Transcript: Is Modern Medicine Harmful – Barbara O’Neill on Health Shotzz Podcast

I was brought up with the belief that when you’re sick, you go to the doctor, you get a drug and you get better. I never doubted it.

So my daughter was 16 months of age, got an earache, went to the doctor, four courses of antibiotics, and six weeks later, he’s writing the fifth course. See, the earache kept coming back. And I know the definition of insanity: to do what you’ve always done and expect different results. But I didn’t know what else to do.

And I’m thankful to God for experiencing the frustration of not wanting to give my daughter any more drugs, not wanting to put her in any type of harm or danger. But I don’t know what else to do. So that feeling really drives me today because I know there are many women out there with little ones in a similar situation.

So I will ever do this. But that started a journey, a journey of investigating. What else can I do? I asked old ladies. An old lady next door told me about steaming up an onion, putting it on the ear. I did it with my next child. The earache was gone in two hours. I was sold.

RYAN FERNANDO: You know, you remind me of my grandmother. When I was studying clinical biochemistry at Goa Medical College, I got a sty. And she said, “Take out a little bit of spit early morning and put it on your eye.” And I was like, “Yo, that’s not medically sound and everything.”

Many years later, when I was deeper into studying, I read this article about secretory immunoglobulins being the highest concentration early morning in your spit. And she was right. So wisdom about an onion or garlic or something is there in our ancient books.

BARBARA O’NEILL: That’s true.

The SUSTAIN ME Formula

RYAN FERNANDO: So now you’ve been on this journey, 50 years later, you’re traveling the world. You’re literally like a rock star, going from city to city, convincing people. Where do you get your energy from?

BARBARA O’NEILL: I say to people, I found a formula.

RYAN FERNANDO: And what’s that?

BARBARA O’NEILL: And I put it in the acronym “Sustain Me.”

RYAN FERNANDO: Sustain me.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yeah, yeah. And so there are nine letters there. And I found a Bible verse. It’s found in Psalm 55:22. It says, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

RYAN FERNANDO: Wow.

BARBARA O’NEILL: So I even found a Bible verse. So the Sustain Me is: S – Sunshine, U – Use of water, S – Sleep, T – Trust in divine power. I like that, it’s right in the middle. A – Abstain. Abstain from anything harmful. I – Inhale through the nose. N – Nutrition. M – Moderation. Moderation in all the good things. And the last one, E – Exercise.

So I am diligent. In fact, one girl said, “Barbara, you’re so disciplined.” I said, “Well, it works.”

RYAN FERNANDO: I think I always tell people discipline is the starting point of great health.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yeah.

Ancient Wisdom: Herbs and Water Therapy

RYAN FERNANDO: Now you’ve been touring India and you’ve been on this journey for about 50 years in terms of telling people how to live better and heal better. Are there any tenets from ancient wisdom in Chinese medicine or Indian Ayurveda that you’ve come across the last 50 years and that you say this is what you need to be doing?

BARBARA O’NEILL: There certainly is. And I think every country has its specific herbs. And I know India is well known for their turmeric and their ginger, two herbs that I very much love, two very powerful herbs.

But also the water. I love the water therapy. So in my second letter in the acronym Sustain Me, it’s use of water. So use of water is referring to drinking adequate water. Use of water is also referring to there’s a time to drink and there’s a time not to drink, not with your meals, so you maintain good digestive enzymes.

But use of water is also referring to water therapies, the cold plunges in the morning, the alternating hot and cold. And I know that in your heritage there’s a lot of water treatments.

The Power of Negative Ions

RYAN FERNANDO: I remember watching a video of you talking about negative ions and moisture. Can you expand a little bit about that?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Well, negative ions are electrically charged oxygen molecules and three things have to be present. And I read this in a book, and when I read something good, I memorize it. “Water droplets pass through the air, casting off negative ions.”

So three things are there: water passing, meaning movement, and air. So whenever you’ve got moisture, movement and air, you’ve got negative ions. And I know an old… I got it out of an old Indian book I have. What you can do is you can get an empty glass and a full glass and you can keep pouring the water from glass to glass.

And I now know that that actually is creating negative ions and then you drink it. In fact, in the old book, it didn’t talk about negative ions, but it talks about making the water live like it is in the pounding of the waves and the rushing through the creeks.

Understanding Chronic Fatigue

RYAN FERNANDO: Barbara, a lot of people in today’s world, my country, 1.6 billion people, chronic fatigue. They’re constantly tired. What should we be telling the youngsters, middle aged people, that you shouldn’t be fatigued?

BARBARA O’NEILL: There is one cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, and that is lack of oxygen at the cellular level. Now, there can be a hundred reasons why there’s lack of oxygen at the cellular level.

But if you go into the cell, you’ll see that the oxygen burning with the glucose will give 36 units of energy compared to the glycolytic part of the cell. No oxygen, two units of energy. So if oxygen is in the cell, you’re getting 18 times more energy.

So then you’ve got to look at, well, why aren’t you getting oxygen in? Is it because you’re mouth breathing? If you nose breathe, you get much more oxygen coming in and out. I found it interesting that in Genesis 2, verse 7, the Bible says God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He became a living soul.

So I say when I’m lecturing, not mouth to mouth resuscitation. This was nostrils. And then scientifically looking at the anatomy and physiology of the nose, it purifies the air, it warms the air, it humidifies the air, balances blood gases, pressurizes the air, making it perfect for the lungs.

Some people have chronic fatigue syndrome because they’re breathing through their mouth. Some people have chronic fatigue syndrome because their house is moldy, they’re breathing in chemicals, or maybe they’re hunched and their abdominal muscles are weak. And we need to breathe also with our abdominal muscles and our nose. So I could talk for the next two hours on this one.

RYAN FERNANDO: So focus on the breath and start from that point when you’re starting with fatigue.

BARBARA O’NEILL: That’s right.

RYAN FERNANDO: And water is the other element that can help you.

BARBARA O’NEILL: That’s right. And being well hydrated and moving this body. The best way to oxygenate your body is exercise.

Dr. Sunshine: The Importance of Sun Exposure

RYAN FERNANDO: I love the fact that you said in one of your videos you need more of Dr. Sunshine. Can you tell us? Because we Indians have this thing that we need to be fair. We don’t like to go in the sun. We always cover up.

Especially in urban India. We’re talking about 500, 600 million urban Indians. We don’t get sun. If we do get sun, the other day I was in my garden and my mom’s like, “Don’t go out in the sun. You’re a celebrity nutritionist. You’ll get dark.”

So two questions: Dr. Sunshine and does the dark skin need to focus more on making friends with Dr. Sunshine?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Oh, it does. But I have to tell you, in Australia, all the white Australians want to be dark.

RYAN FERNANDO: The grass is always greener on the other side.

BARBARA O’NEILL: It is. But the problem is in Australia, because they lie out for too long in the sun, they’re getting burnt. And six to eight sunburns in a lifetime doubles your risk of skin cancer.

And Ian Wishart, in his books on vitamin D, he called sunscreens “the biggest medical disaster that’s ever been created” because we’re not getting the vitamin D. And there are 2,500 receptor sites on the DNA for vitamin D.

So every part of the body requires vitamin D, and especially to get our calcium and all our minerals for our bones, our teeth, et cetera, et cetera. The sun is the doctor in the sky. We need to visit him every day. But don’t overdo it.

RYAN FERNANDO: So what would you suggest? Early morning?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Early morning is good. If you do it in the middle of the day, it’ll just be shorter, but you can’t bear it anyway in the middle of the day.

RYAN FERNANDO: This difficulty you have with all the ladies, especially in India, because only this much is exposed and the hands. So would you advise a private space where they get some sunshine on maximum surface area?

BARBARA O’NEILL: I certainly do. And ladies’ private parts benefit very much from getting exposure to sun. We’ve got a lot of ladies today. One in four, the figures show, breast cancer. You know, those breasts need to have air, they need to have sunshine. So definitely a private spot.

Women’s Health: Natural Fabrics and True Beauty

RYAN FERNANDO: Staying with women’s health, because I think I see mothers and I see girls in India. We are programmed in society that the mothers, our wives, are to take care of us. They take care of everyone, but they take care of themselves last.

Now, all the women today are going out into the workplace. So we’re using a lot of makeup, cosmetics, tight clothes, nylon, not natural fabrics. Barbara, you have ancient wisdom. People listen to you. What advice would you give to the young women of India in terms of the fabric, makeup, cosmetics?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Well, it’s certainly contributing to hormonal problems. And we’re getting ladies in their 30s dying of breast cancer. And all of these chemical fabrics. When I read that nylon, polyester and acrylic were created in a chemical laboratory, that sends out alarm bells for me.

Especially when you realize that your skin absorbs everything that touches the skin. It’s going into the blood and it’s becoming part of us and it’s causing damage, causing damage in the arteries, causing damage in the kidney, the liver, those sieves that filter all the chemicals. The more chemicals, the more those organs go down.

So the best makeup in the world is actually being well hydrated. That gives beautiful skin.

RYAN FERNANDO: Could you repeat that again? The best makeup in the world is hydration.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Hydration. In fact, our massage therapists tell us when we massage a body we can tell how hydrated they are because in a hydrated body the skin just moves beautifully.

And when we exercise, especially the high intensity, it causes a release of the human growth hormone. Now the movie stars pay $1,000 a week for this because it increases the circulation of the blood to the skin. Another great makeup increases our body’s ability to utilize protein.

So I say to our guests, “I’m offering it up to you cut price today. 15 minutes high intensity.”

RYAN FERNANDO: I noticed your nails for your age are amazing. Do you use nail polish?

The Impact of Lifestyle Choices on Health

BARBARA O’NEILL: No, why? I like my nails the way they are and my nails are an illustration of the nutritional status of my body. My skin is an illustration of the nutritional status of my body. I have ladies my age coming to me and their skin’s like tissue paper. I look at my skin and I think, why isn’t my skin like that?

And then I realize it’s because I exercise, it’s because I drink water every day. Now, of course my skin is not like a 20 year old, but people are deteriorating too fast, too young. And you know the old saying, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

And what you do in your 20s is revealed in your 40s and what you do in your 40s is revealed in your 60s. And today I think a 40 year old is quite young, but when I was 20 I thought they were old. And of course when you’re 20 you never think you’ll be 70, but you actually do get there.

Understanding Modern Gut Health Issues

RYAN FERNANDO: Wise words, Barbara. Moving down into the gut system, we have some diverse cultures in India. We have thousands of languages, different cultures, food palate changes every 200 km. I see a lot of people coming to our nutrition clinic with issues on the gut. Why in modern day world do people have so much of irritable bowel syndrome or food allergies or they can’t eat this or can’t eat that. What’s your take?

BARBARA O’NEILL: One of the most destructive things that can go into the body is drug medication and yet so many people take drug medication and something that people can just buy off the shelf is panadol paracetamol and it’s disastrous. I know how it can disrupt the gut flora, but I was talking to a neuroscience yesterday and he was explaining what it does to the brain. He says it’s incredibly dangerous and yet that’s just an off the counter.

And people say but what did you do when your baby had a fever? I said, I love fevers. Fevers have a purpose. Fever is your friend. We use fevers every afternoon at Misty Mountain. We create fevers in people in the steam saunas. There’s nothing to fear. I just kept them well hydrated, and if they got too hot, I just put them in a tepid bath. So I never ever gave paracetamol for a fever. But I did keep them well hydrated and I did cool them a little if they got a fever.

But then they say, but what about when they were teething? Well, babies have been teething for thousands of years and haven’t taken paracetamol. If my baby was a little upset, I put them in the sling. I had a sling. My baby spent a lot of time in the sling. And if they were happy, I’d put them on the floor and let them crawl around and play. But on days when they were a little bit upset, I just put my baby in the sling.

I have to tell you a wonderful Indian story. So I always slept with my babies. And my fifth son, he had bad asthma and he had a very bad attack one day and I took him to the hospital. I feared for his life. And so they were getting a cot for him and I said, oh, my baby doesn’t sleep in a cot. And they looked at me and they said, well, where does he sleep? I said, with me in a bed. No, no, no, we can’t do that. I said, well, I will just sleep on this lounge with him. So they got me a bed.

So, and I was used to the nurses giving me a hard time because I slept with my baby. So early one morning, the curtains came back, was 6 o’clock to give the take the temperature. And the ops on Little Pete’s 10 months old. And I heard this and I thought, oh, dear, I’m about to get told off again. And I opened my eyes and looked and it was a male Indian nurse. And he said, “this is wonderful.” He said, “in my country, all the mothers do this. In my country, we have a bed and the mother sleeps with her baby. If every baby here had their mother sleeping with them, most of these babies would be home.”

RYAN FERNANDO: The power of motherly love.

BARBARA O’NEILL: So I slept with all my babies. I put them in slings and, you know, they’re not all still around me. Have you noticed? I found that you created very independent little children when you’re always there with them when they’re babies, when they’re little. But today we push our babies away we put them in a bed, in a room. Sorry, that’s another subject. You can get me started on staying with the gut.

Addressing Digestive Problems

RYAN FERNANDO: We have a lot of burping and farting and stuff like that. And people say, as I get older, you know, I can’t eat this food. I can’t eat that food. And I don’t think people realize that as you grow older, you need to begin to become aware and see what works for you. So if somebody comes to you with digestive issues, where can you start? What advice would you give them?

BARBARA O’NEILL: I have developed a little formula. I look at the history. I dig, when did this start? What were you doing? So there’s the history. Then I look at symptoms. So then I ask them, well, when do you get that pain? When do you get that discomfort? And, oh, you’re on antibiotics. Antibiotics just slaughter that gut.

So then I investigate, investigate, and then I try different things and I watch the body’s response and I teach them to watch it. So three things. History, symptoms. That’s where you start. So I say to people, I’m not interested in the name of your disease. I’m interested in your symptoms and then response.

So if someone had gut problems, then we start with building up the microbiome. If I’m in India, I say, it’s time to eat DOSA and idli, and there’s probably a few others that I can’t quite get the name of. And stop the five allergens, which is dairy, wheat, oats, peanuts and refined sugar. We’ve seen many people conquer the irritable bowel from stopping those foods.

And then if you can get slippery elm, it’s the powdered bark of the slippery elm tree coat, soothes and heals. If that can’t be bought in India, there’s aloe vera. And aloe vera is beautiful. And you look at the sliminess of aloe vera, that’s just like the lining of our gut and just before going to sleep at night. But aloe vera has a growth stimulant, so stimulates rapid healing. Aloe vera has a natural probiotic in it, so it has many wonderful properties, has the aloe vera.

So that’s where I started and I teach the people to do a food diary. And when I was in America about three months ago, a lady was driving me around and she told me her story, little Mexican lady. She said I had gut problems. So she said, I brought it right back to just a plate of steamed vegetables and I got a 10 out of 10 with that. So I just stayed on that for a few days and then I introduced something else and I made a food diary. She said, now my gut is happy.

And I said, I wish I had a bag of medals and I would give you a medal. You’ve done it, You’ve done it. I love stories like that where people just take control. If that food doesn’t sit well, don’t eat that again. One lady said, “Barbara, I’m allergic to strawberries. What can I do?”

RYAN FERNANDO: I said, stop eating strawberries.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Stop eating strawberries. But I like them. I said, we’ll have a gut problem.

The Fatty Liver Epidemic

RYAN FERNANDO: Speaking of the gut, we know that the liver is the master of a lot of our functions. And I was recently alarmed to find out that we are the largest population in the world, but we’re also going to have the largest fatty liver issue in the world. So you practice at your retreat. What are some of the tips that you could advise a person on? You know, we, everyone. I see people walking around with bellies and stuff like that. You’re a ripe candidate for fatty liver. And they don’t know it till many years later when the liver is almost broken down and they’ve gone to the hospital. So what advice would you give?

BARBARA O’NEILL: It’s really hard to do this, but I encourage people to start listening and make a food diary. And when they make the food diary, often they’re surprised. And just out of ten, you know, ten out of ten means I’m dying. One out of ten means my stomach is purring. So it’s just. And what did you eat? And just linking it together, it’s the hardest thing I have to do is to teach people to listen.

Because I say to people, your body can tell you what no man can tell you. Your body can tell you what no test can tell you listen and have faith in this incredible body that has this inbuilt ability to heal itself. And I love what you said when we first started chatting. It’s the most valuable real estate that we have. Are you a tenant doing whatever you want in it or are you the landlord and you’re keeping the windows clean? You’re making sure everything works. I love that analogy. And I hope you don’t mind if I start using it.

RYAN FERNANDO: Absolutely. Take it. In fact, when you walk into my office, it’s the front sticker. So anyone walks in and says, “your body is the most expensive real estate you’ll ever own.”

BARBARA O’NEILL: Oh la la.

RYAN FERNANDO: And we chase Bugatti wear ons and houses and land and experiences that are very expensive, or we don’t give a moment’s thought to what we put into our body.

BARBARA O’NEILL: It’s like the. You might have heard of this little story. The man’s chasing the butterfly all morning and he just gives up, sits down and the butterfly lands on his shoulder. That we, we have everything we need. So that’s what I love teaching. We’ve got everything we need. I’m just going to teach people how to exercise.

RYAN FERNANDO: I’ve seen a mushrooming of cafes in India. Earlier, coffee was considered connoisseur in small doses. But the younger generations are drinking coffee like it’s water.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

The Coffee Crisis

RYAN FERNANDO: Barbara, can you tell us why this is a danger signal?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Well, people say to me, “do you drink coffee, Barbara?” I say, no, I just watch the people suffer. Day one at Missy Mountain Health Retreat, that gives a very clear sign. I love the smell. I walk past the coffee shop, I stop, inhale, and keep walking. I don’t want that opinion because I know what it does. It disrupts the neurotransmitters in the brain.

So you’re actually creating a little crisis. And that crisis, it’s like if a tiger ran in this room, we’d all jump up a crisis. And then your crisis reaction happens in your body. Your heart starts racing, your blood pressure goes up. Your brain is quickly thinking, am I going to run into that door? Am I going to jump up on? That’s what coffee does. And that’s why? People love it. They say it gets my brain working. I said, yeah, you’ve just seen a tiger. It makes me feel good. Yeah, you’ve just seen a tiger.

But the problem is, where’s that energy burst come from? Not from the food we’ve eaten, it’s come from the adrenal glands. And the adrenal glands are like our bank account. So eventually our bank account is starting to dwindle. That’s called adrenal exhaustion. And I was saying to Andali this morning, it would be good to contact this hotel where we’re staying and say, next year, can you arrange for dandelion chai to be on your menu?

RYAN FERNANDO: Why dandelion chai?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Well, it’s usually chai tea and tea has tannin and tea has caffeine in it, but the dandelion does not. And we sell it at our retreat. And it’s the roasted root of the dandelion and it gives that almost bitter type flavour that the caffeine gives. But then you’ve got all the beautiful, the chai flavourings.

RYAN FERNANDO: Is it true that dandan is very good for the liver and calming on the liver too?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Wonderful for the liver. It’s the best diuretic, much better than any medical diuretic. So it directly affects liver and kidneys and pancreas.

The Impact of Coffee on Youth

RYAN FERNANDO: Could it be that a lot of the younger generation is taking too much coffee because that bank that they have of energy is not being fulfilled by their food or their diet? They’re eating very processed foods, oily foods, sugary foods.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Another thing is they haven’t got enough sleep. They’ve gone to bed too late, so they don’t wake feeling great, so they reach for the coffee to give them a lift. So they get into this vicious cycle.

But what caffeine does, it disrupts the neurotransmitters in the brain. So it’s a big contributing factor to depression, because the definition of depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Big contributing factor to high blood pressure.

The problem with youth, and we often say that youth is wasted on youth, is that they get away with it, but they actually don’t get away with it in the long run. And so when someone says, what can we do for Parkinson’s? You know what my response is? This is many years in the making. Many years in the making.

RYAN FERNANDO: You lived in your body as a tenant.

BARBARA O’NEILL: That’s right. That’s right. You didn’t look after those nerve cells, you know, and that little by little, and because, you see, I’ve got a dent in my cheek here because I crashed on the bridge. Very easy dent from crash, but it’s really that easy. You know, when problems arise, it can be a bit of this and a bit of that, a bit of that. And even though with only a little bit over many years, eventually the straw breaks the camel’s back.

The Power of Legumes

RYAN FERNANDO: Before I get into the rapid fire, my one question is, I saw you talk about legumes, and India is famous for legumes. In India, we’ve said, oh, it’s like a poor man’s food. But you said it’s actually a rich man’s food.

BARBARA O’NEILL: It’s a rich man’s food because it is low in carbohydrate and yet excellent proteins. And those proteins are much cleaner burning fuel than the animal protein.

In his book, “The China Study,” Dr. Colin Campbell shows that 20 grams of animal protein a day can feed cancer. Five grams of animal protein a day, not. He did another experiment. Twenty grams of vegetable protein a day does not feed cancer. So it’s a lot cleaner burning fuel.

And India could teach the world on what to do with legumes. They’re an amazing legume. And protein, as you would know, is one of the essential nutrients. Our body cannot function without it. It cannot heal without it.

And I encourage people to eat more legumes, and they say, oh, it makes me bloat. I say, there is a way. You start with one teaspoon of lentils that sits well, then after a few days, maybe go up to two teaspoons of lentils. And what you’re doing is you’re culturing the microorganism in your gut that’s responsible for processing that lentil.

Proper Preparation of Legumes

RYAN FERNANDO: I’ve seen some of your videos. You talk about the preparation and washing of legumes. How do you do it for your family or people that come to your retreat?

BARBARA O’NEILL: I soak it.

RYAN FERNANDO: What’s that?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Overnight. I put it in water in the morning, rinse it several times, bring it to the boil. There’s a white bluff on top. You want to get rid of that. That’s the wind. That’s the bloat. So I often put it under the sink and let the tap come. And I gauge the tap so that all that’s coming out is the white flour.

RYAN FERNANDO: It’s like a washing machine rinsing.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Now, halfway through cooking, say, lentils, chickpeas, I’ll rinse it again.

RYAN FERNANDO: Oh, halfway through you. All these YouTube videos try and use a shortcut method.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yes. I rinse it again. And then I have a sauce. Maybe it’s a beautiful dal, maybe it’s a tomato and onion, maybe it’s a cashew sauce. Then I put those rinsed legumes in there, then I let them finish cooking and they take on the flavors.

RYAN FERNANDO: You’ve just given me an aha moment. Because what we do is we try in India to produce the sauce and cook the legumes together at the same time to save time. But here you go, cook, rinse, rinse thoroughly and then make your sauce separately and cook that and then bring them together.

BARBARA O’NEILL: You see, while your lentils are cooking, you’re making the sauce. But if you rinse when you’ve finished cooking, you lose half your lentil because they’re starting to break up and so halfway through, then you put it with your sauce and then it cooks and all the beautiful flavorings come through.

Rapid Fire Questions

RYAN FERNANDO: Few rapid fire questions and I’m sitting next to you in a flight and I’ve just got two minutes with you. Three tips for pregnant mothers.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Three tips for pregnant mothers. People say, what do I eat when I’m pregnant? I say, what do you usually eat? Which is high fiber, generous proteins, great fats and exercise. Labor is hard work and your body must be fit and it must be strong to be able to go through labor and lie in the sun every day and let the sun go into your stomach.

RYAN FERNANDO: Wonderful advice. One health rule you never break.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Water. I always drink water no matter where I am. I’m looking for water. I’d like to say I never break the sleep one. That sometimes I have to get a plane at midnight and I’ll break that one. But you know what? It’s not the odd day you do it and the odd day you don’t. It’s what you do every day.

RYAN FERNANDO: It’s kind of like a sum total in a year. You try and be in a positive balance of great sleep, positive balance of great hydration.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yeah, that’s true.

RYAN FERNANDO: If you had to tell a person 365 days, how many days could be bad and how many days should be good? Because that’s what people argue with me. It’s like, could I do 150 days in a year of travel and Netflix and all of that stuff. And I’m like, maybe 52 is my equation. What’s yours?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Three in a year, maybe a little bit more.

RYAN FERNANDO: If you want to live till 100, Barbara says only three days. The rest of the 362 days we have to remain hydrated, disciplined, sleep on time. What’s one health principle you wish every household followed daily without fail?

The Importance of Routine

BARBARA O’NEILL: Routine. Routine is so important. Doing the same things at the same time every day. Routine allows people to fit everything in. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says there is a season and a time for everything. Every purpose under heaven. And routine helps. It helps a lot.

Three habits for deep sleep: Technology out of the room.

RYAN FERNANDO: No TV in the room. No mobile in the room. No Wi-Fi in the room.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Well if the TV’s in the room, it’s got to be turned off. So that’s one. Another is sleep with natural fiber, that’s fine cotton sheets or linen sheets, cotton quilts or feather quilts or wool quilts. And either wear nothing or wear a light cotton pajama. So there’s a third one and the third one is fresh air. Breathe in fresh air.

RYAN FERNANDO: So a lot of us live in India in AC rooms with the windows closed. So we’re circulating the same air all the time.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Hopefully there’s a good filter on it.

Anti-Aging Foods and Good Fats

RYAN FERNANDO: Three must foods for anti-aging for all the women on the planet.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Three must foods. Good fats. Good fats. People say, Barbara, what do you put on your skin? I say nothing, but I eat very good fats. And the moisturizer cream people are making a fortune because the ladies’ skins are drying out so badly that they have to buy these moisturizers.

And if you touch my hands you can see there is no dryness. There’s no dryness at all. And yet it’s a 71-year-old hand. It’s because I ate good fats. People have been scared away from fats, fats being demonized.

So my favorite is olive oil. I love olive oil. I don’t drink it by the cupful. It’s a concentrated food. I would have maybe one or two teaspoons a meal. I don’t take it off on a spoon. I put it in my foods. If I put it in my dal, I put it in at the end so that it is raw. Gives a beautiful richness.

RYAN FERNANDO: What about coconut oil?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Coconut oil is very good. In fact you can make some delicious desserts out of coconut oil. And also coconut cream is beautiful in curries. So yes, coconut’s good.

RYAN FERNANDO: I come from a state of Goa and we use coconut in our cuisine over there. But I married a girl from the other coast, which is the east coast and they don’t use that much coconut. And so I noticed in the first four or five years of marriage that my skin started getting very dry.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Another is hydration. Most people are dehydrated. We had a pathologist attend our program. He said, we did studies on caffeine, and we found that the body needs five glasses of water to make up the dehydrating agents in one cup of coffee. Wow. So hydration is very important. You look at the top models who are still beautiful at 50. They drink water.

And the other is exercise. When you exercise, you increase the circulation of the blood to the skin. And when you increase the circulation of the blood to the skin, it nourishes the skin because the blood is the life of the flesh. Perfect health requires perfect circulation, which means my blood is moving all through my body. So my feet, my hands should be the same temperature as my stomach.

The Benefits of Cayenne Pepper

RYAN FERNANDO: A natural remedy you always travel with: cayenne pepper. Why cayenne pepper?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Notice there was no hesitation there.

RYAN FERNANDO: Yeah.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Cayenne pepper is such a remarkable herb. It thins the blood. It’s vasodilator effect opens the blood vessels, strengthens the arterial wall. But it also is great for digestion. If the stomach’s upset, have a half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and water in it, and that will help to ease the discomfort of maybe a meal that’s not sitting right.

It’s also an analgesic, and I’ve met people who have used it as an analgesic after having some serious injuries. And if you’ve got a sore throat, the cayenne pepper will tingle the throat, but then when that tingle settles down, you’ll find that the sore throat is much relieved. They’re some of the reasons that I travel with cayenne pepper.

Five Essential Plants

RYAN FERNANDO: If you had to choose some plants to plant and you had a choice of doing it on an island, and there were just five of those plants that you could plant and you had to eat that for the rest of your life, what would those five be?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Aloe vera. Okay. Comfrey.

RYAN FERNANDO: Okay.

BARBARA O’NEILL: They both can be eaten, but they’re also healing, probably. Parsley. Such an excellent kidney herb. Such a wonderful green and can be added to anything. Celery.

RYAN FERNANDO: My favorite, too.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Yes, I love celery. That’s also an excellent kidney herb. And it’s also incredibly alkalizing. So the last one, I need something orange: sweet potato.

RYAN FERNANDO: Why sweet potato?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Especially the orange sweet potato. The orange sweet potato is much easier to digest. It’s not a nightshade, so it’s not near as allergen food. And I’d be getting some beta carotene in the orange color.

Hope for Natural Medicine

RYAN FERNANDO: What gives you hope about natural medicine?

BARBARA O’NEILL: What gives me hope about natural medicine. And I have to tell you, Ryan, that I’m more surprised than anyone as to what has happened to me. And I often analyze that. Why? Why have this? Why have I become so popular? I’m just a little lady from the rainforest that didn’t want to give my children drugs.

And I think it’s because one Fred said to me, the new generation today is so high tech. And then this lady pops up and talks about an onion. It’s almost a novelty, it’s almost unique, and it’s almost a breath of fresh air in this society that’s got a tablet and a drug for every ailment. And I think that’s why my things have become so popular.

And it excites me. I know it was 2022. The staff said, Barbara, what’s going on? We’re selling in a week what we usually sell in three months. And then my daughter in America said, what’s going on? I’m selling in a week what we usually sell in three months. And we said, I don’t know. And then my niece said, do you know you’re all over TikTok? And I said, what’s TikTok?

RYAN FERNANDO: Is it a new home?

BARBARA O’NEILL: It just seemed to explode. And I think that’s why it became popular, because people are looking for answers. People are starting to see that the drugs really aren’t working. I think 2020, 2021 woke a lot of people up. But something else happened. People said, I discovered you in 2020 in lockdown. So they’re scrolling. They’re sick of probably the movies. And then the lady starts talking about cayenne pepper.

Choosing a Life’s Work

RYAN FERNANDO: If you had to come back in a new life, what profession would you choose?

BARBARA O’NEILL: I think exactly what I’m doing, because I think it’s wonderful. It’s a wonderful realization that our body can heal itself. It just needs the right conditions.

So I can’t wait to tell people that you can have freedom by starting to give your body the right conditions. And we’ve seen so many people freed from chains that bind them.

And that’s why I aim to explain, because when you understand what coffee does, you’re more likely to look at it and say, “I think I’ll start easing off it.” When you understand how detrimental late nights are and how that’s a big contributing factor to Alzheimer’s, and I don’t meet anyone who wants Alzheimer’s, people start saying, “I think I’m going to start to go to bed earlier.” It’s education.

Connecting with Barbara O’Neill

RYAN FERNANDO: If anybody watching this podcast wanted to come and visit your retreat, how do they find you?

BARBARA O’NEILL: Our website is mmh.com.au. MMH, short for Misty Mountain Health. You can go to Official Barbara O’Neill. This is official, officialbarbara oneill.com and I think it takes you everywhere. But you are talking to a lady who’s very ignorant on technology.

RYAN FERNANDO: God bless you for whatever you’re doing, Barbara. It’s been a privilege today. Thank you so much for coming on my podcast.

BARBARA O’NEILL: Thank you. It’s been fabulous.

RYAN FERNANDO: And that’s Barbara O’Neill. Now, if you want to reach out to her, I’m going to put a link in where you can visit Australia and see her at Misty Mountain.

BARBARA O’NEILL: I’m not there much.

The Energy of Purpose

RYAN FERNANDO: She’s got a schedule. And I suddenly feel that the diva that I be like, I’m traveling just once a month. Barbara has inspired me today because she’s on the road for the last five months. Five months.

And so there’s something secret about her. It’s the energy. And I can just feel the energy in the room. And she’s the oldest person in the room. And I thought, you know, I had a good energy vibration till I met her.

And that gives me credibility to say that food gives us energy. The energy is produced in your cells, is absorbed by our cells, and therefore you can vibrate at the next level.

So stay tuned as I come up with more podcasts. Thank you for loving. Thank you for subscribing. God bless.

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