Adam Torres and Kien Vuu discuss Dr. Vuu’s new book, “Thrive State.”
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New book alert! In this episode, Adam Torres and Kien Vuu, MD. Founder of Vuu, MD Performance and Longevity, explore Dr. Vuu’s new book, Thrive State: Your Blueprint for Optimal Health, Longevity, and Peak Performance.
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About Kien Vuu
Dr. Kien Vuu, affectionately known as “Doctor V,” is a testament to resilience and the power of the human spirit having overcome significant challenges as an infant refugee and personal health obstacles later in life. Today, Doctor V champions optimal health, happiness, and human potential, making him a sought-after speaker by Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and association meetings from all industries.
An assistant professor of Health Sciences at UCLA, Doctor V specialized in Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology before seeking additional training in nutrition, personal development, spirituality, and performance and longevity medicine. He also earned board certification from the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine.
About Vuu, MD Performance and Longevity
VuuMD Performance and Longevity is a premier health and wellness consulting firm dedicated to helping individuals and organizations unlock their full potential by optimizing their health, happiness, and overall well-being. Founded by Dr. Kien Vuu, a renowned physician and expert in the field of performance optimization and longevity, our mission is to empower clients with the knowledge, tools, and strategies needed to thrive in today’s fast-paced world.
At VuuMD Performance and Longevity, we understand that true success and fulfillment stem from a holistic approach to wellness. Our comprehensive programs are designed to address the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of well-being, focusing on evidence-based methods and personalized solutions that cater to each individual’s or organization’s unique needs and goals.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode we have on the line. Dr. Kian Vu. He is releasing his.
Second edition of Thrive State, which I’m so pleased and honored to have had the opportunity to work on and to help promote. And I have some stories for you today. And first off, I just want to say Dr. V, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I love the introduction. There was so much energy in that intro.
It’s one of the first experience that I got to be a part of that. So that was really exciting. All right, Dr. V. So lots of share today, lots of pick your brain on. I mean, I’m really interested in how you, how you built this brand, how you built this superhero look. And for those of you that haven’t saw the book cover yet, you’ll, you’ll see it shortly.
First off, we’ll start this episode, the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute. So, Dr. V, we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. Dr. V, what mission matters to you? The mission that matters to me most is having people remember who they really are.
Of getting them out of their heads. And into their heart. And when we can become that version of ourself, we have optimal health, we have longevity, and we also have peak performance. And that’s my mission. So love bringing mission-based individuals on the line to, you know, share why they do what they do, how they’re doing it, and really what we can all learn from that.
So we all benefit and grow together. I mean that. The point of mission matters is we all want to grow together. So great to have you on. And I was, as I’ve kind of looked into your background and I I’m, I’m kind of really interested to start this by just figuring out like what inspired you? So obviously you’re a doctor already, you already, you know, successful, you had your career, what inspired you to build a brand because you have a great brand and I’m always curious, what inspired you to do that?
Well, that’s a great question. I think the things that happened to us in life and for me, it was a little bit of struggle. And that struggle probably leads us to the things that we need to do most because when we work through the struggles that have been gifted to us, we become a version of ourselves that could help other people do the same.
And for me, I was this person who was A little bit lost, you know, I think, you know, as, as a young child, I wanted to do media. I wanted to do entertainment. I felt like I wanted to have a voice that wanted to share something. I didn’t know what yet. And that was as a kid. But as I grew up, you know, everybody said, look, you know, you’re an Asian kid in America.
You could only be certain things. My mom was like, you could be a doctor, a physician, or an MD, which one do you want? And so I ended up going to medical school and I was striving for this life, chasing this life. That other people told me would bring me a lot of success and seven years ago. I was a chief of interventional radiology at my hospital.
I was doing tons of really fancy surgeries became really top notch in my field. But during that time I was overweight. I was diabetic. I had high blood pressure and it was on several prescription medications. Me and MD. Giving other people medical advice actually didn’t have the tools to be well himself.
And so that took me on a big journey of self discovery, of learning functional medicine, of learning nutrition, but really remembering who I really am. Because the person in the consciousness that was chasing all of that success was a person that didn’t feel like he was loved or enough. Mm. And so not only did I learn the nutrition and then all the steps of movement of trying to get back to who I am, but remembering who I really am, that I am already loved, that I’m already safe.
And who does that person want to be? And as I stepped into that person, I became a better version of myself. And not only did I lose all the weight? You know, I’m probably in the best shape of my life. Cognitively. I feel like I am the master of my own realm, but I’ve also biologically age backwards. So the really cool thing is when we step into who we are, our biology gifts us with optimal health with a long life and performing at our very, very best.
And once I learned that for myself, I said, wow, Yeah. I know a lot of people who are living in the matrix, living in the life that they told they should be living. And unfortunately, as a doctor now, I realized that that causes disease and stress in somebody’s body. And when I realized that, and when I realized that a lot of people were sleeping, I said, I need to share this message with the world, and that’s why the brand was started.
Wow. And so I want to go into, of course, the book and the brand, but I want to stick kind of in the, in the early years, maybe just a little bit longer. Because the reason I do this, by the way, is I know there’s other individuals out there. So whether they, they could be doctors, they could be lawyers, they could be these, you know, whatever really highly, you know, specialized individuals who have, you know, the typical, let’s just say corporate type career or medical career, and they may have something that’s Pulling at them at that, that’s tugging at them that they want to do.
So it can be building a brand. It could be starting a business, a lot of other things. Like when you kind of went down this path, I’m guessing that it wasn’t like everybody just rallies around you and supports you like you, it’s probably, it was probably a little difficult to kind of take those steps in my off on this.
Or was it maybe a little different for you? It’s a little bit of both. When I wanted to start to create my own brand. Well, I have to say that the people who are closest to me, like my parents are going, what are you doing? You just spent, you know, 16 plus years doing medical training. Right? So they’re like, what is he doing?
Right. And you certainly also have, well, You know, I was working in a hospital system. I was in a HMO system. Then I went to a private practice group session. All I think, you know, very similar to what a corporate life for somebody actually who’s doing corporate doing here’s the thing though, when I started to do things off on my own, when I started to actually take the time to do personal development, as I started to, to share my voice.
Initially, people were like, what are you doing? But I have to say that most people who are in those spaces do feel like they’re somehow caged, that there are in this golden cage that, you know, it’s offering a 401k or offering so called security, but they feel like, Oh my God. There’s something missing in life.
And when they see some, somebody going out and doing something different, I think a lot of them are like, Whoa, I wonder what that would be like. So, although I have certain people that, that initially questioned what I was doing, I think a lot of people started to applaud he’s following something. Yeah, that not many of us follow, which is their heart and intuition.
And I’m glad you share that because it’s also not that you know, there’s going to be people around you. I don’t like using the words like naysayers or anything like that. So these are people that love you and that many times like your parents and things like that. And it’s just like, they want to make sure you’re okay.
And they’re just like, okay, something’s out of the normal here. And that’s all. And most of the time I found that people will be supportive pretty much after the fact when they know you’re really Serious about what you’re doing there. I know for my background, you know, I was in finance almost 14 years.
And when I decided to kind of build a brand, be in front of a camera, do a podcast, all these other things, people were like, okay, Adam’s going crazy. Everyone what’s going on. So, but, but you push through that, right. And then when people see where your heart’s at, things can change. And those are, I found many of the times you’re your biggest supporter.
So thank you for sharing that. Cause the, my main point in asking you that is I, I hope to inspire. Fire others that are out there that have a dream or have something they want to do. And I like how you said, you know, may feel confined in a cage, whether, you know, that they may, they may not. But either way, if they have something they want to do, a dream of building a brand of business, like, like, go for it.
Right. Yeah, definitely go for it. And I want people to know that they’re not, they’re not gonna initially know what that is. Initially, it just, it might just feel like. I don’t know what the next thing is. I just know that right here doesn’t feel right and it’ll take some time, you know, during the time as I was building this brand, lots of different type of pivots along the way.
And I think Miles Davis has a really good quote and he says, man, it takes a really long time to find your voice when you’re so used to living. a life that has been gifted to you in terms of, you know, how you should live it rules that you should be following. As you start to break out of that, it takes some time to remember who you really are.
Fantastic. All right. Dr. V time for the main event. So thrives. State second edition released for those that maybe didn’t get it and catch the first edition. I just have to say, you know, why the second edition? Why now? Oh, such a great question. So the first edition of thrive state was launched in 2021, right when the pandemic was happening.
And the crux of that book is letting people know. That we are all energetic beings that, you know, energy is neither created nor destroyed. And our cells in our body that make up who we are is constantly listening to the energy that’s around it. And so the first book was giving a framework. What are the different energies?
What are the different pillars that we have to focus on when we want to tell ourselves how to behave or act? Because many people. Want to be healthy. They want a long life. They want to perform at their very best. And so every single cell needs to perform at their best and in order to do so, the cells need the right messages.
So in the very first edition, I talked about the seven categories of things that most affected the energetic messages we give to ourselves and that sleep. Nutrition, movement, stress and emotional mastery, our thoughts and mindset, relationships and community, and then finally a sense of purpose. And I’ve dug into the science as to how those seven things most affect how our DNA gets expressed in our body.
And we focus on those seven things. Our ability. To live a long time to perform to perform at our very best increases and skyrockets. That’s what I call the thrive state. When we focus on those seven things and really be intentional about making choices in our life in those seven categories, we become successful.
What I call in the Thrive State and the Thrive State is basically the energy that we feel that we give to ourselves in every single moment to direct us towards health and longevity. That’s the first edition. Why did I launch the second edition? Why now? Well, over the past couple of years. You know, we were in the COVID pandemic and I had noticed certain things.
I still work one or two days in the hospital. I noticed people coming into the ICU who were really sick. I had my concierge clients who maybe contracted COVID, but they didn’t have any symptoms or the. God, COVID, we’re sick for a couple of days and then they bounce right back. What was the difference? And I started to notice that the people who were in the thrive state was actually able to be more resilient against the people who actually, that actually got the virus.
They had an immune system that was very resilient towards any invader versus people who were not in the thrive state, what I call the stress state. And so I wanted to just show people that being in the thrive state, particularly as you have any stress in your body, that stress could be stress from work.
It could be stress from a pandemic that if you were in the thrive state, it makes your body more resilient. And so I wanted to share that with people during the pandemic. I also got a chance to work with corporations and I saw some corporations that folded, you know With the pressure of the pandemic, but some organizations just continue to thrive and become a magnet and attracting new talent, no matter what the case was.
What was the difference between those organizations? I also found that organizations that demonstrated a thrive state, that the state that we live in is also contagious to the people around you. And if we step into that energy of performance, it actually affects the people around you. So not only being in a thrive state affects your own health, but you start to change what is possible.
For your family, for your team members, and for a larger organization and humanity as a whole, this thing spreads out. And so that was one of the observations I shared. And the very last thing that I wanted to share with people is, you know, I had this very first edition of Thrive State. And notice that the second edition is so much bigger and better.
Just kidding. But there is expanded content. And the one thing that I wanted people to know most is… What stops people from getting into the Thrive State? I, I, I leave it all in this book here as to how to get into this, into Thrive State. But what stops people? Well, I’ve studied up. On more of the science of what is known as the default mode network.
This is a consciousness. This is part of our nervous system that we develop as kids. And as kids were basically a sponge for information. We, we learn things from our parents, from media, from society. We just pick up all this information. And the thing is this default mode network. Also is looking for things that can hurt us.
This is the autopilot or survival mode of the brain, and it’s going to remember our fears, our traumas. We have disempowering stories and limiting beliefs that live in this default mode network. This is old programming. This is programming that You just download when you’re a kid, you’re going to pick up some good programs.
You’re going to pick up some bad programs. This is what most people live their life through, is this programming that they got when they weren’t really conscious themselves and they’ll go through their entire life with this program. And when you’re trying to do something new. And different, what happens is that these limiting beliefs or disempowering stories of I’m not good, I’m not worthy of love, or whatever that might be, when you’re trying to do something new, it wants to pull you back down to the consciousness, to the emotions, to the thought and the same actions of that old program.
And unless we are aware of that program, we can’t make new conscious choices. So in this book, I have basically a chapter called uh, creating lasting change and to be able to make lasting change. One, you need to know the old program that’s in you, what’s driving it, and then you need to see the vision of their future, who you want to be.
And then recognize that when you start to make changes, it’s going to feel uncomfortable because your body is so habitualized to think, feel, and act a certain way. And so in order to make lasting change, one, you have to be aware of the thing that pulls you back. Recognize that when you feel resistance, it’s the old program.
But if you’re aware of that, you’re going to, you know what? I feel resistance. I don’t want to do this thing, but that’s the old program. I know he hadn’t told me that. So how do I. Make lasting change is I just got to make choices that are always in line with who I want to be your true self. And once I had that, you know, I have an easy framework for people to use to create lasting change and to really stay in the thrive state.
So I always like to provide, you know, actionable tips to our audience, especially when I have someone like yourself on the line and we’re, we’re talking about health. So what are some things that people can do? And obviously for everybody watching and listening to this, You got to pick up the book like that’s the first thing like to get the full framework to get everything else like this is this is something that’s worth your time worth your attention.
But but for today, Dr. V, for those that are maybe listening to this, they’re driving in their car or, you know, they’re at their desk and it popped up on LinkedIn. Like what are some actionable tips or some things they can do now to start to kind of inch their way into the thrive state? All right, well, very good.
I want to just share very easy. Impact framework. To creating lasting change in your life. Like I said, your longevity, your health, your performance all comes down to the choices you make in every single moment. All the choices that you make and the actions you take from those choices, create those habits and the habits create who you are.
So if you are overweight, if you’re sick, if you’re not making the financial success that you want, any of those things come from those habits. That’s all there is to it. But how do we make better choices when the old part of us wants to pull us down? So in the book, I go through those seven categories that I just talked about.
And we have all these things that you can do. I always recommend doing the easiest things first, the thing that’s going to require the least amount of activation energy, but when you’re ever confronted with a choice, I want to teach people the framework impact I am okay. Then P is pause, A is have awareness, C is choose, and then finally, um, T is take action.
And let me walk people through it. So anytime you feel like you want to you get triggered. Either you smell, you know, a bakery of fresh baked bread and danishes and you want to grab a bite. Or, or you’re sitting around, you’re watching Netflix and in your, in your mind, you’re thinking I should be running or let’s say you’re, you’re in an argument with your spouse and you want to do just like, you know, if they said something to you, you just want to yell back at them.
We all know that the actions that we take either, you know. You know, indulging in that bread or not working out or yelling back at your spouse. It’s not actions we want to take. We usually react and we usually react from that old programming. Whatever that programming is, we’re going to take that trigger.
We’re going to react. But in order for you to become the best version of you, the person that you want to be, you have to number one, know who you want to be. Know your I am. Do you want to be courageous? Do you want to be loving? Do you want to be generous? Do you want to feel wealthy? All these things are within you now, and you could choose to become that version of you if you make that choice.
So know your I am. So it’s very important to know your values. That’s your I am. And whenever you’re triggered, pause with the P. You can easily take 10 deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth with a long exhale. And with that long exhale, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system.
You’re giving your body a chance to relax. You’re giving your body a chance to sort of, like, lessen that trigger that you just felt. Then, awareness, which is A, Oh my god, I just got triggered. Mm, she said something about me that really wounded something in the past. Okay, I can have awareness there. Or, mm, that smell of that fresh bread.
Ooh, it really brings up this appetite of wanting to relieve myself of this boredom that I’m in. Have awareness of what’s happening. Recognize that maybe it’s that old programming that just got triggered and see, choose once you have that awareness, you can make a new choice. You can be, you know, I am healthy, so I’m not going to go.
I’m not going to go for the bread or I am fit. So I am going to go for one or I am loving. So I don’t need to react that way to it. To my spouse, you choose who you want to be and you choose towards your I am. And finally you take action. This is the point where you could take a new action rather than going from this reactive response to a response that is more aligned with who you want to be.
And if you remember this impact model with every single choice that you make throughout the entire day, You get to always choose the person you want to show up as, and you will choose the habits that ultimately you will embody and the results that you want in your life. Oh, that’s helpful. That’s helpful.
And that’s and I feel like that’s a, it’s a great start. And for those that are watching this, I mean, that’s. just a taste of some of the some of the content you can expect in this book, which I highly recommend picking up. And I got to tell you, so Dr. V, I promoted a lot of books in my day. I’ve, I’ve launched a lot of authors.
And when we started working on thrive state, the second edition, and I’m, you know, I’m sharing it with people, I’m just kind of getting there. A couple of things. First off. So my mom, she’s just know in Florida, you’re popular right now in a bunch of retirement areas. My mom looked at that cover. She’s like, who’s he?
He’s cute. And I’m like, what? Mom, come on. Number one. But number two, there’s a lot of people reading your book. And and I can tell you that even from the first edition. So we were working on the second edition with you and people were picking up the first edition. They’re like, well, wait a minute. I don’t want to wait.
It’s that’s coming up in in mid April or early and not at this at this time in a week or so, April 11th. But they, they were picking up the other one and they were already reading the other one. And I, I was already getting feedback and I can tell you like. That has never happened when I promote a book.
Like, normally somebody doesn’t go back, buy all the other books and everything else. So I was like, wow Dr V’s onto something here. But then when I think about the, you know, your content and what you’re doing and you’re really helping people think about when you’re talking about reversing that clock, like you did yourself and you’re giving people the tools and the knowledge.
For them to be able to do the same themselves. So for me, I was like, man, there’s a lot of wins in here. And you’re going to, you’re obviously already changing a bunch of lives and I’m happy to get that message out and to, and to share it with more people. So speaking of sharing it with more people, like, and you mentioned working with corporations, I know you do a lot of, a lot of speaking.
I know you do a lot of other things. Like, how are you getting this message out about thrive state? Anywhere, when they give me a chance to be able to share this message, this, this message is just like when you remember who you are, when you were just who you are and just share you the universe, biology, whatever actually gifts you with optimal health and performance.
And, you know, I’ve shared this message. I’ve been very privileged to be able to share it. You know, on, on, on TV, on TV shows like The Doctors, Access Hollywood, Mario Lopez, as a lot of people know, or, you know, corporations like Bank of America, Google, Whole Foods have me come in to be able to remind them that just who they are is important.
Absolutely. Always enough. And you know, it’s just been, you know, I’m really honored and privileged to be able to share my message and lots of different app, you know, avenues and a lot of different platforms. And it’s something that I think I could do for the rest of my life. Yeah, definitely. It’s, it’s, it’s an amazing model.
You’re helping a lot of people. Is there a is there a coaching portion to this in general? I don’t I’m not quite aware. Well, great question. Coming down the line. If it’s not created yet, there’s gotta be an online program. Come on. People are gonna watch this. They’re gonna run by one. Do you have one or are you creating one?
Absolutely. Well, I have a concierge practice where I work with CEOs, celebrities and athletes on performance and longevity, but we’re moving More towards a coaching model only so that we could serve more people. And so we have a limited amount of spots for one on one. And we also building a community for more people to be, you know, a part of this work in the future.
Yeah, that, that’s what I see it as like thrive state really is a movement. Like that’s community. It’s a movement, it’s ability, it’s ability to be able to help people really around the world, you know, enter that thrive state and, and improve their health. Well, thank you for that. It’s a, it’s a great vision and I’m glad people are resonating already.
Well, Dr. V I have to tell you, it has been fun having you on the show, getting to learn more about Thrive State impact. I mean, I’m going to have to rewatch this, write that down, memorize it. I got to do my pauses and my breaths throughout the day when things get crazy over here as well. But for today what’s next?
I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for the community and what’s next for Thrive State? Well, that’s a great question. You know, people have been following me already. They know that I am engaged to a beautiful woman. Her name is Tiffany Lee. She’s beauty stylist, and she’s got 100 K followers, you know, on her own in her own brand.
But we’re actually merging our gifts together to be able to really give people. The tools, the tactics on relationships on health and in life and actually how to amplify your message and brand in the future. And so we’re getting this thing going. People could expect that from us. So if you want to belong to the community or if you are interested in one on one coaching, you can go to instagram at Dr V M D spelled out D O C T O R V M D and DM me community or DM me coaching and that’s where we’re headed.
Fantastic. And we’ll put all that information in the show notes so that so that our audience can just click on the links and head right on over. And you know, I got to ask the question, if somebody wants to pick up a copy of that book, what do they do? You could go to Amazon and wherever books are sold, Thrive State, the second edition, launching April 11th.
So you want the 411, pick up the book. Yeah, and that book has been a number one bestseller and preventive medicine for going on a week now as of this recording, and I don’t see it being I don’t see anybody knocking it off anytime soon. So congrats on that success. Congrats on getting the number one and for everybody watching this.
Definitely go pick up a copy of that. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters or listening to an episode or engaging with the platform, we’re all about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, and experts and having them share their mission, their content, the reason behind their mission, really what gets them motivated to go out there and to make a difference.
If that’s the type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you. Hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing. And Dr. V again, pleasure working with you today and wishing you much more continued success with Thrive State.
I appreciate you. And thanks for having me on.
