Health, Wealth + Resiliency with Troy Casey (part 1)

In this episode of Reignite Resilience, Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass sit down with Troy Casey, widely known as the Certified Health Nut. From his beginnings as a Versace model in Milan to decades of exploring indigenous healing, herbal medicine, fasting, and meditation, Troy shares his powerful journey of transformation. He opens up about overcoming addiction, studying with masters across the globe, and building a personal brand dedicated to natural health and resilience.

This conversation goes beyond health hacks. Troy challenges how we see wellness, beauty, and even societal structures, reminding us that awareness and alignment with nature are the foundation of true vitality.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode
• Why autogenesis and autophagy matter for natural healing and longevity
• How early health challenges led Troy to study nutrition and herbal medicine
• Lessons from working with indigenous healers in the Amazon and Maori traditions
• The role meditation played in overcoming addiction and finding purpose
• Why consistent content creation built a long-term platform for his message
• The impact of toxins, synthetic fabrics, and modern lifestyle on our health
• Why personal responsibility and small daily actions create real resilience
• How beauty and vitality emerge from alignment with nature, not quick fixes

Key Quotes
“Living fully until the day you die is more important than chasing abstract longevity.” – Troy Casey
“Awareness is always the first step.” – Troy Casey

 Reflect on where you are outsourcing your health. Start small: improve water, food quality, movement, or sleep. Every choice to align with nature strengthens your resiliency.

Connect with Troy Casey
Instagram: @certifiedhealthnut
Website: certifiedhealthnut.com

Subscribe to The Reignite Resilience Thinkletter

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Reignite Resilience
• 6:41 Pam's Retreat Experience
• 9:33 Introducing Troy Casey, Certified Health Nut
• 17:25 From Modeling to Natural Healing
• 21:11 The Evolution of Certified Health Nut
• 26:02 Visions, Purpose and Environmental Awakening

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. Resilience where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I am your co-host, natalie Davis, and I am so excited to be back, and joining me, of course, is your co-host, pam Kass. Hello, pam, how are you? I'm fabulous.

Speaker 3: 0:54

I'm just laughing because you just reminded me that I was in a retreat this last week. And how did I forget?

Speaker 2: 1:01

that I was in a three-day retreat. I don't know, but for the last three days I've been sitting on the edge of my like I didn't want to just reach out and talk to you about it because I wanted to save it for the show and I'm like I'm dying to hear, because it was actually the segment of the retreat that you weren't necessarily looking forward to the most You're like I'm glad this one's last because we don't need to talk about it or it's not really a priority, yes, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:23

I kept pushing it out and you know it was really really good. So the retreat was called Unshakable Love. So it's this part of this year long program and I you guys know I did the Unshakable Inner Peace, which was a silent retreat for three days which I survived.

Speaker 3: 1:37

This one was just really interesting and it was very much about tapping into your feminine presence versus your masculine presence, and so we did a lot of activities and one in particular where we got into our feminine presence and I had a really hard time with that. So we had to go up to a man who was in his masculine. You had to go up in your feminine and then just stand there and every time I like start crying, I'm like what is wrong with me? And I was talking to Rachel Jane about it and I was like you know, I don't even understand this. And then it kind of dawned on me.

Speaker 3: 2:10

I was like you know, I've been divorced for like 10 years, single mom, and so I was the masculine and feminine in my space. I've been it for like 10 years and I would say probably in my marriage too, and so just letting that go and just being totally in your feminine, it was so vulnerable and like it was very uncomfortable. But you know, I've been doing this retreat with these same women and gentlemen for a year now and you are in such a safe space. I'm like will I be able to do it in public?

Speaker 2: 2:42

To be honest the answer is yes.

Speaker 3: 2:45

You absolutely will. I'll see, but it was good and I think we'll do an episode and we'll completely unpack the retreat, so for sure.

Speaker 2: 2:53

I'm looking forward to that. Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed it, I'm glad that it went well, and you're absolutely right, I think when we give ourselves that space to just be in our feminine, it's interesting that you talk about, like the response that you had, being one that you like start to cry, because our natural response when we're uncomfortable is not to cry but to just laugh uncontrollably, and so that's kind of our defense coming back up instead of, you know, just settling into the feminine.

Speaker 3: 3:18

So good, but when you have a male in their masculine, which is truly in their masculine nurturing it makes you feel very like vulnerable. So if it had been you standing in front of me, I wouldn't have even made it through a second of it.

Speaker 2: 3:33

I have no desire of standing in front of you in my masculine. So it's fine, you're good. If you do, it's over. Oh, my goodness. Well, I am excited for our episode that we're.

Speaker 2: 3:45

I get excited for all of our episodes. What I mean? Who am I kidding? If you listen to all of them, I'm like I'm excited about our guest today.

Speaker 2: 3:50

I'm always excited because we get the opportunity, we have the privilege of really meeting some phenomenal people around the world, and I think today is no exception for our guests. That's joining us and, and I just want to share with our listeners, there are these moments that I am scrolling and what may seem like doom scrolling online and I will connect with people and I think, well, I connect to their content and then, in turn, connecting to the individual and I think you know what. I think that our listeners would really enjoy hearing from them, and this has been a win, I think, for me. I was sharing before we started recording Three for three. I've connected with people that I only know virtually online, through either TikTok or Instagram. I reach out and three out of the three have all said yes, and today is one of those guests. So, pam, why don't you tell our listeners who's joining us today so we can dive in.

Speaker 3: 4:39

Absolutely. I am very excited about this. So we have leading longevity authority. Troy Casey, certified health nut, has successfully restored physical, mental and emotional balance to clients who have failed with all other systems. His unique holistic approach uses nature-based simplicity anyone can follow. As a Versace model in Milan, italy, 30 years ago, troy studied nutrition, herbs and international purification as a way hunter, studying the ancient Vipassana I probably said that wrong meditation techniques, ashtanga yoga and more recently at the world famous Czech Institute, working closely with Paul Czech. Welcome, so excited for you to be here and I can't wait to dive in. And so usually what we do is we hand it off to our guests for them to kind of just start a little bit and then we'll kind of go from there. So welcome Troy. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 4: 5:55

Thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 2: 5:58

Yeah, absolutely Well, troy, you are known by many as the certified health nut, but from listening to your bio, it didn't start there. Talk to us about this journey, this exploration into understanding, like the natural, homeopathic, holistic ways of just letting our body do what our bodies do well in the survival mode.

Speaker 4: 6:21

Well, natural healing or the body healing itself, is called autogenesis, and actually, through fasting we've got a process called autophagy and so where the body scavenges the dead cells and optimizes the system. And so I started studying nutrition 35 years ago. I was in Milan, italy. I was a Versace model and had digestive issues, you know, like we see with a lot of people today. I took antibiotics in my baby book. Right after my wellness visits, my childhood injections, I had these massive earaches and at one point I was hospitalized and then they gave me antibiotics for it. So, you know, is it the industrial age, you know, medical system that you know hammered my gut? Is it the Captain Crunch and Pop-Tarts that I grew up on? You know what exactly is it. You know, also, we have the industrial waste and the burning of fossil fuels, and not only that, but the brake dust. I made a video recently, you know, I bought a brand new car and, you know, within days I had just massive amounts of brake dust on my rims and the tires that wear out. In any big city. We're all breathing this stuff in, you know, and there's bioaccumulation of toxicity, et cetera. And so I started studying fasting, herbal medicine, internal purification, just ways to really optimize the body, the mind, the blood, the skin, the hairs, make sure everything pops. I was on camera and so choosing to look and feel my best, you know, as a fashion model. You take off your shirt, do underwear and all sorts of you know, fashion campaigns and stuff, and so having a good body and being fit and being super, super good looking whatever the Zoolander guy says. And so the bottom line is I was motivated to look and feel my best as a career, and so I practiced a lot of nutrition, which I knew nothing about growing up. As an American Went to my first farmer's market in Italy they're everywhere, by the way, but I had never been to one so I started buying real whole foods, fruits and vegetables, and I got instant results. And so, 35 years later, I've scoured the planet looking for the best of the best and working on healing myself and keeping myself. I've still got a career in front of the camera 35 years and so always looking to look and feel my best. And now that I'm getting older I'll be 60 this year I want to be moving until the day that I die. It's not so much necessarily biohacking or longevity or any of these linguistic terms we have. It's living until the day you die right, and I'm very active, I move throughout the day and so for 35 years I studied indigenous wisdom, literature, herbalism in the Amazon rainforest, working with Maori healers, their midwives and they call them the bone crushers because they'll actually reset bones and very powerful spiritual healers, and I practice Vipassana with S Ngoenka 10-day courses of meditation and silence.

Speaker 4: 9:32

I'm actually about to go sit another one. I haven't sat one in many years and this will be the 12th one I've sat and that actually helped me with alcoholism because I had a rockstar phase when I was in the fashion industry and just jet setting and traveling and drugs and alcohol were everywhere and I didn't know who I was and I wasn't living my purpose and so I got really wrapped up in that and meditation. Really it set me free and then it's just been unfolding ever since. I worked with an herbal company in the Amazon, drank ayahuasca with the Shipibo Indians.

Speaker 4: 10:06

I had natural childbirth, did all the research on the trauma my parents were fist fighting when I was in the womb.

Speaker 4: 10:13

So I researched a lot and I've been able to advocate for birthing and fertility and natural environments, all aspects of natural medicine, holistic health, healing I'm a guinea pig on the front lines. I just did a conscious language body electronics retreat for my students. One of my students is a facilitator in that realm and I've always wanted to do body electronics just releasing old trauma patterns that store in the body and we're all electric and so when you put hands on, it allows these old emotions to come through the fascia and outside of the body and I witnessed miracles. And it reminded me of working with the Maori healers as well, because they would travel five or six healers at a time and you know, 50 people would come in a day and it was all hands-on and I was often asked to help put your hands here, put your hands there. And so, 35 years later, I love sharing this information with as many people as I possibly can on the internet.

Speaker 2: 11:13

That's amazing. So much to unpack. To unpack 100% yes.

Speaker 3: 11:19

How long did you do the modeling and then when did you get of that and what did you go into from that space?

Speaker 4: 11:25

It was recordings at Esalen in the 60s. I don't know if you've ever done any of his work or read any of it, but it was just a lot of dream therapy and body language reading as well. But ultimately he was all about not bullshitting yourself and he would call it elephant shit. Right, just the stories and the drama that human beings will create instead of just dealing with what is. And the drama that human beings will create instead of just dealing with what is, and so that really helped me wake up to.

Speaker 4: 12:05

I was in an industry that was robbing my soul. There was an undercurrent of the Diddy Party Epstein list going on, in fact, many of the people that were implicated through Models One, the guy in Paris I knew a lot of the people in that circle and then, I think, abercrombie and Fitch and Bruce Weber, which was the big Calvin Klein photographer of that time. There was plenty of games being played. I never saw that firsthand, but I experienced a gatekeeping around that. Even though I had a really good resume and four Versace campaigns, I could only get so far, and so drugs and alcohol were all around me and I just kept drinking and I knew I had to sober up from that and then I read that Gestalt Therapy verbatim book and I started working on myself and I still lingered in and out of the business various contracts in Japan and stuff for a couple of years, but seven years professionally going around the world, living in Miami and Milan and Paris and Tokyo, and then I moved into film. I thought film was going to be more based on my merits and my talent and I went to theater school and really trained from the bottom up. I did a lot of standup and improvisation comedy and so it was still plenty of gatekeeping and weirdness in that industry. It's just the fashion industry is known for the most game playing.

Speaker 4: 13:27

I had a friend, simon Rex. I helped him get off drugs and helped him get healthy when he was ending his rap career. So he was a rapper music industry model. He was an actor and TV and film and he said the fashion industry was the most messed up and we've all heard how crazy the music industry is right, and so I thought that was interesting that he said that I moved into film, tv, mainly television commercials and then I started working with an herbal company from the Amazon. That would have been 2005. So from 1999, I started working with an herbal company from the Amazon. That would have been 2005. So from 1999, I started meditating with Vipassana and SN Goenka and then kind of all my yoga stuff and continued my herbal studies and fasting and I was sober during that time and working with these Maori healers and those were my big three wake up calls the meditation, the Maori healers and started posting a lot of alternative health content and that was the basis of my whole platform and that was 2006.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Were you able to identify or really dial into your purpose during that time? Because, I mean, just YouTube existed and I don't think that people utilize that as a platform to actually help people or share a bigger message that would have an impact on their lives. So for you to come out with that footage and finding that platform to utilize it, was that an alignment with understanding what you needed to do, or were you still on that journey of figuring it out?

Speaker 4: 16:11

I think it was a journey of discovery. Ultimately, I definitely was living on purpose, because the years previous to that, we were developing Certified Health Nut for a television show, and it's hard to film healing and making it entertaining, especially in the age of reality TV, which is not reality. It's basically a bunch of casting directors. Driving people crazy is what they're doing. I just got off a phone call from somebody from Hollywood, and the production company is owned by George Soros family type of thing, and so this is just manipulation, and I let them know that they're probably not going to hire me because I'm going to only tell the truth and I'm not going to come out of my center.

Speaker 4: 16:49

I auditioned for Survivor, I think in 2010, and the manipulation was incredible. I found myself talking to myself. Then there was this cowboy over there and he was talking to himself and I'm like, am I crazy? This is making me crazy. And so, because they would say, like, well, what's your strategy going to be? Oh, that won't work, that's stupid, people have tried that before and I'm like, really Like they were just manipulating. So, yeah, then I was just disillusioned with TV and social media kept going. I didn't really know where it would end up, but I kept doing what I loved, which was putting together creatively videos. People don't understand the editing process and there's good editing software now, but each you know it's a lot of work, right, and so you know I and I learned editing on an iMac, you know, back in 2006, 2007.

Speaker 2: 17:43

Troy, were you capturing and editing? You were doing everything, full production.

Speaker 4: 17:46

Your hands were on it I did full production all the way into 2021, wow, and towards the end I you know, enough traction, a lot of handheld stuff, and I try to do zero editing is what I do, the one take thing and so and that's an art form within itself, but between doing stories and maybe a LinkedIn post or a Twitter post, I was doing it all up until about 2021.

Speaker 2: 18:14

That's impressive. That's a long stretch. I don't think that people have the know-it-all or the stamina to continue to do that for this amount of time. You know to do that for an 11, 12 year stint of time. That's.

Speaker 4: 18:27

Especially when it wasn't always delivering money and your partner at the time is like well, what are you doing online? And you and you need to make more money over here or there or whatever. And now I'm talking to production companies, I'm talking to other brands and people really understand the value and I haven't even fully come out of the foundation that I've been building, but I've got 20 years of brand building and that's untouchable.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Not too many people have that what was that vision for Certified Health Net, I mean, coming out, you had tons of content that you created and I feel that it's kind of expanded into a variety of areas, but what was your original vision and where is that now?

Speaker 4: 19:12

So when I drank ayahuasca in the Amazon in 2006, I had three very powerful visions. One was an amalgamation of my on-camera career, my natural medicine studies and I was doing stand-up at the time and Certified health. Nut was crystallized then and there laughed out loud right in the middle of ceremony. And so the second vision, the spirit of my daughter, came to me, and I wasn't married at the time. It was a very powerful feminine spirit and so she was born like four years later. And then the third vision I had was that humanity makes it from the precipice of ecological disaster. And when I was leaving the Amazon that time, I saw a mountain of sawdust and two by fours on barges going up to Home Depot economic hitman from John Perkins, where it detailed the destruction of the rainforest and other ecosystems for the exploration of oil and the debt slave lending from the World Bank and the IMF and taking the natural resources out of lands. And if they didn't adhere to the economic hitman, they send in the jackals or the coup d'etats, rwanda. And if they didn't adhere to that level, then Afghanistan, iraq, syria, libya. The American military just showed up and took over. And so and this is the way of the world and it's detailed in that book. And then, of course, I've taken many red pills since then and it's layers right.

Speaker 4: 20:38

The world war has never stopped. It's called psychological warfare through MKUltra and Mockingbird, media and propaganda which was developed in the early 20th century, and so we've just been under a spell, and that's why they can poison the water, they can poison the children's food, they can poison our food, they can poison the environment. You call it business, or you call it clandestine control, or the Nephilim or the, an Anunnaki or some alien race trying to enslave. I don't care what you call it, but it stops on my watch. Yeah Right, I'm all over it like white on rice. So, and the first step is awareness, awareness is always the first step, and we're being gaslit at such a high level on every level. And now we're seeing this even with Charlie Kirk. You know, the man died in front of his children and no matter what you say, whether it's race baiting or men, women or trans, or Israel or Gaza, you basically can't say anything and it's complete division amongst the people.

Speaker 4: 21:41

And if you understand psychological warfare, that is the game plan is to pit the people against themselves. So the jig is up and all we need is humans for needs water, food, shelter and fire and we're focused on all this plastic crap from China and the Kardashian playbook. Right, and it's like we can create peace and harmony on this planet. We will need to come together at one point or another, but the thing is is you don't need everyone else. If you vote with your dollars and invest your money on your own vitality, virility, victory, and you will have some assemblance of peace and harmony in yourself. When enough people are doing that, that reverberates out to everyone.

Speaker 4: 22:23

And then, of course, no, don't poison the water. That's not a good idea, right? We don't need RFK to fight all this corporate crime for decades and decades with two law degrees. No, no, don't poison the water. The children are playing in there, right? Oh, no, that's not a good idea. To poison the sky, no, why do we have to? No, we don't have to do that.

Speaker 4: 22:44

We can do things in a better way. We've always had innovation, invention. We can change the things. The crazy ones are always the ones who thought that they could go change the world. Right, and they always have. Those are the ones, the small amount of people that have. And so when I'm done with what I'm doing in the media is simply get people to start questioning reality, and then we're being sold this idea of beauty. But the fact of the matter is beauty comes from nature. When we align with nature, the natural symmetry comes in our body, mind and consciousness and it exudes as a vibration, not as some kind of plastic crap or toxic crap on our body. Just look at the polyester clothing we're wearing and that ends up in the oceans in Ghana, and Ghana is part of the Atlantic, which is part of Miami. There's no throwing it away. And so we get to dream up the next level of consciousness, and I'm an eternal optimist. So my third vision is that humanity makes it.

Speaker 2: 23:50

Oh, love that. I love that, troy, that's, it's such a for me. I fully embrace that and that's my hope and desire as well. But I think I mean, even as you mentioned, like polyester clothing and I, before coming to understand like the vibrational frequency of fabric or not fabric, and looking at polyester, was one of my favorite types of fabric because it was easy and I travel a lot and it packs well and and not realizing Exactly. And who doesn't want that Right, like it's easy, exactly, and who doesn't want that right, like it's easy? But I think, as you talk about, like this, the opportunity that we have, like as we invest in ourselves again and realizing how much control we really have in that space, it unknown around that looking and feeling different, how can you speak to that for individuals that don't know? Because we're comfortable with the things that we're comfortable with, right, I mean, that's just the reality.

Speaker 4: 24:53

Right. And what is the reality? Statistically, 75% of the American people are obese or overweight. Nine out of 10 Americans are metabolically dysfunctional. The number two killer amongst children 14 to 21 is suicide.

Speaker 4: 25:06

So we have a wake-up call, ladies and gentlemen. This is a clarion call to all human beings. We know this to be true. Now we can mow over it with some entertainment television shows, video games, makeup, deodorant, Entertainment. Television shows, video games, makeup, deodorant, day, late fragrance, mop our floors with Fabuloso and new and improved Tide. But this is just covering up the truth, Right, and the truth is, this is our divine connection and our divine nature. We can let everything fall to the wayside when we understand and have some form of agreement. At least for myself, hey, I don't want to have neck pain and back pain and obesity and gut dysfunction and inflammation. I'm in my 30s and the doctor wants to take out my thyroid or my gallbladder or this or that, and they want me on 15 medications. And what are in those medications? This toxin and that toxin and this metal and that metal. And I already feel like crap. And then you want me to take more crap. Oh well, maybe I can start dreaming up beyond this cycle.

Speaker 1: 26:18

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas. To fuel the flames of passion, please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes and, of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.