If you hand your health over to the system, don’t be surprised when you stay sick.
That’s the hard truth most people don’t want to face. Because it means the responsibility and the power are yours.
In this episode of The Full Stack Podcast, Ted and I sat down with Dr. Ray, a chiropractor and nervous system expert who calls out the entire healthcare industry for what it really is: a sick-care system.
We were taught that healing happens in hospitals, through prescriptions, or from someone in a white coat. But as Dr. Ray explains, the human body already knows how to heal. It’s not broken. It’s blocked.
Lie #1: Your Doctor Knows What Health Is
Most doctors are trained to manage symptoms, not create health. They’re experts in disease, not vitality.
When you go to the doctor with back pain, they don’t ask why your nervous system is inflamed. They prescribe a muscle relaxer or painkiller to quiet the signal. But pain isn’t the enemy. It’s information.
Your body’s intelligence is speaking through discomfort, trying to guide you back into balance. Suppressing the signal only turns the volume up later.
Lie #2: You Need Fixing
Your body isn’t a machine that needs external repair. It’s an ecosystem that knows how to return to equilibrium if you stop interfering with it.
When we constantly push stimulants, numb discomfort, and live in fight-or-flight mode, we block the body’s natural healing response. Dr. Ray calls this “addiction to dysfunction.”
It feels familiar to live in stress, so people keep returning to it. They chase temporary relief instead of addressing what’s really happening beneath the surface.
Lie #3: Health Is About What You Add
Most of us have been taught that health comes from adding something; more supplements, more data, more workouts. But true health starts with subtraction.
When you remove noise and create safety in your nervous system, your body does what it’s designed to do: heal.
One of the most powerful practices Dr. Ray shares in this episode is also one of the simplest — breathwork. When you slow your breath, you signal to your body that you’re safe. That one shift can move you out of the sympathetic stress state and into the parasympathetic healing state.
No pills. No equipment. No side effects.
Lie #4: Data Will Save You
We live in a time when people track everything: sleep, steps, heart rate, recovery scores. But as Dr. Ray explains, many people use their data to feed anxiety instead of awareness.
If you’re checking your Whoop or Oura Ring every hour to see if you’re recovered, you’re actually keeping yourself in stress mode. You can’t measure your way to calm.
The real gift of data is self-awareness, not self-judgment. That’s why understanding your HRV (Heart Rate Variability) is powerful. HRV measures how adaptable your body is to stress. But the key isn’t chasing higher numbers. It’s learning what creates safety in your system.
Lie #5: You’re Born Healthy
Most people don’t realize how much trauma happens at birth. Dr. Ray shares that many babies enter the world already stressed, their nervous systems shocked from interventions, medication, or the environment.
That stress gets stored in the body, shaping how we breathe, move, and respond to life decades later. It’s why a lot of adults live their whole lives in low-level fight-or-flight and never even know it.
Healing starts when you finally give your body permission to feel safe again.
Lie #6: Medication Equals Health
When you rely on quick fixes like Miralax or Adderall, you’re outsourcing regulation. It’s like borrowing energy from tomorrow to survive today.
Dr. Ray breaks down how these chemicals numb symptoms but destroy your body’s natural feedback loops. It’s not about demonizing medicine. It’s about understanding what it’s really doing and when it’s actually needed.
Lie #7: Healing Takes Time
The truth is, healing takes presence. When you learn to regulate your breath, your posture, and your thoughts, your body can shift from chaos to calm in seconds.
Dr. Ray’s nervous system hacks are simple, free, and powerful:
- Slow your breathing until your exhale is longer than your inhale.
- Move your spine daily to keep your nervous system open.
- Spend time in silence to recalibrate your mind.
The Real Takeaway: Stop Outsourcing Your Power
You can’t buy health. You can only create the conditions for it.
Your nervous system is the command center.
Your spine protects it.
Your breath regulates it.
Once you understand that, you stop waiting for someone else to save you.
This episode will challenge how you see your body, your doctor, and your definition of health. It’s not about blame. It’s about waking up to how powerful you already are.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro & The Core Lie: Why your “healthcare” is actually sick care
01:16 Flipping the inside-out perspective on healing
03:47 Why “medical care” is the wrong language
10:05 What stops the body from healing
19:06 How chiropractors create safety for change
23:42 The anxiety signal your body is sending
26:11 Decoding HRV and stress adaptability
31:32 The trap of over-tracking your health
46:20 The Miralax trap and natural alternatives
50:55 Addiction to dysfunction and taking ownership
55:27 The power of questions and self-advocacy