The Longevity Formula

How to Integrate 10,000 Years of Herbal Wisdom into Your Daily Life

• Dr. Brandon Crawford • Season 1 • Episode 29

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This episode of The Longevity Formula focuses on integrating ancient Eastern practices, specifically those rooted in Korean and Chinese medicine, with modern Western approaches to beauty, wellness, and longevity. The conversation with Dr. Janelle Kim delves into her background as a ninth-generation herbologist, her family lineage, and how she bridges traditional herbal wisdom with contemporary science to create transformative products and practices.

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"Myung Sung: The Korean Art of Living Meditation" by Dr. Janelle Kim

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For more information, resources, and podcast episodes, visit https://tinyurl.com/3ppwdfpm

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Herbal medicine, the nature of herbology, is not just knowing each individual ingredient, but also knowing how ingredients synergistically work together.

In Chinese medicine, we call it dui yao. It's how two ingredients or more come together and can actually even change functions of the ingredient. For example, ginseng is one that I get, so good for rebalancing basically the entire body, increasing vitality and energy, helping to balance, you know, the hormonal system.

Ginseng, while almost always it'll be known to increase your energy, especially Korean red ginseng, because it is so powerful at bringing up your energy. But a proper herbologist and doctor knows what to combine ginseng with

in such a way that it can actually be calming and help you to go to sleep.

Voice Over: Welcome to the longevity formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of wellness. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hey everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. We're going to have a very enlightening conversation today. Today we have Dr. Janelle Kim. Dr. Kim is, is very intriguing to me. And, and I know that everyone's going to fall in love with her.

So what I, what I want to do is actually read her bio, like read this right up because it's, it's so intriguing and, and there's so much information in here. I really want the readers or not the readers, the listeners to understand who this person is. So if you don't mind, Dr. Kim, I want to read through this so everyone can get to know you a little bit better and then we'll start talking.

So Dr. Janelle Kim is a ninth generation master. Herbologist and renowned expert in the beauty and wellness industry with over 20 years of experience. Dr. Kim has made significant contributions to the integration of ancient East Asian herbal wisdom with modern Western beauty science, creating transformative products that enhance natural beauty and promote holistic wellbeing.

Nationally board certified in herbology, oriental medicine, and acupuncture. Dr. Kim has received extensive training in East Asia under some of the most esteemed doctors in the field. She is the custodian of her lineages proprietary formulas, which are central to her innovative beauty product formulations.

These all natural luxury products have been embraced by high end spas around the world, including the Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental, and are available in prestigious retailers, such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as natural market places like Whole Foods and Sprouts.

In January 22, Dr. Kim published her debut book, Myung Sung, the Korean Art of Living Meditation, which I have and am reading right now. It's fantastic. With Watkins, Penguin, Random House, the book, which has been translated into more than 10 languages, is available in over 20 countries, offers insights into achieving balance and happiness through a unique approach that combines meditation, movement, and natural medicine.

This work reflects her deep knowledge of Eastern philosophy and martial arts and emphasizes the importance of integrating living meditation into daily routines to achieve harmony between mind and body. Dr. Kim, that's amazing, right? I mean, this is awesome. Well, so how in the world did you get to this place?

What brought you here? What's your story? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Well, ultimately what brought me here, and I can accept what you are saying to me right now with much gratitude, because ultimately I'm just a vessel and a continuation of my ancestors who came before me. You know, I always root myself in the understanding and the acknowledgement, the reflection, all of the things in the fact that I do come from a lineage.

I'm actually the first woman in my lineage to be the custodian of these formulas and these practices. Which ultimately I call tools to help us balance with every aspect of life because let's face it, we all need it. You know, I know that I travel around the world and I speak on this and teach as much as I possibly can outside of the manufacturing and the formulations, which I know you mentioned, but you know, at the end of the day, I too am so grateful because.

Without these tools, you know, I know that my life would be much different. So, 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right. Absolutely. And if you don't mind, can you kind of elaborate? It's really intriguing to me about the family lineage. So there's a long history here. Do you, do you mind giving us a little bit of insight? No, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: absolutely. Now I'm a doctor.

So my, my lineage, my actual family is from Korea. My father was from Korea. My mother's American blonde hair, brown eyes. So I always want to acknowledge that as well. I say that I, hopefully I exemplify just very, you know, black in a very black and white way, East, West, old and new, right. Just by the nature of being alive on this earth.

But that part of my lineage. Stems back to Chinese medicine, hence why I'm a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Korean medicine is known to kind of take that herbal medicine, those, that principle, that understanding and advance it in many ways. So that's where we kind of go way back in history.

But for those who do not know this, and this could be a whole podcast in and of itself, so I won't go into too much detail, but you know, Eastern medicine as we know it, or traditional Oriental medicine, Chinese medicine, Korean medicine, it all goes back 10, 000 years, you know, so now this is when you start going back that far.

I mean, I always like to, no matter what I do, when, when this does come up for everyone to take a moment to just think about the fact of how long ago that was and how the medicine has existed for that long. And so, yes, throughout time, it's, it's kind of moved forward, ultimately was rooted way back when, which is one of my favorite aspects of the medicine, in looking at nature and the universe around us, seeing how everything works.

Again, this is seriously in a walnut and in a nutshell saying it in this manner, but then, you know, the ancient doctors, that's how they looked at the world. And then they started to think, how does it affect us? And so that's one of my favorite parts, as I just mentioned. So now fast forward. Many, many thousands of years into my generation, my lineage, and I must say that even my own father, which is one generation before myself, he was my greatest teacher, he actually learned the mountains of Korea.

So it is, even as my own father, you know, it's like a movie. We were, we were so incredibly close. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us. But even as close as we were, and we are, you know, even me as his own, as his daughter, trying to imagine being in the mountains, learning this medicine, learning the movement, learning the living meditation, the mindset, and ultimately, that's what we'll go into, the three M's, as I call them, the three pillars of longevity as, as it has been passed down in my lineage, and so that's kind of the, I hope, clearly, I've taken a very long Span of time and kind of move forward, but that's just to give you a picture, you know, so he learned from his teacher and his teacher learned from his and so on and so forth until we are here right now and in a very, very relevant manner and kind of in conclusion.

That's why I personally love these tools and this medicine so much because here it has existed for thousands upon thousands of years. And as my greatest teacher taught me. Why did it exist for so long? Simply because it works. So there you go. Yeah, 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: absolutely. Yeah. And that's beautiful. You know, that's, it's like, this is what I'm personally, like really trying to create, you know, you have this, essentially you have this purpose, you know, that, that your family, has really cultivated, right?

You're wanting to change the world through these tools, this knowledge, this practice, right? And I love the story of how it's been passed down and not just passed down, but cultivated and transformed along the way. Right. And that's what's So amazing, you know, with you is that it's, it's this blending of this traditional wisdom, right?

From these thousands of years in this modern time innovation, right? And so that's kind of the, the first place I wanted to go is like, how are you really focusing on blending this, this amazing wisdom that's been passed down for thousands of years and then combining it with. You know, the innovative technologies and the things of today.

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yes. And I, I actually say that that's my number one job. You know, I have quite a few roles as an entrepreneur, business owner, so on and so forth. But I, I have come at this point in my life to recognize that my number one duty, my commitment is actually just learning to do my very best. To educate and communicate it properly.

So you're exactly right. Kind of bridging these and I can say, you know, I can kind of take it in different areas of what it is that I wish to share with the world, you know, through my manufacturing lab, literally formulations, right? Whether it's skincare, beauty care, dietary supplements, muscle and joint formulas, you name it, because that is what I've been doing for, I say, I call it my day job for the last decades, two decades, 20 plus years.

If you look at the formulations that I create, it literally, we literally do that. So we pull upon the knowledge and the wisdom of plant medicine or herbal medicine, and we incorporate with amazing, as they call it, anti aging ingredients or, you know, kind of modern ingredients. I say that because Many people will know me as as making a statement, which I don't always do because it doesn't always apply But you know, there's no such thing as anti aging and I'm sure we're going to agree on this given the nature of your entire Beautiful podcast is that we are all going to age.

That's the thing and that's okay, you know, but it's it's longevity It's how we age gracefully. It's how we don't break down And so yes, so yes, it is my number one job to integrate these this old wisdom You That is so applicable. And you know, the further I go on this path, the more I really do see, which is my favorite part, that it never changes.

That's when it comes to kind of principles that I'm handed down, the ones that really exist, that I am human, you are human. Thousands of years ago, it was humans. Hopefully thousands of years from now, there will still be humans, but that doesn't change, right? Life changes all the things around us. So that's the way I love to bridge it.

That, that to me is true integration. Right. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And you're right. You know, we were humans just like thousands of years ago. That was the same thing. Yes. They were the same nutritional requirements, emotional requirements, all of the things, right? Hasn't changed, but the environment around us has changed and thus maybe we need to change our delivery of some nutrients or something like that.

Right. So, so go ahead and tell me a little bit more about your product line, because I think it would be really good for everyone tuning in to hear about what https: otter. ai

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Sure. Absolutely. So my labs are called JBK Wellness Labs, and that's actually named after my great grandfather Jinbo Kim. And ultimately, so what we've been, I started 20 plus years ago, as I said, and the truth is that's right when I was getting out of school with my master's. And so I really believed and really wanted To do a kind of follow in the same footsteps as my great grandfather where he had, he had clinics and had patients and I loved that.

I loved being in clinic. Dr. Brandon. It was my favorite thing. But again, long story short, the universe kept pushing me towards creating these formulas. Let's just put it that way. There was a much longer story. And finally, I started realizing, you know what, maybe I should Yeah. practice what I preach, the living meditation aspect, the third of the pillars of meditation, but living meditation, we'll get into that, where, you know, clearly there's enough of this push and life keeps taking me down this path that I should look at this a little differently.

So maybe I won't just be in clinic and open up clinics around the world, which would have been amazing, of course, and maybe I still can in all my spare time. But maybe I can look at this, that I can open up a different kind of way of understanding to people who would never even know to walk into a clinic.

And that was through formulations. So I actually, 20 plus years ago, I started helping specific companies make some of the first natural products. I mean, literally I was on the forefront of the natural product industry, herbal product, plant medicine. 20 plus years ago when I talked about natural products, herbal medicine, Korean beauty, all of these things, you know, people looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about, but it never stopped me because I knew it would resonate because of the same principle we said, we're all human and things don't change when it's very principled, right?

And so kind of fast forward, I started creating these products specifically in the high end spa industry, as you already mentioned, and then, you know, You know, the economy turned and we started focusing more on a natural product marketplace when Whole Foods, all of these incredible stores, Sprout, all of our natural stores started coming about.

And then fast forward a little bit longer, right before I had my first son, people kept asking us to make these formulas because back then, now as well, but back then especially, it was hard to make natural products that were really effective, that smelled beautiful, that could be carried in some of these high end retailers and spas.

And so, We, I took a leap of faith with Craig, my husband, of 20 years. We've done this all together and we started creating formulas and so before we even knew it, we turned into a contract manufacturing lab. And basically that's, that is what I do now, as you mentioned. So I don't have one particular product line, although it comes up all the time, so maybe one day.

But you know, I'm behind the scenes and we create unbelievably effective, the most clean, the most beautiful, in my humble opinion, formulations with. It's just amazing brands that are carried in all these places, many of which I'm sure many of you know, but you know, we won't go into the detail of everything, but so that's what I do.

And that's what my lab is all about. So we manufacture products. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. Yeah. I should have clarified that. I don't know. I'd set that up wrong. No, it happens all the time. Yeah. People are like, wait a brands 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: make products elsewhere? Yeah. Thanks. You know, from a lab. Yes, that's how it works. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right, right.

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, you've mentioned a few times now about the three pillars of longevity. Yes. Do you want to go ahead and get into that? Can you explain to the audience what that is and what that entails, please? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yes, of course. So I call them the three pillars. I call them the three M's. It's easy to remember.

And it is medicine. Movement and meditation, living meditation is what I speak on. So medicine is everything that I've covered just, just in this moment. I'm sure we'll discuss further as our conversation continues. But medicine is number one, the food that we eat. Food is the best medicine, right? Then it's the supplements that we take to further enhance everything that we possibly can to have longevity and keep ourselves functioning at our optimum.

And then a little bit further down that road is exactly what I do. It's The thing is, you put on to your body, your skin, your largest organ, the skin care, the hair care, you name it, the body care, how important all of that is, ultimately kind of moving into the mindset aspect, we all have a choice, you know, that's the truth and we can make choices and some of us can, Can make, you know, ones that are not so great for us for a longer period of time and sustain and some of us cannot, but in general, one of the principles, as I've mentioned a couple of times that apply to basically all human beings throughout all time is that, and this is my favorite way of looking at it, right?

When we think about natural and clean and why it's important and why formula should have synergy of ingredients and all of these things, our bodies, as I know, you know, and so many more people are opening up. Their eyes to particularly in Western culture right now is our bodies go through so much and our body is miraculous It is the miraculous healer However, we have to realize that especially in today's day and age different than even when we grew up to be honest for For my children for this generation right now They go, our bodies go through so much from literally that when we're sleeping to waking, whether it's stress, whether it's UV radiation, whether it's the chemicals in our food, the GMOs, there's so much that our bodies have to balance with, okay?

So my point is, why don't we make it a little less complicated? Why don't we make it a little bit easier for our bodies to be able to handle that? So that's kind of medicine. Right, so understanding how to take care of ourselves in a way that we make it a little easier for our bodies to be able to do so.

Okay, through all the things I just mentioned. Movement, I won't make this one as long of an explanation, we can get into it if you'd like. But movement, what people don't understand, and I don't usually say it so strong, but I want to make an impact here. What people don't understand is that movement can be one of the strongest medicines.

When I went to school to study Eastern medicine, and what I teach, in particular is qigong, right? It's the cultivation of your vital energy, right? It's, it is truly exactly what I just said about the medicine aspect and the food we eat, the supplements we take movement also helps our body to function. It helps flow.

It helps to remove stagnation, which equals longevity. And so we have to understand what our ancient teachers taught us. And as I was beginning to say, when I went to school for medicine, Eastern medicine, part of that curriculum that was so important was literally learning this movement. Okay, and to me in my life as an entrepreneur, as a mom, you name it, actually movement can be one of the quickest ways that you can rebalance your body, right?

When you're feeling low mentally, emotionally, physically, or, or if you just want that much more of a pick me up before I go on stage and speak, before I step into an important meeting, you do certain key movements and it just opens up the flow of your mind and your body. And then kind of moving into the final pillar is, as I said, meditation.

While I'm a huge proponent of seated meditation, what we think of meditation, what I'm speaking of is the mindset. It's the medicine for the mind. And that is living meditation. That's why I call it that. Now that phrase has not been passed down for nine generations. That is part of my transformation, as you said it, kind of my part of what in two words, I was hoping to get it down to one, but it didn't work.

But in two words, how can I get this point across to the best of my ability? And that is, what is meditation to us? It can mean so many different things, but ultimately it is an awareness, it is a presence, it is a constant reflection, right? It's a purification of our mind in many ways that we can, we can function at our optimum.

And so what I teach is that are the eight keys of living meditation and their principles that you constantly train your mind to have good habits because at the end of the day, as I said, any of the things I just mentioned, we all have a choice. And the only person who can ever make the decision of how we wish to go about life, the decisions we make, how we take care of ourselves is yourself.

No one else can force us to do anything. So that's it when you know, hopefully. No, that's beautiful. I love how you, you Yeah, yeah. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: No, it, it's great. I love how you break it into the three m's. It makes it No, I appreciate that. Nice and concise and, and you know, easier to digest, which is very important, you know, because.

You know, people just want to know what they need to do, right? I mean that's they all want to be happier healthier They're all coming, you know wanting the same things essentially and so anytime we can really break this down into something Digestible like this it definitely helps. So when so i'm going to try and hit on each of these with a few questions, right?

So when it comes to Medicine. Obviously, yes, food is our first medicine. This is fantastic. You know, it really made me think of when someone has a chronic stress response, how we deplete our nutrients at a faster rate. You know, they, they've shown this, there's studies on smoking and how it depletes vitamin C and magnesium and in chronic stress, depletes magnesium stores.

And I'm sure there's things that haven't even been. Studied yet, you know, that, that really you know, we can reference to, but even a pregnant mom, you know, developing a baby, you can have a DHA steel where the baby actually leeches, the COSA hexanoic acid, DHA fatty acid out of the brain from the mom.

If you're not consuming enough of it, and this can actually lead to volume loss in the brain after a pregnancy, I mean, it's, it's wild. So. If we understand all that and that these, these stressors, these perceived threats as what I would call them in today's society are a thing, do you have any concise, you know, words of wisdom of like, hey, eat like this, take these supplements, like some kind Something that our audience can go home with.

Do you have something like that? Some kind of recommendations? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yes, absolutely. I mean, there are some very specific ones. For example, you know, in Eastern medicine, it's very important that you'll see in other cultures. Right. When I go to Europe, I see this. When I go to Asia, I see this. The Western world, we're a little lacking in that, you know, eating foods with a lot of chi, with a lot of vital vitality in them.

They're alive. They're fresh. Of course, all of these things we've heard before, but it really is important because if you just keep it real simple, you can imagine that what you put in actually affects your body, and if you're eating something that has a lot of that good, let's call it energy, chi, whether that resonates or not, I really want people to understand this, and I'll tell you why in a second, not just because I want to make a point, because when we're aware of this, we can start to become Our number one, everything starts with us first, noticing and being aware of our own health, right?

And so certain things like paying attention to the foods we ate, that they're not always processed to the best of our ability, that everything's balanced. And that's where I was getting. I will talk about that in a second, but everything that I speak of, those three M's, everything comes down to balance.

And that's, that's one of the most beautiful things in life, right? It can be one of the, clearly, that's the entire journey of our life, but that is the most important thing in my personal life, what I have been taught, what I teach. We always have to pay attention to that. But a couple other just simple tips that are important to incorporate, eating more vital foods, but also that means eating more, in Eastern medicine we call it warm foods.

Right. And so we live in a culture which there is nothing wrong with. And for some of us, you know, no comments, no judgments. Anyone who knows me knows it's not how I, that's not how I work. But in general, eating foods that are, you know, warm to our body or having that balance. For example, if we love to eat a whole bunch of salad in Eastern medicine, you would actually also simultaneously have a soup with it.

Our, our digestive system loves that warmth, that cooked food. It sounds very interesting, but that's something that I noticed. If I share that with a lot of people, especially with a lot of the kind of common symptoms, particularly in women that we have, that's a really important piece, right? Eating things that are not, you know, things to stay away from because I'm all about balance.

There's not a lot of nose that I say, to be honest. You know, because we train ourselves to do the balance thing, but dairy in general, and basically any medicine we'd all agree is hard for the human body to digest. So staying away from a lot of dairy, okay, staying away from greasy, fatty foods, things that just, if you start to think about them and visualize it and start to even, Think of the words and the foods that I'm talking about.

You can feel that it starts to stagnate your body. And remember, the key to health and longevity, the way that I understand Eastern medicine is that everything functions and flows. And I say Eastern, but Western, we all agree on that, right? So you just want to keep everything functioning and flowing. So those are kind of in general.

So supplements that you start to take into your body, whether they are herbal, whether They are whole foods, whatever that consists of, you know, it's important to know our own bodies as well. And that's what I was saying before, when we start to pay attention, you know, just because. We go on social media and see the hottest, newest, trendy ingredient does not necessarily mean that it is good for your body.

And the only person in the beginning who is going to know this is you. And so one of the things that I see as a doctor that is somewhat concerning is how much, and you know what, it's so easy to do. I find myself doing it the most. A little bit, but then I know how to catch myself starting to pay attention to how you feel, you know, even when you start taking a new supplement or you eat something, you know, a lot of times it has to do with our digestion headaches that we might get feeling fatigued, you know, the middle is so important and people don't always necessarily recognize that or are aware of that.

So if you start taking a supplement and you start also feeling, which you won't even connect, that you're feeling really tired, kind of sluggish, something feels off, there's a very good chance that supplement is not really made for you. It's not that great for you. And that's a very simple kind of general, you know, example, if you will.

But those are the types of things being aware of yourself. How do you feel, you know, through certain movements to you can start to literally feel your body in certain ways and you can tell when something is going amiss. So those are some of the main points that I can think of. Hopefully it's very helpful.

You know, I can't just give set answers to everyone, but 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: sure, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: you know, I 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: think that's really great advice actually. I mean it made me start to think about, you know, I know that on podcasting days I'm going to be talking a lot. I have to be, my mind has to be in different directions. I perform better if I take extra magnesium three day, if I take extra DHA, if I take extra B vitamins, like I know that just based on how I perform.

Yes. But then on clinical days, right, I'm taking acetylcholine support. I'm like, I'm taking a difference. Line of supplements, and it's all based on my performance. So, and, and do you know yourself? No. That resonates, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: right? Let's, that's what you've said numerous times. You know of yourself, A, how you feel.

B, nowadays there are many, many more places, no matter what in any medicine that you, that you, you know, kind of follow in that path and you can integrate them. There's always, you know, better practitioners or not. It's the nature of everything. But finding a really good doctor who can, nowadays we can look at certain labs that are very specific of what we might be depleted in.

And again, be aware that it's balanced. You don't have to take 25 to 50 different supplements. It's, that's not always the most balanced thing for everyone. I'm being extreme for a good purpose, but I love that you just said that Dr. Brandon, that's that, that is the way. And people are starting to understand that more, you know, very custom.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. Yeah. Actually also reminded me when I have a, I had an acupuncturist here a long time ago and I remember I went in, I don't remember why it was something going on and he told me to eat more soup. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yep. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And I was like, I don't like soup. It's a funny thing. He didn't explain, he didn't explain the full reasoning or whatever, but I'm like, Oh, she just told me why.

And, you know, the, I, I do, I did get my acupuncture, my acupuncture license. I didn't go through the full Chinese medicine training and whatnot, but I did actually learn. And so I remember going through the training and learning all the different movements and how amazing it was. And so, and that was actually my bridge into meditation.

Cause I was never, I still, to this day, I struggle to sit and be still and focus my mind 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Absolutely. I 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: struggle with that. I have to move. Well, Dr. Brandon, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: I'm pretty sure that there are numerous, if not every person who understands that at least at some point in their life. That is not an easy thing for humans to do.

Period. End of story. Right. I know. Yeah. We could all sit and calm our mind. We wouldn't have to do meditation. Let's be real. Do you know? Perfect. Yeah. Great. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: 100%. Yeah. That's a great statement. You're right about that. So, so when it comes to your living meditation, I'm, I'm really. Interested in, you know, I really want to hear about you talk about this because it really piques my interest.

And we, I was actually just talking about this, I guess a week or two ago when we were talking about the dopamine systems and all the different ways we can meditate and everything. But could you enlighten us on. What is this living meditation and why should we be doing it? How can we do it? What does this mean?

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Absolutely. So I'm going to answer and then kind of backtrack for a second into movement because ultimately living meditation, while it is the third pillar, right? The third M of the mindset training, I like to think of it as the medicine for the mind mindset training. It kind of puts us in different understanding of, we know it's so important to work out.

I think everyone agrees whether they do it or not, but. You know, more and more is our culture understanding how important it is to constantly train our mind, right? Through ways of thinking, thoughtfulness, all of, you know, being mindful, so on and so forth. But you just brought up a very important point that I've already commented on, that of course it's hard for human beings to sit down and just quiet their mind and do meditation, you know, no matter what.

Even those who practice tons of meditation and have the skill to do so, I guarantee you there are times where it is a little bit more challenging than other times. And that is the nature of being human. Now, one of the things, so living meditation encompasses all three M's. That is really important. I want to give that overall picture.

Okay. So, and I'll get into kind of the eight keys of learning meditation in just a moment. But also, you know, one of the things I keep hearing you say is I like actually moving the Dr. Janelle, Dr. Kim, whatever, Janelle. I like moving and then doing meditation, if I'm understanding correctly, or just through that movement.

And that's something that I'm really working to put out into the world to the best of my ability to anyone it resonates with very quickly. Because moving meditation equals Qigong. Right, is one of the most powerful ways, one of the most powerful medicines of calming our mind, calming our nervous system, rebalancing our chi, our meridians, our circulation, which connects to every single organ system, every aspect of our body, and when you think of it this way, and our ancient teacher is one thing I'm noticing in this part of the world that is not known or acknowledged, let's say, it's Is that our ancient teachers taught us that actually the most effective way to do meditation is you have to do movement first when you look at yoga, right?

So like Ayurvedic medicine, Eastern medicine, two of the most, two of the oldest medicines known to humankind. They both do this, if you see, whether it's through Qigong. Whether it's through yoga. Okay. So Qi Gong is by nature, the very first form of breath work, which is also incredibly important. That's why I want to bring this up.

Breathing, which is huge now. It's funny even saying it that way. Of course it's huge. We literally need it to stay alive. So now it's like a whole trend, but we've been doing it, you know, since the day we entered on this earth. So, but Qi Gong is the very first form of breath work. Okay. It is the very first form of movement as we know it, any kind of exercise.

And one of the things, as I've mentioned a few times now is that when you do movement and another thing I'm really keen on is it doesn't have to be for so long. I feel like people have this thing in their mind that to do seated meditation, to do any kind of movement, they have to sit there for an hour, hours, and that's the goal.

But let me be the first to say, well, that can be incredibly beneficial. I mean, my father sat in the mountains of Asia at a very young age learning those practices, and that was beautiful. His role at that moment in time, but what I want people to understand is that what has been passed down when it does come from a strong lineage, when it is effective, when it is balanced, you need about maybe 10 minutes, sometimes two minutes to really focus your mind, focus your body.

Put your heart into what you're doing, no matter what it is. If it's meditation, if it's Qigong, if it's breath work, if it's going for a walk, you just be present for that amount of time. And one thing people love about these movements, Qigong or whatnot, what really focusing on the breath work, because it's One in the same, right?

I'm sure you remember that even when you practice, Dr. Brandon, is that you naturally become present. And then when you start to rebalance your body, then you sit down for meditation. And I promise you every single one of you, if in fact you do connect your mind, your body together in that moment, when you're doing even two minutes, Of some kind of physical practice first that then when you sit down to meditate, your mind is so much easier to ground and calm and that's, that is the correct way of doing meditation that I will say very strong, you know, and again, that's what you see in yoga.

They do that. That's what you see in the martial arts, traditional martial arts, because it's incredibly effective. So that's kind of the movement that I'm speaking of to conclude in that, which is part of living meditation. So then to move into living meditation, the eight keys of living meditation, as I share them in my book.

Again, you know, this is the way that I'm able to communicate it in my moment right now in this modern world, balancing and no different than everyone else. But those eight keys are reminders. It's like a guide. Okay. And so I'm not, we don't have time right now to go through every single thing that I'm You know, one of the eight keys, but I will tell you that one that truly resonates well, they all do, but one that I think of a lot more frequently at this point in my life is, and it sounds very, you know, very like mystical Asian.

And I didn't even mean it at the time. It just is what made sense. It's called the eighth key is called be like bamboo. You know, and I've literally had people make bracelets with this, make t shirts, because it is, it creates a visual. And that's exactly why I named this key, and also made the chapter, because each chapter is one of the eight keys in the book.

Be Like Bamboo is something so incredibly important in every aspect of our life. And it actually applies to everything we've talked about in this entire conversation, whether it is the medicine pillar and all the things that we said, the movement, then we move into relationships, a hundred percent in work, running businesses.

There's no possible way I would be where I am and continuing without this, but be like bamboo as a principle. We all more than ever, I feel like we need to know. And when you think of that visual, because that helps me in life, you know, I literally will make a visual so that I can quickly rebalance myself in any moment that that is necessary.

So oftentimes, especially I would say my own personal experience and when I speak to others, that in our earlier adult years, and as part of the natural cycle of life, there's many times, and we see it right now a lot, that we feel that in order to make a point, to achieve something in life, to get somewhere, we have to bulldoze forward.

We have to be so steadfast in our ways and our thoughts and our beliefs, and that is how we get anything in this life. Now, let me be very clear, I agree with that in balance, you know, there are certainly times I have to push hard and bulldoze through and stand my ground, but I have come to find and I'll speak about this personally, that actually the greatest strength is flexibility.

When we are able to sit back, that is living meditation. To take a pause. Another kind of trigger words, if you will, or words that I've trained myself to see is that in any kind of situation, are we going to react or are we going to respond? You know, and those two words could be just words, unless you make it something.

So to me, reacting is based on emotion. And when you react based on emotion, it's always up and down. Life becomes incredibly challenging. But when we respond and balance, we're able to handle things that much more. Right? And so that is part of that Be Like Bamboo. Bamboo is so rooted, meaning you do always stand your ground.

You are always rooted. You can certainly be steadfast in your beliefs and what it is that you see in life, what you want to achieve. But remember that just like a stiff board, if you hit it too many times, just like you think you see in karate, right? Like they hit the board and it breaks and it's a wonderful thing.

Or if you hit it just right, it can break and we're no different. Our minds, right? Mental health. So if we start to understand that any situation we come across, we always have the ability to take a pause, literally to do breath, to do 30 seconds of movement, whatever it is that we need to take a pause, step back in our minds, expand our minds.

Then just like bamboo that is so rooted when the winds of life come no matter what the challenge It doesn't just break because it's not stiff. It's flexible So the winds of life can push it all the way to the ground and then when they pass Guess what happens it bounces right back. It's much much harder to break something with flexibility And so that is one of the eight keys and like I said one that in my own personal life in every area of my life again parenting Parenting relationships 100 as a business owner entrepreneur Without that, quite frankly, I don't think I could survive.

Life would be too challenging, you know? And so, so that's kind of in a nutshell, yeah. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I love that. I love the bamboo analogy. And when I'm sitting here listening to you, you know, talk through this and I'm like, these are like literally some of the things that I'm still working on with myself. And it's that concept of, you know, whether it's a business situation, whether it's a clinical situation, whatever's going on, being able to stop, rebalance, gather myself, gather my thoughts.

Yep. And, and not be so reactive, right? And being flexible enough to where, okay, well, I still have this purpose. I still have this goal. I still have this mission. I'm still here and I'm still working towards these things. I just have to now pivot a little or bend a little. Nothing changed about what I'm doing, right?

That my, my overall goal and everything. But these little things, you know, continue to change around me. I mean, 100 percent I've never had, that's a really good visual, you know, regarding bamboo. I love it. Yeah. It's fantastic. And then also with breathing, let's talk about breathing for a little bit. I, I, I love the discussions on breathing.

We go through breathing exercises with patients all the time and I love it because it's this great conscious connection with the autonomic nervous system. Right. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. You can have a direct control over your heart rate, your blood pressure, your, all of these different autonomic things just by controlling your breath.

So do you have any any guidance on someone out there that is like, man, I don't, I don't know how to breathe. I'm just constantly just like, you know, hyperventilating over here. If someone is stressed out, how should they breathe? If someone is, Really needing to get more energy or more motivation or really get up and going like do you have different types of breathing techniques or styles that you like to talk through?

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Absolutely. There's so many and I laugh when you say hyperventilating because sometimes that's how I'll start, you know, now since the book came out, I've started actually just kind of once again pivoted a bit naturally teaching the movement with the philosophy. where I've been speaking on beauty and formulations for so long.

And sometimes my favorite way that came out naturally one day, but I mean it, to start when people have no idea what breathwork is, or qigong, or moving meditation, whatever we wish to call it, is what I say is, and it is so true, so many of us chest breathe. And so for those of us who understand breath work, it's like of course, but quite frankly, even for those of us who do know this, how often do we have to remind ourselves because we very well might be doing that.

What I mean is kind of breath work 1 0 1. One of the most important things, and this is one of the the tips or the tools that I'd like to give right now, is simply breathing in, and there are many different ways, but this is the one that I'd like to share right now. Breathing in through your nose, into your abdomen first.

Filling up your abdomen and then all of the air comes and fills your lungs and then exhaling through your mouth Your belly button to your spine really pushing out all of the anything that you don't want So I don't we can call it the negativity. You can call it, you know, whatever you wish the stress whatever it is Just letting it go and one of the things that you can practice is you can as you exhale through your mouth It's like you can think as if you're blowing through a straw, right?

So and making it audible even your inhale Inside of your, yourself, you can hear your inhale. And that alone also calms your nervous system, calms your brain waves. In Eastern medicine, we say that regulates your chi. It makes, makes everything more regulated, more balanced. And that's where even one breath can make such a huge difference.

And going back to what you were saying and how I, how I started to talk about how I like to start a lot of these things is actually I say, if anyone wants to quickly give themselves a panic attack, Be anxious. That is also one of the most powerful ways. Breathe in real quick, keep it just in your chest, do not breathe in, bring it into your abdomen.

And I promise you, you will feel like you're hyperventilating and, you know, panicky and have anxiety. And it's you know, it's humorous. But I like putting that in people's minds too because that is how powerful our breath is. So that is a huge tool. And the beautiful thing is you can do it anywhere.

Like in front of anyone people don't even have to know it is so powerful Another thing that I think is important in this is that when you're doing that breath It's very important to keep your body soft What I mean is make sure that your knees are are not locked make sure even your arms are very relaxed Because that is how you can Your body can circulate chi, vital energy, and blood within your body.

And so when things are circulating, guess what? It's feeding every part of you. And so that is like breathwork 101 that every single one of us can do. You root your feet, you know, sometimes of course, without your shoes, walking on the earth, that's all wonderful, but guess what? How often can we do that in a business, you know, meeting that we're walking into or on stage?

I suppose you could. But just remember, it is energetic, so you could be wearing shoes, you could be doing anything, and as long as you focus your mind and ground yourself through your feet, you do that breath work, you relax everything, and if everyone can just try that, as I just said that right now or right after hearing this interview, I promise you, you will feel completely different in just a matter of a couple seconds.

And that is how powerful our mind and our body are. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. Extremely powerful. And sometimes I'll even do a demonstration with a patient, you know, it's, it's usually a young adult or, you know, a, a, a professional and executive, something like that. And they're really struggling mentally, whether they have depression, anxiety, something like this, but you see them and their respiratory rate is too high.

They're breathing too shallow, too fast. And I'm like, you know, what's your top complaint? They say anxiety. I'm always anxious. Always anxious, always anxious. And that's okay. It's okay. Let me do a little demonstration for you. What I want you to do is breathe in, you know, really quick, really intensely and blow out.

And I just want you to almost like tell them how to hyperventilate. Right. So I have them like this. Right. And, and I'm like, just so you know, you're going to probably have an anxiety attack, just be ready. And they're like, whatever. And so they do it. And what happens? Bam, anxiety attack. And they're like, what in the world just happened?

And I said, This is just neurophysiology, right? When you have this buildup of CO2, when you have, when you access this part of your nervous system, this is what happens. You're walking around, I'm looking at you just breathing like this right now. I know you're anxious. So tense. So teaching them literally how to breathe.

And, and all of a sudden their body just kind of relaxes and they're like, Oh my gosh, like, this is amazing. Right. So I say all that just to say, like, this is a really important topic and it's something that is like, yeah, I know how to breathe, otherwise I'd be dead. Well, I don't want you to just be alive.

Right. I want you to thrive. Right. Right. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Right. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So understanding these principles, understanding how to stop, slow down. Breathe, put myself in a different state 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: of mind, 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right, which is so important. And that's actually what I wanted to kind of talk about next, because I like to tell patients and people that I always like them to go through gratitude first, right?

When they start this. This practice of meditation and everything like I really want them to be mindful about yes themselves and grounding and all of that, but then to go through what they are truly grateful for in life. Is this congruent with your thoughts 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: beyond, beyond, you know, and it's something that I acknowledge.

In case it's helpful that, you know, speaking of gratitude can almost become, I really don't even want to say this, but I've started. So I'll say it almost cliche, right? Like, Oh, have gratitude, do your breath work. But let me also be with you and saying this, that it is incredibly powerful. You know, I have found that especially right now, I feel like we have to be more careful than ever.

And, you know, it's, it can be an interesting conversation that I bring up and I'm, Thank you so much. I'm just not afraid to anymore at all. Not that I ever was afraid, but I always want to be balanced myself, but I'm seeing a lot of things lately that are occurring that it can easily go out of balance, meaning we can start to bring ourselves by overthinking, overanalyzing, overthinking about past, overthinking about what's happening to us.

It's so important to acknowledge. If we don't acknowledge, Some of the things that are bothering us, why we're where we're at, what challenges we're facing, what things in the past may have hurt us, or made us stressful, or made us think, or made us angry to be where we are right now. If we don't acknowledge that, I couldn't agree more.

You can't move forward. However, there's a very fine line between overanalyzing, overthinking, and now all of a sudden you get very, very stuck. And I always say, the human mind is so powerful that we have to be very careful that we don't put ourselves into a dark, Deep down, you know, you just picture that you just keep going further Well, guess what?

You're not careful in the human mind if you go too far and you don't have the means of getting yourself out You're gonna get stuck there and it's something I'm very concerned about quite frankly, right and that's exactly the eight piece of living meditation Help us to acknowledge. It's a form right of this ancient philosophy if you will way of looking at life It's a form that we can acknowledge Reflect, process through, constantly, it's never ending, but not get ourselves too far down.

And why I'm bringing this up when you ask me about gratitude is that sometimes when we feel like we're stuck, I agree that for myself and many, many, many people that I see, work with, teach, just come across in a daily life, that gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to get yourself out of that hole.

I know it is for myself. You know, when life gets challenging, I find a quiet moment. Sometimes even if you can't, you just kind of close your eyes. Who cares? You know? Someone's just saying, I need a minute. Why can't we do that, right? But have a quiet moment. For me, it can be in the car a lot of times. You know, I drop my kids off, I'm driving to a meeting, to an event, whatever that might be.

And if you're feeling a little low, first of all, sometimes you have to acknowledge it. I literally, for myself, you acknowledge, okay, I'm feeling uncomfortable, I'm feeling something right now. Okay, here it is, right? And it's important, even that step, if I may. Here's another tip I'm just naturally going into.

Because oftentimes, I call it short circuiting. Right? I'm sure this will resonate with you actually, Dr. Bandon, that if you don't kind of tell your mind, I see what, what's bothering you right now, your mind just keeps going for a lot of us, especially when you have a lot going on, you're intelligent, all of the things.

So you have to stop and say, okay, I'm really upset about this right now. Done. Now we're there. Right? Then for my personal self, I'll take that breath no matter where I'm at. And the next I will. One of the things that I always do is I will, I'll move to my gratitude. Although this is happening right now, first and foremost, it's not going to go anywhere in the next couple of seconds or minutes or whatever it is.

It'll still be there. I've been on this earth long enough to know. And guess what? It's going to be okay. Cause I have been here before. Maybe worse. You know, but guess what? It will be okay. And then I think to myself, although this is happening right now, I have my health right now, whatever it might be. I think of my kids a lot, my family, whatever it might be, you have to find what I call your spark.

And, and that spark and that gratitude is almost always connected. So that's kind of a longer explanation, but something I feel so adamant to be able to share when, when it makes sense. So. Yeah. Gratitude is huge. Takes you out 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: of yourself. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: You know? 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Exactly. And it gives you perspective, right? I think it offers really good perspective on life as well.

And I guess one thing that I wanted to point to just for the listeners is that you know, there's studies that show when you do meditation, you have very positive changes In your neurochemistry, you see positive changes in dopamine, serotonin, GABA, but then also when you're truly grateful, like when you're really practicing gratitude, you see similar changes in dopamine, serotonin, GABA, oxytocin, like all of these beautiful neurochemistry or neurochemicals that, that give you this really, you know, good life for lack of better words.

I'm just going to boil it down to that. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Love that. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And if that's true, which it is. Then that means the flip is also true, right? If we're not grateful, if we're not present, if we're not mindful, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: right? 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Those neuro chemicals can go in the opposite direction. And that's really what we're looking at, right?

That's what we're trying to tell people. This is powerful stuff. It really is incredible. And because it's so powerful, do you mind? Can you give just like a quick start one on one? Hey, if you've never meditated before, if you've never really grounded yourself before, can you give like a little, Hey, if you've never done this, here's how you can get started.

Sure. Because that's how I got started. Like, you know, I really like, I didn't, I couldn't do it. And someone was like, look, What do you like to do? I was like, I love to run. They go, great. When you're running, here's what I want you to do. Right. And it was like, it changed me. So is there something like that you could absolutely.

Dr. Jenelle Kim: And we can move through this quickly because I kind of already gave the technique. And so, one of the things that we do, and I have, finally I do have a shorter course on my website, because I know so many people would ask, and I didn't have that. So for anyone who would find this helpful, also I do in social media give little tips like this whenever possible to help.

But, for all of the listeners today, so you, in any given moment, I do it in the morning. That's the time I know that I can always do it. Almost always. There's never a complete blanket statement, but my kids know this too. When I wake up in the morning, I have my 10 minutes. 10 minutes. And they better believe that they will let me be in those 10 minutes.

Either you join me or you let mommy be. You know, and they're with me since they were two, they got that. So you, Basically, to begin, you do your breath work that I just, that I just shared and we talked about. So you breathe in through your nose, you ground your feet, you make everything soft, so no locking of any joints, so everything can flow.

Breathe into your nose, into your abdomen, then let all the air fill into your lungs and you get in the habit of that, exhaling through your mouth. audible sound of your breath and pushing your belly button to the back of your spine. One other piece that you can, you can join with this breath, this breathing is a very simple kind of Qigong 101, but it's kind of connecting to the sky, they say, and connecting to the earth, which are very important energies.

That is yin and yang. I didn't even get into it today, but that is what everything is based on. For those of you who understand what that is, the balance, right? So you breathe in through your nose and you take your palms. You can stand or I'm sitting right now so you can see me. You can do it anywhere, right?

So you breathe in and as you breathe in, you take your palms open, lifting up. Then I'm going to do it closer to my face, but you can do it at this level. You reach up and then you extend everything up to the sky and that's your inhale. And then as you exhale, you start to exhale. Now you can see my hands, hands pointed towards the ground, exhaling.

Pushing it down and actually you can get in the practice of as you're doing your exhale with your hands literally in front of, almost scanning your body. You can start to close your eyes and you can start to, don't stick on anything. You don't want to get caught in your mind right now. But literally you can intentionally think, I'm scanning my body right now and my mind for that matter.

If anything, imbalanced. Don't stick on it. That's not what I'm asking you to do. But just if anything feels off, you push it down. Push it down, and you can even bend your knees at that point, pushing your arms as they are, as you see them here, into the ground. With the intention, the mindset, that yes, any kind of stress, anything that's not feeling good, any kind of unwanted emotion, any kind of unwanted energy, you're literally pushing into the earth, because the earth can neutralize all of those, those negativities, or those unwanted energies and if you do that even, even three to five times, which would take you.

Maybe a minute, maybe two, depending on how long you're inhaling your exhale. You go ahead and you feel that. And then if you can, then you sit down. I love to sit to do meditation. I find that it is very grounding. A lot of people, meaning in a chair, I'm sorry, I didn't clarify. So you can sit on the ground, whatever feels the most comfortable.

I feel like people have all these rules. Dr. Brandon, I can't take it. Who made up these rules? You know, you have to sit with your legs crossed like this. So straight. That's not in my humble experience. That is not. That's not correct. As you move through your meditation, then you can get more advanced in certain ways, but ultimately you want your back straight.

It doesn't have to be tense because then things can't flow, but I love sitting in a chair, knees bent, feet on the ground because it's grounding, and then sit down and just do your breath. Close your eyes just like we said before. So it's so simple. In through your nose, exhale through your mouth. After you do a few minutes of that movement and you will find that you will much more easily be able to calm your mind in that moment.

Okay, and it doesn't have to be the most, if you can't get there, it's okay, because simply sitting there and doing that breath work, as you also mentioned, is so important, so incredibly good for you. Your mind, your nervous system, the flow of your chi, circulation, whatever resonates. And so that is incredibly effective, very quick, can be done, like I said, in one to three minutes.

You can take it to 10 to 15, you can take it up to three hours, but that are, those are some very quick. Very effective tools that can help you, you know, get started if you will. That's that. Yes 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's that's perfect a little bit more. That was great 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: detailed, but 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: No, that was great. I love the you know, I knew you were going to go into some some more Qi gong, applications with that.

That's why actually why I asked you to do it. So i'm glad 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Good you did that. That was perfect 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: and Just I wanted to point out that a big part of like a meditative practice is actually that constant refocusing, right? So if you struggle with, you know, I start and then all of a sudden my mind is over here reeling on something.

That's part of it. It's not that you're doing it wrong. It's just, yeah, just refocus. Oh, I'm off again. Refocus. Yes. Refocus. I don't care if it happens 20 times a minute. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yes. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's part of it. And that's okay. Beautifully 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: put. Beautifully put. That is living meditation. What you just said. Because that's how, when you sit down to do meditation, remind yourself of that.

And that alone will calm your mind in such a way that you'll be that much better at it. Whatever better means. You'll be able to do it that much more easily. But also living meditation is that exact principle in your life. You have to just keep refocusing, regrounding, rebalancing. So I have to say that.

Perfect. You said that wonderfully. Yeah. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So, something we haven't touched on yet is that you're co host with your husband on a show called The Experts. Oh, 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: yes. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Can you give us an idea about what this is? Why are you doing it? What's the goal? Like, who is this for? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Absolutely. Okay. So, I really appreciate that and it will, I'm sure it will transform into so many different things, but we're kind of going back to the beginning of our, our conversation here.

Perfect. That really at the moment focuses on that medicine aspect, my day job, which is the fact that I have been a beauty expert for quite some time in the formulation world, creating formulas for, you know, global and indie brands around the world. And so we created the experts for Any kind of person, but, and also I wouldn't, I don't want to say, but however I'm going to specifically for a brand or someone who wants to become a brand, because what the experts are, I think everyone's seeing this about me.

I love the quick to the point, because not all of us have a lot of time. And so the experts is a show on YouTube under Dr. Janelle Kim. Of course, I do with my husband, we've been in business together for over 20 years doing what I just explained. And we go and we, we interview the experts. particularly in the beauty and wellness.

More beauty right now because that is what, because that's just where it started. We might, you know, kind of continue down that path of the three Ms we'll see, but right now it's more focused on the beauty and brands. So for example, speaking to, you know, the president of acquisitions of L'Oreal to incredible brands that many of you might know, Juice Beauty, Tatcha.

You know, if you're, if you have any idea of the beauty industry, which most people do now, these are some pretty amazing companies who are doing amazing things from marketers to, like Daniel Langer to, you know, people now who focus on AI packaging, you name it. And they're quick interviews with the top of the top of the industry, giving their What is the most important and on the topic that we touch on in 10 to 15 minutes?

So it's really enjoyable. I find it so inspiring. Anyways Frederick for Kai is one who is an icon from certainly, you know, My generation and the hair care, you know a sector but also as a businessman So speaking to him is when he is just an incredible man and hearing people's stories It's quick to the point, but that's what the experts is.

So I hope everyone enjoys it. You know, I always look forward to that. Absolutely. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I was, I was able to, to catch a few episodes. It's very well done, very informative fun to watch. So you guys are doing a great job. You know, it's always, you always have to balance, you know, when you're doing these types of things, you want to be educational, but you also want to be entertaining, you know?

And so, I think you do a great job of combining that, you and your husband. So definitely want everyone out there to go ahead and tune in and start, you know, watching that. It's a great series. So I am going to circle back to the discussion on herbals. I love herbs. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Yes. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And so while I've got you here, I'm just going to pick your brain a little bit.

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Okay. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So, I don't know if, so the first thing that came to mind. Is she legit, right? I know, I don't know if it's classified as an herb, but it's this mush that's been, you know, smashed into the ground. It's typically from higher elevations and it comes out as this nutrient rich stuff like this tarry stuff, right?

I guess do you, do you like this? Do you, do you recommend it? I, I'll use it as a mineral, like a multi mineral sometimes. I know it's been shown to like help with testosterone and hormones and inflammation. Yes. What do you think about that stuff? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: I could not agree more. That is not necessarily one of the, let's call it like the The main herbs, for lack of a better word, of Eastern medicine, but something that very much resonates.

Because a lot of the medicines, if you look, for example, in Ayurvedic to Eastern medicine, I like using those two because people know that they're both very ancient medicines. You'll find certain powerful plants, certain powerful herbs that might parallel in a lot of the function. And ultimately they're good for you, right?

They're from the earth, they're powerful. And you just named it. That is an incredible ingredient, right? Incredible plant medicine. That really helps to rebalance, to detoxify, to purify. And right now, especially speaking of, you know, finding that much more balance of the hormonal system, men, women alike. A lot of it having to do with, unfortunately, the food that we eat, so much that we cannot even avoid, right?

Also, so much stress. There's so many things that are harming our hormonal system and creating so many imbalances. Making that process, which by the way, is a natural process, we're going to And we will all go through this throughout our life you know, whether we're speaking of menopause, which people are getting more and more comfortable even talking about, that is a natural process.

You know, things will occur, but the extreme nature of the symptoms do not always have to be there. And that is certainly a very powerful ingredient to help keep everything in balance. You know, in Eastern medicine, one of our absolute favorites is ginseng, you know, renshen ginseng, you know, that's one that a proper herbologist, a proper doctor, even when I use it in.

It's topical formulations. You know, what I speak on a lot is it's so important to know one particular ingredient and it can be so helpful to take it in that manner. Herbal medicine, the nature of herbology, is not just knowing each individual ingredient, but also knowing how ingredients synergistically work together.

In Chinese medicine, we call it dui yao. It's how two ingredients or more come together and can actually even change functions of the ingredient. For example, ginseng is one that I get, that is another, that's why I brought it up. So good for rebalancing basically the entire body, increasing vitality and energy, helping to balance, you know, hormones, the hormonal system, and in the ways that it does, right?

So without making. Too many set statements here, but also really important that I love people to understand this side because it's not talked about as much, that ginseng, while almost always it'll be known to increase your energy, especially Korean red ginseng, in fact, you have to be careful if you have, if you're known to have high blood pressure, hypertension, if you're on certain medications, because it is so powerful at bringing up your energy, but a proper herbologist and doctor knows what to combine ginseng with.

In such a way that it can actually be calming and help you to go to sleep. And so I just want to say that how important that's an, an extreme example, but that's another piece of herbal medicine, of plant medicine, that knowing, or for example, we take turmeric, right? In order for it to be even absorbed into your body, it is now becoming a very well known thing that you have to have black pepper with it.

right? Otherwise it can't even absorb into your body. There's very, there's some synergistic aspects when you're taking herbal medicine. So I'm kind of tangenting here for a moment, but really important that we have to be aware of. And that is where you do go to your experts, where you go to your doctors, people who study this type of thing, because we don't expect everyone to know that.

And they can give the proper instruction on how to take certain supplements. When to take them, how they're more customized for your body. But yes, ginseng is one I love. I love the adaptogens because I want to answer your question. Adaptogenic herbs, herbal ingredients are some of my favorites in that they tend to be very balanced, right?

So, it's hard to have too many side effects. Of course, you always have to check with your doctor, you know, to make sure that there are no contraindications in your health or medications that you're taking. But adaptogens in general are very, very powerful. Yeah. Ingredients and you can look that up, but you know, this is a word or category of herbs that started in what, like the 1940s, but do understand that that principle started thousands of years ago in Eastern medicine, you know, and it's basically taking in short.

I love formulating for skincare, topical products, dietary supplements, so important for us to incorporate into any aspect of our regimen, beauty and wellness, because by the nature of what it means as a category of herbs that are good for everybody, for the most part, is that they help you adapt, you know, the idea is those herbal ingredients, those plants had to survive.

To be a plant and when we put that into our body, it helps us to adapt and survive. So I like just putting it that way. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: So. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Awesome. Yeah, I, I totally agree with you. I mean, the, the adaptogens are fantastic and there's several of them that fall into that category, but you're right. Ultimately, it's about working with someone that can help ascertain what the needs are, you know, what your personal needs are and then combining those.

Absolutely. So, well, you know, this has been a very intriguing conversation. I want to pick your brain for several more hours, but I know we both need to go. So, you know, I, I, I just want to say, first of all, thank you for coming on. I think you shared some, Amazing information, some information that a lot of people need to hear.

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Is there anything 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: that you wanted to touch on or share with the world before we sign off today? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: I think I touched on a lot of things, Dr. Brandon, but I really appreciate this time together. And I do, I couldn't hear nothing better than to know that anything that was mentioned today is effective and helpful.

And that is exactly why, you know, my commitment. of being here on this earth, you know, hopefully passing these tools, these three Ms, and whether it be I am on social media, Instagram is where I personally engage the most. I have learned to embrace this so that I can stay connected, but really trying to touch on these three Ms in very quick, but effective ways.

You know, just putting out that much more, hopefully through the book, that's helpful living meditation. And through the experts. So in any way possible, just staying connected and giving as much of what has been passed down as possible. So I'm grateful. Absolutely. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. Can you share? We're going to put you all of the information that you just mentioned your social media, the YouTube channel, the book, all the things in the show notes.

But. For everyone that's just listening, can you tell everyone what your social media handles are? Like where, where should they go to find you? What's the, what do they type in to find you? 

Dr. Jenelle Kim: Of course. So just Dr. Janelle Kim, but that's J E N E L L E Kim. But on Instagram, you'll find me LinkedIn. Facebook, I'm not on as much, but I'm certainly there and, and we'll check it out every once and again.

YouTube now is where the new show is and you can always find me on my website jenellekim. com And of course my book which is right behind me for anyone that that would be helpful that guide Yes. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Perfect. Yes. Absolutely. So, everyone listening today, you know, look, we're, we're here to help others, right?

So that's why Dr. Janelle Kim is here today. That's why I'm taking time out of my day today. We want to help you. We want to help others. So if you found this to be beneficial please like share, et cetera. If there's someone that you know and love that this could help, please share this with them. And like I said earlier, we're going to put all of.

Dr. Kim's information in the show notes where to find her book, young song, where, how to connect with her on social media, the YouTube channel, where you can listen to her and her husband on the experts. I want you to connect with them really, you know, be connected with people that are making a really positive impact in the world.

That's what we're all about here at the longevity formula. So. Again, Dr. Janelle Kim, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a real pleasure. I look forward to more communication in the near future. So thank you so much and everyone. Thank you. And we will see you next time.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step towards your best self. Remember, the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com.

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Dr. Brandon Crawford

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