#144. Dr. Anthony Kaveh: The Nature of Consciousness, Near-Death Experiences, and Anesthesiology

Discover More: Anthony Kaveh

Dr. Anthony Kaveh specializes in the mysterious fields of consciousness, neurodect experiences, and anesthesiology. He recently expanded his Ketamine Clinic in San Francisco to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic pain. Discover More is a show for independent thinkers by independent thinkers.

Anesthesia explained in 60 Seconds

Anesthesiology is the most mysterious branch of medicine by far. It deals with putting patients into a medical coma right up to the brink of death. A one way ticket wouldn't do anyone any good for surgery.

Do Medical Comatose States Really Mean Death?

Medical coma is not quite the same as death. Part of consciousness also it's tightly linked with memory formation. How well can we monitor when somebody floats from unconsciousness to death?

Have You Had A Near Death Experience?

Near death is going to be different from being dead and coming back to life. Under anesthesia, patients report vastly different experiences when they're in nearly equivalent near death experiences. The brain is just too fickle to trust, I feel.

Hypnosis for Surgery

Anthony: Can you debunk some of the myth and fallacy that's attached to the hypnosis. With the appropriate training and guidance one can enter a hypnotic trance to begin to heal themselves all on their own. It's not one of mind control. We are working on the suggestibility of us to control our bodily functions.

Harmonizing Our Body's Healing Potential

Anthony: I believe in a human's innate ability to harness our healing potential. He says we can control our body to restore its homeostasis by removing the insults. The most common internal insult is probably not genetics, it's probably sources of stress. Anthony: Health determinants are some of the potential contributing factors to your future health outcome.

Heart failure due to stress

Tacosubo cardiomyopathy is called that because the heart balloons into one of these octopus traps. It happens, as far as we can tell, after cases of extreme stress. Fortunately, the heart can return back to normal function without permanent heart failure.

How Your Body Reveals Secrets Under Anesthesia

How Your Body Reveals Secrets Under Anesthesia. The body reacts unusually to anesthesia medications when it has certain traumas on board. People with mental health conditions are more likely to use drugs of abuse. Their bodies manifest this when they're asleep under anesthesia.

Under Anatomy and Psychotherapy

Anesthesia has a comparable healing potential as psychotherapy does. One way that we believe psychedelics work. We have to understand how the brain works. Anxiety is a fantastic model of how psychedelics disrupt that normal brain functioning. These psychological vulnerabilities can be exploited by marketers.

Anxiety and neuroplasticity

In the cases of uncertainty, unfortunately, society pushes us sometimes to value things that are both uncertain and also probably not optimal values. And then you can hopefully recognize that the lowest energy state can be something maybe more productive.

How to talk to a patient asleep before surgery

I personally call my patients the night before surgery to build a rapport. That allows us in the day of surgery, when things are moving fast, stress is high, they are most vulnerable for us to address deeper, more deep seated issues. Perioperative smoking cessation is just one concrete example of that where we can make the greatest change to somebody's health.

How to Optimize Your Surgery Experience

There are three parts to optimizing for surgery. There's the mindset, the nutritional aspect, and then the physical activity. What you bring into the operating room will determine a lot of your outcomes after. Could you curate a list of recommended to do lists for the people before they 

enter a surgery?

Does Positive Thinking Improve Your Surgery?

A lot of literature suggests the power of positive thinking. Why is mindset such a non negotiable to have a positive outcome in surgeries? What is it about positive thinking that gives humans a higher potential than some physicians would perceive.

Guided Imagination for Pain Relief

guided imagery can provide pain relief in non-sedated patients. More than half of bankruptcies are attributed in part to medical expenses. Health care and our ability to take care of our health should be not a privilege, but a right.

Patients and the health care gap

Without responsibility we cannot have power over our health. When we have industries that are fueling psychological exploits in the human brain, it is not fair to my patients. Patients have to be responsible but so do the influencers around them as well.

Healthcare System's Vulnerabilities

Becky: Food is medicine, but food is also addiction. Why is direct to consumer drug advertising illegal in so many countries? Partly for exactly what you're saying, because you're preying on a vulnerable population.

The Rise in Trust between Doctors and Patients

In the second half of this interview, I want to enter the territory of systematic issue in terms of healthcare gap and also mistrust between physicians and patients. What do you think about this rising, this alarming rate of mistrust that's continuing brewing between the patients and the general public with physicians in particular?

What is the healthcare gap that Americans face?

What do you think is a most immediately addressable barrier or a gap that we can gradually over time? My dream would be to actually have a weekly seminar with the kids talking about the health things that we talk about. Has to be done in a demographic and geographic acceptable method.

Only Physicians can Truly Understand the Spiritual Men

In the book When Breath Becomes Air, author Paul talks about how only physicians can truly understand the physiological, spiritual men. This spiritual spirituality is very important to all human beings. Having an additional lens to view life through just makes life more interesting.

The Hedonistic Tremol

A lot of people have this illusion that whatever they're chasing in life, once they get there, life gets magically better. Whatever you rise, your internal metrics of satisfactions increases. But after six months, a year, that baseline goes back to the original point. That's why psychedelics can all help us reevaluate what we value.

Don't Forget What You've Done

It is so easy to fall into traps of forgetting what we have accomplished. Everything that you have now is something that you were wishing for before, wishing for in the past. Let's be very careful what we're choosing to value that our brain is trying to control. It all comes down to your innate healing potential.

Choosing Your Life

Your belief can alter your medical or physiological outcome. Every cell in your body has the potential to clone itself into something. People underestimate the true potential of our brain and our mind. We know the limitations of what we do, but we also don't limit ourselves.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse childhood experiences have an outsized impact on our health for the rest of our lives. The best way and the fastest way to lose your power is by not taking ownership of what happens to you. So that's why I try to use the word lifestyle modifiable instead of lifestyle choices.

Acceptance of Life's Suffering

Anthony Bourdain: The biggest suffering that humans have is that they did not accept the fact that life is full of suffering. Once you accept that, life gets infinitely easier, he says. When is it enough for you, Anthony? Bourdain asks.

Are We Ready to Die?

Are we ready to die? I know it sounds like a cliche, cheesy question. Tends to be one awareness, gratitude. Being grateful for what we have and distinguishing between wants and needs at every moment of our life.

Multivariable and Being in a Box

There's a second part of your question about multivariable and being in a box. Your curiosity is probably the best value we can have. Whatever box that puts us in is probably fine as long as we are engaged in a growth mindset and curious.

What Does Being a Doctor Mean To You?

What does being a doctor mean to you in this age of misinformations? I would love for you to share some of your favorites. Success stories or just patient stories that you'll forever remember from your operating room procedures.

Non-Locality In Thought

The only way to have true original thoughts is creating a brand new language. There's so many similar examples of philosophers or great thinkers sharing similar universal themes throughout Eons. That's why, for me, whether it's original thoughts as a concrete example, I feel like there has to be a collective thoughts.

Determining When Is Enough?

Anthony Bourdain: What is enough? What do we value? What is a domain in our lives that we want to discover more about? He asks listeners to answer the Discover more questions at the end of the episode. Bourdain believes storytelling has the potential to bring healing to many people.

Dr. Anthony Kaveh

The wound is where the light enters the heart. It's okay to be vulnerable. With great vulnerability comes great power. And you've probably ever been told, lean into it and embrace it. Human potential is not just limited under the scope and the containers of operating heroes. It's every single day, right? In and out. When you're awake, when you're asleep. Please check out Anthony.