Hi, how are you? This Hi
Damaris. How are you? How's
it going? This is the mindfully integrative podcast and Today on our mindful chat, we have Taryn Shenfield. He is the owner of added cam. And it is an integrative health conference for nurses and healthcare professionals. And also he his many years respiratory therapist, and many years in the medical field and a loving husband, and he can tell you many things about himself today, and I can't wait for you guys to enjoy some time with you. So thanks for coming on the show turns.
Well, thank you for inviting me,
of course. So let's kind of go with like a little bit of a fun fact. So tell the audience and those watching what do people not know about you? If they looked you up? They wouldn't necessarily know.
Well, maybe they don't know, I'm an avid skier that I moved to the Pocono Mountains just to go skiing. So that's pretty good things. Another thing is I bought myself a little john bottom, a little outdoorsy type. So I bought myself a little john boat, and I take it on the Delaware River. And I go also to some local state parks, and I tried to go fishing, but I strike out all
the time. I'm a terrible fishermen, terrible fishermen, but I enjoy going out there and, you know, it's like, relaxed, just getting out there and looking at the water and just the fresh air and trees. I mean, that's all I really enjoy.
And it's relaxing. And you're out there in nature. Yeah, I definitely envy you on the being closer to the outdoor Woods stuff. I think eventually, I'm gonna have to do that myself move more nature. or near the lake? Yeah. Um, so tell everyone a little bit about you. I know how kind of where you came from in this Integrative Health space or wellness space. I mean, we know because I was on your I worked with you, but the audience doesn't know.
Well, originally. If the college I went, I worked on Wall Street. So I'm from New York, maybe you could pick up my Brooklyn accent. But I'm from New York. And after college, I started working directly in Wall Street. And I was on wall street for about 15 years and the market crashed. And I got laid off after about three rounds a layoff. And regrettably, I got divorced at the same time, the whole floor fell underneath my
feet. And I had to regroup. Then I decided to go into the medical field, but based on my brothers telling me a little bit about everything, I wasn't sure to go into nursing or respiratory therapy, but I ended up going into respiratory therapy, and I went to University of medicine Dentistry of Newark, New Jersey. And during my clinical rotation at umdnj, the major trauma center in Newark, they offered me a job even as a student. Oh, wow, I almost had a job when I graduated, you know, they liked
what I did. And then shortly after that, I worked at the job as a respiratory therapist received every credential you could probably get, you know, I was like driven to get your become an expert in my craft. And because I was a little bit older, and because I had a little experience, I got it. I was advanced kind of quickly in the department, I became the education coordinator, which I maintained that position almost 22 out of my 25 years of being out there. And as an educator, I
really enjoy teaching. I used to teach the residents I used to teach the nurses I used to teach the respiratory therapist, I'm a little bit evidence based. And I always had a love of what would you call it? integrative medicine. I always practice that, you know, when I was going through a divorce, when I said when I left Wall Street, I had insomnia. from stress. I can only imagine I had a very good friend of mine who taught me about ru Vedic medicine,
and heard about Wow, aerobatic medicine,
I ended up you know, going, learning about your Vedic medicine and it really helped me with go overcoming the stress that I was going through. And it just stuck with me. So as I was closing in on my retirement, I decided to get a master's in Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
You just decided well, I just decide
because I love it and I had nothing to do with the job and had to adjust what I wanted to do. You know, and I really believe in you know, I believe in western medicine. Yeah, has this value, but I also believe it was strong, really believe in self care. Right. And, you know, maintain
Innovative. Oh, yeah, integrative medicine, which
is very natural. So I'm at that time are you ready originally because I was an education coordinator, I created a company called AMT, respiratory lectures to offer continuous education for respiratory therapists. And I did that almost like 12 years ago. Okay. And then, after having a business for about two years, and getting my goal to be a get my master's in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, I created another company added cam. So this is a company which is www dot add a
camp calm. And this company, I am also a nurse provider through the Pennsylvania State nursing Association. And I've worked with Damaris for four years, we've already programs all all first world we did throughout the Pennsylvania, we also have done on retreat, we have nitrates down beautiful beaches. Yeah. And we're gonna continue doing that. But um, basically, most of the things I do would add a cam, I try to bring a little bit of traditional medicine with a mixture of
integrative medicine. Yes, I give you both sides of the coin, and I love what I do. I know a little bit of what I do.
And you've helped so many people in the traditional and the integrative health space in what you've done, and I feel like you have, isn't it like over 10,000 people, you know, on your Yeah,
I know a lot of people and very importantly, is the people I meet, like you. I've met so many, like wonderful people who are so knowledgeable and so passionate about they do in every form of integrative medicine. I've known people who are experts in aroma therapy, right mindfulness, like yourself, I know people who are on herbal medicine,
right? The medical marijuana space,
medical marijuana, I've known many physicians who are they actually write prescriptions for medical marijuana. So I've really got to meet so many people. And if they're sitting in lectures, and listened to people speak, your knowledge base really grows. I'm just in a good place with people who are very knowledgeable and passionate about what they do.
I love I love that. I love the amount of people that you've met. And, you know, and we're, you know, we're hoping that down the road, we'll talk later, but we'll hopefully have an event with this with all these different speakers.
Do after just COVID pandemic. I am due for a beach. Oh, yeah. And nice water, you know, sitting under a nice coconut tree. So what do you think of Damaris is
definitely Nina Richie. You know, I don't know how far maybe even like, well, maybe something simple in the beginning after this, but definitely something relaxing. I need I need something. Let me tell you, my it's my 40th birthday this coming week and I was supposed to be in Hawaii, it didn't happen. Okay, well, you got time. I got time, but that's all right. Um, so in from all of us.
I mean, you did kind of touch base on a little of your struggle from getting into this space like what who inspired you? Was it just that because of your struggle with your divorce? I think
my integrative medicine all stemmed from my funny a divorce, like a trauma of traumatizing time in my life, when I realized that, my way of dealing with stress to insomnia, which is
right. Alright.
So, another word stress with me comes out in the form of insomnia. Right, right. And that struggle and when I was at work, and I quit, and I was not sleeping, people will look at me and say, what's wrong with you, Terry, you're not the same and it's because you know, sleep is very important. And it just diminishes your cognitive ability. And after going to a doctor and then prescribe an Ambien, and Ambien work, and I felt like that when I came when I used Ambien, they came to
work. They thought I was on drugs because I looked glazed over. Oh, no show that is when when a very good friend of mine J. Patel suggested I ever try a Vedic medicine. And that's when I was introduced to ru Vedic medicine and I met this wonderful physician Dr. Scott gearson. From he had an office in Greenwich Village in New York
City. And I had my first foray when he was both in MD a medical doctor, as well as an ru Vedic physician, and he spent about two and a half hours with me, just trying to uncover what's going on in my life. I've never had anyone sit down with me discuss what was going on with me. He wanted to know what I'm eating, what I'm drinking, what kind of exercise I'm doing, what's my sleep patterns, he looked at everything. And he looked at me holistically, and came up with a plan. And it was
phenomenal. It really worked. It stuck with me even up to this day. And this is many, many years ago. But that was the trigger for me to go down the path of self care. And it can be very simple, simple little things, what you eat, you know, what you think the
fact that you're out in nature, you know, you have a motorcycle, I know that and you go out and you're now you're gonna go stroll on that out on the
side, I know how to sort of tune into nature.
And I think that's really great coming from you, because I've known you for a number of years now. And, and we are similar in the sense we both kind of active kind of more, more energetic people, and the fact that you're able to tune in and reset yourself. I think that says a lot of your character, and you're also a wonderful person, and you're happily married to your wonderful wife, Anna. And I just feel like you guys really are
enjoying life. And you're using integrative health or the medicine, like your self care to be better, you know? Oh, yeah. And I noticed that you've just done, you know, I've done a lot of things. And now you're even taking it to the point where your company is, both your companies are educating people in traditional and integrative space. And I think there's so much that you're doing for individuals. And you you just finished a webinar yesterday. That was on COVID, right?
Yep. But we did a five hour webinar on COVID. My particular topic was vaccination, herd immunity and treatment options.
Wow. And then you also were doing and then just even this morning, we were talking you had said you had done a lecture on diabetes, but you also
own it. I was invited by the Diabetes Association, to do a webinar this morning that talked about the use of medical marijuana and diabetes. And I was, you know, I know about medical marijuana, but I've never really tied into the diabetes portion. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's like my brother is a diabetic, right? And my brother has neuropathy. My brother is an amputee and my brother is a kidney transplant. And I was just shocked at the benefits of cannabis with diabetes.
Would you like to share like, just one One moment, like one element of that, like, you don't have to go and yeah,
I mean, we all well put it this way. You know, one of the risk factors for diabetes is obesity. Right. And this country is an obese, you know, we're getting worse.
Yeah, diabesity.
They did some longitudinal studies where they actually looked at over 18,000 people. And they also did other studies where they looked at people who use cannabis on a regular basis, and you would think, and the funny part about cannabis use, it does stimulate
your appetite. So they are they are consuming more calories, but as a result of consuming more calories, their glucose metabolism is improved by the endocannabinoid system, and they have a weight loss another way they typically have lower fasting insulin load of fasting blood sugars, and actually smaller circumference and waist
size. So they think that even though you consume more calories, it's how you metabolize those calories is different because of the activation of the endocannabinoid system and the CB one CB two receptors.
Can you imagine even on top of that if you took that to a step further and actually taught someone about their nutrition, so they may be eating more but then you tell them about the nutrition and nutritional what you should eat and then you tell them you're going a step further exercise like you put on like life's you know, you put those three two other steps in there.
And I think we're we are going to talk about that at some point where we were talking about where we're at a webinar on this topic
I think it's so timely the fact of diabetes in America obesity in america i mean if anything hits home So talk about this and I'd love to work with you on this Yeah, no
and I mean like sugar in itself is a drug and we never talked about that enough like and that's it's because it tastes good you know, it's just as bad they say as coke cocaine in the brain and it and it triggers that similar um, that signal similar like energetic and like if you look into the the brain patterns it's very similar to the addiction and and it's because it's good you know, cakes are good and sugars are and and you get addicted to it and it does too and you have a withdrawal just
like any other drug and i think that you know, cannabis is one aspect that where it helps decrease that and, and die.
You know, we also want we don't want people to walk around like stone I'm doing a lot of research, they're doing a lot of research of the blockade of the CB one receptor. And, you know, big pharmaceutical companies want to get in on this. Yeah,
it's it's not about being taking drugs like we're not, we're, you know, these people, we're trying to be advocates for healthier, healthier fries.
A lot of one, a lot of people at this webinar, they had so many questions, they had to cut them off, because they will hit me up with so many questions. At the end of it was like 10 minutes of q&a. And they were just like, I couldn't get to them all.
So I see. There's a need, I think I think I made a good impression on them. That's excellent. Oh, my God, I can't wait to have you on and talk more about this. And as do our webinar, is there things that are coming up in the next couple months that you want to share with us?
Um, well, ah, yeah, I'm actually you know, typically I do live webinars on my website with my www www.at. ca. com, little plug,
and I know, I know, a little plug, I'm going to put your all your information in the show notes. So everybody know
we have I typically once every three weeks do a live webinar. And I cover a host of topics. I'm actually doing something on a you know, like I said, sometimes I do integrative medicine, sometimes I do. Traditional
additional,
I'm doing a little I'm doing actually somebody come up in about three weeks on neonatal neonatal pediatric care. And now you are we're talking about like how to manage a patient in the nick you. And we're gonna use more critical care medicine. I love that. And I have used excellent neonatologist joining me from
California. Wow, that's my doctor Alma, David is going to be speaking, he's a chief neonatologist in San Francisco, and he's going to be joining me and myself and my partner, and we're going to be doing a little lecture on that. And we all we have a bunch of things we do, you know,
I can't wait for people to meet you and sign up and you know, and get more about and then maybe down the road, we'll probably be doing another conference and retreat. So I think that'll be fun. Is there a little tidbit or mindful way that you kind of want to tell the audience that you do on a daily to get yourself kind of reset, or it's something that you recommend?
I always find time to be alone. You know, I love sometimes they just knew I go into my you know, where you have a little mindfulness way you practice it could be anywhere. But I typically will just sit back, take some deep breaths. clear my mind. And it recharges me.
Yeah. So
I enjoy that. You know, I don't I sort of sometimes, you know, I'm very busy at times. Yeah, and I'm on my computer and I'm researching this and that. And then sometimes I just want to relax and I found I can do that very well.
It's important though because like right after this, you know, you got to go reset and recharge. I mean, I think we don't we get guilty for doing that, you know, and we don't always give ourselves that time and, and you're saying it's okay, sometimes,
oh, it's very important how to do that. And I've developed a knife I pray every day. That's another form of mindfulness you know, you say some prayers and be thankful for all the good things that come your way and the people in your life you know, for that, you know, and that's my my way of
giving back. I know you have a lot of things you give back to and people so I'm I'm so glad that you were able to spend some time with the audience and be on our show today. Thanks for coming on. And I can't wait for others to know and learn more about you. Well, thank
you for inviting me
of course anytime. So thanks audience and and joining the mindful integrative podcast and look forward to seeing you guys again and hope that each and every day you find a mindful way. Have a good day and nama. Stay