Season 1, Episode 93

NAD and Fertility: Dr. Nichola Conlon on Mitochondrial Health and Anti-Aging

In this episode, Dr. Nichola Conlon, a molecular biologist specializing in cellular aging, joins the Conscious Fertility Podcast to explore the pivotal role of NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and mitochondrial health in fertility and overall cellular vitality. Dr. Conlon explains how declining NAD levels with age can impact mitochondrial function, leading to fatigue, inflammation, and impaired cellular repair—factors that influence reproductive health and biological aging.

 

We discuss how chronic inflammation depletes NAD levels and why relying solely on NAD precursors like NMN and NR may not be enough. Discover a whole-systems approach to restoring the body’s natural ability to produce and recycle NAD, supporting energy production, mitochondrial function, and optimal fertility outcomes.

 

Key takeaways:

  • NAD is essential for energy production in our cells and mitochondrial function.
  • NAD declines with age, contributing to aging and cellular dysfunction.
  • Chronic inflammation (e.g., elevated CD38) can exacerbate NAD depletion.
  • NAD boosting is most effective when addressing the root causes of decline, rather than simply adding precursors.
  • A whole-systems approach to NAD supplementation, as seen in Nuchido Time Plus, helps address both NAD production and its proper recycling.

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Read This Episode Transcript

Lorne Brown

By listening to the Conscious Fertility Podcast, you agree to not use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others. Consult your own physician or healthcare provider for any medical issues that you may be having. This entire disclaimer also applies to any guest or contributors to the podcast. Welcome to Conscious Fertility, the show that listens to all of your fertility questions so that you can move from fear and suffering to peace of mind and joy. My name is Lorne Brown. I’m a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and a clinical hypnotherapist. I’m on a mission to explore all the paths to peak fertility and joyful living. It’s time to learn how to be and receive so that you can create life on purpose. 

Lorne Brown

Welcome to the Conscious Fertility Podcast. Today is a unique episode in that I am posting here on the Conscious Fertility Podcast, an episode where I was the guest interviewed by Dr. Aimee on the Egg Whisperer, and she’s really great at editing and keeping them on short bites to about 30, 35 minutes. And our original interview was probably close to an hour, so she was so kind to give us the raw footage. And my team edited it down to about 50 minutes. And so I wanted to share basically the full episode and you can hear how Dr. Aimee and I talk about kissing your ovaries and where she says Healthy eggs are happier eggs. So find out what she means by that. Again, this originally aired on the Egg Whisperer where I was interviewed by Dr. Aimee and I wanted to share this with my audience here on the Conscious Fertility Podcast. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Welcome to the Egg Whisper Show. I’m so excited to have my dear friend Dr. Lorne Brown on today. Welcome back Lorne. 

Lorne Brown

Thanks a lot, Dr. Aimee. I’m excited to be back with you today as well. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

We’re going to talk about something that I talk about all the time with my patients, and that’s about conscious fertility and psycho neuroimmunology for fertility patients, whoever thought that there was such a thing. And I’m welcoming back Dr. Lorne Brown to the show and I’m excited to have him on here to talk about this topic and new mind body tools and methods that can support fertility patients. We’ll also be diving into conscious fertility and talking about how mindset can help fertility patients on their path to pregnancy. Let me tell you a bit about Dr. Lorne Brown. He’s the founder of Acubalance Wellness Center in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, and my patients adore him. He left his career as a CPA to receive a doctorate traditional Chinese medicine, also known as TCM at Vancouver’s International College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and then continued to pursue training in hypnosis, functional medicine, cold laser therapy, and psych K, allowing him to offer an integrative approach to assist the body’s innate ability to heal pain, digestive disorders, anxiety, hormone imbalances, and reproductive health issues. Welcome to the show, Lorne. 

Lorne Brown

Hey, Dr. Aimee. I’m glad to be back on again as well and I always enjoy talking with you and my patients adore you, by the way. They always tell me how you have, they don’t know how, but you always find ways to have time for them. They feel heard, you answer their emails, so kudos to you as well. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Thank you, Lorne. You’re very, very sweet and very kind. Thank you. Let’s do a quick overview on how acupuncture can be used in support of IVF and transfers. First of all, what kind of acupuncture do you recommend for fertility patients? 

Lorne Brown

I’m actually not attached to acupuncture per say, although I’m trained in it. I’m a fan of anything that can help the cellular environment to increase blood flow, regulate hormones, lower oxidative stress, improve nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, mitochondria health, and overall cellular health. And so when it comes to what kind of acupuncture, there’s many styles I guess, and the style that you’re looking for. The goal is do we see a regulation in hormones? Does the cycle change if they have irregular ovulation, do they start to ovulate regularly if they have pain or clots or very light or heavy menstrual cycles? Does that change? Because in Chinese medicine, a healthy cycle has no pain, no to minimal PMS, no clots and you bleed three to seven days. And so the kind of acupuncture I like is seeing people once or twice a week, and it’s usually a good three to six months sometimes that we’re working with them to see that shift in the cellular environment that shows up in the physical symptoms, one of them being the menstrual cycle and the ultimate one is pregnant having a live birth. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

So you’re basically hypnotizing the uterus is what you’re saying? 

Lorne Brown

Yeah, I’m hypnotizing them. I am trained as a clinical hypnotherapist. So it’s funny you say that. I am doing that in a lot of my patients, which I call conscious fertility work. So I am doing the acupuncture with some hypnosis. So it’s funny that you said that. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Yeah, I mean, the thing is when I tell patients about acupuncture, I say, I really want you to look forward to doing it. I really want you to feel better when you come out of it. If those two things are satisfied, you look forward to it and you feel better coming out of it, then continue it. If you’re not, that might not be the right place for you. So it might be good to maybe get a second opinion or maybe consider another way of improving mood and decreasing stress. 

Lorne Brown

And as we shared at the beginning, I’m not attached to acupuncture and I would say a small percentage, but there are some of my patients that the idea of acupuncture or getting acupuncture puts ’em into more stress. Most of them that have that fear after one to three visits, they don’t have that experience. So it does shift and it has that beneficial effect. But if somebody has that severe fear of the needles, I use laser acupuncture or herbal or diet, we always do the diet movement. But there’s so many other things that we can do. And the goal again, is to increase blood flow, reduce stress and anxiety, regulate those hormones and to support implantation and reduce those miscarriages. So we have a live birth. Yeah, and dosage matters. I just like to always emphasize that I get a lot of patients that just come and see us on transfer day, but all we can do on that day is help with uterine receptivity. Seeing you, whether you’re doing ovulation drugs or an IVF before retrieval, that period of time, those three to six months before is more ideal. And then if somebody has PCOS, endometriosis, inflammatory bowel disease, or other underlying pathologies, then you’re definitely going to need more than just a treatment on transfer day. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh

And then there are some studies that have determined that acupuncture has a positive impact on IVF, and you kind of discussed all the different things that you’re looking for as far as the diagnosis, but what are some of those findings that you’ve read about or learned about through your work? 

Lorne Brown 

Yeah, I think since 2002, that’s when it first started with IVF on transfer day. The most recent meta-analysis that I have looked at at the time of our recording was the one published in July of 2023, and they looked at over 4,700 people going through IVF having acupuncture. And their conclusion was it increased implantation by 28%, pregnancy rates by 33%. The most important one was the live birth rate by 33% and it decreased the risk of biochemical pregnancies by half. And also there’s been research where they show an acupuncture during an IVF setting lowers the anxiety level and again, the mechanism behind it. What we’re understanding is the stress levels regulating the hormones, increasing blood flow, who knows what else from a western perspective because the Chinese had a whole different model of the body when they did this. So anything through that integration to support health on a cellular level, we’re hoping for increased results. So that’s one meta-analysis that is 2023 that came out. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

So aside from other things you recommend, I know you’re always recommending going to McDonald’s for the french fries, getting the core of the pineapple. Right. 

Lorne Brown 

It’s a funny thing you talk about the McDonald’s french fries, but it just reminded me of somebody I had on our Conscious Fertility podcast who is very healthy. His wife keeps him healthy, he’s really into the spiritual side. And we got lost once we were at a conference and he was in my car and we had to get back and I took him to McDonald’s because it was the only thing available. And his wife, it wasn’t a good scene when we got back. The first time he had McDonald’s in about 20 years. But yes, you’re referring to the McDonald’s that is all over the web that will prove your IVF success and pineapples. And for those that are listening, I tell you, I don’t know what you tell your patients. I say the intention, the mindset, if you want to have those McDonald’s fries today and you think it’s going to help you go for it, just know it’s not going to help you on a physical level. It’s because one person who had multiple unsuccessful IVF cycles that one time was successful, she happened to have McDonald’s that day. So she has that cause of an effect. So McDonald’s Fries got her pregnant. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Yes. And I imagine she has a nice sponsorship deal now with McDonald’s. Exactly. Exactly. It’s kind of like an internet craze, but it’s not something that’s real. But what are the things that are real? What are some herbal supplements? Do you have any favorites? What do you tell patients to do? 

Lorne Brown 

Oh yeah, I got some favorites. Things that I go through at the time of this 24 years into practice. So I want to remind us that the simple things are still the most important things. Small action done on a daily basis will lead to massive results. It’s often dismissed, but regardless of the acupuncture, low level laser therapy, or IVF, you have to move your body daily. So movement, exercise, eating well, diet, adequate rest, deep sufficient sleep. If you’re not doing that, then those small actions will have a negative impact on your body. So that’s one of those things. Don’t dismiss those things. And then I like to use MINDBODY work. I call it conscious fertility, but ways to elicit to develop emotional resilience and to help rewire or change those old subconscious programs. I like to do that kind of work. I’m a fan of supplements, especially if there’s certain deficiencies, which we often will test for. But if you ask me my favorite supplements, healthy prenatal, a good prenatal, coq 10, and acetol, I like N-Acetyl Cysteine as well. It’s quite common that I prescribe Omega-3 for my patients. Some that are not familiar for people, but they’ll know this magnesium. I like magnesium a lot and vitamin D three with a K two combined. And then depending on what endometriosis piece, whatever else is going on, we may add things. But if you ask me what are the most common five, those would be there. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Yeah, I usually share the exact same list with my patients. I usually add two more things for the patients who have lower egg quality or even if they don’t. And that’s NAD NR NAD. Exactly. And resveratrol. So those are the two that I also add. So yeah. 

Lorne Brown 

And two questions on those because we get to go back and shoot the sh*t here, right? Yeah. So the NAD, we haven’t brought it into our clinic yet. There’s oral and then there’s iv. We’re not confident yet that the oral is going to do its trick. Our naturopathic doctor, she’s a little bit on that brilliant side prior to the pathway. She has this concern that it’s going to get stuck somewhere on the pathway, so you’re going to have short-term benefits and then later issues. So she prefers the iv, but we just haven’t brought it into the clinic. What are you doing and what do you think 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Oral is best? I’m so funny. I am a brand ambassador for this brand and it’s Tru Nigen. You’re 

Lorne Brown 

Familiar with that? Yeah. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

I think NR is the best way of increasing NAD in our cells. I’m 75 years old, Lorne, don’t I look amazing? 

Lorne Brown

You do. I would not think you were 75. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

I’ve been taking, 

Lorne Brown 

Not to make it a competition, but I’m 85. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

You beat me. You totally me. But I’ve been taking Tri Nigen for at least seven years now, and I learned about it from a 43-year-old patient who had done multiple IV cycles and then she did an IVF cycle with me that looked just like an egg donor cycle. And I was like, what is this stuff? And she learned about it from an animal study. And then I brought into my clinic since then and I reached out to the company. I was like, I love what you guys are doing, and please, we have to tell fertility patients about it. And so that’s how my partnership started. So I swear by it, and you can also do it IV for women, I think IV causes us to have more symptoms from it. You get more jittery, more heart palpitations. I always tell people to start low and go slow. So start at 150 milligrams. There’s powder sticks that you can start with if you’re really sensitive, 150 milligram capsules and then solely go up to 300, actually take a thousand milligrams a day, and that keeps the wrinkles away. 

Lorne Brown 

And then resveratrol again, are naturopathic doctors that love to geek out. They like that one, but they don’t do it for frozen embryo transfers. Somehow it may impact implantation. So they do it for egg quality, but they don’t do it for getting close to a transfer 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

A thousand percent. It’s part of my beauty line for the eggs when it comes to my beauty line for the uterine lining. I have a whole nother set of things. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Lorne Brown :

I have to tell you, I’m getting a little excited, goosebumps as we chat, because I’m thinking back to the 2002’s when I really got into reproductive health. I had been in practice since 2000 and back then REIs threw me out of their clinics, right? 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

We’re such assholes. And because of covid, we’re even more so now because they’re like, oh, COVID, we’re not going to bring you back. But yeah, I know.

Lorne Brown 

Well, it’s different now. This is why I like talking to you because, and then they used to tell people to get off coq 10. They said, we don’t know what that herb is. And I’m like, it’s not a herb antioxidant. But then time went on and I mean, we’re on site at all the fertility, so they built rooms for us. We’re there. So things change, but why I’m getting goosebumps is I’m sitting here. I always wanted integration. I dreamed of the day that it was integration. And I’m sitting here and you know about resveratrol. It’s not that you heard about it and you have your beauty line and your egg quality line and the implant. That’s why I’m having goosebumps that here you’re as an REI. And I know because we’ve talked about low level laser therapy, about NAD, it’s just even so for the patients that are sitting here that your reis are not integrated enough, man, you don’t want to go back in time. You have no idea how good it is in 2024 when we’re recording this. So I just want to say thank you for doing what you’ve done to get, it’s not part of your REI program, so thank you for doing what you’ve done to become aware of all the things that are available to your patients. Again, probably why they adore you. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

You’re very sweet. I mean, the thing is, the easiest word to say in the English language is one syllable. And the word is no supplements. No. Did I exercise? No. I mean, that makes a doctor’s job really easy. Rather than actually thinking about it, looking at the research, trying it on patients, saying no, takes very little time. And teaching your nurses to say no on your behalf also takes very little time too. Okay, so what are some of the MINDBODY tools that some fertility patients might not have heard of yet? We learned so much about you, low level laser therapy, all you, now everyone knows about it. So what are some MINDBODY tools that we may not have heard of yet? 

Lorne Brown 

Yeah, well, if you’re okay, I probably get a little weird too, if that’s okay. I think you’re okay with that, 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Right? I’m totally weird. Yeah. Yeah. 

Lorne Brown 

I like to live in both worlds. My head in the clouds and my feet on the ground. And I know we’re going to talk about p and I later as well as part of this. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

So some people might not know that PNI stands for Psycho Neuro Immunology. Everybody. 

Lorne Brown 

Sorry, did we defend? Defend anybody? 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Not offended

Lorne Brown 

Yeah. So the MINDBODY tools I kind of share with why they’re out there. What I would look for, I’m always like, why are we doing it versus just like, do I need acupuncture? Well, what do we change in the soil? What do we change in the cell environment? So why do we want a MINDBODY tool? And so there is the materialistic view and the quantum view, the Newtonian view and the quantum view, the materialistic where we’re going to talk about psycho neurology, the physical shifts in your body from stress. And then there’s a spiritual component. On my podcast, the Conscious Fertility Podcast, I bring on credible people as if they’re trained in neuroscience, they’re physicists or quantum physicists. They’re PhD in psychology, so I know they’re grounded in the materialistic view of the world. That’s their training. And then they’re also talking about this thing that’s getting the term consciousness. 

Lorne Brown 

And so basically the idea is there’s more to this world than meets the eye. There’s things that are happening beyond our five senses. Call it the sixth sense. And this is where I say miracles happen or you tap into your higher self. And so when I say talking about mind-body tools, how do we remove this filter so we can access our higher self? And the metaphor I’ve heard other teachers have consciously talked about is that there’s the sun and you love the brightness and you love the warmth from the sun, but today it’s full of dark clouds, so you feel cold and you don’t feel the sun. The sun’s always there, but in your mind it’s not there. I’ve lost connection to it, but it’s there. And you have to go through the clouds or part the clouds to re-experience the brightness and the warmth of the sun. 

Lorne Brown 

So any mind-body tool, because there’s infinite out there that can help you part the clouds so you can reconnect to your higher self are tools that I would recommend. And there’s many out there. And so the tools I use based on my training as a clinical hypnotherapist and trained in Chinese medicine and then just all the other little certifications I’ve done in my own personal experiences, the Joe Dispenza retreats, I’ve done multiple of those. And the Bruce Lipton work, I just one day had my, I guess call it access and my download and I developed an approach that I call notice, accept, choose again. And the intention here is it helps you develop emotional resilience. Basically, it’s how to be present so you can deliberately create reality. And for the listeners that don’t know, you’ve probably heard of the author Eckhart Tolle. He wrote the book, The Power of Now. He lives in my city of Vancouver. And when I read his book, can I share a cute story about that? 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

I want you to please, I think you’re amazing. I’m already partying the clouds in my head right now, looking at the fun feeling very warm. So share away. 

Lorne Brown 

So the notice except choose again, this approach that I have not given it a better term yet is notice NAC, it’s not the NAC didn’t take the supplement. It was how to now. Because when I read his book, when you’re present, you don’t suffer and you have peace and joy. I was like, I want some of this, but I am that left brain guy. Remember I used to be the CPA, and I was like, but how do I have this presence? And everybody I would learn from, I’m like, how? And one day after all the retreats, all the program, I’m a kinesthetic learner. So I go and learn these things. I don’t always practice them full time, but that’s how I like to learn is to get certified in them, not just read about them and then practice with myself, family and patients. And so I want to know how to now, and eventually one day it dawned on me that all of them are doing this notice, except, choose again. 

Lorne Brown 

Since we’re on the NAC approach, I’ll just explain that then. Okay, so it makes sense. So when you go unconscious, you’re affected by the situation. The external world is impacting you, and so you suffer. But if you can become awake, be conscious, then you can interrupt that story. And I can’t think of the author right now, but it may come to me. But his quote kind of goes like this. Every situation, you either habitually, unconsciously react, or you can consciously choose to respond. So in every situation, the reaction that comes out of you is from your programming. You came into this life with some programs and then based on your sex, your religion, your culture, your nationality, and then your parents consciously or unconsciously imprinted programs on you and society, and you develop these programs that you run and your behaviors are always congruent with your beliefs. 

Lorne Brown 

So that’s why if you try to lose weight, dieting is not going to work. You got to go after the program. If you fix the program, then the behaviors will change. So we always like to work with the subconscious going to the notice, accept, choose again. Then. So what are all these teachers of conscience sharing? In my opinion, what I distilled it down to, the first thing is to notice everything that happens is neutral. And then we give it meaning we’re meaning makers. And the meaning we give it is through the lens of our subconscious programming. So if we change the lens of our program, the perception of what is happening is different. For example, let’s say reality is white snow, but I have red glasses on, you have pink glasses on. This person has green, blue, everybody is seeing the white snow, but everybody’s perception is different based on their lens. So you change the lens, you perceive reality differently. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

And I’ll throw in an IVF example. So you go in for your baseline ultrasound, you have an ovarian cyst. So you’re going to see that and you can take it in different ways as a way to learn from it and say, I’m going to continue to take care of myself. Or you can take it and think of it as the worst thing that’s ever happened to your life and allow it to let you spiral. Yeah. 

Lorne Brown 

So you go, what you’re saying is it’s either happening to you spiral or it’s happening for you. However, be kind to yourself because your reaction to that ultrasound was not, you didn’t choose that. That comes from your program, your lenses. And it is a supercomputer. Your subconscious is fast. Think about it. When you sleep, your heart beeps and pumps blood while you’re unconscious, you breathe while you’re unconscious, you may consciously pick up an apple, but after you chew that apple, the enzymes from your mouth, the acid from the stomach, the absorption, you’re not thinking anything. You’re riding your bike, you’re driving your car, but the subconscious is doing all this. You’ve probably all experienced where a ball or a crow almost hit you and without you thinking about it, you moved your head. You didn’t think about it. So just so you know, your reaction is unconscious. 

Lorne Brown 

This is why we want to prune the wiring, the synapsis of these old programs and rewire new programs. So in that quote, I said, in every situation, you unconsciously, habitually react. And it’s a program you didn’t get to choose it, it got imprinted on you, or you can consciously choose to respond. NAC is how we interrupt the story. And so we notice, and it takes practice. So the first couple of times you’re going to only do this an hour a day or a week or years later on an event that happened that you’re still triggered by when you remember it. Everything that happens is neutral, and we give it meaning. Notice when you believe in the story, you make it real. So it’s a story and you’re believing it. I have a cyst and it means this. And now you suffer. So the second step, which is counterintuitive, is to accept what is. 

Lorne Brown 

When you fight with reality, you create resistance. In Chinese medicine, we call this chi stagnation. When there’s stagnation, pain and disease manifest. And when we have free flow of qi, we have health. And so resistance does not feel good. But when you can fully accept what is, and I have tools for this, so this is what I do in the A part, it’s not like, oh, I’m just going to, it’s conscious work. It’s working on the subconscious that we surrender, accepting what is this lowers the resistance, and this is the key part, these uncomfortable feelings, fear, anger, not good enough alone, they can act as portals to take us into presence. Now we go back to Eckhart. Totally be present. And when you’re present, when the resistance drops in your present, that feels good because you now have flow and receptivity and now inspired thought can flow through you, which leads to inspired action. 

Lorne Brown 

When you come from fear and lack, you will take action. But often that action will lead to more fear and lack. It’s what is your B. When you take action from flow and receptivity from that state of love and fill a hole and complete it, you’ll get more of that. So the key really is how do we lower resistance? We accept what is, and again, beyond our talk today, but I use tools to help you get into the present moment. Again, they’re tools. I just use ’em. They’re gimmicks to help you get there. Eventually you figure this out and you can do it in real time, but at the beginning, some of us that are left brain, we need to do this to get into being this. Amit Goswami who wrote the quantum doctor and the quantum integrative practitioner, I interviewed him on my podcast as well, and he calls it Doobie, be, do, be, do. And I was like, that’s NAD we do to get into being. And then from that being we can take action. 

Lorne Brown 

So the accepting is the key part because the accepting allows you to lower the resistance to surrender to what it is. And it does not mean you’re resigned to the situation. It does not mean that you like it. You’re just being authentic right now. I feel afraid. That’s it. And that takes the charge out of it sounds counterintuitive, but what you’re doing is you’re practicing or developing that ability to witness and observe because your very nature is peace and joy. You are not your thoughts and feelings. You are not the cloud, but thoughts and feelings, you are the rays, right? And your very nature’s peace and joy. And so by developing, strengthening, practicing the witnessing which we do in surrendering, accepting what is eventually you tap into what these experts that I have on my podcast call your higher self, something greater than self. And then it’s just knowing that comes through you. And that’s when it feels like these hands from the universe, from heaven come down and do things for you. All these synchronicities happen. 

Lorne Brown 

And then the choose again is once you’re in a state of relief or peace, now you can deliberately choose again. So going back to that quote I shared with you, Viktor Frankl’s quote, it’s a modification of Viktor Frankl, a man’s search for meaning in every situation, you unconsciously habitually react or we use NAC to rub it. You can consciously choose to respond. So I was working with somebody the other day. Well, every day when I work with somebody on the fertility journey, it always starts with the fertility journey. And then we gently and gently regress back. Remember, I have some training in clinical hypnotherapy. It’s never about fertility. There’s always some form of trauma from their childhood. And they heal that. And when that resistance comes down, now they get to choose how they want to be and feel in this world. 

Lorne Brown 

And that’s part of the rewiring. And now they’re not coming from lack of fear anymore. And so that is the NAC approach. And so when you ask me what kind of different mind body tools that’s style, but there’s guided meditations I share with patients, we want the ones that have really good hypnotic language because there’s guided meditations that will relax you, which is key. We need to relax the body, get out of sympathy into parasympathetic, get out of high beta, into alpha, even theta brainwaves. That’s how you get into the operating system of the subconscious. So relaxation’s good, but to really tap into that higher self, to tap into that supercomputer, we want to use some hypnotic language to get in there. So it’s beyond just relaxation. And that’s why I like some of the guided meditations that are out there that help relax you and then start to change the programs that you have been given 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

And your notice, accept, choose. Again, the method is very similar to the method I used for patients. So I always ask them, what do you want? What is it going to take? And are you willing to do it? So you have to notice what you want. You have to accept what it’s going to take. If you’re not willing to accept it, you have to choose again. That’s just the gentle reality. And I love what you say about things that are happening for you. So I teach my patients this float through life type of mentality. You can’t fight the current, but if you take that float through life mentality where things are not happening to you but for you and you’re just kind of going with the flow, your fertility journey will be a heck of a lot easier. 

Lorne Brown 

Yes. Because you’re going to get to whatever that destination is and you can either go kicking and screaming 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh

Or with the wicked sunburn 

Lorne Brown

Right? Or you can get there and it doesn’t have to be suffering. And to use that analogy, that metaphor you just brought up, I often share. I have a blog post on developing emotional resilience, which is about this notice, accept, choose again. And what I share with the patients, the metaphor I’ve come up with that works well for me and them is if you ever canoe or paddleboard and you’re out on a calm lake, so that’s you at peace. And then a speedboat goes by and all of a sudden these waves come, so life’s going to happen. People think, if I do this, I’ll always be happy. Yeah, I just want to change those expectations. Sh*t’s going to come to you, don’t worry. The question is how do you ride the waves? And what’s supposed to happen as a human experience is when you have this situation, these emotions are meant to go through you 90 seconds to three minutes. 

Lorne Brown 

But we have that brain that we suppress it or we project it out so it gets stuck in our tissues. And so it’s constantly impacting rather than having gone just through us and then we’re back at peace. Back to the metaphor is it’s counterintuitive. I remember when I was a young child and then when I was a counselor, when the waves came and my staff member said, everybody turns into the waves. And I was like, no, we should get away from the waves. And what happens is it’s harder to experience those waves on the side of the canoe or paddle boat versus front straight at it. So it’s counterintuitive to go into your motions, accept them and experience them, observe them. It takes courage to feel these feelings because you still feel these feelings. It’s just, I promise you, they don’t last more than 90 seconds or three minutes when we do this work. 

Lorne Brown 

And then when you’re on the paddleboard, say the waves will go up, it’s like, whoa, whoa, right? But you’re okay. You’re not being flipped over. And then eventually over 90 seconds to three minutes, the waves pass and now you’re back on calm lake and it’s peaceful again. And sometime in an hour or two hours, another boat may go by and here’s whoa. And you ride the waves, you have an ultra, there’s a cyst. Whoa, the waves. So ride the waves. We’re not saying, oh, I have a cyst. That’s great. We’re not doing spiritual bypass. We’re being authentic. If you’re angry, notice you’re angry, accept you’re angry if you’re afraid. And then the choose again. Once that relief happens and the resistance is lowered, then you choose how you want to respond. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Absolutely. And see it as something that’s happening for you, not something that’s happening to you. And use it as an opportunity to grow and to imagine those clouds opening up and feel the rays of sunshine. 

Lorne Brown 

The word is opportunity. Your infertility is an opportunity to grow. It’s a wake up call. Some people get cancer, some people get a divorce, some people have financial disasters. It’s an opportunity. I don’t call them a gift, nobody would ask for that, so don’t call it a gift. Since we spoke last, I fell off a dock and broke three ribs. I’m all healed now. And when I was lying on the dock, later on, a friend said to me, I told them my experience and they called it a gift. And I was like, oh, I’d like to regift that to you then if you think it’s such a gift. I got to tell you, that was the most painful experience of my life. But what happened to me because of this work that I do, I practice what I preach while I’m in terrible pain on the dock. 

Lorne Brown 

And while I’m thinking I’m sure I punctured a lung, I didn’t, by the way ended up with just three broken ribs. But the first thing that happened is I went into gratitude because right away as I laid there, I knew my date of birth. I knew who I was, I knew where I was, I knew what happened. I knew how much harassment was going to get from my buddies. So already I knew mentally I was good and I could move my limbs while I laid there. So I knew I didn’t break my spine or anything like that. I just thought I may have punctured my lung. And I went into gratitude. How fortunate I feel it could have been so much worse. And while I was in incredible pain, I was not suffering. I wasn’t like, I’m an idiot. Oh, I got to take off work. 

Lorne Brown 

Funny thing, be careful what you wish for a week or five days before this happens. I had been thinking that I really want to take a good week off. This is a lesson that is very specific for what you asked for because I got to take 10 days off, but that’s not really how I intended to do it. And so while I was in there, as I laid there, I chose to use the pain as a portal to presence. I was in so much pain. I’m like, I’m just going to focus on it. And I just breathed and noticed it. And then all of a sudden, this is where I say Spar thought comes through you. Your body wants to live. I was like, Hey, I know first aid. So I called this guy over, asked his name, and I was like, Hey, check me for bleeding. I knew I didn’t break my lips. He goes, what? I go look at my head, look at my ears, touch my pants, check me for bleeding, right? Then I got to take my phone out and call an ambulance and all that stuff. But that’s called being present. But life is happening for you. It’s not always roses, but those are big waves that happen. But I was on the paddleboard and I was able to ride those waves. So this work gives you emotional resilience. So when life throws you the cliche lemons, you make lemonade. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

And so many patients going through fertility, their first interaction with the medical world is as a fertility patient. And a lot of them haven’t developed these skills. So I think patients who are starting their journey should really use this as an opportunity to think of this as a spiritual journey and to learn as much about themselves and how to cope and build resilience at the same time. So hopefully everyone’s going to listen to this episode, certainly feeling so inspired and learning so much from you. And I’m going to use a lot of the tools that you’ve taught me today with my patients. So I want to talk about neuroimmunology. First of all, what does that mean? 

Lorne Brown 

PNI, psycho neurology. And now I’ve heard it changed to PENI. But here’s the idea. PENI, let’s call it. So your thoughts and feelings impact your endocrine system, your hormonal, your nervous system, your immune system. That’s basically what it’s saying. So basically that modern medicine has now confirmed, validated what the sages have said for thousands of years, that your mind, body connection, but God forbid they would actually say, Hey, there’s a mind body connection. They like to give it a nice term called PENI, psycho endo immunology

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

The humor or they think they’re really funny. 

Lorne Brown 

Yeah, so it makes it sound so now they don’t sound so woo. It sounds very medical like, oh, I have, of course, of course this is true. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

And of course it affects your cortisol levels, it affects your sleep, your relationships with people, your relationships with yourself, everything, your pain, your periods, your quality, everything, your implantation, window, everything. 

Lorne Brown 

So when you have a thought that through the, and now we talked about the lens, so you have a meaning because it’s never the event that causes the stress, it’s how you perceive it. We know multiple people could witness the same event and all have a different experience. So it’s never an event. It is your perception. For example, look, there are certain things that happen that no matter how sensitive or not sensitive you are, you’re going to be the effective at child abuse, sexual abuse, but are certain things, people come into this world very sensitive. And it’s a common thing in my practice when I regress people that their abandonment comes from their parents showing up late picking them up from daycare. That’s their abandonment. Somebody who’s not that sensitive that would not impact that child. But if you’re born really sensitive, that can do that. 

Lorne Brown 

And so it’s how you perceive the situation that causes the stress inside the body. And it’s more and more documented that fertility causes stress or trauma can be perceived that way. But if we just follow the mechanism, you have a stressful event, the body perceives it as an alarm, then you have the body reacting. So here’s the hormonal immune approach. So you release bodies and alarms, so it releases cortisol. Cortisol affects blood sugar regulation, which can affect other hormones, leads to chronic inflammation, which we know chronic inflammation can lead to many diseases, which can also lead to suppression of the immune system. So now you have all these stress hormones which turn on and off genes for disease and subfertility. If you’re able to experience the joy and lower the resistance, so feel safe, not an alarm, then you feel you get more of the serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, which turn on and off genes for healing, longevity, and reproduction. So that’s my simple reason that don’t ignore your thoughts and feelings. It’s like a little smoldering fire underneath. And every once in a while it burns up. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

And I just literally tell patients happy eggs are healthier eggs 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh

And just believe that. So I am a total weirdo too. I accept it and I tell my patients, your eggs are so beautiful, and if they have a partner there, I say, please talk to their eggs and tell ’em how pretty they are. And I want you to truly believe that. And there’s just something about it. And I feel like of course not every person that tells their eggs they’re beautiful is going to end up with a healthy embryo. But I feel like just that, the positive affirmations that you give yourself, I think it is part of the PENI methods, so to speak, that can help patients with their overall health. 

Lorne Brown 

Be kind to yourself is what you’re saying. Love yourself. Take your fingers, kiss them, put them on your ovaries, kiss your ovaries, right? Be grateful for them. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Oh man, I’m going to have to steal that from you, Lorne. 

Lorne Brown
Go for it. I’ll tell you where I thought of that. I was listening to a TED talk and I don’t remember, she was training maybe a psychology training and positive thinking training. And she developed brain cancer and she took up a relationship and started practicing gratitude for her brain and kissing her brain. And right away because of what we do, I was like, yeah, kiss those ovaries, have gratitude for them. They’re working hard. They’re trying their best. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

This is incredible. All my patients are going to be walking around kissing their ovaries

Lorne Brown 

kiss their ovaries, yeah

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

F*ck the french fries, kiss your uterus all over

Lorne Brown 

Listen, we could go so weird. There’s people I’ve interviewed about remote healing and remote viewing. 

Lorne Brown 

So while your embryos are sitting in the lab trying to grow to blasts and you’re thinking it’s not going to work and you’re freaking out and crying, that’s the notice except choose again. Notice accept. So have your tears bring the resistance down, surrender then choose again. Why don’t you send some loving thoughts to that embryo in the lab and not be attached to form an outcome as part of consciousness. So I’d love to be your parent if I’m the right fit, enter this body. Let’s do this. Send it love, unconditional love. Whatever you can do when you do the affirmations, the key is to have those good feelings. And so another digress that my brain, ADHD, I’m always going to digress, but I talk about baby manifestation or manifestation in general. And this NAC is like step four. So the first step is knowing what you want. 

Lorne Brown 

I call it setting your GPS with the end in mind. So having a baby, then you add an emotional charge behind it. So I bring this up because you have to feel it if you’re sitting there kissing your ovaries, but you’re in fear and lack and then that’s not doing anything. It’s the emotions that put the charge behind the thought. That’s like the beacon that goes out there. So if you’re saying, I believe I have a baby, but your subconscious says, no, I don’t. No, I don’t, then you’re not sending anything out there. So really to put it on a cellular level, you have to practice. You have to dismiss the current reality temporarily and allow yourself to imagine the future as if it’s now and that you have your baby and what will be different. And the litmus test for any type of manifestation is when it arrives, you don’t feel differently because you’ve been practicing that feeling all this time before it arrives. 

Lorne Brown 

So when it arrived, you’d already been feeling that way. No, it’s not a surprise. And so the emotions are key. And then you get into the state of believing it’s going to happen. After you practice, it happens. And then step four is if you feel the resistance, you just don’t believe it, and you get these nagging thoughts and feelings, then we see that underlying belief or feeling. And then when the resistance drops, we go back into the steps again, which is to choose again, set your GPS, feel it, believe it, and then remembering not to be attached to form an outcome. And to me that is that this or better is going to happen to me. So if you’re attached to form an outcome, then you’re trying to play the universe God energy. So be open to other ways for things to come to you that bring joy, bring love, bring the purpose. Whatever it is that you think it is, don’t restrict yourself because conscious work requires you to be in the unknown and uncertainty, which doesn’t feel comfortable because it’s unfamiliar, it’s not that it’s bad, it’s because it’s not familiar. It can feel uncomfortable. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

So tell me more about the one-on-one work you do with patients. So if I have a patient that lives in California, for example, how do they work with you? I’ve already learned so much from you on our call. I’ll be kissing my ovaries, my uterus for the rest of the day. And I imagine people will be listening to this and their minds will be blown as well. And they want you to NAC this sh*t out of them. So how do we make that happen? 

Lorne Brown 

So if somebody is out of town, then they just set up a telehealth. And what I do in those, I have an initial consultation. I get their history, and then we find out what we can do to nourish the soil. And so they may want to know about supplements, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, laser, IVF, and that’s where I share the resources that I have around the world because I can’t do the acupuncture laser if you’re out of town. Some of them do come into town and see me, but for out of town, I direct them. Oh, here’s people you can go to. Hence why you see a lot of people that I’ve referred because I’m like, oh, you want some PRP? Check out Aimee, you want the Tushyi method? Check out Dr. Aimee. Exactly. You want your ovaries kissed. 

And I basically am like they want a second set of eyes. Sometimes they’re seeing somebody and I just go through it and see what they’re doing and then I can share other things that they could be doing. And then if they want to do the conscious work with me, the belief changes, they just set up a series of sessions online, and usually we do at least five sessions. It’s common to do five sessions to see some shifts if they’re in person, I treat two ways, either I just do a session without conscious work, so they get herbal recommendations, dietary supplements, acupuncture, and low level laser therapy. And that’s those treatments that I can do hands on there. Or they can do another type of session where they get that plus they get the conscious work. The difference is when I just see somebody without conscious work, I’ll run two or three rooms. So I’ll get the laser set up, the acupuncture, I talk, and then I go to other rooms. When I do the conscious work, I don’t book anybody else parallel to them. So I’m with them for the full time so I can facilitate conscious work. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Awesome. That’s incredible. And then I actually think that you could help couples as well. I imagine the work you do can also heal relationships. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? 

Lorne Brown 

Yeah, I’m smiling because I never do relationship work with them together. It only takes one person to be conscious to heal a relationship. And so two things that happen in conscious work. One is we heal trauma from their childhood, and then we work on the real strong hit they have on their husband. 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

I follow the Kevlar vest, and I’m like which one of you is wearing it tonight? And I’m not joking. 

Lorne Brown 

My teacher, Gila Golab, says, relationships are not here to make you happy. They’re here to make you conscious so they’re your greatest teacher. And to share some stories when people do this work, because again, I promise one of two things happen if the shift happens when you really do this work, one is your perception of the situation changes, and two is the external environment changes. So the first one is your husband. It just doesn’t bother you what he’s doing. You just don’t see, you’re literally not triggered, you’re not ignoring it. You’re not surprised, you’re not triggered by it. You feel differently based on it. Or two is his behavior changes. So I’ve had patients where all of a sudden their husband started baking scones for them. I’ve had ones with their kids, so some already have kids and they’re looking for other children. I have people that come in that aren’t trying to get pregnant, by the way. 

Lorne Brown 

I don’t just treat fertility where they have young kids and one kid has terrible fear of sleeping on their own and one of them has to sleep in the hallway. And through this work, the child says, I want to sleep on my own. The light off child wouldn’t let parents come to watch them play sports. Then all of a sudden the child asks their parents to come to the game without the parents saying anything. They do the work. So you’re like wifi, the environment is your mirror. It’s a reflection of what’s going on in you. So everybody thinks I got to go work on the outside to feel better. This was actually my aha moment when I discovered conscious work. I was always a seeker. When I was a CPA, I was still showing up at these MINDBODY workshops. It would be I was in my twenties and it was all women in their forties at these retreats. 

Lorne Brown 

And I was learning like, wow, husbands are bad at these retreats. But I was always a seeker. But it wasn’t until around 2014 where I made this my PhD, my mission, my capstone. I just make it a full-time job for myself. And through this conscious work you have the shift and why it was like aha moment I had relief is I got the message that I had been trying to change the external world to feel good if just my staff are this way, if just the government was this way, if just my wife was this way, then I’d feel better. And then I realized if I just change myself, then my perception of everything else would change. And I was like, sh*t, I can make myself a full-time job. That’s a lot easier than trying to change everybody else. So for conscious work, when it comes to relationships, it just takes one person. 

Lorne Brown 

Why? Because when the person who is conscious is in a relationship, they don’t need their partner to be a certain way for them to feel good and needed, this is rarely uncomfortable. It’s tractive. So the partner’s not feeling that need anymore because you’re tapped in getting it filled another way, you’re not looking for them to fill you up. Two is, remember, notice, don’t take it personally when your husband’s an ass, you’re curious what’s going on for them? How old are they at this moment right now? What program are they running? And you’re not making it about you. You’re not taking it personally anymore, so you’re not affected by it. So that’s why it helps. And the other person has temporary relief because every human being wants to be seen and heard. That’s how we feel loved. This is to quote Gordon Neufeld local attachment therapist here in Vancouver, also on the Conscious Fertility Podcast. 

Lorne Brown 

So when you’re conscious, you’re able to be present, hold the space and hear them. You don’t need them to see and hear you because you already do that for you. So when you become conscious, you’re no longer looking for the external world to validate you. Yes, it feels good when it happens, but you’re very clear that those are temporary pleasure feelings. They’re not your nature. When I talk about how happy you are, your very nature is peace and joy. That’s why you’re happy. So you’re tapped into that. When you get a raise, when somebody pays you a compliment, when you get a blast, that’s an euploid embryo, that’s temporary pleasure, that’s external. So you’re still being affected by the external. You’re happy. Oh, it’s not Euclid. Now you’re not happy when you’re conscious. You still don’t like it, but you don’t get this big trigger or it’s a slow trigger. And so as you rewire the brain being a slow trigger, remember I said how fast it is supercomputer, as you prune the old programs, the old synapsis, and you rewire your brain, it can be a slow trigger. So as you’re starting to feel the volcano or feelings change, you can catch it and shift it right away, and it never takes hold of you. I don’t remember your question, but I hopefully answered it.  

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

No, answered it. Beautiful. I mean, the question was healing relationships love. 

Lorne Brown 

So yes, I work with women who are in relationships, same sex relationships and heterosexual, and they always ask, I want my husband to come in. He has to do this. And I say, he will come in when he sees the change in you. He may ask, but don’t push it because again, you’re trying to change him. And there are men that come in because they basically say, I don’t know what you do about, I want what my wife’s been getting. And if you ask your partner, if your partner asks you, Hey, what are you doing? Then you can mention it. And if they’re receptive, then tell them about it. But don’t push it. If they’re not receptive, then just change the topic and say, would you like some tea? 

Aimme Eyvazzadeh 

Right? I love it. Like some tea. Well, thank you Dr. Lorne Brown from Acubalance Wellness Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We love you. Thank you for all the work that you do. And I have a feeling that this podcast episode will be shared for years to come. Thank you, Lorne. 

Lorne Brown 

Thanks for the opportunity, Aimee. Alright, so there was the episode that I originally did for the Egg Whisperer for Dr. Aimee, I believe. I know there’s another episode where she’s interviewed me on laser and photobiomodulation for fertility. And I also have two episodes on the Conscious Fertility Podcast where I talked to Dr. Aimee about PRP and just her whole method, the Tushi method as well. So do look for those other two episodes on the Conscious Fertility Podcast with Dr. Aimee and go check out the Egg Whisperer to hear the great guests she has on her episodes, including two that I’ve done with her as well. 

Speaker 3 

If you’re looking for support to grow your family contact Acubalance Wellness Center at Acubalance, they help you reach your peak fertility potential through their integrative approach using low level laser therapy, fertility, acupuncture, and naturopathic medicine. Download the Acubalance Fertility Diet and Dr. Brown’s video for mastering manifestation and clearing subconscious blocks. Go to acubalance.ca. That’s a-c-ubalance.ca. 

Lorne Brown 

Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of Conscious Fertility, the show that helps you receive life on purpose. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show and join the community of women and men on their path to peak fertility and choosing to live consciously on purpose. I would love to continue this conversation with you, so please direct message me on Instagram at Lorne Brown official. That’s Instagram, LorneBrownofficial, or you can visit my websites Lornebrown.com and Acubalance.ca. Until the next episode, stay curious and for a few moments, bring your awareness to your heart center and breathe.

 

Nichola Conlon's Bio:

Nichola Conlon's Bio:

Dr Nichola Conlon is a molecular biologist specialising in the study of cellular aging. After a career in drug development, she founded Nuchido Laboratories to deliver disruptive innovation in the field of aging, rejuvenation and healthspan. 

Dr Conlon has a passion for sharing the latest science and is an accomplished speaker, with a skill for translating advanced science to help educate and support the wider population, encouraging people to age well and achieve their optimal life experience. 

 

Where To Find Dr. Nichola Conlon:  

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Lorne Brown
Nichola Conlon

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