Told he might not live past 35: Former NHL coach reveals the health journey that changed his life

This is not about becoming superhuman, this is about becoming fully human. I've surrendered everything to God in my life except for my health. He's worked with professional athletes, touring musicians, even top executives. But his biggest mission is helping everyday people take control of their health. Justin Roethling, chauffeur, is joining us now to explain why he has this true healing start that is happening right now at the cellular level and he's on tour to promote this all. Justin, good to have you join us today. It's so good to be here, Ronia. Thank you so much for having me. Of course, my pleasure. I want to get to the biggest headline you've made. At just 29 years old, you were told you might not live past 35 years old, which is very young. What went through your mind when you heard that? And at what point did you decide it's time to make a change? To be honest with you, the diagnosis was not the destiny for me. I think so often we're told certain things. We've got certain autoimmune issues. We've got certain symptoms that we can't figure out. We're told that we're healthy, but yet all the symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, inability to focus, the inability to sleep continue to just like plague our lives. And we think that this is just what normal is. We think this is just how we're going to have to live for the rest of our lives. And for me, it was four precancerous polyps in my colon and a bleeding precancerous ulcer in my stomach that caused me to think, hey, you know what? As hard as I'm working, as how much worldly success I've gained, what do I need to do to actually start to steward my body in a better way, to listen to the whispers in which is coming from it, so that if I live in the way in which I was, or live in alignment with the way in which I was designed to, that my body will actually heal itself. But first, you have to heal the self. Did you feel like you were ready for this journey? I mean, as someone who's worked with professional athletes and coaching, at what point did you say, you know what, I'm now a healing expert? So I think to be honest, there was a lot of shame that I had to overcome first, because you're the expert that is helping everybody else find their health, extend their careers, find their level of energy, reverse their symptoms. But yet you're struggling behind closed doors, and you can't seem to figure it out for yourself. And so there was a lot of imposter syndrome for a long time. And until I was actually able to heal that first and reconcile that first, it was that point that I just believe God put me on a path to redirect me from knowing that this just wasn't an athlete issue, but a human issue. And it was an eye-opening experience. Everything from being obese as a little kid, to anorexic as a teenager, to having liver kidney failure, to addiction, to depression, anxiety, and then the precancerous polyp diagnosis. It was all a journey for me to just realize, you know what, our bodies were created to heal, designed to thrive, but we have to live in alignment with those. Now, we're taking a look at clips from that Holy Health documentary. Very interesting. I mean, just to see people coming out and explaining what they've gone through and their journeys. Talk to me about this documentary, what it took to put it together, and how people can watch it. I think as I transitioned from the National Hockey League to really hosting and holding a business now that helps bring health to thousands across this nation, it was really about telling the stories. This has nothing to do with me. This has everything to do about those watching, because our hope has been stolen so many times when it comes to our health. If you feel well, you really have the whole world at your fingertips. There is no limitation to what you can or cannot do. That was really what we wanted to bring back to people. We wanted to bring them hope back. We say we're hope dealers. Knowing that the way in which we're created, it kind of guides that journey. We were able to bring in people like Brandon, people like our clients that we touch on every single day, and really guide them and show their stories, because they're just normal people just like you and I. The only difference is that there's been a surrender. There's been a submission to, hey, I want to understand my body better. If I can understand my body better, I can steward it better, because now I'm going to live back in alignment with how it was designed. The core component of this, through Holy Health and what we talk about, is if you heal the cell, the body will heal itself. Let's say I contact you and I say, Justin, how do you help me heal the cell? What does that mean for anyone who's watching right now and saying, it's time? When we come back to the core component, there's 30 trillion cells inside each and every one of us. Every 84 days, 500 million of those are becoming completely brand new. Thus, every five to seven years, you, me, and every viewer out there becomes a brand new cellular human being. The question becomes, well, why do we actually age? Why do we get sick? Why do we find disease? It's because the cell is starving for the three core components that it needs, oxygen, the ability to detoxify, and nutrients. What we're going to help you do and what we're going to help you understand is which one of those three or which combination of those three is it missing in the cellular environment? Thus, how do we change the way we act, behave, and the rhythms in which we live with so that our body can now communicate an environment of thriving rather than that of one of slow decay? It's a slow drift and it catches a lot of us by surprise because we didn't go to bed one night feeling amazing and wake up the next day 50 pounds overweight or with pre-diabetes or with chronic anxiety. It was a slow drift over the course of time that almost felt non-existent to us until it became something urgent that we needed to deal with. I got to say, a lot of times I am here complaining about spending six, actually, I think it was like eight years of my career in broadcast working overnights. I swear that thing took a toll on my health. And I feel like even 10 years later, I am still recovering from the overnight shift. So I know exactly what you mean about healing on all these. I mean, it's a journey and there's a lot of steps involved. And so having a documentary like that for people to see the changes others are making certainly remarkable. On top of that, you have a book. Talk to me about this. And it's launching now. Yes, yes. We're literally in the launch phase. Tomorrow, we will be in New York City, launching Holy Health in Times Square. And then going on Tuesday, or pardon me, Wednesday morning into Central Park, doing a 5K breathwork in the park, book signing. And so Holy Health, the book, this is the only copy the publisher has given me. And so even as I've been reading and giving people early access to pre-copies, you can access it at holyhealthbook.com. But we've just been hearing so many testimonies of how this book has changed their life. Because I think so often health is this complex thing. It's very hard for us to understand because there's so much confusion around it. We don't know who to trust. And my big goal with Holy Health was to come back and align scripture and science in such a deep way that we were able to heal God's way. And what we're finding is that science is only proving what scripture is known for centuries. And so when we are able to now see the truth and understand the beauty that lives inside of us, understand the whispers in which our body's giving us, that means that we can actually listen and change daily based on how our body's communicating us, rather than waiting for the screams decades down the road, where now we have to try to reverse what has actually happened over the course of time. And so that's the mission of Holy Health, to give you habits and rhythms to heal your body and transform your life and give you ownership back, give you agency back, give you the identity of who you once were back so that you can have capacity to carry the calling that's on your life. I certainly love this, Justin. And I want to ask you as well, as someone who's coached a lot of professionals, which I'm not sure if you're allowed to tell me who you've coached in the NHL. I'd love to know. Are you able to share some of this information? Yeah, so I started my career in Columbus and then went out to Washington and then finished in Anaheim with the Ducks. And so that was really kind of like my journey through the National Hockey League. I spent time at the University of Louisville, spent the time at Miami of Ohio. And while I was doing different master's degrees and postgraduate work, and it's just been an absolute honor to work with some of the top athletes in the world. And I just call that kind of like my carpenter days where I had the opportunity to work and really just see what stuck and what didn't. And the data didn't lie. And then just understanding the human being, I think, was the biggest thing. Because when I was going through my journey, all I remember was that the medical system was disintegrated. And all they ever tried to see was how do we solve you as a problem, not how do we understand you as a human. And as we can start to really understand that each and every one of us as a human being, each and every one of us has an identity of what we walk in. And our habits and our behaviors in which we do daily are simply our identities made visible. And so how do we step into something new? How do we see you as a human being? How do we treat you as a person? How do we know that each one of yourselves is constantly renewing? And if we can get yourselves what they need, and we can help you see who God says that you are, we can transform your life in such a powerful way so you can have life abundantly and do what you were always called to do. Now, with working with a bunch of athletes and business coaches, touring musicians, just you've done it all. Is there a health habit that all these high performers have in common that the rest of us might overlook? I love that question. And the answer is yes. And it's not one specific habit, but it's a mindset of how they show up. They do the ordinary things with an extraordinary amount of intention. And what I mean by that is they're not just going and working out and training. They're going and working out and training at a certain heart rate. They're not just going to bed at night. They're going to bed at a certain time. They're not just laying their head on their pillow at night, but they're doing a couple very unique things leading up to that bedtime. And the one thing that each and every one of them does is they all have a deep connection to their spiritual center. They have a deep connection to the Lord, whether that is through breath work, whether that is through meditative prayer, whether that is through Bible study, whatever that might be. That is the one core thing that has been able to center and root because once you know your spiritual connection, you can free the heart, which can renew the mind, which then gives you capacity to heal the body. So much of my life is centered around spiritual connection and just really understanding so many things that we need on a spiritual level. I love this conversation with all this being said, if someone's watching right now and just simply thinking, I want to feel better, but where do I start? What's the message you have for them? Your body is the ultimate healer and you've been given everything that you need in order to make that happen. And oftentimes we're so distracted by this world that we just continue to keep acting in a way that is unconscious to what we're actually needing. And so what I would encourage anybody in a position where they're like, I don't know what to do next. I don't even know where to start because you have a lot of health experts that will come on here and say, oh, you need to eat this certain way, or you need to go and you need to add this habit. But what ends up happening is we end up putting new habits into old identities and they can't stick, which is why you've started before and it's always fallen off. And so what I would give an encouragement for people to start with is to slow down, to get still, to get silent and listen for the intuitive voice, the guide as to where do I go first? And then be highly obedient to it. And that's the wisdom that you need in order to step into the next step. And so there's an acronym that I just did that people may or may not be aware of, but the acronym is SLOW. So if you can slow down, you can be silent to listen, be obedient to gain wisdom for what to do next. I love this. I need to put that right here in our newsroom and in our studios. Justin, how can people find the book as well as the documentary? They can go to holyhealthbook.com. So holyhealthbook.com is where you can go gain access to the book and all the different bonuses that we've got for everybody there, the different opportunities to serve people. So holyhealthbook.com. And then the documentary we'll be releasing later this month, but it's right there again on that holyhealthbook.com website. And then find me at Justin Roth on Instagram and all the good things that we're up to in the book tour and the things that we've got going on through Holy Health. Justin, it is so good having you on the show. We certainly welcome you anytime you're in Detroit. We appreciate your time and hopefully your tour takes you here. So grateful and I appreciate you, Ronia.