Welcome to White Coat Black Sheep, where science gets curious and dogma gets
uncomfortable. I'm your host, Dr. Sevelli.
Today we talk physiology, evidence, and real-world medicine, plus the
questions you're not supposed to ask, but probably should.
If you care about your health and think there's a better way, welcome to the show.
This is Andrea. I'm so happy that you're here with me today. How are you?
I'm good. I'm so excited to be here today. It's been a long time coming.
Tell me about your day. How has it been? What are you walking in from?
A very full day. Started getting the kids up and out of the house
and off to school this morning, three back-to-back Zoom meetings, followed by
a team meeting, followed by an
eyebrow waxing appointment, and then a nail appointment.
Oh, I'm due.
And then back home for another Zoom, and shipping a kid off to water polo, and
here we are.
Water polo. I didn't see that one coming.
Yeah.
You're a woman who does it all. I see you as the person who does it all,
has it all.
It's really amazing. Do you ever feel tired?
Yes.
You make it look easy.
When it's fun and when you really enjoy something-
Yeah
... it doesn't feel like work, and I think that's why people say, "You have to love
what you do, and what you
do shouldn't feel like work."
Yeah.
And so being a mom, running businesses, doing the things, I really do
enjoy it. It's the days when I plan
poorly or take on a little bit more than I probably
should, or the days when I allow other people to
dictate my schedule-
Ooh, that's a good one
...
that those are the days when I feel just like capacity reached, max out.
Yes. It feels like you're trying to catch up at that point probably.
That's how I feel.
Yeah. You just feel like you don't have enough to give to everything the way that
you should.
Yeah.
And when you're a high achiever, when you don't feel like you've checked all the
boxes or you feel like you've underperformed in any area, you just beat yourself up
over it.
Totally judge yourself.
Yeah.
Yep, guilty.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's a mixture of people-pleasing for me and then also trying to
do time management, or maybe just I'm fully engaged into a
conversation and I also just lose time.
Yeah.
And then I hate myself. I'm like, "Come on, you know better."
Yeah. You can't beat yourself up. But one thing I did a few years
back to kind of protect that was I made a rule
that if somebody reached out and wanted to schedule something
for that week, if it wasn't already on the calendar, it gets bumped.
Okay.
So I kind of made that rule, and it saved me because I would be that person, kind
of maybe people pleaser-y, but-
Yeah
... more or less just wanting to do the things.
Yeah.
And somebody would like, "Hey, can you jump on a call tomorrow?
Can you do this or can you do that?" And I'm like, "No, I can't.
But next week, maybe Thursday or Friday, I can."
That's smart.
"But if it's not already set-"
Yeah
"... then I'm not putting it in there."
Yeah.
And it's been amazing thing to do.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's like honoring your commitments that are already there.
Well, and also the recovery time and the space because you typically, you know, you
only-
Yeah
... you plan for what you have the ability to do.
And so when you give-
Yeah
... that up, you're also giving up your peace, your joy-
Yeah
... your downtime-
Yeah
... which we both have very little of.
I know. I was listening to this entrepreneur, Natalie Dawson.
I don't know if you... I don't-
Her name sounds familiar.
Yeah. She has a really good podcast and
I like her social media. But she was mentioning the
concept of rationing your energy and managing your energy.
She doesn't believe in that.
That's one part where I didn't fully agree because I was just like,
you know how you're going to feel after certain events or activities.
Yeah.
You know what your body is able to do, your range, and then if you push
beyond that, you get irritable. So physically, if you do it
and you're past your limit,
it's not the best version of me. I know that.
Yeah.
So I feel like I do actually need to ration my energy.
Yeah, and I think you just have to allocate it properly.
Yeah.
Sometimes I feel like we give too much energy where it's not-
Yeah
... really required, when we over contribute
Yep
... to things. There's that, or sometimes we feel the need to jump in
and have a say or an opinion or an idea on something when really,
I think we're only sent to that space to listen or moderate.
So I feel like-
I wonder how many of those I've busted through.
Oh my gosh. It's so hard. I think one of the biggest leadership lessons is
learning to listen.
Mm.
To listen. In fact, when I made the shift from being a
teacher to going into administration, I was young.
And my boss at the time, my principal at the time, gave me probably the best
advice that I still use today that was so great because he-- And it has to
do with rationing your energy because I was young.
Yeah.
And I had fresh ideas and-
Yeah
... I was walking into an administrative position with people who had been in
education longer than I had been alive.
And I was a girl, so that meant I was kind of coming in with less
qualifications, maybe.
Yeah.
Perceived qualifications.
Yeah.
And so he goes, "You're full of ideas. You have great energy. You're so passionate.
But-
Ooh
... when you're in these environments and you're kind of sitting round table,
you're going to want to jump in. You know the solution. You see the solution.
You think so far out in front of everyone else, and you see big
picture. You have to just wait and hold back and let
everyone else speak, let all the other things be said, because there's
value in listening first and making those micro adjustments."
Yeah.
At first, I was kind of offended. I was like, "What? What do you mean?
Why can't I just jump in there?"
Because he's like, "Shut it down."
Well, yeah.
Pause yourself.
Yeah, really protect your energy, pause yourself.
Mm-hmm.
Don't be the first one. Allow, because the last thing you want is for the
perception to be that you're like-
Aggressive
... aggressive or-
So you are-
... you think you know it all or- ... whatever.
That's not
the vibe. You're like, "Ew."
I do, but no.
But yeah, but that has-
Yeah
... to do with that energy, and so for me, that was probably the first lesson I had
in learning how to control-
... that energy.
Well, it seems pretty powerful because however all these
different pieces have added to you, it's launched you into larger
platforms, running very challenging meetings.
I follow you on social media, so I
know we don't get to talk that much, but it looks
like there's a lot of people in these Zoom calls or these stages that you're
on. So managing, that's a lot of
people. That's a hard call. To me, that looks hard.
Oh, it's so fun. It is fun.
But yeah. Again, and that's part of why you have to take care of yourself, so you
have the energy to-
Serve
... serve, and to show up, and to be there. But it is. It is.
People-
That's a skill.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
People are the worst.
Here, it's just us.
Right.
There's no one. You guys can't interact with us while we're here.
We're safe in a bubble, but-
Yeah. Yeah.
But you have a lot of different inputs with the calls.
Yeah. I do.
And I'm safe from my kids here, too, needing anything. That's also nice.
We should just stay here.
I know. I'm like, "We'll get a little bed."
Yeah.
A coffee machine.
We have snacks and-
Yeah
... drinks, beverages, like chessboard.
Board games.
Yeah.
Golden.
We don't really need much more.
No. Not at all.
So how do you manage your energy throughout the day?
It's a lot of output for you, too, between-
It is.
... patients and facilities, and I've seen you in motion-
Yeah
... completely engaged in something, but the calls are coming through, the text
messages are coming through.
Yeah.
You're having to solve really quick questions-
Yeah
... manage really quick problems that involve the
state of someone else's health. It's pretty serious stuff.
So how do you-
Yeah
... how do you manage that?
Well, yeah, it is a rationing of my energy, and
I definitely think about the moments that I overdo it.
So, it affects my vitals. I
feel it's very doctorly to say, but-
Yeah
... it raises my heart rate, my HRV goes down.
I don't like myself like that. And just seeing the
impact on my health changes my behavior.
Yeah.
So, I like your rule about how
to schedule people because when I break my rules and I'm like,
I know what the next day has,
and then I allow add-ons-
Mm-hmm
... it feels like things do get out of control.
100.
I'm like, "Why would I do that?"
Well, it's kind of like if you plan a dinner-
Yeah
... for six people,
and four other people are like-
Sounds awful
... "Hey, I hear you're having a dinner party for six.
Can I come too?" But you only planned for six, but then, four more show up.
Who would say that?
It stresses. I don't know. Like the wrong friends. We don't have them.
Who would-
But do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
When you plan, even if you have an event-
Yeah
... you plan for a certain number, and more people come.
Yeah.
It puts a stress on the planning, the preparation, the amount of
food, the settings, all of it. It does.
Yeah.
It puts stress on it. And then the load for you, too, because what was manageable
now became unmanageable.
Or past.
And it's that little window-
Yep
... where we stretch ourselves beyond our capabilities.
And I think as women, we're in this interesting
catch-22-
Yeah
... to
do it all really well-
Yeah
... but also leave space to do a little bit more.
Yeah. Just yeah.
A little bit more.
That's exactly. Why? Where does it come from?
I don't know. I don't-
Is it good?
Is it societal pressure? Is it pressure we put on ourselves?
Is it because we feel like we're handling something so
well over here-
Yeah
... that if we just take on a wee bit more-
I did that
... to push ourselves-
Yeah
... that we're even like, "Oh, mm, I'm better.
It's better."
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
We're robbing ourselves, actually, of capability-
Yeah
... and capacity at that point.
Yep.
Because like you said, you don't like who you are.
Mm.
And that's when we have those moments, when you like-
Ooh
... meltdown.
Yeah.
Or you flip out on your kids.
It does come out with crying.
Or Jax. Maybe you get really spicy with Jax, and he's just like, "Wah."
You know? Not his-
He does get his feelings hurt easily.
You didn't give him as many treats.
Yeah.
He's like, "Bruh, she overscheduled herself today.
I know it."
"What about me? Hey, hi, down here."
Yeah. And that's another output, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a whole other output.
Yeah.
It's really interesting to me, but I don't know.
I think that we only have so much that we can give in a day.
We have a social battery.
Yep.
I think we have like-
That's the word, social battery.
Yeah. We have a social battery, how much we have for others.
We have internal batteries-
Mm
... for ourselves, and then every plate that we spin.
And so we have to be really smart and wise, and sometimes that's why I don't answer
my phone when certain people call because they're battery drainers.
I'm like, "Oh, boy."
Vampires.
Oh, boy.
Yep.
Like, no way.
Yep.
If I knew an app drained 75% of my battery if I
opened it, I would delete it.
I would never have it on my phone. But we allow ourselves to be-
That's good
... victimized by other people's lack-
Yeah
... of energy.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
And people come to people like us because they're like, "I need to feel better."
That's so true. Yeah. And then I will
be a part of it. I'm now complicit-
I know
... in your needs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because we want to help you.
Yeah. I do.
Yeah. I want to hear about it.
But you can't help everybody, and so I'm really like, yeah, that is the mission
right now at this stage in my life.
Yeah, I was actually just having this conversation with
a friend yesterday, talking about how as we are getting older,
we're starting to recognize that we do have capacity.
I think we put blinders on at certain stages of our lives-
Mm-hmm
... and we just push and power through, and we think the burnout and the
meltdown is like a badge of honor. It's like, "Oh, I sleep four hours a day.
I'm a champion."
I used to be that.
Yes, I know. And now I'm like, if I get less than seven hours of sleep, I'm a
monster.
I don't like me. Yeah.
No, and I'm exhausted, and I don't function as well.
And so just recognizing that
capacity and being okay with that, you know what?
Yeah.
I don't have as big of a tolerance.
Yeah.
I want to be very selective-
Yeah
... about how I spend my time, who I spend my time with, because-
Yep
... the amount of time we have is really-
Precious.
It is. And then if you're snapping or biting people or giving
zingers, one-liners, snarky,
moody-
Disheveled
... yeah, and that impacts your mindset.
Yeah.
And whatever mindset you bring into a situation, your mindset is a filter, right?
Yeah.
So if you come in in that
less than ideal mindset-
Yeah
... then everything you perceive is coming right through that.
So it could
potentially bring about a conflict that otherwise wouldn't have existed.
Definitely.
Or some other thoughts that maybe wouldn't have been there.
Yeah.
They create tensions and stuff, so it's just, I don't know.
I think we need to protect our energy. We need to protect our mindsets.
Yep.
We need to protect our peace.
Yep.
Yeah.
Yep.
You know?
No, definitely.
That's why you don't go to Trader Joe's like it-
I made it to the parking lot the other day
... certain times of day.
No, I made it to the parking lot and I was like-
Yeah, I know
... this is yesterday. I said-
Yes
... "No,
nope."
I've got to protect my peace.
I reversed and I went home and I did Uber Eats.
Oh.
I felt like I was really about to go in there, but then I'm like, "I just
can't. I'm not the best version of me right now.
If I go in there, I should just call it."
Yeah.
That's a real thing.
It is a real thing. We have a rule at our house, if there's more than five cars in
the drive-through, we go inside, or we don't go in. Or we just don't go.
That's a good rule.
Because I don't want to waste all that time, right?
Yeah.
In the drive-through. But same thing, if there's no parking at Trader Joe's, I'm
just like-
It's a bad
... I guess we're not eating tomorrow.
Going home.
That's really good.
Not grocery shopping.
Yeah, and the aisles are small.
Well, have you been in the new one?
I don't think so. Where is it?
On Coffee. They-
Oh, the new place.
It's the same place.
What? Yeah.
They bought the building next door and they expanded.
Oh.
So it's completely remodeled. I will say, though,
I love how much more space there is and it's more open.
Yeah.
But I feel like big open grocery stores are overwhelming.
They are.
I don't love them.
No, it gives me anxiety.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
I used to appreciate the smaller part because people knew
the flow.
Yeah.
Everybody went in on the right and everybody knew the flow.
Yeah, and their circuit.
And now people are going this way and that way, and I'm just like-
Oh, no
... "You're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong.
What is happening?"
You're triggered. Loss of control.
Beyond. I'm like, "Your cart..." It's like when someone's driving on the wrong side
of the road. I'm like, "Why are you over here?"
You haven't even been down that one aisle yet with the spices.
I can tell by your cart. Go back.
That's hilarious.
It is. It's really bad.
Oh.
They're the weird things you notice as you get older, like who are we?
I don't know.
How did we go from thinking about the kind of house we want to live in and dreaming
that way to, I used to see people's houses and like, "Oh, that's really...
I like this style." Or this is, I know I'm like, "I wonder what that bush is
called. What kind of plant is that?"
How much water does it need?
Ah.
Can it survive on air?
Yeah, I wonder who did their landscaping.
What is happening? It's so strange.
Water filters.
I know.
Our first conversation today.
I want one.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, fancy stuff.
Yeah.
The things that start to matter.
If it makes you live longer and it brings you joy or it
lightens your load, your burden, I'm all about it.
I'm like, "That's a yes for me. I need it."
Yeah. You'll never believe this, but the other day the gardeners were at the house
and on the side yard where the pool is and some of my citrus trees are,
the dogs love to just run back and forth and whatnot, and who knows what gets
back there, but he was like, "Oh, do you want me to spray all these weeds?" And I
was like, "No."
He was like... And I was like, "I like to pick them." There is something very
satisfying about going into the dirt with your fingernails just
done or not just done, and pulling a weed completely
out.
Full root.
Yeah, full root. So satisfying. How do we go from being-
I love this
... pimple popping-
Yeah
... was satisfying back in the day.
Yeah.
But now I'm like, I see weeds in people's yards-
We've had an escalate
... and I'm just like, "Oh my God.
I'm so tempted to pluck that right now."
Sorry, excuse me, may I pluck your weeds?
Yeah.
I need this. It's for me. Is that okay?
Do you mind if I put my hands in your garden?
Have you done that?
I don't ask, I just do it.
You just think you-
My neighbors probably think I'm so kind. I just have some disorder.
Stop it.
They're like, "Oops, there she is out there again, picking weeds in the flower
bed."
I'm dying. I thought we were really about to end the sentence with like, "No,
I haven't crossed that line yet." But you're like, "No, I don't ask."
I don't ask. I just do it.
That's the best way.
I just feel like it's my
doing my part as a neighborhood in our cul-de-sac, okay?
That's awesome.
Yeah. But yeah, I told my lawn guy, I was like-
Team player
... "Don't do it. Let me pick them all out," and then you can-
Was he baffled by your space?
Oh, yeah. He was like, "Are you sure?" And I was like, "Yeah. So sure.
I can't wait to get out here and go to town." It's going to be so fun.
But what is it? What happened? Where did that change?
I think that is instant gratification.
Yeah, probably. And just putting your hands in the dirt and like-
Yeah, grounding
... also, yeah, taking care of your own home and doing some of those things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's very, I don't know. I think it settles the
mind.
I think so too.
Yeah.
What is the disconnect? Because when you're out there and you're doing that, it's
literally all you can think about and focus on.
Yeah.
One weed at a time.
Yeah. I'm telling you, grass looks great right now.
It could backfire though, if it snaps and you don't get the full root.
Listen,
that is when I-
I don't want to see this
... I put my index finger to work.
And I dig all around it and make sure it comes out, because I can't just leave it
behind.
Oh, my God.
Just can't do it. No weed left behind, my friend.
Well done.
Okay, that is everything.
I'm going to start picking weeds.
I'm telling you, it is-
I feel inspired to pick weeds
... it is so fantastic. And then you just see this big, and it's crazy because you
see them in the ground and you're like, "Oh, there's 10 or 15." And then you pull
them out, and they make a mound, and you're like, "Wow."
Yes.
It feels so good.
So good. The only things I never thought I'd care about.
You must water your garden frequently.
The sprinklers.
I don't think I have a weed problem. I think it's more of a death problem.
Oh. Yeah, I think it's more of, I live kind of on the outskirts and
the dust blows seedlings from all the things everywhere. Ooh, okay.
Yeah.
Do you cook? I love to cook. Do you cook? No. Not at all?
But I need to relearn how to cook. I- Aw, I'll teach you. Yeah, please.
I need a few recipes because I'm tired of Uber Eats. Yeah.
It's time. Well, and can we talk about Uber Eats for just a second? Yes.
Because the other day, I was taking one of my children to
a unnamed restaurant after school because they were hungry,
which is typical. That's all they do is eat.
And
there's a lot of DoorDash, Uber Eats drivers that hang out in this
particular parking lot, especially in the after-school hours, probably because a
lot of calls come in, I'd imagine. Mm-hmm.
And I watched a driver come in and grab a bag as I
was waiting for my daughter,
come out, and in the front seat of the car was a woman who was barefoot
with her feet hanging out the window, and she was smoking.
And he gets into the car and just hands her the bag, and then she
pulls her feet back inside, and then rolls up the window.
And I thought to myself,
"That is going to be transported with who
knows what- ... in this space, and then delivered to some unsuspecting
person-" Mm-hmm ... completely unaware.
I don't know, something about it freaks me out.
I haven't experienced that visual, but it definitely- Like, what if somebody farts-
... makes you think ... while we're driving?
Then you have some particles in your- I'm not okay with that ...
it's like aerospace- I am not okay with that ... of your food.
Yeah, I know. I used to teach this really amazing- No
farting in the notes. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, right. Could you imagine?
You're like... Then they would just be like,
right into your bag. You're asking for it. Yeah, you should...
No, no, no. But yeah, I just... Okay, so back to this. This is bad.
Okay, I'm going to teach you how to cook. Okay. Okay, perfect.
What
do you want to learn how to cook? I like simple things, so
I think on the same concept of weed picking-
Mm ... that instant gratification of- Yeah ... making a meal.
I haven't done that in a very long time. Aw.
But I'm ready. I want to get back to it.
I want to do very simple ingredients.
I usually like some form of a simple carb,
vegetable medley. Yeah. Just straight from
the bag, put that into the microwave or something, or the air fryer.
Yeah. That's the best I can do. Okay. That's good. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
I mean, that's a start. Yeah, and then a meat. Now, the meat is stressful.
And a meat, she said. And a meat. Some sort of meat.
But I feel like I'm burnt out on certain things, like chicken.
Mm. And then,
with my microbiome testing and all these things I now know
about my body- Mm-hmm
... without making it a big deal, lamb,
it's not my favorite preference anyway, but lamb is on my no list.
Duck is on the no list.
Steak, limit,
and then fish, most fish is okay. Okay.
What's your blood type?
I'm AB. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. My boys are both AB. I was just asking because there's like...
Did you know that AB is the newest blood type? What do you mean?
I love blood type science. I think it's really fascinating.
I don't really know anything about it.
Oh my gosh, that's probably a whole other episode.
But-
It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Clock it. What is it? Okay. Clock it.
Is this a podcast or it's a book? There's all kinds of information.
There's a book out there. There's a lot of research out there just behind blood
type diet and associated- Huh ... exercises with blood
types that the body responds to, and so it's really interesting. Wow.
So in some of the coaching that I do, like the life coaching that I do, there is a
wellness component because you can't address most things until you start
with the wellness- Yeah ... aspect, right? Yeah.
And so, I love to do that deep dive with people to figure that out because if
you're not eating the right foods and it kind of has your body under attack,
it's going to affect your mood, your energy, and all those things. Yeah.
So, O is the oldest blood type.
Take it way back- Yeah ... beginning of time, long time blood type. Like ancestral.
Yes. And so all those people thrive on
carnivore- Oh ... thrive on heavy meat- Okay
... style diets. Yeah. And they thrive, and their bodies really
benefit from
CrossFit style HIIT exercises, really intense
physical workouts. They feel the best.
Well, their body responds the best. So that's your Os.
And then you have your As, like I'm A positive, and so for my blood type,
we run really high
energetically, emotionally- Makes sense ... all the things. We're- Yeah ...
high people. Well, not high high, but like high high.
And so- High on life ... high on life. Yeah.
And so we do better with lean
white meat, so like white fish, chicken.
Red meat is an agitator to our systems, and we do- Interesting ...
better with lots of fruits and vegetables.
Like Whole30 is our love language. Wow.
And then when it comes to exercise, CrossFit and HIIT can cause extreme
inflammation- Wow ... and actually cause you to gain weight
and put your body in a high-stress state, which you already
operate in. Yeah. Cortisol spikes- Yeah. Oh my gosh ... can't handle it. Yes.
Can't build muscle. Yes. And so we do better with more grounding
exercises, yoga, Pilates, barre- That's fascinating ... things like that.
Then
the newest blood type, it's only like 1,000 years old, which
is the newest. 1,000 years old. Only just 1,000 years old. But it's the AB. Wow.
That's the newest. And so AB have qualities of
the As and the Bs, and
there's not as much extensive research because it's-
Newer ... newer. Yeah. But it is really
interesting- Yeah ... the science and stuff, but what's- That's awesome ...
crazy is that with type A, gluten, dairy, and red meat are all
high things that we should avoid. Yeah.
And in 2013, so like 13 years ago or so, that's when I started
developing sensitivities to gluten and dairy. That's me.
After having a sensitivity develop to red meat in 2006. Mm-hmm.
I just think that's fascinating that my body eventually rebelled.
Yeah.
Yeah. So every time my daughter-
Interesting
... who's also A positive, wants to go eat a steak, I'm like, "Listen, girl, enjoy
it while you can."
Yeah.
Because your body's going to turn on you.
Oh, it's so evil.
I know. Okay, so no duck. Okay. Yeah, I could totally teach you some fun things.
So I love to cook. I like to experiment and create fun
flavors and pairings, and a lot of it is trial by
fire.
Okay.
And so-
I'm ready for this
... that's fun to me.
Okay.
I love that.
So what does that look like, trial by fire? I feel slightly scared and excited.
Something will just sound like it would taste amazing.
Yeah.
Because I love food, I love to eat, I love to cook.
So one time, I grilled up turkey burgers, and I had
apricots.
Oh.
So I took the apricots, and I turned them face down on the grill, sliced them open
to remove the pit.
Yeah.
So I had grilled apricots, turkey burger. I had some type of bib lettuce.
I don't even know what it was. And then I had goat cheese that I whisked up with
some olive oil and smooshed it-
This is so fancy
... in the pit of the grilled apricot and did a balsamic
drizzle. Balsamic drizzle can pretty much go on everything, probably, but Froot
Loops. And- ... it was so good. It was one of those
wild concoctions and it was amazing.
This feels advanced. I love that.
But it's easy.
Yeah.
You know?
And all of those items are right on my food list.
Yeah.
Those are all-
Clean, healthy.
Yes.
Yes.
Turkey is good for me.
Yeah. So it was super yummy.
It's actually ranked, I think, top of my list as
recommendations for me.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Perfect.
I can do turkey burgers with apricot and balsamic and, what else?
Yeah.
Goat cheese?
Yeah, goat cheese. Mm.
And bib lettuce.
Yeah.
I can do that.
Oh, so easy.
Yeah. Ground turkey. You can do all-
Yeah
... of the fun things.
Avoiding cheese is recommended, but I have to look up goat cheese.
I don't remember.
There's no dairy in there, so I think she'd be fine.
Okay.
Yeah. Goat feta.
Okay.
Nothing better.
Anything you want, just avoid the cheddar.
I didn't see all of that coming.
I know.
That-
Most people don't
... that was pretty good.
It's also a disorder.
You couldn't stop it.
I know.
It just-
My brain was already there. It already happened.
I love it.
It comes out, and then I step back into time.
I'm like, "Okay."
You're like-
"There we go"
... "Well, phew, I feel better."
Yeah.
Yeah.
My latest obsession in the kitchen, though, is all things chia.
Mm.
Pudding things.
So what does that mean? So I put chia seeds in my oatmeal.
So with chia, well, it all kind of started because I had some
extensive blood work done.
That's awesome. Okay. The blood work changes
behavior.
Yeah, especially when you find out...
Okay, listen, knowing what you
know about me, you've seen me, we hang out, and you know my
lifestyle, where would you rate me on a scale of being healthy on a scale of one to
10?
10 out of 10.
That's very nice.
You're one of the healthiest people that I know.
You obviously-
I don't see you cheat on any diet.
Oh my gosh. You don't know about my Oreo problem?
I don't know about your Oreo problem. Your sleep score is probably phenomenal.
It's pretty good.
Your exercise frequency and regularity is probably dialed
in. I think stress management, you appear to have good
stress management.
Yeah.
Am I right?
You're pretty spot on. And I considered myself to be pretty healthy,
but back in February, I started not feeling like myself.
What'd you find?
And I went to my doctor, and she did basic labs.
Yeah.
And they all came back-
So nothing.
Yeah. They all came back like, "Oh, everything looks great." And I'm like, "No, I
don't feel like me." And I know
me.
Yeah.
So I went back and got some more extensive blood work done and
got my biological age.
I love it. How old were you?
I was
disappointed.
I really wanted it to come back at like 27.
Okay. That's ambitious. But that's-
Not because you're so far from it,
but the 20s are hard to get into.
I love how you said ambitious and not calm. And so yeah, ambitious.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I really wanted to be like 27, but it came back
38.
Okay.
So that's five years.
I'm also 38.
Oh, your biological age?
I'm 38.
Oh.
And I was younger, okay? So-
Yeah, because we're both 43, because our birthdays are only a couple months apart.
Yes.
Yeah.
We're basically sisters.
Yeah. Basically sisters. Blood type slightly different. Mine's younger.
She's a thousand years-
It's newer. But you're also younger than me by a couple months, so whatever.
Yeah.
Just numbers. Like it's math, really. Who's counting these?
I know.
She's a thousand years younger.
Yeah.
But yeah, so it came back 38, so I was like, "Okay, that's not
terrible."
Yeah.
And that also means it could be better.
So when I looked at-
Yes
... what shocked me in the blood work, the thing that stood out to me, because you
get your numbers and you see what's out of range, see what's in range, and you see
all the things. And
came back with the notes as a high risk for a sudden
cardiac event.
It was your
lipids, right? Was it on your-
My omegas.
Oh.
My omega-3s. So there's an omega index, which I think all women, and I know
you coach and talk and teach-
Yep
... and educate and empower a lot of women when it comes to really
advocating for themselves-
Yeah
... and their health.
The omega index is not talked about enough with women.
No, I agree.
And
mine was like a 2.9.
Mm-hmm.
And so on the index, the scale of one to 10, anything from three and
under puts you at a high risk for a sudden cardiac event.
Yeah.
And then you have your moderate level, which it's like you should be paying
attention big time, and then you have-
Yeah
... you're in the clear.
Yeah.
And as somebody with a family that there's a history of heart disease-
Mm-hmm
... and everything else, and just knowing that heart disease is such a
contentious stinker when it comes to women's health.
Almost makes it cute.
Yeah, I know. That's probably an unfair characterization.
But like-
I can see the face on this thing.
Yeah. You know, she's just like, "Hmph."
Yeah.
Like a little rotten tomato.
Yeah.
But it's a big deal, and so I was shocked, and
honestly, it kind of freaked me out.
And so I was like, "All right, what's a fast, like ChatGPT, what is
the fastest way for me to increase my omega index?"
What'd it say? Fiber?
Came back with chia. Chia-
Oh, chia
... and hemp seeds are really high in omega-3 and six fatty acids.
And so-
Have you done a retest?
No, I actually have blood work coming next month, so I can't wait to see how that's
improved. I'm excited and nervous. Things- Yeah ...
because I've been doing chia pudding literally every day for the last 90 days, but
I'm obsessed with it. And I've become this chia influencer.
It's really weird, the number of people who are like, "I'm doing this too, and I
ordered your jars too, and what's our next recipe or our focus?" And I'm like, "Oh,
my gosh, this is a lot of unexpected pressure around this whole chia situation."
But literally, the women coming back to me talking about how much better they feel,
how it's made their cravings at bay, how their
digestion has improved. I've never had more conversations
about the length
of someone's
porcelain deposit
than I have recently. I wasn't sure if we were in the
sexual bucket or the
disposal. So remember, women and length, that could be concerning.
But yeah, it's just been really great.
So yeah, I've been kicking up the omegas to do that.
So I was like, I'm going to tell you to get chia pudding.
You could do chia in your oatmeal, but- That sounds delicious. So good.
I love that. Yeah. And oat milk,
I don't love oat milk. Would you go almonds? I do coconut. Okay.
Because it's the least processed. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay.
So it's the least processed, so I prefer...
And it's not super coconutty, so it's easy. No, it tastes good.
Chia seed, coconut milk- Yeah ... and then you can add protein powder if you wanted
to because I know- Yeah ... you love to do that. Yeah.
And then just top it with fresh fruit, and it's so... I can't even tell you.
Apples. I crave it. Well, I just took strawberries and pureed them.
Ooh, that's good, too. So just strawberries and a little bit of water, pureed it-
Yeah ... mixed them in till it's like a strawberry sorbet. That's delicious.
Yeah. Okay, are you posting this stuff? Like I'm going to- Yeah.
No pressure, but your group is growing. I know.
The chia- I know, the chia girls.
That's cute. Like the Cheetah Girls. Do you remember? Oh, I love it.
Do you remember the show, The Cheetah Girls? Yes.
Did you watch? Oh my gosh, the chia girls. So yeah. That's happening.
Blonde,
I don't know. Yeah. Vaguely, but yes. Yeah.
I'm on it. That's funny. Gosh. Omega-3s, for
perimenopausal and post-menopausal females,
that's the next step that's like, I'm going to recommend
it. So giving somebody food
recommendations is fantastic. I didn't know that about chia seeds. Yeah.
Well, the truth of it is,
as you know with perimenopause and menopause and your estrogen levels start
dropping, what most women don't understand is we think about it affecting us on
the sleep and mood and hot flashes and
energy, when in reality, estrogen acts as this great protector of
your vital organs- Yeah ... especially the heart.
And so when our estrogen drops, our heart becomes
less protected and more susceptible. No wonder heart disease creeps in.
No wonder women have heart attacks out of nowhere.
And then we're not meeting our needs on that nutritional basis- Yeah ...
because dietary guidelines are going to be like, "Oh, eat fish three times a
week." Yeah. And I used to love to eat salmon three plus times a week.
I used to do that. And then all the videos around
salmon and parasites, and it's like- ...
farmed salmon versus fresh salmon, and it's just a lot. Oh. It's a lot.
I haven't watched those videos. I don't think I want to start.
Did you completely-- How did you change your behavior?
Did you, after watching those videos?
Were they like- It just made me more conscientious
about buying it, eating it- Did it reduce- ... paying attention.
Oh, absolutely. I probably used to cook salmon two or three times a week,
literally. That's my preference.
So
now maybe once a week because of the parasites?
Yeah, or just making sure you're not eating it raw.
But just also paying attention. I guess sushi would be when I would eat it raw, or
poke bowl. Ugh. But that's tuna.
Okay. Unless you do one with salmon, I guess. Yeah. I don't know.
Is this where we do like a- It's king fish ...
is this where we give a shout-out to Ryo Açaà Bowls?
Oh, yeah, no, they have great- And their poke bowls are so good.
They're delicious. They are delicious.
Lots of fresh grade A tuna- Yeah ... in those. Yes, yum.
And then in that case, it's good. Yes, 100%.
Just not as many omegas as salmon. Yeah, or fatty
salmon. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, okay, so management of lipids, it
sounds like is such a problem, especially for our age.
And I think on my profile, so
my biological age when I graduated residency, I was
55.
55.
I couldn't even believe it. And then I did a retest.
You could've turned that in for discounts. For what?
Oh, like- Like all the places. Get my- Like your senior discount.
Yeah, senior discount. I
could have. I was an old lady on my insides. Yikes.
So I did major life
reassessment and- Mm-hmm ... made all these changes and really made my health a
priority. So that launched me into all these other things.
And it doesn't mean I'm perfect. All right.
I wish I was, but
I know I have to try. And then I take these tests every three months.
I'm just on a membership, so I don't know if you are, but-
Yeah ... it's just a game changer. It is, and what's crazy to me
is how many people aren't and really need to start
looking at this because if you go and you take your car in for an oil change every
three months, or you get diagnostics on this, like you look at your phone, and you
see diagnostics of your phone use and how all that's working. Yeah.
You are your most important asset. Yeah.
You need to start paying attention because once you start to
notice the issue, you're already on the other side of
trying to catch up. Yeah. And that's where I've just really
been talking about this so much because your
perception, oh my gosh, I would've put you top 10 health wise. 10 out of 10.
And most people would absolutely put me- Your yoga
form was amazing. Like the good- Oh.
Yeah. Very strong. Yeah, we had cold plunge for like five minutes.
Infrastructure, mitochondrial health.
Yeah, it's there, but that was something that was really shocking, and you never
know what's really going on- Yeah ...
until you take a closer look at your biology. Yep.
And it's just so important, and traditional medicine- Shocking ...
is just like, "Hey, once a year, let's see how you're doing." I'm like, "Your air
conditioner gets more checkups than that."
The filter changes. Yeah
Your fridge, you change. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Water filters, yeah.
It's wild to me.
Yeah.
I just really want people to start prioritizing that, not for the vanity
metrics, but for the longevity
metrics.
You don't want to drop dead.
No.
Dropping dead is stupid, if you can prevent it.
Now, if you can't prevent it, that's different, but there's a lot that you can do,
and you can add years to your life.
Absolutely.
Why wouldn't you?
Yeah. I think there's two conversations we should really be having right
now, and that's like, one is our lifespan, which is
obviously how long we live.
Yep.
And then there's our health span-
Oh, yeah
... which is how long we live-
I like that
... well.
Yes. Which is not happening right now, and it's really
tragic.
Yeah, it is, and I feel like there's this interesting thing
that kind of happened because obviously there was a lot of shifts in environment, a
lot of shifts in our food-
Yeah
... a lot of shifts in-
The stress and-
... products, stress,
the constant attention-seeking things that we have-
Yeah
... that are pseudo-dopamine creators and
pseudo-connection and pseudo-
Yep
... all of that kind of happening at the same kind of
collision point of
the lifestyle stuff kind of catching up-
Yeah
... and then we're seeing disease.
Yeah.
And I was just having this conversation that disease,
back in the day, we would be like, "Disease is for old people."
Yeah.
Only old people have disease and-
Yeah
... but disease is not discriminate.
Mm-mm.
It's not discriminate. Disease is based on factors.
Yep.
And we're all exposed to those factors.
Yeah.
So what can we do to mitigate that exposure?
What can we do to-
I'm looking for all of it
... to clean up? What can we do to repair?
What can we do-
Yeah
... that's the kind of stuff that we should be, let's actually for reals
be proactive and I think about
Dolly Parton passing away.
Mm-hmm. That was yesterday?
Tuesday.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was. I was on a Zoom and somebody on the Zoom was like, "Oh my gosh," and
we all just like .
Yeah, she was iconic.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
But like a staple.
Yeah.
I grew up watching her movies.
Yeah.
I think I've watched Steel Magnolias seven million times.
Aw, so cute.
Grew up listening to her music.
Yeah.
My sister played guitar, my mom's siblings played guitar, grew up in that
environment, and so it's like a piece of you.
Mm-hmm.
But also, when we lose people like that, and there's a
cumulative feeling of loss-
Yeah
... I feel like it intensifies
the perspective then that we put on life.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Because you're just like, "Oh-
Humanizes
... yeah, oh my gosh
... this legend.
Yeah. And it-
Yeah
... puts mortality right in front of us.
Yep.
Right in front of us.
Like, this can happen to you.
Yeah, and it's just like eventually someday the clock is going to run out.
Yeah.
And then you start to think, like, my gosh, if I were blessed enough to live to
80-
Mm-hmm
... that's 47 years from now?
Mm-hmm.
That's 47 summers, sister, for us. That's 47 Christmases.
They're flying by.
That might sound like a lot because it kind of feels midway.
It's not that many.
But it really isn't.
Yeah.
We have less life in front of us than we do behind us.
Stop. Oh my gosh.
I don't want to be morbid, but that's the kind of perspective-
Yeah
... that we have to talk about to shake people into-
Change
... yes, shake them into change, shake them into being proactive and awareness
because-
Yeah
... had I not done that blood work,
I can't-- literally, and recognized that and not taken action to try to
do something about it-
Yeah
... I would still be walking around as this ticking time bomb.
I am a mother-
Yeah
... of four children who are teenagers.
Yeah.
I need to be around.
Yep.
I can't just vanish. I can't just drop dead.
You can't do the sudden cardiac death thing. That's not a thing. You can't do that.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so it was so eye-opening to me that when I was thinking, "Oh,
I do well." I could-
Mm-hmm
... absolutely be doing better, and I think that's true for everybody.
Yeah.
And in the patients that you see and the people that you talk to and the people
that you help, what do you feel like is a common thread that you're constantly
helping people? What do you see as the common thread of like, man, if everybody
just bought into this idea or this concept or this aspect of
wellness, it would just change things for them?
I think movement. We're so
sedentary. I have a sit-down job a lot of
times.
Yeah, just a lack of moving. A lack of
sleeping, if I get two things. If I get three
things,
nutrition.
And then four things, spirituality.
Mm.
Five, relationships.
Obviously, six would be
avoiding substances that would be harmful to
your mitochondria or any biological or cellular
level process.
Yeah.
I think those are
the players in the game.
Yeah. Now, I want to ask you this because I think that most people hear this word,
but they don't get it, and I only am as familiar with mitochondria-
Mm-hmm
... because I taught fifth grade, and we-
... our science was biology, so I taught-
Fifth grade was the hardest is what I hear.
No, fifth grade is amazing. Listen.
Okay. You're settled into it?
Yeah, 100%. That was my goal grade to get into, and where I spent majority
of my time teaching.
I love it.
Fifth graders are just super moldable.
The whole puberty thing hasn't happened yet, so they're not all stinky and
terrible attitudes.
Is that sixth grade?
Yeah. Sixth graders are like a whole another-
Animals.
Yes. They should have their own-
The feral
... they should have their own school.
Them and kindergartners, they're like-
Spray them down first.
Yeah, they're just different sizes of the same version.
Isn't that crazy?
Yeah. But fifth graders are just magic.
They're just magical all day long.
But the only reason I know about mitochondria is because I taught cells and cell
organelles-
Mm-hmm
... and what their functions were.
Mm-hmm.
And so the mighty, mighty mitochondria.
Yeah, little muscles on them.
Yeah. So tell everybody why this conversation
around mitochondrial health is so incredibly important and
what poor mitochondrial health looks like.
Yeah. So I think we should just start with that big
question about structure. So structure-wise,
it's a round, oblong, weird little
creature, and it has unique properties about
it that
according to scientists, it
traces back to...
It's been said to be a bacteria that somehow became symbiotic
with our body.
Whether or not that's true, that's not really my place to debate,
but that's really the origin of it.
Mm-hmm.
So at some point,
it sounds like we did not have that, and then humanity did
acquire that
symbiosis. Now, they work with your body.
Mm-hmm.
So every single cell has multiple mitochondria, these
little weird bacteria-like things inside
of them, and they spit out energy. They're like machines.
They're factories. They have these weird curvy
structure called cristae, and two
lipid bilayers, like a fat bilayer.
And so things are protected from getting in and out,
so it's very selective. I
mean, I could talk all day about mitochondria.
It has about 1,500 enzymes that it
interacts with or produces-
Mm-hmm
... or that it plays a large role in.
Whether it's activating those or deactivating,
it's interacting at least with about 1,500.
So if you're deficient in one of those, you're going to have
fewer output of energy.
So, that's really the currency of your body. It's like money.
So you can have less money, and that's an impoverished mitochondria,
and it can't spend more. You can't do more.
Your body takes energy, takes currency to move.
So when people don't have healthy mitochondria,
they're cold intolerant. They lack energy.
They lack the capacity to heal.
Mm-hmm.
They lack the capacity to think.
There's a lot of cellular-level mechanisms that are impacted.
Yeah. They're the powerhouse-
They're the powerhouse
... of the cell. And so it's like your body's level
of resilience and capacity comes from those teeny tiny
Yeah.
And every cell has them, and every one of your... You know what I mean?
People think of our cells, and they're like, I
imagine that people envision these little mini donut
That's their-
Looking-
Yeah
... little mini donut things that are-
Yeah
... just all interconnected and hanging out-
It's a good way to say it
... in your body.
Yeah.
And they don't see them as these living organisms-
Yeah
... that they produce their own waste.
Yeah.
They make their own food. They do so much, and
our cells are constantly-
It's amazing
... working all day long. I say they're like little bumper cars in your body on
hyperspeed. They're just like .
No, they have a cute face.
Yeah. They're way cute. Like bows, eyelashes. They're very cute.
But your cells are doing-- I know you love the eyelash part, right?
I do.
You can visualize it big time.
I love it. They're blinking.
Yeah. And they're, like, glittery.
Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Yes. And so I just feminized cells.
It's okay.
It's okay. It's all right. But people don't understand that, and so when we talk
about the importance of doing things to support your mitochondrial
health,
your cellular health, the health of your cells matter because
it is indicative of the health of everything else.
Yeah.
Our biology is not just your heart or just your brain or just-
Yeah
... your muscle skeletal system or just your-
The large-
It's all interconnected.
Yeah.
And every single
longevity pathway, if you will,
those pathways all affect one another.
Yeah.
So if your gut is off, it signals. If your brain is off-
Yeah
... it signals.
Yep.
So that's why looking at all of that is like you have to look at the whole
thing.
There's a lot of scientists that
I have trained with or interacted with, and they live a
mitochondrial-centric life.
That's so cool.
Everything that they do and choose.
Let's create a guide.
Let's do that.
Yes, like a mitochondrial map to happiness.
Oh, I love that.
I like alliteration. Mindful mitochondrial
mapping.
That's a better-
I mean-
Yeah. Let me have-
I love that. Let my brain have a minute with it.
Yeah.
Please, take your time and space.
No, really, if you're really living a life to support your
mitochondria, you are choosing your foods differently.
You are looking at the things that are supportive, like coenzyme Q,
nitric oxide. You are just making
different choices that are supportive-
Yes
... just for this thing.
Yeah.
So it can do its little bumper car moves.
Yeah, because again, we assume that because we
feel fine-
Yeah
... that we are fine. We don't recognize the fact that our cells are undergoing
trillions attacks.
Yeah.
Trillions of attacks every day from the air that we breathe-
Yeah
... especially here in the valley-
Yeah
... to the foods that we eat, to the chemicals and products and things
that we're exposed to every day, like-
Yeah
... these constant attacks. And so if you're not supporting your biology-
Yeah
... you're kind of not supporting your health span.
Yeah. No, you're not. You're taking years away.
And alcohol, for example, that's directly toxic.
It kills-
I know. Can we talk about that?
Yeah. I wish that was not true, but it kills them.
Yeah. I think what's really interesting is obviously
alcohol has had its moment.
Mm-hmm.
There's now this whole sober curious movement.
There are establishments opening up all over where they just serve
mocktails-
Mm-hmm
... so you still get the social component-
I love that
... without the carcinogenic component.
Mm-hmm.
But I think that alcohol being classified as a Level 1
carcinogen is kind of just now really being
talked about. I mean, you go back 50 years, people drank when they were
pregnant.
Yeah.
You know? Can you imagine? No, not at all. Never.
But here we are. Yeah. And now it's been classified as a Level 1
carcinogen.
Processed meats have also been put into that category. Yeah.
And so now it's weird to think about salami being the same
level of damaging to your body as Titos.
Oh my gosh. Do you know? No, I didn't know this.
But that's wild to me. Salami's on my no list for my
labs. Oh, your charcuterie boards are probably really boring then.
Great. You just have charcu.
There's no turi.
Yeah, I think that's about right.
Apricots.
Goat cheese. Grapes. There you go. Cotton candy grapes. Yeah.
From Trader Joe's. I don't know. When the parking lot's not full. Yeah.
Maybe a chicken leg. Yeah. There you go.
Maybe. But yeah, but it's wild now.
So,
I feel like a lot of our generation doesn't participate in smoking, because we
went through all the D.A.R.E. education and all of that edu- just around lung
cancer and all the commercials and all the things. Yeah.
But alcohol's always kind of been glorified. Yeah.
And here we are now and it's like this, "Hi, by the way,
alcohol is a Level 1." Yeah. And so every time you have that drink,
you're choosing
knowing that. And something else I found fascinating was that I was listening
to a doctor talk about alcohol and
she said, "How many of you guys have ever experienced the alcohol buzz?"
And of course everybody's like, "Well, yeah." Yeah.
And that's why most people drink it, is just for that- Yeah ... let go.
And she was like, "And how many of you guys have ever
struggled with balance or the ability to speak, or you get sick?"
Yeah. "Or the room is spinning?" And so she explained that as,
the reason it was called alcohol poisoning
is because alcohol is poison to us. Yep.
And the more you drink, so the first
symptom of alcohol poisoning is the buzz. Yeah.
Ugh. Yeah.
Isn't that horrible? I know. I know, and that's what we're searching for,
but then you get it and it's like, well, you've poisoned yourself.
But
we didn't know that. Yeah. When you go back to college maybe-
... or your younger years, and you think about, oh my gosh,
the times you were sick. Yeah. And the times you were silly drunk. Yeah.
And the times you were those things. Yeah. That was your body being poisoned.
The reason you couldn't get up, the reason why you were throwing up. Yeah.
When you see people out and about, especially in Vegas- Yeah ...
we call them baby giraffes. The girls that are walking around all like la.
It's wild. I haven't heard that term in a while. That's cute. But it's so real.
But it's crazy to think about that. Yeah. It so is.
It now makes it like to have a glass of wine or to have a drink, I'm just kind of
like,
now that I know better. But then what else is there? That's the question.
And it doesn't mean we answer it, but a lot of
people, they need to escape. Maybe that's me sometimes.
It's like- I think there's healthier ways
to do that. Yeah. I just feel like alcohol's convenient. Yeah.
Back in the day, you- Glugging in fruit. Yeah.
Back in the day, you used to have to go to somebody's barn. The prohibition. Yeah.
I'm going to bring it back. Yeah. Smuggle some moonshine.
And then there were the limitations around when and how you could buy alcohol, and
now it's just literally like it's at theme parks. Yeah.
It's everywhere. It's an ice cream in a grocery store. Uber Eats. No, Instacart.
Yeah, Instacart. I mean, you don't even have to leave your house anymore. Mm-hmm.
And so I feel like it's a
casualty of convenience. Yeah. And I wish that people could
find the same way to let go, release,
in healthier- Yeah ... healthier ways.
And socialize and
yeah, just feel that fun spirit and essence of
being around people, laughing, enjoying, but not killing
your mitochondria because they're so small and they really need support.
Be a big meanie. It's really rude and mean to them. It's so mean. Yeah.
If you drink, I'm like, "You're bullying your mitochondria right now." And I would
say, "You know what? You're so right. I'm sorry." I'm sorry.
There was like actual real somberness.
Oh,
wow. I felt bad. You're on Hollywood, friends.
She's got it down. That was good. Thanks.
But it's just so true. Yeah. It's just wild to think about. Yeah.
And it's interesting because as women, as our bodies change,
alcohol hits different. Yep. And the
tolerance level is not there in terms of capacity and recovery. Yeah.
And I think that just goes to show you the state of when you're young and your
cells are super resilient, your mitochondria are like
the bosses. Yeah. They own the show. They're good. They're like sassy. Yeah.
20 years later, they're all
on canes like, "Oh, somebody help me." Walker. Wheezing.
Like, "Oh." Yeah. Indigestion. "It's hot in here." Yeah.
She wears 37 products on her face, so I'm struggling to keep up.
Excellent products. Yeah. Peptides. But still. Yeah.
But still, how many layers of skincare? Like, ugh.
By the way, I love my new peptide body pen. Oh, yeah.
It's like a giant Crayola. Yes. I can feel like, yeah.
Yeah. It's like for your whole neck, it just feels good. Get in there. Totally.
Yeah, I use it everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah.
I have a joke about that, but it's probably not show appropriate.
There's no children here. Go for it. Oh my gosh.
Maybe it's not a joke. No, this is- It's not Laughing Matters ...
this is a joke, but- This is real life.
I won't say who the person was. A friend. Yeah. I had a friend.
It wasn't me though. It was really a friend.
Promise you, because
I swear it's a real situation. And she had got the peptide wands
and she was like, "Oh my gosh, I love them.
I can't believe the way that my wrinkles are smoothing out.
My skin looks so much better." And she's like- I shouldn't drink.
I might spit it out. She's like 10 years older than me, and she showed me a
picture, and then she was like, "I wonder if I could do like a sitz bath
in this stuff."
Did she? And I was like, "Yeah, you'll go from a bulldog to a Frenchie."
Oh my gosh, that's so cute. But so inappropriate.
Sit back, Valerie, are you putting it all together here?
I hear you.
Okay.
I hear you. And I hope everybody-
Because you did this.
Yes.
But yeah.
Okay, so we're saying that down there tightened.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
My face was demonstrating that.
Okay.
Because there's no children here, so I was using my face
for the visual element.
Oh, such a funny conversation.
And I regret it.
But yeah, a bulldog to a Frenchie.
Yeah. That's hilarious.
I know. It's real.
It's real.
Oh my gosh. How long did it take?
Oh, I don't know if she really did it. I said she could.
I never followed up on that one.
She really was your friend. That's good.
It really was, yeah. Promise.
Yeah. I'm just kidding.
It's okay to overshare here. I probably have,
but I don't know anything fun or interesting to overshare on, but if
it comes up, I won't filter it.
Yeah. There you go. Definitely don't filter it.
But yeah, I love these conversations.
I feel like-
These are real. These are like real life.
Yeah. And they're things that people really need to start thinking about and
having...
One of the things I love about podcasts and the way that they've become
radio-
Yeah
... for people.
That's true, yeah.
You know?
We're bringing it back.
It introduces so many topics and conversations, and the
ability for people to just kind of learn meaningful things and
digest it, and usually stuff is going to trigger action or new thoughts
and-
Yeah
... they end up turning around and-- Because how many people have ever said to you,
like, "Oh, one time I was listening to a podcast and..."
Yeah.
"On a podcast I saw-"
I say that, I said it today.
Yeah. It's awesome. We get these little micro education classes.
Yeah, exactly.
When it comes to down there, since it did come
up.
Sure.
So hormones are-- I
tell patients to use their hormones down there, and based
on the situation, because things do get
lax, they do get pigmented, they do
change. So there's a lot that you can do just with a
topical hormone. So it makes sense that if you used a peptide,
which is just a smaller structure, but still targeted, that you would
have a great benefit.
Yeah.
So the tissue would benefit, because it gets frail and tears
easily.
Yes. As hormones change and things thin out-
Yeah
... and it's all membranes, right?
And-
Yeah
... we forget that.
So I'm not knocking it. I think that's actually a great idea.
I'll let you try it and you can let me know how it goes.
Yeah.
You don't need to send any pictures.
I'll say, "Frenchie."
No other words.
Oh.
Ask me what kind of dog I am.
Goes from being a conch to a clam.
That's good.
No, it's terrible.
That was great. No, that was extra good. I love that.
Extra, yes. Good, no.
We can always bleep things, but-
Oh yeah, totally
... we won't.
I can only imagine the visuals that pop up.
It's all like a big bulldog and a little Frenchie head. Like, no, no.
Animations.
Bobbleheads.
Just give ideas that don't need to be out there.
Oh my gosh. No, sexual health is so under-talked
about. It's our generation. I think we're the ones to bring it
forward.
We are, and you're seeing that all over social media because-
Mm-hmm
... nobody talked about perimenopause or menopause. Our moms certainly didn't know.
They just said they're old.
It was just like, oh, it's like a box of chocolates.
You're going to get what you're going to get.
Horrible.
That's really what it was.
That's terrifying.
And now the conversation's kind of coming to the table, and there's a little bit
more education awareness, and I appreciate that-
Yeah
... for women because the changes are so significant, and depending on
your biology and as you know, your insulin resistance-
Yeah
... that can really impact the scale of symptoms.
Yeah.
Women start to think they're going crazy.
Yeah.
And we have already experienced that, like when you go through
puberty-
Mm-hmm
... you don't really understand because your brain is developing at the
same time your-
Mm
... body is developing, and so there's a lot of not understanding what is
happening and not maybe being-
Yeah
... as cognitively mature enough to handle some of the developmental aspects-
Yeah
... of puberty. So there's that, and then attention that's coming from different
directions that you're not ready for.
Right.
And then when you have children,
after you have a baby and you're not exactly in 100%
delight-
Right, like baby blues or-
Baby blues or postpartum
... postpartum
And again, something that's not-- It's shameful and it's-
Yeah
... and then so there's two examples that majority of women experience,
and then here we go a third time.
Yep.
And at a less discussed, less glamorized, less
socially kind of normal level-
Yeah
... as puberty and like having a baby and going through some of that stuff.
I mean, postpartum, obviously she deserves her own show because-
Yeah
... that's a whole another topic, but-
Yep
...
it's a lot. And then so you get to the space and you're just like, "I don't
understand why I feel this way."
Yeah.
Or, "Oh my gosh, I was able to be intimate with no problem," and I
have a client of mine and she was talking about that very thing,
like, "This wrecked me. I was in bed, I couldn't even
look at my husband. I held so much guilt and shame because we had an
incredible sex life."
Oh, that's so sad.
And it was so-- And they've been married for 30 years, and she's like-
Yeah
... "And
we're barely having sex because it's so painful and it's so
awful, and I don't understand what's happening." And
it's a lot. It's a lot.
Yeah, and even prolonged state of that,
I've seen a lot of females just lose the
capacity.
Mm-hmm.
It's like scar tissue forms, and so you just can't, even if you want
to. It would take a lot of intervention, like
more-
Pelvic floor therapy and things like that.
Yes. Yeah. Dilators. It becomes more-
Invasive
... invasive.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. But you can get ahead of that stuff.
Perimenopause is when you should start.
Well, and knowledge is power, right?
So-
Yes
... when you know what to expect
It takes the crazy out of it because it normalizes.
Yeah.
But then now what we have to do is make treatment and protocol a normal part of the
conversation and not your basic mundane, "Oh, it is what it
is." I don't want to hear that.
I hate that.
I don't want to hear it is what it is, because let me tell you right now, if a man
walked into a doctor's office and was like, "This doesn't
work at all anymore."
Yep.
Or, "I don't know what happened," because women, there's biological changes too, or
physiological-
Yeah
... changes, and a man's like, "Oh my gosh, all of a sudden my balls look
different, my testicle-"
Yeah.
They would have a solution.
Fix it.
They would never be like, "Well, that's 55, sir."
You're just getting old.
"Bye."
Yeah. No.
There's a something
readily available.
Yeah.
But for women it's, "Are you sure?"
Yeah. Maybe you're just stressed.
It might just be in your head. You have a lot of kids and you're probably
just tired.
Yeah.
And I feel like that's what invokes female
rage.
Does the word mood trigger you? If a guy says, "Oh, I think
you're probably just in a mood."
That bugs me. I feel like that is such a trigger for me.
I have to work on it because if somebody says it, I'm just like,
" Ew.
Ew."
Yeah.
"You need to read something. You need to read a book."
How about that?
Yeah.
And I think
guys would do-- There needs to be a man out there who has a
good audience to be able to sit down and have that conversation.
It's like how we have the birds and the bees talk with kids.
Yeah.
There needs to be like-
I'm like, yeah. I had that with Jackson.
Yeah, you better keep it in your pants, little guy.
But yeah. But you know what I mean?
Somebody needs to be having those conversations with men, too, to just be like,
"Hey, listen, here's what this looks like for her."
Yeah.
"And here's how you show up and here's how you support it."
Yeah.
It's just necessary.
And here's some oxytocin so that you're not judgy.
Drink this.
Yeah. Drink this little Alice in Wonderland jar.
A tincture.
Yeah.
A tincture.
So cute.
I know.
Sure. I love it.
It's like Alice in Wonderland.
Yeah. Drink me.
Oh, so cute.
Well, what was I going to tell you?
It was about menopause, perimenopause. Oh, okay.
So growth hormone, that really drops off.
Do you know what age it dramatically-- So it dramatically increases at puberty.
Mm-hmm.
But do you know when it dramatically drops?
If I were to guess, I don't know the hard, cold fact, but I'd probably
say somewhere between 35 and 40.
30.
Okay. Oh, 30. Dang.
That's shocking, right? It's kind of early.
Well, but take us back.
By 30, 30 was 50 for us. You know what I mean?
People were having babies at 15-
Yeah
... and getting married and-
No, you're right
... dying in their 50s and 60s.
And it looked old.
Yeah.
Now we don't look like we did back then, but
yeah. So your skin changes, so many things change.
Your metabolic activity changes.
So at 30 years old, you have dramatic change just equivalent to
what puberty was, but the opposite direction.
Yeah, that sucks.
Down the slide.
Oh my God, that sucks. Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like
when you're jumping out of the airplane with no parachute.
Yeah. Horrible.
What do they call it, skydiving?
Yeah.
There you go.
No, it sounds awful. I'm not going to do that, but-
Yeah
... in this case, someone pushed you. You don't have a choice.
Yeah. You're just, "Ah!"
Yeah.
That's terrible.
Tear the cord. Yeah.
I know.
30.
Yeah, 30. And then we say menopause, and that really
applies to your FSH, LH, that signal from your brain.
You can preserve it, and our foods, our environment has a lot to do
with it.
Stress, sleep,
shocker, nutrition.
Yeah. Nutrition.
Yeah. It really circles back.
So underrated.
Yeah.
We don't talk about it enough. I
cannot think of her name to save my life right now, but I was at a conference a
few weeks ago, and she's a very well-known
biologist, chemist, studier of all things
nutrition, and she kind of broke down this whole multivitamin
conversation, just we all grew up on "Flintstone."
Yes.
Right? And then some people-- Did you love them?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, I did too. But then there were some people-
I love their candy.
I know. Then there were some people, I would eat extra, sneak them.
I would eat extra, yeah.
And then sneak them.
It's vitamins.
And I was like, "And it tastes so good."
Yeah.
And then there's those people who were like, "They were disgusting." And I'm like,
"What kind did you have?"
They're a different blood type. Maybe they're-- Oh.
Yeah, probably.
Yeah.
They probably just needed a sardine.
So anyways, she was talking about how that whole
conversation came about for a long time, like, "Oh, you don't need to take
vitamins. You just end up peeing them out, peeing them out, and it's not a big
deal."
Yeah.
But when they look at mortality and they look at longevity,
it's like magnesium, vitamin D, zinc-
Mm-hmm
... being some of those essential vitamins that are very
depleted across our food sources-
Yep
... that we're not getting and we're not meeting nutritionally because we eat based
on convenience, not on nutrient density.
Mm-hmm.
And just how-- Even the research that
she showed between people with sub- or below
average levels of vitamin D and how that exponentially-
Just most people
... yeah, how that exponentially increases their chances for
dementia.
Yeah. A lot of things.
Like-
Yeah, dementia is a huge one. Cancer.
I mean, it's your immune system.
Yeah.
I think we don't even really know all the things that vitamin D does.
Same for the omegas. We know that they're very impactful and helpful and that if
you take them, you live longer, but we don't really know why for all of
the multiple impacts of the cellular level.
Isn't it wild that we don't know yet?
Well, sort of. But then also it takes somebody being curious and then-
That's true
... requesting funding and then
creating a lab, creating a team, and then they're building their career around it.
It takes these doctorate programs really,
because you're choosing your thesis.
Mm-hmm.
What is your thing that you're going to anchor to and then really build your
life on? That's a big thing.
Yeah. What made you want to go into medicine?
Gosh,
that answer has changed as I've gone through the
journey.
Sure.
And I've found a different why at different checkpoints,
because it really does challenge you in such a unique way.
It does break you down, and then you're a new person, and you have a different
why.
Makes sense.
Yeah. So initially I thought
this is just a good thing.
You can do a lot of good.
Mm-hmm.
And then I was like, "This is horrible. It's so political.
It is so expensive. What a sham." And then
you find it's a necessary
investment.
Mm.
I couldn't
do what I do if I just did half of it.
Yeah.
It's necessary. The pain, the suffering, even the
negative culture that is part of the process that you have to go
through, where it's stress learning-
Mm-hmm
... and negativity to make you learn, but you will know it forever.
Yeah.
Like
a surgeon has slapped a hand if
it's not going the right place. You
adjust, and you learn through those stressful moments.
So yeah, I
guess for me it's a calling. It always has been.
Mm-hmm.
I didn't recognize it as a calling,
because that feels very abstract to say.
But now that I'm here, I'm like, "It is abstract.
It is a feeling."
Mm-hmm.
It's an overwhelming feeling that's driving me so that at
every point where I'm like, "This sucks. This is too hard.
I don't need this. I can do anything else," I actually couldn't.
I always circled back here.
Yeah. I think it comes down to, you
can tell your heart is for people.
Yeah.
And not just about them, but caring for them.
Yes.
And I feel like, too, over the last year, your approach has
kind of evolved and-
Yes
... what you offer and what you speak to has kind of evolved.
What has shaped that shift?
Just every patient encounter.
There's a lot of people that you really resonate with, and you just can't
walk off. I will never unsee certain people-
Mm
... or their suffering that they are going through, because I just feel
so lucky that I get to-
Yeah
... walk away. I get to go home. I get to drive. I get to work out.
So
I feel gratitude, but also heaviness
because it is just real suffering. It's horrible.
Yeah.
So yeah. I think there's a lot of fun wins whenever you see
somebody kick something, and they went through hell,
burns, rehab, and now they're walking, they're thriving.
They're like... I don't know. There's something super rewarding about that,
and it's a very slow reward. It's not a fast
feel-good process.
But yeah, whenever you see things actually work and you give people
intervention, and then it responds, you're like, "What?
This is real." So you really get the buy-in, I think,
much later after the education.
And how do you balance your medical professional-
I don't
... training?
Sorry, go on.
Because it's got to be hard when there's...
If I remember correctly, you're double board certified, right?
Mm-hmm.
So you're big time.
Yeah.
That's big time, everybody, just in case you didn't know.
Thanks.
Big time.
But so you have your medical professional training, then you have more of your
functional health approach and knowledge.
Yes.
And I see you constantly learning and
implementing.
Yep.
So how do you balance that? Because the medical
world, I feel like, is love/hate.
It is very-
We love that it's there because it's the rescue point.
Yeah.
But there's a lot of distrust with science and
doctors and-
Yeah
... prescription-heavy motives and treating symptoms instead of root
causes.
Yeah.
Which takes you now to more of your functional health approach.
Yes.
But then also some of the new things that you're learning.
So how do you bring balance to all of that?
Because I imagine that on the day-to-day, you probably, between your patient load,
are dipping in all those buckets.
I do. And I really just see myself as the conduit
of information. So as I have these conversations with
patients, they're asking the questions, or I'm picking up
on the things that kind of strike me as the flags where this is
part of your problem, right?
Mm-hmm.
Putting it all together. But I think I really like
for the patients to be able to make informed decisions.
So putting the power in their hands, here's the information.
I
say the Siri of medicine is how I would describe myself.
It doesn't mean I'm as good as Siri, okay?
But truly, I just try to answer the question with
the information that is to the best of my knowledge, and the most accurate, the
most current, and if I don't know, then let's look it up, and here's where I'm
going to look it up. So just putting all that together,
you decide. So here's your options, A, B, C, D, E, and then if you want to go
outside of the box, here's the next step.
And a lot of times, people, by the time they see me, they've already gone through a
bunch of other doctors-
Mm
... and they've failed all these other treatments.
So they've tried a lot by the time they get to see me.
Yeah.
So like, "What have you got?"
Kind of like a breath of fresh air.
Yeah.
Somebody who gets it, somebody who listens, somebody who's not stuck in their way,
somebody who's not very regimented in terms of the scope
of what they deliver-
Yeah
... when they walk into the room.
Yeah.
I think that's really important. Do you find that
because people are kind of coming to you
for real solutions because they're not satisfied with the steps along the way, that
they're more receptive to the out-of-the-box recommendations?
Yes, definitely. They're looking for it They've already
tried the main stuff a lot of the time, not every time.
This one patient had migraines her whole life.
She's lost a lot of life just sleeping off in a dark
room,
eye cover, or like an ice pack, just a lot of life has been lost.
So that is very sad to me. And the fact that
she never had a proper workup, I'm just like, "No."
So you always do the simple, easy things first.
But a lot of times that doesn't happen.
Yeah.
She is more rare. Most people, again, by the time
they get to me, they have seen specialists, they've been to Cedars, they've been
through the gamut of imaging and labs and all this stuff, and they're like, "I
don't know what's wrong with me."
Right.
"But I don't feel good."
Yeah.
So yeah, just like matching people wherever they're at, I think that is my
brand.
I love that.
Yeah.
That's real care.
Yeah. And especially if you have a person who's a
professional, they're a high achiever, they have a family, they're
in charge of all the finances. That's a heavy burden.
Yeah.
If I give them some crazy complicated-
Aware
... plan-
Aware
... that's not real life-
Yeah
... it's just a failed plan, and they've already done that.
Do I need to be another fail? I'd rather be a win, even if it's like, "Let's just
change one supplement today. Let's just do one change."
And then bringing somebody in more often, sometimes that's the
answer.
Yeah. What do you feel like is your go-to right now with conversations with
helping people turn their health around or kind of start their wellness
journey or
really
create significant impact? I know we talked about movement-
Yeah
... obviously as
protocol, but what other conversations are you having right now?
Hormones, I think, is the best place to start.
Checking your blood work,
knowing exactly where you're at. How can you fix it if you don't know what's
broken? And really, you can get so much
information just even on a simple blood test like a CBC.
I look at your hemoglobin, your MCV, basic, very cheap
test.
Yeah.
Very cheap, very easy. And I can see if you have a vitamin
deficiency. Sometimes that's all that it takes-
Yeah
... for checking your vitamin D.
I know. That's so good. I'm sitting here in my brain, and I'm like, "I wonder if
I should tell her about one of the things my blood work said."
You can.
And we should like troubleshoot it live-
You can
... right here.
Yeah.
Or if I should just hand you my Function labs and be like, "Look at them."
Let's look at it. I would run through them.
I feel like Christmas when people hand me labs.
Yeah, I'm like, "Do you want to look at my ANA level?"
I do.
It scares me.
If it's less than 1 to 40, then I wouldn't worry about it.
Yeah. Well, the one thing that came back, I'm going to show this to you.
The one thing that came back that I was like, "Oh," kind of surprised, was
my iron levels were good, ferritin within the right ranges, which I
know is a big conversation right now.
Above 100.
No, I don't think it was above 100. It was-
You're slightly-
I know
... deficient in your stores.
Okay. Are you ready?
Yeah.
Well, here's what's interesting.
My iron saturation. So my iron is 193.
My saturation percentage is
59.
So as long it says above 45
is in range.
Yeah.
But my circulating iron was really high.
That can mean a few things, but the fact with all that information you just
said together-
Mm-hmm
... it sounds like you've depleted some of your stored iron.
Which would make sense because I don't eat red meat.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
Mm-hmm.
And then had a uterine ablation like 10
years ago.
Mm-hmm. Was it effective?
Oh, yes.
Awesome.
Yeah, because I was literally losing like a whole unit
of blood per cycle.
That's so bad.
Like-
Yeah
... per cycle. And it was probably, I mean, three C-sections, all the things that
you could think about, scar tissue-
Scar tissue
... complicated delivery-
Yeah
... with my daughter, so there was more than one uterine scar, all that kind of
stuff. That all changed, and that was wild, and I was like...
And my doctor retired the day my daughter was born. She was his last delivery.
Mm-hmm.
And finding a doctor who would listen to me, I was like, "Something is not normal."
Yeah.
And they're like, "Oh, just get on birth control." That was the advice.
Not, "Let's do blood work."
Yeah.
"Let's actually do an examination and find what's going on." But like, "Do you want
to get on birth control?" I was like, "Hi, I'm 33 years old."
Yeah.
"My tubes are tied. I'm not having any more kids."
Yeah.
I barely remembered. Why do you think I have three kids that are two years apart in
the first place?
Like, hello.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
And so it's just like this crazy thing.
Yeah.
But here's the number we should talk about because this one was interesting
to me, so I'm just going to hand it to you.
Okay.
So that's my thyroid biomarkers.
Look at that first one.
Okay. So I think you have Hashimoto's.
So if you have antibodies,
that's,
yeah.
Look at that number.
And your TSH, so this is thyroid strain, and
this is fixable.
But
I think initially you would want to use a steroid to knock
down the antibodies.
That's high.
It's high.
That's high.
That's crazy high.
Yeah.
And like-
And your thyroid's having to work harder because your TSH is 2.3.
So temporarily, if you did
like a T3,
even though your T3 here is within
reference range-
Mm-hmm
... you would feel better temporarily until you get the inflammation down.
So like prednisone would be,
unfortunately, like mainstream, I think I would start with that.
Mm-hmm.
And then, I mean, not even a week of it
would be needed.
Just like a what I-
Five days
... call like a pneumonia course.
Yeah, there you go.
A bronchitis course of prednisone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's perfect.
Like 5 mgs.
A short... Yes.
Yeah. Very familiar with prednisone. I have a kid with asthma, so I know it well.
Yeah.
Probably have some at home.
Take some of your child's medicine. I think that's perfect.
Not recommending as a doctor.
No, I am.
It's the right med-
Yeah
... and it's okay dose, so-
Yeah
... do five days, and then-
Yeah. In the meantime, if that doesn't bounce you back, you might
even not feel it, but if you did feel it, your
symptoms would probably be tired.
Yeah. I would say that there are times when I deal with fatigue, but it's like,
what kind of fatigue is it? Because I run 100 miles an hour and my brain
operates supernatural speed.
Yeah.
I always joke-
It's tough
... when I die, somebody needs to cut it out and study it. It's not normal.
But yeah, I know I looked at that and I thought-
It's mitochondria
... yeah.
Yeah.
Mine are beefy. Mine are like-
They're so beefy-
They are
... and strong.
They are. Thanks to a couple products I've been taking the last few years.
But yeah, I saw that and I did immediately think Hashimoto's, and I know that
Hashimoto's is lifestyle driven.
Yeah.
And I know that really
being mindful of gluten-
Yeah
... which is so interesting. So when I looked, I was like, "Okay, how do I lower my
antibodies?" And it was like, "Stay away from gluten." And I would-
I'm assuming you're already doing that
... I'm sensitive, so I-
Yeah
... am probably 80% gluten free.
Okay.
If I have a brownie or I don't make cookies
with almond flour, then whatever.
Yeah.
But I don't consume a high level of it.
Yeah.
But I do consume it.
Yeah.
And when you have these levels and an immune system that's going
after itself, every little bit is just as bad as a lot.
Your histamine load is what we're really discussing whenever
we say it like that.
Mm-hmm.
So your histamine load. So you want to reduce that burden.
So anything that it takes to reduce it is the answer.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yeah.
You're already at a high threshold-
Yeah
... so adding more sauce in there, it's like, p**f.
Yeah, seriously.
Histamine.
And I thought, too, when I was reading that beer, for
example, which has gluten. Who doesn't love a good beer?
And I don't drink the weedy beers. If I do occasionally, it might be like-
What's a weedy beer?
Like an ale or like a-
Are they all weedy?
... Blue Moon or like a... No, I feel like Mexican beers are safe.
I don't know. Corona and Modelos and Pacificos.
They're-
They're perfect
... I don't feel like they're weedy.
They're not-
Maybe that's our problem. I don't want to make it negative.
Maybe that's our area to work on.
Well, not like I do it a lot, but-
... if I were to, that's what I would be my go-to.
Yeah.
But I was reading that. So
gluten
turns into glucagon. There's something that mimics.
There's a glucagon, I think was the word, that mimics that then
makes your immune system go after your thyroid, making it work harder.
I'll have to look that up. I haven't heard that.
It doesn't mean that it is or isn't-
Right
... true.
Yeah, I should totally find-- I probably saved it somewhere.
Yeah. There are mimicking molecules.
Yeah.
So that is a thing, especially when it comes to creation of
antibodies.
And if we also think about our food sources, it's
like a lot of industry, right?
Yeah.
So there's contaminants. So that's probably more
likely.
It's probably actually gluten from-
Industry
... things that you don't think that gluten is in.
It's shocking when you-
At the factories
... when you start to pay attention.
Yeah.
Certain seasonings can have gluten in it, and you just don't realize it.
There's so-
Yeah
... many different things.
Yeah.
All right, so prednisone and-
... go super Whole30.
Yeah.
Hardcore commitment.
Yeah. And then within a week, you should be like a new you.
I feel great. Who's going to stop you?
Yeah, I know. But I do want to get it under control because I don't want--
Hashimoto's is like,
it can have it-
Weight gain.
Yeah, there's a lot of symptoms with that. Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's
preventable.
And I don't want to ever be on any kind of medication.
We're killing mitochondria right now in your thyroid.
Oh.
Actually.
Okay, triggered.
Yeah.
They're dying.
Yeah, no. Mine are cute, remember?
They're so cute and beefy.
Yes.
They are. We got to keep it strong.
Oh, my gosh.
But yeah, but thanks for taking a look at that because-
Yeah
... you get that and you get the notes and you're just kind of like, "Okay, I need
to work on this," but when you hear certain things out loud, you're just like, "Oh
my gosh." But I have. Over the last 90 days, I've been doing some really great
lifestyle changes and things, and so I'm excited to get the numbers
back. But I know that there's lots of other things that can also create
autoimmune
flares, if you will-
Yep
... or create
any type of artificial anything in your body and-
Yep
... things of that nature. So-
Yes
... then it's like, what-
Triggers
... yeah, what can we look at with that and-
Yeah
...
potential problems because of it. So...
Well, I am excited to see your upcoming labs.
Yeah. I can't wait to show you. We'll have a slumber party.
Please do.
I'll come over and we'll make dinner.
Yeah.
Try to make something fun.
Yes.
And then we'll look at labs.
That sounds like the perfect evening to me.
And drink water.
Let's do that.
Filtered.
I'll bring a charcuterie board over.
No turie.
Thank you so much for coming on. That sounds like the most perfect evening.
I'm down. Let's do it.
How would somebody reach you if they wanted to become a client
or do any coaching sessions? What would be the best way?
Yeah, sure. So I'm on social, just Andrea Gebhardt everywhere.
You can find me online.
How do you spell Gebhardt?
G-E-B-H-A-R-D-T.
Okay.
You can find me online at brewingsuccess.com. I also have a leadership podcast.
So I love being in the studio with you and getting to talk about other things.
This was so fun.
So fun.
Yeah.
But yeah, you can connect with me there.
Awesome. Thank you so much for spending your evening with me, and until next time.
Until next time.
Have a good night.
Bye.
