In this episode of Lex Lumina, Sam Castor sits down with Dr. Ian Yamane, founder of Valhalla Wellness in Las Vegas, for a grounded conversation about how healing actually begins. Not with a prescription. Not with a quick fix. But with understanding what is quietly driving inflammation, fatigue, and chronic pain long before symptoms become unavoidable.

The conversation opens with a personal experience. After Sam’s wife undergoes an appendectomy, a question surfaces too late. What caused the inflammation in the first place? That moment becomes the doorway into a much larger discussion about modern medicine, why it excels at emergency care, and why it often stops short of helping people heal at the root.

🎯 Episode Summary Dr. Yamane walks through how gut health influences nearly every system in the body, from immune response to mental clarity. He explains how the Standard American Diet, chronic stress, poor sleep, and hidden chemicals in food slowly disrupt the microbiome. Over time, this imbalance can weaken the gut lining, allowing inflammation to spread and creating symptoms that never quite show up on standard lab work.

From there, the conversation turns practical. How to start healing now instead of waiting for a diagnosis. Reading ingredient labels differently. Questioning “natural flavors.” Paying attention to water quality, cookware, and daily exposure to toxins. Small changes, when made consistently, can remove the interference that prevents the body from doing what it was designed to do.

The discussion expands beyond food and physiology into mindset and spirit. Sam and Dr. Yamane talk about meditation, prayer, cold exposure, and intentional discomfort as tools for restoring balance. Healing, they suggest, happens fastest when the body, mind, and spirit are addressed together rather than treated as separate systems. This episode is not about perfection. It is about awareness. And about giving your body the conditions it needs to recover, repair, and move forward now.

👤 About Dr. Ian Yamane Dr. Ian Yamane is the founder of Valhalla Wellness in Las Vegas. His work focuses on uncovering root causes behind chronic inflammation, gut dysfunction, fatigue, and metabolic imbalance. His approach emphasizes practical changes across body, mind, and spirit to support long-term healing.

💼 About Sam Castor Sam Castor is an attorney and entrepreneur who hosts long-form conversations on healing, leadership, faith, and responsibility. Lex Lumina is where those conversations live.

💡 About Lex Lumina Lex Lumina is a space for honest conversations about how people heal, lead, and grow when they slow down and look beneath the surface. No scripts. No hype. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/hrJilwaMGhM

🔥 This conversation with Brian Hartshorn stayed with me longer than I thought it would.

Brian spent 20 years in law enforcement starting in patrol, moving into detective work, and later working SWAT related operations and Homeland Security task force assignments. Basically dealing with every type of monster you can image. But this episode isn’t about tactics, adrenaline, or highlight reel moments. It’s about what repeated exposure to suffering does to a person over time and how some people manage not to lose their humanity along the way.

Brian talks openly about moments from his career that never really left him. Time spent around Special Victims work. The quiet weight of seeing people on their worst days. And the internal discipline required to keep doing the job without hardening into someone you don’t recognize. He also reflects on what SWAT level responsibility actually puts a person through. Not in a dramatic way, but in the slow, internal way it changes how you think, how you plan, and how you move through everyday life. This isn’t a story about heroics. It’s a conversation about endurance.

🎯 Episode Summary Over the course of this conversation, Brian and Sam talk through questions most people don’t ask unless they’ve lived close to them. What does long term exposure to violence and trauma do to your mind How do you stay human when you’re trained to expect the worst Why do some people harden while others don’t Brian shares a story about someone he arrested more than once. It isn’t a clean redemption arc. It’s messy and frustrating, and it says a lot about how fragile change can be especially when addiction and environment collide. That story alone reshapes how you think about judgment, responsibility, and compassion. This episode doesn’t offer simple answers. It’s an honest look at restraint, faith, family, and the boundaries people have to build just to survive difficult work without losing themselves.

👤 About Brian Hartshorn Brian Hartshorn served 20 years with the Henderson Police Department, beginning in patrol and later working as a field trainer, detective (property, auto theft, robbery), and on a Homeland Security task force focused on criminal hazmat and CBRN investigations. He also held leadership roles within police training and academy development. Today, Brian focuses on mentoring, service, and community leadership rooted in integrity, faith, and genuine care for people.

💼 About Sam Castor Sam Castor is a father, world-builder, attorney, entrepreneur, and strategist focused on clarity, justice, and building systems that serve people rather than harm them. Through Lex Lumina, Sam hosts long-form conversations that explore power, responsibility, faith, and the choices that shape who we become.

💡 About Lex Lumina Lex Lumina is a long-form conversation series exploring the forces that shape power, character, and human potential. Hosted by Sam Castor, the show features leaders, thinkers, and practitioners who are working to bring accountability, clarity, and light into complex systems and difficult spaces.

🔥 In this episode of Lex Lumina, host Sam Castor sits down with Laura McSwain — a grassroots activist and community leader who dared to ask the questions no one else would. As President of the Water Fairness Coalition and longtime Las Vegas resident, Laura explains how “big water” policies are quietly stripping homeowners of their rights, watering down neighborhoods, and hiking bills under the guise of conservation. She walks us through her transformation: from frustrated resident hearing excuses at water-authority board meetings, to founding a movement that demands transparency, fairness, and accountability — even registering to lobby lawmakers in 2025.

🎯 Episode Summary This is more than a “rates gone up” story. It’s a playbook in how big utilities exploit fear — drought, climate change, resource scarcity — to justify sweeping, one-size-fits-all policies that punish ordinary homeowners. Laura pulls back the curtain on how water authorities use massive ad budgets to set the narrative, while pushing charges and rules that disproportionately burden people trying to maintain their homes, trees, and quality of life. Her story is a wake-up call: when your water bill spikes, you’re not just paying for supply — you may be paying for someone else’s growth ambitions. By empowering citizens, demanding transparency, and pushing for legislation, Laura and the Water Fairness Coalition offer a different vision — one where water isn’t just about scarcity, but justice, fairness, and community resilience.

👤 About Laura McSwain Laura is the President and founder of Water Fairness Coalition, an organization advocating for fair water pricing, transparency and independent oversight of water authorities in Southern Nevada. She lives in the McNeil Estates neighborhood of Las Vegas, and has become a leading voice against punitive “excessive use” charges, mandatory turf removal, and sweeping landscaping policies that don’t account for lot size, mature trees, or community equity.

🌐 Website – https://waterfairnesscoalition.com/

📘 Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WaterFairnessCoalition

📸 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/waterfairnesscoalition

💼 About Sam Castor Sam Castor is an attorney, entrepreneur, and strategist who believes in justice, clarity, and systems that serve people — not the other way around. In Lex Lumina, he brings critical conversations about power, policy, and human impact to light, and champions voices fighting for fairness and integrity.

💡 About Lex Lumina Lex Lumina is a long-form conversation series exploring power, justice, and human potential — from the boardroom to the backyard. Hosted by Sam Castor, the show goes beyond headlines to show how real people are pushing for change, reclaiming dignity, and demanding accountability.