Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston

Dr. David Clarke | Why Deep Stress & Your Brain May Be The Cause of Your Disease or Chronic Pain

Welcome to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, the go-to audio haven for midlife women seeking wellness and balance in a demanding world. Today's episode is a deep-dive into an often-overlooked culprit behind disease and chronic pain - our complex brains under the burden of deep stress.

 

In This Episode: Join us as we explore with Dr. David Clarke, the profound ways in which deep-seated psychological stress can manifest as physical symptoms. Dr. Clarke, an accomplished physician certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, shines a light on the intricate link between deep stress, our brain's response, and how this connection may be keeping you from enjoying a life free of pain.

 

For years, Dr. Clarke has dedicated his expertise to advancing awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of stress-related and brain-generated medical conditions, striving to quell the chronic pain epidemic. As President of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association (PPDA), he is at the forefront of transforming lives through education and support.

 

Key Takeaways:

• Uncover why your unexplained aches might be rooted in emotional trauma or long-buried stress.
• Learn about the crucial role of psychophysiologic disorders in chronic pain syndromes.
• Discover practical tips on identifying stress-induced pain and how to address it effectively.
• Gain insights into Dr. Clarke's holistic approach that goes beyond medications to heal the mind-body connection.

 

Professional Insight:

Armed with an MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a wealth of clinical experience, Dr. Clarke's professional insights are a beacon of hope for those battling unseen stress-induced health struggles.

A Message to Our Listeners:

Dear listener, if you've been searching for answers to the mystery of your unresolved pain, this episode could be the key. Dr. Clarke's expertise offers not just knowledge, but also the compassion and understanding so vital during the healing process.

---

Join the Conversation:

We welcome you to share your thoughts and breakthrough moments from this episode on our social media channels. Use the hashtag #HormonePrescriptionPodcast to join the growing community of women empowering themselves through knowledge and shared experiences.

Remember, wellness is not just about hormones. It's also about the mind and its powerful impact on our bodies. Tune in, tap into newfound wisdom, and transform your life one episode at a time.

Until next time, stay inspired, say goodbye to chronic pain, and hello to a vibrant you!

 

Dr. Kyrin (00:00):

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer, stay tuned to find out about something that is self-evident to some of us practitioners, but your doctor might not be aware that could be hurting your health and your hormones.

Dr. Kyrin (00:24):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Dr. Kyrin (01:17):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. David Clark into a discussion about deep stress and your brain causing chronic disease, chronic pain, hurting your hormones and lots more. This really is self-evident to a lot of physicians like me and Dr. Clark, but most physicians haven't gotten the memo when they went through med school and training. They didn't get the memo on this. They weren't trained in this. So they're probably not aware if you're going to a typical managed care physician. They also don't necessarily have the time to spend with you to discern if these issues could be contributing to your health problem. So I think this is a super important topic. I'm glad you're here to hear it. Dr. Clark has deep knowledge and experience in treating patients, in research, in teaching medical students and residents about these issues, and it really can benefit your health and your hormones.

Dr. Kyrin (02:29):

So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. So he's a board certified internal medicine specialist and gastroenterologist, and he is the founder of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, PPDA. He's got some resources to share with you. His website is end chronic pain org. And he's very modest because in his bio that he shared with me before we started, and then I did my research online, I found all the books that he has authored and co-authored and all the resources that he has for you. So he's the author or co-author of Psychophysiologic Disorders. He is an author of a diagnostic guide for Psychophysiologic disorders, that's for practitioners. He is the author of, they Can't Find Anything Wrong, Seven Keys to Understanding Treating and Healing Stress Illness. But none of this was in his bio <laugh>. So he's, he's very modest, but like I said, he has deep knowledge and the time has really come that all doctors should know about the effect of ACEs and deep stress on their patient's health, but they just don't. So it's your turn. You've gotta take responsibility for your health to educate yourself about this and to put it into practice, to use your, in your health to move it towards the best it can be because you only get one life and you deserve to have the best health and best life and best vitality possible. So that's Dr. David Clark. Please help me welcome him to the show.

Dr. David (04:15):

Great to be with you. Thank you.

Dr. Kyrin (04:16):

Yes. I know we're talking about your favorite topic today and hopefully we'll tie it into my favorite topic, which is hormones. And hormones and pain, chronic pain are interrelated. If you're listening and you're not sure why you're scratching your head saying, Dr. Karen, I don't understand that. Hopefully it'll make more sense for you at the end of the episode. But first I wanna dive in . You are certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, but you have this passion for psychophysiologic disorders. If you're not sure what that is and you're listening, just stay tuned. We'll, we'll, we'll define that for you. And most doctors certified in internal medicine, practicing everyday internal medicine and gastroenterology really don't have an interest in this, they may not have knowledge or awareness of what you specialize in. I know that you do educate practitioners, which is wonderful because we need to have more awareness. How did you become aware that this was a huge blind spot for US physicians when it comes to treating patients and become so passionate about it?

Dr. David (05:28):

Well, like you, I was very traditionally trained. I mean, I went through four years of medical school and three years of internal medicine residency entirely. Traditionally, things were going well for me in terms of my training, but all of a sudden I encountered a patient. I didn't know the first thing about how to diagnose or treat this was in the eighth year, you know, when I was a first year as a gastroenterology fellow. And this patient had been ill for two years, with very severe physical symptoms, actually referred to UCLA where I was in training from another university because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. We did a very specialized test on the electromechanical properties of the intestine to try to figure out what her problem was. And we were my department chair and I, we were convinced that that test was gonna be abnormal because no other explanation was possible as far as we were concerned.

Dr. David (06:21):

And so when that test was normal, two we're just at a loss and we had to essentially tell the patient there was nothing more we could do for her. But in her exit interview, I asked her about stress a few more times, and she began telling me she'd been sexually abused as a girl and not just once or twice, but hundreds of times. And this obviously was a huge piece of history from her background that I didn't think could possibly be connected to why she was physically ill 25 years later. But it definitely stood out and I was aware that there was a psychiatrist in our institution who had an interest in these mind to body connections. And I thought, well, maybe we can help this patient live with her condition a little more successfully if she talks to this psychiatrist. So I arranged an appointment, forgot all about her, and then I ran into the psychiatrist in an elevator a few months later and said, you know, whatever happened to that patient that I referred to you?

Dr. David (07:19):

And she said, oh, I haven't seen her in a few weeks now, Dave she's fine. She's, you know, no longer needs any medical care. All of her symptoms have completely resolved. And this happened just with a few months of counseling. And at that point, that just blew my mind that you could alleviate a serious physical condition just by talking to somebody. So I thought, okay, you know, if I'm gonna be a complete doctor, I should learn a little bit about how to do this. It might come in handy for a few patients every year when I get into practice. So I prevailed on Dr. Kaplan to give me a framework for how she thought about these things. And then when I did get into practice, I started using this framework whenever I couldn't find a disease or an injury that would explain the patient's symptoms and patient after patient had these deep psychosocial stresses that were going on that were connected to their illness, if you could identify them, if you could treat them, the patient's physical symptoms would improve. And unfortunately, in Portland, Oregon where I was in practice, there were no other Dr. Kaplan's there. So I ended up doing a lot of this work myself, and today we're 7,000 plus patients later than I've been doing this with. And I've been teaching other doctors how to do this because you can, it's readily possible to learn how to do this, and it just transforms your practice. This was one third of my patients for decades.

Dr. Kyrin (08:47):

Right. Well, thank you for sharing that. I, I think it's always fascinating how, why people do what they do, why they're so passionate about it, particularly when it comes to physicians who have gone off the beaten path, the mainstream of medicine where most gastro neurologists are just typically prescribing drugs and surgery, and nobody's asking about people's adverse childhood experiences, deep stress, et cetera. So hopefully that gives everybody an idea of the question of why this is important. Maybe there's somebody listening who's been struggling with undiagnosed medical illness. What are some of the statistics on undiagnosed medical illness and why is this such a huge problem?

Dr. David (09:31):

Yeah, we're talking here about people who go to the doctor for their pain or illness and no disease or injury is found to explain it. Or if the doctor thinks, well, maybe this issue could be explaining your illness, but you're not improving in the way the doctor expects, and that's the time we want to bring in a look at psychosocial stresses, either from the past or the present or both that could be contributing. And it turns out that when you look at the research, it's about 40% of people that go to a primary care physician or about 20% of the adult population in general. So this is 80% larger than the diabetic population, for example. And yet, unfortunately, it's not been part of traditional training. It's kind of like the medical clinicians are saying, well, this is a a psychological problem. This is really not in our ballpark. And the mental health professionals are saying, well, these patients have physical symptoms, they've got real pain, they've got irritable bowel or fibromyalgia or migraines or pelvic pain or genital pain or joint or back pain. And that's not really a mental health problem. So we don't deal with this either. And these patients fall into a giant blind spot in this system. It's 50 million people in the United States alone.

Dr. Kyrin (10:50):

So how would somebody who's listening know if they have a chronic illness that remains undiagnosed or chronic pain? You talk about stress related brain generated symptoms versus traditional pain and disease. How does someone even begin to sort out, is this me? Could this be affecting me?

Dr. David (11:10):

Yeah, it certainly starts with having a medical evaluation to make sure there's no organ disease or injury that's responsible. And then after that, we're looking into whether there could be a psychosocial stress behind this. And there are three main categories for that. There could be stress in your life at the moment, especially if it's chronologically linked to when and where your symptoms began or when and where your symptoms flare up. The second major issue is to make sure you don't have a mental health condition that hasn't been diagnosed. A lot of people with depression, anxiety, or post-trauma stress don't fully recognize that their symptoms are linked to that depression. Those mental health conditions can be subtle in many people and not so obvious as to have you running straight to a mental health professional. And then finally, the biggest shock of my medical education was finding out that stress when you were a child, could make you ill as an adult.

Dr. David (12:09):

The question that I like to ask my patients here is, imagine you were a butterfly on the wall of your childhood home and you were observing a child you care about growing up in the same home that you grew up in and you can't do anything. You're just watching that kid try to cope. Would it make you sad or angry to watch that child either your own or another one you have a connection to make you sad or angry to watch that kid trying to cope in that environment. And if it would, then there's a probability that there's a level of stress that went on back then it can still be impacting you today, including in the form of physical symptoms.

Dr. Kyrin (12:47):

So I wanna ask you a couple of questions about what you just shared. So you said they need to make sure they don't have any type of organ disease or a mental health diagnosis, but in reality you can have organ disease functional like a Crohn's or ulcerative colitis with an actual organ problem, and you still could be related to stress and brain issues. Correct?

Dr. David (13:12):

Well, you can have a combination of impact on your body from stress, from brain generated symptoms and a biomedical condition like Crohn's disease at the same time. And that's, that can be a really confusing situation for a physician. If you've got a flare up of symptoms, you need to then sort out, is it the inflammatory bowel disease is flaring up or is it the irritable bowel syndrome that's more directly connected to stress that's flaring up. And sometimes you have to do more diagnostic tests to see if the inflammation is more active, or you can evaluate the patient and see if there's a stress that has come up in their life that has triggered the flare up in the symptoms. So yeah, there can be people who have both of these conditions at the same time. Right.

Dr. Kyrin (14:01):

And same, I guess with the mental health diagnosis. And you talk about adverse childhood experiences, which we've talked a bit about on the podcast, but I think it bears repeating. And you mentioned a term though I had not heard called deep stress. So can you talk about what is deep stress and maybe talk to everyone about how they would know if they qualified to have adverse childhood experiences or not? I know you gave a great example there. If you look back at your childhood, would you think, wow, that was really a lot to handle, but what is deep stress?

Dr. David (14:36):

I use the term deep stress to mean stresses that people don't fully recognize they have. So they're kind of deeply buried stresses that may be affecting a person today, but they're not fully recognizing the magnitude of that stress. One of my patients, for example, was put into my hospital because of an attack of severe vomiting and extreme dizziness. And when I went to see her for consultation, she said something to me, I've never heard from any other patient, which was, thank you for coming, doctor, but don't waste your time with me. You'd be better off seeing your other patients. And when I asked her why it turned out she had good reason to say that she had been hospitalized at a major university in her hometown 60 times over the previous 15 years with no diagnosis. She had seen a dozen different specialists, she had seen a psychiatrist and none of them could find anything wrong with her.

Dr. David (15:31):

But it turned out that she had a major stress in her life, which turned out to be that her mother had verbally and emotionally abused her, starting when she was three or four years old and continuing on to the present day. She was 50 years old at the time, her mother was in her seventies and was still doing this to her. So it also turned out that, and this was the, the real key to her diagnosis. But although most of her attacks of illness, which she had between six and 10 times a year, took place in and around her home community, she would always get an attack whenever she passed through a little town, about 45 minutes from where she lived. But it turned out the only time she ever went through that little town was when she was on her way to visit her mother, who lived several hours further down the road.

Dr. David (16:21):

So she's driving to visit her mom, the emotional tension in that relationship is building and building and building. And by the time she gets to this little town, her husband's gotta pull a car over and she's throwing up all over the guardrail. So I pointed out to her that the only time she got sick was when she was on her way to visit her mother. She could drive 45 minutes in any other direction and she'd be fine. She could drive an hour and 45 minutes in any other direction and she wouldn't have any problem. So that finally made clear to her what this deep stress was that she hadn't previously recognized. And as soon in her case, just bringing that into conscious awareness was enough to alleviate her illness. She went home from the hospital the next day and she called me a year later, say, she'd gone through the entire year with no episodes. Now I wish I could cure everybody that quickly, but it's a really good example of deep stress and the impact it can have when you finally see what's going on.

Dr. Kyrin (17:22):

Right. And so what you're describing though, in terms of the physician interaction really requires a level of attention and curiosity and a level of time commitment to really sort through these issues with people that most physicians are not allotted by the current managed care system that we have. And we're not trained in that. So I know that you have so many resources, books you've authored and training programs for practitioners. I don't know that the medical curriculum has changed since I went through medical school. Are you, or residency, but how do you suspect that we're going to actually get physicians, the education and training and give them the time to be able to sort through these issues with patients?

Dr. David (18:13):

Yeah, once you see these issues, you sort of can't unsee them. And it's true that the, you know, medical office visits these days are very short. But as I tell my audiences of physicians when I'm teaching, you don't have to gather all this information in one visit. You can get the information you need about stresses passed and present a little at a time, because these are patients that tend to keep coming back to your office because they don't get better with the traditional approaches. So you gather this information over time, and the physicians I've taught to do this they absolutely love it. It transforms their practice. So one of them mm-hmm, <affirmative>, a family doctor, took me aside at a conference and said, these concepts have put the joy back into my work because all of a sudden you've got 40% of the people who are coming through the door to see you.

Dr. David (19:04):

That used to be a headbanging frustrating because you didn't know what to do for them. Now all of a sudden you have a positive approach that you can take that actually makes people better. Not necessarily in one hour conversation like with the last patient, but definitely over time people can see they're on a pathway toward improving their use of healthcare resources goes way down. You know, you asked about, you know, what patients can do to assess themselves. I should have mentioned we've got a self-assessment quiz on my nonprofits website. It's at end chronic pain.org. There's a 12 item self-assessment quiz. And it's set up so that the more questions to which you answer yes, the more likely it is that you have one of these psychophysiologic disorders. A combination of psychology and physiology. And that's a way that your listeners can find out or at least get more information about whether this might apply to them.

Dr. Kyrin (20:01):

Yes. Something else you said though, that this woman had been emotionally abused by her mother in my experience. So this applies to a great quote that you shared with me from Schauer before we started that I wanna share with everyone. All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. And I love that because I, I don't know which stage we're in with the topics that you're talking about where deep stress, adverse childhood experience, and we're probably in the, maybe it's a little ridiculed by a lot of people. That's not an issue. And in my experience, and in a lot of the women that I work with, thousands of women, if you say, were you emotionally abused? Were you sexually abused? Did you have abuse? Did you have neglect as a child?

Dr. Kyrin (20:51):

I find that a majority of people who grew up in fairly cohesive, what I would call seemingly functional families, have no awareness actually, that they were emotionally abused, but they were, and maybe they have no memory of sexual abuse, but they were. And so I do find when I encounter patients, 'cause this is something I'm attuned to, and there are certain issues going on that have no medical explanation, and I approached these subjects, their answer is, oh no, I, my family was fine. I didn't have any problems. But if you ask more pointed questions to get to specific statements that people may have made or how people were available to them or not emotionally really in the terms of the emotional arena, people have a huge amount of denial is what I'm gonna say.

Dr. David (21:42):

You're right.

Dr. Kyrin (21:44):

So how do you, we've been socialized in America and most developed countries to believe that our body is a machine and it's a mechanical machine. When there's a problem, well, we go to the doctor to get a diagnosis, just like we take our car to the mechanic and then they figure out what's wrong and they give us a pill or they do a surgery and they fix us. And nowhere in my training or any, I just did my board recertification this year, we have to do it every year. And none of the articles on women's health had anything to do with what you and I are talking about when you and I both know that the issues we're talking about have deep consequences in terms of health for women in terms of their fertility and their menstrual regularity, their menopause, et cetera. So how do you get people out of denial and to really realize that this is a part of the problem and realize that what they did experience, although it might not have been horrific, like you see in some TV shows and movies, actually was neglectful and was an adverse childhood experience. And was Dr. Deep stress

Dr. David (22:49):

Wow, a lot to unpack there. Yes, with the Schopenhauer quote, I mean, it depends on, you know, who you talk to. But the acceptance now is really coming on. I mean, there, I'm teaching in my medical school, I'm teaching in graduate schools, and there are medical schools in Europe that are teaching this now. One of two of them are actually using my first book called They can't find anything wrong as a teaching tool, especially for their family doctors. So the acceptance is really growing. It, it's, we need more for acceptance than just me telling stories about my patients. And we have that. Now in 2024, there are half a dozen randomized controlled trials that show the value of what I call pain relief psychology or what another researcher is called, pain recovery psychology, that have compared it with a variety of placebo control groups and the, the power of the outcomes, the effect size, which is the, the statistical term is enormous for when you compare it in terms of the outcomes.

Dr. David (23:55):

One of the studies called the Boulder Back Pain Study, for example, they had people with 10 years of back pain. Their average pain scores were four out of 10. And with just one month of pain relief psychology, their average pain scores dropped from four to one. And this is after a decade, these people had been suffering. And, one month it just plummets. It's extraordinary to see the graph. It was published in the JAMA Psychiatry Journal of the American Medical Association. And the benefits were enormous. And we got similar results at Harvard, at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital where they worked with a very tough group of older male veterans, 5% of whom got better with cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the usual kind of psychotherapy that you get in the us. But with the new pain relief psychology, 42% achieved their pain goal.

Dr. David (24:51):

I mean, it was eight times as much. It's just extraordinary to see that kind of impact just from talking to people in a different way. So coming onto your question about how do we make people aware that their childhood experience was maybe not quite so good as they thought, because you know, after all, none of us has a parallel life we can compare ourselves with. If you grow up in a difficult environment, you may not necessarily appreciate how difficult it was. So this brings me back to that same idea of, you know, imagine a child that you care about growing up in the same household you did, dealing with everything you had to deal with, and you are just watching it as a passive observer. How are you feeling when you're watching that kid you care about try to cope? One of my patients was a, you know, person known to the public whom I was talking about this with.

Dr. David (25:47):

And she said, no, my childhood was really not that bad. Other people have been through much worse than I have. It turned out her parents fought with each other almost every day. Not physically, but verbally and emotionally, and she was an only child. So she took on the role of peacemaker and then her parents got divorced when she was age eight, which you would think would, you know, be a partial solution to her problem. But unfortunately, they kept living in the same house. They slept in several bedrooms, but you know, they still were fighting with each other. So from her perspective, it didn't do her any good at all. And she's telling me, no, this really wasn't so bad. So I said, okay, you have this beloved niece, a four or five, 6-year-old girl. You love this girl. You take her on with you on weekends and do fun things with her.

Dr. David (26:32):

You're just devoted to this little girl. Imagine her, your niece in that household, and you can only watch, you're watching your niece try to cope with your parents. What is that gonna be like for you? And she just stared at me. She was, you know, somebody who was very verbal, could carry on her end of a conversation all day long that just brought her to a halt. And she went on for a couple of minutes just pondering that idea. And then at the end she said, you know, after a week of watching that I would shoot myself. And that was the first time she had truly recognized just how difficult it really was. And that was the start of her treatment, which was successful. She had half a dozen different symptoms in her body for the last 20 years, and within a matter of months they were gone.

Dr. Kyrin (27:21):

I love that question. I think it's beautiful. I actually went through and took your quiz before we did the interview because I wanted to see what the questions were. And that question is on there. And I think that helps someone step out, I think people are very worried about blaming their parents and they don't wanna do that. And so that hence the denial. Most of us really appreciate all that our parents have done for us. And you know, even if there were difficulties, but when you step out as an observer and say, well, yeah, if there were a child like you, your patient said, I, I would shoot myself then, you know, and there really is no one to blame because they're only doing what they were taught by their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents.

Dr. David (28:03):

So they do the best they can.

Dr. Kyrin (28:05):

They do the best they can. So thank you for explaining that. And so people can also identify what are some of the most common symptoms that we're talking about?

Dr. David (28:16):

Yeah, I'm glad you asked 'cause we hadn't mentioned that it's literally head to toe. You can have pain symptoms and non-pain symptoms. So migraines ring in the ears, difficulty swallowing, visual disturbances, pseudo seizures, pain in the temporomandibular joint of the jaw. Neck pain, low back pain is a big one. Approximately 88% of low back pain is psychophysiologic in nature according to a recent study. Chest pain, abdominal pain, pelvic genital joint, difficulty breathing, unexplained cough, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel can cause diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, bloating, indigestion, numbness and tingling in the extremities. The, the only common denominator is that people tend to have more than one symptom at a time. The more symptoms you have, the more likely it is a psychophysiologic cause is what's going on. And there's lots more that I haven't even thought to mention. Functional neurological disorder is another one. A lot of people with hypermobility disorder like Aler Danlos get all kinds of symptoms attributed to Aler Danlos that probably are not from the Aler Danlos. They're actually from psychophysiologic disorder.

Dr. Kyrin (29:37):

And so how are these symptoms triggered and why is understanding this so important to treatment?

Dr. David (29:44):

Well, the symptoms can be triggered by a particular stress that this happens most often in my patients with post-trauma, that they've been through some kind of terrifying or horrifying event. And then, the symptoms begin soon thereafter, or it could be the trauma was quite a number of years in the past, but some triggering event has happened that leads to the development of the symptoms. But sometimes the symptoms can just appear for seemingly no reason as part of the recovery process from adverse childhood experiences. For example, my very first patient, she was averaging one bowel movement per month despite taking four different laxatives at double the usual doses. And it just started when she was 35. She was the one who had been sexually abused hundreds of times. Nobody had touched her against her will for close to 25 years. But the illness just began in midlife.

Dr. David (30:40):

And why is that? Well, it turns out that there's a recovery process from childhood adversity, and at some point people reached a level where a lot of the buried emotions begin to come knocking on the door. She had a tremendous amount of outrage about how she'd been treated as a girl, but it had been repressed. In order to survive her childhood, she had to repress it. But in the middle of her thirties, it was finally time for her to confront this and deal with it. But the anger couldn't find a way into her conscious awareness. So instead it manifested in her body. And the psychiatrist, Dr. Kaplan helped her to recognize how much anger she had begun to talk about, putting it into words. And the more you can put repressed emotions into words, the less they have to express themselves via the body. And these can be not just anger, but I've had patients with fear, shame, guilt, grief, that we're responsible instead of anger.

Dr. Kyrin (31:39):

Yeah, I love that. I really think that the body is our subconscious mind and it will out picture anything that we don't acknowledge or feel, feel, feel consciously. Absolutely. And so, right, if we deny it, then our body has to express it. And that's probably an illness or pain. But when we acknowledge it and feel it and process it, then the body says, oh, thank you for doing your job so that I don't have to bring it to your attention. And I really see all dis-ease in the body as a signal. Yes, there could be some biochemical or anatomic problem if it's progressed, but it's really stemming from a lot of these emotional and psychological issues. And you talk about the effectiveness of what you call pain relief psychology for alleviating deep stress. And it consists of personality traits, triggers, and unrecognized emotions from ACEs. Can you talk a little bit more about what pain relief psychology is?

Dr. David (32:40):

Yeah, you bet. What it's all about is uncovering the stresses that a person has in their life, whether they are in the present day. I mean, a very simple example was a patient of mine who only got his pain when he was driving to work. When he was driving home from work, he was fine on the weekends when he was not at work, he was fine too <laugh>. So we kind of focused on, all right, what's going on at work? And, you know, that was a huge stress going on. So that was a very simple example. But more complicated is we're, we're trying to look at the long-term consequences of ACEs and the repressed emotions is a big one there. But we can also look at personality traits. Many people who've been through ACEs cope with those issues by developing certain personality traits. Their self-esteem, for one, is likely to be harmed and likely to be much lower than it deserves to be.

Dr. David (33:30):

Kids trying to cope with adversity oftentimes become very detail oriented, perfectionists. They tend not to be very assertive. They tend to focus on the needs of other people to the exclusion of putting themselves on the list of people. They take care of a whole long list of these personality traits that can be very stressful. But when you find out how you develop those personality traits, where they came from, who taught you these things about yourself that are not true, like, you know, you're a second rate or unworthy human being, and how did they teach those things to you? And we can understand that better. And that facilitates making changes in those personality traits, which then leads to a reduction in stress level. And then finally, I like to pay attention to triggers in someone's life. These are people, situations or events that are in some way linked to the past and are therefore very emotionally triggering.

Dr. David (34:26):

And the, the most common of those by far is that there's an ace perpetrator, you know, one of your parents usually that's still in your life today and is still mistreating you in some way. And that can lead to reactions in the body. One of my more dramatic examples of that is a patient who was hospitalized for a total of 51 days for her symptoms over a nine month period of time. And none of the many people who evaluated her asked her if anything stressful had happened right before she became ill. And it turned out that yes, something stressful had happened, which was that her father had a stroke and he was calling upon her for support. 3, 4, 5 days a week she'd be in his house helping him out. And this was a huge problem for her because she'd been avoiding her father for most of her adult life.

Dr. David (35:18):

And when I asked her why, she told me this story that nobody else had heard up to that point, which was that when she was six years old and her little brother was four, mom and dad had gone off to Las Vegas for a long weekend and she was staying with aunt and uncle on the Sunday that mom and dad were due to come back. They called up the aunt and uncle and they said, we're getting a divorce and we're not coming back. And that was the last she saw of her parents for the next 20 years. So there was, you know, enormous emotional tension in that relationship. Vinny has a stroke and she feels obligated as the daughter to go and help him out. But when she does that, and only is it difficult to be in his presence, as you might imagine, he's critical. If she doesn't do things exactly the way he wants her to, you know, you'd think he'd be grateful, but instead he doesn't hesitate to criticize her, which just twists the knife a little more. And not too surprising that she became physically ill in this situation, but nobody else had thought to delve into the possibility that her brain might be causing these symptoms, which are, if I haven't pointed it out yet, they're absolutely as real as symptoms from any other cause.

Dr. Kyrin (36:30):

You know, I love the examples you're giving. I think everyone's getting a really good idea. Wow, this could be me. My parents were divorced. I had just situations that are very adversarial and negative in our lives, but I think there's not a lot, a lot of acknowledgement about the emotional impact and now everybody's learning the physical impact. It was so interesting. I was recently traveling and I was in Dubai and I was having a problem with my right shoulder and arm, and I went to a physiotherapist and he did a bunch of manipulations, which really helped. And I started talking to him about emotions related to the different muscles and right arm, and it relates to the father's representation and all these things that I've studied over the years. And he said, what are you talking about <laugh>? He said he didn't know what I was talking about.

Dr. Kyrin (37:21):

And I said, well, you know, emotions can be stored in the body in different parts of the body or associated with different emotions. And he didn't, wasn't aware of this. But like you say, once you see it, you can't unsee it. So if you're listening to this, you're now having information that maybe your practitioners aren't aware of that you are going to be aware of, and you can start looking at your life. Wow, when do I get those migraines? Oh, let me see. It's about a couple days before this, such and such family members come to visit every time. And do I get stomach aches on the way to work? And there's some periodicity or relatedness to how you're living your life and the symptoms you're having. And when you start to sort that out, you can't unsee it. So how would someone get started? They can take your quiz. It might be possible that their practitioner is not versed in this. So how do you suggest that people get started having a proper assessment of pain relief psychology or I would say disease relief psychology? How do they go about doing this?

Dr. David (38:29):

Great place to start is with your physician to make sure that there's not a biomedical cause that you don't have an organ disease or an injury that could, the doctor thinks maybe there's a connection there, but you're not improving in the way that they expect. That would be another time to look and see if this psychophysiologic process could be contributing to your condition. And that 12 item quiz is a great place to start because it's got a lot of educational elements in it that can show you how some of these ideas might apply to you. And if they do, then we've got a lot of resources on the website that people can, it's end chronic pain.org that can help people delve into this more. There's a course on, there's several courses on there. Some of them are video, some of them are primarily text that can give you more information because information is the treatment here.

Dr. David (39:23):

The more you understand how this works, the more you understand how it applies to you, the more that you can do things to lead to improvement. This one of the techniques might be if you had an ace perpetrator in your life as a kid, writing a letter to that person. It's very challenging, as you pointed out earlier, to recognize that you might have some negative emotions towards someone that you also care about. And sorting that out, writing a letter to put those thoughts and feelings in there, both good and bad, not not to mail the letter just as an exercise, to write it as a way to take emotions and thoughts and feelings and put them into words that are written down that can pull ideas out of your head that you didn't necessarily know were there. And the more that you're able to do that, the less those things need to express themselves via the body.

Dr. David (40:16):

That's one of the techniques. There are apps for this that are very evidence-based, that one of them is called curable, that I recommend to patients. There are self-help books about this. We've got textbooks for healthcare professionals, but even the textbooks are written without jargon because we wanted the medical clinicians to be able to read the psychological material and vice versa. And one of the benefits of that is that if you're a science oriented reader, you can read one of these textbooks and get a lot out of it. I, I know psychophysiologic relief therapists who are prescribing even textbooks to their patients.

Dr. Kyrin (40:56):

Oh, I love that. Yeah. So definitely go to the website, we'll have the link in the show notes and take the quiz and start to investigate this. I mean, honestly, I think if you have any chronic condition, you could benefit from this. Definitely get a proper evaluation from your regular doctor. You might wanna also consider a functional approach, which I am particularly passionate about, and we often are able to fix and find root causes that mainstream medicine isn't able to address. But this even in a, from a functional perspective, is something that I think everybody should look into. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how this ties into hormones. And so briefly, because we're running out of time, I'm just gonna say that it ties in most likely to your cortisol stress hormone. 'cause We're talking about deep stress, we're talking about adverse childhood experiences, and this is going to deal with your HPA axis, hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, which relates to your cortisol. So if you were wondering, Hey, Dr. Karen, are you gonna tie this into hormones? There we did it. Bam, <laugh> <laugh>,

Dr. David (42:04):

Yeah, it's an additional source of stress on top of everything else. Yeah.

Dr. Kyrin (42:08):

Yeah. So Dr. Clark, any parting words before we wrap up?

Dr. David (42:13):

You know, I'll just say the bottom line here is that the brain can generate symptoms in the body, and these symptoms are every bit as real and can be every bit as severe as symptoms from any other cause. So if you're looking for the body's defects as an explanation for the symptoms and you're not finding it, then think about whether the brain could be generating these symptoms. You know, a a classic example is phantom limb pain where somebody's had an amputation and yet they feel pain at the site where the limb is, you know, no longer exists. That pain is being generated in the brain and it is very powerful. I mean, it has put some of my patients in the hospital, one of my patients was a 17-year-old who I was asked to see on their 70th day in the hospital.

Dr. David (43:02):

They were getting 10 milligrams of morphine an hour. You know, for a kid this size, five or 10 milligrams would be enough to treat the pain of a fractured leg for your patient's. Not familiar with morphine doses. This patient was getting 10 milligrams every hour. That was when we found the stress, we treated it successfully, and the patient was off of the hospital in a week and off of all opioids in 30 days. So just being aware that the brain can do this and the brain does this because of stress, which may be deep stress, it may be stress you don't fully recognize, it may be stress from far in the past. So start looking for those things. Use the quiz to help you find what those things might be. And then finally, effective treatment is available. We've got half a dozen randomized controlled trials now published in very rigorous journals that show dramatic benefits when these underlying issues are brought into the open and dealt with successfully. Yes.

Dr. Kyrin (44:00):

And when you go take the quiz, when you get your results in your email, there's a resource page that Dr. Clark has with all kinds of books and just a plethora of resources. So you'll have lots there to help you on your way. Thank you so much, Dr. Clark, for joining me today.

Dr. David (44:19):

Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure speaking with you.

Dr. Kyrin (44:22):

And I'll just wrap up by sharing another quote that you shared with me before we started recording. I'll leave everyone with this because I think it really gets to the heart of what we're talking about. And it is from Rita Cheren, who's also a doctor, and it is the work of medicine. Inconsiderable part rests on the doctor's ability to listen to the stories that patients tell, to make sense of those often chaotic narratives of illness, to inspect and evaluate the listener's response to the story told to understand what these narratives mean and to be moved by them. I hope that you are inspired to look at your own possible deep stress and adverse childhood experiences and how it might be impacting your health to take the quiz, to educate yourself. I really think that this is the next frontier that in the future at some date will be self-evident.

Dr. Kyrin (45:19):

That of course, doctors need to be addressing this with their patients. But as long as you are here and you know about it, you can use this information to take action on your own behalf. You don't have to wait for your doctors to catch up. You can get the help that's available to you now. So something to think about. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Reach out to me on social media and let me know what your thoughts are about this and how it's helped you. I'll see you again next week. Thanks so much for joining me. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Dr. Kyrin (45:54):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► 12 item Self Assessment Questionnaire for brain-generated pain or illness by Dr. David Clarke. 

This 12-item questionnaire is designed to improve understanding of your pain or illness. The more questions to which you answer ‘Yes’, the more likely it is that a brain-to-body disorder (a Psychophysiologic Disorder or PPD) is contributing significantly to your condition. For any concerns raised by these questions, we recommend discussion with a medical or mental health professional.

CLICK HERE to access the questionnaire.

 

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

Dr. Ryan Wohlfert | Essential Spinal Hygiene For Your Hormonal Function & Vitality

In this pivotal episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, your host unlocks the secret link between spinal health and hormonal balance with none other than the spine whisperer himself, Dr. Ryan Wohlfert.

Dr. Wohlfert isn't just any expert; he's a titan in the realm of spinal wellness—a Certified Mindset Specialist, Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, and a master in the esteemed art of Chiropractic BioPhysics®. With over 23 years of transforming lives through education and renowned clinical practice, he returns to the podcast with an invigorating discussion on Essential Spinal Hygiene for Your Hormonal Function & Vitality.

Key Insights From This Episode:

• The Spine-Hormone Connection: Dr. Ryan unravels how the spine directly influences our hormonal symphony and why maintaining spinal integrity can sing health into our lives.
• A Lifetime of Vitality: Discover Dr. Ryan's spinal correction protocol, a groundbreaking approach that has helped alleviate chronic pain and fend off dysfunction and disease for thousands.
• Beyond Manipulation: Learn how specific spinal care goes a step further than traditional chiropractic work, empowering not just relief, but a total revival of energy and endurance.
• The Pillars of Pain-Free Living: Dr. Ryan shares his wisdom on how simple, daily spinal hygiene practices can liberate you from the grips of medication and pave the way for a lifetime of vibrant, pain-free living.
• Mindset Matters: Embark on a mindset makeover that aligns your spinal health goals with success, as Dr. Wohlfert elaborates on how mental fortitude underpins physical wellbeing.

Dr. Ryan's Mantra for Listeners: "Your spine is the conduit of life energy. Nourish it, and it will nourish every cell in your body. Neglect it, and wellness will elude you. It's that simple, and it's that miraculous."

Stay tuned as Dr. Ryan leads us through the intricacies of spinal hygiene and its paramount role in nurturing our hormonal health—not just for today, but for a future brimming with vitality.

And remember, your pathway to hormone harmony might just begin with a healthy spine.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You don't have to do anything except deal with the consequences of your choices. Dr. Ryan Wohlfert, stay tuned to find out what you're not doing for your spine that could be affecting your hormones and your health.

Speaker 2 (00:14):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:08):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. Ryan Wohlfert to talk about the spine and spinal hygiene. I know you're thinking my spine takes care of itself. I don't need to do anything for it. You need to think again, <laugh>, you really do. Your spine needs TLC. It is your backbone. It houses what your central nervous system, your brain, brings to the rest of your body. And a lot of us, many of us may have problems with it in our lifetime, overt or surreptitious, but it can cause problems in the long run if you're not doing some simple things like you brush your teeth every day and floss, right? There are things you need to do for your spine, but you know, it's pretty obvious when you have a tooth problem because you get a toothache or your teeth turn yellow or you get bad breath or right.

Speaker 1 (02:03):

It's pretty obvious, but you're probably not gonna have the obvious signs from your spine until a problem is down the line and has become more severe. And there's some simple things you can do for your spine, just like brushing your teeth and flossing that you can do for your spine and why that's super important. So, Dr. Ryan's gonna dive in with us on that topic. He has some great quotes, <laugh>, like the one that I shared with you in the beginning, and he really has a deep knowledge of this subject and can speak about it in a really down to earth, practical way. I think you're gonna enjoy it. So without further ado, I will tell you a little about Dr. Ryan and then we'll get started. So, he's a certified mindset specialist. Love that. He is a certified chiropractic sports physician and certified chiropractic biophysics physician. He uses a specific spinal correction protocol to help patients resolve chronic pain and avoid dysfunction and disease. Yes. So he has over 23 years of education and clinical experience. He's worked with thousands of people to improve their spine energy longevity, eliminate dependence on medication, and make simple healthy pain-free living possible. Please help me welcome Dr. Ryan Wolfert to the

Speaker 3 (03:21):

show. Thanks for having me, doc. I appreciate you, you reaching out and us getting able to talk.

Speaker 1 (03:27):

Yeah, I think that this is such an important topic because it's very neglected, I'll say in the functional medicine space, even though we cover a lot of things, we don't cover the bioenergetics of the body, which I think is super important. And we really don't cover the structural aspects which are super important. And part of your metabolic homeostasis, right, from a, from your bones and your muscles, they're very highly metabolically active tissues. And this all ties into the bones and the musculoskeletal system into the spine, which is kind of ground zero, I'll call it, for your overall musculoskeletal balance. So I think it's super important, and that's why everybody listening needs to listen up and pay attention to this. Don't just say, oh, I don't have any spine problems, <laugh>. Right? And if you're saying that you might, you're likely to have a very high possibility of that in your life. And this contributes to your overall metabolic and hormonal health, believe it or not. And we're gonna get into that a little more. So welcome and I, I would say Dr. Ryan, you're a chiropractor by training, right? Correct. And so what makes you focus more on the spine than anything else? How did you come in your chiropractic career to believe that that's really the linchpin?

Speaker 3 (04:56):

I love that. And I love what you said right at the beginning too, how, you know, especially in functional medicine, the mechanical aspects of things and structural aspects do get pushed to the background because we're, nutrition is important obviously, but the mechanics of how your body uses that nutrition is also important. And with the spine, my whole journey with the spine started when I was a kid, when I was 13 years old and I had my first migraine headache, and I'm already jumping the gun there. But again, I had these episodes and I would have headaches and I would have colds, and I would have infections and I would've bronchitis and all these things, but I was still an active kid, you know, playing all these sports with my brothers in the backyard and, and eating homemade food that my mom would make.

Speaker 3 (05:49):

But one time, or I shouldn't say one time, the first time I remember was sitting in class and all of a sudden I couldn't see outta my right eye. The right side of my body went numb like this, I shouldn't say numb, but a tingly feeling in my hand and down my leg. And just seeing spots, you know how you look at the sun and you get that sun spot or a light? Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. But I couldn't see out of my eye. And then the craziest thing, and probably the scariest thing happened about 20 to 30 minutes after those symptoms started is I couldn't talk. Like I would just, I could have thoughts, but the words weren't coming out. And this was all, I was in class. I was, oh my gosh, asking questions and I didn't know what it was. But then after those symptoms, about a half hour, that's when I got my first migraine headache, like just this debilitating headache.

Speaker 3 (06:43):

I didn't, like I said, like I said, I thought it was just a headache, just a really bad one. So I went home, slept, and probably took some Tylenol and some ibuprofen that my mom gave me. I don't know, I can't remember. So it went away after a day or two, and then I was again sitting in class and it happened again the next week. So a week later it happened again. I knew what was gonna happen or after, like those first symptoms, the tingling, the sun, like the spots that I couldn't see went down to the school office and asked the secretary, I asked her, you know, I, I'm gonna have a bad headache. Do you have any Tylenol that I can take? And so what she said actually changed the course of my life. She said, I can't give you that, but what it sounds like, it sounds like you got a pinched nerve and you need to go see my chiropractor <laugh>.

Speaker 3 (07:35):

So again, I was 10 years old, in the eighth grade. I was like, whatever. It's not like I could take myself, but she called my mom to come pick me up. And she told my mom when she came to pick me up, the same thing she told me. So then we went to the chiropractic office of her chiropractor. He took x-rays, showed me my spine was crooked, which was, I still remember that, again, I'm just giving you a summary version of it. But it was all very thorough. And I remember us sitting in the room, he showed my mom and myself the x-rays and said, look right there, it's on crooked. So then I got my first adjustment, and it was like fireworks went up. It was just, wow. Just, he said, feel your face. And all the circulation I could feel, my face was like beet red and was warm because the circulation was coming back.

Speaker 3 (08:23):

And so that was my first experience and it, it, it wasn't right then that I said, oh man, I'm gonna be a chiropractor. But it gave me the taste of it. And ever since then I've been, I've been going, but along the way, it wasn't until probably my, my junior, up until my junior year of high school, I was gonna be an engineer, a mechanical engineer. That's what my focus was. But then going into my senior year, somebody told me about kinesiology. Like, whoa, that sound, what's that? The study of human movement, the study of movement, musculoskeletal system, how the body works with that. So I I went into that major and while I was there, that's kinda like a stepping stone to either pre-med, athletic training, physical therapy, occupational therapy. But while I was at University of Michigan my freshman year, I was like, you know what I, I know the power of chiropractic and how the spine works.

Speaker 3 (09:16):

So that's where my focus led and it's been great along the way. Obviously I've learned a lot. You probably know as well as anybody the, your education and ex it starts after you get outta school. That's basically because after the last, you know, I've been a chiropractor for over 23 years, and the last 15 of it has been in this corrective form, which we'll talk a lot about today and the research behind that and how this actual structure, 'cause you know, there's chiropractic that, again, the adjustments are great, but if you're trying to fix the structure and posture and the, the normal curves of the spine and the positioning of the spine because of how the ligaments and muscles and nerves all intertwine, the adjustment is great for a jumpstart. But if you want to correct the actual positioning and structure and alignment of it, then you have to create a sustained load onto it.

Speaker 3 (10:13):

Similar to how braces correct the structure of teeth. Just like we can't push on our teeth one time a week or one time even a day, and it will correct the structure of them. There needs to be a sustained load to do that. And that's again, what we focus on. And by correcting those curves and the structure and the normal positioning of the spine, that takes the stress off of the nerves, off of the musculoskeletal system. So like how you mentioned ground zero is the spine. I, you know, I like to say it's the foundation of our strength and our function, because if that's off, then it puts excess wear and tear on the rest of the system.

Speaker 1 (10:54):

Right. So you said so much in there that's so rich, thank you for that. Before we dive into ground zero, I, I just have to point out a few things that you mentioned. So you said you were gonna go into mechanical engineering, which is interesting because you kind of are a mechanical engineer just of humans, not machines. And it gets to something else that you mentioned. It's interesting how many of us, I want everyone listening to think back, how many times did you go to the school nurse in your educational career with an ache, a bump, a pain for us ladies, a lot of times it's menstrual problems. And did they just give you a Tylenol or a Motrin, right, for your cramps, for your headache? They just gave you the pill. But it's fascinating to me that you are now in the pro profession and path that you're on and that this woman said something completely different.

Speaker 1 (11:49):

And out of the blue from 99.9% of the school nurses globally, that actually planted seeds that impacted the course of your life. Or rather, maybe she was one of your guides along that path, kind of planted by the divine, the universe, whatever you like to call it, to guide you on your path. And, and why I think this is so important. So why I'm so passionate about what I do is yes, do I want people, women, particularly women over 40, but all women to be as healthy as possible, vital and alive and feel great in their bodies? Yes. But it's so that you can live your purpose, live your passion. And a lot of women, they're so stuck in their health problems that they've even stopped dreaming about that passion. They've stopped listening to that internal voice that's guiding them. They're like, I just, Karen, I get it, but I just wanna feel better.

Speaker 1 (12:47):

But what I find is when I work with you to get you feeling better, then you're like, okay, now I wanna get back on my path and my purpose, what I think Dr. Ryan shared there was so key because all along your life you've been getting these seeds planted, these walk in angels who say things to you that are so out of the blue, like instead of here's the Tylenol, you've got a pinched nerve and you need to go to the chiropractor. And a lot of times we discount those and we think, oh, this is happening to everyone. I know I've done that. Oh, this happens to everyone. But now looking back, you know, I was in the nurse's office with period problems <laugh> from the time I first got my period, right. Not realizing that that was guiding me on my path to women's health. So I just wanna highlight that. Thank you for sharing that very beautiful story because people listen, they're also looking to feel better, but they're also looking for their purpose once they feel better. So I think it's beautiful and, and anything you wanna add about that, please feel free to. But welcome to drive into Ground zero, whatever you feel called.

Speaker 3 (13:55):

I love that you brought that piece into it because I got the chills. You just say that, you know, the divine and God just leading me in that direction and you're not really, you don't know it, you know, until, until you know it, until again, I was going through my journey and you mentioned the mechanical engineering part of it. You're right, essentially that's what we're re-engineering, we're restructuring the body. It's interesting because this technique that we use, it's called CBP chiropractic biophysics, which you mentioned in the intro. It's it, the, the person who developed it, he you know, is a doctor of chiropractic, but he's also, he had a, a master's in engineering and a master's in in math. So he understood the relationship between that of the body and the mechanics and how that affects the overall health of the, because he has such a deep understanding of it.

Speaker 1 (14:53):

I have not heard of the term chiropractic biophysics. I'm gonna have to look it up. But is this related to, so I went to a chiropractor several years ago who was unlike any chiropractor I had been to before, and I've been to many of them. And he was the one who really introduced me to this whole concept that if there's a torque in your structural mechanics, meaning your spine, and it's kind of twisted and off kilter and things aren't aligned properly, that it alters the way blood flows through all of your blood vessels. It alters the ability of cells to take up nutrients and distribute nutrients that everything is affected. And he's like, think of, if you kind of take a city and you twist it a little, like take Manhattan, which kind of looks like a person and you twist it a little, well then Broadway isn't gonna, the traffic's not gonna flow smoothly along Broadway like it's supposed to. And then, you know, the UPS guy isn't gonna be able to deliver the packages properly 'cause there's gonna be traffic jams at certain places. So think of your blood vessels getting torqued and then calcium can't be delivered and then potassium and blood glucose can't be distributed properly. Is that what you're talking about? Or is it, am I totally off base?

Speaker 3 (16:12):

No, that's a great analogy. The flow of information, the flow of communication gets interrupted because, and that's a big reason why the spine is ground zero, why it's the foundation. And I think it's one of, I think it's the main reason why it's so important is because it houses the nervous system, the spinal cord and the nerve roots. So if you torque that as well as, again, it, it will alter the circulation like you had mentioned. And that's actually been shown through at least one study in, called in brain circulation journal, showing how the curve of the neck, which we haven't even gotten in the structure yet and what the normal structure is. But you should have this normal side curve of the neck and when you lose that, it alters the vertebral artery chemodynamics of that. So it's not delivering the oxygen, not delivering the blood to the brain, and then you can't get rid of the waste either.

Speaker 3 (17:04):

But no, that's very similar and like that torque that you mentioned, if there's some sort of mm-hmm, <affirmative> interference like that, and it's not allowing the communication just downriver down the highway. Like I love that analogy. Now the UPS driver can, you know, deliver the package. That's how our organs and organ systems can be affected by the spine not being in the correct alignment because it, you know, at the end of that highway route of that UPS driver is somebody's house. Well, at the end of these nerve roots and or the spinal cord, nerve roots to nerves at the end of those are your organs as well as your muscles and cells and all these tissues that they have to have this communication back and forth. Where if they don't, now the body, the brain's gonna try to figure things out on its own.

Speaker 3 (17:55):

And here is, I call it a perfect design, but somebody might call it a cruel joke. <Laugh>, your body, your body can handle a certain amount of dysfunction before it gives you symptoms, right? Right. If you felt a symptom every time you did something stressful to the body and that symptom didn't go away, you, your body, you wouldn't be able to function. So we need that nice communication in order for the brain to make decisions on what the body and the organs and the cells and tissue should be doing, including absorbing nutrients, including having your body heal and, and making the correct amount of hormones for, for, for, for your body.

Speaker 1 (18:32):

Right? And yes, so hopefully everybody listening, you're getting the picture right? And so this chiropractor was explaining to me like you're explaining like if you can do all the functional type of treatments you want, take all the supplements, change your diet, but if your skeletal system is wonky, which you proceeded to show me how mine looked wonky, you're not getting the proper delivery of nutrients, balance of hormones, excretion of waste. And isn't this happening to all of us just from gravity and living? We're all losing our C curve with us sitting and crouching over computers all day long. And kinda what are the situations that we're dealing with in everyday life that are causing us to have difficulties, whether we know it or not. Like you said, we might not have symptoms and we might think we're fine <laugh>, so please enlighten

Speaker 3 (19:27):

Us. I got you led right into it. Beautiful. Because yeah, with the world that we're living in today, just going at a global level, you know, six in 10 US adults have at least one chronic condition. What does it have to do with the spine? Well, if you look at our world, almost 70% of us are in the distorted spinal posture that go forward hunched over prolonged flexed posture that leads to chronic issues and including chronic pain and disability fatigue, accelerated aging and arthritis, anxiety and mood problems, and increased medication use, which is a big you know, that's one of the things that I never wanna be on any medications, and this is, and I never will because I already put that in my mindset. And yes, it even impacts our hormones and our metabolic system. So what's even more, which I think is the most interesting part of what people don't know about the spine, is that multiple studies show that this spinal posture, you know, losing the C curve, as you mentioned, that hyper kyphosis of the mid back, that slump hunchback posture Mm-hmm <affirmative> that significantly increases the risk of death from heart disease, pulmonary issues, and all causes, which is surprising to a lot of people until we explain it, is think about it, if we're in that hunchback posture where our, the stress is on the nerves going to the heart, going to the lungs, going to the, the gut.

Speaker 3 (20:56):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> not only nerve stress, but just mechanically, if we're in that hunch position, well now again, we're putting increased mechanical stress on the heart to work the lungs. We can't, you know, get, you know, air into our lungs because there's not even enough space for that. So these, you already mentioned a few, you know, our phones, you know, sitting at a computer on the couch looking down, you know, propped up in our lazboy, driving, you know, even lying down, sleeping either on the couch or in bed or propping up ourselves up on pillows. But yeah, the major one is the phones being on our, our technology, which it's nice and I know that's not going away. So we better know how to counteract that stress with exercises, with adjusting our lifestyle with specific forms of, of traction we call it. Especially if you are already caught in that position where you have arthritis, where you have chronic back pain, where you have, you know, low energy, that's a big one because your body is fighting day after day just against gravity to stand up.

Speaker 3 (22:03):

And I'm saying a lot here, but I like to put images in, in people's heads and give analogies. If, if you are a, a, a parent or a grandparent and you, there's a, you know, when you had your babies and they were 10 pounds, 15 pounds as there were, you know, hopefully not 15 pounds when they were born, that'd be a, a pretty big baby. But if you took that 15 pound weight or 20 pound person, or even if you don't have a baby around or can't think back to that, just get a dumbbell or aa weight plate or something, 15 pounds and hold it at arms length away from your body. So that's like having this hunched posture where your head's forward and collapsing down is if you have a weight that's 15 to 20 pounds out away from you, do you see how your muscles, your spine, your joints are gonna be on overload, trying just to hold you up against gravity. And now we add things onto it to make it even tougher. So if we retrain our posture and spine using specific techniques to take that stress off of it, bring that weight closer to the body, now we're decreasing the stress, yes, on the spine, but also the spinal cord we're decreasing. And by that we're also decreasing stress on your organs, on your metabolism, on your entire cell tissue system, anywhere that these nerves go. Right? So that's how that works.

Speaker 1 (23:28):

Yeah, I love how you detailed that. It's, it's funny, I became a nomad about a year and a half ago. I've traveled all over the world and I don't know, somehow I thought in America, maybe we were in a bubble that we're all on our phones all day long. Everywhere. But no, everywhere I go, <laugh>, <laugh>, all, all over Africa, the Middle East, and now I'm in London, everybody's on their phone all the time in that hunched over position. And you listen, you know, you do it too. So I love this quote you shared with me before we started. You don't have to do anything except deal with the consequences of your choices. Your choices. So why I love that so much is that a lot of times we're not aware of the consequences of our choices. What are the consequences of being hunched over on our phone all day or our computer every day?

Speaker 1 (24:19):

And you're really highlighting that for us. You're waking us up to, oh, this is something I need to pay attention to. Whether or not I'm having a spine problem or a pain problem. It's something I need to pay attention to. And I know you've got solutions, <laugh>. So we're gonna dive into that. But before we do that, how would somebody know if this is like, you need to drop everything and take care of this now position, or this applies to everyone, including me, and I need to start integrating some things into my daily life. What are some symptoms people might have to know where they fall on this continuum of needing acute attention or care versus, oh, this is a chronic problem and I do need to pay attention to it. Like fixing your diet. How do they know?

Speaker 3 (25:07):

An acute problem would be like any types of acute injuries, especially if you had like sciatica, shooting pain, debilitating pain, like with me when I was, when I had my migraines, that was a sign to me and that was well sign to our school secretary to tell us that, to, to tell me that any type of intense pain would be a, alright, you need to get this checked out. Which again, pain is a great motivator. So that's kind of a simple way to know if you have more on that lower spectrum, but still low energy and fatigue is another big one because your body's wasting so many resources. If your body is in this, your spine is in this distorted, abnormal, weakened position. So those are the two big main ones. Chronic pain in different areas of your body, especially spine and the nerves, disc problems arm, if we're talking may with a neck stiffness, achiness, where again you see a progression of not able to turn your head side to side, tilt it pain, shooting down the arm, numbness, tingling in your hands.

Speaker 3 (26:17):

Those are all signs of, okay, acute, get these checked out. Now if and hopefully that answered the question with that. If you are, and I'm glad you asked this, because if you don't have these acute symptoms, how can you test yourself to see what your spinal posture is like? And I love that. 'cause That's the, basically that's the first step is how do you assess to make sure that my ears over my shoulders, over my hip is over my ankle? 'cause That's the normal posture. We're looking at you straight ahead. We wanna make sure that if we have a, a straight line or a plumb line dropped down from the ceiling, we want your pelvis under the middle of your chest, under your, you know, middle of your head, like right between your, your eyes. Any deviation from those, again, you can, we call it, you do a selfie test where you take a, you got your phone, right?

Speaker 3 (27:08):

And you can try to take a selfie, you set it up somewhere and take a picture of yourself. Just get in a comfortable standing position looking straight at it, take a picture. And then also you could from the side especially, and you wanna make sure that you're going from the ground up, that your ankle is right on top of your, the outside of your hip, and then your shoulder and ear are all lined up. So that's one easy way. You can also look in the mirror for the front one. It's a little bit harder to do with the, the side, you know, a side picture of your body. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. Now another good one is the wall test because the most common postural distortion is that, you know, the hunchback, right? So you can stand up against a wall, your back is against a wall.

Speaker 3 (27:51):

Your feet are about two to four inches away from the wall. The back of your, your heels, your hips, your mid back. Your head should touch the wall. If you can't get your head to touch the wall comfortably, again, more than likely you're, there's arthritis. That's the hunchback, it's the degeneration of the disc. It's the common problem with osteoporosis because if they get weak spinal bones and fracture, not, they don't even need acute fractures, but these chronic fractures on the front, it, makes it hard for you to get in that aligned position. So that's another wall test. You can also do it lying down. Now if you, if you're lying down on your back and your head, it's uncomfortable to have your head on the floor or it can't even get in that position. I would call that more of an acute case where you need to get that checked out because you're stuck there. The restrictions that ligaments have gotten so fibrotic and so worn out and they're tight, that it can't do it. Like the muscles by themselves are not gonna allow you to do that. So just postural exercises and exercise by itself won't allow you to get back in the healthy position. Mm-Hmm,

Speaker 1 (29:11):

<Affirmative>. Okay. Does that make sense, yeah. Yeah. Those are some great tips on things to do the wall test or lay on the floor doing the selfie. Or even if you could get someone to take a photo of you from the side or the front and kind of look at this alignment. You know, I have found that some of these skews in your posture are so subtle that I can't necessarily tell them. But then I go to the chiropractor and they're like, duh, <laugh>, don't you see this? You know how your left hip is slightly higher than your Right, right? And, you know, they look at leg length and they're like, oh, this foot is a centimeter longer than the other leg. And they can really see it. Like, you guys have this very acute vision. And so I like that you're really,

Speaker 3 (29:56):

It's just like, you're just like, you're trained in what you do that I wouldn't be able to see, just like the, the listener, they're, they're trained in what they do. Like that whole purpose thing that you mentioned at the beginning, that purpose is what your skill is in, in developing that skill. Because I know I'll be adjusting to somebody in my brick and mortar clinic and I will like to start working on them. And they're like, I, how did you know that was there? It's just, you know, after 20 some years of doing it, you get a feel for it based on the symptoms they're telling me or their posture or what it is. Same thing again, in your profession. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (30:34):

Yeah. You just know. And everybody listening, I love this other quote you shared Dr. Ryan, don't complain about the results you didn't get from the work. You didn't do <laugh>. So if you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Ryan, I know I should be tense paying attention to my spine, but I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna lie on the floor. I'm not gonna go against, well I'm not gonna do this selfie. Well then don't complain. 5, 10, 20 years down the line, <laugh>, when you didn't do the work. Like, these are simple things y'all you can do tonight when you're at home or you know, wherever you are. Just stop, drop and do it really quickly to see if, if it applies to you, what are some things that we need to be doing. You know, I think a lot of us got the memo on aerobic exercise. Hopefully more women, if you're listening, have got the memo about the weight bearing exercise resistance training, essential for us women, almost more important than the aerobic exercise. But so many women don't do it. Shy away from it. It's super important. But what things do we need to be doing for exercise for our spine to preserve it, to reverse or counteract some of these kyphotic positions we're in all day long? Well, what do we need to be doing?

Speaker 3 (31:49):

Beautiful. I love that because that exercise is part of it. I've said the words a little bit at the be, you know, as we've gone through this, but as a simple little acronym, think of eat EAT, that is the protocol of chiropractic biophysics. So EAT stands for exercise adjustment and traction. And I'll go quickly through each of those because when you hear, like, I'll just touch on for a second, adjust you think, okay. Adjustment of the spine. But I'll, I'll show you how adjusting your lifestyle also is under that adjusted part of it. But let's start with exercise. You mentioned great ones, general exercise that you just mentioned. Beautiful. Not even gonna talk about that. But now there's general spinal exercises that you can do. And I know they'll have access to the spinal hygiene mini class. And this is part of that, but I'll go over it here. It's just like we take care of our teeth and brush our teeth every day, or at least what we're supposed to.

Speaker 3 (32:48):

We wanna take care of our spine every day. And it doesn't have to take long. Very simply taking your spine through all of its ranges of motion at least once a day, maybe even twice a day. So what are the ranges of motion? So side to side, bending side to side. I know people can't see me, but as I'm doing it, <laugh> I have to do the actions as I do it. So your trunk and then also your head and neck, the rotation, just taking it, rotating it side to side. And you can either hold at the pain-free end range of motion for 10 seconds, or you can do five to 10 reps in each direction with these. If you have, I'll put the caveat right now, or the disclaimer, if you have osteoporosis or fractures, you want to be careful with the twisting and with these exercises, that's why it's always gentle, it's always controlled.

Speaker 3 (33:38):

So we have the side to side, we have the rotation. Now we want to flex. Although we are in this prolonged flexed posture for a lot of, you know, most of our day, we still wanna be able to do that motion. We just don't wanna be in that chronically flexed position. So flexing down, like either doing like a, and then also extending back. So the cat cow, a lot of people are familiar with that exercise or on your hands and knees where you're rounding your back, taking your chin towards your chest and then arching it up, squeezing the shoulder blades, dropping the pelvis down, but you're flexing the spine and extending rounding and then flattening going towards their, I don't like to say extreme, but their, their final range of motion under control gently and pain free. So that's called spinal hygiene. And just like I said, taking two minutes outta your day to do that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (34:32):

I love that. And you could even do it while you're brushing your teeth. You know that great book Tiny Habits where one of his main tips was to link a new habit to something else that you already do. So if you're already religious about your teeth, brushing, flossing, all the things and the evening, then you could just tack on spinal hygiene to your dental hygiene right after. So it makes it super easy. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Speaker 3 (34:57):

That's okay. And there are more sp if, if you find during the assessment or if you ever get your spine checked from a doctor that specializes in, especially this corrective technique and like you said, Dr. Karen, we're good at seeing things that other people can't either through x-rays or through this postural analysis. But if you find during your assessment, your self-assessment, that your posture stinks, for lack of a better word, that it's, it's not aligned, your head's in front of your shoulders, your kyphotic or your, you know, your body side to side, one shoulder lower than the other, your head's tipped. There are specific postural exercises, spinal exercises that we would recommend based on your specific needs in the opposite direction to counteract that postural distortion. So unlike exercise, generally, you know, general exercise, we wanna do it bilaterally or if we go in one direction, we wanna do it on the other side of the body.

Speaker 3 (35:55):

Specific. Postural and spinal exercises are different because you have to counteract the position it's already in. So if I'm hunched over, heads forward, we don't wanna do a prolonged exercise where we're doing that, but we're doing an exercise where we're bringing the shoulder blades back, taking the head back, called the full spine exercise breathing. And it's not just a stretch, but it's retraining. Holding that position for five to 10 seconds, starting off at three sets of 10 reps and working your way up to even like 5, 6, 7 sets of 10 reps every day because we have to retrain it. Now you could do that type of exercise if you are at a computer, if you're hunched over, if you're on the couch for 20 to 30 minutes. And it's always good to have a timer on. So, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, another little tip, a timer on at 20 or 30 minutes. So you get up and just do this exercise for like 30 seconds where you're shoulders squeezing your shoulder blades back, taking your head back. That actually helps to increase circulation. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>, which you'll feel. So that's the exercise part of it now.

Speaker 1 (37:00):

Yeah. Well I wanna add in there. Yeah, I just wanna put a plug for yoga. 'cause I always say that the triad is aerobic weight bearing and stretching because the constriction of your joints where the connective tissue starts hardening and getting tighter happens very gradually that you don't even notice it. And then before long, you know, you're having trouble reaching over your head or you can't touch your toes or whatever. And so yoga takes you generally through a lot of these stretches. So I wanna put a plugin for that, but please proceed.

Speaker 3 (37:32):

No, those are exactly the three cardio weight bearing resistance type training and flexibility ability. Absolutely. And it's funny because we'll get into the, with the traction part, eat, we'll talk about that. You said it perfectly. The connective tissues get tense, they get tight and you don't even know what's happening. And, and how do you correct that? So it is an adjustment. So adjusting the spine, which chiropractors are known for, but like I said in the beginning, it's not gonna correct the structure long term. It's gonna give you a jumpstart to a dead battery like I did with my daughter's car this morning. It's going to again give you, get the nerves working again and functioning, but also adjust talks about lifestyle, how you sit, how you stand, how you bend, lift, sleep, how you carry things. Think about your day and the postures that you're in and how you can improve on the postures that you're using.

Speaker 3 (38:27):

The biggest one, which we've mentioned multiple times, is on your phone, on your smartphone. I'm not sure how your phone being down in your lap or your tablet or your, well it's called a laptop. So I guess that's why, how that became the normal positioning to look at your phone. But it's very simple how to correct that, how to adjust the positioning of that. If you're sitting down, make sure your butt is up against the back of the chair of the couch, whatever it is, prop pillows behind you to keep you more upright. And then you can also put pillows or blankets or something on your lap. Rest your elbows on those blankets or pillows on your lap. Bend your elbows in arms to about 90 degrees or more and bring your phone towards, you know, more in front of your face. Definitely in front of, more like the chest area.

Speaker 3 (39:20):

Chest level, not down in your lap. And, have that be the normal position. Have, you know, let's make it so when we see somebody in the flex position looking down at their phone, you know, walking around or standing there waiting for something or at the airport waiting, that, that becomes like the abnormal where it's like, man, that doesn't look very good. Let's, let's lift it up so you can do this. Not just when you're sitting, but when you're standing too. Check your posture with that. So that's the, I will say another lifestyle adjustment. How you bend. It's not all about squatting, but it's more of a, in weightlifting terms, like a deadlift or a hip hint, you want to hinge at the hips when you're, you're bending because we're not always gonna be in a, I wanna say position to squat, but we're not always gonna be squatting. So we need to learn how to use our hips to bend. And I'll give a plug to a great technique called foundation training. It teaches you how to use your hips using this hip pinch. And I explained it in one of my, one of my handouts. But yes, how you hold your phone and how you bend are two huge things that you can adjust in your lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (40:31):

Awesome. Those are super important. We are running out of time, but before we wrap up, and I know you've got some great resources for everyone we wanna share, you mentioned osteoporosis or osteo products, spinal fractures, which are horrific. We don't want anyone here to have those. They're very silent, but they're also very painful and they're devastating because they do decrease your lung capacity. So your ability to breathe and, and oxygenate your tissues and have so many consequences. Can you just talk a little bit about osteoporosis? I can't tell you how many women I come across who have not had osteoporosis screening and they are well beyond the age at which they qualify for that or the medical risk factors that should qualify them and their doctors aren't talking to them about it. So I'm wondering if you could just put a plug in for women to get osteoporosis screening, what that should consist of, who should be getting it and how important it's, well,

Speaker 3 (41:30):

I don't know, like, you know, that's not in my area. I just see a lot of it because of the spine that I, you know, the, the 'cause I've been on the spinal health and because we have to make sure with that, I mean obviously Kevin Ellis is really good at explaining that Margie Bissinger because they deal more with osteoporosis. So look them up obviously. And you are even very well versed in what, when people should be getting checked because as they go through life changes and hormonal changes that affects the bones, that affects the, the, the strength and the density and the mineralization of the bones. But also what I, I like to point out too is I'm gonna take it back to the spine. Osteoporosis will affect the spine, it will affect your posture and that hyper kyphosis, especially if it's weak. So if we're weakening the bones, if we're weakening the bones of the spine, it's gonna cause these micro fractures, it's gonna cause degenerated disc because now there's increased stress on that, it's gonna cause that hunchback.

Speaker 3 (42:30):

So if you're, you know, per menopausal postmenopausal, they need to get that checked. But even more I think it is important to learn these things that you're teaching through nutrition, through detox, through posture, through sleep, all these healthy living practices to help prevent it. Yes, I know it's, it's a big, big story right now. And I think another big reason why osteoporosis is so profound and rampant now is the medications that people are taking. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> the side effects of these. And there's patients who I've talked to that have been on, they were on 20 years of, of prednisone and it's a steroid which weakens the bones 20 years. And those are obviously acute, special, hopefully they're special cases and not the norm because that is just gonna make your bones trash if you have been on medications, that's a, a good benchmark there is, if you've been on medications for a long period of time, it doesn't have to be steroids, it doesn't have to be prednisone.

Speaker 3 (43:31):

Make sure you get your bones checked because of the side effects caused not just the bones but your gut health, which affects how your body can absorb these nutrients. That's for osteoporosis. And I just wanna plug one time here, not a, not a plug, but because the most unique part of this whole eat protocol is the T part is the traction. We have to make sure we are addressing that and possibly using some form of traction similar to how braces are put on teeth to correct the structure. We have to put the spine in a position for a certain period of time, hold it there so the ligaments can reform. Alright? And we can use different towels, different techniques of the guy explain it in the spinal hygiene mini class that they'll have access to. Yes,

Speaker 1 (44:16):

There's so much to talk about it. I know we can't get it all in one show, but we will give them a link which will be in the show notes to share with everyone. And, and I do wanna reiterate, yes, Margie is great about osteoporosis. She's been on the show. So if you miss that episode, go back and listen. If you are a woman over 50, you absolutely should have a dual femur, dual hip DEXA scan to check for osteoporosis. And if you're at increased risk, 'cause you've been on medications like chronic prednisone, there's a whole list of medications that will increase your risk, family history, et cetera, then you wanna get a bone density. So thank you Dr. Ryan for joining us for this essential information to highlight things that we need to be aware of so that we can have great vitality and have an increase in our vitality span, not just our longevity, but how vital and alive we are in those extra years that we're gonna live. Because we do all the things and tell everyone about the spinal hygiene mini class that you have for them. We'll have the link in the show notes and where they can connect with you online.

Speaker 3 (45:20):

Yeah, I mean the spinal hygiene mini class, it's a simple one pager that shows you like what are the like four simple steps you can do to hydrate your body and spine to exercise at which we, we went over here how to, I went into more like how to adjust your lifestyle and went into examples of how to do that and then also the traction part of it, how to use towels, how to use household house, things they have around the house to use your advantage to help correct and support your spine. And then you can always go to dr wolfer.com, D-R-W-O-H-L-F as in Frank, ER t.com and that's where you can find me.

Speaker 1 (46:05):

Awesome. Well, I hope everyone will check Dr. Ryan in those places. Download the guide, add spinal hygiene to some other habit that you're already doing. It just takes a few minutes and enjoys the benefits of improved spinal function, which means improved hormonal balance, improved overall health. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Ryan.

Speaker 3 (46:28):

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (46:29):

And thank you for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. This really is essential information that I don't know, honestly. Is your doctor telling you to take care of your spinal hygiene? I don't think so. So <laugh>, you need to know about this, so I'm glad you're here. One last quote that Dr. Ryan shared with me before we started recording. I'll leave you with for when the one great scorer comes to Mark against your name. He writes, not that you won or lost, but how you played the game. That's from Grant Lynn Rice. So how will you play the game with the information that you get? What do you do with it? Do you want to know and keep it moving? Or do you go, nice to know. I'm gonna see how I can implement this in my life. I look forward to hearing what you do with this information on social media. So reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook at Kyrin Dunston md. Hope you have a great week. I'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all. Thank you so much for

Speaker 2 (47:28):

Listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Get Dr. Ryan Wohlfert's 1-Page Spinal Hygiene MiniClass: Learn Simple Solutions to Hydrate, Move & Support Your Spine, Maintain Healthy Postures, and Live a Pain-Free, Active Life:

CLICK HERE https://drwohlfert.com/spinalhygiene/

 

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

Dr. Kyrin Dunston | LAVA-What Self-Love Really Means And Looks Like In 2024

In this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Kyrin Dunston opens a heartfelt discussion about understanding and embodying self-love in the year 2024.

If you're a midlife woman navigating the often tumultuous waves of hormonal change, sit back and tune in to a conversation that dives into the essence of caring deeply for oneself. It's more than skin-deep - it's a five-sensory journey towards being symptom free and realizing your full potential.

Main Topics Discussed:

• Vision of Being Symptom Free: Dr. Kyrin encourages us to craft a vivid, multi-sensory vision of wellness. Imagine a life where every day sings with vitality.
• Finding Your 'Why': It isn't just about wanting to improve certain aspects of our health; it's about digging deep and finding the real reasons driving our pursuit of well-being.
• Navigating Relationships: Learn how intimate connections factor into self-love, and why nourishing these relationships - especially with ourselves - is crucial.
• Harnessing Universal Forces: This episode reveals how to tap into the universal force for miraculous results, guiding listeners from hormonal poverty to prosperity.
• Decision as the First Step: Drawing inspiration from JP Morgan's wise words, Dr. Kyrin explores the power of decision-making in initiating transformation.

In an extraordinary moment, a listener shares her personal story in a mini coaching session with Dr. Kyrin - a testament to the power of vulnerability and clarity in the journey towards true self-love and hormonal balance.

Remember, the choice to improve your life is in your hands, and as JP Morgan stated, "The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." Make that bold decision today!

🎧 Listen to the full episode for a deeper dive into self-love and what it truly means to live a fulfilled life in the heart of midlife. Discover how to chart your course out of midlife metabolic mayhem and step into a world where hormone prosperity is your new normal.

"Don't linger in the shadows of hormonal confusion. Let's illuminate the path to a vibrant, symptom-free life together. Your journey to hormone bliss awaits!"

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

There's a force in the universe, which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results. Mahatma Gandhi, find out how to produce miraculous results with your hormones and your health in your life. Now stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (00:16):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:10):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk about how to produce miraculous results in your life with your hormones and your health so that you can get on with the business of living and live joyfully and produce miraculous results in your life. In the last episode, I started with the teaser with a quote from JP Morgan about the first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. And then I totally forgot that that's what I started with and never came back to that we started about talking about shrinking the size of your butt if you wanna reach your goals. So I'm gonna revisit this quote from JP Morgan because if you take no action and you don't change anything, guess what? Nothing changes. And in this solo series I've been talking about how do you change and go from hormonal poverty and the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem to hormonal prosperity, getting into your genes off the couch and back into life?

Speaker 1 (02:14):

Because if you're, listen, listening to my show on a regular basis, I'm guessing that you're struggling with some aspect of your health and that you think or know it's related to your hormones, your midlife metabolism, and that you're tired of being sick and tired of that. You want something different and better for your life. I don't know, just, just an inkling that that's why you're here and you're hoping you're gonna learn something that you can use. Maybe you're searching Dr. Google, you're listening to my pod podcast, lots of other podcasts, reading blogs, and you're trying to find answers. You know, I was talking with the women in my Hormone bliss challenge last night during our live class on Zoom about where did we women get this idea that we have to fix our health problems ourself, because it's kind of insane. I mean, I know we're in this age of information, right?

Speaker 1 (03:06):

That's the age we're in. We can have a million Google hits on our question. Like when I got back from my 18 months of travel, I went to pick my car up from storage and it was filled with water. And what was the first thing I did was I googled my make and model. Why is my car filled with water <laugh>? Because I'm like, I have to figure this out myself. So I think because we're in the age of information and you can figure so many things out for yourself, that we've really now been trained that we go to Google first before or whatever your browser tool is to search for the answer. And there are lots of things we can solve for ourselves. Like I Googled this morning, why is my Gmail running slow <laugh>, right? So I get answers and then I can fix it.

Speaker 1 (03:58):

And then I immediately found it on YouTube telling me why my make and model of car might have water in it. And I also immediately knew I cannot do this myself. I need an expert. And so I found an expert local mechanic and took it to him and he looked at it and fixed it and addressed it. But why, when it comes to our our health, do we women have this idea that we need to fix it ourselves? And so the women in the challenge, what started me on this, on their homework, I was reviewing and they were detailing all the hours, time, money, energy, the, and attention they had spent on trying to fix their health problems themselves. And so we had got into this really rich discussion about why do we think that? And it was really around because there's so much information out there because a lot of health coaches put them cells out as hormone experts.

Speaker 1 (04:49):

So the, the number, sheer number of experts sharing information on the quote unquote experts sharing information on the internet is huge. And there's so much information and a lot of people make it sound like, oh yeah, you can do this yourself and or I can help you. And you don't need someone with those credentials that might be more expensive, more time consuming, more costly. And the consequence is that these women, after years and years of trying feel frustrated, disillusioned, hopeless, maybe you can identify because they haven't gotten the results 'cause they've been trying to fix it themselves or with the help of people who really weren't qualified. So yes, this quote, the first step of get to getting somewhere is to decide you're not gonna stay where you are. I decided I wasn't gonna stay with a car filled with water. I knew I wasn't the one to fix it.

Speaker 1 (05:38):

So I took it to a mechanic and they fixed it. You've got to decide you were sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. And that you're going to take the steps. And if you want the results that you are seeking, you need to find a qualified expert who can help you, who has a proven track record of being able to fix the problem that you have and not discount yourself and your value and your worth, and go to people who really can't help you. And then you get to this quote that I shared with you at the beginning of this episode. There is a force in the universe which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results. That is from the Hot Ma Gandhi. And there really is. So in in the hormonal challenge that we're going through now with some beautiful women experiencing some beautiful results and insights, I talk about the fact that everything is created twice.

Speaker 1 (06:32):

And maybe you've never thought about that. Have you ever thought about the fact that everything is created twice? When I say that to people initially, they usually say, what do you mean? So let's see, my cell phone is sitting in front of me, I'm picking it up on the counter. Somebody had to come up with a concept of a cell phone right Back when we only had rotary phones. You remember those rotary phones? Remember <laugh>? And then we got the push button phones. So we had the rotary phones in our house. The only place you could talk on the phone was in your house. And if you're lucky, maybe you had two phones, right? So in my house, we had one in the kitchen, and then later on my mother got one in her room. So two phones, I couldn't walk in the park and talk on the phone.

Speaker 1 (07:14):

I certainly couldn't answer my email. There was no email at that time from the park, right? Somebody had to come up with this concept and believe that it was possible to make it and then design it and get all the people in line to create it. And now look, our whole world is transformed because we basically have a personal computer in our pocket that has the processing capacity. I remember when I was in high school, I went to a specialized science high school. I was selected to do a computer programming course at NYU. And so I actually got to take a computer, computer programming course when I was in high school, the computers that we worked with were as big as an entire room, probably 40 by 60 feet, y'all. It was huge. And we had to to program on these punch cards that we would punch these little divots and cards kind of like some voter cards are.

Speaker 1 (08:08):

And then we would have to stack them all up and put them in a processor in the computer that would select these cards sequentially and integrate them into the system. I mean, it was insane what we had to go through. And now the phone that I carry around in my pocket has processing capacity that far exceeds that. That huge ginormous computer. Somebody had to come up with this. And think of it, everything is created twice your health. Likewise, everything in nature is created twice. So first, all the plants and animals that you see were created in the mind of whatever your belief system is, God, nature, the universe, some power greater than me is all I know thought this up and created it. Your health is created the same way. So you have to have a vision for what your health is going to look like.

Speaker 1 (08:58):

And that's something I have everyone do in all my programs. A vision of being symptom free. What does it look like? What do you experience every day? What do you hear people saying to you about you? What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you see? What do you feel? So it has to be five sensory, and that's what informs that force in the universe that if we permit it will flow through us to produce miraculous results. But more than anything, we've gotta have a why. And so that's another thing I was really going into detail about yesterday. It's not necessarily knowing what you want for your health, because if you stop any woman in the street and you ask her, what do you want to change for your health? She can tell you, I wanna lose 30 pounds. I'd like my vision to be better so I don't have to use reading glasses.

Speaker 1 (09:47):

I'd like a better sex drive because I'd like to be more intimate and connected to my partner. I'd like my hair to start growing thicker because I'm losing hair and it's thinning. She can run that down. Is she gonna accomplish that goal? No. Why? Because what really matters is why she wants the things she wants. That's what determines what we will succeed with in our lives of any goals that we have. Because you asked that woman that she just told you and she walks, continues walking down the street going about her day. Is she gonna accomplish those goals? No, because they have no meaning. And we haven't gotten to the why she wants it. Now, if you tell her why, which is what I find with a lot of women, if you ask them, why do you want that? And they just tell you, oh, 'cause I'd like to fit in my jeans.

Speaker 1 (10:35):

Oh, because I just, you know, felt better when I had better sex and energy. That's not really getting to the why. So that's what we were talking about last night. And one woman volunteered to kind of do a little mini coaching on the spot with me. She was agreed to be very vulnerable, which I appreciate. And we really dug deep into why is it important for her to have a better sex drive? And when she knew she got to the why is when we got to the tiers, that's when you know you've gotten to your why, because she and her partner are kind of living as roommates, disconnected, not being seen, not being heard, not being connected, not having that connection, that healthy sexual intimacy affords you in a relationship that they used to have. And she got into an intimate relationship because she wanted that high level of being seen, being truly seen, being truly known, being truly connected and witnessed in this lifetime.

Speaker 1 (11:33):

And she said, he'll never leave me. I know that, but I don't wanna live an unfulfilled relationship in my life and not experience what's truly possible for me. And I know that healthy sexual intimacy is part of that. And she started crying because she got in touch with the fact that if she doesn't do something, she might never experience what's possible for her and her relationship that's getting to your why. So in order to harness the force in the universe that will flow through you and produce miraculous results, get you from hormonal poverty and out of midlife metabolic mayhem into hormonal prosperity, you've gotta get really honest with yourself. Not only about the what you want, but why you want it without it. Like I shared with you that Dr. Carrie Jones said, if you wanna reach your goals, you must shrink the size of your butt.

Speaker 1 (12:23):

Your butt will be so big and you'll have so many reasons why you can't. I don't know the time, I don't know the money, I don't know the bandwidth, it doesn't matter. I'll deal with it later. My partner really doesn't care 'cause they're not talking about it. All the things. And I'm talking about all the symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, 60 plus symptoms. You know what I'm talking about? Overweight, tired, hair loss, digestive issues, mood problems, memory problems, skin problems, headaches, migraines. You know the list. You're not going to get out of it. Don't be like the doctor friend of mine who was a general surgeon at the hospital when I practiced regular OB, GYN, who I used to see all the time. And then when I stopped going to the hospital, 'cause I started really helping women get healthy and stay away from the hospital.

Speaker 1 (13:12):

I didn't see her for years. And then the health food store would I regularly frequented to get supplements and healthy food and interact with people. I one day saw her in there after years and I said, what are you doing here? I've never seen you in here. She said, oh, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and I had a colectomy and I'm undergoing, I can't remember if it was chemo, radiation or both. And now I'm here looking for supplements that can help me. Don't be like her. I thought it was so sad. I, I of course you know, said, I'm so sorry that you're having to deal with that and I'm glad that you're here. But my thought after leaving and seeing her was, what if she had been in this health food store 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, looking for things about how she could balance her hormones and lead to optimal health and wellbeing and hormone balance and hormone prosperity so that she could prevent things like cancers that one and two of us will get in our lifetime.

Speaker 1 (14:06):

But the data's clear that we have a reduced risk risk if we're in hormonal prosperity of getting cancer. What if she had taken the time, money, energy to take care of this and been proactive earlier because I know she was having symptoms 'cause she used to share with me that she was tired and not feeling like herself and I could see that she was overweight. What if she had taken care of it? Then maybe she wouldn't have had to have colon cancer. I don't know. I don't want that to be you. I don't want that to be you. So I really would love you to take the hormone poverty quiz. If you haven't already done that, join me for the Hormone Bliss Challenge so you can learn the steps that you need to take to get from hormonal poverty to hormone prosperity so that you can reverse the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem and enjoy your life and feel great and produce miraculous results.

Speaker 1 (14:59):

The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. JP Morgan said it, and it's the truth. No decision, no results. Decision comes from the root de sre, which is Latin to cut away from. To make a decision means you take a stand for your life and you cut away from all other possibilities and you say, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get out of hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity. You make a decision de re and you cut away from all other possibilities and then you go in the direction of your dreams. And there's another quote about when you take steps in the direction of your dreams that the universe conspires to make them happen. So I hope you will harness the power of that. You can do that in many ways. I will help you.

Speaker 1 (15:49):

I'm here for you. You can join our Hormone Bliss challenge the next time it launches. Go to Hormone Bliss Challenge and get on the waiting list so you'll be the first to be notified when it opens again in this month of self-love, we have a 20% joiners fee going on, 20% off the joiners fee going on for her hormone club. You'll hear the coupon code in one of the ads running during the podcast. Go to her hormone club.com and use that coping coupon code, coupon code to join as a member and get a prescription for bioidentical hormones throughout the US from the comfort of your own home and have hormones mailed to you. Our board certified doctors who are specialists in bioidentical hormones will consult with you, do the testing and get you the prescription that you need to get out out of hormonal poverty.

Speaker 1 (16:39):

So the question to you is, are you gonna make 2024 the year that you take a stand for yourself and you take action? Or are you gonna make this another year that you don't pay attention to yourself? The choice is up to you. I can offer the tools, but it's up to you if you wanna pick them up and use them to transform your life. I'd be happy to. I hope you will join me and hope you've enjoyed this episode and you've been inspired to take action. 'cause That's what it was all about. Until next week and next episode, peace, love, and Hormones,

Speaker 2 (17:14):

Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

Dr. Kyrin Dunston | How To Get To Hormonal Prosperity And Bliss

Welcome to "The Hormone Prescription Podcast," where we navigate the tumultuous waves of midlife with grace, humor, and a lot of knowledge. In this episode, "How To Get To Hormonal Prosperity And Bliss," our host, Dr. Kyrin Dunston, takes us on an insightful journey out of hormonal poverty and into a realm of wellbeing and joy.

🌟 Key Takeaways:

• 2 million women a year in the United States enter menopause, joining the 50 million already experiencing it. This isn't a niche; it's a significant portion of our population that's often overlooked by mainstream medicine.
• Personal Journey of Transformation: Dr. Kyrin shares her compelling transformation from weighing 243 pounds and battling numerous health issues, to discovering a new path of health and vitality. This personal revolution fuels her dedication to helping women navigate menopause with more support and less suffering.
• Listen to the Whispers: Through touching stories and eye-opening insights, Dr. Kyrin emphasizes the importance of paying attention to our bodies' subtle signals before they turn into insurmountable health problems.
• Hormone Bliss Challenge: Dr. Kyrin discusses the ongoing Hormone Bliss challenge, a space where women share their vulnerabilities and learn to transition from enduring to thriving. Their stories resonate with a powerful message: You're not alone.

📚 Episode Highlights:

• The Underserved Majority: Dr. Dunston sheds light on the vast number of women in menopause who are navigating this stage with insufficient guidance from the healthcare system they trust.
• A Turning Point: Reflecting on her health crisis, Dr. Kyrin underlines the moment of realization that led her to seek and advocate for better solutions, embodying Maya Angelou's philosophy, "When you know better, you do better."
• The Power of Vulnerability: By sharing honest stories from participants in the Hormone Bliss challenge, Dr. Kyrin reveals the hidden struggles many women face, masked by a smile and a "put-together" appearance.

💡 Inspirational Insights:

• Don't Wait for the Boulder: Dr. Kyrin wisely notes that waiting for a severe diagnosis to take action is like waiting for a boulder to hit you. Heeding the "whispers" early on can prevent much suffering and lead to a more fulfilling life.
• Mistakes as Lessons: Highlighting the importance of learning from past attempts at healing, Dr. Kyrin encourages listeners to view mistakes as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.

🌺 Join the Journey:

Are you ready to step into hormonal prosperity and bliss? Whether you're tiptoeing in hesitancy or ready to leap into action, this episode serves as a lighthouse, guiding you to safer shores where your well-being is the priority.

Don't continue to silently suffer or navigate this alone. Dr. Kyrin Dunston's expertise and compassionate approach offer a beacon of hope and practical steps forward.

Dive into this episode filled with not just expert advice but heartwarming empathy and actionable strategies that could change the trajectory of your health journey. Say yes to the vibrant life awaiting you beyond hormonal poverty.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. JP Morgan, find out how to get out of hormonal poverty and midlife metabolic mayhem by getting to hormone bliss in this episode. Up next.

Speaker 2 (00:16):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:10):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me as we dive more into healing, hormonal poverty, healing, midlife metabolic mayhem, and getting to hormonal prosperity so that you can get back into your genes off the couch and back into life. Do you wanna do that? Yeah, sounds good. I know you do. So that's why I am recording this second episode in this series of three solo episodes for you. I know I usually have a guess, but I thought we would switch it up a little. 'cause I know many of you have reached out. You're looking for help and guidance. So I wanted to kind of give you the concrete, concrete steps you need to take to get out of hormonal poverty. Not sure if that's you. Definitely take my hor poverty quiz. We'll have a link in the show notes so you can kind of get an idea.

Speaker 1 (02:02):

Hmm, am I in a, could I be in hormonal poverty? Could that be the cause of my symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem? For those of you who aren't familiar with that, that's the 60 or plus symptoms that you can have from hormonal poverty. And hormonal poverty doesn't just mean menopause, it can start in perimenopause. It can be in your twenties and your thirties. You can have it at any age, but just like financial poverty is when you don't have the financial resources to meet your living needs. Hormonal poverty is when you don't have the hormonal resources to meet your body's needs because every cell, every system in the body depends on your hormones, your seven main metabolic hormones to function properly. So yes, it's your female hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but also your other metabolic drivers, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, and DHEA. Those are the seven hormones we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (02:55):

So last time I talked to you about really what is the problem, so I just wanna rephrase that. We talked about the planned obsolescence of your ovaries starting at age 35 where you're only born with so many eggs and it's your eggs that mainly make your main female hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and half of your testosterone. And you start getting a lower number of eggs. And these eggs in your ovaries are not very high functioning by the time you reach 35. Yep, 35. And it's kind of downhill from there until most women, average age of 51, have no more eggs. And that's called menopause. So that means hormonal production of estrogen, progesterone, and half of your testosterone ceases at that age. So most women in menopause are definitely in hormonal poverty, but it usually starts around the age of 35 if not sooner. So this affects most of us and if we live long enough, it will affect all of us.

Speaker 1 (03:58):

2 million women a year in the United States go into menopause and we have 50 million women in menopause currently in the United States. So we're not talking about a small number of people and we're really underserved by the mainstream medical establishment because of the training and the way it's developed that I participated in for several decades until I knew better. And like Maya Angelou says, when you know better, you do better. So now I know better, so I do better, but I know you're not getting the answers that you want and need in your regular doctor's office. It's not their fault. They're good people and they care. They're just doing what they were trained to do. Like I used to do that. I was trained, but then when my own health suffered and I weighed 243 pounds and had myriad health problems like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and hair loss, no sex drive, gastritis, depression, anxiety, then I found a new path.

Speaker 1 (04:55):

And that's what I work with women on because I pledge to spend the rest of my life teaching other women about this and guiding them towards health and wholeness if it worked. And I used it and it worked for sure. And that was almost 15 years ago. Now we talked, we had some quotes from some of my podcasts, former podcast guests. I love this one from Jen Simmons. There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health, right? But should we really need to have a bolder drop into our lives and get a cancer diagnosis or an autoimmune diagnosis in order to stop and pay attention and take care of our health? I really hope not. Why? If we listen to the whispers, we don't have to get boulders. 'cause I find that the universe will, when you don't listen to the whispers, will just up its ante and start throwing pebbles, then rocks and then you'll get a bolt dropped into your life.

Speaker 1 (05:47):

And that's the cancer diagnosis or the autoimmune diagnosis or the dementia diagnosis that you really never wanted. So better to pay attention now and do something about it. So what are the steps you need to take to get to hormonal prosperity and bliss? Well, I invited some of you, well all of you actually who are on my email list to join me for the Hormone Bliss challenge that is currently ongoing. We've got a bunch of women in there who are really suffering. I was reading through their worksheet ex homework exercises last night and it really touched my heart to see when people get a private audience with me, how honest and open and vulnerable they are about what they're really dealing with. I know you put lipstick on and you comb your hair and you put a smile on your face and you go out every day and you put your bests face forward and you're trying to show and look like you're really doing okay.

Speaker 1 (06:43):

But I also know that you're suffering inside. Maybe some of you don't even realize how much you're suffering because it happens so slowly over such a long period of time that you don't even realize the things that are wrong that you're not paying attention to anymore. Or the degree to which they're wrong. So you know, how do you boil a frog in hot water? You just turn the heat up slowly and that it doesn't even realize that it's getting boiled and it doesn't have time to jump out because it happened so slowly where if you tried to drop it into boiling water, it would jump out. So if, if I took you from when you were optimally healthy to where you are now and dropped you in there, you'd probably start screaming and go, I can't live this. Alright. But because it's happened so slowly over so many years or maybe even decades, you don't even really realize it.

Speaker 1 (07:33):

So reading the homework assignments, I really saw that the pain that people are in, the things that they've tried that haven't worked, how many doctors they've been to, how many programs they've tried, how all the programs you've tried, all the providers you've been to, all the supplements you've tried, testing you've done, it's exhausting, right? So much time and energy and money wasted and not really a lot of results. And some, a lot of them said in their homework that they wish they had gone to someone who actually had the credentials and experience to help 'em. They were just trying to save money by going to people who are less costly. And the results they got actually showed that these people didn't have the expertise to help them. And it really, it hurts my heart because it's just amazing sometimes that we don't value our health as our number one value and we don't spend our time, money, and attention there and then we suffer.

Speaker 1 (08:30):

And then usually when it's too late, then we are willing to stop and spend the time, attention, money, and invest in our health. So I really saw that in the homework and it wore my heart. So we got a lot of people in the hormone list challenge and a lot of them are gonna go on to our midlife metabolism rescue program and get that hands-on help. So that's what I wanted to talk to you about. What are those steps? I take you through those steps in the Hormone Bliss Challenge. This is the first one we've run in over a year and I'm not sure when the next one will be, but I certainly hope you will get on the waiting list. So you can be one of the first to know when we run it. Again, you can go to hormone bliss challenge.com and sign up for the waiting list.

Speaker 1 (09:14):

So you'll be the first to be notified because we do limit membership in that program when we do launch it. So I will teach you the actual steps that you need to go through in that program. A lot of people have significant change just in seven days with the transformative steps that I offer. And I love, I wanna share some quotes from some of my former podcast members. And this one is from Deb Matthew. Eventually people will learn that mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating from Dr. Deb Matthew in North Carolina. One of my good friends who does work similar to what I do. You can see her episode in the podcast, archives, mistakes Over Learning, not repeating. If you've tried something over and over again, you've tried changing your diet, you've tried eliminating gluten and that didn't help. You've tried an X supplement and that didn't help.

Speaker 1 (10:09):

And you've tried one-shot Wonders and you've tried working with So-called health coaches who didn't have the credentials or experience to help you. Don't repeat it. If it doesn't work, just stop. Right? Mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating. And she has this other quote that's a corollary to that you can't make the same mistake twice the second time. It's not a mistake, it's a choice. So, you know, one thing that's helped me in my life is asking myself, if I have repeated a so-called mistake, why did I make that choice to repeat that mistake? And I'm not perfect y'all. I make mistakes all the time, right? None of us is perfect, we're human. So we're living this human journey. And I do believe that it's all about learning how to be a better human, how to be a better us. I do believe we're each unique in the gifts and struggles that we are faced with in this lifetime.

Speaker 1 (11:03):

And I believe that our goal is to work through our struggles so that we can turn them into gifts so that we can show others the way. So I went to medical school to get the biggest toolbox so that I could help women with their health. And then when I got there, did I help a lot of women? Yes, I delivered a lot of babies. I did a lot of pap smears and helped a lot of women. But when my own health suffered and I saw that my patient's health was suffering at midlife and I saw, hmm, this isn't working right. Did I make a mistake going to medical school? No. Did I keep doing what I had been doing that wasn't helping me and helping my patients? No. I stopped and made another choice. And that choice was to find the answers and keep digging.

Speaker 1 (11:47):

And I found the answers of root cause resolution medicine. So I went and got trained and it transformed my health and then helped other women to transform their health. And so this is really the journey I've been on and I want to give a call to you to stop making choices, to make the same mistakes and make different choices for yourself so that you can get different outcomes. And it might start with doing the hormone boost challenge. It might start with reaching out 'cause you wanna consult with me, we're now doing that. Or maybe you, you're like, I know that I have sex hormone poverty or flex hormone poverty as I call it, and coined the phrase in my TEDx talk a couple years ago. And I wanna get out of hormonal poverty and I want a prescription for natural bioidentical medicines from the comfort of my own home via Zoom consulting with a physician and the hormones mailed to my inbox.

Speaker 1 (12:40):

So we're offering a sale that we've never offered before and won't offer again on her hormone club membership. 20% off, we've never done that. Won't do it again, but it's for this month of self-love. So if you know that's you and you're ready to get started, you can go to listen to the ads on this commercial that are running while the sale's running this month and go to her hormone club.com and use that coupon code to enter and join us and start working at least on your sex hormones in the Hormone Bliss Challenge. We help you not only with your sex hormones, but your other main metabolic drivers that I mentioned. So my other podcast guest, Dr. Carrie Jones, said, if you want to reach your goals, you must shrink the size of your butt. And that's not your BUTT in your jeans, that's your BUT.

Speaker 1 (13:34):

That means your excuses. And I know you've got every excuse why your health is not your, not your number one priority. I don't have the time. I don't know the money, I don't have the bandwidth. It's not that important. I'll take care of it when X happens, when I retire, when the kids leave and go to college, right? It's not that big an issue. My partner really doesn't care if we have sexual intimacy. They don't ever mention it anymore. If you're saying that to yourself, you're lying to yourself. So we've all got our butts. Some of our butts are bigger than others, pun intended. But you gotta shrink the size of your butt if you wanna reach your goals. So in order to get from hormonal prosperity and out of midlife metabolic mayhem and get to hormonal prosperity, get your genes off the couch and back into life, shrink the size of your butt.

Speaker 1 (14:24):

Join us for the challenge. Join us at our hormone club. Join us for one of my other many programs that are designed to transform your health, transform your life so that you can finally find the answers that you've been seeking. I look for you there and really enjoy working with you personally and helping you to transform your health in your life. Thank you so much for joining me in this show. I will see you next week for another one or maybe in a couple days 'cause I think I gotta be a week or two behind there with the podcast. So we're catching up and please reach out and join me 'cause you need help now, not later. And till next week, peace, love, and hormones y'all.

Speaker 2 (15:11):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

---

Remember, "The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." Your journey to hormonal prosperity and bliss begins with this empowering episode.

 

Dr. Elliot Justin | Why Your Partner’s ED Is Essential To Address And How

Is your relationship navigating the choppy waters of midlife? Then you are not alone. In this week's deep dive on "The Hormone Prescription Podcast," we unpack the conversations you need to have but might be dreading. This episode, we tackle erectile dysfunction (ED) head-on with the formidable Dr. Elliot Justin. Let's not skirt around the issue—the man in your life's ED affects both of you deeply. It's essential to address it not just for his well-being, but for yours and your relationship's health.

Dr. Justin strides into the studio with an awe-inspiring list of credentials: urologist, innovative thinker, and couples' counselor extraordinaire, renowned for bringing new perspectives to midlife challenges. Today, he shares the collective wisdom garnered from years at the forefront of men's health and intimate relationships.

Midlife can feel like a carnival of changes and curveballs. But when the elephant in the room is ED, that jovial atmosphere quickly transforms into a solo tightrope walk. Dr. Justin encourages us to transform this walk into a joint tightrope act, one that strengthens your bond and navigates the complexities of progesterone to performance.

About Dr. Elliot Justin:

ELLIOT JUSTIN, MD, FACEP, is the CEO and Founder of FirmTech, the first sex tech company dedicated to improving men’s erectile fitness. He has a background in Emergency Medicine and healthcare technology consulting. Dr. Justin is also a serial healthcare entrepreneur, having founded and sold Pegasus Emergency Group and Swift MD. He has provided guidance to various services, telemedicine, and tech startups. Dr. Justin pursued Slavic Studies at Harvard University and studied medicine at Boston University. Happily married for 35 years, and father of three children, Elliot and Ann live in Montana with three energetic mares and a flock of chickens

So, what can you expect to uncover in this eye-opening chat?

• Insights You Can’t Afford to Ignore: Understand just how much ED can influence your daily life, and how to navigate these changes with grace.
• The Expert’s Plan for Partnership: Dr. Justin’s wealth of knowledge and experience is distilled into practical strategies to face the ED challenge as a team.
• Innovative Approaches to Speak Up and Heal: Discover modern ways to approach ED—no more outdated stigmas, only up-to-date solutions.
• Communication is Key to Connection: Learn the importance of open and honest conversation, and some powerful dialogue strategies for building bridges.
• Success Stories that Give Hope: Real-life experiences and victories will inspire you on your own journey through midlife.

This episode bears all, from tender anecdotes to strategic wisdom, and catapults us into a space where ED isn't just a problem to overcome, but a journey to undertake together.

So gather your wits and your earbuds—this one’s going to shake up the midlife conversation in all the best ways. Tune into "The Hormone Prescription Podcast" now. And remember, don't just listen—subscribe, review, and transform the narrative of midlife with us.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

“What goes up does not have to come down until you're ready.” Dr. Elliot. Justin, stay tuned to find out why your partner's ED is essential to address and how.

Speaker 2 (00:12):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:05):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the topic of erectile dysfunction for men. You know, it's kind of interesting that, you know, we women actually get erections of our clitoris. It's really a mini penis and most women aren't aware of that. And if you are not getting erections, that's something that needs to be addressed. I think we dive into this in this episode. In the interview we talk a little bit about this. He calls it something else for women, but for men and women, it really can be a sign of larger health issues, particularly related to your cardiac function, to your heart that can be lethal. So it's something you need to pay attention to. A lot of guys don't talk to their doctors about this issue because they're embarrassed and really, yeah, those days are over.

Speaker 1 (02:02):

You need to start talking to your doctors about your sex. You just do. It's imperative. Your sex is not separate from <laugh>. Your total function, your liver function, your hormone function, your brain function, your gastrointestinal digestive function, your heart cardiac function, your sex is an essential part of your body, of who you are, how you function, your vitality. We get into that in this episode. Dr. Justin is on the same page with me. So if your doctor is ignoring your sexuality and not talking to you about it, it's time that you brought it up and demand to have it addressed and also for your partner. But I know that we women sometimes play that role for the men in our lives to be the one to help them get over themselves and talk about this with their doctor. So we're gonna talk about how to do that in this episode and more.

Speaker 1 (02:57):

Dr. Justin is not only a physician who's treated many, many patients, but he's a researcher, he's a developer, and he, like me, is always thinking about how we can serve people better? How can we help them live healthier, happier, longer lives? So I think you're gonna love Dr. Justin as much as I love talking to him. Just note, this is an explicit interview. So we do say some words that you might not want your kiddos to hear. So if you don't want them to hear it, you might wanna switch to a different episode and listen to this when you are in privacy. Just a note and I'll tell you a little about Dr. Justin. Then we'll get started. So, Dr. Elliot, Justin is a medical doctor fellow and CEO of the founder of Firm Tech. It's the first sex tech company dedicated to improving men's erectile fist fitness. Most sex companies are just sex toy companies, but this is a tech company to improve erectile fitness. He has a background in emergency med and healthcare technology consulting, and he is a serial healthcare entrepreneur, like I said, always developing things to help people live better lives. And he founded and sold multiple companies and provided guidance to various services. And he's just an all around badass who loves helping people. So I think you're gonna enjoy this episode. Without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Elliot Justin to the show.

Speaker 3 (04:31):

Thanks. I welcome the opportunity to speak.

Speaker 1 (04:32):

Yeah. I'm really excited to have you on because you and I both know that men are not talking to their doctors about their erectile difficulties, their sexual difficulties, or low libido, all the problems they're having in the bedroom. We know that they, there are women, female partners are aware, and therefore we're really the ones that need the information. So if you're a woman listening, listen up, because really, I always say that erectile dysfunction could save a man's life, and we're gonna talk about that and you're probably scratching your head going, how could that save a man's life? But I wanna start by, I could explain that, know you have a background. Yeah, we'll get to that. You have a background in emergency medicine and healthcare technology. So what got you interested in diving deeper into the subject of men's sexuality and erectile dysfunction and men's sexual health?

Speaker 3 (05:34):

Well, my background, I'm an emergency medicine physician, and since 2015, my, I've been doing medical technology. That's how I got to this as an emergency medicine doctor, I can assure you that's short of a heart attack or a stroke. There are a few emergencies I could concern a man as much as a lip dick. So this is something that's of, of, you know, of vital importance to men, both their self-esteem and their health. I got involved in this. I was actually working on a very complicated catheter to regulate blood pressure after a stroke. A urologist heard what I was doing and said, I see you've done some research with neuromodulation of erectile function, which I had a neuromodulation for. We mean placing electrodes by a nerve and nerves. The paradigm for that is cardiac pacemaker that controls your heart, your heart, even have to even after you're dead.

Speaker 3 (06:17):

My thought was if we can control sexuality, the impact on, on, on an aging population would be enormous. I will say that project failed. I tried to neuromodulation the cous nerve, which everyone's favorite nerve no has heard about. Suppose the nerve that's responsible produce orgasms in men or women. We try it out on, on some, on some sheep. And actually, and on myself. We, we to no effect. I actually don't think that we know how orgasms are produced. It's very complicated. Well, oddly, even more complicated than, than the heart. So this urologist came to me about in 2015 and said, I wanna count the number nocturnal erection, not two, excuse me, came me three years ago, 2020, and said, I wanna count the number of nocturnal erections that are leading indicator of mass cardiovascular health. And I said, really? I know, I know anything about it.

Speaker 3 (07:03):

I, you know, I mean, everyone knows about morning wood. We poke up partners where it, we made, we laugh about it. But a healthy man has three to five nocturnal erections per night. And if that number goes down, it's a sign of an impending heart attack or stroke. So it's not just an association. Blood take, taking a blood high blood pressure is associated with stroke and heart attack. Declined number of nocturnal reactions is actually a leading indicator. It's predictive. So that I thought, gee, that could be enormous as an emergency medicine doctor. But a, that's another vital sign and a vital sign that would be much more compelling to men probably than any other than the other, other vital signs. And we live in this age of healthcare wearables for pretty much everything except for sex. And what do men, frankly, women care more about?

Speaker 3 (07:43):

How many steps they took yesterday or their calorie count or this or this or, or their sexual health. And that's, you know, that's a, that's a rhetoric, rhetoric question for most people. So the numbers are enormous, as you indicated earlier. I mean, 50% of men by age 50 have erectile dysfunction. It's even higher for women. And why is it higher for women? Because postmenopausal women lose their hormonal protection against heart disease. So postmenopausal women have all the same problems that men deal with. Diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, auto attacks, et cetera. But premenopausal women take SSR antidepressants and they take hormones all which have, both of which have a significant impact upon their sexual performance as a health. So with d with data, we give people data. We can now transform the quality of, of, of, of health, of healthcare. We can transform how things are managed.

Speaker 3 (08:35):

'Cause There's a cliche, if you can track it, you can hack it. So right now, when it comes to sexual health, doctors just really just have opinions. If I go, I'm 70 years old. If I went to a urologist or a sexologist right now and said, I like where my, where my sexual health is right now. I can perform every day. My wife and I are happy, but I wanna keep it there. What can ha what can you tell me? Or I told him, you know, I'm having, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm struggling getting erections. They can wave an ultrasound over my, over my penis in the office, but I'm not getting aroused. I'm not finding out what I really wanna know, which is what's happening when I'm trying to, trying to perform. So if we can give people data, they can then measure the impact of diseases, medications, diet, self effects, all these claims that are made and see what works for them.

Speaker 1 (09:18):

Yeah. You know, you, you've made so many great points in that. I just wanna go back and highlight a couple of them. Sure. So number one is that most women don't realize that erectile dysfunction is a problem for women. Women, yes. We get erections, ladies, right? 'cause Our clitoris is a small penis and they do get erect with sexual arousal. And that we women just write off that we're not getting aroused. We don't have orgasms as, oh, it's only a pleasure problem. But it's not just like for men, like you said, it's a leading indicator for cardiac disease. It is a leading indicator for cardiac disease and hormonal poverty for you ladies. So I just wanna highlight that because I think that's essential. But now I wanna go back. So this is great. Okay. That you, you really saw that there was a need for this. And you probably recognize men aren't gonna go to the doctor for this. They're not gonna talk about it. And so you started looking at ways that they could actually measure this themselves, right?

Speaker 3 (10:22):

Correct. Well, the doctors are really ignorant about this. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I'll, I'll give you two examples in, I was approached by Dr. Hot Hotel and professor of urology at University of Utah to count the nerve nocturnal erections. And he wanted to embed sensors into a device like a condom ring that had six mm-Hmm. But it would have six times the elasticity of the condom ring. And I looked at this device and said, well, that's not gonna work because condom rings break. So have he been a urologist unaware of the fact that this piece of common technology is actually vulnerable to breaking also condom rings can rotate, which means, which means, means you have rotational artifact. And my thought to hit the response was, well, let's do better than that. Let's try to do more than just count the number in external erections. Let's try to figure out the health of all erections. So my thought was to embed sensors into an advanced form of an erection ring or cochran instead of colloquially known as this doctor, I've never used the cockran. Now I have yet to find, well, here's a joke we have at medical, at medical congresses. I'll ask you, how do you tell the difference between a straight doctor and a gay doctor? You ask one question, Rin,

Speaker 1 (11:27):

Have you used a coching? Is that the question? <Laugh>? That's

Speaker 3 (11:30):

The question you got. How have you used a coching? You got, and the answer is, and, and a straight doctor's like nine is like never. 'cause They just, whether it's male pride or I don't, you know, straight doctors treat rings like a Suman kryptonite. I don't need that. Gay doctors will be like, yeah, like last night you got a better one. So gay straight doctors aren't open to the really, what should be the, the first line of therapy for man who has dysfunction? Then you have, there's no, there's no sense from these doctors about what is, what is normal sexual behavior. The scoring systems that are used by urologists, by sexologists to evaluate men or women for that matter, are focused on penetrative sex. There's the shim score, the atom, the eye, you're probably familiar with these. They don't reflect what people are actually doing.

Speaker 3 (12:14):

Mo most se most, most sex between, between partners over the age of 40. Penetration is just a part of it. It's not the focus, it's not the endpoint. And these studies, like something out of the 1950s or 60, are focused on that as an endpoint. Then urologists think, okay, the first line of therapy is to give a PD five medication with Viagra, Ali, p and d, you know, the, the top ones. But those medications put more blood into the penis, but they don't keep it there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> most men's problem is not getting it up. Most men's problem is losing an erection. That could happen for a whole variety of reasons from anxiety, diabetes, hypertension, alcohol, drugs. And then the most common one that urologists don't think about because all men get it, all women get it too, which is venous leak syndrome.

Speaker 3 (12:57):

Urologists are sure are surgery oriented. The pill doesn't work. They wanna put an implants into a penis or, or do some sort of surgical procedure. So venous leak syndrome is something that we can be born with. Very, very few men have it where you get blood, the penis, but it leaks out because the muscles that control the veins to hold the blood of the penis aren't, aren't very strong. Venous leak syndrome is something we all experience as we get older. I don't know how old you are. I'm 70. If I sit on a plane for five or six hours, my socks will start to pinch. My wedding band will, my finger will be hard, hard to take off my finger because I have venous link. 'cause As I get older, the, the muscles and my small veins don't pump blood back to my heart as effectively.

Speaker 3 (13:32):

It's the same thing for the penis. As we get older, our, our our, the smooth muscles weaken in our penis. We get an erection and we lose it. Now, that loss could be accelerated by anxiety or it can be the very cause of anxiety or, or caused by medications. Our research shows the big cocktails are SR antidepressants and anti antihypertensive and or in combination. But the solution is a plumbing solution. The P five medications put more blood in the penis. A properly used Cochran holds the blood in the penis, allowing a man to sustain erection for more, for a more satisfactory time period. Coing should be mainstreamed. I look at vibrators in my lifetime. My mother's vibrator was in a bottom dress drawer of a supply closet. Just thought we'd never find it. <Laugh>. We didn't know what it was.

Speaker 3 (14:15):

We found it. You know, I don't, my wife probably owns seven or eight. My daughter takes 'em on dates. They've been mainstreamed. It's no longer considered to be shameful for women to use a vibrator. Most women, I think in the latest report there were 60 women, 60 million women in the United States own more than one. What do men have? Well, they have these monstrous things called strokers. Like somebody could beat something to death with, they don't have anything, but, but they do have rings. But cochlea have been made the wrong way for many years. Can I, may I explain? Yeah. So I want to come up with a ring that could be worn overnight. Well, this cause I want to count data. I want to count these nocturnal erections. I also want to come up with a ring that could be worn comfortably during sex with sensors inside of it in order to record the duration of the firmness.

Speaker 3 (14:56):

Every erection. So we get baseline data on man's sexual health. But ings have been made for 150 years out of tight silicone rings. You have to have an erection before you put them on. 'cause They choke off the blood supply. It's like a NOIs on of penis. I mean, it's like some design by a hangman. I mean, so I thought, let's make coch rings out of a soft elastomer. So these are, I dunno if on camera right now, but these, these, our rings are unique. They're, they're made out of a, out of a soft elastomer. So they're comfortable with us. Silicone makes us adapt to them. I also wanted the ring to be safe, easy on, easy off. Many men are overweight. They, they, they can't, they can't even see their penis. Men who they're, they're anxious. These things need to be made very, very easy for them.

Speaker 3 (15:35):

I would suspect that about half the se heterosexual sex in the world starts when a man is scratching his wife's back. When she takes a bra off at night. Women don't like bras in their back because they're silicone in the back. It's itchy to the skin. I was looking at my wife's bra on the ground and I thought, oh, a hook. Women don't put on bras over their heads. A bras is a ring that opens and closes with a hook. Let's make an erection ring with a hook. So it's easy on, easy off. And then let's also design a ring. But that man can put on when he is flacid. So we can put on discreetly, put on hours before second. It could be worn for hours. So it doesn't block the arterial flow. It only constrains the return. And then let's also try to design a ring that will make a man's pleasure more intense.

Speaker 3 (16:19):

It's not a vibrator. The way we do that with a man is we draw out the. So we tested a ring on a group of men between the ages of 27 and 70. The goal is that if we put the right, we want to increase the ejaculatory phase by 50%. So with this ring, my ejaculatory phase goes from four seconds to seven seconds. That's a significantly more powerful orgasm. I think it's good as a vibrator, but it's, if it's for an instantly more powerful orgasm. But more importantly now, by putting sensors into it, we, we have a ring that's comfortably worn overnight to count nocturnal erections, which are leading the indicator mass. Cardiovascular health and wandering sex. The ring can measure the duration of firmness of erections. So now men can measure the impact of everything from medications, diseases, supplements, diets, relationships. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> on sexual performance and say what works, what doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (17:07):

So I wanna ask you, because you mentioned this before we started recording, and then we touched a little bit on it just then that vibrators are mainstream for women. I mean, there are all kinds you can get like, what did I see online? It was like a superhero shaped vibrator. And I mean, they got everything. So sex toys for women are really mainstream, but not for men unless they're gay men. Why do you think that is?

Speaker 3 (17:34):

Well, I think there's several reasons. I think women, one, represent a much larger market. Women do women make what? Like 80% of the purchases overall in the United States or, I, I I think that might, I think it might be worldwide women purchase. If you exclude condoms, women purchase the majority of the sex toys. So when people look at numbers in, in the sex toy area, they say, oh, well men buy more. Well, not, that's not that. Once you exclude condoms, then it's, you know, then it's women. I think women are more open-minded rep represent a larger market. I also think the vibrators have been so enormously successful. No one else has figured out something equivalent for, you know, for men. I think for gay men, it's different. They're really, really focused on, on sexual pleasure and much less inhibited. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And also anal sex requires a harder penis. It's harder to penetrate the anal sphincter than it is to penetrate a vagina. So a ring becomes, you know, it's almost a necessary tool.

Speaker 1 (18:28):

Okay. You, you made a comment though before we were recording. There's something about you, the way you said it was pretty comical because you said if a woman brings sex toys into the bedroom, so can you share that, that no problem. Yeah, sure. But if a man, then what happens? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:44):

When managers introduce sex toys, the industry surveys say they get used one or two times and then they get thrown out. If a woman introduces a sex toy, it, it gets used for as long and as often as she wants, wants it to be used. But, that also inhibits men from buying sex toys as well too, because they're not gonna get used. I also, I don't think any effort has really been made by the industry to make sex, make conquering sexy. But, but I, but the data shows this, this is a really important 'cause and there's, we, we've had an internal study to this effect. And there's gonna be big paper, two pi papers, spout rings at the American Neurology Association and Congress coming up, coming up in in May one is going, is going to show that if a man wants to have a longer lasting erection, a ring is more, more effective than a PD five medication.

Speaker 3 (19:27):

Well, big pharma's not gonna like that. And the heterosexual doctors have frankly been, they should have caught on this a long time ago. And if we're using rings, they would realize it. But a ring to dil in our internal data will keep, we were looking at D 2 cent data. So no one has studied D two ence. D two s is the time it takes for an erection to go down. We didn't measure time to go up because there's so many variables involved in that. Are you with a partner? Are you masturbating just by watching porn? You're drinking? We are just interested in the time it takes for erection to go down. 'cause That would be a measure of how much blood is held in the penis. So the ring alone, dala fill alone sustains an erection on the average of two, two to three minutes afterwards. The ring is about four and a half minutes long. And a ring plus the film is about five and a half minutes. So that those are men without Ed. So the takeaway message really is for all men would be, if you want to have a longer lasting, harder erection, put a ring on it and take a pill. Also, if you're a man who suffers prematurely and you want to keep thrusting afterwards comfortably, not uncomfortably, put a ring on it, take a pill. Mm-Hmm,

Speaker 1 (20:30):

<Affirmative>, you made the comment several times, and I don't wanna bypass it because I think it's worth talking about. 'cause I know somebody listening is wondering why are doctors so phobic about talking about sex? You know, sexual function is a leading indicator of your overall health and vitality. So looking at a male man or woman's sexual functioning, I think is vital to their overall health assessment. And if there's any difficulty there, it's essential to evaluate it because it corresponds to cortisol stress hormone levels, and there are other sex hormone levels and vascular function, cardiac function, but also as a preventative practice, just like drinking enough water, just like enough aerobic exercise, weight bearing exercise, sex, regular, active, pleasurable sex is vital in promoting vitality. So what are we missing? Because I know women are listening, why isn't my doctor talking to me about this? Why isn't my doctor talking to my partner about this? What is the problem with doctors here?

Speaker 3 (21:41):

I have so angry about this issue because we physicians are doing our patients a horrific disservice. I'm seven years old, I'm a doctor. Doctor should feel comfortable talking to me. I've never had a doctor warn me about the sexual side effects of medication. I've never had a doctor ask me about my marriage. Did not ask those questions. Is stupid. It's insensitive. Now. One reason is there are no boxes to check for those things. There's no way of making money addressing those things that they should. And, and, and it actually applies to urologists as well too. They often don't take complete sex stories with people, but just, Hey, here's a PD five medication. We'll do an ultrasound. You're not working. You need an implant. You're not helping a person that way. I completely agree with you. Studies show that if someone has sex every day, their cortisol levels significantly improve.

Speaker 3 (22:27):

If men were in control study, big study was done. Whales, I think of Scotland. If men have men with equivalent cardiovascular disease at age 70 start having sex twice a week, their risk of cardiac arrest goes down 50% over the next five years. The benefits are enormous. And we should be recommending to people to have more sex. We doctors make recommendations about diet, about exercise, about sleep, and we don't speak about sex. And if we do speak about it, we are embarrassed. We have, believe me, people wanna talk about it. My, my last year of emergency medicine clinical practice, I said, you know what, I'm just going to do what I was trained to do in medical school. I'm gonna add a sexual history to pretty much all my exams. Well, it turned out even people came in with an ankle sprain. Wanna talk about both? A lot of 'em just wanna talk about their sex lives and they don't wanna talk about this spouse who wants to tell you all about it.

Speaker 3 (23:15):

So people, men and women are hungry for this information. And they're, to your point, and I would like to bring it up, Dr. Dustin, we doctors are doing them a tremendous disservice. But I don't know if doctors, mostly doctors are even capable of discussing it because they're kind of, they're relative as, as, as a group. They're relatively pr and conservative in conservative sort. An old, an old fashioned kind of, you know, you know, meaning about sex. Before I got involved in this field, I never, I never went to sexual congresses of urology or society of sexual methodology, which is no one's talk. There's very little talk about pleasure. All the focus is on surgery and pills. And it's not focused on what most con what concerns most people, which is how do I maintain my sexual health if I, if I'm poor sexual health, how, what can I do to reverse it? It's, you know, the, the focus of the doctors is, is on things, I'll be blunt things that make them money. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (24:06):

That's unfortunate. And really sex has been relegated to the closet for everyone. And it's such a vital part of health prevention, of promotion, of vitality, prevention of disease. I would be remiss if I didn't ask about, you mentioned some causes and contributors to erectile dysfunction, sexual dysfunction in men. If we didn't talk about porn, because that's epidemic among men in the United States all over the world, globally, how does that affect, and I know there's some women listening who are like, my husband watches porn. Is that part of the problem? Well,

Speaker 3 (24:42):

I'm, I'm, I'm ambivalent about porn because for a lot of men it is an escape to a world where they, where they, where in fantasy they, they get what they want and the things that they're not getting from their partners, male or female partners. For some people porn is beneficial. And so are we gonna ban porn because it's also harmful to some people. I wish that people could discuss porn with their partners. That's really where the where it comes in porn becomes. It can become a window into finding out what someone else's fantasies are. And most people, too many people don't have sex regularly. They, so before I talk about, talk about porn, because I'm, I I'm gonna get, I'll get you the mail, the major male complaint about porn in a moment. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> men, too many people stop making love. Hmm. That's, they need to plan for pleasure.

Speaker 3 (25:23):

I mean, I, it it, I bring this up with guys at the gym or women, women too, which is like, Hey, you these, because they know what, they know what I'm doing. You, you let me know your love life is not satisfactory. How many hours do you spend working out a week? It'd be like, oh, 10, 14 hours. And I'll say, if you could just take two hours of that away and put that into your relationship, and they look at me like, men and women look at me like I'm nuts. Well, it's that, that that can't be done. I said, yeah, it can be done and should be done with planning. You know, a good love making is no more spontaneous than a good exercise session or, or a great meal meal. I don't just up a great meal

Speaker 1 (25:57):

Meal or a great vacation. I

Speaker 3 (25:58):

Don't, I don't go there, I don't, I don't know the refrigerator and say, Hey, what, what are the leftovers? Let's have leftovers again, <laugh>. And that's what, and that's, let's have rotisserie chicken for the third night in a row. And that's the problem with a lot of people sex <laugh>. They, they, they get bored with what they're doing with their partners and they don't talk about it.

Speaker 1 (26:15):

That analogy. But I love it. It's great. It's so true. You know, and, and I recently, I've really been diving the past six or so months into sacred sexuality and womb wisdom and the whole, you know, three types of orgasms or more, actually five, that women can have. And in diving into this, I've read a lot where the biggest problem for most women regarding sex and why they don't wanna have it, is because their men don't know how to properly work the machinery, how to please them, the different types of orgasms, what's required to get their motors going. And for them to become satisfied and actually to make love. They know how to wham bam, thank you man, kind of ma'am have sex, but they don't know how to make love. And so I'm wondering, where do guys supposed to learn this? Where

Speaker 3 (27:06):

Are women supposed to learn? I mean, you, you, because men have all the same complaints about women, men my age and men younger. It's like, oh, she's all, you know, she's, she, she thinks she tugs on my, my penis. Like, like, like, like an arm a machine or, you know, so people, this, this issue cuts both ways. Okay? And this is where people, people need to, people need to, my opinion, they, they need to, to communicate better about what they want. I mean, I, I'll get back to, I'll get back to, to my food analogy. Mm-Hmm. My wife is in the room right now. I don't know what she wants for dinner. And I could eat, you know, I, you know, so I, if, if I want, if I want to, if I wanna really make her happy with, for dinner tonight, I should explore what her, her ideas are.

Speaker 3 (27:45):

I think when it comes to sex, people kind of settle into both parties. I go down on her, she comes and then I penetrate her. That's kind of pretty, pretty standard and pretty boring sex that goes, that goes on for most people. This, they would, they would communicate. And that's what, that's, that's where I think porn can be valuable. People watch, if people explore porn together, they will expl expand their vocabulary for love, you know, for, you know, for love making. Also, there are a lot of guys for porn, porn is an outlet for them. The way shopping is for women and people like to say that, that porn built the web, but porn might have built the web originally. But shopping sustains the web, women do 85 to 90% of shopping online. Women have done studies showing that women get the same dopamine hits in their brain that men do from shopping, that men do from Washington porn. So gone to the point of Congress as people like to blame the other sex, but they need to, you know, examine what they're doing. And then they, then they need, they, they need to communicate better about what, about what their mutual needs are and be more. Right. Not saying nothing.

Speaker 1 (28:45):

That's fascinating information about shopping. I didn't know that's the case. So you're kind of equating the two.

Speaker 3 (28:51):

If women think it's ridiculous that a man wants to look at eight, eight bodies online, a guy might also think it's ridiculous that the woman needs to look at 25 shoes online. It's, it's, it's <laugh>. You know, it's, I mean, but meanwhile to your, you know, Dr. Doc, Dustin, to your point, they could be making love. They could be. They could be. And that's the problem. They're not talking, they're not not playing for pleasure. They're not communicating. In addition to which there are other problems, which circle back to which we, people are taking a lot of medications to interfere with their sexual performance with, you know, half the adult population being diabetic, hypertensive 20, 25% taking anti antis antidepressants. All these drugs have, have, and these diseases have significant impact upon, upon their sexual performance. And people. And the doctors don't do a good job about wanting people to know about the sexual side effects.

Speaker 3 (29:37):

So with data, about how long they last, how firm they can get, we have, we're starting to get some data about women with the, the, the trial protocol. We can, they, people can then say, you know what? My doctor prescribed 300 milligrams of whatever antidepressant, but I noticed that around 150 milligrams my erection starts to soften or I can't. So people, I mean of course we, we, we recommend to everyone if they don't make changes, but with their medications before, let's discuss it with healthcare providers. But I know people are doing it because the healthcare providers don't know about them, don't know about these issues and don't prioritize. You know, they, as you said, you said earlier, the least priority for most doctors is someone's sexual performance. But if someone's taking Sri SRI antidepressant and lisinopril for their blood pressure and they can't get it up, but they can't, you're not making, you're not helping, you're not helping the depressions very much and you're not helping their their partner either.

Speaker 1 (30:29):

Right? Sex is a natural antidepressant. So <laugh>, if you fix the sex, you probably wouldn't need the medication. So there's a woman listening now and she's really paying attention because she's thinking, wow, we don't have sex. We become like roommates. Either one of us could take it or leave it. Maybe she hasn't gotten out of hormonal poverty. So that's part of her issue. And if that's you, you definitely wanna listen up. 'cause <Laugh>, we are gonna run a special at her hormone club this winter if you wanna join us. But she knows her partner, she's observed that he's having some difficulties, whether obtaining an erection, maintaining having short or premature. How do you suggest that she approach this and talk to him? Because I've heard complaints from women before that when they've tried to bro this subject with their partners, that it has not been met with openness. So as a man, what would you say? How do we approach this with our partners?

Speaker 3 (31:30):

That's a great question. Hopefully you have some background information on the guy, because someone, it depends upon the person's age, but if, if it's, if it's a man over 45 or 50 it's the, the likelihood of that person having a physiological problem increases. So you really need to know what someone's blood pressure is, what their blood sugar, hemoglobin A1C is and the blood sugar, what their testosterone level is. There are, there are tests and then there are medications. I, you know, with, I've been impressed with the work that I've done over the last year, speaking to our patients, how many men could be helped just by, just in their medications and 'cause they're often taking multiple medications that that, that often a combination with alcohol are, are affecting their sexual performance. So you need to find out about the base, these, these baseline health factors.

Speaker 3 (32:16):

Another issue is these are all hard, such such just discussed, which is if a man can get it up with pornography and if a man is having erections at night when he's sleeping, he should be able to get up with his partner. And if he's not getting up with, with his partner, there's some issue in the relationship more, far more likely not some anxiety producing issue that's built up over the over built up over the years that need that, that needs to be addressed. Addressed. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> between the two of them or, or addressed with, with, with the benefit of, of therapy. That's where ring comes in handy because a lot of those men get, they can get up and then they lo then they lose the erection and then they avoid sex because they, they, they feel I've got it up with her, but I've lost it. It hasn't worked out. That's where ring ring comes with confidence build up because a male erection things very differently than a male without erection. And, and Cochran will keep the blood in the penis even if people are having an argument of some erection.

Speaker 1 (33:05):

Is the way for her to approach it with him to maybe say, honey, I have some concerns I'd like to talk to you about. Can we set aside some time this weekend and then secure a time and then just couch it as a health concern and say, you know, I've noticed a, B, C when we are making love and I'm concerned because I heard Dr. Justin talking on <laugh> Dr. Kirin show that this could have indications, meaning that you're at increased risk for heart disease, heart attack and early death, or any of the other things we've talked about. Or that the medications you're on might need to be adjusted. And I'm really wondering if we might be able to go to your doctor or if you could make an appointment with your doctor. Does that sound like a reasonable approach?

Speaker 3 (33:52):

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (33:53):

It's non-threatening. Uhhuh <affirmative>.

Speaker 3 (33:55):

Absolutely. And it does have to be approached as a partner issue. I mean, men often need the support of their partners just to comply with their medicines. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, I mean women are much more likely to comply with their, with it, with their medicines. Also, I think people need to think about what happens when they try to have sex. And his significance, if a man never gets an erection, doesn't have a a morning erection, this is where a device that can count the overnight that could be worn overnight comes in handy. I'll take it at both extremes. If a man, if a, if a man has a tech ring that can count, he wears overnight and he has nocturnal erections three or more, that man's sexual health is good enough to have to have sex. So that indicates that the issue is not medication related, disease related.

Speaker 3 (34:36):

The issue is probably is partnership related at the other extreme, the other extreme, and this happens, we, we, if a man has two or less nocturnal erections or those not, and those erections are, are either weak or not, they just don't occur that partner is getting risk fatigue or jaw fatigue for nothing. 'cause It ain't gonna happen. That man has a significant erectile problem that man needs to, to your point, that man needs to see a urologist and a cardiologist because he has a cardiovascular, cardio urological problem of, of profound significance and he needs help. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So, and that's what, that's, that's where the data really comes in handy. 'cause The data ought to assess what's going on. So it could be, Hey honey, I noticed that, you know, the last six months have been really bad, you know, been difficult for you in, in bed and you start taking medication X just around the same time. Maybe the medication is the problem and maybe we can, with data, we can test whether that is the

Speaker 1 (35:30):

Issue. Right. And so the device that you developed actually they can wear overnight and it gives data in the privacy of their own home. Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (35:39):

That's correct. It can be one during sex as well too.

Speaker 1 (35:41):

Okay. And so how often do they have to use it to get enough data for how long a week takes a month? It

Speaker 3 (35:48):

Takes about up to about four uses for the sensors to calibrate the, to the individual's body. 'cause People's, you know, penises vary and, and how firm they get, they vary and, and you know, just variability. Variability in how long, how, how long people last. So I use it the way I use blood pressure. I take my blood pressure once a week. I take my, I measure my sexual health once a week. Oh,

Speaker 1 (36:10):

Okay. And then you kind of can follow it over time.

Speaker 3 (36:13):

Yeah, we have, we have men who use it every day and we have men who use it frequently. I mean it's been really valuable. There's a whole other issue here too, which can discuss prostate disease, which is, is another issue that prostate disease can, erectile dysfunction can mean a warning sign of prostate disease. So if a man Oh mm-Hmm

Speaker 1 (36:27):

<Affirmative> Yeah. We even

Speaker 3 (36:28):

Talk that, I'm sorry, sorry I It's okay. So Right, if a man develops is starting to develop erectile dysfunction that man does need, you know, especially an older man, not, you know, old man over the age of 45, 50, that man needs, needs a a ur urology exam as well too.

Speaker 1 (36:42):

And men should be getting a rectal prostate exam annually. Correct.

Speaker 3 (36:47):

Annually. At least every two, every every two or three years. And if there's a family history, it should, it might need to be done more frequently. Right. I mean the PSA test remains controversial. I think it's a good idea. There might be some false positives, but, you know, why take a chance?

Speaker 1 (37:00):

Well what's the current age at which they should be getting that and is it annual?

Speaker 3 (37:03):

It's annual, I think it's 55. I I have to look. The indications change so frequently I have to look it up.

Speaker 1 (37:09):

Same for women <laugh>. Yeah. So yeah, make sure that your partner is getting the PSA prostate specific antigen and a rectal prostate exam at whatever the current recommendations are. They should be getting that Women you need to be getting your rectal every year <laugh>. They also need the rectal for screening for blood as well. Oh my gosh. This is such good information. And I think you've helped save some men, some women, and some marriages and couplings today because it's vital. Lemme

Speaker 3 (37:41):

Talk about that. 'cause We've had two men who had significantly declining nocturnal erections who went to their doctors and, and, and went to cardiology, actually got a cardiology workup and they, and they got catheterized and they got treated. They would've, they could've gone to have a heart, have a heart attack or something more, more disastrous. So the data, the data's fun, but the data's also really, really valuable. Yes.

Speaker 1 (38:01):

Very valuable when it comes to health. So ladies, don't ignore it. If your partner is suffering with any of these conditions, take steps to assess what's going on and get it addressed. Because it could be a sign of deeper health issues that could be life threatening, number one. But number two, a great sex life is really an important part of your, not only your physical vitality, but your emotional wellness and your connection to your partner and to the world at large. So thank you so much Dr. Justin for coming on and sharing this wonderful information. You've got some information to share with everyone about where they can find out more about you. We'll have the links in the show notes, they can find out more about your device and about how you are helping men.

Speaker 3 (38:54):

Yeah. If I could just add just one other thing, Dr. Dunston, which is that Sure. We're working, we're working on similar technology for women. So we've retested on, on, on, on 38 women and it's, it's our goal by early 25 2025 to deliver data for women that will also allow them to hack their sex, their sexual health in order to have a long, a longer lifetime of, of love making.

Speaker 1 (39:13):

Okay. You gotta give us a sneak peek in like one to two minutes <laugh>. Sure. So we can know about that.

Speaker 3 (39:19):

Uhhuh we are measuring, it's all about blood flow in men and women. So just as, as the male device firmness is a marker of blood flow in a female device. I don't call it so much erection, but I call it arousal. We are measuring blood flow in the CLS overnight. Women have nocturnal chlor arousal and we are measuring that as a leading indicator of their cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health. And in one during sex, we are measuring their chlor arousal as well. So women can then measure the impact of diseases, diets, supplements, creams, all the, all, all things that that which claims are made for, for their sexual health and see what works best for them.

Speaker 1 (39:54):

That's amazing. Thank you for that. Do keep me updated on that <laugh>. I will. So yeah, tell everyone where they can find out more.

Speaker 3 (40:01):

Sure. You can find us at my firm tech M-Y-F-I-R-M-T-E-C h.com and you can find me directly at elliot E-L-L-I-O t@myfirmtech.com. And thank you much so much, doc Dustin, for this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (40:15):

Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. I think this has been such valuable information. We will have that link in the show notes and you can go there to click and find out more and stay updated. I'm gonna stay updated on what's coming down the line for women and I'll certainly let you know. So thank you again for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. I know you are inspired to create a better sex life for yourself and your partner for all its wellness and vitality benefits. I look forward to hearing from you on social media more about this. Have a great week and until next week, peace, love, and hormones y'all.

Speaker 2 (40:55):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Learn more about Dr. Justin's works on erectile fitness - CLICK HERE.

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston | Healing Hormonal Poverty - Finding Your Way Out of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem

Welcome back to another exciting episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Today, your favorite host, Dr. Kyrin Dunston, delves into a topic that's a game-changer - "Healing Hormonal Poverty - Finding Your Way Out of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem."

Ever heard of 'Hormonal Poverty'? You might be wondering, what on earth is that? Well, let's draw a parallel here. You know financial poverty, right? It's when you lack the resources to meet your daily needs. Similarly, when your body lacks the hormonal resources to meet its needs, you're in a state of Hormonal Poverty.

Every cell, every system in your body relies on these hormonal messengers for information on how to function. And when these hormones are out of sync, you're not just battling sluggishness or weight gain, you're at risk of serious health issues like dementia, Alzheimer's, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Scary, isn't it? But hey, don't panic! Dr. Dunston is here to guide us through this hormonal maze.

What's the opposite of Hormonal Poverty? It's Hormonal Prosperity! It's that blissful state where your hormones are in harmony, leading to an energetic, vibrant, and healthy you. Imagine feeling sexy, confident, and revitalized again... That's the power of Hormonal Prosperity!

In this episode, Dr. Dunston shares her personal journey from hormonal poverty to prosperity. She lost 100 lbs by mastering her hormones and she's on a mission to empower you with the knowledge and tools to do the same.

Dr. Dunston sheds light on the seven main metabolic hormones that are crucial for our survival and vitality. Understanding these hormones is your first step towards healing hormonal poverty.

This episode isn't just informative, it's transformative! It's time to take control of your health, ladies. Let's bid adieu to midlife metabolic mayhem and embrace hormonal prosperity!

Ready for this journey of healing and transformation? Tune in now to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Let's heal hormonal poverty together and step into a life of vibrant health and hormonal prosperity!

Remember, you're not alone in this journey. We're all in this together, learning, growing, and supporting each other. So, let's dive in and start healing!

 

Dr. Kyrin (00:08):

This is the episode for January 25th, healing Hormonal Poverty, finding Your Way Out of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem. Here we go. Oh, let's see a teaser. Here we go. “There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health.” Dr. Jen Simmons. Stay tuned to find Your Way out of Hormonal Poverty and Midlife Metabolic Mayhem. And this is the intro and episode. Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with me. Dr. Kyrin, thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into talking about healing hormonal poverty and finding your way out of midlife metabolic mayhem. Hopefully no need for an introduction, but if this is your first time listening to me, I'll, I'll give a little intro on myself if you're not familiar. I'm Dr. Kyrin Dunston, the 30 years veteran board certified OB GYN Fellowship, trained in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine.

Dr. Kyrin (01:18):

I'm also shamanically trained in the UTI Mesa tradition from Peru. I'm also a life certified life coach and a bunch of other things because I've spent my life helping women heal. And I learned by doing, I've learned by healing my own body, mind, spirit, soul, so that I can show the way to women like you. Maybe you're over 40 at this point, maybe you're not. Wherever you are on the life age spectrum, there's something here that can help you. And what we're gonna talk about today is healing. Hormonal poverty. Hormonal poverty. You say, what's that? Good question. Well, you're familiar with financial poverty. When you don't have enough money to meet your living expenses, you're considered to be in financial poverty. Well, when you don't have enough hormonal prosperity to meet your body's needs, you're living in hormonal poverty. All cells, all systems in your body depend on hormones which are chemical messengers in your body for information. They need these hormones for information on how to function. Your nervous system gives a lot of information on how to function, but not when it comes to your metabolism. That's the purvey of your hormones. They're what regulate your metabolism. And every woman knows what your metabolism is. It's how your body takes calories or energy in and converts it into,

Dr. Kyrin (02:58):

Into energy. And you know, when you don't turn calories from food or fat into energy, you are tired and you gain weight. So those are the two hallmark symptoms of a low metabolism and they might be your two biggest symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. What's midlife metabolic mayhem? You say? Great question. It's the 60 or so plus symptoms that women experience sometimes earlier than 40, but definitely over 40. By the time we are 50, about 60 to 70% of us are overweight or obese and we're tired. But we also have myriad other symptoms. We can have brain fog, memory lapses, depression, or dysthymia not feeling like ourselves, lack of lust and joy for life. We can have somatic symptoms in our gastrointestinal tract, right? Our digestion can go wonky. We don't poop properly When we eat something, it might upset your stomach and we have no idea why.

Dr. Kyrin (04:07):

Maybe we're having migraine headaches or muscular tension headaches and we don't know why. Maybe we've developed arthritis aches and pains, myalgias. Every system in the body is affected and there are over 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. And this is due to our programmed obsolescence of our hormones. Yep. We ladies are programmed for our ovaries to go offline. Starting about the age of 35. They start declining and then by the time we're 51, the majority of us will go into what's called menopause. So you could be in the perimenopause, pre menopause, whatever you call it. What really matters is how much hormone do you have? We're talking estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Those are the three main sex hormones for women. Yep. We women have testosterone too. And it's super important, just like men have all those three hormones too. They just have more testosterone and we have more estrogen, but they're essential for us to function properly.

Dr. Kyrin (05:13):

And when we don't have them, we're living in a state of hormonal poverty. And midlife metabolic mayhem can ensue, but not only that disease can ensue. So rates of dementia and Alzheimer's are increased in women in hormonal poverty, breast cancer, osteoporosis, cardiac heart disease, and heart attack. The number one killer of women over 50. So it's essential to identify if you're in hormonal poverty with testing, we test don't guess. And to get out of hormonal poverty, you might not need a prescription. Right? That's why I do what I do because you need education to figure out, well, what do I need to look for? Because unfortunately, I was just a regular board certified OB GYN for many years, and hormonal testing is not standard of care and it's considered not a viable option in mainstream medicine. Don't believe me. Go ask your doctor to test your hormones.

Dr. Kyrin (06:18):

Now, if they do, they're probably gonna do a blood test, which is not the right way to test hormones. And I'm gonna tell you why in my upcoming course, the Hormone Bliss Challenge. I'm gonna tell you that and a lot of other things that you need to know about the steps to get out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity because it's more than I can tell you in one short podcast. So it'll be a quick 70 day challenge. We'll meet for 30, 30 minutes each day. We'll be live on Zoom. You can meet with me, ask me questions directly and interact with the other participants. People love this course. And you will then have the ABC's one, two threes of, yeah, Dr. Karen, you can identify yeah, I'm in mid midlife metabolic mayhem. Yeah. I'm having these pre diseases or diseases are on my way to having them.

Dr. Kyrin (07:14):

Yeah. I don't wanna have my longevity cut short because of hormonal poverty. Show me the way and I'm gonna show you the way and the exact steps that I took and the exact steps that thousands of women I've worked with have taken to get out of hormonal poverty in the Hormone Blis challenge. And it starts on February 8th, right before Valentine's. So Valentine's February is the month of self-love. I say 2024 is the year of self-love. I've got another episode in the podcast coming up for you in a couple weeks about what self-love means and looks like in 2024. 'cause It's not your self-love of 2020 to 2023. It's a whole different ballpark of lava. Don't know what lava is. Come join me for that episode and I will tell you it's a different way of living in the world. So for this month of love, you're gonna love yourself.

Dr. Kyrin (08:13):

Taking action and joining me for the challenge will be the first step. So we're gonna help you identify if you're in midlife metabolic mayhem and the exact steps to get out, why the blood testing your Dr. May offer you is not correct and what is the right testing to get. And because you wanna test, don't guess. And if you do need treatment, there are two things you need. So why do I call this podcast The hormone prescription? I call it that because there are two prescriptions you need for hormonal prosperity. One might be a written prescription for estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Don't forget that one. It's essential.

Dr. Kyrin (08:55):

That's one prescription. The other prescription is the life prescription. And we talk a lot about that on the podcast here. It's your diet, it's your exercise, it's your mental diet, emotional diet, what you're taking in externally. Supplements you might be taking or not taking, activities you might participate in or not participating in, sex you might be participating with or not participating with. It's everything else in your life besides the first prescription. So the podcast is the hormone prescription and it's about all of that. So I'm gonna be teaching you about the exact steps you need to get a prescription if you need one, and the exact steps you need to get the life prescription that you need to get out of hormonal poverty and get into hormonal prosperity. So one of my former guests, Dr. Jen Simmons on the podcast, talked about women's health and breast health and hormones, and she had some great quotes.

Dr. Kyrin (09:54):

I shared one in the teaser. There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. If you think, oh, I'm gonna deal with this next year. Oh, when I retire, I'm gonna deal with this. Oh, it's not that bad. Oh, I'm just gonna go to my HMO doctor to deal with this. You're sorely mistaken. There really is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. I recently came back from a year and a half trip traveling across the globe to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and everywhere I went, people asked me what I did. And I talked to them about, I help women get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity. And of course, <laugh>, a lot of them were women over 35, 40. Oh my gosh, I need what you do because here are the symptoms I'm dealing with. And they would list, like, the one that comes to mind is the dental hygienist I saw when I was in London a couple weeks ago.

Dr. Kyrin (10:48):

She immediately said, oh my gosh, my periods have been crazy. They're super painful. They're very irregular. I have no sex drive. She whispers to me, which is very common because most women don't talk to their doctors about that. But she felt comfortable. I get these headaches, my hair is falling out, I can't remember anything. And my doctor told me, you must be depressed. And he gave me an antidepressant. Can you relate to that? She said, I'm not depressed. Why did he gimme an antidepressant? This is happening globally, y'all. It's not just in America. We're being gaslit and told that we don't have the hormonal poverty that we have. And that's just 'cause mainstream medicine doesn't recognize it. That's a whole other topic we'll get into in the Hormone bliss challenge. And so she needs help. So she's like, can I, can you help me?

Dr. Kyrin (11:39):

And yes, I help women globally. You can be anywhere in the world and participate in this seven day challenge. And in my coaching programs, we help you get the testing you need, the prescriptions that you need if you need them and the life prescriptions that you need so you're not alone. All right, I got to jump off. So yes, there's no greater perspective than when you lose your health. She's losing her health. Sometimes people wait when it's just symptomatic until they get a breast cancer diagnosis or they get an Alzheimer's diagnosis and then it's kind of too late. So you need to do something sooner rather than later. Dr. Jen also shared this quote, the only person who can heal you is you, your doctor, is don't wait for your doctor to go get fellowship training and do all the training that I've done to get this information until wake up to the truth.

Dr. Kyrin (12:32):

You'll be well gone from this planet if you wait that long. 'cause It takes sometimes 30 years for cutting edge science to find its way into mainstream medicine. And you don't have that kind of time. So you can learn from <laugh> my, my path and my mistakes. Dr. Jen also shared this quote I love, not only was I on the right, not on the right path for myself, but I wasn't on the right path for my patients because she too has a story just like me of having ill health using mainstream medicine, not knowing she was in hormonal poverty. Finding, seeing the light, finding the right way, and getting on the right path so you don't have to wait. Learn from other doctors, other female doctors, I will say, because we've hit the wall and we know the way. And this is gonna help you get out of hormonal poverty into a hormonal problem.

Dr. Kyrin (13:35):

A friend of mine said this to me yesterday and I just loved it. She said she saw a meme online that said, most people are waiting and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel end. But in the meantime, I'm gonna light this up, <laugh>. So I thought that was great because she's not waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel. She's gonna create her own light. And the hormonal challenge is gonna help you create the light that's gonna light your path from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. So I hope you join me. Go to hormone bliss challenge.com. H-O-R-M-O-N-E-B-L-I-S-S-C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E, <laugh> hormone bliss challenge.com to find out more and sign up. It starts February 8th. It's a small investment of time for a big return on your small investment. This has transformed women's lives. You'll see our test test some of our testimonials on that page when you go there. And we look forward to meeting with you, seeing you there, helping to support you, nurture you, and help you to help yourself and give yourself the lava and self-love that you deserve in 2024 in February, the month of love. Hope to see you there.

 

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

Amy Wilson | Optimize Your Starting Line At Midlife To Stay Out of the Nursing Home

Ready to learn the secret to staying out of the nursing home and living your best life at midlife? It's easier than you think, and our guest expert on today's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here to tell you how!
  
We were thrilled to have Amy Wilson, a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist, certified fitness professional, and certified nutrition coach on the show to share her wisdom, insights, and real-life tips for conquering midlife challenges. She is dedicated to helping people optimize their health and wellness in midlife, which can be the key to staying active and independent as we age.
  
In this episode, we dive deep into navigating individual barriers while navigating through the journey of midlife health and wellness. Amy shares her proven techniques for finding the balance we all crave in midlife.

Amy passionately reveals her top strategies for successful weight loss, regaining good health, and keeping yourself out of the nursing home, emphasizing that it all starts with one important factor: "Optimizing your starting line at midlife."
  
Here are some of the powerful takeaways from today's episode:
  
1. Importance of Individualized Approach: Amy stresses the importance of understanding that every person is unique and requires a tailored approach to their fitness, nutrition, and self-care journey.
  
2. Nutrition & Fitness Balance: Exploiting simple everyday dietary changes and incorporating regular exercise routines can make a massive impact on the quality of life.
  
3. Mindfulness & Emotional Well-being: In addition to maintaining physical health, Amy emphasizes the importance of nurturing mental and emotional wellbeing. This includes staying connected with friends, family, and hobbies that bring joy to our lives.
  
4. Learning from Real-Life Stories & Scenarios: Amy shares inspiring stories of her clients who have successfully overcome midlife challenges, regained their health, and lived a happier, more fulfilling life. These tales will not only resonate with you but also motivate you to take the first step towards a vibrant life.
  
Grab a cup of tea or your favorite beverage, find a comfortable spot, and soak up everything Amy has to offer in this episode. You'll come away feeling inspired and ready to embrace a healthy, balanced, and fabulous midlife!

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and as always, we're grateful for your support. See you on the next episode!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Amy Wilson, what do you need to do today so that you can do the things that you wanna do tomorrow? Stay tuned and find out.

Speaker 2 (00:15):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:09):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into talking about staying out of the nursing home. I know that's not a topic that you might pick to listen to or talk about, but you know what? If you don't pay attention to the things that are gonna keep you out of the nursing home now, then 5, 10, 20, 30 years down the line, you might end up there. And it's really a place of last resort that you don't want to end up in because people don't go there to get better and go home. They go there when the end of the line is in view and there's nothing else that can be done from them. And these days you're gonna hear from Amy. She's gonna talk to you about how 40 and 50 and younger year olds are ending up in nursing homes for things that are fully preventable and treatable if they had done the things that we're gonna talk about today.

Speaker 1 (02:04):

Do I have your attention now? Yes, I think so. So she's gonna talk to you about doing the things that others won't do. For whatever reason, they don't want to, they don't think it's necessary. They don't think they have a problem. They think it's not gonna happen to me for whatever reason. They're not doing the things. What are the things you need to do so that tomorrow you can do what others can't? Meaning you won't end up in a nursing home, you'll be able to travel the world, go dancing, do all the things that you love to do that I love to do, right? You wanna stay healthy, vital, alive, having fun and enjoying your life. And there's some things that you need to pay attention to that you might not be paying attention to. So we're gonna dive into that. We're gonna talk about your purpose.

Speaker 1 (02:48):

We're gonna talk about why you need to eat more <laugh>. Yes, eat more. I said we're gonna be talking about that. We're gonna talk about Ozempic and some of the other weight loss drugs. So lots in this episode to share with you. I'll tell you a little bit about Amy and we will get started. So Amy Wilson is a board certified geriatric pharmacist. So she knows nursing homes, a certified fit fitness professional, and a certified nutrition coach with over 30 years of experience whose mission is to empower and equip her clients to take charge of their health and find balance in their lives so that they can navigate through individual barriers and finally be successful in their efforts to lose weight and regain health. At midlife. She's gonna talk to you about optimizing the starting line instead of worrying about the finish line. What does that even mean? So please help me welcome Amy to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:46):

Thank you for having me. I'm I've, this is my favorite kind of a conversation to have.

Speaker 1 (03:50):

Yes, mine too. Anything that helps women, particularly women over 40, get the health that they're wanting and improve their lives is right up my alley. And I love the conversation we started having just before we hit record. When I said kind of what is your main differential that you offer women and share what you said. 'cause I think it's really powerful

Speaker 3 (04:15):

Main difference is that I am not skinny. I think chasing skinny is something that we need to stop. And I know that may sound crazy because we live in a society where we think that being skinny means happiness. Being skinny means being successful, but that's not the case. What I am hoping to help people, especially women over 40, is to realize that skinny is not the end all be all. What we need to be chasing is health. What we need to be chasing is strength and balance. I'm a board certified geriatric pharmacist. I work in nursing homes. That is my, I would say my main goal is to make sure that you don't end up in one of those. Where are you gonna be in 20, 30, 40 years if you're chasing skinny? More than likely, it's very possible you may end up in one of those because of a bone fracture, because of osteoporosis. But if you start looking at health and healing from the inside out and start looking at strength and balance, then the sky's the limit. And hopefully your future self is saying, thank you very much for putting me in this amazing position where I can still live my life independently.

Speaker 1 (05:24):

Amen to that. Yeah, I loved you, keeping you out of my nursing home. That's it. And really, you know, we don't spend our lives thinking about that. We're very mortality-phobic in the Western culture where we don't talk about death. We actually act like it's something that's not gonna happen to us. And we don't like to have end of life discussions and we don't like to have nursing home discussions. But a large majority of us are gonna end up there. And a lot of us are gonna end up there for exactly the reasons that you've said because we've lost bone mass, which means that we've most likely lost muscle mass. And if we're chasing skinny our whole lives, we're probably not helping our bones. We're probably not helping our muscle mass. It's notorious that we don't get adequate protein intake. And so we're actually buying a ticket to the nursing home and I don't wanna be there. I know most of you don't wanna be there. So I think it's time we have a real discussion and get honest and have a mortality discussion and really start talking about what we're talking about when we talk about health for women over 40. It's not only our longevity, but it's our vitality span. So how did you, as a geriatric pharmacist, Amy, become interested in this? What makes you so passionate about it?

Speaker 3 (06:46):

Well, it's kind of like my story starts when I was 16 years old and started yo-yo dieting and then went to pharmacy school and became a fitness instructor while I was going through pharmacy school. So I've been in the fitness and nutrition realm as well as the pharmacy realm for quite a while. But there was a huge disconnect because of wanting to be skinny, wanting to help clients lose X amount of weight, and then seeing them turn around and put it back on again. Or seeing them just feeling frustrated that their bodies weren't doing what they wanted to do. Or especially when you get 40, 45, 50, everything that you used to do stopped working. Well guess what? Same here. That happened to me. And you know, with hormones, things change. And what happened was, honestly, all the yo-yo dieting I did for years decreased in muscle mass, affected my metabolism, affected my hormones, and I had to do something that was different. And while I was starting researching and looking at different programs for me to try, I was also seeing this increase in younger patients coming into my nursing homes. And by younger I mean forties and fifties,

Speaker 1 (08:02):

Really

Speaker 3 (08:03):

That shouldn't be happening. It shouldn't be. And 10 years ago it was all eighties, nineties and one hundred. It's, it's, you know, the end of life. It's no longer live by yourself. Well now we're no longer can live by yourself In forties and fifties. We are getting lifestyle diseases of diabetes, hypertension, strokes, certain cancers that are caused by lifestyle. And that is scary and it's also preventable. And so I saw this as, you know, not only can I help perimenopause and menopausal women, but I have to also educate on what we're doing and what we're not doing when we eat ultra processed foods, what we're causing disease states. And then also having women understand that we have to stop chasing skinny and we need to start focusing on the health aspect. We need to start focusing on the strength aspect because that is gonna decrease our chronic inflammation that is gonna help our hormones, that is going to help us be independent for years down the line.

Speaker 3 (09:13):

And that's, I think that's what everybody wants. Nobody thinks about, oh, I'm gonna end up in a nursing home. Nobody thinks that I'm gonna be in assisted living. We all see ourselves going until our last breath. But we don't realize that a lot of things that we do, we set ourselves up for. You don't go to the doctor's office and it's like, oh by the way, you just got diabetes or you just got blood pressure, high blood pressure that has been coming for years. Your body's been telling you and sending you signs. We just choose to ignore it because we think we're busy or it has to do with stress or it's, you know, I have this going on so that's why I'm not sleeping. When we start listening to those signals that our body is sending us, we can start kind of dialing back what we need to do. And when I saw this big disconnect and when I saw the increase in my nursing homes, then putting two and two together with what was going on with me, it was kind of like this trifecta. I'm a fitness instructor, I'm a nutrition coach, I'm a pharmacist. Okay, let's put all these things together and help people move forward, help people learn how to balance, help people learn to get strength and to eat and quit starving so that their future self can thank them.

Speaker 1 (10:23):

Yes. And I'm just wondering, as you're working in these facilities and you're seeing younger women come in, what kind of the patterns that you were noticing that were different in their lifestyle, in their genetic background, in their history? Were you noticing particular patterns that you found that you could work with them on? Or was it kind of too late for them? Or what was the situation there?

Speaker 3 (10:53):

Fortunately, once you're in the nursing home, it is too late. It is just the way our healthcare system is. We are not a preventative healthcare system. But I'll look at their history and physical and I'll look at their discharge summary and I will look at what's been going on in their lives. And a lot of it is uncontrolled type two diabetes started as pre-diabetes to type two diabetes. A lot of it's being sedentary, not moving and doing, you know, they don't say in the history and physical what they've been eating, but you can kind of summarize by what's going on. It's been ultra processed food, it's been fast food, it's, they haven't been walking or working out. They've lived a sedentary lifestyle causing chronic inflammation. And then something happens where they can no longer take care of themselves. And now they're in a facility that is pretty much just taking care of you. It's not there to help you get better, get stronger to go back out in the community. Rehab will do that, but they can only do so much with the time that they're allowed. And a lot of it's not changing the behavior, it's not changing the food that they're eating or putting them on a certain exercise program. It's just to get them good enough so that they can go home.

Speaker 1 (12:10):

Right. And you know, isn't it interesting? Well, it's sad actually that in 2024 we don't have dietary history as part of the intake, even though we know the extreme impact that diet has on life. But like you say, people are going there to be taken care of, they're not going there to get better. So I love it you took that and you said, oh no, this can't be, we need to keep people out of the nursing home. What do we need to do? So, and I'm just curious, as a certified nutrition coach, what was your evolution? Did, were you a pharmacist first and then became a nutrition coach and then fitness trainer? What was the evolution for you of your path?

Speaker 3 (12:59):

So I started teaching when I was 17, teaching fitness classes. So back in the days of leg warmers, big hair, all that kind of high, low and high, low gene Fonda days. And I am a diagnosed exercise addict. I used to try to out-train a bad diet, but in the eighties we didn't know it was a bad diet. In the eighties everything was low fat, it was all replaced with sugar, which we didn't realize at that time was gonna set us up for our diabetes journey. And I didn't even think about it. I would just feel guilty for eating something. I would go work out and then I would also personal train and I would personal train and work out with my clients. I blew my back out and it wasn't a good thing. I blew it out. I had to have surgery.

Speaker 3 (13:43):

You think that would've taught my lesson, but it didn't. And I was right back after surgery doing everything I was doing before, because we really have come a long way in nutrition in the last five to 10 years. Back then it was still how much you work out, how little you eat. And that was the key to keeping your weight off. We now know that doesn't work. We now know there's, there's reasons why it doesn't work. So in my thirties, I was looking for different nutrition programs. 'cause As a pharmacist, as a fitness coach, people come up to you and ask all the time about diet, about nutrition, about supplements. So I have several certifications under my belt, but they were still calories and calories out. What you and how much you work out coming into my forties perimenopause hits and the inches are crazy.

Speaker 3 (14:36):

And I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm teaching all the time. I'm working out. I'm not eating. I tried keto, I tried the latest and greatest because I am just like everybody who's listening to this podcast, I want a fix. I want it quick and I want it now. And I will try anything that looks like it might work. We're, none of us are immune to that. We all see it, we all see the shiny object. We're like, oh, maybe this will help me. And after trying all those and it would work for a hot minute and then not, it was watching a couple other friends who were instructors do a program that was called The Fast Weight of Fat Loss. And I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna try it. I threw a Hail Mary pass, tried it, didn't think it would work, it did.

Speaker 3 (15:18):

It was taking science, it was eating for what my body needed and which was a lot more than I thought. And was also really focusing on bloating that muscle. And then once I did that, it was amazing at what, how my body responded. I was pre-diabetic because thanks dad, that came through my genetics. But it was also pre-diabetes coming with the decrease in estrogen. My cholesterol was higher, my thyroid wasn't doing well. And then when I started eating and I started working out less lifting, all of those things started just to fall in place. A1C went down, my thyroid went back to normal, cholesterol was back. So it was kind of crazy. And I knew for me that if I was this way, there were a lot of other women that needed help, who were throwing their hands up in the air and saying, this is not fair.

Speaker 3 (16:14):

Why is this happening to me? And trying everything out there only to get frustrated. And when I switched in my head with health and strength and stopped chasing skinny, it was the light bulb. It was, okay, this is what we are meant to be. This is how we're supposed to be treating our bodies. Our bodies are one big chemical reaction and we need to be giving it the right fuel, the right chemicals in order for it to do its thing. Instead of relying on the latest, greatest shake or packets of food, we need to understand that it's science. There are reasons why we need to eat certain foods. There are reasons why ultra processed foods do not help us. And I think honestly, when I started putting two to two together and getting rid of that disconnect of what food does to your body and understanding what food can do, that was the aha moment. And I get that with all my clients now too. It's like when they get that aha moment and realize that, oh wait, there really is a correlation to what I put in my body and how I feel and how I'm sleeping and how much energy I have and losing inflammation. And when you get that, you don't wanna let go of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:29):

And you know, I think it's so important to talk about what food is. I think most people are trained to think about food in terms of calories. It's just caloric energy when it's so much more. It's information. There's the energy information that comes with food, there's the nutritional information that comes with food. And then when there is non-food stuff in food, there's the chemical information. And so there's so many aspects to food. There's the allergic component that maybe an IgE allergy or there may be a sensitivity and there is intolerance, particularly when it comes to dairy. So there's so many considerations for the food that you put into your body. I think most people really need to expand their understanding of what food is. It's just like education. When your kids go to school, they don't just learn one subject. It's not just one subject that they learn.

Speaker 1 (18:30):

There's so many. And so food is equally as complex. I think that this would be a great time, since you are mentioning weight loss, it is the beginning of a new year. A lot of people didn't meet their weight or health goals last year and now they're on the resolution and they're like, I know I hear you Amy, but I'm just gonna go get that medication that my friend took where she lost a ton of weight and then I'll deal with doing it. Right. Do you wanna talk a little bit about some of these medications like ozempic that are available that some people are getting amazing weight loss results with?

Speaker 3 (19:05):

If you haven't heard of these medications, they're called GLP one glucagon. Like Peptide one, Ozempic, wegovy, Monro. And there's several others that are gonna be coming out pretty soon. And first of all, if you're on them, and this is not to beat you up and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing this, this, I'm gonna give you the pros and cons and then if you're on them, what you need to also be doing in conjunction with those medications. The problem with those medications are some of the how it works or the side effects and how it works is that it slows down your GI tract. So it will slow down gastric emptying, which causes you to feel full. And I know every female is going, oh my god, it's about time. I want something that's gonna help me feel full. I want something that does that.

Speaker 3 (19:49):

Yes and no. If you feel like you're a bottomless pet, if you feel like all you do is crave sugar, I'm going to challenge you with the fact that you're probably not eating enough and you're probably not eating enough protein either. We can actually work with our own hormone, the GLP one by what we intake and food-wise. But what the medication does will slow down gastric emptying. It will also help with insulin and insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance. Those are great. But the side effects are that it can cause something called gastroparesis, which is a total shutdown of your GI tract. Unfortunately, it's not reversible. It's something that you'll have to live with for the rest of your life. And if you know anybody with gastroparesis, it is not a pretty disease state at all. And the other thing that it does, because you're not hungry, you are not eating, your body, like I said, is a chemical reaction.

Speaker 3 (20:45):

It needs fuel. If you are not giving your body fuel, your body's pretty smart number one goal is survival. And it's gonna take amino acids from your muscles. It's gonna take minerals from your bones. So what we're gonna be seeing probably in about, I wanna say three to five years of something I call old lady syndrome, we're gonna see those people who should not have it yet in a disease state of osteopenia, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, which is muscle wasting. We're gonna see all these later on age-related diseases because of not intaking the proper fuel. And that's scary. And it's all because of chasing skinny. So if you are looking at taking something, maybe you have a high A1C, which is diabetes, pre-diabetes, maybe your doctor says this is what we need to put you on. If that's the case, then please, please, please work with somebody to make sure that you're getting adequate protein to make sure that you are building muscle and that you are getting your vibes and minerals.

Speaker 3 (21:46):

Because the last thing we want is for your body to take away from your muscles and your bones. And that's what we really need to focus on with these medications. If we can do it without the medication, perfect. If you're gonna go on the medication, please be aware of the side effects because a lot of people go in and say, oh you know what, it won't happen to me. I'm not gonna be that person. You have to be prepared to be that person that it happens to. And then also understand that, you know what, maybe I can try one more thing before I go on this medication. One more thing, I never tried really eating. I've always starved. I never really tried weightlifting to get some muscle mass. Maybe if I just try this one more thing, that would be my ticket to where I wanna go health-wise and not have an injection that pretty much I will have to be on for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 (22:37):

Yeah, I think those are all super important points. And I've honestly never seen a person who said they had tried, quote unquote tried everything to lose weight and said they couldn't lose weight. I've even had people say, I haven't been able to lose a pound in 20 years when they address the underlying causes, the hormone imbalance, the gut dysfunction, the toxicity, all the things that weren't able to lose the weight. And so I've, I, that's why I don't know much about these medications is because I don't use them. 'cause They're really, I don't find that they're necessary. And like you say, they have potentially short and long, long-term negative consequences and you really do have to be prepared to be that person who got that side effect from that drug. So I know that you take a much more holistic approach to, it sounds like that's not your first line either.

Speaker 3 (23:30):

To me it's almost, I would say the last line and you know, I had, I was talking to someone yesterday. Well what about people with diabetes? Absolutely there are purposes for medication. I would say I'm a pharmacist who prefers that you try something else before medication or that we try to get you off of medication. All medications have side effects. I don't care what medication, all supplements will have side effects too. So I'll get somebody I like, but it's natural. Yeah. So is Deion that is used for your heart. That's all natural too. It's a flower, it's a plant. And there's still side effects with that. And to understand that the one thing that doesn't really have side effects for most people, unless you have an allergic reaction, is nutrition and weightlifting. The side effects are positive, they're not negative. And so if we can kind of get back to realizing that Mother Earth has pretty much provided us everything that we need that we don't need pharmaceuticals, they're there.

Speaker 3 (24:26):

Pharmaceuticals are great for treatments but not necessarily cures most of the time. And you know, who wants to be someone in my nursing home who's taking 30 medications? Because when you start with one medication, you're gonna take another medication and then there's a side effect. So there's another medication. Nobody starts out wanting to take a pill for this. It just happens. And then there's another pill. So if we can stop that whole cascade in the first place and yeah. Does it take a little bit more work? Absolutely. I'm not telling everybody this is, this is rainbows and unicorns. It takes behavioral change. It takes work to learn how to eat for what your body needs. It takes work to learn how to prepare food again instead of going through a drive-through. But is it possible and is it the best and possibly the right thing to do? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (25:16):

You know, I had this visual come to mind when you were talking about going on medications, but really the, the first medicine for the body is food and movement are the first two medicines. And it's kind of like, you know, we say, oh but there it's natural, but cyanides are natural and can kill you. Right. It's just natural. Doesn't mean it's good for you. I don't know why, but transportation popped into my mind. Airplanes. So taking a drug for everything is kind of like taking an airplane everywhere. You still need to know how to walk <laugh>. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Yes And yes how to ride a bike. And it's like, just because we invented airplanes and, and air travel doesn't mean we throw out everything else. But really with our mainstream medical culture, that's what has happened. I mean, like you said on your intake at the nursing home, they don't even ask about diet when that is the foundation of health. So great. We talked about those medications. Now we've touched on muscle mass and bone mass. Let's talk a little bit about why those are so important. 'cause I know some people might have heard and gotten the memo about how important muscle mass maintenance and bone mass maintenance are for longevity and vitality span. But some people are not aware. So what would you tell them? The biggest,

Speaker 3 (26:36):

Or I would say used to be the biggest reason that somebody would go into a nursing home was a fall or a break. And that is directly correlated with muscle mass. It's directly correlated with bones. And we don't think about those kinds of things. And we think that sometimes when, oh, I'm in my fifties, I'm in my sixties, I'm in retirement and all I wanna do is just sit around, I'm going to challenge you. It's like, I don't think that's what we want. I think we wanna live, I think we wanna be active and to be active, we need our bones healthy, we need them strong. And to be active, we need muscle. We need muscle to be able to get out of a chair every day. We need muscles to pick up our dogs and our grandkids. We need muscle to be able to take the groceries inside.

Speaker 3 (27:24):

And hey, if we're gonna get on that plane, I want to be able to go over that overhead bin and put my luggage there. Everything that we do, everything that we do on a daily basis requires us to have a strong skeletal system and a strong muscular system. And if we let that go, everything else goes downhill. Everything does. We no longer can lift, we no longer can get out of a chair. We no longer can maybe lift our head up because we have osteoporosis and we have all these bone fractures in our cervical area. I don't think anybody wants that. That's not living. And if we can do the best by fueling our body, by strengthening our bones and strengthening our muscles, honestly that's the fountain of youth. Keeping your muscle mass. Keeping your bone mass is the fountain of youth. And I think that is, at least for me, that's the ticket that is not a pill, not the fountain of youth per se. Going and drinking the water, that's something that I can do on a daily basis is to help my bone strength and my muscle mass so that in the future I'm able to thrive. And I think most people want that. They just don't realize it unfortunately until it's too late. When we're in our forties, in our fifties, in our sixties, whatever age you are right now, it's not too late. And now is the time to start training for your future self.

Speaker 1 (28:50):

Yeah. And I think it's super important to realize that these changes and the downgrade of our musculoskeletal system happens so slowly and gradually over time that it's almost imperceptible. And you can write off these changes as being normal and think that you are not on that downward slope again, you're not the one who's gonna get the side effects from the medication. You are not the one that Amy and I are talking about. But this was a real reality check for me, <laugh>, when I heard of the squat test and how you basically stand straight up and then you want to lower yourself into a cross-legged position without using your arms, y'all arms. And then from the squat leg position, you want to get back up off the floor into a standing position without using your arms. If you can't do that, descent has already begun. And that was a real wake up call when I heard somebody describe that. And every woman in the room kind of looked at her neighbor and said, I can't do that. You know, look at kids, they do it effortlessly. So what are some other signs that you would tell people to look for to know that they need to pay attention and they need to start paying attention now?

Speaker 3 (30:11):

Energy levels. How are you sleeping if you're not sleeping well, if your energies are constantly crashing and you need coffee to get you through the day. If you're constantly grabbing for the sugar because you're hungry or you just want to have that sugar craving. And what does that do? That shows that you're not fueling your body enough. That shows that you might have some hormonal imbalances that you need to get checked out. And the other thing is, you know, do you feel weak? Is it hard for you to park way out of the grocery store and walk in? Do you find the closest parking space? Or are you someone who just can't carry anything and you're like, oh, you know, it's just 'cause I'm tired and looking for those little things that are adding up now or that are kind of giving you a wake up call that, hey, I need to really listen to my body and start taking care of it and start training to get better. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (31:09):

Those are super important things to look at. And I know we're busy, we lead busy lives, we're doing a million things and we're like, oh, I just feel a little tired. And it happens so gradually that we don't even realize it. And so I say pay attention sooner rather than later. And do you wanna talk a little bit about protein intake and weight lifting and maintenance of muscle mass?

Speaker 3 (31:35):

Yeah, so the one thing that we are great at is not getting enough protein. We really, especially females, we are, we do not get enough protein. And as we age, we actually need more protein. And sometimes that's difficult. There are easier ways to find protein. You can go to the grocery store and there's, there can be like a chicken breast or get some Turkey bone broth. It's a great way to get protein. You don't have to rely on the shakes. And sometimes those bars are just like a candy bar. They're not, they're not good for you. You need protein and you need protein in order to keep your muscle and in order to build your muscle. And I think a lot of times I will get, especially some older women will be like, Ugh, but I don't wanna bulk up. I don't wanna look big.

Speaker 3 (32:24):

And I'm going to tell you you're not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen unless you have some pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical help that then, then possibly you might get bulky. But for most of us, that is not possible with lifting three days a week with increasing how much weight. And I'm not talking about your three to five pounds. That might be somewhere that you start out with three to five pound dumbbells. But if you start lifting 15, 20, 25 pound dumbbells, you will not get bulky. What will happen, especially if you're fueling your body, is that you will actually change your body shape to the way that you want it to be. It will be shapely, it will be, I hate saying thinner, but it's going to be more compact. So you're gonna lose inches because we are going to increase your muscle. And then if you're fueling yourself properly, you'll start burning fat. And that's, I think what most women want is that they have this idea of what they wanna look like and they think they have to do it by starving when it actually is the exact opposite. That if you start fueling your body with carbohydrates, with fat, with protein, and you do a simple workout routine for 30 minutes, not hours, that is gonna get you well on the path that you wanna go. Yes.

Speaker 1 (33:49):

So important. Eat more, exercise more, way less, feel better, be healthier. Do you wanna give any guidelines? What guidelines do you like to offer for people for their protein intake in terms of numbers or you know, palm of the hand size, how many times a day? What do you usually recommend? So

Speaker 3 (34:09):

Usually, you know, palm size is usually a serving size, so anywhere between 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. So right around anywhere between 80 to 100 grams per day. And it just depends on who I'm coaching. And some of my clients, some of my clients take way more than that. But it also depends on their activity level. But that's just a good starting point. You'll see people that say, oh, you only need 30, 40 grams per day. Honestly 80 80 to 100 is where we need to be A midlife.

Speaker 1 (34:44):

Yes. I second that. Amen. <laugh>. And then, you know, at the beginning of the year, people going back to the gym, it can be intimidating to go to some gyms and you see all these big muscle guys working out and it smells like a man's locker room <laugh>. So what you suggest for a woman who really has no experience with weights, it's foreign to her, that whole gym scene is foreign. Maybe she hasn't stepped foot in a gym since grade school. What do you suggest? How does she get started? If

Speaker 3 (35:18):

The gym scene isn't for you, so let's invest in some bands. Let's invest in some dumbbells. You can do a program at home. I work out for the most part at home. My program has daily workouts that we use. I do it at home. I go to the gym once a week when I teach and I'm in and I'm out because I don't like the gym atmosphere anymore. It's changed since covid. And if you're like, okay, I just, I can't get the energy just to go to the gym, I don't wanna deal with traffic, I don't wanna deal with people, but can you get the energy to go stand up and go to maybe a different room and 30 minutes is all you have to do? And I, and someone says, but I haven't worked out, just try five minutes tomorrow, do six minutes the next day, seven minutes.

Speaker 3 (36:08):

You will be surprised how quickly you will get in shape. And what I always get is like, but I'm not in shape enough to work out. You gotta start somewhere. You have to start somewhere and be okay. Being a beginner, we are so worried about being perfectionists all the time. We gotta do this perfectly. We gotta do this perfectly. How about progress? How about a little bit better every single day? And I know it's the new year, I know when someone starts a program, it's like, I'm going to clean out my closet, I'm gonna clean out my pantries, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get up at 4:30 AM. Do what you know you can do and then build upon that. Don't think you have to go all in 120%. Do what you can do today and build upon it tomorrow. And that will set you up for success.

Speaker 1 (36:58):

I noticed something in the materials you submitted before we did the interview. I'm wondering if you can explain what this means. I like what it says, but I'm not sure entirely what it means. Optimize the starting line instead of worrying about the finish line. What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (37:13):

That is one of my favorite books, James. Clear Atomic Habits. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And he kind of says, all right, we look at the finish line, maybe it's the spring and you're going on vacation to a cruise and you're like, oh, I wanna buy this outfit and this outfit and this outfit and I need to be this weight by this time so I can wear this bathing suit or get back into this close. So we're looking at the finish line, we're not looking at what we need to do to get there. So if we can optimize the starting line, maybe it's getting our new pair of shoes and, 'cause we have, we, we don't have a decent pair of walking shoes. Maybe it's getting dumbbells so that we have something to lift. Maybe it's getting some resistance bands, it's getting everything you need to get to the finish line, but you gotta have a starting point first.

Speaker 1 (38:09):

I like that. Focus on what you can do now instead of, oh, I gotta get to this, this point. Because sometimes it can feel like climbing Mount Everest and, but I can go get some dumbbells. I can pull my sneakers out of the back of the closet. I can put out my workout clothes before I go to bed and set my alarm, you know, 10 minutes earlier so I can go in the living room and I don't know, I like sweating to the oldies, something like that. Yeah, yeah. Great. I love that. And you also have this other information that I like and I'm wondering if you can explain. So I was put here on this earth on purpose for a purpose. I love that. What does that mean to

Speaker 3 (38:53):

You? Yeah, we struggle sometimes. I think all of us struggle. We struggle. What's our calling? What do we need to do? Whether it's our job, whether it's our family, whether it's our career and we question everything. And that grounds me. I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And when sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not doing what I should be doing, maybe I'm not helping enough people. And I, one of my clients who's lost 130 pounds posted something yesterday and I was almost in tears. And those things ground me. It's like, you know what? That's my purpose. That's my calling. So I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And I think we all know our calling, we all know our purpose. Sometimes we don't think it's big enough or it's, we think it's just too small. But realize every single thing that you do that is your calling, that is your purpose, is huge and makes an impact.

Speaker 1 (39:43):

It's so true, Amy, and I think that sometimes our purpose is so integral to who we are, that we almost do it effortlessly and then we think it, our purpose has to be hard. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. It has to be some hard journey or degree or something that we accomplish or somebody gives to us. But it's really a part of who we are. And really, I think one of the aspects of health that I love to help women see is their uniqueness. And so understanding their personality from all its aspects, whether it's learning about the Myers-Briggs and human design and their astrology and so on and so on. And really what makes them uniquely them so that they can be on purpose. And sometimes I find that like Bill, not Bill Gates <laugh>, not Bill Gates, the Apple guy, <laugh>, I see Jobs <laugh>, he says, you know, the dots can only be connected going backwards.

Speaker 1 (40:47):

And I recently had an experience, you know, anyone who knows me knows I've been through many transformations in my life professionally and personally. And every time I'm kind of like, okay, what's happening now with this transition? I thought I was on purpose. And I had an experience just last week where I woke up to this even larger purpose <laugh>. And it's like I had to wait 59 years to get that. I couldn't know it at nine, I couldn't know it at 1929. Right. So it's ever unfolding. And if you just keep following the dots or the breadcrumbs as they're laid out. And I do believe that if you're listening to this podcast, this is one of your breadcrumbs. You're here for a reason. You're hearing this for a reason. You're being called to pay attention to your longevity, your vitality. You're being called to pay attention to the fact that we're talking about staying out of a nursing home. <Laugh> or your attention is being awakened because this is a part of you fulfilling your purpose. 'cause You're not gonna fulfill your purpose if you're not healthy. Oh, right.

Speaker 3 (41:56):

So true. Oh yeah. Abs, I, I may have to use that. I love that. That is so true. So true.

Speaker 1 (42:02):

Yeah. And I love this other thing you said today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 (42:12):

Well, I mean, let's look at my nursing homes. Yeah. We don't think about what can happen to us in the future, we don't think about what we should be doing now. We think when we get that diagnosis or something happens is I wish I could have, although I would've should've. Things come to mind. I'm choosing not to have those. So today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I will do what others can't. I suck it up. I sometimes say embrace the suck, suck it up, and I do my lifting workout on a day. I don't feel like it. I get my nutrition on a day where it's rough. I'm busy and there's meetings after meetings or a podcast or client calls. I make sure that I take care of myself first because I can't give to others if I am not taking care of myself.

Speaker 3 (43:04):

And I think as women, we tend to do the opposite. We give, give, give, give. And we think that's what we should be doing and not taking care of ourselves. I take care of myself first so that I can take care of everybody else so that I'm able to coach, be able to be a great, a pharmacist, a fitness instructor, and then in 20, 30 years when there's others my age who maybe can't stand, maybe are in a nursing home, planning on being in Costa Rica on a beach somewhere. So <laugh>, I mean, I'm planning on being 80, 90 years old and power walking and enjoying life and not being in a chair watching it go by.

Speaker 1 (43:50):

Yeah. So I think that's a great call to everybody to pay attention. I think it's a great place to end. You have an amazing five day blueprint, five day fat loss blueprint. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about what they're gonna find there and also all the places they can then connect with you online? Sure.

Speaker 3 (44:09):

The best places I'll give you two. One is my website, amy k wilson.com. And then I'm known as the nutrition coach pharmacist on Instagram. So on my website, amy k wilson.com or Instagram, the nutrition coach pharmacist. So what I am giving you is a five day blueprint that has lots of recipes and also has two more recipes on there. One is my favorite chili recipe. So if you like chili and if you like Wendy's chili, the rumor is that this recipe was taken by Dave Thomas who made it the Wendy's chili recipe. However, this one is easy, this one is healthy and it can be made in the crockpot, Instapot, or stove. And I love things that are easy and nutritious at the same time. I will say on the five day blueprint, just look at it. Just think about maybe taking one day and multiplying those meals by two. So that way you have two days and then there's like 15 different recipes, I think. So that makes it how many days we multiply that too. That's a whole month worth of stuff. So I hope that helps people, maybe get you on the road, get you started. Because sometimes when you listen to these things you're like, well, how do I start? What are you talking about? How do I, what do I do? This will give you some ideas on how to get started.

Speaker 1 (45:26):

Yeah, I love that. And thank you for that. And I would just add, I love making multiple servings of one recipe and then freezing in single serve containers. So when you are busy, you can just grab it and defrost it and you've got a healthy meal and you don't have to go without. So amazing. And I wanna thank you so much for coming on the show, Amy. I have to say, you know, of all my colleagues in medicine, some of the most beleaguered colleagues are the ones who do work in nursing homes because it's kind of a rock and a hard place position there. It's too late for them to really transform anyone and bring them back to the health that they could have had. And so they kind of become despondent and hopeless, those colleagues. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. But you have taken that pain and you are out doing something about it, helping people to stay out of your nursing home. So I say, yay, you and thank you <laugh>, thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 3 (46:25):

This was awesome. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (46:27):

And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I know you're inspired, I know you're gonna go download that blueprint. I know you're gonna make that chili and I wanna know how good it is. I love a good bowl of chili, so tell me about it on social media. Look forward to hearing about your results and look forward to hearing about all the insights that you had and how inspired you are for an amazing 2024 and beyond. Until next week when we'll have another episode, I'll see you then. Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (47:04):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

►Take charge of your health with Amy Wilson's complimentary 5-Day Fat Loss Blueprint. Rethink your food, nourish your soul, and begin your journey to health with her 5-day plan. CLICK HERE.

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

 

Dr. Bradley Nelson | Using the Emotion Code To Clear Energy Blocking Your Hormones and Healing

Welcome to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we explore the world of hormonal health and natural healing for midlife women. Today's guest is the incredibly knowledgeable Dr. Bradley Nelson, creator of The Emotion Code and The Body Code. He's here to teach us how to use these powerful healing systems to clear energy blocks affecting our hormones and embrace the healing process.
  
Dr. Nelson is an expert in identifying and releasing energy blockages that can lead to hormonal imbalances and various chronic conditions. Throughout our conversation, he explains how our bodies are intricately connected to our emotions and how we can unlock our body's ability to heal by addressing these energy disturbances.
  
In this enlightening episode, you can expect to hear:
- The foundational principles behind The Emotion Code and The Body Code
- The link between emotions and hormones in your body
- How energy blockages affect your hormonal health
- Real-life stories of women who experienced transformative healing through Dr. Nelson's techniques
- Practical tools and advice for clearing and rebalancing your energy at home
  
If you're a midlife woman dealing with hormonal imbalances or seeking to explore natural methods of healing, this episode is a must-listen. Dr. Nelson's expertise and personal insights will inspire you to take charge of your healing journey and tap into your body's innate wisdom.
  
Thank you for joining us today at The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and we'll see you in the next episode!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Albert Einstein said, everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. Stay tuned to find out how energy applies to your health and is an essential part of healing your emotions and your physical health and your hormones.

Speaker 2 (00:27):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:20):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I'm Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in to talking with Dr. Bradley Nelson about the emotion code. I am so very honored to have Dr. Nelson on this show. I have been a fan of his for years. Read his book several years ago and know his work is profound and deep and really helps people achieve not only the emotional balance, but the hormonal balance and the physical vitality that they're seeking. It really is the missing link when it comes to health. And we're gonna talk about why in this episode, how these structures that monitor and maintain your hormones, your nervous system, your emotions, why they're so intertwined. And you may have noticed this in ways that might not be obvious to you, but we're gonna talk about some of them and we're gonna talk about why they're so intertwined.

Speaker 1 (02:22):

So if you're trying to aim for vitality, physical vitality and longevity, you're trying to aim for hormonal prosperity and longevity, and you want emotional balance, then this is the episode for you. 'cause Dr. Bradley Nelson has a very unique approach that was ahead of its time when it was introduced. We're gonna talk about this quote from Albert Einstein about why everything is energy. What does that mean for your health? Because I know you're not hearing that at your HMO doctor's office. You don't go for your checkup and they say, did you know that you are energy? But you need to know this. 'cause If you're not addressing it, you're not gonna be able to experience the health that's possible for you. We're gonna talk about why energy medicine is the last great frontier in medicine. And another quote from Nicola Tesla. That's amazing. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Bradley and then we will get started.

Speaker 1 (03:17):

He has a very extensive biography, but every bit is worth reading and talking about. So I'm gonna get into it then we'll have him on the show. So he is a veteran holistic physician, Dr. Chiropractic, Dr. Bradley Nelson. He's one of the world's foremost experts on natural methods of achieving wellness. An international trainer and speaker and author of the bestselling book, the Emotion Code. He has a new book, the Body Code, unlocking the Body's Ability to Heal Itself. You definitely wanna check that up. He was raised in Montana and grew up on the back of a horse. And as a child, he suffered two life-threatening illnesses, both of which were healed, not by traditional western medicine, no surprise there, but by separate alternative methods that tap the power of energy. And these experiences were to shape his life going forward In college, he studied computer programming and decided to pursue business as a career.

Speaker 1 (04:11):

But after entering the MBA program at Brigham Young, he had an epiphany. He had asked God for guidance about his future, and one night he woke up and his mind was overflowing with thoughts of service to mankind and to humanity. Maybe you have that too, and if you do, you need to pay attention to it. And the feelings were absolutely overwhelming. His head was filled with thoughts of healing and helping the world. A voice that was crystal clear spoke to him saying, this is a sacred calling. So he entered, dropped outta MBA, entered life Chiropractic College West in California, and graduated with honors. He began practicing as a holistic chiropractic physician and saw a wide variety of patients, many of whom had seemingly incurable conditions that he remembered learning about the computer that is the brain, the supercomputer, and how amazing it would be to access the data that's stored there, to unlock keys to help these people who had seemingly incurable conditions to heal.

Speaker 1 (05:10):

And he started doing extensive study and disciplines such as ancient medical practices, psychology and quantum physics, as well as the guidance of his own spiritual practice. And he discovered that packets of unprocessed emotion were the basis of most conditions. Have you ever felt like, well, that feeling is in me and I always feel that same feeling and it never seems to change or go away regardless of circumstances. If you haven't realized that most people do feel that they regurgitate the same feelings over and over, they don't realize it. So look back and think the body is essentially energy and emotion is energy as well. When the energy of a negative emotion is trapped in the body in a packet, it impacts the body's self-healing system. And these trapped emotions are almost like tumors and can obstruct healing at their worst. They actually create disease and physical problems.

Speaker 1 (06:02):

So he designed a process using this knowledge and has helped thousands of people, he is trained thousands in how to do these processes as well, to release their trapped emotions, to harness the intrinsic genius of his patient's subconscious minds, to identify the trapped emotion in the subconscious and use the laws of energy and electromagnetic fields and employ the governing meridian to release them. If you're not sure what that is, don't worry. Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about it. And it's pretty sophisticated and subtle knowledge, but he's made it so simple that even a child can do it. And the process is called the emotion code. You remove emotional energies that have clustered in the body around the heart, interfering with one's ability to find love, vitality, and healing success. And we're gonna dive into what the heart wall is, where these packets are, how do you know if you have them, what do you do about it? And we're just gonna go all over the place with Dr. Brad because he is a wealth of knowledge. He's also gonna touch on his new book, the Body Code, and all the training that he has. He has a free gift for you that's gonna help elucidate some of this. So without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Bradley Nelson to the show.

Speaker 3 (07:18):

Thank you for having me on Kier, and I really appreciate it. It's great to be here.

Speaker 1 (07:22):

I came across your work a few years ago and the book The Emotion Code, and it really has transformed my way of thinking about health and emotions and so many things. I think it's revolutionary and really can help so many women of every age, but particularly at midlife and beyond. That's really my focus. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about, 'cause this concept of emotions being trapped, emotions are kind of a mystery to a lot of women. <Laugh>. They don't realize that their hormones and nervous system are intricately involved with their emotional state and regulation, or lack thereof. So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about your journey to discovering what you discovered that you present in the emotion code. And there's so many things I wanna ask you, and that's a jam packed question, but start wherever you would like.

Speaker 3 (08:22):

Okay, absolutely. Well, I practiced as a holistic physician for about 18 years, and I was really obsessed with getting to the underlying causes of my patient's problems. And I was seeing all kinds of patients of all ages and with all kinds of physical and mental and emotional issues. And I was studying things, ancient methods of healing and modern methods. And I was doing everything I could to learn everything I could about how to fix my patients. And, I was also prayerful. Before I'd work on a patient, I would, I would actually pray silently. You know, it was just a momentary pause. Really. Nobody ever knew that I was asking for help from up above for people. That's, but that was really interesting because over those 18 years, there were a number of occasions where information would suddenly just flood into me about what to do and how to help someone.

Speaker 3 (09:14):

And what I learned was that all of my patients, no matter how young or old they were, no matter what they were suffering from, no matter what their symptoms were, they all had one thing in common. And that was, they were all suffering from the effects of their emotional baggage. And let me explain how that works. 'cause It, it's, it's kind of a strange thing. We're not used to thinking about emotional baggage. I mean, we use that phrase, right, Kieran, we, we might say, well, you know, a gal, she's got a lot of emotional baggage and that guy's got a lot of emotional baggage. Well, we all have emotional baggage. But what we're now finally beginning to understand in the 21st century is what our emotional baggage is, number one. And number two, what that emotional baggage is actually doing to us. So let me explain.

Speaker 3 (10:03):

First of all, you have to understand that these bodies of ours, even though they seem solid and three dimensional, the reality of it is if you talk to a physicist, especially someone who is working with quantum physics, they will tell you, well, the body really is an energy field. I mean, if you, if you zoom in, for example, on your hand and you zoom in, magnify your hand with a big microscope, and you go past the level of the cells and pass the organelles and pass the molecules until you're eventually looking at a single individual atom, the molecules are made of atoms. We're made of atoms, right? But if you were to look at that atom and look inside that atom, you'd see there's really nothing there. It's just empty space. It's just energy. And you'd see that the next atom is a long distance away.

Speaker 3 (10:49):

And so really, these bodies of ours are made of atoms which are made really of nothing but pure energy. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around that, but that is the truth of our existence. And in fact, as strange as it is, it gets even stranger, some quantum physicists recently, I think, to make a point, to try to help the rest of us understand the true nature of our reality. They said that if you could remove all the empty space from everyone's body on earth, you could fit all 7.8 billion people in the world into a box the size of a sugar cube. Right? It's kind of mind blowing. But that's really the reality of who we are. And so, even though our bodies seem solid, they really are energy fields. Our body, you know, your body is, is a very complex energy field.

Speaker 3 (11:33):

But when you're feeling an emotion, what's going on is that every emotion has its own specific frequency and it's own vibration. And so if you're feeling an emotion of anger, that's a different frequency than sadness and so on. And if you're feeling that emotion and that emotion is very powerful, that energy, that vibration may become trapped in the body. There are two situations where this typically occurs. If the emotion's very powerful or if we make it very powerful, we choose to become really upset, which of course we've all done. Or if an emotion coming up for you and you decide you're gonna not allow that, and you just stuff that emotion and you bury it so that you can move on with your life, then that's unexpressed. And so we end up with these emotional energies trapped in our bodies. The first time that I saw this actually was a woman that thought she was having a heart attack, and she I'd seen her before, but it had been a few months.

Speaker 3 (12:27):

And one day she comes in, she's got numbness on the left side of her face, her left arm's totally numb. She's got crushing chest pain, difficulty breathing. I told my staff, look, we might need an ambulance. We were right next to a medical center, so I knew we could get one really quickly. So I brought her into a room and I started doing some testing. Now with the emotion code, what we do is we ask questions and we get answers from the body by using muscle testing. And so, so if you can imagine, I have her holding her arm out parallel to the floor, and I'm asking questions. And her subconscious mind is responding with strength for yes. Or weak for No, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (13:06):

Yes. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. Okay, but applied kinesiology style.

Speaker 3 (13:10):

Yeah, yeah. Kinesthetic, yeah. Whatever you wanna call it. Anyway, so I'm asking questions, well, do you have a trapped emotion that's contributing to your symptoms? And the answer was yes. And then we have a chart of emotions in the emotion code that looks like this. And there are, that's legible or visible. There's 60 emotions on here. Yes. And,

Speaker 1 (13:28):

And actually Dr. Brad has a link we'll give you at the end of the show where you can go and view this and actually download it. So go ahead, <laugh>.

Speaker 3 (13:36):

Yeah. So anyway, so I asked, do you have a trapped emotion that's contributing to these symptoms? And the answer was, yes, very strong. And so I found very quickly the answer was the emotion was grief, and then we needed to know a little more. And so I tested a little more and found out that this had actually occurred. This emotional energy became trapped in her body three years before. And all of a sudden she breaks down crying. And she said, I can't believe that's affecting me. She said, I thought I dealt with all that. And I said, well, what happened to you? She said that three years before her husband had an affair and or was having an affair. And she found out about it and then confronted him with the evidence and the marriage blew up. And she was so betrayed. She was really in love with him, thought she was gonna be with him forever, right?

Speaker 3 (14:22):

And that was the end of that. And so they ended up getting a divorce, and then she spent a year in therapy dealing with it, and had even recently gotten remarried. So as far as she was concerned, that was just her ex and he betrayed her. And that was, she was trying to put it behind her. But as far as her body was concerned, that betrayal, that grief that was so powerful three years before was still there, still right there. And in fact, when I released that energy, and it just takes a few seconds, we just swipe down the middle of the back with a magnet or your hand, the feeling came back into her face and into her arm within about three seconds. And all of a sudden, the crushing chest pain, difficulty breathing, it was all just gone. And she left the office about 10 minutes later after joking with me and my staff.

Speaker 3 (15:09):

And then I remember sitting at my desk after she left, thinking, what in the world? What did I just witness? How is that possible? Now you think about your own life, right? You think about the things that you have been through, because we have all been through things. We've all been through things we'd rather not have gone through. You know, we've been through deaths in the family, we've been through breakups. A lot of us have been through divorces. We've had problems with our kids and injuries and accidents and all kinds of things. And so the emotions that we experience, sometimes those can stay with us. And what I found in practice that's just so unbelievable is that our emotional baggage is 90% of the time the reason for physical pain. It's the reason why people gain weight and can't lose it. It's one of the reasons, it's a reason behind every disease process that we've seen now in 35 years.

Speaker 3 (16:04):

Think about that. So if you've been diagnosed with a disease, I can guarantee you there is an emotional component to that disease process, and you can do everything else, right? But if you miss that component, then you might not get over the disease, because that's a piece of that puzzle. And of course, western medicine is still a number of years away from recognizing this. But, this is the reality. And so getting rid of that emotional baggage is one of the most amazing, one of the best things you can actually do for yourself, for your physical health, for your mental health and your emotional health.

Speaker 1 (16:42):

Yes. It's astounding to me. And so when you say the energy, the emotional baggage, it's almost like the emotions are energy in motion, and these, if these emotions aren't allowed to go through the cycle, that they go through and dissipate and be metabolized, that they stay there, almost like I envision these little packets, kind of quantum packets of energy that are sealed off from the rest of the system. Is that how you would explain it?

Speaker 3 (17:13):

Yeah, that's actually a really great way to explain it. I mean, there's an emotional process. I call it the emotional loop that we go through. When an emotion starts to be felt, if you think about what happens, first of all, some kind of stimulus occurs. Someone says something to you, or you see something, or you think something or hear something, an emotion starts to automatically come up for you. And most of the time we allow that emotion to come up and we, you know, maybe think the thoughts that go along with that emotion or feel the physical sensations with that. And then most of the time we allow that energy to kind of dissipate and go away. And so that emotional loop opens and we feel the emotion and we allow it to dissipate. And the loop closes on that experience, and that experience is over and ready for the next one.

Speaker 3 (17:58):

And we do this all the time, every day, right? But again, if that emotion is coming up and we decide, no, I'm not gonna go there, that's a bad emotion. I don't have time, whatever. And we stuff that emotion, then that energy that's been trying to express is suspended in the body in some way. And we don't really understand how this works. But the other, the other circumstances, if an emotion comes up and it's just so intense or so overpowering, you know, your parents die unexpectedly or suddenly, your husband asks you for a divorce or a child is hurt in a terrible accident or, you know, whatever. Sometimes the emotion is just so powerful, we can't really deal with it. And that energy becomes trapped in the body in that way too. Or sometimes an emotion comes up and we decide that we're going to empower that emotion and really go over the top by getting really upset.

Speaker 3 (18:49):

We've all done that too. And that can also amplify that energy. So that normal process, almost like breathing in the emotional feeling and then breathing it out, that gets stuck. And so the loop then stays open. And so we have an open loop for that emotional experience. And so the emotion code is just a way to find these open loops and close them. And, but it's, it's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable how powerful this is. And that's what's driving the success of this all over the world. You know, for example they just sent me this book in Vietnamese. I just got nice, this is, you know, this is Mandarin. I've got on the wall behind me. I've got all kinds of books from all over the world. We were just in Japan. This is a book in Japanese, you know, but it's going all over the world. And the reason why is because it's a very, very simple, easy method that anyone can use. So we certify people in this method. We've got people all over the world. We've certified over 12,000 people in the emotion code in 80 countries or so. But you can actually do this yourself as well. And so you can begin to heal your own emotional baggage. And, you know, if you think that you don't have emotional baggage, then I regret to inform you <laugh> that you do,

Speaker 1 (20:02):

Right? That would be a question I would ask you, because some people listening are gonna think, I don't have that. And you know, in my experience, <laugh>, the more education and training I've had in this field, and the more I've gotten my own energetic training and my own energetic path of healing, the more I realize that we really are emotion-phobic as a society. And I would say emotionally constipated. We don't know what to do with our emotions. We suppress them, we deny them, we <laugh>, we do anything but honor them and feel them. So the average person listening right now is thinking, oh, that's not me. I don't have that. So what would you say to her?

Speaker 3 (20:45):

Well, you know, I have met people in my life that have had a lot less trapped emotions. And those are the kind of people that are really unflappable, that are able to kind of maintain an even keel no matter what's going on in their lives. Even those people, and they're kind of rare, really especially in this culture in the US I think they're, they're prone to, to develop less trapped emotions. But, you know, even those people have emotional baggage. The average adult in our experience has probably around 300 separate emotional energies that have become trapped in their bodies. And so it's a process of learning how to release these. And then you can have someone help you to get rid of your emotional baggage, or you can do it yourself. It's easy enough that kids are doing it. In fact, let me share a story with you.

Speaker 3 (21:37):

Sure. We were, we were at an event sometime back and a woman told us this story. She said that she started reading the emotion code book, and she had the book on audio and started listening to it and reading it. And her son started reading it and listening to it. And he started practicing with his friends, and she thought she thought it was cute. And a couple days go by, or sorry, a couple weeks go by, and one day the phone rings, she answers the phone, and it's a woman calling her who identifies herself as the mother of one of her son's friends. And she said, listen, my son has had a severe phobia of water all of his life, and you know, you can have a phobia to anything. And she said, she said, it's really been very disruptive to our life and to his life, and we've tried everything.

Speaker 3 (22:18):

We've taken him to everybody we could think of for years, and nothing's ever touched this. She said, right now I'm at the community pool. And she said, my son is out playing in the water, the other boys, for the first time in his life, she said, your son did this. How is this even possible? What in the world is he doing? Well, those two boys are only 11 years old. That's how easy this can be. And yet how incredibly life-changing it can be because you see, our behaviors are largely governed by the emotional baggage that we've picked up during our life. Who knows what happened to him. Maybe he was stuck in the womb a little too long, you know, or maybe he had an experience where he thought he was gonna drown when he was a baby. And so I don't know what the emotion was, but you can develop trapped emotions in the womb as a baby.

Speaker 3 (23:04):

It's even possible. In fact, this is something that's not unusual at all. It's even possible for us to inherit emotional energy at conception from mom or dad that they might have gotten a conception from their mom or dad. And these can go back for many generations. And so it's so interesting because, you know, the reason right now that you might be having trouble finding love or maybe the reason why you're having a hard time making money, it might be because, you know, maybe your great-great-great grandfather was thrown into a poor house. Or maybe, maybe your ninth grade grandmother was jilted at the altar, and that energy's been passing down your line and it's in you now. It's really wild, but it's easy to find even these kinds of things and release them. So yeah, this work is so fun, and it's changing lives all over the world.

Speaker 1 (23:51):

It is. It's fascinating. And you know, as you're talking, and I'm realizing some people are thinking, well, this is a little woo woo for me, Kieran, and I'm, what I'm gonna say is, woo woo is the new must do. Science is validating and has validated all of these things that Dr. Bradley's talking about. So if you're not, if you didn't get the memo, you need to get on board the train because this is what's keeping you from the physical health that you want, the life that you want. It's what's keeping you from everything that you want. I'm wondering if you can talk maybe a little bit about the scientific research that has confirmed many of the connections between emotions and health, if you wanna touch on that. Sure.

Speaker 3 (24:35):

Well, let's first of all talk about inherited trapped emotions. Since we were just talking about that. One of the very first studies that started to shed some light on this, and that blew a lot of people's minds, was a study that was done, I think it was about 15 years ago, where they were studying mice. And what they would do is they would, they would subject mice to an electrical shock. And at the, and which sounds terrible, but it, I don't think it was too bad. But at the same time that they were giving them this electrical shock, they would blow the smell, the scent of cherry blossom into their cages. And so after doing that, a few times, the mice became conditioned to the smell of cherry blossom. And so then all they had to do, of course, was just blow that smell into their cage, and they'd have a fear reaction, right?

Speaker 3 (25:22):

Well, they found that the offspring of these mice had that same kind of fear reaction. So even though mice, several generations down the line, had never smelled cherry blossoms in their entire lives, when they would give them that scent to smell, they'd have a fear reaction. And they were trying to figure out, well, how in the world is this happening? How are these mice teaching their offspring to be aware and to be scared of cherry blossom scent? So what they did is they took sperm from these mice that had been sensitized. They took that sperm across the campus, an impregnated female mice that had never been shocked, and that had never smelled cherry blossom. And they found that the offspring of those female mice were also sensitized. And so scientists are trying to figure this out still to this day. I mean, they're looking at the DNA into the microscope and trying to figure out how in the world this is happening?

Speaker 3 (26:18):

But we know how it's happening. It's because of these energies. It's a quantum phenomenon. You see, it's trapped emotional energy. And so there have been books written about, for example, the offspring of the, the grandchildren, for example, of Holocaust survivors. And they find that their DNA is a little different and that they're more susceptible to disease and so on. They're very different from the normal population. And the only possible explanation is what the grandparents went through in the Holocaust and how they survived that. So anyway, there are lots of studies that have been done, an amazing study that was done on childhood trauma that found that if you experienced trauma as a child, if you were bullied or abused in some way, then the odds of you suffering from some major disease years down the road is greatly enhanced. And so there's lots and lots of studies that have been done.

Speaker 3 (27:10):

We did our own study actually with post-traumatic stress and depression, and found that within about three weeks using the emotion code, the people that were in our study reported improvement in their symptoms of about 36 to 37% within about three weeks. So if you're dealing with depression or PTSD, what we're finding is that emotional baggage is the underlying cause of these things. Depression, anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, PTSD, eating disorders, self-sabotage of all kinds. And of course, if we bring that back around to hormones, you might think that, well, hormones are a completely separate thing. But lemme tell you, emotional baggage is massively important in the regulation of your hormones and the production of your hormones. When you have emotional baggage, what it can do is it can really dramatically interfere with the production and the normal flow of a whole hormonal system.

Speaker 3 (28:13):

One of the things that I used to do when I was in practice, and since then too, although I don't practice anymore, because we, we mainly just teach people around the world, but I've worked a lot with women who could not conceive. And of course, you think about how important hormones are to conception and carrying a child. Well, the last, the last three women that I worked with over the last few years all ended up having triplets <laugh>, which I wasn't sure. I, you know, I wasn't sure if I should apologize or what, but <laugh>, you know, <laugh>. But yeah. But if you think about it, if you think about this, the, the hormone system in, in the female body, if you think about reproduction, what I used to tell my female patients is that the male re reproductive system is kind of like a tractor and somebody's wired the, the throttle open, and it's, there's no one on it.

Speaker 3 (29:04):

It's just chugging its way, you know, along the female reproductive system on the other hand is like a Formula One race car, and it's got all these different moving parts and components. And if everything is working well, then it can go 200 miles an hour and you can conceive and you can have a child and so on. But, but if there's anything that's not quite right, then things aren't gonna work. And so I've seen cases where I'm convinced one single trapped emotion was enough to stop the whole process. In fact, it's so interesting. We had a young woman who came to us a number of years ago who was suffering from Vaginismus. She'd been married about six months, and she told us that she'd been sexually abused as a child, but she was suffering from Vaginismus. So she and her husband had not been able to consummate their marriage. They had not been able to have sex, because of course, vaginismus is where the, the vaginal opening just tightens down, nothing's getting in there. And so we worked on her, released some trapped emotions, and her mother called us a couple of days later. She said, listen, she said, I just want you to know whatever you did worked, because she said everything's working, said her husband's coming home from, you know, he's coming home and spending lunch at, at home. Now they're trying to catch up.

Speaker 1 (30:17):

Oh, that's great. Yes, most women probably aren't aware. And I do just wanna tie that in a little more to what Dr. Bradley's saying is that your emotions are regulated primarily in your midbrain and the amygdala and your nervous system and your hormones are also regulated from the same area. So these brain structures that regulate emotions, your nervous system and your hormones are very interrelated and tightly controlled in that area. And imbalance in one is going to affect the other, particularly when it comes to negative emotions. It will affect your cortisol primarily. And then, you know, I call cortisol queen cortisol, she will be served <laugh> by any means necessary, and she's gonna take down your female hormones, your estrogen, your progesterone, your male hormone, testosterone, and really dysregulate the whole system in order for survival, which depends on cortisol. So I just wanted to give you all a little bit of a concrete reference point as to how important this is.

Speaker 1 (31:27):

And, and again, to anyone who's saying, oh, this is woo woo, I love this quote you shared from Albert Einstein that I wanna share with everyone. Everything is energy, and that is all there is to it match the frequency of the reality you want. And you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy, this is physics. Albert Einstein said it a long time ago, <laugh>, and now we're just starting to, to really understand what many ancient cultures have known for eons that, like Dr. Mayman, Oz says, energy medicine is the last great frontier in medicine, right?

Speaker 3 (32:10):

Yes. In fact, Einstein himself said, the medicine of the future will be the medicine of frequencies because he understood what our bodies really are. And it's so fascinating. In fact, Nicola Tesla, again, you know, one of the most brilliant people that ever lived said, if you wanna understand the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. And so it's such an exciting time, really, Kieran, because we're really just now beginning to understand and put into practical use these ideas. And it's what I've been spending my whole career on, trying to understand this and trying to figure out how our bodies actually work. And so that's that's why I wrote the emotion code book, was because I saw what was happening with my own patients and what a, what a dramatic difference this was making for people in terms of their ability to get over disease processes and to be able to feel more love and to be able to have a happier life and get rid of all of these mental and emotional, physical issues. It's really unbelievable. I mean, 80% of the physical and, and mental emotional issues that we have are really because of our emotional baggage, the things we've gone through, or mm-hmm. <Affirmative> in many cases, the things our grandparents went through, or great-great-grandparents or whatever. So, the beauty of this is that it's simple and anybody can use it, and it's something that, again, even kids you know, can use. And, and so fun stuff. And

Speaker 1 (33:42):

How would somebody go about starting to address this? They hear what you're saying, they get it, they probably even know they have some emotional baggage. They've got some health issues, they're convinced. And how do they go about starting to work with this?

Speaker 3 (33:59):

We have a free gift for Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>, all of you. And that is, you can go to our website@emotioncodegift.com. And if you go to emotion code gift.com, I'll go there really quick. Emotion code GIF t.com. And what we have there is something that we call the emotion code starter kit. So what you get is you get the first two chapters of the Emotion code book, and this is all free. You get the chart, and you also get a video series, it's called Intro to Energy Healing. We created this so that people can kind of get their feet wet and it doesn't cost anything. You can read the first couple of chapters of the book and see if you wanna read the rest of it. Of course, the book's available on Amazon and Audible and everywhere books are sold, you know, Barnes and Noble and so on. This will kind of give you more information about how this really works, and you'll learn how you can start to release this emotional baggage that you have. We all have it.

Speaker 1 (34:54):

So I'm curious if you've looked at any plant medicine psychedelics. I think they just submitted approval to the FDA for MDMA, for the indication, PTSD assisted psychotherapy, and there's a lot of research on psilocybin, and there's a big upswing in the use of plant medicines to help people heal emotionally. And one thing that I've always thought since reading your book was, but what about that you actually need to, emotions are a certain type of intelligence, and they have messages that need to be felt and honored. They, they're kind of gifts that give us information. And if you're using other techniques to change the energy of them, have they served their purpose? And are you doing some type of bypass, is my question. So I guess it's a two part question. One, if you're using energy techniques to clear these, are you bypassing their original intent? And is that wholly sufficient to heal them? And then my other question would be around kind of comparing and contrasting the use of these technologies that you've developed with psychedelics. Two part question.

Speaker 3 (36:07):

Okay. Well, first of all, first of all, yeah, you're absolutely right. When we experience an emotion, that emotion is coming up as a response to some kind of stimuli. And the emotion that we're feeling is the result of not only what's going on in that moment, but what's gone on in the past. And also the energy whatever emotional energy is trapped in the body, because remember, every emotion has its own particular frequency and its own particular vibration. And so if you're feeling an emotion of anger, that's a specific frequency different from grief and so on. So when that emotion is coming up for you, that is partly because of other energies that are trapped in the body. And one of the things that we find is that when you remove these trapped emotions, what happens is you're not as likely to experience that emotion anymore, or that feeling.

Speaker 3 (36:56):

To give you an example, I remember I had a patient that came in one day, we were working with her and found that she had a trapped emotion of resentment, and we traced it back to when she was 18 years old. And she said, oh, yeah, I know exactly what that's about. And she said, when I was in high school, I always resented this cheerleader. And she said, it's been 20 years now or so since I got outta high school. But she said, I don't, and she said, I don't even remember why I resented her, but she said, even now if I think about that girl, I can feel the resentment kind of swell up inside of me. And she said, I've always resented her, and I, I I still do. And so we released the trapped emotion of resentment from her, and a couple days later she came back in and she said, you know, last night I was with a friend and that girl's name came up.

Speaker 3 (37:41):

And for the first time, I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel that resentment. So if you think about it, what we're doing with the emotion code is we are, we're removing the emotional energies. And it's all really, in my opinion, it's really all about our learning. Because you see, most of us, most people believe that they're at the mercy of their emotions. That's, that there's really not anything they can do. The emotions that they experience are carrying them from one place to another. And, and they're, they're kind of a victim of that. But I think that what we are, what we're part of what we're here to learn is that we have control and we can choose our emotions for the most part, most of the time we can choose higher emotions. We can choose curiosity instead of anger. We can choose, you know, like for example, my wife and I have raised seven kids, and we would, that's one thing we would do when a child would do some stupid thing.

Speaker 3 (38:40):

We would look at each other and say, well, okay, I'm curious, how long do you think this child is gonna keep doing this kind of thing? Well, I don't know, honey, I'm curious too. What do you think? So we can choose higher emotions, and I think that that's a big reason why we're here, is to, to learn ultimately, really to choose unconditional love and total acceptance for people instead of these lower energies, these lower vibrations. So that's part of it. I think that as far as, so in other words, it's all for our learning. I think when we find emotional energy that's become trapped in the body, that's essentially like an open loop from abuse or divorce or whatever it might be. Ultimately, what does it do? Well, it's a burden that we have that we're carrying that's interfering with the pure expression, that is that energy field. That is what we are. So as we release those, that pure essence of who we are becomes more able to express. And we haven't actually even talked about the heart wall, but that's a whole nother thing.

Speaker 1 (39:45):

Let's talk about that

Speaker 3 (39:46):

<Laugh>. Okay.

Speaker 1 (39:47):

Do we have, can we talk about it in like eight minutes?

Speaker 3 (39:51):

I think we can, yeah. So yeah,

Speaker 1 (39:53):

That would be great.

Speaker 3 (39:53):

Okay. So when doctors first started doing heart transplants, it didn't take long before they noticed. People would come back in and they would report strange things like their taste in music or food or sports had totally changed, or they would've memories of being in places that they never in their life had ever visited. And there are books written about this. And in every case where these families were connected with the donor, or sorry, with the when these transplant recipients were connected with the, the families or the relatives of the heart donor, they would find out that, well, yes, our son's a baseball player, and now you'll love baseball. Maybe that's why, or, yeah, our daughter visited Rome every year. It was her favorite city in the world. Now you have memories of being in Rome, but you say you've never ever visited Rome.

Speaker 3 (40:31):

So the heart has something called cellular memory. The heart is the second brain we believe now of the ancients . The heart was the seed of the soul and the source of love and creativity and romance. And we've always kind of just thought that those ideas were just poetic license. But now we're beginning to realize that there's actually truth there. And in fact, they now know that there is something called the little brain in the heart that's, there's gray matter and white matter there. And the messages that are going between the brain and the heart are predominantly from the heart to the brain. And so we think now that the brain in your head is obeying the messages that are being sent by the brain in your heart, well, here's what happens when you feel like your heart is going to break. We've all felt that at one point or another, when that's going on and you're feeling that pressure on your chest, you're really deeply suffering.

Speaker 3 (41:18):

Someone's really hurting you, you're deep in grief or whatever it is, your heart's under assault at that point. And so the subconscious mind will gather emotional energies around the heart to protect the heart and those energies form into something that we call a heart wall. And a heart wall is an energy field that is surrounding the heart. And I never in my wildest dreams would've ever imagined this, but this is a real thing. And 93% of people have put up this wall. Now, when you have a heart wall, what happens is it makes it much more difficult for you to truly connect on a heart to heart level with other people. It makes it more difficult for you to find love, to stay in love. It makes it more difficult for you to manifest that perfect blueprint for your life that I believe lies within that heart of yours.

Speaker 3 (42:07):

'Cause I think the heart is really the seed of the subconscious. And what we find is that when that wall is taken down, people fall in love who never thought they would, people have creative ideas that start to flow spontaneously to them. All kinds of amazing things happen. And that's, that really truly is one of the big driving forces behind the success of this book all over the world, is that when people get those emotional energies removed from around their heart, all of a sudden they may feel peace for the first time in their life. They may be able to feel, I mean, these are things from people, from people who have told us these things that mm-hmm, <affirmative> for the first time. Sometimes they're able to feel experience, they're able to experience things like joy or love. It's the most important part of the emotion code. And, and in fact, it is a major, major cause. I will believe the single biggest underlying cause of depression, the worst cases of depression that I've seen in my career. People who were, who had to decide every day if they were gonna take their life and or live one more day by removing that wall around their heart. I've seen those people turn around it literally in a matter of days, completely. Really.

Speaker 1 (43:13):

So how might someone suspect that they have a heart wall?

Speaker 3 (43:17):

Well, if you can think back to a time in your life when you felt like your heart was going to break, if you bend through some heartbreaking things, like I said, 93% of people in our experience have put up a wall like this. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. And I mean, I've seen people who were celibate, who had sworn off ever having a relationship. I've seen them within a matter of weeks, find the right person and, and fall in love. I mean, it's unbelievable, really. But it's true.

Speaker 1 (43:46):

Yeah, I remember reading about it in the book and it makes sense to me. I do feel I've been having experiences lately. I share very openly about my experiences on the show. And I, but I haven't shared this, I haven't talked about it, but I've been having this kundalini experience, and that really starts at the base of the spine and then starts reaching up and going through the heart. And the rush of opening that I've experienced during some of these in the heart area is a different experience of the heart energy that I've ever had. And I imagine what you're talking about is kind of like that. It's this opening and freeing of, I see the heart kind of as a rose, and that the energy can flow more freely. And like you're saying, that there's gray matter and white matter in there, and it really is the brain. I know. We think this lob of fat that we carry around on our <laugh> in our heads is the king and queen of everything. But I don't think that's the case. I agree with you. It's probably more visceral and in our chest, like in our heart.

Speaker 3 (44:56):

Yeah. I believe that we really are designed to be heart-based beings. We're designed, I think, to live from our hearts. But somewhere along the line that we've gotten to this point where most people are living from their brain. They're trying to create their perfect life by using this analog computer. But the software for us, really, our pure essence lies within our hearts. And it's so fascinating because when that wall is taken down, the things that we see happening, there's lots of, I mean, we've got 10,000 plus maybe 20,000 testimonials now from people around the world about this kind of thing. And you can see some of those on our website@discoverhealing.com. But it's the most amazing thing. And by the way, I didn't mention this, but one of the most beautiful things about the emotion code is that if you learn how to use it for people, you automatically know how to use it for animals as well. And it's phenomenally powerful for animals. You've got an animal that's got a physical or a behavioral issue, you can probably fix that in short order with the emotion code. I mean, it's, there's a whole chapter in both the emotion code book and the body code book about animals. And it's a great proof of this work because there's no placebo effect with animals. They're just animals. And yet we see that they have emotional baggage. And getting rid of that baggage can make an enormous difference for them too, if

Speaker 1 (46:14):

Have pets. Yes, there are so many applications, pets, you can treat your family. And I love that in the book. You really, you really can do this yourself. It's very easy to do and applicable. So we will have the link for the free gift in the show notes. But if you'd like to give that again, give all the places, share all the places that people could find out more and find you online, find the book. I so appreciate you coming on the show and sharing this brilliant technology that you have discovered, developed, I'm not sure which, but it's, it's very beautiful and very valuable. So thank you so much for sharing it.

Speaker 3 (46:54):

Well, thank you. And people can, can find us@discoverhealing.com. That's our main website, discover healing.com. You can go to emotion code gift.com and get the first couple chapters of the book for free. My personal blog is Dr. Bradley nelson.com. It's D-R-B-R-E-D-L-E-Y-N-E-L-S-O n.com. And of course, we're all over the, you know, social media too. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter and so on.

Speaker 1 (47:18):

Great. Perfect. So I highly recommend that you go and look at the free gift, read the first couple chapters of the book. Like I said, the chart that Dr Bradley showed earlier is there, you can read that chart and you can get started working on your heart, well, your emotional baggage, which will help you with your hormones. Thank you again so much for joining me today for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I look forward to seeing you on social media and hearing how you are applying the things that you've learned today and the results that you're experiencing. I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (48:02):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Begin unpacking your unwanted emotional baggage – for good!
Get The Emotion Code Starter Kit now and receive Energy Healing Enrichment emails - CLICK HERE

 

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

Dr. Traci Potterf | A Holistic & Global Approach To Addressing Anxiety By Befriending Your Body & Your Life

On this empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we are thrilled to introduce our special guest, Dr. Traci Potterf – a compassionate and relatable Functional Medicine Anxiety Detective, who has dedicated her life to helping others understand and overcome their anxiety through holistic approaches.

Dr. Potterf's own personal journey with anxiety led her to discover the world of functional medicine, and she is now on a mission to share her story and expertise in order to help others struggling with the same issues. With a unique focus on "befriending your body and your life", Dr. Potterf delves into the topic of anxiety from a fresh, empathetic and inspiring perspective.

In this captivating episode, we explore:

- Identifying hidden causes of anxiety: Learn how Dr. Traci Potterf's own experience battling anxiety inspired her to specialize in functional medicine and searching for the root causes of this all-too-common condition.

- Natural solutions for addressing anxiety: Dr. Traci Potterf shares her expertise on various holistic and natural approaches to overcoming anxiety, from nutrition and supplements to mindfulness practices, prioritizing self-care, and more.

- Befriending your body and your life: Harness your inner self and learn to befriend your body and your life in order to take control of your anxiety and live a life full of happiness, balance, and health.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn invaluable insights from an inspiring and approachable authority in the field of functional medicine. Dr. Traci Potterf’s quote from the episode could not be more poignant: "It's time to reclaim our power and take control of our anxiety."

Take a step towards taking control of your anxiety – tune into this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast and find your path to a healthier, more balanced life. Connect with Dr. Traci Potterf and embrace her unique perspective on overcoming anxiety today!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

I said to my body softly, I want to be your friend. It took a long breath and replied, I have been waiting my whole life for this Naira Wahid. Stay tuned to discover a unique holistic approach to befriending your anxiety and healing it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:13):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into a holistic and global approach to addressing anxiety by befriending your body and your life. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? If you're suffering with anxiety, I know it can be debilitating. I used to suffer with anxiety as well and found my way out. And my guest today, Dr. Tracy Potterf, really has a unique perspective on healing anxiety. We talked about it. Sure, it's all the things I like to talk about and we do cover those, but it's so much more and she really has a unique perspective based on her background, which I'll tell you a little bit about and we'll really dive into it. And this concept, like I shared in the teaser of befriending your body who has been waiting her whole life for you to turn her attention to her and to talk to her and to listen to her might be new to you, but it's really revolutionary and foundational when it comes to not only healing anxiety, but anything and everything that's plaguing you physically, mentally, and emotionally. So stay tuned to find out more. I will tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Dr. Tracy Potter is a functional medicine anxiety detective who helps growth-minded people find and fix the hidden causes with natural solutions so they can live a limitless life at peace in their own skin. As a psychiatrist daughter, former medical anthropologist and recovered debilitating anxiety sufferer, she shares a unique way out of the mental health epidemic with the world. Please help me welcome Dr. Tracy Potterf to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:13):

Hey there. Thank you for letting me be a guest on your show.

Speaker 1 (03:16):

So excited to dive into this topic with you because you are the functional medicine anxiety detective and you have a really unique way of understanding and explaining what anxiety is, why we have it from an anthropological perspective that I think a lot of people miss. I think a lot of times we traditional mainstream doctors like I used to be, we're all about what's the diagnosis, what drug do I need to give? But even from a functional medicine perspective, we might look at some of the systems, but I think there are other issues at play that we might miss. You come from a family with a father, is it who was a psychiatrist, correct. So I'm sure you got a front row seat to a lot of dysfunction. <Laugh>, your former medical anthropologist. So talk about your conceptualization of anxiety.

Speaker 3 (04:16):

Thank you. So yeah, I learned this the hard way. I've had lots of anxiety back in the day and what I realized, and I can share more about the process, but what I realized is that anxiety is not just some genetic chemical imbalance or like some individual defect. It is a symptom. It's not a disorder and it's a natural response to an unnatural environment. And the problem is that we've normalized a culture that tries to override nature instead of working with the genius or intelligence of nature. And that's why branded is inner genius health because your inner genius is you are nature. We are nature. It's not somewhere outside of us, it's what we are and our cells, our human cells, our micro cells, our DNA, and when we work with and not against that internal intelligence, then it's amazing what we can heal. And when we live in ways that for our inner genius and make it really hard on our inner genius, then we end up with what we have, which is an epidemic of mental health issues and chronic illness issues. And then we think that's normal aging. We think it's normal. And I've heard you say this and I say it all the time, say the same thing. Just because it's common does not mean it's normal. Nature's not that cool.

Speaker 1 (05:37):

It's so true. I love that I had to write that down. Anxiety is a natural response to an unnatural environment. We think what's wrong with us that we're anxious, right? But the truth is it's what's wrong with society, <laugh>. It's making us anxious. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I think a lot of people hear that and they go, what is she talking about? Of course, if you have anxiety, there's something wrong with you. What does she mean?

Speaker 3 (06:04):

Yeah, yeah. It's true that if you have anxiety, something's wrong, but it doesn't mean you're inherently defective as a human being. And so it, I think of anxiety, I use and abuse this metaphor. I think of anxiety as a smoke alarm. Just like all symptoms, it's a smoke alarm. And if your, let's say your house is on fire, wish someone, let's say something's on fire and the smoke alarm goes off and you just take the battery out of the smoke alarm and that's analogous to just numbing the symptoms or trying to make the symptoms go away. But if you don't put out the fire, then your house is still gonna burn down. So anxiety is like a smoke alarm. It's your body telling you something's wrong and often your brain on fire. You have neuroinflammation, you have issues in your gut, your brain, hormonal issues often like infections, toxic exposures.

Speaker 3 (06:49):

And this, a lot of this goes back to, so you were asking specifically, what are we doing now? What do we normalize? That's unnatural. I think a lot of people have an intuitive sense of this, but let's get specific. So we're eating crap <laugh>, like we're eating things. We're putting chemicals in our bodies that don't belong and we're depriving our bodies of nutrients that we need, which starts in the soil by the way. Like we have depleted, poisoned soil. And if you don't have soil that's teeming with microbes and mycelium and insects and we demonize insects, insects are amazing, right? Let's kill 'em all. Let's kill all the microbes. Let's just sterilize everything. That's the greatest way to destroy our whole species. And so we, that's another thing is like this mentality of sterilization. Now I understand if you're in a hospital and you don't want <laugh> like staph infections to spread, that's one thing.

Speaker 3 (07:37):

But like in our daily lives we've become so germophobic, but we don't realize we're poisoning ourselves with all these weird chemicals, toxins. And we're not too phobic, we're just like, ew germs. But then some of us are concerned about toxic chemicals, but a lot of people are oblivious to these like perfumes and creams and cleaning products. I've taken an informal toll, like I've talked to a lot of people who've been cleaning houses for decades and almost all of them have had cancer and cleaning products. Also, I think we know just sitting on our butts a lot and not moving, not squatting, not being able to squat and get up and down off the floor. That's a big deal. Mouth breathing. We're not breathing through our noses, we're breathing through our mouth for a whole lot of reasons, having our heads forwarded so that we screw up our posture and then we have trouble breathing and it causes cardiovascular disease, like not moving in joyful, playful ways, not playing, becoming alienated and not getting enough physical healthy physical touch and being held where like lack of tribe or community.

Speaker 3 (08:34):

It just goes on and on. Our sleep is messed up, our sleep is whacked. And then our circadian rhythms, this is a big one. Like people are starting to be like, okay, diet and exercise, which I don't even like those words anymore 'cause diet sounds like die, but like how we're eating. And then movement, I like it more than exercise, I'll use exercise, but I really like movement. 'cause It sounds more like play and exploration. But we're messing up our circadian rhythms. We're staying up late at night on these electronic devices. We're eating late at night, we're doing all these things that confuse our bodies and a lot of weight loss resistance and leptin resistance is tied to both how we're eating not and our sleep weight cycles and a relationship to light and the kinds of light we're exposed to at different times of day in the time of day we're eating.

Speaker 3 (09:19):

So it just goes on and on. But the thing is, all the solutions to all this are actually fun things that feel good. So I came up with this concept I call healthy hedonism, which is, so hedonism is like the pursuit of pleasure, but often people, we have a culture that's normalized toxic, addictive pleasures, things that destroy us. They feel good for a few minutes and then they destroy us and are often depressants, which are often neurotoxins. They are things that cause inflammation of the brain and nervous system, which causes anxiety, depression, brain fog, fatigue, trouble sleeping, just goes on and on. It is also because our nervous systems get dysregulated, then it messes up our immune system. A lot of people don't realize our nervous system and our immune system share biological structures and are in lockstep with each other. So then you have, you get sick more often or you have an overactive immune system and you end up without immunity and it just goes on and on and on.

Speaker 3 (10:09):

But what I want people to understand is the solutions. You can eat delicious food, you can have really wonderful self-care rituals that make you feel even euphoric. There are ways to move your body that feel like clay and you can still be really fit. We don't understand. It's not either or. It's that you don't give up pleasure to be healthy. You use pleasure and things that align with your evolutionary biology as a doorway to healing your body, healing your mind. So to heal your mind and your body, you have to heal your life.

Speaker 1 (10:38):

I love that he called it? Healthy hedonism. Healthy

Speaker 3 (10:42):

Hedonism. So pursuit of pleasure but healthy pleasures. So we need to broaden our pleasure palette. Like we need to be, like if you were painting a rainbow with just black and white, you'd be pretty limited. If you have the whole rainbow of human experience, then that's when you're really lit up and that's when you really come back home to yourself.

Speaker 1 (11:00):

So you described a lot of the lifestyle situations and conditions we're living under that are contributing to our anxiety. I'm wondering what your thoughts are, what you'd like to share about just the way that our brains function and are structured compared to other animals. One of the things I've loved about traveling is I get to encounter unique healers all over the world. And there's a guy who comes to Dubai called Ner Levy, and he does this very unique healing modality called the Ner Levy method. And he did a beautiful introductory talk one night and with the audience participation where to his work where he talked about the way in which we're living and what the difference is. And he brought in a lot of the things that you're mentioning. We used to live more rurally and communities and just the contact that we had, physical and emotional, spiritual connection with others. But this whole concept of what do we have? Why don't zebras have anxiety?

Speaker 3 (12:04):

Yeah, that's that why, yeah, that book is genius,

Speaker 1 (12:07):

Uniquely human because we have something they don't have, which is imagination. And that a lot of the things that we are anxious about as we we're, we have anxiety over is because of our imagination.

Speaker 3 (12:21):

That's a really good point. Yeah, it's true. We make a lot of stuff up. Like a lot of the demons are the, a lot of the, the predators are in our head most of the time. And it's interesting because we sit around, we can so easily all of us sit around imagining all kinds of scenarios and making ourselves nervous or whatever. And then we're sitting there overlooking the fact that we are actively, most people, <laugh> and industrialized society are actively doing things to thwart our own wellbeing. So we're actually, it's interesting because like I hear people talk about anxiety, like it's just all thoughts or you could just change your thinking. You wouldn't have anxiety. And that's true for certain kinds of anxiety. But there are different kinds of anxiety. So if you have anxiety because you have low estrogen or low progesterone or both, then sitting around positive thinking, is it gonna fix that?

Speaker 3 (13:11):

Or if you have anxiety, as I went through, I had Lyme, I've been through Lyme disease, I've been through toxic mold, I've been through lead poisoning, all of those things cause severe anxiety and anxiety was the first symptom of what was, what something was off. So that's why I, I teach people if you wanna really resolve your anxiety, and a lot of people are like, I've tried everything that didn't work and they're not very open. And the thing is there, you have to address like three areas because if you just do one outta three or two out of three, you're not gonna get better. You're not gonna get rid of anxiety. And, and I'm sure you work with people in these same areas, which is of course there's a lifestyle I just talked about. And lifestyle is your daily thoughts and actions and your environment, your physical environment, your social environment.

Speaker 3 (13:52):

So that's big. It's not just diet and exercise. Then there's finding hidden health causes, hormonal issues, infections, environmental toxins, all kinds of things like that. Like just hidden help causes. And then the third pillar is your nervous system, like how your nervous system is wired and programmed. You can rewire things to neuroplasticity, you can rewire your nervous system to go from being over overwhelmed to a state of calm. And you can actually change the neurological structure of your brain through practices that actually feel good and don't take that much time. Yeah. But back to your point about our imagination, our neocortex or executive function that we have as humans, it's a blessing and a curse. It's a double-edged sword because we can create so much <laugh>, ama so much like just wonder and awe magic with our consciousness. But we also can really make ourselves miserable and each other miserable. We're still learning how to wield what we're,

Speaker 1 (14:49):

Yes, we're learning how to wield the sword of, of who we are, how do we work with it? So it helps us. Something you touched on a few things just sparked something in me. You were running down kind of the list of all the things you need to look at. If you have anxiety, and you have this in the notes, I have this in my notes from you for the show, why no one has ever tried anything. So I actually just got off a consultation with a woman who, and if you're listening and you listen regularly to the podcast, I'm talking to you <laugh>, because I swear that you're telling yourself that you've tried everything. And what I will tell you is if you are still suffering with X, Y, z, fill in the blank, anxiety, insomnia, whatever the symptom is, you have not tried everything.

Speaker 1 (15:39):

Right. And anxiety really highlights this, but so does every other symptom in this order because there's absolutely, there's always a reason why. And I, we've done, I've done it issues, I've done shows <laugh> about anxiety and I talk about doing all the things, but the woman I was talking to literally told me I've tried everything and I've given her suggestions before on stuff that she should do and she doesn't do it right. So it's like where, where we're in denial. So I'm talking to you if you're listening, so listen up, you haven't tried everything if you're still suffering. But what I think is so important is, go ahead. Go ahead Dr. Tracy.

Speaker 3 (16:24):

Oh, no, no. Oh no. I was just gonna say, if you think about it, we live in an infinite universe. There is no such thing as everything having been tried because there's no end in sight. You just think of it logically. That's the reality. And what you were saying that there's, it's your body's asking for something and that's something exists. Like you may not. So when people say, I've tried everything and it didn't work, what they mean is I've tried everything that the experts have told me or that I've read about or that I've thought of or which doesn't mean everything, it just means what you're familiar with. Or it means I've tried everything that I felt ready and willing to try <laugh>. But maybe there's some things that I just thought maybe I don't really need to do. Maybe they're not that important and I just

Speaker 1 (17:06):

Skipped over it or everything I was willing to spend the time and money on because that's what I find, right? A lot of people are like, yeah, no, I, I'd rather get, so yeah, she was telling me about some cosmetic procedure that she was having done, but she doesn't, didn't wanna invest in this thing anyway. Yeah. Back to anxiety. How do people need to expand their awareness and really tap into what you call their inner genius? What is their inner genius and why is it crucial to heal just about anything?

Speaker 3 (17:36):

Yeah. So your inner genius is the genius or intelligent in nature that runs all of existence. It makes the planet spin in their orbit that makes the flowers win and the bees buzz and makes every chemical process, it's the magic of nature. And nature has this tendency to strive toward balance or homeostasis where it's trying to correct itself. And symptoms or sensations, emotions are nature's way of talking to us and communicating and guiding us. It's your inner guide, your inner wisdom. And when we don't listen to that or we don't know how to listen, 'cause we haven't been taught to listen, we don't speak the language, then we feel maybe like our bodies have betrayed us or like we're defective or we feel angry. But here's the thing, like if you put your hand on a hot stove and your body didn't say, ouch, get that off, would that be a loyal body?

Speaker 3 (18:28):

If your brain's inflamed and you're damaging your gut and your intestines with the food you're eating and your body didn't make your tummy hurt or make you have brain fog or headaches or anxiety, then you wouldn't be being notified. That would be betrayal. If our bodies didn't tell us something's off, that would be betrayal. And so your inner genius is your best friend. It is infinitely intelligent and it's something you can tap into. And one of my favorite ways to tap into this is a meditation practice. And for those of you who are thinking, I'm so tired of hearing about meditation, I suck at meditation. That is a story. And you're, that's your imagination. That's imagination. That's not an objective reality because there are ways, maybe you've tried things that didn't work for you, but there are ways, like I teach people really concrete ways to meditate that gives your mind a job.

Speaker 3 (19:19):

And believe me, every one of us when we start meditating or if we skip meditation and then go back after a while, you're gonna have what they call the east monkey mind. You're gonna be like, your mind's gonna be all over the place. It's gonna be like <inaudible>, especially mine, but <laugh>, it's okay. That's normal. And here's the thing is that's what's going on inside of you all the time. You're just used to the background buzz. And when you sit and be with it and you're willing to get out of your comfort zone and just sit and unconditionally be with yourself on what arises, and you give yourself a way to breathe, you give yourself a way to focus your mind. Anyone can meditate and, and what ends up happening in your nervous system feels like magic. And so one of the things I I offered is free, I call it a brain trick meditation, and someone else called it a magic meditation because it really does feel pretty magical.

Speaker 3 (20:07):

There's something you can do with your attention and with your breath at the same time. That's so easy. Anyone can do it. And in 15 minutes you're a totally different person. So if you have physical pain, emotional pain, anxiety, and also I accidentally discovered through my clients who are doing this at bedtime, it helps people who are having trouble sleeping and people, you can memorize it, it's a technique you memorize pretty quickly. So then you just have it the rest of your life. You don't need the recording anymore. And my clients just spontaneously started, they would wake up in the middle of the night, couldn't go back to sleep, they would do this process and then they would con out, they couldn't even get through the whole thing and they'd be back asleep again. So it's actually, I like this, I like to say it's better than melatonin for sleep or any other sleep aid.

Speaker 3 (20:47):

So like, just what we're able to do with our consciousness, with our breath is amazing. And that puts you in a possibility that then allows you to tap into your inner genius to stop sabotaging yourself and to get out of your own way and open up to the infinite possibility of your life. And then when you learn to do that, then that helps you have more of the wherewithal for the, the self-care, the wherewithal for the the functional medicine part and that kind of part, that kind of like all the, so it gives, it opens up the doorway to help you be more open to all the pillars, like all the steps you need to do to fix the problem. And I really fully believe that when you go through a mental health crisis, physical health crisis, even if it's been going on your whole life, I've had clients who've had anxiety since they, they remember being babies or toddlers having anxiety. They never remember not having anxiety. So they think, oh, I must be inherently defective and it's not true. So I have people who, who've been anxious their whole lives and within just a few weeks or really weeks to maybe a few months, three months, something like that, their anxiety has gone from like an eight to 10 daily, two to four. And that's, that's your ingen.

Speaker 1 (22:00):

Yeah. That's amazing. So I'd love that you bring that up because it's really like the prep work you need to get in the right space where you are open to receive the help that you're needing and you can tap into that eness. I think that we all have an innate intuition about what speaks to us and what we should go towards and what we should go away from. But we've learned to dampen it down so much that we're always looking to quote unquote experts to tell us what should I do? Right? And we really lose that internal guidance. That was true for me too. It's funny because when I learned about functional medicine after I transformed my health and then started working with people and some, a lot of people got it and some people just couldn't pick up the tools. What I realized is that there was a step before that happened for me that is exactly what you're talking about, Tracy, where I was able to tap into that inner heterogeneous and tap into being open.

Speaker 1 (22:59):

Because the truth was that these tools had come across my path years before and I had dismissed them and discounted them because I wasn't tapped into that frequency. So I love that you've created this pre-step for people to start tapping into that inner genius. So I definitely wanna say to everyone listening, that would be step one and then the person who is really anxious and I can identify with that because as everybody knows, I shared this before, I was so anxious at one point in my life before I found a, a root cause approach where I was on five psychoactive medications for anxiety and depression. And it ended up being all the things I like to say, right? It was my hormones. Yeah, it was my toxicity, it was my gut health. It was, you name it, right? Nervous system. And so now I've untangled all that and I really don't have anxiety or depression and I'm not on any medications and haven't been for years.

Speaker 1 (23:57):

But for the person listening, they're like, okay, Dr. Tracy, I get it. Okay. I need to calm my mind. Oh, I really wanna say one other thing about what you say about people who say, I can't meditate. I'm so tired of hearing about meditation, right? Do we ever say that about sleep? I'm so tired of hearing about sleep, right? <Laugh>, I'm so tired of hearing about my diet and what I eat. Like this is just something that you're gonna have to accept and face that you need to be doing, that you need to quiet your mind to get to the health that you want. Mm-Hmm,

Speaker 3 (24:29):

<Affirmative>. And you don't have to stop thinking that's not the point. Like people think, oh, I'm supposed to, I have to sit in the lotus position and I have to stop my thoughts and I have to like, and if I don't experience some kind of merging with the universe right away, then like I did it wrong. And like that's all like that. Those are all myths about meditation. And I wanna talk about meditation. If you're not meditating, it's like you're missing one of your senses. You're not, you're operating at a very narrow spectrum. If you look at the full spectrum of light and or this full spectrum of color and you only knew about three colors and you didn't know about all the other colors, like there's an intrinsic pleasure and value in going into your in, I call it your inner verse, your inner space going into inner space.

Speaker 3 (25:13):

There's magic that happens there. There's it, it's amazing. It takes some time but not that long. It just takes consistency. Just like moving your body, just eating, just like sleep habits. Like it's just a habit. And it is, I really feel like if you go through a human life without ever developing meditation practice, you are missing out on a huge part of human possibility because there's like an inner world inside of us that makes us feel complete, that makes us feel whole. That makes us feel like you hear people mocking one with the universe, but feeling at one with the universe is really awesome. It feels amazing. So I just don't miss out on that. Don't like to do homework like you've gotta go meditate or else you're a bad girl or a bad boy. Most women here on this podcast, right?

Speaker 3 (26:00):

No, don't miss out on this inner party. Like it's like there's this amazing party and you're missing out on it inside of you. And your inner genius, yes. Is that consciousness and that consciousness drives your thoughts, your emotions, your awareness. But that consciousness drives all chemical processes. Your inner genius is also the chemical processes in your body. The inner geniusness is how microbes talk to each other and share genetic information. The inner genius is happening in the soil, it's happening in the plants, it's happening in the stars, it's happening in the sun, it's happening like that. The inner genius is happening. There's, for the inner genius, there's no differentiation between physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. 'cause It's all the same consciousness.

Speaker 1 (26:41):

Yes. And be patient with yourself. You didn't learn how to tie your shoes in one day, so it takes half.

Speaker 3 (26:46):

You did not.

Speaker 1 (26:47):

But yeah. So I have to, you gave me some beautiful quotes that I just have to pull all of them in before we end. So I've gotta start doing it now. You have this one from, do you say it, naira Wahe. And I said to my body, softly, I want to be your friend. I took a long breath and replied, I have been waiting my whole life for this. Oh my gosh, that gives me chill bumps. I've never heard that quote before. Tell me a little bit about this quote and what this means.

Speaker 3 (27:18):

At the end of the day, that's what our bodies want. That's what the pain is telling you. That's what the suffering is telling you. That's what belly fat is telling you. That's what the headaches, that's what everything is telling you. I wanna be your friend. I wanna take care of you. I want you to pay attention to me. I want you to love me. I want us to be on the same team. And we don't have a culture that teaches us to do that. And we have such a cliche culture. We usually look at TV shows and movies and advertisements. It's, I had a bad day, I need a drink. Let's like wine and chocolate is the only way to feel good. I'm not saying you can't ever enjoy wine and chocolate. I'm just saying that's so narrow compared to the vast. And so I just, yeah, we have to make friends with our, with our bodies, with our inner genius.

Speaker 1 (28:01):

I think for a lot of people, that's a really novel and radical concept because like you said, our culture is all about, oh, you're stressed, drink or do XY shop or whatever. But so for those people who are intrigued, how do they start to befriend their body?

Speaker 3 (28:19):

Well, one of the things I say, I think it's still on my website where you can get the brain to take meditation. I think it says unlock yourself healing superpowers. I don't know if I still have that on there, but it's, I feel like when you first start to have experiences where you have the ability to change, disrupt and change and transform a pattern in your body and you realize you have more control over your body than you realize, or you first start making changes to the quality of the food you're eating. Like here's the deal. You can still eat things you love whether it's hamburgers or pizza or curries or whatever, you just eat healthy versions of them and you balance your meals better. That's a whole other conversation. But if you're using quality ingredients and you balance the nutrients, there's kind of nothing within reason.

Speaker 3 (29:03):

There's very little you can't eat and still feel good afterwards. And like having, I think a lot of people don't have, we talk about boundaries these days, which I think is an important conversation. But what about boundaries around how you treat yourself? We talk, we have junk food, we have junk thoughts, junk beliefs, junk habits. And one thing I like to say about food is like when I give talks, sometimes I'll say, what is the most intimate thing we do with something outside of ourselves? And most people are thinking sex, right? Sex is incredibly intimate, but eating is more intimate because the molecules of the food become new. They become your body and become your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, the perceptual lenses in which reality, right? And why wouldn't we have standards around that? And one of the things I just wanna gripe about is all the people saying restrictive diets.

Speaker 3 (29:54):

When people decide, Hey, I'm gonna take care of myself. I'm gonna stop poisoning myself and start nurturing myself and only eat like really yummy things that serve me. And other people are like, oh, you are on a restrictive diet. I'm like, no, I'm being liberated by my choices. This is freedom. There are so many hundreds of thousands of species of healthy edible things on this planet. And we are fixated on all this processed crap that's made from the same few in ingredients of natural ingredients and then thousands of chemicals. And we think we're being restricted when we decide to stop hurting ourselves. Like I got, if someone got out of an abusive relationship and said, I'm not gonna be in this abusive relationship anymore, will we tell that person, oh, you're really restricting your life by not letting this person abuse you. That doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (30:38):

And I think it goes right into this other quote you offered from Maya Angelou that I love. If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be because I think that we try to fit in quote unquote normal. We wanna eat like everyone else and live like everyone else and have the same cars in the same fashion and all these things. And we spend so much time trying to be normal. But talking about how that affects your health is an example you just gave. Like the diet that's right for someone else might not be the right diet for you, but how you look at it, if you call it restrictive, it's different than this is the right diet prescription for me. So talk a little bit about that and how you can let go of being normal so you can know how amazing you're

Speaker 3 (31:33):

Yeah. Yeah. I love, yeah, I love that. I love <inaudible> period. But I love that quote. Yeah, so it's okay. It is so normal. We're tribal creatures. We evolved in tribes. We don't wanna get kicked out of the tribe and like, how are you gonna fit for yourself? How are you gonna get food? How are you gonna have a get sex and partnered and whatever like it, it's normal and understandable that we want to be part of a tribe, we wanna be in communities and we wanna fit in. I get that. I totally get it. That's nature. But what's not natural is now that we've normalized what we think is normal, goes completely against the very essence of what we are. And we, we, I heard, I think it's Gabor Mate said something about we have a culture, I forget what he said. That incentive our culture incentivizes us to betray ourselves, is what he was saying.

Speaker 3 (32:23):

Yeah. And so here's the deal. The way we make culture is by you and you and me and Dr. Kieran, like Dr. Dunston, like all of us are voting on culture. We all create it with our lifetime. We create it with how we spend money, we create it, it with what we consume. We create it with what we share. I don't mean getting on a soapbox and preaching at people and being righteous. That's obnoxious and that's not gonna create a connection. But when we all start as individuals and just lovingly making different choices, we model something different to other people and then those other people who are right on the edge of being like, I've been wanting to do that too. Suddenly it starts a domino effect. Like when I started changing my lifestyle, I tried preaching, didn't work, blow up in my face. That's why I say, don't do that.

Speaker 3 (33:06):

That was in my twenties. Didn't know better <laugh>. But what I've noticed now is like when I've had housemates or people that live in my home, I don't tell them how to eat or preach to them, but they watch what I do and then within months they've all lost weight and are feeling better and are eating differently. Because it was just modeled to them that we're like, we learn through mimicry, we learn through modeling by being willing to be different and to come back into alignment with how the ways we evolve to live, to start to work with. And not against your inner genius. You're coming home to yourself and you're letting yourselves come home. You're letting your consciousness come home and that feels so good and lights you up and puts you in a much deeper state of love and expansiveness. And then that's contagious.

Speaker 3 (33:46):

And then other people want that. And people who criticize it or don't get it, they're just not your people. They're not your tribe. They're a different tribe. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And I just want people to understand. And here's another reframe for you guys. I think just on a primal level, we all have that little kid who doesn't wanna be left out at the birthday party or whatever, at school or dinner. And here's the deal, if you do what everyone else is doing in the main, in the mainstream, if you follow the mainstream, you're pretty much guaranteed to have chronic illness, to have mental health issues, to have cognitive decline, to become disabled, to be in diapers in your elder years, not be able have a walker be in a wheelchair, to be in lots of pain, to get autoimmunity, to get cancer, heart disease, to have your organs fail on you, to have like really invasive surgeries to like, you know this like that. If you wanna be included, that's what you're opting into. But what if being left out wasn't the worst thing in the world? What if you're being, instead of being left out, you're opting out of all these horrible things I just mentioned that we think are normal aging. What if you're opting out and by doing so you are setting an example that can help other people in your tribe do the same thing so that we can co-create a culture of nurture instead of a culture of torture. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (35:04):

I think that's something definitely important to ponder. And I think it's really the era that we're going into with this age of Aquarius coming, this myth of normal HaBO mates. And really our individuality and our uniqueness. And instead of top down, we're more communal and sharing and finding what's right for each one of us, which is going to vary greatly. But it can't happen if you don't have a relationship with your body and you're, you haven't befriended your body. One of the things that I love to teach women to do is to talk to their bodies. Talk to different folks. Yes,

Speaker 3 (35:45):

Me too. Oh my God, I love that.

Speaker 1 (35:47):

Yeah. Talk to their symptoms and ask what is the message that you have for me? Right? I always say that symptoms are the messengers, they're not the problem themselves. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, they're pointing to the problem. Right. But with every I Amen. Symptoms. Yeah. That we have, there's always a reason and a role that it's serving. But I love how you said earlier, Tracy, that it's usually multifactorial and there are often physical, biochemical, physiological correlates and there's usually a deeper meaning. So I think it's important to focus on all of these. And I know some of you are listening and thinking, Karen, you haven't gone into the microbiome in the gut as a cause of anxiety and you haven't. Okay. It's hear all those things. But no, I'm just saying people listen, <laugh>, we've done that on other podcasts so many times. Go listen to the other podcast.

Speaker 1 (36:41):

But I think that what Dr. Tracy offers is, yes, gut health. Yes. Liver detox. Yes. Heavy metals. Yes. Mold, yes. Line, yes. All the things you've gotta do, the hormones, all the things and check all the things. But she really offers, you really offer a unique perspective that I don't think all root cause practitioners offer. And that's what I want everyone to hear and get is this connection to yourself, to your soul, this connection to other people, your connection to nature and universe and expressing that is a part of healing all physical health problems, including anxiety. So talk a little bit about that if you would. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (37:28):

Like our consciousness changes our biology. I think there are a lot of people out there that are talking about scientists, doctors. It's come out of the realm of just flu, which is where it was relegated for so long. Yeah. Because if you look deeper than, say you look at gut health and Lyme disease and all that stuff, if you look levels deeper, what caused that? Right? And why can some people have certain kinds of worms and what we call parasites and viruses. And there are people who have Borrelia or tick-borne illnesses or people who have HIV. There are people who have all kinds of different pathogens in their bodies. So there've been studies where they'll test thousands of people who are so-called healthy. I don't know where they're getting these people seriously, because I don't think there are that many Americans who are healthy.

Speaker 3 (38:13):

But I guess people who don't have diagnosed conditions and think they're healthy, there's, I remember this study, I wish I could, I need to find it again. But they did this elaborate testing on thousands of people who weren't considered sick and found that these people tested positive for a lot of these different conditions, a lot of these different pathogens, these critters inside of them that we consider pathogens and they weren't sick. Because it's not just the presence of the pathogen that makes the disease, it's how your immune system dances with it, which is directly tied to how your nervous system dances with it. So if your nervous system is dysregulated, your immune system becomes hypervigilant, just like your nervous system. So I think of a lot of these mold sensitivity and just stuck in chronic Lyme and chronic gut issues and just goes on and on. Even hormone stuff. Yeah. Mass cell activation, all these things is, and oh, and autoimmunity, I think of them as immunological PTSD. So your nervous system has PTSD and your immune system has PTSD and they're stuck in a rutt together. And I don't know if I'm going off down a little bit of another angle, but 

Speaker 1 (39:18):

No, I love it. I just think that's amazing. Immunological. P ts d Go on

Speaker 3 (39:23):

<Laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, what ends up happening is a lot of this is in the nervous system. And so the thing is you can't just meditate and do nervous system work and not clean up the infections and not clean up your gut and not balance your hormones and, and not eat well and not take care of yourself and not get sleep. You can't just do one, A lot of people wanna just find a magic bullet, but we're trying to orchestrate, like you have a cellular symphony that you're trying to get to plain harmony and you can't focus only on one instrument and expect the whole symphony to sound amazing. And so there's a process like that's why I've created a proven process. And I know Dr. Dunton has proven processes that we take people through. So you have some support with this.

Speaker 3 (40:06):

'Cause It can be overwhelming. I'm really, I'm supposed to do all this stuff, like I have a life, I'm busy. And so getting help because we are tribal creatures, right? And so it's just really important to really work with our nervous systems and our connection to something deeper as to circle back to what you were saying, like when we are connected to something beyond ourselves, we open up realms of possibility that we couldn't have even imagined possible before. And when you open up to that possibility, then suddenly all these other parts of the puzzle start filling in as well. And that's why having a guide that can help you through a process, because a lot of people just wanna go to someone and give an, get an appointment and have them tell me what supplements to take. And maybe I'll cut out a few foods, which are all fine things.

Speaker 3 (40:50):

There's nothing wrong with that. But if you don't do the deeper work mentally, physically, emotionally, in terms of your self-care, your daily habits, your thoughts, actions, beliefs, if you don't go through, go on a journey. If you don't go on this inner pilgrimage, like your body's gonna still keep telling you something's wrong and then you're gonna think something's wrong with you or you're gonna be mad at your body or feel betrayed. But that's not what's really happening. What's really happening is that you need to go on this inner pilgrimage to move through the different layers to come into the version of yourself that is sitting inside of you. You're not, the idea of this isn't to become a better person, it's to polish your, you're a gem and to polish, get the mud off and polish the beauty of what is inside of you already that is not getting fully expressed.

Speaker 1 (41:33):

Yeah. I love it so beautifully said Tracy. And I think that the gift of chronic symptoms and chronic illness is that eventually it will force you into this inner path and this inner journey if you keep at it, unless you give up. And that inner path and inner journey really is what not only brings you to physical healing, but greater expression of yourself in this lifetime. So I know we are running short on time, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the demonization of estrogen. One of my favorite topics. Yes.

Speaker 3 (42:14):

A

Speaker 1 (42:16):

<Laugh> that it has caused so many millions is currently causing so many millions. Somebody reached out to me on social media the other day and said, Dr. Kieran, I've been on estrogen, I think she said for five years. And now I'm 55 and my doctor's telling me I have to stop it or I could get cancer or die from a heart attack. And this is a regular occurrence that people are told this and we can't stress it enough. So why don't we talk about that before we wind up.

Speaker 3 (42:46):

Oh, I love to. Let's get into it. So one of the first things I wanna say. My dad was a doctor. I grew up helping out in his office. I grew up in psychiatry and I can tell you doctors don't have time to delve into the research 'because they are so stinking busy. And there are certain people, practitioners who really stay abreast of research. I know Dr. Dunson does too, right? Do you like to be called Kieran? Dr. Kieran? Dr. Dunston.

Speaker 1 (43:13):

<Laugh>. I'll answer any Kirin is fine

Speaker 3 (43:16):

<Laugh>. Anyway, So I think people don't understand, doctors are human beings. And once you're taught something and it sticks in your brain and you haven't had the timer bandwidth to really like dive in and refute it or change your thinking, and then you also have these American medical Association or whatever country you're in, standards of practice that put a gun to your head that if you don't follow the formula, then you could get sued, you could lose your license, you could get in trouble. So it's really rough. So a doctor would have to feel extraordinarily well informed to go against the grain and have a really strong convention to take that risk. And once you do research this, you find out that there was never any evidence that estrogen causes cancer or heart disease or dementia. That has never happened, never existed. The Women's health initiative in two, 2002 that where they stopped the study because they said that there was increased risk with hormone replacement therapy.

Speaker 3 (44:07):

That was like, if you go dig into it, like instead of spending a lot of time, I'm sure you have lots of other episodes where you talk about it. And I'm sure like you can go read, there's this great book called Estrogen Matters that goes through step by step dismantling the whole thing. It doesn't take that long to read. You can also get it on audible. Estrogen matters. So one of the problems culturally is that we have a history of demonizing estrogen. And from a medical anthropology perspective, one of the things I've really looked at is history. Even if you look at the word hysterical comes from the Latin root for the word uterus. And like femininity in so many ways, like female hormones, female body parts have been pathologized like going back centuries. And we don't do that. Men are low on testosterone.

Speaker 3 (44:53):

We're not like, you're not allowed to have any, if people are low on thyroid, then we're not told you can't have any, if people are low on D three and that's a hormone, not a vitamin, we don't tell people you can't have any and it's gonna cause cancer and kill you. This whole idea that estrogen causes cancer, like estrogen cause cancer, then the people getting the most cancer would be really young women with high levels of estrogen, not older, middle aged women. It just makes no sense. If you look at the evidence there that that has never been shown and researched to, to exist. It doesn't exist. It's a, it's like literally one of the most damaging rumors that has ever made its way through medicine. So if you need estrogen, there are ways to get support. Now you I, in my, you can see what you say, what you think, but I don't think people, I think it's important not to take, if you can make your own hormone, then you don't wanna take so much that you impede your body's ability to make it own, make its own. But if you are really low on estrogen or progesterone and you're suffering, you need to take it. And I personally really am an advocate of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as opposed to synthetic, especially progesterone progestin. It's not even the same molecule as progesterone. So I think it's really important for people to use really natural progesterone like the actual progesterone molecule and not progestin. I dunno, what do you think about that?

Speaker 1 (46:14):

Oh yes. Natural, absolutely. Bioidentical biologically identical. I mean, everybody listening knows we've got her hormone club if they need access to physicians who are experts in that board certified and licensed if they need access. But biologically identical if you need it, it's not appropriate for everyone, but Right. For the right. Yes.

Speaker 3 (46:36):

Yeah. And also, I do wanna say I am a huge supporter of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. And it's important to know, if you look at the domino effect of like the cascade of hormones in the human body, so much of hormone production starts in parts of the brain that also create chemicals that make stress hormones. So when we are stressed out, and then of course, I know you guys know from following Dr. Kieran, that all these toxic chemicals in our environment, our liver, you know all this, like this is all causing hormonal havoc. So when our brains are dysregulated, hormones are happening in our brains, they're happening in our liver, they're happening in our microbiome, our microbiomes are managing hormones. A lot of people don't realize that. And so when we do all the parts to really take care of our nervous system to nur nurture and nourish ourselves to sleep and to rest, and to have a meditation practice that, that you can fit in your schedule in life and that works for you when you do all those things, a lot of your hormones will self-Correct. When you get the nasty chemicals out of your body, a lot of it will self-Correct. But whatever does not self-correct, through self-care and all these measures, then it's okay to take hormones. Please do. It's not worth being miserable just to say, I'm not taking this.

Speaker 1 (47:53):

Yeah, it's a whole other conversation because that's what my TEDx talk was about, the consequences of hormonal poverty. So even for people who don't have symptoms, they, you do need to educate yourself on the consequences of not having these hormones because it's more than just symptomatology, but it's more than we have

Speaker 3 (48:13):

To go into. Yeah. Yeah. It does increase all risk mortality. It does increase your risk of outcomes of diseases. Like basically, it's dangerous not to have your hormones balanced.

Speaker 1 (48:23):

And gosh, Tracy, we could talk about for so long, we could talk forever. <Laugh>, I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your very deep perspective on anxiety that people aren't going to hear anywhere or most places. So I know you've got the simple brain trigger me for them. We will have the link to the show note in the show notes, but tell them all the places they can find and connect with you online.

Speaker 3 (48:52):

Absolutely. You're welcome to join my email list and get content there. You can follow me on Instagram, YouTube, or I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn. So just the usual social media channels. I'm really easy to stalk <laugh>, like my phone, my name is very unique. No one else has it. So if you can spell my name, you can find me.

Speaker 1 (49:10):

Awesome. Thank you Dr. Tracy Potter for coming on the show, <laugh>, and we very much appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (49:18):

Yeah, thank you. I've loved connecting with you. Thank

Speaker 1 (49:20):

You. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I hope you found today's episode inspiring, insightful, and you've probably heard some things that you've not heard before about your health. So I look forward to learning how you're gonna start befriending your body and going deeper and really start having a conversation with her because she's talking to you and she's waiting for you to talk to her. So start listening, reach out to me on social media and tell me all about it. Until next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (50:02):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

►Struggling with anxiety, overwhelm, pain or sleep? Feel better in 15 minutes with this simple brain trick meditation by Dr. Traci Potterf - CLICK HERE.

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

Dr.Jeffrey Gross | Extended Health and Longevity Using Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine

Welcome to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! In today's episode, our host [host name] is joined by the distinguished Dr. Jeffrey Gross, a board-certified neurological surgeon who specializes in anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Together, they explore the groundbreaking developments in stem cell technology and its role in improving health and combating disease.
  
Dr. Gross starts by offering insights into how he discovered the immense potential of stem cells in the field of regenerative medicine. This led him to establish ReCELLebrate, a cutting-edge initiative focused on providing modern biochemical treatments and, where possible, avoiding surgical intervention. Dr. Gross takes us on a deep dive into the longevity and biohacking consultations he conducts at his ReCELLebrate clinics in California and Nevada.
  
In addition to his work with stem cells, Dr. Gross also shares how his expertise extends to treating athletic injuries and performing spine procedures. Throughout the conversation, he delves into the nuances of these treatments and provides invaluable information on how stem cells can be an effective solution to many health problems.
  
Reflecting on his background, Dr. Gross walks us through his fascinating journey in the field of medicine and how he became a leading expert in stem cells and regenerative medicine.

Show Highlights:

* How Dr. Jeffrey Gross discovered the impressive capabilities of stem cells in regenerative medicine.
* The founding and goals of ReCELLebrate, Dr. Gross's innovative approach to employing biochemical treatments.
* An inside look at Dr. Gross's ReCELLebrate clinics and the longevity and biohacking consultations offered.
* Dr. Gross's expertise in addressing athletic injuries and spine procedures, and how it ties in with his work in regenerative medicine.
* A glimpse into the captivating background and journey of Dr. Jeffrey Gross in the medical field.
  
Join us in this enlightening conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Gross, and learn about the incredible possibilities that stem cells and regenerative medicine have to offer. Don't miss out on the wealth of knowledge this episode has to share, and be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more enlightening discussions!

 

[00:00:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Cade Hildreth, the founder of Bioinformant, a stem cell industry research firm, is quoted as saying, the regenerative medicine revolution is upon us. Like iron and steel to the industrial revolution, like the microchip to the tech revolution, stem cells will be the driving force of this next revolution.

[00:00:20] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Stay tuned to find out how you can start using stem cells to transform your health, your life, and your longevity. So the big question is how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you're not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again.

[00:00:45] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: As an OBGYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is [00:01:00] designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results.

[00:01:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you're facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunstan. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast. Hi everybody.

[00:01:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the use of stem cells for regenerative and longevity medicine with Dr. Jeffrey Gross. This is really one of the most powerful and emerging aspects of health that is available to you now To create the health that you're wanting the healing that you're wanting that you might not be aware of Because it's not offered everywhere and usually not covered by insurance And your regular doctor's probably not going to talk to you about it But as I shared in the beginning the quote it [00:02:00] really is One of the most powerful tools that's going to transform medicine, just like our tech field has been transformed.

[00:02:08] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And there's another quote that I love that I'll share. The next age of medicine will revolve around stem cells, just like there was. the pre intranet age, there will soon be the pre stem cell age, and it will confuse the next generation to talk about it. So although now it seems a little way out and off the beaten path, it will probably become the standard of care at some point in the future.

[00:02:32] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I know that if you're listening, you want to know everything that's available that could possibly help you create better health, live a longer and healthier life and increase your vitality span. So I know you're going to want to hear about extending your health and longevity using stem cells and regenerative medicine.

[00:02:53] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I'll tell you a little bit. about Dr Jeffrey Gross and then we'll get started. Dr Gross is a board certified [00:03:00] neurological surgeon who identified the unique and powerful capacity of stem cells to help not only neurological problems but to regenerate many aspects of health affected by disease. He focuses on anti aging and regenerative medicine at his resellably Great clinics in California and Nevada.

[00:03:17] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So we're going to dive into this episode in not only neurologic applications, but arthritic joint applications, musculoskeletal and more. And we're going to talk about beauty applications too, which I know you're going to want to hear about. So please help me welcome Dr. Jeffrey Gross to the 

[00:03:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: show. Thank you so much.

[00:03:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I'm Pleased to be here. It's an honor to join you today. Yes, I'm 

[00:03:39] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: super excited to have you on fellow physician who now has gone astray just like me and really found some things that can help people, which my audience really loves hearing about because they've done the HMO copay dr tango and [00:04:00] they know it doesn't work for them.

[00:04:01] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: The number one question I get from people is why doesn't my doctor know what you know? Why doesn't my doctor offer me what you offer me? And they love to hear stories of doctors like you and me who were in the dark and found the light and what we know that can actually help them. So why don't we start there Dr.

[00:04:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Jeff with your story from conventional medicine into what 

[00:04:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: you're doing now. Great. Thank you for the opportunity. Probably a bit like yours, I was trained to be a physician, many years of training, just like you, and came from professors who trained similarly 20 years earlier, who were trained by professors similarly 20 years earlier, and there's a, there's this sort of preservation of these traditional in the box thinking of medicine, and I haven't abandoned that, what I have done is expand on it, because probably like you as well, we're [00:05:00] scientists, And we explore and we ask questions and we want to know what's really happening and what we have to do our own homework on that sometimes.

[00:05:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So, I was practicing traditional spine neurosurgery. I was taking care of patients mostly with neck and back problems, injuries, disc issues, pinched nerves. A very, very busy practice and I noticed that patients were telling me something they were coming in and saying, Hey, doc, I've tried all the things you've recommended.

[00:05:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I've tried therapy. I've tried time. I've tried prayer. I've tried supplements. I've tried anti inflammatories. I've even tried injections, but I'm still having problems. And we would talk, let's go over the surgical options. And they'd say, yeah, I'm just not quite ready. And I'd look at them and say, yeah, I think you're right.

[00:05:46] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You're not quite ready. You're not bad enough. And you're in that gap, that no man's land. And then they would say, Doc, what about lasers? And what about this? And what about stem cells? And you get hit enough time on the head with a rubber [00:06:00] mallet and that stem cell's stuck. And I finally said, you know what?

[00:06:04] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Instead of going to the same old spine conferences every year And seeing, hearing the same old things reported, I'm going to go a different direction and I started going to different meetings and different educational conferences and got interested and retrained and now I've incorporated regenerative medicine and anti aging medicine and all these things into my practice to expand my tool base.

[00:06:27] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Great, so You could learn from a pleasure perspective. I love that. So what happened when you went to your first stem cell conference? Take everyone through that. What really piqued your interest that you said, Wow, this is valid. And I need to know more about this because this could benefit my 

[00:06:45] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: patients. I was, I'm embarrassed to say that 32 years had passed since I had my undergraduate degree in biochemistry and I went to the meeting and it just reopened a lot that had happened in 32 years [00:07:00] that built on this really neat background in molecular biology and what we knew about cells and how they function together.

[00:07:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I was so busy going down this path of clinical medicine that I had missed. I never got a newsletter on all the updates in this and what we've learned. And so I was a little embarrassed and, but it was wonderful because it reopened that curiosity and that reason why I, I chose that as my undergraduate degree in the first place and all that had happened in stem cells and in exosomes and other regenerative biologics.

[00:07:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And that had been applied clinically, meaning for patients. So it wasn't just on a lab bench. Yeah. So 

[00:07:41] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: let's get into stem cells. I think they're a mystery for a lot of people. And they're confused about what are the different types of stem cells, what can they be used for, what's FDA approved, what's not, what might they get in another country they won't get in [00:08:00] the U.

[00:08:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: S., and also the benefits for longevity. And there are methods for stimulating your own stem cells. I recently learned about stem cells from endometrium and menstrual blood, which is really fascinating to me. But do you want to start there? Just kind of talking about what are stem cells? 

[00:08:19] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Sure. This is, we'll do a little stem cell one on one here.

[00:08:22] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And this is, let's take it back. When we were embryos inside of our mothers, We are made up of a ball of cells, and those are all stem cells, and those stem cells are incredibly powerful. They start out omnipotent, meaning they can become anything, and they become further differentiated, and that's a biological word, meaning the cells start to work towards what they're going to end up being, and it's like a job assignment.

[00:08:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You go to the vocational office, you say, assign me a job and okay, you're going to be a liver cell and you over there, you're going to be part of the elbow. You get a job assignment. [00:09:00] As the fetus develops, these omnipotent cells become pluripotent. They have less opportunities, but they're still broad opportunities.

[00:09:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And then they become a multipotent and they get all the way down to where they can only differentiate into certain types of tissues. And those are the vast majority of what's available clinically because they're safer. They can't go backwards in the lineage and create a whole new human or even something weird.

[00:09:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We don't want that. And you're coming from the OBGYN field, you've heard of teratomas, these very, very, very Germ cell based tumors and things that can, so we don't want to use those dangerous cells. We don't know how to control them yet. So when we use the word stem cells, we're talking about these, they just haven't made that final job assignment.

[00:09:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Right. And these are typically from the mesenchymal or the mesoderm layer of the embryo. And meaning they form most of the connective tissues, most of the organs. And when you tap into [00:10:00] these stem cells, they can be very powerful. Now, as humans, we have stem cells in us. They are a bank of cells, a storehouse, if you will, of cells that our body is constantly tapping into.

[00:10:11] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We renew our skin constantly. We're making new skin cells. We renew our liver cells. And if we are injured or hurt somehow, those cells can be recruited to help repair us. Think about Doc, a three year old scrapes his knee on the sidewalk. And you bandage, you clean it up, put some Bactine on it, put a bandage on it, give them a kiss and send them on their way, right?

[00:10:34] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Three days later, that bandaid comes off, but that scab is almost completely healed. But then you take, in comparison, a 70 year old who bangs her elbow, and there's a bruise for two and a half weeks. So why does the same person who healed so quickly at age three not heal the same at age 70? Why? Same genes.

[00:10:55] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Same bank of stem cells. Of course, our stem cells lose steam with [00:11:00] age. They get exposed to what we learned in medical school is called vaguely inflammation, right? And inflammation is the accumulation of all this environmental damage, exposure to toxins, exposure to electromagnetic fields, what's in our diet, what's in our water, how we treated ourselves with stress or avoidance of stress.

[00:11:22] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I'm sure you've talked about this with others as it applies to hormonal function, right? We want to try to tend towards an anti inflammatory lifestyle. So in any way, our stem cells don't work as well to repair and regenerate us. And that can happen at different rates. So the whole basis of the stem cell biology as a treatment is to tap back into our own youthful ability to heal.

[00:11:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Our cells have the blueprint and the molecules and the genes to do that. That's kind of the underlying basis. 

[00:11:53] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay. And regenerative treatment is defined as what, because that's [00:12:00] really what you specialize. In is regenerative treatment versus conventional medical approaches, 

[00:12:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: right? I suppose I still do a bit of both but Regenerative medicine is the new tool that i've had for about five years Which has really blossomed into many aspects of it And maybe this is a good part to answer your question about the fda So as you know, and many people don't fully understand the fda Is sort of the doctor's first amendment police and they decide based on their criteria what we can make claims about.

[00:12:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And those claims usually deal with curing or treating a disease or condition. So for example, if a new medicine is being developed. They decide when we can say this medicine has been shown to, to help deal with diabetes or something like that. So, there has yet to be any real regenerative stem cell treatment that has been approved for claims.[00:13:00] 

[00:13:00] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That doesn't mean it can't be done. The doctor and patient have a relationship and that's between them with proper informed consent. There are a couple things that are approved, but I don't know that I Consider them regenerative and that would be a bone marrow replacement for let's say, uh, leukemia. And this is why mothers might bank umbilical cord cells when they deliver a child.

[00:13:24] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That's traditionally been an approved treatment. Okay, 

[00:13:29] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: so you're saying no FDA approved claims made indications for the use of stem 

[00:13:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: cells? But let's be truly objective, since we're scientists. There have been no approvals or denials. So they have not said, we have approved, but we also have an unapproved.

[00:13:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It hasn't yet been decided. So the lack of approval does not mean that something is unapproved. And people don't fully, they tend to go only and hear the unapproved. That [00:14:00] doesn't mean, that just means they haven't been fully vetted these claims. You know, the proper full studies have not yet been okayed by the FDA.

[00:14:09] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay, so can you talk about though what indications are generally agreed upon by experts in the regenerative medicine area as to what are appropriate uses that may not be FDA approved? 

[00:14:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You should be a politician that was fantastically worded. For the purposes of doing this correctly, anything I give an opinion on today is not a treatment for an individual, and is not necessarily approved by the FDA, and is just worthy of discussion.

[00:14:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And every individual is addressed. individually. So yes, there is wonderful scientific reporting, mostly from not in the United States. We have literature out of Europe. We have literature from Asia where they are ahead of us. And you think about this doc, [00:15:00] 15 to 20 years ago, professional athletes were leaving this country to get these treatments.

[00:15:04] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And other people, but of notoriety, it would be the athletes. Now those athletes are staying in the country because it is available here in the U. S. The source of the biologics, the stem cells or the related biologic components are here produced by, ironically, FDA compliant labs. So, and these are typically from donors of C section births.

[00:15:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Where the placenta, the amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord are preserved instead of thrown away and sent to labs where they're under clean and sterile conditions, tested and treated. The main uses start with musculoskeletal issues like joint problems. In fact, some of the best research comes out of France and these are protocols I follow for knee pain.

[00:15:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And if I may just keep rambling on the, the, a study in France [00:16:00] just reported two years ago on the 15 year follow up. So that means they've been doing this for at least 17 years as a study and probably longer. And what they did is they took patients with end stage knee problems. Ready and recommended for knee replacement.

[00:16:16] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So these are conditions like bone on bone patients may have heard or arthritis is terms doctors use painful knee problems that need a knee replacement. Not everybody wants an open knee replacement. It has a role, but they took these patients said, wait, instead of having your recommended knee replacement, join our study.

[00:16:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And in that study, they injected bone marrow derived stem cells from those patients. And we might circle back to that in a moment, but they took them from these patients, processed them, concentrated them, and injected them into two different areas in the knee. And over 15 years, one of the groups was significantly superior to the other group.

[00:16:58] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And the group that [00:17:00] did well was in bone injected, so they injected the bone of the knee just above and below the cartilage. The cartilage injected group did okay initially. But then declined at each five year mark and it was over 80 percent of the bone injected group did not need that knee replacement.

[00:17:17] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: They had been recommended 15 years earlier. In other words, those knees were saved. That's amazing. We follow that protocol and we do the bone work and you think about it. Your cartilage in your joints and in your discs of your spine is probably one of the least biologically active tissues. There are not a lot of cells.

[00:17:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It's sort of a collection of squishy proteins and collagen and we call this sort of the biological rubber of the body. The real activity, the part of your body that made that cartilage in the first place when you were a fetus was the growth plate bone marrow where you're most of your stem cells reside, your storehouse of stem cells.

[00:17:58] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So we follow that [00:18:00] protocol. So 

[00:18:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: with data like that, 80 percent did not need any replacement and they were bone on bone, which really that's the only standard of care treatment that we have to my knowledge. Why has the FDA not? Given an approval any 

[00:18:16] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: insight into that I'm going to go out on a limb here and say i'm sure there are political and economic pressures from Companies that make metallic knee implants.

[00:18:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I am sure that the fda panels Uh that look at this. I have a very high threshold of studies in terms of number of participants And they love blinded and controlled studies, meaning blinded means the doctor doesn't know and the patient doesn't know if they're getting a placebo or not. And a controlled study means there's a placebo arm, but who would want to be that in that study that might get a placebo?

[00:18:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So it's going to be very hard to do a large population study with [00:19:00] placebo. So we are sort of at this. You know, difficult crossroads. 

[00:19:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Yeah, sometimes you have to follow your common sense. Anyone can tell you that the success rate of any cartilage naturally regrowing when you're bone on bone is probably zero.

[00:19:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So do we really need that control group? That's where I sometimes wonder when did we leave common sense by the wayside or the body of scientific Tiff acknowledge and experience that we have from decades of doing medicine the way we've been doing it. And so this is the place you can be very frank and honest.

[00:19:39] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I throw Mainstream medicine under the bus on the regular because people just don't get it. They're scratching their heads Why don't I get these options at my hmo doctor's office? And so I really help them to understand that medicine is a business and that it has It's [00:20:00] its own motivations and doing lots of surgeries and procedures and prescribing lots of drugs is part of it.

[00:20:07] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And so if you want something different, then you've got to make different choices and look elsewhere, which I think is a great, I was going to ask you in a little bit, but I'm going to ask you now. The second question people ask me after why doesn't my doctor offer this is, Will my insurance pay for this?

[00:20:24] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I think this is a good place to ask that. 

[00:20:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You're absolutely right. There's a little bit of a conundrum. Because the FDA has not approved this for claims, your insurance has their hat to hang on that they, they will not approve this. However, there's something called PRP platelet rich plasma, which many people can get in their doctor's office, which is a taking your own blood and.

[00:20:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: spinning it down in a centrifuge and pulling out the growth factors and the platelets and concentrating them and delivering them back to an area where there might be a strain or pain like a tennis elbow or a knee [00:21:00] ligament or something like that. And it is, it's rather simple. It is, it's sort of the lowest.

[00:21:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Entry level regenerative medicine item and it is not approved for claims by the FDA But insurances are starting to pay for it because they're starting to see that it's less expensive than a surgical pathway So it might cost 500 to 1, 000 per session, typically people have two to three sessions. So, I think that's probably some good news in the long run towards insurance companies waking up and looking at the bigger picture and avoiding bigger open surgeries if possible.

[00:21:40] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: There's always a role for the surgeries, I don't mean to say don't do surgery, I mean to say look at every option first, why not try a regenerative procedure because I can tell you. When I'm addressing a knee problem, it's usually two doses of biologics in the bone above and below the knee. [00:22:00] And we do that at a little injection facility with some sedation so no one has to feel the bone injection.

[00:22:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It doesn't take very long. Most of the work is done ahead of time. The targeting, the MRI, the testing. And We've got that down to where it's just under 10, 000 and I think that's a good price when you look at the lost work time, the downtime, the complications, the co pays you'd have just to have a knee replacement.

[00:22:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Sure, the knee replacement might be less than 10, 000 out of pocket, but there's a cost of the pain and the recovery and the physical therapy and that kind of thing. So it's not cost prohibitive. For everyone. For some, I understand, but not for everyone. 

[00:22:43] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Yes, my mother had both knees replaced, and the pain she went through and just never had the same gait and walking ease, and if she could have avoided it at that time, I'm sure she would have in hindsight.[00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So, let's get more specific, because I know people are wanting to know. So we've talked about knees. What other joint or musculoskeletal problems have stem cells been shown to help with? And then also maybe tie into there, you mentioned bone marrow as a source. What are the sources? Cause some people are saying, Oh my gosh, am I going to have to have my bone marrow removed to get stem cell treatment?

[00:23:25] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So where are these? Stem cells coming from? Are they autologous from the person? Are they from somebody else? 

[00:23:32] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So let me work backwards. I'll start with that question and then work back to and expand on, on the types of things we can do beyond knees. Okay. So you can have bone marrow, harvested stem cells harvested from your own bone marrow, and even other sources like fat.

[00:23:48] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I don't like the fat source. Because those cells are typically in an inflamed environment. And the whole theme here is to work against inflammation, which works to help our [00:24:00] body tissues function better and slow the aging process. I don't like to harvest, autologous is the word you used, and that means from yourself.

[00:24:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I prefer the perinatal sources. These are again the donated, ethical, and FDA compliant labs that prepare these biologics. The biologics would be either stem cells or stem cell messengers, stem cell derived messengers. And these are the small particles that one cell uses to communicate with other cells in our body, wake up our own stem cells, activate them.

[00:24:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I have been able to keep the cost of procedures down with, I believe, at least as good efficacy, if not better in some areas. With the stem cell messengers and we call those exosomes or nanoparticles and they are basically a stem cell giving a message to other cells to behave in an anti [00:25:00] inflammatory, youthful, regenerative, restorative way and that's what we're, that's what we seek.

[00:25:05] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Those come from basically what used to be medical trash. It's now medical treasure, and these are donated and screened individuals. Unless you're in a culture that preserves the placenta for the delicacy that it may be in some areas, this is You've probably delivered thousands of babies and thrown away the, all this great stuff.

[00:25:30] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Am I 

[00:25:30] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: right? Yes. Who knew? You know, that HGTV show, isn't it called Trash to Treasure? But also I recently learned that in a lot of cultures, they actually bury the placenta to ground the energy body of the child into Mother Earth, which is a whole other conversation. So it's ethical to use it for medical procedures in the West, but in a lot of indigenous cultures, it probably wouldn't be so you [00:26:00] prefer the perinatal.

[00:26:01] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And it's not just for joint stem cells, not just for joints anymore. What are the other applications 

[00:26:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: that we get great results with joints? I would say joints. Joints are a wonderful and relatively successful application in our hands. And by joints, I'm including spine. We don't have the long term data on spine yet, like we do for knees.

[00:26:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Knees were sort of an easy first study because there's so many people with knees and they're easy to inject in the knee area, right? It's down there. It's just asking for an injection. The spine is a little bit more interesting. You have to be cautious around nerves. And that's where I come in as a neurosurgeon, so I'm, I've been inside the spine thousands of times doing surgeries.

[00:26:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I love doing fewer surgeries and more of these procedures. So we'll call that the musculoskeletal group. There are other things a little bit within the musculoskeletal group. One is there, there have been studies [00:27:00] showing improvement in bone density, which is very important in someone with declining hormone levels.

[00:27:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Um, as, as you and your. Listeners must know the bone density is associated with longevity. The better your bone density, the better your longevity. And hormones are a big part of that. Weight bearing exercise is a big part of that. And other factors like certain supplements, vitamin D3, for example, and others.

[00:27:25] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So regenerative medicine can help support bone density. There are studies on that. The other longevity or I'm sorry 

[00:27:33] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: to interrupt you, but where What types of stem cells are used 

[00:27:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: and how are they administered? I have to look at the individual study, but you are correct. Most of the studies are either autologous harvested stem cells from that person, their donated stem cells from a perinatal source, or their donated stem cell messengers or exosomes from a perinatal source.

[00:27:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Those are the three main applications that we call regenerative medicine. [00:28:00] 

[00:28:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: For bone density, how are those 

[00:28:01] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: administered? Oh, sorry. IV. 

[00:28:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Intravenously. Is anyone doing that in the United States? There 

[00:28:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: are a lot of us doing that. Okay. 

[00:28:10] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And so. Because I think there are women listening who are going to want to know what would your criteria be for what degree of osteopenia or osteoporosis.

[00:28:20] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I would say if there's any evidence for osteopenia and you want to get ahead of this and prevent this from going to full blown osteoporosis and you're already doing the traditional elements, weight bearing exercise, hormone optimization, things like this, the right supplements, it's something to look at.

[00:28:38] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Osteoporosis. is associated with shortened longevity. So we want to get ahead of this. And the criteria would be making sure they've tried everything else first. Now if someone has a very focal area of osteopenia, maybe a hip issue, but the rest of their testing, because when they test for bone density, they test the hip, the spine, maybe the wrist, other areas.

[00:28:59] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: [00:29:00] If we can focally treat by injection a spot area if needed. Yeah, but 

[00:29:06] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I've seen thousands of bone densities on thousands of women and it's a rare person who has a spot problem. It's usually pretty global. And so how many treatments would they have of intravenous stem cells? Because I know there's some women listening who are thinking, Oh, I'm going to look into that.

[00:29:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So they probably want to know. We 

[00:29:24] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: probably do one treatment. And then monitor the bone density every six to 12 months and see what kind of length of benefit they got and what kind of benefit they got from it and use that as a guide. There's no signing up for, Oh, you'll need this every six or 12 months.

[00:29:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: This is a individualized person and we guide it for that individual. So hopefully one treatment could give you. Months or years depending on how bad things are to start with how good your own status is your overall Inflammatory burden [00:30:00] and we can do blood tests to look at that in detail Because ultimately aging is an accumulation of this chronic inflammation and we need to not just give IV Regenerative biologics.

[00:30:12] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We need to look at every aspect of of what's causing root cause, right? What's causing inflammatory Yeah, let's 

[00:30:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: detour and talk about that because I talk about it a lot, but you can never talk about it enough. This is the rust. The inflammation is the rust that corrodes all your cells and degrades them.

[00:30:32] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And this is what causes premature aging, disease, death, everything. It is the enemy. So, it's vital. Every doc I know who works with stem cells, Requires that people reduce their inflammation if they're in a highly inflamed state But I think it would be important to hear your perspective on that 

[00:30:52] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I could not agree more and i've converged with you using the the word rust As you have so i'm [00:31:00] glad we've come together because you're right rust is oxidation And we are oxidizing and that's why antioxidants are good for us.

[00:31:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So We all are in a state of inflammation. That's during the day, during the light hours, we have neuro stress, we have physical stress, we have all these things and we have things in our food source and they cause our cells to react in a defensive manner and that defense is chronic inflammation. At night, we repair.

[00:31:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: If we're sleeping and we're getting good sleep, restorative sleep, our bodies and our cells undergo a repair process. It's a DNA repair, all kinds of things. And we need to balance that by really understanding those and focusing on them. I think reducing exposure to inflammatory items is probably the easiest thing we can do.

[00:31:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Eating a cleaner diet, for example, avoiding toxins in our environment to the extent we know they're there and we can, limiting electromagnetic [00:32:00] waves. Turning off the screens at night and the other things we can do to reduce inflammation are lifestyle changes, like making sure we exercise, eating in the light window and not eating in the dark window, intermittent eating, intermittent fasting.

[00:32:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We can even supercharge the reduced inflammation. By what's called hormesis. Hormesis as, as you may have, you and your audience may know, is a slight stress upon our cells to build resilience and to clear out the senescent zombie cells that are taking up space and resources. And that might come through exercise.

[00:32:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It might come through calorie restriction, maybe a fast for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. It might come from hot sauna use or cold plunges. And these stimulate the body to release survival proteins, which help reduce inflammation. These are the kind of proteins we find in stem cells and stem cell messengers.

[00:32:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So ultimately, the regenerative medicine is sort of a hack or a biohack to slow [00:33:00] inflammation. And as it slows and reduces and reverses inflammation at the cellular level, it's reducing aging at the cellular level. And you see many ads on social media. That our product reduces inflammation at the cellular level.

[00:33:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That's how we're going to reduce our, slow our aging. We have to do it at the cellular level. And everybody 

[00:33:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: stay tuned because Dr. Jeff does have a gift for you at the end of the show that's gonna, uh, help some things that you can do to help reduce your inflammation so you don't want to miss that.

[00:33:31] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Alright, let's jump back. We were going through the indications and treatments. We talked about knees, spine. We talked about osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone thinning. What other indications 

[00:33:44] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: are there? We've treated with IV many things. So we have patients who have come to us with declining kidney function and whether that's related to too much sugar in the life over your life and diabetic changes acquired type two [00:34:00] diabetes, whether it's related to high blood pressure that hasn't been adequately controlled or even other items.

[00:34:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: What happens is the blood test called creatinine starts to go up because your kidneys can't remove that amount of protein from the body. And yeah, We have seen declining, improving creatinine levels in patients who showed progressive problems with the kidney function, who wanted to avoid dialysis. So we've had a couple patients specifically, and we've only had to do one IV on each of those.

[00:34:31] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: patients where their creatinine is improved and we're just watching their blood test with the creatinine. And people come in and say, I've had so much other benefits from that. I think better, more clearly. I have more energy. I sleep more soundly. We get all these beneficial side effects from the IV. 

[00:34:49] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Just, I wanted to add something there.

[00:34:50] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Just as you're talking, it makes perfect sense that I'm sitting here thinking, why don't we give them to everyone intravenously because just the three year old boy [00:35:00] who falls and scrapes his knee. All you have to do is protect it from infection and getting scraped again. And then the stem cells, the messages throughout the body say, send stem cells to this cut and fix it.

[00:35:12] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It tells what to do. And so that example you gave is beautiful about the kidneys and declining kidney function. You give the stem cells intravenously, they know where to go. And they know what to do and they know to fix the problem. So why aren't we giving it? Do some people just say, I want general longevity.

[00:35:33] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And I know you're going to talk a little bit about that. And I want to heal whatever's broken that I don't know about. And you just. Give them intravenous stem cells. 

[00:35:43] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I don't want to give the idea that stem cells fix everything, right? I think they try it. This is not a cure all, but we love to add it when we can as an alternative or an additional item to help repair or recover in medicine.

[00:35:59] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We call it [00:36:00] an adjunct therapy, right? So this is an add on treatment. For example, we see patients who are recovering from heart attack and we show improved cardiac. function from I. V. Regenerative biologics. We see patients recovering from stroke or have suffered what's called traumatic brain injury used to be called chronic concussive syndrome.

[00:36:21] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And these people have lingering effects of brain injury, maybe from an accident or something. And we have shown some benefits there. And there are some studies published on this. Now it should be known that the stem cells do not readily cross the blood brain barrier when they're delivered IV. So the benefits we're actually seeing are more with the stem cell messengers, the stem cell derived exosomes I mentioned to you earlier because they are so small.

[00:36:49] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Remember they're called nanoparticles for a reason. They're very small. They cross the blood brain barrier and stimulate the glial cells and that support our brain cells. [00:37:00] And you spoke earlier about other types of stem cells like endometrial base and things like this. There is wonderful work in more specialized types of stem cells.

[00:37:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Right now, we do not use anything that's manipulated. So these are off the shelf, straight from the womb, tested, screened, and filtered. biologics, because the FDA is pretty clear that they don't want us using anything manipulated. Cells that have been conjured or cajoled into doing something very specific.

[00:37:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That is the next quantum leap in regenerative medicine, very specifically targeting stem cells and their messengers, engineered for a specific thing like helping to repair the islet cells in the pancreas in the case of type 2. It's for example, and again, most of these diseases of aging are diseases of inflammation and vice versa.

[00:37:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Coronary artery clogging, atherosclerosis has an inflammatory component. Alzheimer's disease has an inflammatory component. If you look at [00:38:00] the tissue under a microscope, even type 2 diabetes, you look at the pancreas, it has an inflammatory component. We're really simply just reducing inflammatory exposure and effect.

[00:38:12] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And that leads me to mention autoimmune, because this is where a lot of hormones get affected. And as your audience knows, autoimmune means the body is having a revved up attack on it, part of itself, for reasons unclear, but it's a hyper inflammation state. Let's list a few of those. Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

[00:38:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: There are other autoimmune diseases and if you do inflammatory blood tests, you'll see the inflammation system is in high gear. We're not sure always why that is, but it is. Some infections are known for their hyper inflammation. Lyme's disease is one I know you've had guests on before about Lyme's disease.

[00:38:55] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And another well known one that is known for inflammation is, [00:39:00] COVID 19. It's a very inflammatory virus, and a lot of these long COVID syndromes do have significant continued hyper inflammatory states involved. So we are seeing that these types of problems respond well to suppressing and controlling, we use the word immunomodulating, the inflammation system, where the regenerative biologics do work.

[00:39:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: towards declining those problems and those symptoms. 

[00:39:31] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay, wow, such great information. I would be remiss if I didn't ask because I know people are wanting to know about vampire facelift and beauty applications. Would you like to talk about that? 

[00:39:45] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I would. This is probably a little bit on the more fun end of things we do.

[00:39:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And most of the people we see have a problem and we want to help them with a problem. But we also have enjoyed helping people want to not only feel [00:40:00] better and be healthier, but feel better about looking better. So there are currently two cosmetic procedures that we have. One is, and as your audience knows, a vampire facial is PRP.

[00:40:13] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And we talked about PRP earlier for joints, where you can draw your, uh, have your blood drawn from your own veins, spun in a centrifuge, and pull out the growth factors and the platelets, and inject them into the face. So it gives more growth factors to the face to help tighten the collagen. I like to skip over that and go to the high octane stuff and that's to use the wide draw of the blood.

[00:40:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: When you change the oil in your car, you don't put the old oil back in it. So we use the stem cell biologics and micro inject the face. to stimulate the epidermal cells in dermal cells rather to stimulate, make more collagen, more elastin, get some tightening and youthful radiant glow because of the [00:41:00] improvement in the cells.

[00:41:02] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I think you might notice this as an OB GYN in your pregnant patients. They, don't they often say, Oh, my skin is so good while they're pregnant because they're getting all these youthful growth factors from the womb circulating in the maternal bloodstream. They're getting a Yeah, they're getting a dose.

[00:41:18] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Radiance is real. You can look at a pregnant woman and see that their hormones are really on point and their stem cells and how about hair 

[00:41:30] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: regrowth? You're also using it for that? That was the other one. And I am, I'm also a recipient of that. So we do the same thing. I've had, I had a bald spot and I've had three scalp injections and it's because of the lighting and things, you probably can't see it, but I'll do some social media posts with some befores and afters.

[00:41:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And it's, I've been able to help people with thinning, thinning hair. You have to have follicles. You have to have some hair. I can't take a bald person and with the current. state of [00:42:00] things. Now, when we talk about the future of the going backwards in the lineage of stem cells, there are some things coming down the pike and I have some colleagues and friends working on that.

[00:42:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: But right now this is for people who do have some follicles and I'm sure your audience knows when your hormones start to decline, that's And you have a longstanding inflammation, you, the follicles are sensitive, they, that's like when someone is stressed and they lose hair, it's because the inflammation in their body from the nerve is seen in the areas of symptom, where they become symptomatic, that might be psoriasis.

[00:42:33] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It's where they have dry skin, it might be in the scalp with the follicles, it might be in other areas. We have patients with dry eye syndrome who maybe have had LASIK procedures and we've injected, we talk about glands, we inject the meibomian glands in the eyelids. to help improve the glandular function and I've had some limited benefit there and we're still figuring out how to do that best.

[00:42:57] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Okay. 

[00:42:58] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Before we wrap up, [00:43:00] we must talk about longevity and then I know you've got that gift for them that's going to help them to know some things that they can start doing now to help with anti aging. But what does the data look like and treatments to increase longevity with stem cells? 

[00:43:17] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We don't have enough.

[00:43:18] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Long term data to answer that scientifically, but we do have something called biological age tests, and I think it'd be mentioned this, there are a few different kinds on the market, but basically it's a test that looks at either the markers in the bloodstream and or markers inside the cell bloodstream, of course, is outside the cell, and these markers are associated with certain age groups.

[00:43:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So we can do a blood test and estimate The biological age of someone as opposed to your calendar age, because I know at my last birthday, I turned 58, but I can do a biological age test and it has a different number and you can make lifestyle changes or do things in that [00:44:00] number adjust. You can affect your own rate of aging by taking your own anti aging journey and doing things about it.

[00:44:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And we have some studies that show improvement in the, in these biological age tests. With the use of IV regenerative biologics, so at least at the cellular level, which is where aging really does happen, there is scientific evidence to show reduced inflammatory markers and age related markers. And 

[00:44:28] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I know people are wondering, what's that test and where can I get it?

[00:44:32] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It has to be ordered by a doctor like me, and I do a lot of Zoom consultations, so if anyone in your audience is listening, this is an additional holiday gift, is if they call and mention your name, I'll do an introductory Zoom or phone. I prefer zoom, but phone consultation and we can go over their aging status and see where they are and see if we can make some tweaks in many [00:45:00] different areas and talk about the biological age tests.

[00:45:03] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I'm happy to do that. But you have to mention your name and they heard us here. 

[00:45:08] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay. So Merry Christmas to you, listener, you can call Dr. Jeff's office mentioned you heard him on Dr. Kieran's podcast and you can get some one on one time with Dr. Jeff and find out more about your health. I think that's a great place to end.

[00:45:30] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It sounds this is such a wonderful topic. It's a Such I guess it's kind of the wild west of medicine, but I think it is the future of medicine in many ways. So I think it's very valuable information. Thank you so much for sharing it. You have this wonderful gift that you're giving everyone to help them understand some things that they can start doing now for their health.

[00:45:56] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: We'll have the link in the show notes. Do you want to tell them about [00:46:00] what that is? And then also all the places they can 

[00:46:02] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: find you online. Thank you so much. Yes, if you go to the and I forget the word the young again method. com slash longevity There's a a free guide on some of the anti aging supplements You should start or if you're not already on and if you do schedule Some time to meet with me we can expand on that for you as well as customize it for the individual Please follow us at we celebrate is the name of the business.

[00:46:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: R e c e f l e b r a t e That's our website. That's our Instagram. That's our TikTok. That's our YouTube. We have lots of fun stuff. Follow us and send me a comment on Instagram. If you're on Facebook, also send me a comment and say hi and introduce yourself. We like to meet new people all the time. Awesome.

[00:46:48] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Thank you so much, Dr. Jeff, for your brave journey. It is always a brave journey for any physician to go off the beaten path [00:47:00] of What we're taught and to do something innovative and new and courageous. So thank you for saying yes to that because you're going to help a lot of people. I know you already are.

[00:47:11] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I really appreciate it. And I appreciate you sharing your journey and 

[00:47:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: expertise with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure and honor. And thank you for 

[00:47:20] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription. Stem cells are super exciting and the indications are growing. Access is growing and availability.

[00:47:35] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So. I know you learned something that's going to inspire you today. I look forward to knowing what that is. Reach out to me on social media and let me know. And if you want to take Dr. Jeff up on his very generous holiday offer, please do so. We will have all the links in the show notes to his free gift and to how you can reach out to him and contact him.

[00:47:58] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Until [00:48:00] next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe.

[00:48:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription. com where we have some free gifts for you. And you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you.

[00:48:44] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Talk to you soon.

 

►The Best 5 Anti-Aging Supplements that YOU Need to be taking NOW by Dr. Jeffrey Gross - CLICK HERE

► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

It might be time to check your hormones.

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.