or why is it not in the open?

Dr Manon (48:21):

Why can’t we talk? And who knows? I mean, this show could get put down too because I ask questions, you know, so, but Hey at some level we have to have conversations, otherwise it’s like, and I don’t know the answers of all things, but I can share how I came to have my vision of things just as you have. And I think we need to, to wake people up to just share it. I mean, we are not responsible for them or people seeing this, but the right time, the right place, it may make somebody wonder, maybe there’s another solution.

Kate Kunkel (49:03):

They don’t have any, any exposure to it. They don’t even have the chance to make that decision.

Dr Manon (49:08):

Exactly and some people find their path, but we can accelerate it. And I think this in some weird ways has accelerated it,

Kate Kunkel (49:18):

I’m really getting a lot more people interested in even talking about the, the Alzheimer’s they’re like, okay, so maybe there is something besides Aricept, possibly this is weird. We’re a will over our time, but it was been so lovely having this conversation. Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate your time

Dr Manon (49:47):

And everything you have to share. And then definitely send us links and information that we can also place when this goes live.

Speaker 2 (49:57):

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity.

 

 

Thank you for joining us. For more information, go to DrManonBolliger.com.