What if everything you've been told about stem cell therapy, that it requires live cells, needles, and a clinic, turns out to be wrong? Dr. Tommy Rhee spent 20 years in regenerative medicine and three years developing a cell-free, needle-free alternative, and in this episode he breaks down the single mechanism that changes how recovery really works. If you're an athlete, a weekend warrior, or anyone living with joint pain, tendon injuries, or osteoarthritis who's wary of injections, this conversation is built for you.

Dr. Rhee served as team chiropractor for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has worked with Olympians and UCLA athletes. He's seen firsthand why traditional stem cell injections and PRP treatment come with risks most clinics don't talk about. He walks through the regenerative medicine evolution from prolotherapy, to PRP, to stem cells, why injectables can create a "secondary injury," and the surprising reason frozen "live" cells still seem to work even after they've died.

He also gets honest about who stem cell therapy is NOT for, the 30-day morning-and-night protocol, and how long real tissue rebuilding takes.

This is a root-cause look at regenerative medicine, natural pain relief, and what recovery could look like without the needle, but you'll have to press play to hear the one thing he says to ask your own clinician before you ever consider an injection.

Chapters:

• 0:00 Why Aging Slows Recovery
• 0:51 Show Welcome And Big Idea - Stem Cell Therapy Without the Needle
• 1:13 Meet Dr. Tommy Rhee
• 3:10 From Pro Athletes To Regeneration
• 8:14 Homeostasis And The One To One Cellular Recovery Ratio
• 9:43 Nature Break And Water Safety - Wear your Personal Flotation Device (PFD)
• 11:23 Cell Free Exosomes Explained Simply
• 14:04 How To Get And Use RheeGen
• 15:25 Who Is A Good Fit For Stem Cell Therapy
• 16:20 Pain Masking Versus Real Healing The Root Cause
• 17:51 Realistic Timelines For Stem Cell Therapy Results
• 19:39 The Live Stem Cell Myth
• 22:39 Questions To Ask Your Clinician

🎙️ Guest: Dr. Tommy Rhee — sports chiropractor, U.S. Navy aviator, and author of The Future of Regenerative Medicine: Unlocking the Potential of Topical Stem Cell Therapy

🌐 Learn more: rheegen.com

📖 Book: The Future of Regenerative Medicine — available on Amazon

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Diagnosed with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and told there's nothing left to try? Mark Burnett heard the same words — advanced, incurable, manage it and move on. This episode is for anyone facing a neurological diagnosis, their own or a loved one's, who won't take "there's no cure" as the final answer. His father served in the USMC. Born on the contaminated-water base at Camp Lejeune, Mark watched his body slide toward stage-four Parkinson's while the Alzheimer's gene quietly rewrote his memory until the day he forgot how to drive home on a road he'd known for 20 years.

A database developer with a warrior mindset, he refused to curl up and hand his life to the medical system. He went hunting for a mechanism the pharmaceutical companies couldn't patent, one tied to how the brain physically clears what gets "stuck" inside it. A year later, what his neurologist measured in his blood left even the doctor saying, "I've never seen anybody do this."

We're not spoiling the numbers here, but they're specific, they're documented in repeat testing which Mark publishes on his website, and they're the reason this conversation matters for anyone touched by Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, brain injury, or dementia.

Your host, Antoinette Berrafato, is the New Normal Big Life podcast host who used nature therapy — archery and kayaking — to recover from physical limitations after a traumatic brain injury, finding passion, purpose, and people as a recipe for mental health.

Chapters

• 0:00 Falls, Concussions, And Lost Balance
• 1:06 A Shock Parkinson's Diagnosis During COVID
• 5:05 Turning A “Blank Screen” Into Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and brain injury Research
• 9:44 The Ziziphus Seed And Why Source Matters
• 20:13 Clinical Parkinson’s Changes Without A Blood Test
• 25:32 Hope, Prevention, And The Glymphatic System
• 31:56 Free Book, Progress Tracking journal, And Final Thoughts

🔗 Guest & Resources
Mark Burnett, President, APDI: https://mybrainrestore.com/my-journey/

This episode shares one person's personal health experience and is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not a claim to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing your treatment.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Your nervous system reset may have been hiding inside your home the entire time. If you've tried therapy, supplements, and better sleep but still feel chronically stressed, the missing piece might not be a habit it could be your living space. This episode is for anyone ready to stop managing symptoms and start designing a home that heals.

Licensed Professional Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist Healey Ikerd shares research-backed findings on what natural light, indoor plants, and even a simple view of nature actually does to your cortisol levels and what happens to your healing when those things are missing.

New Normal Big Life host Antoinette Berrafato used nature therapy — archery and kayaking to recover from physical limitations, finding passion, purpose, and people as her recipe for mental health. In this episode, she and her husband put biophilic design to the test inside their own Northwoods cabin. Not with a renovation budget, but with intention.

The research is clear. The question is whether your home is working for you or against you.

Chapters

• 0:00 When Your Home Adds To Your Stress
• 1:26 Chronic Illness Inside Your Home
• 5:53 Searching For A Healing Place
• 8:35 Sick Home Syndrome And Toxins
• 12:23 Three Biophilic Design Principles Light Order Life
• 16:31 Biophotomodulation or Light Therapy And Natural Sunlight
• 18:27 Declutter Your Home For Peace And Focus
• 22:48 Bring Nature Indoors On Purpose
• 25:15 Get Family Buy In Early

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by non-toxic living and confused by the "natural" claims on your product labels? Today, we are breaking down the truth about greenwashing and giving you the exact non-toxic swaps you need to start cleaning up your home, pantry, and cosmetics immediately.

Our guest for this episode is Amy Hartshorn. She is a nontoxic living educator, certified organic farmer, podcast host, and retreat leader based in Waitsfield, Vermont. She was the founding Executive Director of the Household Toxins Institute, created with the founder of Seventh Generation, and served as technical editor of Green Living for Dummies. If you are a conscious consumer ready to protect your family's health, this episode is essential listening.

You can read how to spot 12 toxic ingredients on food labels in this NNBL.Blog article.

New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the show so the next episode finds you automatically.

Chapters

• 0:00 Labels Greenwashing And Spotting Fake Claims
• 3:30 Amy’s Non-Toxic Origin Story
• 6:24 Fragrance Antibacterials And Daily Exposures
• 9:40 Start With Priorities Not Perfection
• 14:24 Organic Shopping That Fits Real Life
• 17:18 Helping Kids Avoid Hidden Toxins
• 23:27 Glyphosate, gluten-sensitivity, Celiac disease, Wheat And Healing Paths

Got a health challenge you can’t crack? Send us a text and we’ll find an expert to get you answers and give you a shoutout on the show.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Most people's longevity biomarkers never appear on a standard checkup and that gap may be shortening your health span. Bestselling author and fitness expert, Timothy J. Ward reveals the three markers that do an extraordinary job predicting how long you'll live and how well, and why training all three is possible at any age, even if you've been told it's too late. This episode is for veterans, first responders, blue-collar workers, and caregivers who are done being told their "your labs are normal" while you body tells a different story. The answers you've been looking for are here!

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Biomarkers That Predict Longevity
• 1:29 Tim Ward on Preemptive Healthcare
• 5:43 Aging Strong In A Sick Culture
• 14:44 Toxic Food
• 17:50 The Health Metrics Doctors Miss
• 25:12 Biomarker Panels And Healthy Baselines
• 29:32 Making Advanced Testing Affordable
• 33:03 Custom Supplement Packs And Bioavailability
• 35:40 The Longevity Matrix And Fitness Quadrant
• 40:41 Training Zones For Real Life and Sports

New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the show so the next episode finds you automatically.

Got a health challenge you can’t crack? Send us a text and we’ll find an expert to get you answers — and give you a shoutout on the show.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Functional medicine holds the answers veterans, first responders, blue-collar folks, and caregivers are searching for, but the conventional system keeps running out of time to give them. This podcast strips away the noise around nervous system regulation, TBI recovery, and caregiver burnout and replaces it with an exact road map from the world's best experts. If you've spent years serving, caregiving, or working in conditions most people can't handle and your health is now paying the price, you just found the right show.

Host Antoinette Berrafato is a TBI survivor, former Army Air Assault Medic, and The Wellness Warrior — the New Normal Big Life podcast host who used nature therapy (archery and kayaking) to recover from physical limitations, finding passion, purpose, and people as a recipe for mental health. She rebuilt her health from rock bottom and brings expert answers to the questions you're actually living. Every episode is shaped by real listener questions or topical health events, covering root cause medicine, somatic healing, and the health challenges the conventional system consistently misses.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Introduction to New Normal Big Life functional medicine and holistic health podcast
00:00:17 - This podcast is for veterans, first responders, caregivers, and blue-collar workers.
00:00:22 - We cover nervous system regulation, TBI recovery, root cause medicine
00:00:29 - About the host - U.S. Army veteran, Antoinette Berrafato
00:00:45 - Every episode features MDs, functional medicine doctors, health researchers and innovators
00:01:46 - Start with the start here playlist

New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the show so the next episode finds you automatically.

New episodes drop weekly. Start with the 'Start Here' playlist at nnbl.blog.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

Nervous system regulation doesn’t start in a pharmacy — it starts on the ground beneath your feet. Modern medicine treats dysregulation with prescriptions, but foraging and food as medicine have held the answer for thousands of years, and this episode takes you back to your roots. Literally.

Host Antoinette Berrafato — Army Medic, sponsored adventure athlete, and a believer in natural health solutions takes you on a foraging walk that’s equal parts science and survival skill. You’ll learn why the act of foraging itself is one of the most powerful nervous system resets your body can experience, plus which wild edibles changed how she thinks about healing.

If your body has been stuck in fight-or-flight with no way out, this episode is for you.

Chapters

0:00Wild Plants You Walk Past
1:24 The Nervous System Crisis
2:46 Why Forest Time Calms You
3:33 Simple Foraging Gear That Works
4:06 Dandelion As Food And Medicine
5:38 Fiddleheads And Cooking For Safety
6:39 Foraging Safety Rules To Follow
7:53 How Outdoor Therapy Helped Me Heal
9:05 Dandelion Gummies And The Research
12:48 A Mullein Tincture Story
13:48 Dandelion Gummy Recipe Walkthrough
15:07 One Plant Challenge

New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the show so the next episode finds you automatically.

Got a health challenge you can’t crack? Send us a text and we’ll find an expert to get you answers — and give you a shoutout on the show.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Disclaimer

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.

That mattress you trusted for recovery could be the hidden thing sabotaging your nervous system regulation without you knowing it, and most people never connect the dots. Professional mattress tester Derek Hales cuts through the marketing noise and matches real performance data to your body, sleep style and budget, not showroom spin. This episode gives you the clarity most shoppers never get, especially if caregiver burnout or a functional medicine approach has you treating sleep as the foundation of healing.

By the time you finish this episode, you will know exactly how to match your mattress to your body's needs so you can stop guessing, stop overspending and start sleeping like recovery depends on it, because it does.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Mattress Price Myth
• 3:51 Why Sleep Drives Health And Resilience
• 6:24 Simple Habits That Calm The Mind
• 8:41 Creatine Light Dimming And Sleep Tools
• 13:43 Budget Mattress Picks And Natural Materials
• 16:55 When To Replace A Mattress
• 18:15 The Real Truth About Mattress Pricing
• 20:21 NapLab’s Data Driven Mattress Testing

New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the show so the next episode finds you automatically.

Got a health challenge you can’t crack? Send us a text and we’ll find an expert to get you answers — and give you a shoutout on the show.

We want to solve your biggest health challenge. Send us a text

Support the show

New here? Start with our 8‑episode playlist: https://nnbl.blog/podcast/start-here/
Free listener ebooks & guides (newsletter subscribers only): https://nnbl.blog/new-normal-big-life-ebooks-and-guides/
Rebuilding Resilient Lives Uncensored Community: https://rebuilding-resilient-lives.mn.co/share/kNbNMRnkLlpKWjar?utm_source=manual
New Normal Big Life streams free in audio and video on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

DISCLAIMER: For informational purposes only, not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional.