What happens when a healthcare professional who has dedicated her life to helping others suddenly becomes the patient?

Dr. Efrat LaMandre, known as Dr. E, joins Dr. Kien Vuu (Dr. V) on the Thrive State Podcast for an honest conversation about being blindsided by stage four lung cancer, navigating the healthcare system, and learning to advocate for yourself.

After months of dismissing her own back pain, Dr. E received a diagnosis that changed her life. She shares how the experience reshaped her work as a nurse practitioner, her relationship with her family, and her understanding of what patients need most.

In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why healthcare professionals can minimize their own symptoms
• What medical gaslighting can feel like from the patient's perspective
• How to become the CEO of your own health and coordinate your care team
• Why well-meaning encouragement can sometimes feel like pressure
• How to make space for fear, uncertainty, and honest conversations
• How Dr. E approaches conventional and functional care as a patient
• Why connection, family, and presence matter when life changes unexpectedly

Listen to Dr. E's Medical Disruptor podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

🔔 Subscribe to the Thrive State Podcast for more conversations on health, longevity, and human performance. Share your biggest takeaway in the comments.

Follow Doctor V: https://instagram.com/doctorvmd
Get the #1 bestselling book Thrive State: https://thrivestatebook.com
Download the FREE Longevity & Human Potential Starter Guide: https://thrivestatestarter.com
Join the Thrive State Membership: https://mythrivestate.com/join

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Want to work with me? Send me an email 💌 info@kienvuumd.com

Get Thrive State on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Thrive-State-Performance-Longevity-Activating/dp/1950367568

Have you ever caught yourself reacting in a way you promised yourself you wouldn't anymore?

Maybe you get defensive with your partner, shut down when someone criticizes you, or find yourself falling into the same patterns of people-pleasing, overthinking, or self-doubt.

And the most frustrating part? You know better. You've done the inner work. So why does it keep happening?

In this episode of the Thrive State Podcast, Dr. Kien Vuu (Dr. V) explores the science of neuroplasticity, the nervous system, and why old emotional patterns can be so difficult to break.

Drawing from his own experiences with relationships, self-worth, and personal growth, Dr. V shares a simple metaphor about how our brains form habitual responses, and how we can begin creating new pathways.

You'll also discover a practical five-step framework to help you become more aware of your triggers, regulate your emotions, and consciously choose how you want to respond.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why knowing better doesn't always lead to doing better

• How childhood beliefs and experiences shape our emotional reactions

• What neuroplasticity teaches us about changing old patterns

• Why getting triggered doesn't mean you haven't healed

• How your nervous system influences your thoughts, emotions, and behavior

• The five steps to change: Feel, Regulate, Listen, Choose, Repeat

• How unconscious emotional patterns can drain your energy

• Why healing is about awareness, not perfection

A reminder from this episode:

Growth isn't necessarily about never getting triggered again. Sometimes, it's about recognizing an old pattern sooner, responding with more intention, and returning to yourself a little faster each time.

Your Thrive State Challenge:

For the next seven days, identify one emotional pattern that no longer serves you.

Instead of judging yourself when it shows up, practice noticing, regulating, listening, choosing, and repeating.

You might be surprised by how much can change when you stop automatically reacting and start consciously responding.

FREE THRIVE STATE RESOURCES

Get a free PDF copy of Dr. V's bestselling book, Thrive State, along with practical tools to support your health, energy, and personal growth:

https://thrivestatestarter.com

Join the Thrive State community:
https://mythrivestate.com/join

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to the Thrive State Podcast and share it with someone who could use a little encouragement on their own journey.

Remember, my friends: You are your best medicine.

— Dr. Kien Vuu (Dr. V)

What if the thing aging you fastest isn't your diet or your genes, but the story running in the back of your mind?

In this episode, Dr Kien Vuu and David Meltzer discuss the hidden link between mindset, the nervous system, and chronic disease. Dr V shares how, 13 years ago, he was a surgeon who was overweight, diabetic, hypertensive and on several medications, and headed toward his own operating table.

Together they explore how the ego's search for safety, love and connection keeps the body stuck in "danger mode," and why choosing faith over fear may be one of the most powerful tools for longevity and performance.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Dr. V's own diagnosis of diabetes and high blood pressure changed the way he practices medicine

• Why medical training focuses on matching drugs to symptoms, and what it misses

• How the ego forms when childhood needs for safety, love and connection go unmet

• The epigenetic messages chronic stress sends to your DNA, including more inflammation and less immunity

• Why "dis-ease" is mental, emotional and spiritual as well as physical

• How to spot the subconscious stories that trigger your nervous system, and how to question them

• Faith vs. fear: why both are invisible forces, and why the one you feed shapes your energy and health span

• The moment holding his newborn daughter dissolved Dr. V's belief that he wasn't enough

• How breathwork, stillness and connection help calm an inherited nervous system

• The message behind Dr. V's new book, I'm Possible

Follow Doctor V https://instagram.com/doctorvmd

Get the #1 bestselling book Thrive State https://thrivestatebook.com

Download the FREE Longevity & Human Potential Starter Guide https://thrivestatestarter.com

Join the Thrive State Membership https://mythrivestate.com/join