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Owning The Coast

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Owning The Coast

Integrative Healing That Actually Works

June 18, 2026 • Santa Cruz Vibes Media, LLC • Season 2 • Episode 12

0:00 | 51:13

Your body is not a collection of disconnected problems, and Dr. Loki Doan makes a strong case that your care should not be disconnected either. We sit down with the founder of One Kinetic in Santa Cruz to talk about integrative medicine that blends Eastern medicine wisdom with Western tools that actually move the needle on recovery, energy, and longevity.

We start with Loki’s story, from leaving Vietnam as a child to growing up in Pittsburgh and eventually finding his way to Santa Cruz, where the ocean, martial arts, and healing all converge. That backdrop sets up his core philosophy: real health is built through daily practice, not last-minute rescue. He breaks down Eastern medicine as lifestyle medicine through six pillars: diet, movement, sun, sleep, stress management, and the soul, then explains how qigong and breath can help you “drop in” and reset your nervous system.

From there we get hands-on and specific. We talk acupuncture as “body electrician” work, how points get chosen, what the “qi” sensation feels like, and why the forced stillness of a session can be its own kind of medicine. Loki also explains fire cupping step by step, then we pivot into peptide therapy basics, what stacking means, and why getting guidance beats gambling on research peptides online. We close with hormone balancing across life stages, including perimenopause and menopause, plus Loki’s ongoing focus on precision medicine, optimal health, and longevity.

If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Welcome And Meet Dr. Loki

SPEAKER_06 0:02

Welcome to the On the Coast Podcast. Hello, and welcome back to the O2C Podcast. I'm Brandy Jones with KW Thrive.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

And to my right is Ryan Buffold with Cross Country Mortgage, Jerry Seagers with Seagars Insurance.

SPEAKER_06 0:16

I'm excited about today's guest.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

It's a great guest.

SPEAKER_06 0:20

I know. We have today Dr. Loki Done. He is the owner of one Kinetic in Santa Cruz, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 0:27

And we just found out he took the yellow submarine here in 1975. Welcome to OTC Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 0:37

First, we're excited to have you here because healing is an art. And Santa Cruz has a history of leaning into, I would say, non-traditional Western styles of living a life. And you have become exceptionally well known and exceptionally popular because what you your craft of healing people actually works. Can you tell us what your passion is or what you see in the healing industry?

Why East Meets West Matters

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Passion is it mixes both Eastern and Western medicine. I've studied uh both for so long that I, you know, I feel like they need to be one. So we can't approach it from just one view. It has to be a multiple uh views. So I think the synergy and integration of the two are very important. So I spend a lot of time cultivating both sides from a natural healing perspective to have new lenses every time I touch someone.

SPEAKER_06 1:37

So when you say you have new lenses, how tell let's start from the beginning. How did you get interested and know that you have a calling? Because we could say like a lot of people from a childhood, they want to heal a dog. Where was it in your heart that you knew you were going this direction?

Martial Arts And Energy Mindset

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, I grew up watching Kung Fu theater and a lot of Chinese movies, you know, they're all doing martial arts, they're all doing energy, flying around the room, throwing energy, you know, awesome people without touching them, and then also healing people. So there's this healing spirit and fighting spirit. And so I got to know both uh growing up, and I always felt like I wanted to go into the metap medicine field and cultivate both sides of that somehow.

SPEAKER_06 2:28

Well, that's interesting you say that because think about it. When somebody is ill, they have to fight if they want to get better.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:34

And then anybody that knows martial arts, which I am not a martial arts master, people there it's often said that you should you should learn martial arts.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You're just an avid enthusiast or what?

SPEAKER_06 2:45

Well, it's about energy, right? It's when to be the warrior and when to be the the peaceful warrior.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:52

It's it's when to use your energy for protection versus healing versus attack, which there's not a lot of attack, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Right. It's a yin and yang balance.

SPEAKER_06 3:03

Yeah.

unknown 3:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:04

So where are you originally

Escaping Vietnam At Age Four

SPEAKER_06 3:06

from?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I'm from Vietnam.

SPEAKER_06 3:08

And tell us that story.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yeah, buddy. Well, supposedly it was the last day, I believe April 10th, April 12th, 1975, and the US was pulling out, and every man and woman was for themselves. My whole family was scattered, you know, some of them paired up. And I was with my uncle and my next older brother, and we're on a motorcycle bike, pulling out of the jungle and into this field, and there was a helicopter that just left the platform, and they saw us, dropped down and grabbed our arm, and we flew up into the sky. Wow. And then went to a boat, to an island, and then another boat to the U.S. How old were you at that? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

That's just asked that question.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

It took me a while to figure that out because they changed my birth date when I came here just to push me back a little bit. So I when I started school, I could catch up with English. So back then I was four.

SPEAKER_06 4:11

So they grabbed your arm at four? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Oh, I was like a monkey. My my I was like a monkey in the front chest of my uncle. And you know, we fit like ten people on one motorcycle. You're in the priority. We take the motorcycle down. We took the motorcycle. He said it. Like I said, we just came out of the jungle.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Loki, are these fabricated memories or do you have glimpses of this memory? Like when you is that a story that was told to you at four years old, or do you remember parts of this?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, it's a story that was reiterated to me.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

And do you do you have flash images or is it just a story?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

No. Fortunately, I don't have images of the war, you know, back then. Just like pretty horrific.

SPEAKER_06 4:53

Yeah, I was just gonna say fortunately, because you get on a boat, you go on an island, you land in the United States, you're pushed back so that you can be in school, and then there's this sentiment, and there's and it's again, yin and yang, about Vietnam War and against Vietnam War. This is really the time where people are standing out against war.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:12

How do you where did you land first and how did you end up in Santa Cruz?

Growing Up In Pittsburgh

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Well, my mom was given the option to go to East Coast or you know, West Coast, California or East Coast, and she said, Oh, I heard good things about the East Coast. So we landed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Oh, wow. That's and yeah, we had a lot of sponsors from churches and stuff, many different denominations, you know, church denominations. So that helped us, you know, set a base and then get going. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

That's a bill of goods though, because I live back east. Pittsburgh ain't back east.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

It's almost there. But whatever that brochure was, she made a horrible decision because I was West Coast or Pittsburgh, there's this end. Not the East Coast. She was probably thinking she was thinking statue.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, New York, Florida. Yeah. Yeah. No shade on Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_06 6:05

So you get to go to school in Pittsburgh. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:07

That's kind of toughen you up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was an interesting.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

So what brought you to what how do you navigate from Pittsburgh to California?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Well, I started off college, Penn State, and then I was really bored of it. I just didn't see much change in things, friends, you know, amongst friends and stuff, and I needed something new. So I went down to Houston where my brother and sister live.

Finding Santa Cruz And A Calling

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Went to engineering school there. And then I got tired of that heat wave, and you know. Yeah. Um, so then around 96 I came out here. So just just cold, or was it surfing, or was it just it was always a dream. I came out here in 86 to Santa Cruz and I was like, I'll be back. Yep. I want to live here, and I came back.

SPEAKER_06 6:59

That's what I did.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:00

I got I got a scholarship to go to Berkeley, and I was like, I'm just gonna drive down here and for volleyball? Uh water polo.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Water polo.

SPEAKER_06 7:10

Wow. And I drove down High One and I went past 41st exit, and it was right at 41st, all the way to Rio Del Mar, and I said, I'm gonna live here one day. And I ended up not going to Berkeley for I just got my ass handed to me in the pool. And I thought this is not worth it. I can't, what am I gonna do with water polo? So I took a year off and ended up at UCSC. But it was the same experience, like it calls your soul. Yeah. And it's loud. And I know you guys are born here, so you're like, sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Well, it's certainly called me back. I mean, I've lived in a lot of other places, and I think every time that I move somewhere else throughout my life, I would always think like this is not nearly as nice as Santa Cruz. I thought it's really I I don't know what me is.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

That's my that's my category. It's like the affinity being away is almost the same as you seeing it for the first time. Yeah. Like I do agree with you, people that never leave the zip code, possibly are a little, you know, disconnected with how unique it is. Yeah. Um, but being away for even short periods of time, I longed for this place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I mean, I lived in Laguna Beach for four years, and you'd think that that's pretty comparable, but it's nothing. It's not nothing compared to this. And it's weird, I live my life by the 70% rule. So anything you do, you're gonna get 70% out of that, you know, out of the hundred that maybe you'd want. And I feel like Santa Cruz brings me like 80 to 90 percent of what I want.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Loki, the I always like pin thoughts in my head as far as like human story of it. I still want to go back to Pittsburgh. I don't want to shit on it anymore, but just Pittsburgh. I'm creating enemies right now, but I just I'm taken by the fact of at this point five years old. Yeah. And then English not so great, blue-collar town. You just go into a public school?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yep, public school.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Was it hard? Oh, yeah, it was rough. Yeah. Let me talk about that a little bit. Like you're I think kind of interested in this little bit right now is like your sort of American journey. Like, you know, not only not only just the the fact that this was, you know, an escape in a lot of ways from something that was pretty gnarly over there, but you're here and you can't help but be you're just a kindergartner.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

And you don't know the language, and the kids are probably not super kind to you. No. What was it like? What was it like?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah. Well, there were some that, you know, just needed to be cruel. Yeah, brought up that way. So that was I think that's just the norm, you know, no matter where you live growing up. So there's gotta be some reason for kids to pick on somebody else just to make themselves feel better. Right. I don't think any kids are gonna get away with that um that are different from others.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Did that make you kinder, tougher, resilient? I mean, did when you look back on it so that you don't have perspective when you're five, but definitely when you're 20 or 15, you kind of start looking at your life in different ways. What did those first transformative years, what did that make in you know, Loki?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Well, it wasn't too tough because I was the youngest of nine set of older brothers and sisters. So if somebody picked on me, they heard it from my older eight nice. And they had friends that were you know into football, you know, they're in sports and everything. So it's like you pick on my brother, you pick on us. I might not fully understand your language, but you're gonna understand I eventually became a pretty popular kid. So it was not that rough. It was just initially, you know. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:44

And then is that when martial arts came to you, or did martial arts come to you? How did martial arts enter your life? It probably was always there because of being from Vietnam.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah, I mean, I grew up with it with my brothers and sisters, you know, teaching me martial arts and then moving through college, you know, and picked my own martial arts kind of gangs, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:02

Like what do you pick? What did you pick for your style?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Well, back then it was called Volvinam, it's Vietnamese martial arts, you know, taught within the family. And then I learned that when I went to Texas as well from another guy that I like hung out with at the gym and stuff. And then out here came jujitsu. Donruns Donran Don Zonran Jiu Jitsu.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

So are they similar disciplines, the Vietnam Vietnamese martial arts and jujitsu?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

No, not really at all. You know, there's a lot of striking in Vovinong. And then with jujitsu, it's healing, yeah, yielding and grappling, grappling. So I wrestled in high school, so grappling was easy for me. Yeah. But this is more like grappling in the sense where somebody attacks you, you yield towards it, you grab whatever clothing or hand or use that energy, yeah, and then just like spin them around, you know, lay them on the code.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Similar to Aikido, probably.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, very similar. Yeah, Aikido is more like big circles, and this is more small circles. Okay. Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 12:05

You just Japanese and has her mother is full Japanese, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

So I have half Japanese kids, and yeah, it's been fun, fun journey learning different culture. You know, I was very very uh white growing up.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Okay, because you said it favorite movie of the martial arts movies when you were young.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Did I say one?

SPEAKER_02 12:29

No, no, you hadn't said one yet, but you said that was your kind of the dragon movie.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Oh, heck, yeah. Game of Death, Into the Dragon, all those, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Good job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Yeah, that's a cult classic.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

I would say I would say into the Dragon was transformative for me. Yeah. When when you was very young when I watched it, I think even with some buddies down at the Del Mar or something like that, but probably junior high for me, somewhere around there-ish, something like that, junior high, high school, but it was just an immersion into a practice, a culture, a style of changes. And a style of art. That's it. Cinematography and the art of it that that I don't think I ever got off that train on some level. Like, you know, I'm not always looking for Inner to the Dragon in a movies, but I'm looking for sort of that commitment and dedication to what that was.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Well, I feel like like Quentin Tarantino has done a lot of uh movies similar style where you kind of get into like Kill Bill is a great one, right? Like where you really get into that artistic style of action film, you know, but there's nobody else that does that anymore.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

No, not to that level. If they did, it's very, very unique. All right, so we segued there, so no, it's all it's all good. I tried I tried to put pins in it. So we left Houston because it's 117 degrees.

SPEAKER_06 13:40

There's a pin cushion just so you know, because it has all these pins in it.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

That's because Loki does that too. Loki does put into me. But so we arrived in Santa Cruz, late 90s. Yeah, 96. And what do you what are you looking to do when you get here?

From IT Work To Acupuncture

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Well, I'm in IT at that point. We finished up school while I'm in school. I got a job as a network database administrator for mainframe, and I'm setting up networks. I got network certified certification to build networks, and I was like, Silicon Valley sounds like a good place to be.

unknown 14:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Especially in the 90s. And got out here and started IT jobs and landing in Santa Cruz, was looking for a martial arts studio and acupuncture school and my martial arts school. The foundation is called AJJF, American Judo Jiu-Jitsu Federation. And they have a healing spirit and hiding fighting spirit, like dichotomy, where there's if you learn to hurt somebody, you gotta learn how to heal them too. Oh, that's great. So all the professors were acupuncturists, as well as you know, ninth degree black belts. And it was a great place to be, you know. So and then I found out that there was five ranches here as well.

SPEAKER_06 15:08

I was just gonna say, I you land in, first of all, the epicenter of the world. Well, I mean, it had some super highways to China and to Japan with the IT park. So you're in Silicon Valley, and now Santa Cruz, a lot of people don't know. There's some of the best acupuncturists come out of Santa Cruz.

SPEAKER_05 15:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 15:24

And so you go there and you are learning how does your energy feel then? So do you feel more balanced as you're learning acupuncture? Do you feel like you just are on the hero's journey right now? Do you have visions of like, I'm gonna change the world? Where is this like now you're adding healing, which is powerful, and some people can take that really far?

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah, I start out with like romanticizing about being a barefoot doctor, you know, just being like a Taoist and just treating people when no matter where I went, I had tools on my hands. If I didn't have, you know, a computer or something or some medical, you know, equipment to fix them, I had my hand. Right. And, you know, what's in my head. So that's what I was really passionate about back then. And so that's why I took that journey. I left tech eventually. It's like, okay, I'm ready to go transition this way and cultivate that inner

Qigong For Surfing And Centering

SPEAKER_00 16:24

healer in me. And then it's also all like like there's a practice called qigong tai chi, and that's all about internal energy, working your own internal energy, the meridians, and cultivating optimal health from the meridians into the organs and really tapping into that and what that means with food and lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Is Tai Chi a little bit, and this is just me being kind of green on the question, but is that a little bit in your pre-surf routine? A little bit, or no, like or is that just regular surfaces? More or less qigong.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Qi Gong and Tai Chi kind of overlap in disciplines, right? Yeah. Like a little bit. Yeah. Lee Holden's a good friend of mine. I don't know if you know Lee Holden, but yeah. It's the only reason why I know about Qi Gong, but he's quite well known for that.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Yeah, he's the Hollywood of Qigong. It's just very cool to see. We did a little pod uh interview out there before he went in, and I mean it was just a solitary moment. It wasn't even we're done with the talk. He was going in to surf, and Stace and I were just sitting down, and he just kind of it's almost like you were paying homage to the water, facing the water, doing some, and just was kind of a beautiful very fluid movement. It is a very fluid movement, but in that moment, in the wetsuit, looking out the water, it was sort of like before I graced my presence in the water, it felt like felt like it was a moment. You know, like you were kind of a balancing moment when you're doing it, and it was kind of beautiful to watch.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, we call it dropping in. So when you're dropping in, you're pulling that yin-yang energy, the water energy, which is yin, and the sun energy, the fire energy, which is yang, into your body. And you kind of just like breathe, breathe it all in and just kind of calm the spirit, and then you just set the tempo for your surf. It's just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Years ago, I was in a business professionals course. This was probably 10, 15 years ago, and we studied Qigong to in business, it was about business philosophy and just to be centered. Like don't be elevated, don't be too low, always stayed centered, and then you have the power. Basically, don't fly off the handle. And so, you know, people always tell me that all the time. How do you stay so centered and how do you stay so you know even keeled? And a lot of it was from business professionals, of course, and learning models.

SPEAKER_06 18:35

He's an ox. I think it comes naturally.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:39

And he's a horse, he's a monkey, and not the dragon. You can see the circus at the fire.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

It's a very difficult podcast.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

But I think that's really interesting. What you said there is that I don't think it's a natural progression we make a lot of times when you think of a practice like that into the business, into like bringing that, you know, not only to the water, not only to your like own health and self, but especially how fast business can spin, how much adversity can be in a day in business, but to have a little bit of that balance. I think that's a unique perspective.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

That's the difference between Eastern and Western medicine, right? Like I mean, think of the philosophy with Eastern medicine, it's it's like it's overarching over your entire life. Whereas Western medicine is like a response to an illness. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

That's it. It's like Stacy talks about this in Sutter.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Did I say something good, dude?

SPEAKER_03 19:34

You did. But I want to get to Loki. I want to get to Loki because it's a big part of what he talks about when you're in there. And my take was almost exactly similar to that, which is Western feels like it's reactive. Eastern sounds like it's, you know, like, you know, basically there's you can either be reactive to it or you can base preventative medicine, whole body. But for somebody that's just dropping on this podcast has no idea what we're talking

The Six Pillars Of Lifestyle Health

SPEAKER_03 20:05

about. Like, you know, there's the textbook definition, but to you, what is Eastern medicine?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Eastern medicine, well, it's it's all about lifestyle when it comes down to it. And then from there, within lifestyle, like I mentioned in the six pillars, you know, like diet, movement, sun, and sleep, and stress management, and the soul, you know, the spirit. So we have to cultivate all those together to get, you know, a real live human being that, you know, is healthy. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Yeah. What are some of your daily practices that you do and even eating? Do you have a certain regimen of what you eat, what you do, things like that? And for those you don't know, this guy's in phenomenal shape, sitting here looking great. Like he's 25. Exactly. He probably has energy like he's 25.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

So, yeah, you know, I can wake up and practice qigong and do some breathing work and some yoga, and then have a meal at some point, probably around eight o'clock. I wake around, wake up around four or five. Okay. Early riser. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then what? I'll just work and then take a break, surf break. Yeah. And then I'll work some more, and then maybe take another surf break around noon or you know, two, depending on who's calling me to surf. And then have lunch, later lunch. Yeah. And then go home and unwind and surf again. If or if go to a yoga class. Yeah. Yeah. You know. So I always recommend like two HIIT classes a week and a yin, two yin yoga classes. Okay. It's gonna help with our metabolic. Flexibility and create more resilience. That's the best thing to increase the VO2 max, which is the one number one indicator for longevity. So um, and then the yin yoga is gonna help just chill chill you out and like become more flexible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:17

I want to go back to like when people hear the word work, it is work. It sounds like a cage, it's a pressure on your shoulders, and they have to go earn, and they don't get to go earn, or they don't get to go service somebody. Is there and then you touch on the the yin yoga where you get the VO2 max. So now you you you have a mindset, one may have a mindset they have to go to work, and now that they're stressed, they have to go work out hard. So I'm gonna go do CrossFit or HIT thing. And then now I'm hearing about meditation, so I'll do my 10-minute meditation. Yeah, and I think there's no wrong place to start or wrong place to be. That was me. And so at some point, enough illnesses, or I would say probably my qi gist was like, you're go doing this the wrong way. I'm gonna have to make you rest.

unknown 23:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:04

That it was in the very slow mornings for me. It's in the very the yin yoga, absolutely, or the Pilates, like the more traditional version. And that it took, I mean, maybe I play beach volleyball. So I get a lot of that, you know, sun energy that way. But for those listening, it's truly that blend that makes you find your soul again. So you get to go to work, you get to go play volleyball.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:29

How do you how when people come to you, is that what you see constantly? They're really leaning on one side or the other, mostly like masculine energy or sun energy or you know, young energy. How do you see that? And then how do you help them integrate something like what you're doing?

Stress Overload And Acupuncture Intake

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah. So there's we call it when people are burning the candle on two ends, you know, we call it sympathetic overdrive. So acupuncture is a really good way to just calm the spirit and flip that switch to parasympathetic so that you know that's what's driving their n autonomic nervous system now versus the sympathetic system. I well, first of all, you know, I just talk to them about what's going on and listen, and then provide some questions that maybe initiate some internal examining, and then I ask them, you know, what their day looks like that's causing this imbalance, and uh then uh do some diagnostics and just get going with the treatment.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

So your diagnostics, are you feeling the pulses?

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Sometimes I feel pulse, sometimes I just look at them and listen to them and see how they're doing. And then our diagnosis too around the navel is another approach.

SPEAKER_06 24:54

This is sounding very exciting.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

I the thing I like most is just biofeedback, like where are you feeling the pain? You know, and then push on this point. Does that release it? If it does, I'll put a needle there. If it doesn't, I'll check another point because everybody's body is systematically rigged differently. So, like in terms of acupuncture, like we're like body electricians, like a regular electrician puts a light up light bulb up there and the light switch down there or down there, or you know. And a body electrician, we have to figure out where that light switch is. So the light switch is in terms of light switch in the body, that's what's sending a pain signal to the brain, or some sort of dysfunctional, you know, system pattern. And so uh we can regulate that just by pushing on certain points in the body and getting that exact right point and right depth and regulating it from there.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

My favorite thing he does, he puts a pin in your ear and you're like, huh, I'm not feeling that anymore.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

In your thumb.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

Yeah, how's it that there?

SPEAKER_06 26:01

And he's like, I have full range of motion, my shoulder.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

A little bit of it is that way, and I think, you know, I've talked to Loki about I think a little bit of it is being in a frame of mind when you go there, you know, being able to receive that.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

You're open to it.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Being very open to it, and then sort of, I think there's such a power that we have over our body. And I think on top of it, I'm a big believer in the acupuncture now that I I do think we're very complex electrical kind of beings. And I think those playing around with those different ones, he he is sort of a tactician of like, here, not there, here, not there. Are you feeling that? And every once in a while you'll get one that is is that dull ache, you know, kind of a dull ache with the acupuncture that a little bit hard to kind of survive it the first 15 seconds, but then after, you know, 30, 40 minutes, it's sort of like it's it's just this beautiful kind of blend.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

But you know what's funny for me with acupuncture is the forced hour out of my day to lay in a bed and you can't move. That's it. You can't look at your phone, you're just sitting there like if you move, you're gonna hurt yourself, you know, and so you're kind of forced to just like relax and sit there and think. So much of my experience with acupuncture has been like profound coming out of that, you know. And I don't know how much of it is the points you're hitting. I mean, I haven't been to you, but I've been to others, you know, and but I think it's just like the closing off that one hour or whatever it is to just like focus on yourself and not think about anything else, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

How many do you put in? Like what I don't even know because I'm just laying there, but is there 15 or 20? Yeah, you you get about 20, because five in the ear and then 15 in the body. And then I think the thing that Jerry makes a really good point that that it's when I go there and you're right, you're covered in these things. How many times do you do 45 minutes or an hour, sometimes an hour and 15 minutes if we're not rushing, of not just being, but also trying to feel your body that way. Feel 20 points in your body at the beginning. Then I ventured.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Well, and every time you move, you feel wherever those needles are at, right? So you're super cognizant of what is happening in that moment. And I think that that's like the most powerful part of acupuncture for me at least, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, yeah, they can definitely be stimulated if you move. Yeah.

Needles, Qi Sensation, And Results

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah.

unknown 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:28

Do you use Japanese needles or Chinese needles?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

I just use Chinese needles. Yeah. What is the difference?

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Like Japanese needles are made in Japan.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Go figure. Japanese needles have silicon over them. Oh, okay. Okay, so you don't have the microfibers like the steel fiber, the steel heads from the Chinese. You have these hairs that you can't see. I see microfibers. So when we stick them in, we can spin them and then go up and down and find that qi, which we call that qi, that achiness.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

And then once we get it, then and you as a practitioner can feel that.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

That's incredible. By the depth in the skin?

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Well, once we get it, we we know we got it. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:19

Oh, you know, you know they've got it.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

You know it. We are screening once we get it too. Oh, yeah. Karina, do you want the achiness? Yes. Yes. Yeah, we want that cheap. Oh, I'm doing it wrong. Because she's arriving. Like, stay away from the achiness, please. Once she arrives, it's gonna affect that channel and all the channels that connect with it. So they're all connected.

unknown 29:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

So and then can we move a little bit into cupping?

Fire Cupping And Moving Stagnation

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Just the again, like for the audience, explain what that is. It's audio, so it's kind of like explain the best you can what that process is.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Okay, well, with I do fire cupping, and what that does is we put some alcohol, like a I've got a stick with a cotton ball wrapped around the stick, the metal stick, and I dip it in some alcohol, and then I pull it out like that, and then let me back off. Usually with my style of cupping, I do running cups. So I'll put oil on someone's back, run a cup up and down so that there's oil all over the back. And then I take that fire stick and put it in the cup, which displaces all the oxygen in the cup, and then I'll drop it onto the skin, and that will suck up oxygen from the body. What's carrying the oxygen is red blood cells.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah, or you know, dead blood. Right. And if we see dead blood, it's gonna be like purple at the surface, you know. So or black at that. So, and then we pull that to the surface, and that moves the qi and blood, which is the whole premise of acupuncture moving qi and blood.

SPEAKER_06 30:57

So when you say well, dead blood, that sounds scary.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Well stagnant. Like stagnant. It's it's eventually going to oxidize and become less useful. It's made its 255-day route. So, and if it's uh there's an injury, then it's it's destroyed already. So, and it's just recycling, sitting, or creating scar tissue.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Muscle injuries is where cupping is mostly used, or is it could it be used for anything related to the case?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Oh yeah, I use it all the time whether people have you know muscle injuries or not in the spine, or because it's waking up the channels and it's waking up the organs. So we have a bunch of organ, bunch of points that correlate to the organs along the spine, erectospinal. And if you tap into those points, it's like going in and massaging the organs. Gotcha. So have you balancing out that organisation? I have done it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

But I have like a real thing that happened to me. So I tore my adductor and in insane pain. And my right leg, so I'm a cyclist, and my right leg is atrophying because of the torn adductor. So is that something that I should come see you for? Or is that something that you would have me see like a physical therapist for?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

In conjunction, for sure, like I think both systems are together.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

You could also tell them if there's no hope.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Yeah, you could tell me just to cut my leg off, I would do it.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

You can tell be straight with them, Loki.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Peptides are great for yeah, I've been using peptides. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Wolverine is the one you want to tap into.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Which one? But wolverine. Oh, it does stack.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yeah. And I mean, that's just two peptides, but I use it.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Was it TB500 and 157? Are those the two?

SPEAKER_00 32:42

TB500, yeah. Yeah. Well TB4 and BPC 157. Okay. But I also stack it with GHKCU, which is copper, and that stimulates collagen. And KPV, which helps with skin and tissue regrowth and rebuilding the gut. So we need to talk.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

And it comes to you.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

So go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 33:04

So I keep cutting off, Ryan. I was gonna say now we're really tapping into how you blend Western and Eastern.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

Right. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 33:11

And so peptides, something that was given to me. I take Wolverine, I take the, I guess you could call it Glow, right? Which is the other two?

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah, Glow just has the I think KPV in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:23

It has the copper as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Or the one I G H K C yeah. It's got yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:28

So having said that, the original conversation when you have with people like peptides, those come from China, they have heavy metals, this, that, and that. Where are you blending peptides into your practice? And then where are you blending Western into your practice? Like you just told Jerry you're going to like, hey, I recommend both PT and acupuncture.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:49

Wait, what's that yeah?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Well that's a good question.

SPEAKER_06 33:52

Before we what Avengers stuff are you going to do?

SPEAKER_03 33:59

So that's a great that's a great call-out by our producer there. So put a pin in that one, but quickly, because we went right into the numbers, just explain peptides a little bit to the listeners.

Peptides, Stacks, And Safe Use

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Just a quick one. Peptides are just amino acids. Yep. So and our body takes these nutrients and creates chains, so like little balls on a string. And that's an amino acid. And our body already creates these amino acids that are being produced in the industry. It's just that our body starts to degrade and function. And when our body degrades and functions, we need support. And some sometimes it's hard to get all the nutrients to rebuild that support quickly. But peptides is a good way to really go in subcutaneously and immediately start bringing the body into homeostasis.

SPEAKER_06 34:51

So when you say a stack, it's literally subscribed.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

When we call it a stack, we're that's adding one peptide on top of another, on top of another, but they have to be tested at the same pH to live together, um, to be able to be injected together. You can't just take one peptide from one bottle to another and then just put it together because it has been tested at the same pH, which will destroy the peptide.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

For the most part, are they pretty safe?

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Yes, they're very safe. Uh it's always good to have somebody supervise, you know, the distribution of peptide amounts as you're stacking it. Uh-huh. So you know what you're doing, and if you get yourself in trouble, you know how to get yourself out of that. So, or who to talk to.

SPEAKER_06 35:37

Well, I think that's really important because peptides can be a little spending. And I love that how you answered Karina's question and also what is a stack, and that wherever it is, having somebody supervise, whether it's you or not, the we tend to have a I want to fix it in one sitting. Give me the shot. But you're saying, but there's a lot of things behind the scenes that the shot will work or the stack will work for you because I have taken care of the ingredients, the pH, how it's delivered, and what it's for. Because you can go online and you can buy these potentially, and you have no clue. They can come as form as powders, they're called research peptides. You're saying, hey, if you really care about what you're spending your money on and your body, somebody like you can really cultivate that sense of care in the proper way for it to actually work with your system.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

I agree. Yeah, I'm gonna give you a compliment here because I think that part of it is the difference. Like when I met Loki, I'm taking all of that, and we get the acupuncture weekly, but I think it's the conversations in between. It's the conversations in between that this commitment to this and some of the words that come out. I stopped drinking in December. You know, we kind of tighten things up. I kind of want to meet this whole thing because he's always encouraging you on the way out. Like, you know, like there's a conversation about here's your Wolverine, here's your acupuncture, here's your peptide, all these things, but also Brian, you need to get into a couple hit classes. And so, but all of this combined between that weekly sort of like stop point, partnerships with like Chris, having access to it. And and the thing about that is is I think I've got friends that do it, and they think the shot's gonna just that's their only answer. They're gonna keep eating like shit. They're not gonna get back into the gym, they're using it and they've lost 60, 70 pounds, but they're not meeting it on the other side with like a lifestyle change. And I think Loki does a great job at sort of like, you know, pushing you towards this is a gateway to other healthy habits.

SPEAKER_06 37:39

Or like the six pillars. This is a pillar of your maybe.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

What are you referring to?

SPEAKER_06 37:48

The peptide, you know, instead of peptides or acupuncture being the answer to be all, it's just one of your pillars.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

It's one of the one discipline that you need to keep continuing on. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

Because you kind of do do you feel that way like in the because I do hear you when you talk to us and you talk to other clients that that sort of a responsibility you have is that the curation of a shot is just the beginning of the whole kind of experience for somebody, or the whole like what they should be doing with their life. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Do you find that?

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, it's it's the start, but we also have to incorporate all other lifestyle things that I, you know, recommend um to really get where they want to get, you know, meet the goal, um, whatever goal that may be for each individual. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

What would you do with somebody like me? I have no idea what my issues are. I don't think I have any issues. But I'm like intrigued. Like I don't have pains. I don't, you know, I'm for the most part, I feel pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Well, I would have to check with your sleep, you know, and your diet, your energy, and see where that goes. And, you know, your exercise routine. Uh, are you happy with that? Are you overdoing one thing? Do you have any injuries from that? And if you don't, then it's just preventative medicine from there. You know, if you're doing good and you're eating right, then you're good to go. But we all go fall out of balance. Yeah. Um, and we can't be perfect rock stars 24-7, 365 days a year. Yeah. Yeah. That's impossible.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

I think it's part of itself.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

I think you do. I want to study under you.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

I fall into your category a little bit more. I've got a little bit of a wrist problem, you know, like the snuff box, as Loki calls it, right in there. And when I first saw him, I was having a little plantar fasciitis kind of little little thing that comes and goes. But when he comes in, there's not a lot that I'm in there for. I'm not having this deep, I don't carry pain in my neck. I don't, but I think what I've found in this practice for the last five or six months has been part of this, part of everything we're doing. Maybe it's the Wolverine, all those ones, but I feel like my recovery and my energy is better to go harder after my workouts, if that makes sense. Like it's almost like something about all of this is allowing me to work out harder on a Tuesday and feel like I still can get after it in a different capacity on a Wednesday. Not that I was fatigued on it, but there's a little bit more, you know, I'm just a little bit more in the game. And it's hard for me to pick out over those six or seven months because it was such a huge change. And like literally, we got bread out of the house, sugar out of the house, and then clearly the alcohol is not a huge deal for me, but it's a big thing. And I even stopped because of these not even drinking coffee nearly as much. Three to four cups of coffee to zero to one now.

SPEAKER_06 40:36

That's that all of that is so impressive because you they I'm gonna use the word, they stack up in your life and you don't even notice it. And then when somebody says you shouldn't take it, you want to rip it out.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

That's it.

SPEAKER_06 40:47

And he's like, Well, we don't there's ways to use the energy to flow it out of your life, and you don't even realize when you look back, you're like, Wow, I you don't even know what you don't know. I mean, people who say they quit drinking that have been drinking for years, they don't even know how good it is until they've quit one year, two years, whatever there is. So like the sugar or the coffee, that's we're so used to it. It's fascinating that you you're like, no, follow me down this road, Loki.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

Yeah, Loki's just got me thinking about, you know, he got me thinking about like the this is as an ecosystem. Like this is a complicated ecosystem, my body. You know, like you'd once you start talking about this pin there, that pin there, you start thinking about the whole matrix of what makes us up, and then you start thinking about, all right, I need to take care of this. You know, I need it's it's a complicated sort of you know event, just being a human that I think it got me thinking that way a little bit outside the box as far as like what is this shell of Bryant? You know, and so it's been it's been good for me, and it's hard for me to pick out one thing, but this is one big part of it for sure.

Hormones, Perimenopause, And Options

SPEAKER_06 41:51

So we do have a lot of testosterone in this room, but about the ladies.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

What about the ladies?

SPEAKER_06 41:57

Especially menopause.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

About hormone balancing. Yeah, there's all different stages of hormone balancing from you know when women get their first period to, you know, the excess hormone that causes acne in all teenagers, you know. Acupuncture is very good for that. And herbs. So usually we just take that approach with teenagers and even kids or babies and stuff. And as things progress, you know, from in the later ages into perimenopause and menopause, we can correct that through herbs as well. It's the more difficult people that have trickier systems where we have to really engage with some sort of bioidentical or just straight up, you know, pharmaceutical, estrogen, progesterone patches. Whatever works, you know. I'm not gonna guide them, steer them away, and whatever works economically for them, you know. So if they are against bio the RX, Western Medical, then put them bioidenticals and see if that works. If it doesn't work, we gotta get them on what works. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:16

That's really because I think as a woman who's perimenopausal, it's not I don't want to say there's shame around it, at least in my world, but it's not talked about. You're talking about your your fertile years, and then all of a sudden you don't even know what's happening. You think because sorry guys, because you're still like having similar cycles, but yet hormones are changing all of a sudden, maybe weight gain, or you're extra grumpy, or it just seems to happen out of control. And I I guess we just have a couple more minutes left. Like, how would you when somebody comes in? I don't know. I d I guess I want women or whomever, women or moms or whatever, to be like, it's it's not the end of the road and it's not a curse. There are ways that you can reclaim your youth back, you know, through

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Yeah, I mean it there's all lifestyle stress management. If you don't manage your stress, your hormones are gonna be out of balance. Even for men, men will get night sweats, and that's hormone imbalance. We call it y kidney yin deficiency, where you're sweating your essence away and then you're aging quicker because you do it and you're not addressing it. So and then for women, hot flash night sweats. That's kidney yin deficiency. So we address it with kidney yin deficiency and essence herbs that supplement that. So that's how we address hormone balancing in Chinese medicine.

SPEAKER_06 44:33

I feel the feeling that all of us have night sweats because I've heard all of us make a sound in here.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

So haven't in a while.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

But I think the other thing to put a button on what you're talking about, having daughters and having that conversation, I think it's conversations like this de destigmatizing, just a casual conversation about whether it be menopause, whether it be a period. Actually, one of our most popular podcasts we've ever done was on Nellie's podcast, and we ended up talking with, can't think of the name of her foundation right now. We talked about periods for like 18 minutes in the middle unexpectedly, and she was so psyched that two guys were willing that conversation ended up being one of the most popular.

SPEAKER_06 45:09

I just think that conversation needs to be casually had, talked about, and know that doors are open like this for, you know, yeah, it could be like cramping, extra any sort of thing that you think you have like again, this area doesn't really look yes and no, getting into a doctor and getting your insurance to pay for, and that is one answer. I'm not saying that's a wrong answer, or I'm not saying that's the right answer, but here's another opportunity where this is this is human nature. This is what you do as a woman. And let's see what what you're saying, how and every woman does it. Yeah. Well, hopefully, yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_06 45:44

Longevity Goals And Where To Find Him

SPEAKER_06 45:45

we you're in Santa Cruz, you have this top-rated, I would say, functional medicine that blends Eastern and Western. What would you say is your your soul's drive now or your message now, being that you've quote unquote made it to this high level of recognition and healing thousands and thousands of people? What does your soul see for your path now?

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Well, I want to keep going down that road, and I want to get deeper into precision medicine. So and providing deep work in the field of longevity, optimal health, beauty, so and just helping more people within those and hormone regulation for men and women. So there's there's many different avenues that I'm going down right now.

SPEAKER_06 46:44

I like hormone avenue and precision drive. So when people come to you, first of all, where can they find you? What's your address? And online, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Online is one hyphen kinetic inc. And then our address is 1729 Seabright Avenue, Suite E, Santa Cruz, California, 95062.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

And do you have any sort of social media?

SPEAKER_00 47:08

We're on Instagram and Facebook. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 47:11

Is that one kinetic one?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Yes. One letter one.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

O-N-A.

SPEAKER_06 47:19

Yes. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

What I want to know is what's your surf spot?

unknown 47:24

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

I love the east side. Yeah. I surf this place called Rockview, and I surf so much my friends can't get me away from it that they call it Lok View. I just posted up Rock View.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

You did, you didn't put it out there. You did.

SPEAKER_06 47:39

Do you slip when you go out there? Because those are slippery rocks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Yeah. Got it down. I've been surfing there for 20 plus years.

SPEAKER_06 47:47

So where's your surf favorite surfing on it?

SPEAKER_01 47:49

I surf, you know, I'm a big hook guy my whole life. I grew up surfing the left at sharks because I'm a goofy. But you know, I've east side my whole life. Like I think I had a moment in my teens where I would surf the left left at Middle Peak, steamer lane, but that didn't last very long. I came back to the east side. So the hook, you know, I'll surf first bowl. I like third bowl. Sometimes there's a little left that breaks off there. And I used to surf the beaches a lot too.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

So when does the sea is good left?

SPEAKER_01 48:18

When does he's good left? Yeah. Yeah. I I'm tired of driving for waves, though. So I like to just see like I see a south swell mid-tide, I know where it's going to be good. So I just go down.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

But before we let you go, because we're gonna do the closeout here, but I want you to talk a little bit about your involvement with like Veteran Surf Alliance and some of the instructing you

Veteran Surf Alliance And Service

SPEAKER_03 48:36

do. So that's meaningful. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Yeah, that's the last month Saturday of each month. And I go down there and provide instructions for the vets, and it helps save their lives and saves their families and gets them out of depression, PTSD. Yeah, and we'll usually like do a stretch, warm-up stretch meditation, and then we'll kick right into teaching them, you know, how to surf, getting them in the water from there. There's a water safety team, pretty big, at least like six to eight guys out there, making sure you know everyone's safe.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

So a lot of that adaptive surfing, or is it just kind of like more like you know, do you run into that a little bit where people have like adaptive surfing, like you know, maybe they've lost a leg or an arm or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 49:22

Or yeah, there's there's some people that are missing of them, yeah, and some vets that are just you know full on, you need like carrying them out, you know, helping in the water and stuff. So I had one guy last year from a room road day, he was about 450 pounds, and I had to he had like a broken back, and I had to tow him out, and waves were breaking six to eight feet on the shore. That was a tough one. So and he was hanging on my leash as I was like paddling. Take him out to the car like also 38th Avenue. This was a Capitola thing. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was pretty normal.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Meaningful, do you consider that meaningful and spiritual for yourself? Like when you walk away from that or in the quiet moment, what's your takeaway from when you do that? Because I know you're not the kind of guy that wants accolades or anything like that, but how's it make you feel?

SPEAKER_00 50:12

It it makes me feel very very good because you know we're giving service to people that have served the country. And yeah, they deserve it.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

So we need to and they're a great agency, they do a

Closing Thanks And Local Contacts

SPEAKER_03 50:25

great job. They're they're really you know a bunch of good people over there. Right on.

SPEAKER_06 50:29

Well, we want to thank you so much for we want to I can't even talk because I'm so excited. Thank you, Loki. Thank you. Thank you. I think we're all excited to participate in what you're bringing to us. And so I feel like Jerry and I will be making appointments.