Throughout her healthcare public relations career she has worked on behalf of clients such as Pfizer, Bayer, Medtronic and Amgen, worked on celebrity campaigns with Angelica Houston, Bart Conner and Joe Montana, and launched products such as Listerine Pocketpaks, Cialis, and Celebrex. She has worked in pretty much every therapeutic area from dermatology, plastic surgery, men's health, urology, diabetes to cardiology, gastroenterology and psychiatry.
(Q) What is the greatest tip you can give someone for health and wellness?
I think that connecting mind, body and spirit is the most important way to radiant health. If the spirit is unwell, the body will follow. If the emotions are holding a secret deep inside the gut, cells, mind or heart, the body will most likely become sick.
Do what makes your soul sing, what makes your spirit soar. Dancing? Drawing? Swimming? Do it. Take care to meditate and do a digital detox when you can. If there are any wounds, confront them so healing can begin. Be grateful for every day and every small moment and memory. I keep a gratitude journal and every night write down all that I am grateful for from the day. Usually, for me, I find myself writing down that I'm grateful for something that has to do with food. But oftentimes it's things like beautiful connections. My family, my magical nephew. My brother, friends and clients.
My point is to make sure your spirit is happy and healthy and eventually the body will follow. I also think when it comes to diagnosing and healing that thinking in a creative, out-of-the box kind of way can be really helpful. Bringing an entrepreneurial and creative spirit into the practice of medicine and science can only lead to greater discoveries and more treatment options. My client ZO Skin Health, Inc. has done this well and created some incredibly innovative skin care products as a result. That has been my experience. Pray in a way that is meaningful to you, be grateful, connect, think with a wide and open mind.
(Q) Anything else
If you have any addictions-whether that means being a workaholic, being addicted to your phone and technology, being a maniac exerciser or something else, tackle it. The key to vibrant health is balance in all ways. Be mindful about balance. If your'e drinking champagne, drink green juice. If you're hooked up to your computer and phone for days, hook up with your friends or spouse at night. If you work non-stop, rest. If you're channel surfing, go surfing. Everything in moderation.
(Q) What do you do to care for your skin? It looks amazing.
One of our very favorite clients of all time is ZO Skin Health. The company is thriving and filled with integrity, incredible products, amazing people and a pioneering spirit. The skin care products are science-backed, luxurious and results-driven. I use only ZO Skin Health, Inc. products. My medicine cabinet is all ZO Skin Health products. Since I started using these products, my skin has become so much healthier and more radiant. The other day a dermatologist thought I was ten years younger than I am. I said no, it's my client's products! I am very proud of them and could not be more thrilled to represent them professionally and personally. I recommend ZO Skin Health products to anyone and everyone who will listen. I'm passionate about them. I also make sure to indulge in a facial with Ashley Witte at Parlour De Witte. She's a very gifted aesthetician in New York City. She lifts the cheekbones up, as well as the spirit.
(Q) What are some unusual things that you do to maintain radiant health?
A few years ago, I met Tracy Piper of the Piper Center She is very knowledgeable about gut health and diet, among other things and has now become a friend. Getting acupuncture and colonics with her is always very beneficial in all ways. She recently wrote a book called The Piper Protocol which outlines all of her secret insider tips that she shares with her celebrity clients. I go to the Russian Turkish Baths in the East Village and sweat.
I think sweating is a great way to detox, heal, and prevent illness and inflammation. In fact, that was the theory behind the Lakota Sweat Lodges. The term for sweat lodge is Inipi, which means "to live again." I'm also a fan of making homemade fish broths with ginger and drinking warm lemon water in morning. I like to drink a chlorophyll water called Night Water from Sakara Life at the end of the day. I also love doing Bikram Yoga. In fact a hospital client had a study on yoga and how it reduces inflammation for breast cancer survivors and I think it can benefit everyone who is prone to inflammation, has autoimmune issues.
Here is the study Native Americans used activated charcoal as a toothpaste and I'm a big fan of what I like to call "charcoal for sparkle." My doctor, Dr. Patrick Fratellone, is an integrative medicine doctor and always filled with interesting, innovative ways to heal and treat. I have learned a lot from him.
(Q) That is fantastic. What other tips do you have?
Even if you're a city girl like I am, you really need to take time out and connect with nature. I live and work in the East Village of New York City, but make time to go running on Sundays along the river, dip my toes in the beach at Coney Island, and sit under a tree in Thompkins Square Park. After that, you come back even more energized for your work and with more passion and focus. I'm also constantly going outside of my comfort zone. I was recently asked to give a speech. I abhor public speaking. And so I said yes.
That's also why I did the New York City Triathlon. The thought of swimming in the Hudson River seemed so wild, I had to say yes. And constantly learning and being curious about the world is healthy too. I also really do believe in the edict that you are what you eat. This mean I am one human-sized vegetable, obviously.
(Q) What have you learned recently that you want to share?
I recently read "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." It's a New York Times bestseller by Marie Kondo. It talks about clearing away any clutter and removing any possessions that don't "strike joy." I was already very organized but after that exercise, things have opened up even more. A clutter-free space spawns a clutter-free and healthy mind. And that's always welcome!
(Q) What people have most influenced your choice to be in health and wellness field?
My paternal grandfather, Dr. Ernest Borek, was a Hungarian scientist, pioneer in nucleic acid methylation, and microbiologist. His pioneering activities in cancer research led to significant scientific discoveries. His story is quite remarkable. As a boy, he could not attend college in Hungary because he was Jewish. He could not speak English when he came to this country at the age of 14 and the family was so poor they rubbed sausage on bread to make them think they were eating meat for dinner. Yet he worked hard, both at learning English and earning money, and he rose to become a college professor at Columbia who taught others. His research penetrated some of the mysteries of cancer, made the front page of the New York Times, and won him a nomination for the Nobel Prize. He was the author of four popular books and over 125 scientific publications.
My father, Ronald Kessler, is an investigative reporter, author of 20 books, and a New York Times bestselling author. So basically when you take someone who has a brain for pioneering science and health and mix them with someone who has a talent for communicating and writing then --boom--a passionate health public relations person is born. My grandfather Ernest said something quite powerful in his book, and I think it applies to all we have talked about here. Observing things from all different sides, including science, healing, and health.
"Great contributions in science come from two sources. There are those who, by keen observation, see something never seen before by the eyes of man. And then there are those, the more gifted ones I think, who take something seen by all but see it differently and give it new meaning."—Ernest Borek in Of Microbes and Life, edited by Jacques Monod and Ernest Borek, 1971.
Catch up with Rachel at Kessler Communications.
Comments