We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hervé Damas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hervé below.

Hi Hervé , thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

During my first year or so in Medical School, I started noticing something had changed about my sleep patterns. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to fall asleep the way I used to. I began to find myself up til the wee hours of the morning doing absolutely nothing besides struggling to find a way to fall asleep. The insomnia was soon followed by another unusual phenomenon (for me), anxiety. Having been an athlete that had made it all the way to the NFL, I had never felt “nervous” or “uncertain” in hhg stress situations, let alone mundane daily activities. Yet, here I was experiencing feelings of extreme discomfort just sitting in my car or engaging in my daily activities. These two were followed by a third even more debilitating experience: massive headaches. The headaches were so severe that I could only describe them as feeling as if someone was putting their hands into my skull and trying to separate the hemispheres of my brain.

Overwhelmed and confused by this very challenging confluence of events, I began trying to find solutions with over the counter medications. Sleep aids were first. I tried a number but settled upon Benadryl as it was the one that left me in the least zombie like state the following day- but it still left me feeling foggy. The headaches I tried treating with ibuprofen, when that proved to be inadequate, I added acetaminophen (tylenol) in between my doses of ibuprofen. This seemed to work most of the time but obviously a cure. But there was one thing I couldn’t self treat, the anxiety.

The anxiety became worse. It made it harder to go to sleep. I needed more benadryl to sleep which made me more drowsy in the daytime. The daytime drowsiness made it hard for me to learn properly so I had to stop the benadryl and things began to fall apart. I finally decided to ask for help from my attending physicians. I knew something was wrong because of the headaches and insomnia but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why I was nervous all the time. Being a nervous dude was not part of my DNA and I couldn’t shake it.

I had access to all the specialists because I was in my clinical years of medical school. They ran all the tests. Nothing came back with any useful results. but despite that, I was given medication. Xanax was first, then seroquel. I couldn’t handle either. I wound up injury myself and undergoing surgery which led to prescriptions for percocet and Oxycodone. Those made me feel worse than the post surgical pain. I was in a very bad place.

Then a friend recommended marijuana. I scoffed. It took me at least 6 more months of suffering and downward spiraling until I figured “what have I got to lose”. It worked. I slept. Headaches gone. pain gone. And that dang anxiety was finally gone!
It was at that moment that I realized that my education and training was suboptimal. THere was something to the anecdotes that were being shared about the medicinal properties of this plant. I decided then that at some point I was going to work to provide patients with the same opportunity for a solution that I struggled to find despite all my access and education.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a former professional football player whose career was cut short because of injuries. I became a physician later after my mother passed from breast cancer. As a result of my personal struggles I am now a physician who specializes in cannabis medicine. I qualify patients for medical marijuana in the state of florida and I also own a CBD product line. My purpose is to use researched based evidence to help guide patients and customers towards the best solutions for their needs.

One very important goal of mine is to contribute to the knowledge base. My biggest achievement in that area has been my study on CBD and its effects on quality of life in former professional athletes. To complete the study we partnered with former boxer Mike Tyson.

It’s important that my patients and customers feel safe with the information/ advice they receive from us. We do rigorous product testing and make sure our partners meet the highest standards in terms of their testing and sourcing of ingredients. As such, we produce products that are vegan, gluten free, kosher, Non-GMO and cruelty free.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe my story is a pretty unique being a former professional athlete who’s now a physician. The experiences I’ve had as a patient who has had to deal with injuries, surgeries and mental health issues have allowed me to become a better physician in that I have an intimate understanding of the shortcomings and flaws within our healthcare system. I’m able to relate to patients and customers and fill their needs.

Any advice for managing a team?

I use a lot of lessons that I learned from my football days in my everyday life. Three things my best coaches did was use a lot of positive reinforcement, speak very candidly and help me set goals. This allowed me as a player to feel comfortable that what they were asking of me was genuinely in my best interest. And I always knew where I stood and why. I do the same with my team. I give out lots of encouragement and lots of praise coupled with honest feedback. Any goals are goals they decide for themselves which serves to empower people. But ultimately the thing I do most often is say “thank you, you did a great job”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drdamas.com
• Instagram: @drdamascbd
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdamaswellness/
• Linkedin: Dr Damas CBD
• Twitter: @drdamascbd