Episode 19: James Maskell – On Functional Medicine, Community, & Health Empowerment
Serial healthcare founder, speaker and innovator, James Maskell joins the podcast to discuss his experience with functional and holistic medicine. Dr. Stephanie and James talk about his latest book, The Community Cure and the role of community in influencing health outcomes. James provides eye-opening statistics about loneliness and its impact on disease. He breaks down the seven steps of The Therapeutic Order, including case studies that highlight this concept. Finally, Dr. Stephanie and James talk about the many benefits that accompany treating patients within group settings.
What We Covered
- 00:48 – Dr. Stephanie introduces today’s guest, James Maskell
- 05:49 – James’ background and origin story
- 11:29 – The Functional Forum and James’ first book, The Evolution of Medicine
- 22:47 – Statistics on loneliness
- 30:44 – How group visits work
- 38:50 – James breaks down the seven steps of The Therapeutic Order
- 45:05 – James recalls a story about Frome, a town in the U.K.
- 51:10 – Profitability
- 59:58 – Scaling up functional medicine
- 1:03:38 – Tips and strategies for getting patients to open up within a group setting
- 1:07:48 – James talks about the release of his latest book, The Community Cure
- 1:10:07 – Where listeners can follow Dr. Stephanie and subscribe to her newsletter
Tweetables
Having grown up in such a different health environment I just sort of had a moment where I realized maybe some of what I was born into is a part of the solution. And maybe I’m not born here to be an investment banker. Maybe I’m here… Click To Tweet And, just to take a step back, it’s really healthcare where the goal is self-efficacy. And, what that means is the goal where people can take care of themselves and they don’t need a doctor and they don’t need medication. Click To Tweet There was one stat that I have in the book which is that if you’re subject to a targeted rejection – which is someone intending to break a social bond with you, like a divorce or you get fired from your job – your risk of depression… Click To Tweet The reason why I think it makes sense to reestablish those groups in healthcare is that, eventually, everyone comes across some sort of health issue. And that’s a moment where we can sort of bring them into a group if they need it. Click To Tweet And the Therapeutic Order comes from naturopathic medicine, and all it says is ‘we should start with the least costly, least invasive interventions first and then work our way up to drugs and surgery as a last resort. Click To Tweet So ultimately, my vision for transforming healthcare is really to create this bottom layer of empowerment groups that facilitate turning on the body’s healing mechanisms and dealing with weakened systems that have been weakened as a… Click To Tweet Here’s the thing. If you teach someone to meditate and you do it ten percent wrong, what is the downside risk of that? It’s nothing. If you give people the wrong drug, the downside risk could be death. Click To Tweet I think that, for practitioners who are involved, I think you really have to realize that your expertise is not as valuable as your ability to help people help themselves. Click To TweetConnect with Dr. Stephanie
Dr. Stephanie's Articles on Medium
Links Mentioned in the Episode
James’ Instagram – @mrjamesmaskell
James’ Twitter – @mrjamesmaskell
James’ Books – The Community Cure: Transforming Health Outcomes Together & The Evolution of Medicine
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