Growing up in a family with parents who were undertakers, renowned brain injury researcher and naturopathic physician Dr. Antoine Chevalier had to help clean up dead bodies, which gave him a very traumatic childhood. In need of solutions for himself, he immersed himself in the study of suicidal ideation, PTSD, and major depression disorders so he could learn how different cultures heal themselves. Dr. Antoine joins Timothy J. Hayes, Psy.D. on today’s podcast to talk about brain therapy and the wonders of functional medicine.
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Dr. Antoine Chevalier, Functional Medicine Expert
Dr. Antoine Chevalier is an international lecturer, author, researcher, teacher and practitioner working in the United States, Japan and Europe. Dr. Chevalier has provided functional medical services to the White House for over nineteen years. He has held the position of Functional Medicine Practitioner and Advisor for key White House employees and the Executive Office of the President’s staff for three administrations.
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Thank you for joining us, Dr. Chevalier. It’s an honor to be able to talk with you.
Thank you, doctor. It’s nice talking to you.
To begin with, can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the work you do, and what drives your passion?
I was born in France in a small town. My parents were undertakers. It was a family business, so after school, I had to clean up dead bodies and it was a traumatic childhood. I became in need of solutions myself. I was determined to find a solution and I knew intuitively that the solution to suicidal ideation, PTSD or major depressive disorder is not in Western medicine. I put myself through Ph.D. in International Development with a Minor in Anthropology at Sorbonne University in Paris so I could study all the cultures and how they heal themselves. That got me into a journey from Africa, Asia, South America and Australia. I had a moment of the deep realization that it was time for me to transition from economy to healing.
With the partner, we moved to the US and we started a business. I do have my own business. I have a second Ph.D. in Natural Medicine and I’m doing a third Ph.D. with the College of Natural Health in Indianapolis on Brain Therapy. It’s all functional medicine. What I do has no side effects. We’re in a position where we can take a veteran who is homeless, suffering from PTSD, drug addiction, suicidal ideation, chronic pain, TBI, concussion. It takes about 2 to 3 days of treatment, then it’s gone and does not come back. This work has been backed up by science in Japan. I do work in Japan and we have functional MRI that shows that the work that we do increase neuroplasticity and connectivity by more than 70% in some cases.
By allowing your body and mind to heal itself, we can see clearly a physiological change within the brain which leads to people going back to full functionality. The most rewarding line of work that I am into in the nonprofit mainly is taking a veteran who is homeless, who has been struggling with suicidal tendencies, drug addiction, PTSD and chronic pain and it’s gone. After the treatment, we give him an application for a job. He fills it up, gets the job and is able to keep it because he’s mentally and physically functional again. It’s a successful transition from a homeless suicidal PTSD state of being to a fully productive member of society.
Where are you located? What does therapy involve?
I work in Washington, DC. I’m a Contractor for the Executive Office of the President of the United States. That’s for the for-profit. On the nonprofit activities, I’m in Georgia, Atlanta treating people who are in this situation, and I travel all over. Before COVID-19, I was in Japan twice and then Dubai, Germany, Canada, California, Utah, Florida and New York. I was all over the map. Now, it’s more local and still in the US. As you can imagine, I do have to travel to people who are in need like this who are in the streets. I have partners and people who help me connect with the right organization. We talk, we have access to them, and then we can work with them directly.
What does the therapy entail? What modalities are you using?
Functional Medicine: By allowing your mind to heal itself, we can clearly see a physiological change within the brain, which leads to people going back to full functionality.
The session looks like this. I do have a machine that scans you. It’s a biofeedback machine. That’s not the novelty of the approach. First of all, it takes a lot of time to listen to the person. I take notes and I collect data about what the machine tells me and what the patient is telling me. After that, the patient is fully dressed up. I need a massage table, a bed or a couch and a chair. The person lies face down. I use two little machines that are available over-the-counter. Anybody can buy them on the internet. It’s to helps regulate the autonomic nervous system.
It looks like a pen but bigger. It’s an electrical device. I stimulate trigger points in the lower back and that helps re-regulate the autonomic nervous system. I also use it on the neck and the wrist. Depending on the case and data, I customize the treatment. The protocol changes according to the patient’s needs. That’s the first aspect. For the mental health approach which is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that I created, the person turns over, face-up, fully closed. I look at the person. I ask permission to work with the person.
I get the permission and I sit behind, I put two fingers onto the skull and I asked them to close their eyes but it’s not hypnosis. People are fully aware and they have to take responsibility. They then go internally. I have a series of questions to ask, I’m guiding them to go deep inside of them and trace where the issue is coming from. What is the root cause of that particular issue? Where is it coming from? We go deep inside and sometimes, it takes a lot of time. Until we finally find the right cause of the dysfunction that the person wants to be free from. Once that work is done, then that’s it and it works.
The first question that pops into my head is how many people are you training to be able to do this?
That’s the big focus now. We are raising funds. We have a GoFundMe page. The funds for the nonprofit will be used to pay for a functional MRI study. Before I open the school and start teaching people, which is teachable. I can teach what I do even though it’s unique. That’s the only modality in the world that has CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Before teaching, we need a scientific published paper. Scientific research, certificate study, validated and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal where we scan the patient’s brain before and after. Let’s say 200 or 300 homeless suicidal vets. We scan them three months after the session to see that there is permanent freedom from the dysfunction that they were suffering from before the session, and then we can publish the results. Once those results are published, we’re going to open a school as soon as possible.
Those devices you were talking about, are they microcurrent?
They are micro direct current. Technically speaking, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a healer, I’m an assistant. I have a PhD in Natural Medicine. That’s clear, I’m not an MD. What I do is I will help you kickstart your ability to heal. What I use is this machine and everybody can use it. You buy it over the internet. The secret sauce is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Technically speaking, I’m a minister. I don’t have a medical license which is important. When I’m going to start teaching, anybody can join the school. You don’t need a medical background or medical license, you need to be a minister. That way, we can help a lot of people. Those tools are like going to CVS and buy a bit profane, and then do the hands-on hinting technique. It’s legal. Everybody can buy those micro direct current over the internet. It’s not difficult to use. It’s stimulating the low back and the neck, which is where the autonomic nervous system is and that’s it.
I did an interview with another gentleman who is working with the microcurrent and he had a background in science, not medical. He talks about it the same way you do. What’s happening is they’re facilitating the energy flow in the body. This particular person is out on the West Coast, he’ll get a referral from somebody who’s seeing a psychologist or a psychiatrist and things aren’t working, and help give them this assistance for the energy flow in their system. When they go back, Cognitive Behavioral work progresses far more rapidly.
The functional medicine approach is to restore the balance within the human being with no side effects. Click To TweetI’m familiar with the modality and I did publish papers. It was getting too complicated so it doesn’t have the impact that we need. I’m using the machine to the minimum, the real innovation and the breakthrough is the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that I created, which I’ve learned from different experiences from all over the world especially Australia where I had a teacher there. The modality has changed and it’s evolving. What we see is a complete reversal. The mental health issues are persistent with the little solution out there. The emphasis is on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The machine is 10%. I would say 90% of where the results are being done is on the CBT.
When you are talking about functional medicine, give us a definition of the difference between the traditional medical model here in the West, the allopathic and functional medicine.
I will keep it simple. Functional medicine is if you are in a state of dis-ease, your body is lacking functionality in some of the vital organs, it’s the mind or your ability to function on a daily basis. The approach or the angle from a functional medicine perspective is to restore homeostasis within the body and mind of the person by assisting the person to heal himself or herself. The approach is much humbler and more non-invasive at all. The approach is also more holistic. We don’t perceive the body as different body parts. There is something that we call the whole being. The body parts are connected to one another and there is this communication between the liver, stomach, nervous system and lungs, etc. That communication breaks down and leads the human being to move into a dysfunctional state of being. The functional medicine approach is to restore that function and balance within the human being with no side effects. That’s a big difference. Whatever we do here has no side effects at all.
What advice would you have for somebody who’s in the throes of their own difficulty? They’re looking for some assistance and they can’t get to you. They’re not going to be one of those lucky people that becomes part of your study.
I would spend more time in nature, put down the phone, drink more water than soda, stop the coffee, look at the label of the food that you are buying, go online and have basic nutritional education and nothing complicated. I would cut down the processed carbs, processed food and I would increase raw food intake or steam. You will be amazed at how much impact the food that you eat or what you put in your body has. Not only on your physical body but your mind also. For a quick fast track, I would do that.
Walking in the park for 30 minutes a day, decrease the screen time, spending more time with your loved ones. Especially now with the pandemic, it’s a good opportunity to reset your life and assess where you are and what your priorities are. Relationships are important and our family, etc. It sounds cliché because everybody talks about it. That’s why I keep it simple so you can act on it. You have to do it. A lot of people talk, read and watch, they consume a lot of data and they don’t act on it. Especially sugar and high fructose corn syrup, I have people coming for weight loss or any physical problem, that’s a good one to cut.
As a next step, if I’ve got a little bit more exercise, getting some fresh air, have cleaned up my diet to the basics, I’m eating actual food rather than chemicals for a lot of that. In my research for the interview, I came across a company you’re at least promoting or you enjoy their products yourself. It’s targeted nutrient or vitamins based on genetics. Is that okay?
I see a lot of good results with it. If you google their name, there are a lot of attacks out there. I have a no-nonsense approach. That’s the way I approach things and I have my way of testing products. I have a scientific approach to things. I put it to the test and I’m having great results. I do sponsor that and I do that. Some people who need it, I’ll do it. Some people who don’t need it then we don’t need to. If you need to cut sugar, just cut sugar. I’m about to go to another state for an autistic kid. In this case, the parents are impeccable in the diet.
They’ve done everything they can for the diet. They max it out. They’re gluten-free, night shred, sugar-free and the kid is still misbehaving and having a lot of issues. He needs a session. In that case, he’s going to receive DNA customized supplements. We have a little DNA test or we swab in the mouth, we send it to the company and we have the DNA report. I have my own input. I have my machine and assessment so I’ll tell them to change the formula and make it even more precise. When the product is done, then the product is being shipped to the patient and it works well. I like this approach a lot.
What’s the product? What’s the company?
Functional Medicine: With very minimal solutions out there for mental health issues, the emphasis really is on cognitive behavioral therapy.
It’s Uforia. The way I do it is I have my own machine to test and it’s a digital homeopathic frequency. The machine functions like the dolphins or bats sending a frequency, and then it comes back like a radar. I’ll have an 82-page report about what’s going on with you. Based on that and your DNA, I’ll be able to customize and create a formula with a company. The products that I offer to people are unique. I like working with them. I had great results.
Do you do any telehealth or any consulting with people through the internet?
I do since COVID-19 changed a lot of the way we used to operate. It is successful to a certain degree. It takes a 3 to 4-hour Zoom session. I ask a lot of questions. I’m going to ask you to do a blood test, urine test, hair analysis and DNA test. I’m going to accumulate a lot of data about you. Based on that, I’ll be able to design what I call Naturopathic Premium Food Protocols. It’s a functional medicine protocol and it will be detail-oriented. You have to follow the protocol. If you follow the protocol, you will get results.
How do people find out more about you? What’s the primary website you want people to use to contact you or follow up if they want to try and get a consult with you?
The domain name is www.Heal.llc. It’s easy to remember. You can go to the website, there is an email and phone number there and they can contact me.
You said something earlier about how that domain name is in transition so they might get a glitch or two there but that’s going to get corrected soon.
We changed the domain name which is a lot easier to remember. We simplify it as much as possible because people are busy and they have other things to do. We want to make sure that they are capable of remembering. I also do the CBD Nano Water that I can customize. We have other products out there. We work a lot also on the for-profit for NFL players. I did a lot of NFL players for concussions and TBI. I was successful there also, especially with people who have tremors due to concussions. That has gone.
In the research for this discussion, I ran across several references to you using color frequencies. Is that something you still do?
I do another machine for that. I have three different kinds of technology. I use different techniques for that. I have two machines from Germany that are good. I have technology from the US that I use, plus the micro direct current. It takes time, 2 or 3 days. I use a lot of different ways and I always customize according to what you need. What’s spectacular is if someone had a head injury or concussion, and there are hand tremors, after the session, it’s gone. It does not come back.
Several people that I’ve worked with who’ve had a concussion and traumatic brain injury have stumbled across people. There’s Dr. Solinsky who does tremendous work with prisms, light frequencies, changing the lenses over the eyes, and how it dramatically changes a person’s ability to recover from traumatic brain injury. It’s an exciting time to watch all these advances.
The pandemic is a good opportunity to reset your life and assess where you are and what your priorities are. Click To TweetI have a partner in Texas who is an eye doctor and we’re working together. She has a method to diagnose TBI for the eyes. We’re going to try to establish that and make it scientific. That has the scientific evidence by corroborating her way of diagnosing TBI through the eyes and then the functional MRI. Nobody can argue against functional MRI. That’s the gold standard. If you can correlate results from the functional MRI and her way to diagnose TBI, then we know it’s working and say it’s over 97% success rate. It’s scientifically reliable so we can use her way of assessing TBI instead of the functional MRI which is a lot cheaper, much less invasive, and more conducive. This is one line of research that we are trying to do. That’s exciting.
What’s an aspect of the work you do or some passion you have that I haven’t even asked you about yet?
There is something else that also I’m passionate about. I did treat victims of sex trafficking or human trafficking, young girls who have been severely abused and it was successful. You were talking about the micro direct current, I couldn’t do the micro direct current for them at all because they were so traumatized. They could not even handle the electricity in the body. It was only the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that I created and it worked. We have video testimonials and we stay in touch with some of them. One of the spectacular cases of this woman, I don’t know if we have the time to go through a story but she does public speaking for me. She’s writing a book and she’s doing stand-up comedy in California.
I don’t know if you can imagine but when I met her, she couldn’t speak, look at you or barely talk. She was always moving. She could sit no more than 30 seconds. She had to get up and she was so traumatized. It was unbelievable. She went through drugs and selling drugs, in and out of jail, moved from Las Vegas to California, prostitution at the age of thirteen and get trafficked. Her best friend shot herself. She found her body in the pool with blood. After the sessions, she went back to normal. When I do public speaking, I talk a lot less now.
I have people that I worked with who are more than happy to come and they explain their story so people can relate. I have another one. I also treat criminals. I did treat a serial killer. A young man, he nineteen years old when I saw him. At age 6 to 13, he massed murdered 78 animals for fun. He almost killed his mom, dad and sister. At age thirteen, he became a heroin addict. He got caught selling it. He went to jail and he started attacking police officers. They sent him to a high-security prison. At age eighteen, he got kicked out. They told him if he should keep doing that, he’s going to come back as an adult and it’s going to be a different story.
He came back and his sister died of a heroin overdose. He told his mom, “I don’t want to die like my sister. I don’t want to go back to jail. I need help.” That’s all I need, the intention. There’s only one requirement for this therapy to work. It’s the willingness to get better. Your belief system, whatever the way of life, it doesn’t matter. The only requirement is you have a genuine intention to want to change and be free from whatever that is.
This young man came. We had one session and it turns out he was sexually abused by a woman at the daycare at the age of four every day, except on the weekend, for one year. He goes on the table, he goes, “I thought that animals and humans were like objects.” For him, killing was fun. He’s like, “It’s just an object.” Why? Because when he was four years old, he was treated like an object. I was able to assist him to permanently clear the trauma from the past.
It looks easy but it’s complicated. You need to know what you’re doing. It took me a lot. It’s teachable but you can do that work as beautiful and profound. The trauma from the past would be gone. It’s not going to come back. After three weeks, he to stop touching heroin, and he doesn’t have the desire to kill. Two months after he came back for another issue, he wanted to know what he wanted to do in life, and 4 or 5 months after, he went back to university and learn about fashion. He wants to open his own business. We went from mass murdering anyone to learning about fashion.
There’s another case. It was this Mr. Glenn Brown who was a Military Veteran, Air Force, and former hockey player. This man had 22 concussions. It was severe. He would stay in his room and doesn’t want to socialize, doesn’t want to go out. He’s suicidal, PTSD, Major Depression Disorder, chronic pain and tremors. It took me about two days. That was a few years ago and it’s all gone. When I do public speaking, he’s more than happy to come and he is sharing stories. His life is on fire. He’s flying all over. He has his own business as a public speaker. It’s a total change.
The other one is Ellis, who used to be a gang member in California who has done some socially not accepted behaviors and decisions and whatnot. This man in one session turned into a monk. He’s an interesting character. When you see him, he has the robe, shaved and then a tail behind. When he starts speaking, you can tell that he had a rough life. You can feel the gang-way of talking but he’s a man of God. He doesn’t want to do any of it anymore. The other one is my staff patient, Gabby. She had 100 seizures a week for ten years.
It sounds like it couldn’t be survived.
Functional Medicine: Functional medicine focuses on restoring homeostasis within the body and the mind of a person by assisting the person to heal himself or herself.
This woman is a tank. She’s my sister. We are close together. She’s an amazing human being. I met this woman in a hotel room. People find me the way they find me. I can’t even comprehend that. We met in 2018. She came with a service dog because if she has seizures, the dog is trained to lick her face and get her back to awareness so she can function. I have the video testimonial and she’s one of my staff-patients who comes for public speaking to talk about her case. It was incredible. She came with this big box of medical records.
She has huge box files of papers. She had brain surgery, you can see her skull, she was addicted to fentanyl and many drugs, nothing was working and she was suicidal. One session and that was in 2018. No more seizures and she’s drug-free. The most touching part was her son is eleven years old. Her son has never experienced his mom without seizures because she had seizures for ten years and he’s eleven years old. Now, he has his mom without seizures. That’s why I get up in the morning with those beautiful results.
One other case here in the US is my good friend who works for me now. He’s a retired Lieutenant Colonel Marine David Benhoff. This man served our country. He was in chronic pain for 27 years. He was suffering from insomnia and some of the issues. He was taking painkillers for years. We’re talking 15 to 17 years, and then insomnia and sleeping pills for many years. That took me about three days. He couldn’t run at all. He could not pick up things because it was too painful. He could barely go down the stairs without pain. Even when he walks, he had to stop because it was painful. The same thing, in 2 to 3 days and now he’s up and going, running, picking up stuff, he sleeps without sleeping pills, and he doesn’t take any more painkillers. We work together especially for the veterans here in the US, which is my focus and priority.
Veterans are sacrificing their lives for our freedom. To me, that’s the highest priority of my time. We are doing the research for them. The fact that veterans are killing themselves in the streets, the statistics is we lose 24 veterans a day due to suicide. It’s unbelievable. That’s what keeps me up in the morning because I know I can make a difference. It’s hard for me to not do that. When I’m being distracted by nonsense during the day, it’s difficult because I want to save them. I believe in our generation, we can end it if we do it right. If we come as a team, we can end homelessness and suicidal ideation. I strongly believe that.
I am honored that you would take the time to share this with our audience and I’m grateful for what you do. I look forward to following your work. Heal.llc is the website. I’m going to check back with you in about a year, and see how things are going. It’s an honor to meet you.
It’s an honor to meet you too. Thank you.
Thank you.
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Dr. Antoine Chevalier is an international lecturer, author, researcher, teacher and practitioner working in the United States, Japan and Europe. He has published in peer-reviewed scientific journals multiple times. His research includes areas of concussion, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injuries, tremors, depression, suicidal ideation, pain management, solution for addiction including opioids and drugs, diabetes and autism.
Dr. Chevalier is working with veterans who had been clinically diagnosed with suicidal ideation, individuals battling depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, gang members, children with autism and patients who are visibly impaired in multiple ways. He works with professional athletes including NLF players suffering from concussion and tremors and more. Dr. Chevalier is not a medical doctor. His background is in functional medicine, and he covers and wide-range of conditions that can be addressed successfully in a non-invasive way.
His research has led him to the creation of his new therapy called Neurological Integrative Therapy or brain therapy, scientifically-proven through functional MRI studies. Dr. Chevalier has a nonprofit organization working in collaboration with retired Lieutenant Colonel Marine David Benhoff. He takes homeless veterans suffering from suicidal ideation, addiction, depression, chronic pain, traumatic brain injuries, concussion and successfully transitions them to be productive members of society with his new treatment modality.
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About Antoine Chevalier
Dr. Chevalier is currently working with military Veterans who have been clinically diagnosed suicidal, individuals battling depression, PTSD, gang members, children with Autism, patients who are visually impaired, professional athletes including NFL players suffering from concussion tremors, and more.
Included in Dr. Chevalier’s therapy recommendations are healing botanicals, including hemp phytocannabinoids, that are tailored to a person’s unique biology.
Dr. Chevalier’s hands-on experience has resulted in a wealth of world research results on addressing brain injury with natural botanicals and leading-edge technology.
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