Today's podcast is a two-part special on ancestral eating, an ancestral diet and healing autoimmune conditions using an ancestral approach. In the first part of the show, I teach you how to determine how you should be eating based on how your ancestors ate.   Next, I turn it over to my guest Dr. Michael Smith for a special lecture from him on his specific protocol for healing autoimmune conditions using an ancestral eating approach.   Dr. Smith, who first appeared on my show in the episode "" hails from the First Nations in Canada, grew up on the diet of his indigenous ancestors eating wild organ meats from the animals he hunted and feasting from the wild salmon that he caught.   He learned many of the medicine traditions and the “Medicine Wheel” of the First Nations people. He studied Martial Arts and taught Canadian Military self defense techniques, and along the way, his Martial Arts teacher took him aside to say to tell him that he was “more of a healer than a fighter”.   His teacher then began to teach him the Oral Tradition of Classical Oriental Science, or better known as Traditional Chinese Medicine. Michael is now a huge pillar in the healing community of Nelson, BC. For example, restaurants in the Nelson area will produce a special menu at certain times of year when he holds the event of cleansing season. He's helped with bringing Medical Cannabis dispensaries to the city and produces supplements paired with Cannabis Medicine sold there. You often see him ushering in folks at open public sweat lodge ceremonies with burning of sage. Michael is an author, speaker, professional martial artist, teacher and clinician, and a respected integrative medicine pioneer with over 20 years experience. In his Nelson, British Columbia practice he combines functional medicine and evolutionary nutrition with the ancient wisdom and vast experience of Traditional Chinese medicine. His primary focus in medicine is complex chronic auto-immune diseases (as a patient, Michael had lived with both Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis for well over 20 years). He is a co-founder of the prestigious Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences, the first five year full time doctorate level training program in TCM in Canada. He is also the primary developer of Neuro-Somatic Therapy, a hands on approach to reducing the way people embody distress, illness and trauma. As a Martial Artist, Michael has been training for almost 40 years. He has had the good fortune to train with some of the highest level teachers in the Western world, including a teacher of the late Bruce Lee. After training prison guards, police officers and members of both military and paramilitary organizations, Michael decided to leave traditional martial arts and develop his own approach to resolving physical violence. He has taught this approach, called Applied Combatives, for over 20 years. During this discussion, you'll discover: -Ben's thoughts on ancestral dieting [7:25] MTHFR mutations cluster in regions and populations where ancestor's diet was rich in folate AMY1 gene (salivary amylase) digests starch and carbs Lactase persistence gene helps determine lactose tolerance Your Ancestor's Diet by Dr. Michael Smith The Jungle Effect by Dr. Daphne Miller 100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Lee "The Ancestral Autoimmunity Protocol" w/ Dr. Michael Smith -Why we should care about autoimmune diseases [14:00] 1 in 5 people throughout the developed world are living with an autoimmune disease Autoimmune issues can be underlying causes of other diseases 80% of Dr. Smith's patients get relief or healing engaging in this protocol -Dr. Smith's clinical approach to treating autoimmune disease [17:55] 25 years treating patients with Autoimmune disease, and/or PTSD, and/or addiction; crossover of these is significant Focused on all 3 of those elements Treating the whole person, not just the diagnosis Clinical, functional medicine; sometimes breath work Somatic mindfulness: acupuncture