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no. 130 - The Gut-Skin Connection Episode Dec 11, 2023

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Research and clinical experience clearly supports the gut-skin connection. This episodes uncovers how gut health is related to healthy skin and how those suffering with skin conditions can best address their problems. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Erin Kinney, MS, RD, LDN, HCP, NASM-CPT NutritionRewired.com Instagram - Nutrition Rewired Faith Driven Entrepreneurs COMMERCIAL (Affiliate) LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE YourColorGuru.com - use code REGAN for 10% off at checkout Teen Clear Face Multivitamin on Fullscript.com (includes 10% discount) EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, gut health, skin health, parents of teens EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) Regan Jones 0:00 If your skin doesn't know whether to breakout or wrinkle if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans or if you want to work out with the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees ache you've come to the right place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life. I'm your host, Regan Jones and welcome to today's show. First of all, I want to say a quick thank you to those of you who have reached out to let me know how helpful you found the previous episode of This Unmillennial Life, episode number 129 the uterine fibroids episode, how helpful you found that episode to be, I want to say upfront that in the spirit of transparency, this podcast truly is a labor of love. It is something that I am opting to continue to do because one, I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Researching topics like this diving deep. Finding information that not only helps me but also helps you really is a shot in the arm, so to speak, to keep it going. The reality is and again, being totally transparent. This podcast barely pays for itself. And I don't say that to garner any type of sympathy, I know that you hear some advertisements that run here. And those are important because things like podcasts and websites and any type of media that you're hosting yourself are producing yourself, for the most part, not counting your time that it takes to produce it, it actually requires money to have server space, and it costs money to do those things. So that amount of advertising that you allow me to share with you really does help offset the costs of hosting this podcast. But for the most part, within the seven seasons of doing this podcast, and this is the case for many podcasters podcasts aren't actually typically monetized near as well as some of the other activities that people do like social media, being influencers or having a website where there's consistent advertising. So the reason I want to be transparent about that is one, it definitely affects how much I am able to or how frequently I'm able to release episodes because I am in a rebuilding season after COVID and in my cancer treatments, rebuilding my career in a way that I've not had to do in a really long time. And that requires me to spend a little more of my time on projects that are providing revenue, which I'm sure you can understand. But knowing that these episodes are being listened to and downloaded and shared and are helpful, absolutely makes it worth it. So thank you when you reach out and let me know that something that I have done as an episode, something that I've released as an episode has been helpful to you. So I appreciate that. And I'm hopeful that today's episode is also going to be helpful. I think it can be helpful for many of us, not only for ourselves, but certainly for those of us who are parenting, you know, teenagers and young adults, because today's episode while it is the gut skin connection, and I'll tell you about my guest in just a second, we are going to have probably a stronger focus, I would say on acne in particular, you're going to hear my guest and I talk about acne and then I encourage you to hang around after my interview and I want to give you some just personal experience and some anecdotal evidence about some things that I've seen with one of my children. Okay, so let me tell you about my guest. My guest is Erin Kenny, Erin is on Instagram, as nutrition rewired you may have seen her because she is quite popular. In fact, she has over 93,000 followers on Instagram and for good reason she is on there all the time, but not in a fillip your feed with useless information way that some influencers tend to be. Erin is full of high quality, solid nutrition information, primarily specializing in gut health. And that is one of the reasons that I'm having her on today. You're gonna hear us mentioned a couple of times in the episode that the way we met was through our faith driven entrepreneur group. I've mentioned that at least once or twice maybe here on the show, I'd like to do an episode about the faith driven entrepreneur group in the future. But I'll give this little plug we will be starting a third round of this eight part Bible study in 2024. If you are a registered dietician and you are interested in potentially being a part of that, please reach out to me message me on social media or send me an email or leave me a voicemail you can leave me a voicemail at this This Unmillennial Life .com Or you can send me an email Regan at this unlink neolife.com If you are not a registered dietitian, and you are an entrepreneur, just know that faith driven entrepreneurs is open, available free to everyone. It is an extremely high quality, impactful, well done eight part series that you could do on your own or put together a group. That's honestly what I did just pulled together. Some registered dieticians in 2022. To work our way through the eight part series. We pulled together a new group and I say we, myself, my colleague, Jenna Braddock, you've heard her here on the show my colleague, Jim White, you've heard him home on the show. We've pulled together, you know, a second group for this last year, and we're going to pull together a third group moving forward. So you know, whether you're a registered dietician, or whether you're not, if you are someone who would like to deepen your understanding about how the work that you do on a daily basis in your vocation, can be something that is serving the kingdom, I highly recommend faith driven entrepreneurs. Okay, so let's get back to Erin. Erin Kenny, is a dietician who helps individuals address their digestive issues from a root cause perspective, conditions like SIBO, inflammatory bowel disease, IBS, constipation. And you'll hear her talk about her story. But it was really after healing her own gut, after feeling very disappointed in conventional medical treatments, that she made it her passion to help others. And that's what she will be doing for us today as she unpacks this topic of the gut skin connection. So with that, I'll say, Erin, welcome to the show, Erin Kinney 6:44 Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to discuss this topic today. Regan Jones 6:49 We have done gut health topics over the years. And as listeners know, my my good friend and colleague Kate Scarlatta has often joined me. But once I had the pleasure of meeting you through our faith driven entrepreneurs group, and really learn more about you your story, and most importantly, just started following you and saw all of the amazing information that you were sharing online, I knew I wanted to have you on the show. So before we jump into to this topic today, do give listeners a little bit of background on you, and how you specifically got interested in this area of nutrition. Erin Kinney 7:24 My journey into dietetics really stemmed from my own issues with gut health and skin issues. And I think like most dietitians, when they tell their stories, they kind of talk about a lot of their history when it comes to nutrition and this evolution, evolution of learning about how nutrition and lifestyle can impact certain areas of the body. And my personal story was a very long one, we don't have time to cover everything today. But I really struggled with digestive issues from a very young age and over time that eventually led to horrible acne, and skin issues that really were not being able to be treated by conventional medicine and feeling very frustrated and overwhelmed and confused. I decided to educate myself and basically heal my gut and learn how to address my skin from the inside out. So that's really, you know, the big picture of how I became a dietitian. And now I'm very passionate about helping individuals do the same and really find a journey that allows them to find sustainable healing. Regan Jones 8:38 Eventhough I know some of your background and some of your story, I actually didn't even realize that it were it was the connection between skin and gut health. That was really the first starting point. I mean, I know you now as a gut health dietitian, who works with a number of different conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, IBS, you know, SIBO, I knew that I didn't, I didn't even realize that the skin connection was really the beginning. So that makes it even more special that that's the topic that we're we're talking about today. So let's transition over to actually talking about the gut skin connection. Unpack for listeners, what skin conditions that, you know, research has shown has been associated with gut imbalances. Erin Kinney 9:21 There's actually several different skin imbalances that have been shown in research to be influenced by the gut microbiome or at least there to be a correlation between the two. Acne is the most common one that I typically talk to my clients about. eczema, psoriasis, rosacea. udah Karissa, also known as hives, dermatitis, and even vitiligo, and if you even dig a little bit deeper into the research, you'll see a connection between skin cancer and and gut issues. So there's a wide variety of connections here and not limited to just acne and psoriasis. Regan Jones 10:00 Ok I did not know that. And I will tell you from a selfish standpoint, and people know this, that I've been listening to the podcast now for seven seasons, that often these topics come up because there's either something happening in my life or the life of someone in my family, that kind of leads me down wanting to know more about it. And specifically, when I saw one of your posts that talked about skin issues, and the the connection to acne, I mean, I'm the mother of two teenage boys. And so that is something that's certainly on my radar radar. So I'm really excited to kind of unpack this a little bit and see if the knowledge that I gained from you can actually help them. So let's talk about getting some of that knowledge. How long really are we talking about, that you would take someone to see some changes in their skin health, when they're working on healing their gut. And I think one of the most important things that we need to talk about is like when we say healing your gut to change skin issues, like we have to talk about what does that look like? So let's talk about both of those things, the timing, the timeline, and then really, functionally, what are we talking about in terms of, of healing the gut? Erin Kinney 11:09 Yeah, and this is, this can be very frustrating for a lot of patience. And, you know, I'm very much able to sympathize when it comes to skin issues. Because when I had acne, you know, this was in middle school, high school, this is a very vulnerable time for most people. And not to say that it's ever, you know, a comfortable time to have issues with your skin. But you know, you're you're looking for some urgency, right? And I remember going to doctors and asking for, you know, what's the quick fix? How can I get rid of this as soon as possible. And of course, the first line of treatment is typically antibiotics or topicals. And, as we know, this can further present issues with the gut microbiome. And so when we talk about the gut skin connection, there's several different mechanisms that are involved. And we don't have time to go over every single one today. But the first one is immune involvement. So this, the microbiome is a it's a key regulator for our immune system. And it helps to maintain this healthy balance by communicating with different tissues and organs in this very bi directional manner. So if we have dysbiosis in the skin or in the gut microbiome, because we do have a skin microbiome as well, this is associated with an altered immune response. So this is where we can see patients developing, you know, things like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, because of this immune involvement. In addition to that, right, we have the more obvious side of you know, when it comes to dietetics, we know that we absorb nutrients in the gut. And if we have inflammation, immune dysfunction, dysbiosis, meaning an imbalance of bacteria in the gut, that's going to interfere with certain nutrients that are essential for healthy skin, things like zinc, vitamin C, iron proteins. So it's really important to consider those two aspects. In addition to that the fact that our microbiome is the largest endocrine organ producing 30 different hormone like compounds, short chain fatty acids, cortisol neurotransmitters like GABA, serotonin, dopamine. So there's several different mechanisms that we're looking at. And each individual is going to have a different story of what their gut health looks like, what their hormonal profile looks like, you know, how long their journey has been with this gut imbalance or skin imbalance, the healing journey in and of itself, right, the big the big question of how long is it going to take for my skin to get better? And the thing that I tell clients always is that what I've found in my practice is that the skin is usually the last thing to heal. And this can this can be very frustrating, right? As I mentioned, we all want that quick fix, and we want to see results right away. But as mentioned, the gut is involved in so many different aspects of our health and when we're getting to the root cause of the gut issues, therefore skin issues, then we typically need to go through this gut healing process. Maybe we need to eradicate bacteria like H. Pylori, which are strongly associated with gut and skin issues. Candida maybe they're the patient has a lot of intestinal permeability, meaning what's inside the gut is able to transfer out into our bloodstream where it typically isn't, that's going to activate a lot of immune response and inflammation. So those things alone eradications imbalances, you know, those take time. So to think about, you know, how long it's going to take for healing the skin and seeing improvements in the skin. I usually have patients have a realistic timeline of at least three months, and that's a minimum. Sometimes it can take six months for patients to really start seeing benefits but what I've seen And anecdotally in my practice is that it is typically the last thing to heal, they'll first start to notice maybe improvements and energy improvements in digestion and mood. And then towards the end, their skin starts to really reap those benefits. Regan Jones 15:14 Okay, so let's let's think about if someone I'm trying to think through like just a case scenario and how you handle it in your practice, say you have a teen or a young adult who really has historically for years been suffering from pretty severe acne, let my listeners know, like, what is the process look like, on your end of w…

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no. 129 - The Uterine Fibroids Episode Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

Uterine fibroids may affect as many as 8 in 10 women by the time they reach menopause. This episode uncovers what uterine fibroids are, and what causes them, as well as discussing both symptoms and treatments. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Femgevity Health Regan's Fullscript "General Wellness" protocol with Vitamin D The Drugstore Cleaner Beauty Buys Episode Tanologist tanning drops Email Regan at regan@thisunmillenniallife.com Submit a Show Idea COMMERCIAL LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE YourColorGuru.com - use code REGAN for 10% off EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, uterine fibroids EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) Regan Jones 0:00 Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to mention something that I usually mention at the end of every episode, if you don't hang around till the end, you may have missed that I very often will ask for you to rate and review this unmillennial life on whatever podcast app you are listening to this podcast on. Based on the number of people that I know listen, versus the number of ratings and reviews that I've gotten over the years, I know that there are still plenty of you who have not had a chance to rate and review the podcast. And probably some of that is because initially, to give a rating on Apple podcasts, it used to be that you had to write a review, and I know many of us are just not comfortable doing that. But the good news is that now you don't have to write a review, you can easily give this unmillennial life a five star rating on Apple podcasts simply by going to the show in your podcast app scrolling down below the episodes and then you'll see ratings and reviews tap to rate and if you would select that five star rating there I would be so appreciative. As I say at the end of every episode, it really does help Apple podcast know that this unmillennial life is a podcast they should be recommending to other people. And with that, let's get on with the show. If your skin doesn't know whether to break out a wrinkle if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans, or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you've come to the right place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life. I'm your host Regan Jones and welcome to episode 129 of this unmillennial life. Now first of all, I want to give an apology for any of you over the last few episodes, who have experienced a technical glitch that is happening on not my end. But the end of the advertising company that I work with for this unmillennial life. Let me say up front, I know that ads can be annoying, I also appreciate your understanding that it costs money to host and produce a podcast. And as a self employed podcaster. And blogger, advertisements are one of the ways that I make my income. One of the main ways right now however, I never want advertisements to be something that are so annoying or disruptive that they reduce the quality of the show. And I know because I've experienced it myself, that what has happened in some of the recent episodes is that the spot in the episode that I have allocated for a commercial break has actually not been where the advertising company has dropped those in and I have let them know that that is a problem. They have assured me that they are working on it live for the time being I have turned off any automated ads that would roll in the middle of the podcast so as not to disrupt the flow. So if that happened to you, I'm so sorry. Just know that I am aware of the problem. It is something that's happening on there in not mine, but I want to be sensitive to that. And for the time being. I will turn that off until we can get those issues resolved. Okay, that all said let's jump into today's episode. You already know based on the title of this episode that today we're talking about uterine fibroids, and joining me to discuss uterine fibroids is Kristin Marlin Kristen's a board certified nurse midwife, she has over 20 years of experience in women's health. And she really is an expert in menopause and feminine longevity. She's going to tell you a little bit more about her company that she co founded fim jeberti. But mostly what we will be talking about today would be sort of the prevalence of Uterine Fibroids Symptoms that you want to be aware of traditional treatment, and then how in her practice, they actually treat with some non traditional, more integrated wellness methods. So that I'll just simply welcome Kristen, Kristen, and welcome to the show. Kristin Mallon 3:55 Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here. Regan Jones 3:58 I really appreciate that when I was looking for someone to address this topic of uterine fibroids, that you were one of the people that came across my desk, you have a fascinating story with the company that you launched. And I think that we can really focus today on helping women understand a little bit more about uterine fibroids and then also maybe give them a different viewpoint on how they can be treated. So before we jump into that topic, though, I do want you to give listeners a little bit of background on your company for longevity. Yeah, so Kristin Mallon 4:32 I'm the co founder and CEO of a company called Femgevity Health with is which is a concierge telemedicine platform for women working with hormone balancing specifically during menopause and perimenopause. And then we also focus in on feminine longevity, Regan Jones 4:50 feminine longevity that's I would assume the way the name The name came about is that right? Kristin Mallon 4:56 Yeah. So a lot of longevity. The medicine that's kind of practice now is really male focused and male dominant. A lot of the studies that come out about longevity, and a lot of the molecules that are used in longevity are really focused on how they affect men. And the clinical trials are done on men. And so what we focus on is really like, how does how did those studies apply to women? What can we use? What can we not use, and then also the really important component in a woman's life about how when a woman goes through perimenopause, menopause and menopause and how she does that, and how that sets her up for longevity going forward. Regan Jones 5:31 And you said, it's a tele telehealth based practice, you have nurses, medical doctors explained to me just a little bit more about who is on your staff, if someone you know, down the line is interested in becoming a part of this, this group or seeking out your services, let's just know a little bit more about the company and who they would be interacting with. Yeah, so Kristin Mallon 5:53 our protocols are all medical based. It's all medical doctors and nurse practitioners. And so we do some nutritionist nutritional counseling, we do some medical counseling in terms of mental health counseling, but the basis of what we do is really getting labs and diagnostic data and then prescribing accordingly, whether it's nutraceuticals, or supplements, or medications or hormones themselves. Regan Jones 6:18 Okay. All right. Well, thank you for walking that out for everybody. Now, I want to just kind of go ahead and jump into the topic on hand today, and that's really uterine fibroids. This is something that came up as a topic really based on listener interest. Most people who've been listening to the podcast for a number of years know that things pop up, either, because there's something that's going on in my own unmillennial life or in the lives of those people who are my friends, family, or listeners of the show, and uterine fibroids actually has been suggested a number of different times. So let's first set the stage and talk to people about what uterine fibroids actually are. And if you will give them some sort of idea of what causes them. Kristin Mallon 6:58 Yeah, so uterine fibroids really are non cancerous tumors. So people don't really like that word tumor because they do associated with cancer, but they are non cancerous growths that are coming from the uterine cavities, either outside or around the uterine cavity themselves. Regan Jones 7:16 Okay. And then, in terms of causes, can you give us a little bit of an idea of like, what causes uterine fibroids, Kristin Mallon 7:23 fibroids are really kind of a black hole. And we don't really understand fibroids as much as we'd like. But there's a lot of different theories about what causes uterine fibroids. So from our perspective, and this was a kind of a thought that was really made popular by a doctor called Dr. John Lee, he actually has a website called I think it's Dr. John Lee md.com. But the concept of estrogen dominance, because estrogen is a hormone that feeds the growth of, of fibroids. And so estrogen dominance is something that's pretty commonly seen nowadays, it's not a medical term that's really adopted, there's no ICD 10 code. If you go to like a regular generic OB GYN, they're gonna be like, that doesn't really exist, kind of the way that a lot of kind of traditional conventional doctors don't think that Adrenal Fatigue is really exists. That's where a lot of the thought is about where fibroids come from. Although there are risk factors that are associated with fibroids like having a period early like having your first period before the age of 10. Having less pregnancies being on hormonal birth conception, there are certain endocrine factors like being exposed to D S, which isn't really used anymore isn't so common anymore, but that was something that was more common in women that were born in the 50s or 40s. Obesity is also associated with fibroids diet, especially a diet high in red meats and dairy, alcohol, smoking, and genetics are all risk factors for developing fibroids. Regan Jones 8:55 Okay, so if a woman is sitting and listening to this and is thinking, gosh, I have some of these risk risk factors. clarify for me, because this is a statistic that I've seen, and I just want to understand it a little bit better. from your standpoint. Do all women who have uterine fibroids do all of them? No. Are they all symptomatic? And the next part of that question is what are some of the symptoms that people would be looking for? Yeah, that's a Kristin Mallon 9:21 really great question. So I think also, we can't really talk about the incidence and prevalence of uterine fibroids without talking about the significant disparity in the high incidence among black females as well. And we can kind of get into that a little bit later about the theories about why black females have a significantly higher proportion of having uterine fibroids. There's some studies that say, I've seen studies that say one in four women will have fibroids by the time they reach the menopausal years and I've seen studies as high as 80% of women will have uterine fibroids by the time they reach the menopausal years. A lot of times these fibroids especially in the early years of the fibroid growth and development, they are asymptomatic. And so, you know, I am a certified nurse midwife. And so I've done a lot of C sections and been into a lot of uterine cavities and many, many times in those C sections, probably about 30 or 40% of the time. And these are women who are younger and their young reproductive years 20s 30s and 40s. And we'll find a fibroid in the C section. Totally. Nobody had any idea about it and we didn't suspect about and even this woman was having ultrasounds in her pregnancy because fibroids can sometimes be difficult to see on ultrasound, especially when an obstetric cinematographer or so nog refer that's really doing pregnancy based ultrasounds and doesn't specialize in gynecologic based ultrasounds is reading the ultrasounds or looking at the ultrasounds and they're really looking at what's going on with the pregnancy. They're not always thinking about, Okay, what's going on with the fibroids? So, it's a little bit like I said fibroids is kind of a black hole. In general, it's a little bit of an unknown, but I would say more than half of women might exactly have fibroids, and then not even know they have them. And then you did ask about the symptoms of fibroids. So there's three, there's so many symptoms of fibroids, but there's three main symptoms that kind of really signify that fibroids are kind of at a later stage or larger. So number one is is bleeding, heavy bleeding, irregular, bleeding, painful bleeding. And this can sometimes be hard to diagnose, because this can also be associated with things like endometriosis, and so they can sometimes get confused. Does a woman have fibroids or does a woman have endometriosis? Or does she have both both are high estrogenic states they both kind of are result of having high circulating estrogen, or more estrogen in relation to the balance of the other hormones. There's also sometimes women can actually feel them, they can actually feel the fiber, they'll feel groco They'll feel like Oh, this isn't there's a hard ball here like so the palpation of feeling them is very real. And then pain can be the the number one symptom. So it's really those three things. Although there are other symptoms that go along with it urinary symptoms go along with it, pressure symptoms go along with it kind of like a bloating or a bulky feeling. There's so many things that happen with fibroids specifically. But I would say those are the top three symptoms that women really feel along with being totally asymptomatic and not feeling anything. Regan Jones 12:22 Okay, good. Thank you for clarifying all that. Okay, so what I want to do is I want to briefly talk about and you give listeners just sort of an idea of kind of the current treatments that you see within what I would call the traditional medical community, how it's currently how have fibroids are treated currently. And then I think the area that you specialize in, let's talk about the alternatives, the non surgical or natural treatments that it sounds like that you all are using in your practice. So cover both of those for my listeners. Kristin Mallon 12:54 Yeah, so I think a great way to kind of understand the there. So there's three tiers of treatment that are kind of traditionally used in conventional medical therapies. And I think to kind of understand them, it's helpful to understand the different types of fibroids. And this was something that you did allude to in the beginning, and I can circle back to that now, but there's different types of fibroids. So kind of from like the least severe to the most severe. There's fibroids that are pedants related, so they're attached by the stock, like a stock to the uterus, or to the uterine cavity, sometimes, like on ultrasound, they can actually look like ovaries, they usually can be palpated through the skin, although not always depending on the size of them. And they're usually pretty asymptomatic. They don't bother the uterine cavity, because as a woman is having her menstrual cycle and the lining is being shed, these are on the outside of the uterus, and a woman doesn't necessarily notice them or feel them. The next kind of more serious as we kind of moved down would be something called a sub serosal fibroid or a sub serosal myoma. And these kind of originate from the smooth muscle tissue layer of the uterus or the myometrium. And they're on the cirrhosis surface of the uterus. A…

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no. 128 - The Hearing Loss and Dementia Episode Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Many people are unaware of the connection between hearing loss and dementia. This episode covers what you need to know. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES – HEARING LOSS AND DEMENTIA LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Dr. Amy Sarow at Soundly.com Dr. Amy Sarow on LinkedIn COMMERCIAL OR AFFILIATE LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE imPRESS nails YourColorGuru.com – Coupon Code REGAN – for 10% discount EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, hearing loss, dementia EPISODE TRANSCRIPT – HEARING LOSS AND DEMENTIA (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) 0:00 Today’s broadcast is brought to you by your color guru, your color guru.com is where I went this last year to get my color consultation done. And there’s a little bit of comedy in thinking about having your colors done. I say that in air quotes because many of us as unmillennials, remember back in the days of the 80s, doing your color, but let me tell you what your color Guru is doing is so far beyond that. And they’re giving you so many tools when you actually have your colors done. And the reason that I say so far beyond that is because back in the day, when we would find out what our colors were, I think it was like four seasons, winter, summer, fall and spring. But your color Guru is much more robust than that. For instance, I’m a moonlit summer which is different than a sunlit summer. And one of the things that I love the most about your color guru and the color consultation that I had done is that it comes with a color card. I have both a printed card that I can throw in my purse, so that when I am out shopping, I can pull that card out of my purse and hold it up to anything that I’m looking at to determine Hey, is this one my best colors. I also have the JPEG on my phone. So if I don’t have the card with me, I just simply look at my phone and it has been invaluable. It makes shopping so much easier. So if you are interested in having your colors gone, or gifting it to someone else, you can get 10% off of your color guru consultation by simply using the code Regan, which is r e g, a n at checkout at your color guru.com There’s a link in the show notes. Regan Jones 1:39 If your skin doesn’t know whether to break out or wrinkle if you’re caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees ache, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to this unmillennial life. Regan Jones 2:04 I’m your host Regan Jones and welcome to today’s show. Thanks for letting me take the last couple of Monday’s off if you wondered where I was. There is a National Nutrition conference that happens every fall for registered dietitians. It had been a few years since I had been able to attend. And this year I was actually speaking at the conference about podcasting ironically. So I took the week before the conference to get ready. And I took the week of the conference off. So I do apologize for not bringing you new episodes. But rest assured that I got new ideas at this conference for things that I would love to come back and do episodes on for you here on the show. Now today’s episode, though, has nothing to do with nutrition. If you’ve been a listener of this unmillennial life for a while you know that while I am a registered dietician, and technically a personal trainer, although I do not personally drain anyone by of course, an avid fitness fan for myself, you know that over the years, I do my very best to cover topics that don’t have anything to do with nutrition. And it seems like and looking back over the episodes that I’ve posted recently, there’s been a good bit of nutrition, a good bit about different supplements. And so I hope that you really enjoy today’s episode as a complete departure from a nutrition topic. Now that’s not to say that this is not a health topic. Certainly the connection between dementia and hearing loss. The majority of what today’s episode is about is of extreme importance as we look to ourselves, and our parents, our friends and family and see aging beginning to happen. We’ve talked about parenting aging parents and what some of that looks like. And hearing loss is actually one of those things that some of my friends and I tend to joke about, you know, when we go out to dinner, and we’re really struggling to hear people at the table, it’s kind of been one of these ongoing jokes about oh, we’re just getting older and we can’t hear as well. But when I was told this summer by a member of my family that she had read about the link between dementia and hearing loss, I thought this is something that I want to know more about. So in today’s episode, I am interviewing Dr. Amy Sarow. Dr. Sarow is a lead audiologist for soundly.com. And she’s also a Forbes Health Advisory Board member. She promotes healthy hearing awareness and her perspectives have been featured on NPR in People magazine, GQ Wall Street Journal and more. The first part of this episode we talk about hearing loss in general and then we will get to unpacking what the believed reasons are that tie hearing loss with dementia. So with that, I’ll say Dr. Sarow. Welcome to the show. Dr. Amy Sarow 4:48 Thanks so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Regan Jones Well, this is a topic that I gotta tell you is a departure from some of the recent topics that we’ve had on the show that have been pretty nutrition-oriented. So I’m really happy to have You and your expertise as an audiologist for soundly.com. Before we jump into really looking at hearing loss, and you know when to test for that, and the topic that I’m most interested in this connection that I’ve learned about hearing loss and dementia, why don’t you tell the audience a little bit about yourself, and then also soundly.com, since that’s ultimately the way that I discovered you? Dr. Amy Sarow Absolutely. So I am an audiologist or a doctor of audiology. I studied in my bachelor’s degree, I actually studied German. So I started my work as a language instructor in Germany. And then when I came back to the US a few years later, and I switched career paths, I was thinking, you know, speech pathology, and I was guided towards audiology, because of the difference you can really make in people’s lives. And helping them communicate, which relates to my teaching experience, as well. So now with sound Lee, I’ve had some work in the clinical realm, but now with sound leave a lot of what I do is education and sharing good information with consumers, helping them to make good decisions about their hearing health care, because it’s a topic that’s come up a lot, especially since the pandemic, and so I just, I love being able to support people and give them the the right information and resources to help them get started in the process. Yeah, because this certainly is an area of healthcare, as you say that I feel like having looked at it over the last decade or so, and seeing people in my life that increasingly are struggling with hearing loss is one that I just don’t think that the average consumer knows that much about, you know, we have this, it seems to me, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me we have this sort of tendency to think that, you know, just only very elderly people are wearing hearing aids, or people that were born maybe with some sort of, you know, hearing their hearing being affected. But I believe the reality is, it’s a much bigger issue for a lot of people at younger ages than than we realize. Would you say that’s the case? Yes, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. So it’s approximately one in 10. Americans, actually, that has some degree of hearing loss and at least one year, and so most of us know, somebody, it could be a parent could be a sibling, a grandparent. And while hearing loss does affect us, more tend to affect us, as we age, it can affect people of any age, you know, children can be born with hearing loss, or people can develop it in their teens and their 20s in midlife. So definitely, it’s a very important topic to talk about. Regan Jones So tell me a little bit about your thoughts on, you know, obviously, we’ve talked about kind of the incidence of hearing loss. But you know, what are some tips that people can take away from this conversation about preventing hearing loss? Dr. Amy Sarow Yes, this is a topic that I’ve been talking about a lot. And I’m excited that it’s getting some attention. So one of the biggest trends that we’re seeing right now, in young people actually is Gen Z, and millennials especially, is the headphone use. So that using the earbuds and the headphones and turning the volume all the way up on a phone or an electronic device is leading to noise-induced hearing loss, and we’re expecting in the coming decades, that will affect as many as 1 billion people worldwide. So it’s a really, it’s, it’s a problem. So what I like to tell people are just some practical tips about how what they can do in their daily life to prevent that from happening. So the FDA does not regulate the volume, if you turn it all the way up, and it can go well over 100 decibels, which is enough to cause damage within just 15 minutes or even less. So what I like to say is if you have someone in arm’s length from you, you should still be able to hear that person talking to you, if you can’t hear them. That’s a sign it’s too loud. So thinking about the volume is important. Limiting your time if you’re going to be somewhere where the volume is louder, you know, spending, taking breaks, spending less time in that environment that’s going to help. And then using hearing protection is a big one too. And we’re seeing a lot of companies coming up now with hearing protection that’s more comfortable or a little more stylish. For example, the loop earplugs those are really popular, they come in colors where you know, people who wear them almost as a fashion statement and they’re they’re happy to have them nearby. So those are a couple practical tips. And then just something in general. It all starts with awareness, because sometimes we don’t realize how loud our environments are or so just having that awareness, maybe using a free decibel meter to check your environment, if you’re curious about that. Okay, so moving away from just the tips about how we can reduce noise induced hearing loss. What about people who are curious about maybe the amount of hearing loss that they’re already experiencing? When Should people consider getting a hearing test? Yes. So this is also an important topic, because so as I mentioned, even younger people now have more noise exposure. And so anyone who’s concerned about their hearing, or maybe they’re in, you know, they, they do target shooting or loud recreational sports, concerts, that sort of thing. I would even recommend people just checking their hearing in their 20s and their 30s. But definitely, I would like everyone to have a baseline hearing test by age 50. If they don’t have any concerns, prior to that. So that’s, that’s definitely my recommendation. Because when we catch hearing loss early, it’s so much easier to treat it stay on top of it, you have that information, and then you can make good decisions from there. Regan Jones So much of what we talk about here on this podcast for women, especially at midlife is about just early detection of lots of different issues. And so I think you have certainly made the case for, you know why you need to start with that baseline testing by age 50. Talk to me, though a little bit about what people might otter it automatically be looking for in their lives as maybe common signs of hearing loss that beg the need for going and having some testing done. Dr. Amy Sarow So some of the most common signs that people will describe is turning the TV up louder. It sounds like people are mumbling, they’re not speaking clearly. Maybe they feel more fatigued. And this is one where we don’t always notice that it’s because of hearing. But maybe we’re just kind of straining. And by the end of the day, we feel really fatigued, really tired, because we’re working really hard to understand what people are saying. Sometimes people notice they’re feeling more isolated. They’re not feeling like they’re part of the conversation, because they’re having trouble telling, you know, Oh, was that code or code or road? I’m not sure what they said. So it makes them feel, you know, left out. So those are all some common signs that we see if you have also maybe a difference and how you hear from one year to the other. You might have trouble localizing sounds telling where what direction things are coming from. Regan Jones 12:46 Yeah, so those are a lot of the common ones that we see a couple of things that I picked up on when you talked about straining to hear and you talked about isolation. Those are two of the things that I read about when I first got interested in the in the main topic that I wanted to talk about today. The association between hearing loss and dementia, those were two of the things that were mentioned as potential reasons there is a connection. So as we kind of move over from general hearing loss and specifically unpack the connection between hearing loss and dementia. Can you walk that out? Like what what does the data show about whether or not there is an association? I mean, you know, I could be wrong, maybe there isn’t. But is there Association? And if so, what do we believe are the reasons behind that? Dr. Amy Sarow Yes, absolutely. There is an association and you definitely picked up on that aspect of it. So we see there was a study from the Lancet in 2017. And then more recently in 2020, about exactly this topic. So we know with cognitive decline, it’s an area of research that’s growing, and we’re learning about the connection between hearing loss and cognitive decline or dementia. There are some modifiable risk factors that we we can do something about now, obviously, some things we can’t like, you can’t change your family history. We can’t do anything about aging, those are things that we can’t change. But things that we can change are, you know, treating hearing loss if we have it, and especially we show that by about age 55 if we can catch it there and intervene, we have about a 32% lower risk, I believe it is of developing dementia. So it’s really important and that’s another reason why I like to recommend the by age 50 baseline because that’s going to catch it before that age. But also when we think about it’s not just the hearing loss, like as we talked about that’s important for a lot of different reasons, but also it changes the other modifiable or potentially my to final risk factors. So hearing loss changes the social dynamics. If you think about how someone with hearing loss is involved in a conversation, like we said, maybe they’re straining to hear, and they thought somebody said they thought somebody told a joke, but actually, they were being serious. You know, how is that person going to feel when they react inappropriately? And then you know, what will? How will that change the way that they interact with individuals or maybe feel more isolated, more prone to depression, and those are also modifiable or potentially modifiable risk factors. So if hearing loss has downstream effects on our health, when a person becomes depressed, then perhaps they’re engaging less with others have less social connection, maybe that’s also giving them less energy to engage in physical activity or to lead a healthy lifestyle. So it’s all related. Regan Jones Yeah, I just think it’s fascinating. And the first time that someone ever pointed it out to me that there was a connection. You know, I just, I was actually really very astonished because I thought, Why have I never heard that there’s a connection between hearing loss and dementia. But then when you st…

Full show notes at the publisher

no. 127 - The Protein PACT Episode Oct 02, 2023

Show notes

Today's episode is aimed at reducing "meat guilt" by not only exploring the meat industry's new "Protein PACT" but also discussing some of the lesser talked about aspects of eating meat. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.theproteinpact.org www.Linkedin.com/theproteinpact www.facebook.com/theproteinpact www.instagram.com/theproteinpact What Is A Factory Farm? Your Questions About Beef–Answered! by Real Mom Nutrition Diana Rodgers, RD @SustainableDish EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, protein pact, sustainability, beef, animal agriculture EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) Regan Jones 0:00 Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping briefly, to let you know that if you were a subscriber via email for podcast notifications, there is a good chance that you have accidentally been moved over to a mailing list that is exclusively for my new baking website. And I will tell you up front, I am sorry about that in trying to segment lists, and yet the people that wanted to be receiving notifications about the baking website, this baking life.com, and people who want to receive notifications about the podcast is a millennial life.com. There's a little bit of overlap there. And so what I want to ask you to do is that if you want to be sure that you are getting notifications, email notifications, anytime I release a new episode, please click the link in the show notes. It'll direct you to this a millennial live.com/subscribe. Or you can just put that in your browser, this unmillennial life.com/subscribe. I have tried to do my best to clean that list up and make sure that you are where you want to be. But there's nothing like you making sure that you're getting those notifications. So if you've not been getting email notifications from me that episodes have been releasing, please go ahead and sign up. Now. Let's get on with today's episode. If your skin doesn't know whether to breakout or wrinkle if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you've come to the right place. Welcome to this on Millennial Life. I'm your host Regan Jones and welcome to today's show. Now I want to start this episode off by giving a brief disclosure that I originally met today's guest, Eric Mittenthal, when he and I were attending a food and nutrition conference together a number of years ago, earlier this year, I also attended that same food and nutrition conference. And Eric and the company that he works for were sponsors of that conference. A few episodes back, I made a mention about attending a sponsor conference, and I got an email from a listener wanting me to walk that out a little bit. What does that mean? Does that mean that you are being paid to do this episode, so I want to be sure that we're all on the same page. First of all, if I ever do a sponsored episode sponsored meaning I have been paid to produce this episode, I have been paid to interview a guest I have been paid to produce an episode I will tell you that it will be labeled as a sponsored episode I have done those in the past, you can go back through the archives, and see those some of them are very, very insightful and good episodes. Just because they're sponsored does not mean that they don't have good information to share. But just know that I'll always let you know that it's a sponsored episode, where maybe it gets to be a little bit grayer for you as the listener is when I don't make it clear what attending a sponsored conference for me entails. So let me do that since this particular episode was a result of attending a sponsored conference for me. And for this particular sponsored conference, part of the attendance was paid for by me in terms of my travel and some of the other things that were expenses associated with attending a large portion of it is paid for by the conference itself. And the conference has a number of different companies who sponsor the conference, my attendance does not have any kind of requirement. In terms of doing an episode on any of the topics that's really left up to me, I rely heavily on some of the travel that I get to experience as a podcaster. As a registered dietitian, as a blogger, I rely a lot on those events, to inspire me to share different topics with you to provide new research, but just know that I always am coming back to think through as many sides of a topic as I can. And really think through how to bring that information to you in a way that is meaningful and helpful, and certainly in a way that you don't feel was simply an advertisement. Okay, so that all being said, let me tell you about today's guests. Eric Mittenthal is the Chief Strategy Officer at the North American Meat Institute. He was previously the organization's Vice President of Public Affairs. I'm having him on today because he is now leading the institute's Protein PACT strategy, which you will hear him talk about is really focused on implementing a framework for continuous improvement throughout the meat industry. I'm going to go ahead and jump into my interview with Eric but on this particular pot topic, which I know honestly can be a little divisive, depending on where you fall into concerns about animal agriculture and sustainability and nutrition, etc. I'm going to ask you to stick around after the interview and allow me to bring a couple of additional pieces of information that are not from the Protein PACT. They're not from Eric, they're not even from the sponsored conference that I attended. Allow me to bring those to you for your attention just to get a broad picture of this overall topic. And while I labeled this the Protein PACT episode, because I thought it was really important to be again, clear and transparent about who I was interviewing, I wanted to originally name it the meat guilt episode, because that is where I feel that I see the biggest struggle for people these days is the guilt that they feel from eating meat for a number of different reasons, health reasons, sustainability reasons, ethical reasons, animal welfare reasons. And so what I want to do is, after Eric and I have talked about what the Protein PACT is, I'm going to come back share a couple of different resources and pieces of information that just might help round out this discussion for you. Okay, with all that out of the way. Here we go. Eric, welcome to the show. Eric 6:01 Thanks so much for having me. Regan Jones 6:02 Well, it's a pleasure to have you on you know, we've actually known each other for a number of years, I've had the opportunity to visit together at a number of different nutrition comp conferences. But once I started learning more about your role with the Protein PACT, I really decided that this is something that I wanted to bring back to listeners, as I was sharing with you, when we first started preparing for this, I feel like that my audience and consumers in general kind of have some of what I would call is meat guilt. And I'm hopeful that as you unpack what the Protein PACT is, or who or what is behind the Protein PACT, that we can give them a little bit more insight into how, you know, meat fits in truly within the context of an overall healthy and sustainable diet. So first, unpack that, for us, what are who is the protein PACT? Eric 6:53 The Protein PACT is a joint effort amongst a wide variety of groups in animal agriculture to help reduce that meat guilt. You know, I think people are looking for permission to continue to enjoy the meat products that they love and have loved for generations. And so we want to be able to show as an industry, the proof of progress that aligns with what consumers are looking for, and what people want to see from the industry. And so it comes down to demonstrating transparently our practices when it comes to how we're impacting healthy animals and Healthy People, healthy communities, which is a huge focus as well and a healthy planet. And so we want to be able to show data driven ways that we are making progress and work towards some really meaningful goals between now and 2030. And when you say we, who is the we behind the Protein PACT, it's everybody in animal agriculture largely. So you know, I work for an organization called the North American Meat Institute that works with me companies that you're purchasing your meat from that grocery stores and restaurants. But we work really closely with farmers and ranchers in beef and pork and poultry, work with dairy producers, as well as the farmers who are growing the feed for the animals too. So it is a holistic effort across all the animal protein supply chain, including up to the grocery stores and restaurants that people enjoy to. Regan Jones 8:24 I know that one of the things that we've talked about in the past is that some of what, or a lot, or most of what the Protein PACT is doing and is focused on really centers around this term that we've been hearing for a while sustainability. So I'm going to put it over to you as as sort of today's representative for the Protein PACT. What does sustainability mean in your eyes? And really, how should people like my listeners, very busy trying to make smart decisions? We've already talked about maybe having some meat guilt that comes from a number of different angles and things that they've heard online or things that they've seen on TV? How should they understand sustainability to make better choices for themselves? Eric 9:06 Yes, sustainability means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I think if we were to survey the audience, we probably get a whole wide variety of perspectives on what it actually means. You know, I think in a formal sense, sustainability is can be social sustainability and how we're impacting communities economic sustainability, how we're supporting people's livelihoods, and environmental sustainability. I look at at it even in a more simple way than that. It is continuous improvement. It is how do we do better? And for us that looks at a variety of different areas ranging from animal welfare, to food safety, nutrition, labor and human rights and how we're impacting the planet as well. And all of those things are really important together. I think in a lot of cases people think only of what we're doing environmentally. But it is a complete picture and all of them impact each other. And we have to make sure that sustainability is really focused on how we are doing better in a way that benefits people in terms of eating meat as a sustainable choice. Regan Jones 10:17 You know, I really do think that based on a lot of what we hear, and we see out there, you know, yeah, all you have to do is just pull up Instagram and thumb through a few reels, and you probably see some sort of sensational information discouraging people from eating meat. Let's not beat around the bush like, is eating meat a sustainable choice? Eric 10:36 Yeah, it absolutely is. And meat is a really key element in a sustainable diet and supporting sustainable livelihoods. You know, first off, when we raise animals for food, those animals are using land that can't be used for other crops, improves soil, how health in stores carbon in the soil, and produces a wide variety of byproducts. You know, I think it's really important people recognize that, you know, we enjoy the meat from animals, but animals are also providing, you know, fashion and clothing through leather, they provide medical products, cosmetics, there are so many things that come from animals that we benefit from. And and it's really important that we utilize all those things from the animals when we when we raise them, then there's also the nutrient density, you know, it's not easily replaced with other foods, you certainly can have a diet without meat that is able to get all the nutrients you need. But also meat makes it a lot easier. And so being able to get all of those nutrients from a small serving of lean beef or chicken or turkey, it provides nearly half of an adult's daily protein needs. And you'd have to eat a lot more of other foods to be able to do the same thing. And then there's also just the developmental aspect of enjoying meat. There's been a lot of research about its benefits for brain health, childhood development. In fact, people as they age, you need more protein and getting nutrients like iron and vitamin A. It's interesting that research has shown those are neutral, micronutrient deficiencies around the world, but also here in the US. And many people don't realize that there are nutrient deficiencies in the US. And meat provides the nutrients that we need in our diets that aren't always we're not always receiving. And so having that complete package of being able to do that is really important. And that's what meets supports,. Regan Jones 12:45 You know, you made reference there about cattle being basically grazing on land that we can't do a lot with. And I just want to let listeners know I did. I did my own research before I started interviewing Eric, and one of the statistics that I found and you can let me know if, if this is supported by what you know is that 85% of cattle today are actually grazing on lands that we can't grow crops on. So this notion that like we have to do away with all animal agriculture, because we have all of this land that we should be doing crop management on, it's just actually not an accurate assessment. Is that correct? Eric 13:26 That is correct. It's using land that we can't use. But planning it plant and animal agriculture also depend on each other. There has been research showing that for every kilogram of plant food that we eat that we are growing eat, there are four kilograms of inedible biomass that is also produced. So that inedible biomass for us goes to animals. And if the animals aren't part of that equation, we're sending a lot of plants to a landfill or other places, is extremely wasteful, and also harmful for the planet. And so having animals as part of the equation where you're being able to take that inedible biomass, and feeding it to the animals, is really it's part of the sustainability equation of using everything at our disposal to make sure we're not being wasteful. Regan Jones 14:19 Yeah, it's that that cyclical part of agriculture that when we, it seems to me as not an agriculture expert by any stretch. But it seems to me when we focus on ripping out one portion of it, we're really doing a disservice to the overall sustainable picture that you talk about. Eric 14:38 Yeah, we use the term unintended consequences, and it's easy to think about, okay, just take something away and what that means, but what's the ripple effect of making a drastic change in some way, and usually it's quite substantial and not always positive. And so we have to think about all the potential unintended consequences that would occur and I, You know, we talked about unintended consequences, it relates to our diets and our health. And so again, that's, that's where animals play an important part in the overall equation of people's health, planetary health. You know, it all ties together really, really closely. Regan Jones 15:15 You know, one of the things you also mentioned was nutrient density. And also in statistics, just…

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no. 126 - The Breast Cancer Genetics Episode Sep 25, 2023

Show notes

One of the many decisions women often have to make when diagnosed with breast cancer is whether or not they want to test for breast cancer genetics. This episode discusses aspects affecting that decision, from cost to insurance implications, future screenings, other cancer risks, and more. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE https://findageneticcounselor.nsgc.org https://www.facingourrisk.org/ The Breast Cancer Diagnosis Episode The Scalp Cooling (Cold Capping) Episode [Part 1] The Scalp Cooling (Cold Capping) Episode [Part 2] The Rapunzel Project® Episode COMMERCIAL LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE ON BREAST CANCER GENETICS Your Color Guru - use code REGAN for 10% discount EPISODE KEYWORDS RELATED TO BREAST CANCER GENETICS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50 cancer, breast cancer, genetic testing, BRCA 1, BRCA 2, genetic counselor, Breast Cancer Awareness month EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling and grammatical errors) Regan Jones 0:00 Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping briefly, to let you know that if you were a subscriber via email for podcast notifications, there is a good chance that you have accidentally been moved over to a mailing list that is exclusively for my new baking website. And I will tell you upfront, I am sorry about that in trying to segment lists, and yet the people who wanted to be receiving notifications about the baking website, thisbakinglife.com, and people who want to receive notifications about the podcast, ThisUnmillenniallife.com, there's a little bit of overlap there. And so what I want to ask you to do is that if you want to be sure that you are getting notifications, email notifications, anytime I release a new episode, please click the link in the show notes. It'll direct you to this unmillenniallife.com/subscribe. Or you can just put that in your browser, thisunmillenniallife.com/subscribe. I have tried to do my best to clean that list up and make sure that you are where you want to be. But there's nothing like you making sure that you're getting those notifications. So if you've not been getting email notifications from me that episodes have been releasing, please go ahead and sign up. Now let's get on with today's episode. Regan Jones 1:16 If your skin doesn't know whether to breakout or wrinkle, if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans, or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40-something knees ache, you've come to the right place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life. Regan Jones 1:41 I'm your host, Regan Jones, and welcome to today's show. So I'm releasing this episode in the latter part of September, but we are quickly going to be in the month of October very soon. And as most of you know, October is breast cancer awareness month. But for me Breast Cancer Awareness is something that we can talk about any time of the year. And today's episode is going to not only feature my full length interview with a breast cancer geneticist as we talk about breast cancer genetics, but I'm gonna come out back at the end for the odds and ins ending and talk to you briefly about a few things that I experienced or testing that I had done a procedure that I had done when I was diagnosed with breast cancer that are so different than what my mother who we talked about briefly in this episode, because of the genetic component of this, my mother had in either of her breast cancer experiences in the mid 90s. And in the early 2000s. So the reason I point that out is because I have somewhat joked in time in talking to people that it's not your mother's breast cancer anymore, there are things that are still quite standard or haven't changed a lot in the last few years, namely some of the chemo drugs that people take for breast cancer treatment. But there are a lot of new things and new tests that are available, not only as we're going to talk about today in terms of your overall genetics, but there are things like tumor genomics and different types of lymph node biopsies. And that's the stuff that we'll talk about at the end. So I hope that you will listen to this entire episode today and take from it some very helpful and powerful information that I hope you never need to know for yourself. The likelihood is, as I have stated on this podcast before, the fact that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer means that there's a good likelihood that you will know someone at some point who is diagnosed with breast cancer and my hope would be much like I found much of this information helpful as I was going through my breast cancer journey, that you will be able to share this with them and they will as well. Okay. So briefly, let me tell you about today's guest. Today's guest is Charly Harris. She's a certified genetic counselor, and she has a little over four years of clinical cancer genetics experience. She works at the Medical University of South Carolina, and sees patients with personal and family histories of cancer. She's also an instructor of cancer genomics within the college of health professionals. I was able to connect with Charly because of the genetic counselors that we have available here in my area at the breast health center that I still go to today. Those have breast cancer genetics or they're really cancer genetic counselors. I shouldn't just say that it's breast cancer because it's not cancer genetic counselors. They come to our hospital via the program. They're at the Medical University of South Carolina. So I'm so appreciative of Charly taking the time to share this information. With all of us today, Charly, welcome to the show. Charly Harris 4:49 Hi, Regan. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Regan Jones 4:52 I really really appreciate the opportunity to interview you. This honestly has been another episode that I've been working on for for quite a while listeners have gotten used to me saying that there have been a lot of episodes that I've been thinking about and kind of researching and trying to find the right guest. And I'm so appreciative that you are able to talk with us today about breast cancer genetics, as listeners have heard in the lead in to this episode, as a refresher, and a reminder, you know, this is a very personal topic to me, because I was one of those people who, unfortunately took some dated information about my family, and kind of transferred that up to modern day and assumed that I did not have any breast cancer genetic risks. And had I known that I did carry this gene deletion that I have, I might have been, I don't know, maybe more inclined to do a little bit more aggressive testing, although I will acknowledge always got my mammogram. So that was, that was not something that I let go by the wayside. But I'm hopeful that what we can do today is really talking about some common myths and talk about who should consider genetic testing, what kind of information we get. So let's go ahead and jump right in. Talk to us about some of the common myths that you as a certified genetic counselor, here when it comes to breast genetics, breast cancer, genetics and genetic testing. Charly Harris 6:15 Absolutely, we hear so many common myths that have been around for many, many years and continue to just be perpetuated by other institutions or providers. Unfortunately, the number one myth we will hear is that genetic testing is so so expensive, we have so many patients, patients who are just afraid to even schedule with us because they're worried about that cost of testing. For many years, that was 1000s of dollars, we're now at a much lower cost. Most patients paying $100 or less for that testing, most of the time appointments being relatively low cost as well. So we really want people to not be afraid of such high costs, and never even stepping foot to learn about our services and genetic testing. Another huge myth that we hear is when it comes to male relatives, unfortunately, we do have a lot of patients who still really think that if your dad's family has breast cancer that in no way is that going to come down to you. We do hear patients regularly say, Oh, my dad's doctor told him that because it's from him, he can't pass it on to me. And we do see patients who have different mutations and their dad's side of the family, and they could have been tested for many years and just didn't because of that myth that was going on. And then we see patients who do have male relatives like sons and brothers and they think in no way do I need genetic testing, I already have cancer, I don't want to share any information with female relatives, I have none. But really a lot of the genes that we can test are not only affecting women, we do see many restroom male relatives as well. So this is going to impact pretty much everyone in that family history. Regan Jones 7:47 Yeah, that last one is a really, they're all good clarifications, and I want to comment on all of them. But that last one's really good clarification, because I know for me the gene deletion that I have puts me personally at increased risk for obviously breast cancer, but also it's associated with increased risk of prostate cancer and increased risk of colon cancer, both of which are, you know, male-oriented, just as one prostate cancer being male-oriented, and colon cancer being something that, you know, essentially knows Miss gender. I also, I would just say, I really appreciate you clarifying about the expense. Because I didn't know that myself, I knew that once I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I think I was offered within a certain period of time with my diagnosis, the testing for free, I don't think that I ended up paying anything, but I remember, at the time, my genetic counselor saying even if you decide to wait, and it really is a hefty decision for people, you know, to go ahead and decide to do genetic testing, and we'll talk about all that. But even if I had waited, I remember thinking, oh, gosh, it's really not that expensive to have it done. So I really appreciate that you clarified both of those. So, you know, looking back over the years, I do recall that I had a doctor at one point, who said to me, you know, have you considered having genetic testing done To which I responded, oh, you know, my mom has been tested and she doesn't have bracket one or bracket two. That doctor obviously identified and I wish we had talked about it a little bit more that I was a good candidate for genetic testing. Who would you say are people that should consider genetic testing for breast cancer risk Charly Harris 9:29 for us, we will typically recommend the people who have cancer themselves being our primary candidate for genetic testing are going to be our most informative people. So the common hereditary cancers are seeing breast ovarian, pancreas, prostate, colon, but we are very aware that these people are not always available, maybe not willing and sometimes very much in the middle of some heavy treatment. So we're really recommending family members who have people who are very young in their family with cancers people who had like two with three people with the same cancers on the same side of the family, some rare cancers in their family, people who might have had relatives in the past who did genetic testing 20 years ago, and are not available to retest, and we can really look at those families again, revisit that same idea. Regan Jones 10:18 Okay, that last one is a really good clarification, because I think what I gathered from that, and and correct me if I misunderstood this, when I had a doctor approached me about it a number of years ago, and I said, I don't know, I'm not sure that I want to go through genetic testing, it could have been that I could have gone back to my mother at that point and said, Can you be tested again, because we now know there are more genes that have been identified that are associated with breast cancer that we didn't know back when she was first tested for braca. One and braca. Two is that is that kind of what you're saying? Cuz she was, she was the person who initially was diagnosed, it was my mother, her, her mother, her sister, and her great grandmother, our her grandmother had had breast cancer. So it seems like even if I didn't want to be tested, if she she had been willing to test again, she would have been a candidate, Charly Harris 11:12 exactly, she would have been our really most informative person, if we didn't find her answer of breast cancer and her we wouldn't need to test everybody else. If we find it in her then we are able to test other relatives and and get a better idea of who we would say is what we call a true negative. If we have a mutation and mom and family members, and our relatives are testing negative for that, that gives us the most information about risk reducing is much closer to general population risk. Whereas when we have people who can't test all their relatives with cancer, we're never going to get an answer for those people. And we can still reduce the risk a little bit. But it's not as informative as testing the people who can give us the most answers. Regan Jones 11:50 One thing that I did want to ask and you didn't mention this in your myths. But it is something that I know came to mind when I was getting ready to be tested. And it's kind of actually an uncomfortable answer. It was very uncomfortable when it came up. But it really is about whether or not getting genetic testing. And what it says about you can somehow affect insurance and or life insurance for the future. So is that something that you can expand on and talk a little bit about? And let me say up front? I knew in that moment, this was the uncomfortable part that my genetic counselor said, essentially, well, you have cancer. So your life insurance effect, the effect on your ability to get life insurance has already happened because you have this diagnosis. But I know that health insurance is something that's of concern to people. Can you talk about that? Charly Harris 12:43 Absolutely. We have a law that came out in 2008. It's called the genetic information non discrimination act, or what we will call Gina, it came out and it actually protects health insurance and employment. So health insurance and employment can't request our patients genetics records that can't use them in any way to take away health insurance, decline it change premiums, people can't be fired, not hired because of these genetic test results. Obviously, health insurance might come across these results if they need to help cover some of the management, but they can't use them against you, with the law, unfortunately, and to this day, still cannot protect Long Term Care, disability and life insurance, anything in place. It's safe, it's protected. It's when we have people who want to go and get genetic testing because that family history, they themselves have not had cancer, they might really want to consider Am I happy with that life insurance, if not definitely something to do before we move forward that testing because we do unfortunately, see people who are young, they have no history, and now we're telling them they have a much higher cancer risk. And while our goal is to help reduce it and prevent it, life insurance is going to see that as a pre existing condition. And we do see people denied Regan Jones 13:53 Yea…

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no. 125 - The Metabolic Testing with Calorify Episode Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

For years dietitians have used formulas to estimate (imperfectly) a person's metabolic needs. But a new company using well-established technology is taking the guesswork out of metabolic testing using doubly labeled water. Today's episode talks about the precision of the science and the implications for unmillennial women in midlife who want to gain a better understanding of their bodies and overall calorie needs using the best at-home metabolism test. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE ABOUT THE BEST AT-HOME METABOLISM TEST Calorify - use code JENNA for $505 discount RELATED LINKS JennaBraddock.com "Eating for Purpose" Program Previous episodes with Jenna: The Creatine for Women Episode The Muscle Cramping in Teen Athletes Episode The Enneagram Episode (Part 2) COMMERCIAL LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Wild Grain - get $10 off the first box + FREE Croissants in every box! EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, unmillenniallife, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, metabolic testing, at-home metabolic testing, doubly labeled water, Calorify, best at-home metabolism test EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) Regan Jones 0:00 Hey there podcast listeners. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Wild Grain. If you haven't heard me talk about Wild Grain before, it is a phenomenal company offering artisanal breads and pastas. While you certainly know by now, given the fact that I've launched a new website, this baking life.com I am most happy when I'm in the kitchen, baking things for my family and friends. But I don't always have time to do that from scratch, even as a baking blogger. And that's where wild grain comes in. Wild grain is a subscription box with bake from Frozen sourdough breads, artisanal pastries, and fresh pasta. So they sent me a box. And I've got to tell you everything that we've tried out of it so far has been amazing. The breads are super yummy. And it's not just bread, but as I said, they have pastas, and they have pastries, I've made their for science, I've made their sourdough bread, everything has been top notch and high quality. So if you want to try some really good delivered to your door ready to bake items, you're gonna want to give wild grain a shot. And the good news for you as a listener of this unmillennial life podcast is that the first 50 people to sign up through the link that's in my show notes get $10 off their first box plus free croissants in every box. And I've already tried these with my family. They are delicious. Okay, so again, just look in the show notes for Wild Grain subscription. And now let's get on with the show. Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping briefly, to let you know that if you were a subscriber via email for podcast notifications, there is a good chance that you have accidentally been moved over to a mailing list that is exclusively for my new baking website. And I will tell you upfront, I am sorry about that in trying to segment lists and get the people that wanted to be receiving notifications about the baking website, this baking life.com. And people who want to receive notifications about the podcast is a millennial life.com. There's a little bit of overlap there. And so what I want to ask you to do is that if you want to be sure that you are getting notifications, email notifications, anytime I release a new episode, please click the link in the show notes. It'll direct you to this a millennial live.com/subscribe. Or you can just put that in your browser, this unmillennial lifecom/subscribe. I have tried to do my best to clean that list up and make sure that you are where you want to be. But there's nothing like you making sure that you're getting those notifications. So if you've not been getting email notifications from me that episodes have been releasing, please go ahead and sign up. Now let's get on with today's episode. If your skin doesn't know whether to breakout or wrinkle, if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans, or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you've come to the right place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life. Regan Jones 3:10 I'm your host, Regan Jones and welcome to today's show. So at some point, when you're listening to today's interview, you're gonna hear me say something to the effect of this is probably one of the most enlightening interviews that I've done in the seven seasons of doing this podcast. And I tell you that is the honest truth. I did not know anything about doubly labeled water for metabolic testing. When I went into this interview I had briefly been told about it from one of today's guest, Jenna Braddock. I'll tell you more about Jenna in just a second. But I just really didn't know anything about the science and had no idea what a tremendously powerful and accurate measurement of metabolism it is. You'll hear us talk about that, as dietitians. Jenna and I both were educated on a total different system of not actually measuring metabolism, but estimating metabolism. And so what you're going to hear today is the science behind how we can actually now truly test someone's metabolism and other things through this technology that glorify is bringing to consumers. It's been around the technology. I've learned this through the interviewer for many, many years, but it's now something that's accessible to us. So you're going to hear all about the technology, the implications for us as unmillennial men and women who may want to participate in this metabolic testing. So what the implications are and then of course, we'll make sure that you understand how you can do this for yourself if you're interested. Okay, so this is a pretty lengthy interview. I am not going to do and odds and ends ending of today's show. I'll tell you that upfront, but I am going to take a few minutes before we jump into the interview to to introduce both of my guests. Alright, so the first guest is Jenna Braddock. You've heard Jenna on the show before we have discussed teen athletes in the past. We You have to we have touched on the Enneagram. And most recently she was on the show, talking about creatine for women and I will of course place a link in the show notes to all the episodes that Gemma has done with me I know that you're going to enjoy her she's just a really good interviewer. She just covers things really well and in an easy to understand why and I'm so thankful for to her for bringing to my attention, this opportunity in this testing. If you aren't familiar with Jenna, briefly, let me give you a little bit of her bio. She's a performance dietitian. She's located in St. Augustine, Florida. And she specializes in sports nutrition, and helping everyone that she works with perform at their best. She says that her mission is to make healthy easy. And you can also find her all across social media and on the internet under that kind of brand name make healthy easy, and she really likes to equip people to fuel for energy, trust their body and live with purpose. Okay, so that's Jenna. You're also going to hear Jenna probably in a future episode as she and I talk about something totally different and talk about our experience with a faith-driven entrepreneurs group. That's really how Jenna and I have kind of cultivated and deepened our friendship and I just appreciate her so much. Okay. And then the other guest on today's show is Hari Mix. Hari is the CEO of the company that we're going to be talking about that's doing this technology. The company is Calorify. Hari holds a BS and PhD from Stanford. He was a faculty member at Santa Clara University prior to starting Calorify. During his time at Stanford Hari was one of the fastest distance runners in the world. And this is so interesting following his running career Hari's drive to climb the world's highest mountains without supplemental oxygen, ultimately, is what led to a passion for metabolism and the idea for Calorify. He's a fascinating individual. And also, just like Jenna, an excellent, excellent interview, he was a wonderful guest. And I just appreciate them both taking the time to share this information with me. And you. And with that, I'll say, Jenna, and Hari welcome to the show. Jenna Braddock 7:10 Thanks, right. Here. Regan Jones 7:12 Yeah, well, I was just telling you guys that this will be, even though I'm in my seventh season for the unmillennial life, this is a first and having two guests on at one time. So we're gonna play this by ear and see how it goes. I know it's gonna be wonderful. And I'm thrilled to have you both on one because I think you both bring unique knowledge to the table Hari, you as the founder of the company, Jenna, you as a dietitian, who, you know, has had the opportunity to do the testing and are using it in your own practice. So I appreciate both of you. Joining me today, I think the way that we need to open this up really hard is a question for you about metabolism. So that's kind of how I have pinned this episode about metabolic testing. And you know, we're gonna talk about what doubly labeled water is. But let's first just start with a basic definition of metabolism. And then maybe you can address some of the common myths, women especially have about metabolism in middle age. Hari Mix 8:09 Okay, excellent. Yeah, that those are great questions. And I think they're really valid questions, because people oftentimes hear the word metabolism or even use the word metabolism and don't necessarily have have the best understanding of what it is. So we each have 37 trillion cells in our body. And this is, you know, the the set of all of the chemical reactions that sustain life in your body, that's metabolism. So everything that your body is doing to stay alive. When we talk about metabolism at the company, we're oftentimes talking about energy metabolism. So each one of those cells requires energy. And so metabolism is basically you're burning that fuel, you're burning that energy to sustain life. And so that's what we mean when we talk about it. So we're talking in you know, in this case, a lot of this conversation is going to be talking about those, those units of energy calories, right? So how many calories per day? Are you burning, things like that? That's what we mean, when we talk about metabolism. Sometimes other people are talking about a specific aspect of metabolism. So you might see a, you know, a magazine in the checkout aisle. And this kind of speaks to some of the myths you you brought up maybe. So a lot of those are people talking about maybe you know, your glucose metabolism or maybe some other aspect of it. And I think there's a lot of misinformation out there. And there are a lot of ways to get kind of lost in the weeds. And so I think hopefully this conversation is a way to kind of step back and look at the big picture. In terms of common myths. I think that we all kind of still tell stories about ourselves and about our bodies. We all like to kind of create narratives. And the problem with just creating the narrative is that nobody's actually been kind of measuring anything. When when we actually do measure metabolism and this has been done at really large scale in the scientific literature actually is Scientific Adviser Hermann Ponsor at Duke has done a lot of this work, we really see that there are mainly two controls on metabolism. One is basically how big you are. So how much lean body mass not fat mass, but how much lean body mass everything else in your body that you have. So the bigger you are, the more calories you burn, not not too big of a surprise there. And then the other thing that shouldn't be too surprising is, you know, the second factor, which is your activity level. So the more active you are, the more calories you burn. I think that there's a lot of of mythology there about getting into middle age, maybe having kids is when you noticed that your your weight changed, your body composition changed. And a lot of people attribute that to metabolism. When we look at the literature, we see that people tend to have pretty stable metabolisms through adulthood. So they basically, you know, it increases at birth, and then you know, oftentimes peaks in late adolescence, pretty stable throughout your life. And then it really starts to drop off and kind of later middle age, so kind of postmenopausal for women kind of age 60, or thereafter, is where things tend to start to decline for people. Regan Jones 11:12 Okay, that I'm gonna say, I'm gonna raise my hand and say yes, myths, I, these are facts that I did not know. So I'm gonna be the one that's going to be learning a ton today as well. Were there other myths that you wanted to go over? Because I have a question for Jenna, just about, you know what this what this means for us in terms of measuring it, Hari Mix 11:31 I would say the other major kind of category in terms of people saying, well, my metabolism slowed down after fill in the blank would be that there are things that you can take, like certain supplements or whatever, that will boost your metabolism. And there are some things out there that are snake oil, there are some things out there that are illegal wouldn't recommend either of them. Basically, the best way to boost your metabolism is to either put on lean body mass, which is to say build muscle, for example. And then also to increase your activity level. So no, no, no silver bullets and their shortcuts really sadly. Regan Jones 12:10 Okay, so that's a pretty good myth to dispel for people right there. I will ask one clarifying question. You also would put thyroid medicine in that same category. And that's one of those that I wonder about, because I hear people say, you know, oh, well, once they started taking thyroid medicine to to improve, you know, a hypothyroid condition, they seem to have an easier time keeping their weight where they wanted it to be myth that what do you think about that? Hari Mix 12:35 I would say fact now, just to be completely clear, I'm not a medical doctor. But yes, I mean, if you have a medical condition that's affecting your metabolism, like hypothyroidism, and then you get that treated, yeah, your metabolism is going to rebound. The other thing is we have and this may be can come up later in the conversation, we have worked with a variety of people that have had medical conditions affect their metabolism. And so just to tease that topic, things like anxiety, and stress can affect your metabolism, things like autoimmune diseases can affect your metabolism. And actually, even my wife is on cancer treatment right now on chemotherapy, and that clearly affected her metabolism as well. So yeah, there are other things related to kind of medical conditions, but I would say for somebody who's healthy, kind of No, you know, no magic out there. Regan Jones 13:30 Yeah, there's nothing they're ordering off of Amazon. It's just gonna base their base their metabolism. Okay. So wonderful definition. And we've talked about some of the common myths. Jenna, a question for you, especially since I understand you are either currently using this in your practice or plan to, you know, from a dietitian perspective, and especially a dietitian, I know that you are working with s…

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no. 124 - The Pulmonary Embolism Episode Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, you'll learn about one woman's surprise diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism and why a common medication was likely the cause. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Website: https://www.shelleyrael.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelrael/ Facebook (Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/RealWorldNutrition Social media @shelrael Cleaner Beauty Buys at the Drugstore Subscribe via email for episode notifications Gillette Venus Dermaplane Tool dryfarmwines.com/unmillennial yourcolorguru.com Coupon Code REGAN for 10% discount EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, umillennial, Gen X, pulmonary embolism, Gen X podcasts, women after 40, women after 50, podcasts for women EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling and grammar errors) Regan Jones 0:00 Today's episode is brought to you by dry farm wines. Dry farm wines sources wine to the highest standards of quality and purity while most wines sold today, are commercially produced and full of sugar, they can also include up to 70 plus FDA approved additives. Dry farm wines However, sources real wine naturally grown from small family farms that use heritage winemaking practices because they care about what they consume. They lab test everyone and only source wines that meet a strict set of criteria. Every bottle is organically and biodynamically grown lower in alcohol. No sugar, lower and sulfites dry farmed with no irrigation for minute with 100% native non GMO yeast free of additives and friendly to both keto and paleo diets. Dry farm wines is offering listeners of this unmillennial life an opportunity to receive an additional penny bottle so an extra bottle for a penny when they get their first shipment at dry farm wines.com/unmillennial that's dry farm wines.com/unmillennial. Regan Jones 1:14 Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping briefly, to let you know that if you were a subscriber via email for podcast notifications, there is a good chance that you have accidentally been moved over to a mailing list that is exclusively for my new baking website. And I will tell you up front I am sorry about that in trying to segment lists. And yet the people that wanted to be receiving notifications about the baking website, this baking life.com. And people who want to receive notifications about the podcast, that's unmillennial life.com. There's a little bit of overlap there. And so what I want to ask you to do is that if you want to be sure that you are getting notifications, email notifications, anytime I release a new episode, please click the link in the show notes. It'll direct you to this unmillenniallife.com/subscribe, where you can just put that in your browser, thisunmillennial life.com/subscribe. I have tried to do my best to clean that list up and make sure that you are where you want to be. But there's nothing like you making sure that you're getting those notifications. So if you've not been getting email notifications for me that episodes have been releasing, please go ahead and sign up. Now. Let's get on with today's episode. Regan Jones 2:31 If your skin doesn't know whether to break out or wrinkle if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans, or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees ache, you've come to the right place. Welcome to this unmillennial Life. Regan Jones 2:56 I'm your host Regan Jones and welcome to today's show. So this episode is another one that I believe that I mentioned to you at the end of season six that I was getting ready to release it's not been as long in the making in terms of how long I recorded it as last week's glutathione episode. If you haven't listened to that one, please do go back and listen to it. It's very important for us as an aging population. And I hate to say those words, but it's so true to really understand about glutathione and its role as a master antioxidant. But that one had been a couple of years actually recorded. Shelley's episode has been a few years in the making, and you're going to hear us talk about that just in terms of when she first experienced this pulmonary embolism. But this episode has actually not been recorded that long. Alright, so let me tell you a little bit about today's guest Shelley. Rael. Shelly is a fellow Registered Dietitian. That's actually how I know her. She is a private practice dietitian. And she's also a podcaster, author, speaker and consultant. The name of her practice and all of her brands really is real world nutrition. And she explains that as her mission and role being able to help how people can eat in real world settings. She has, as I said a podcast she has a Facebook group a membership program, and you will hear us talk about toward the end of the episode, as always do how you can find her at Shelly rial.com. Alright, so let's jump into my episode with Shelly. I think that you're going to find this story. Very enlightening as to what the risks can be for some of the very, very common medications that many women find themselves taking. So with that, I'll say Shelly, welcome to the show. Shelley Rael 4:48 Hi, Regan. Thanks for having me. Regan Jones 4:49 Oh, so good to finally get you on now. People have heard me talk about episodes that have been a long time in the making. This one has been a really a years in the making. We were scheduled to record this interview, actually just right around the same time that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in March, what was that? 2021. So that's, that's been. So as I was telling you, before we started recording the interview, when I went back to start looking at all the different things that I have been considering doing episodes on, I was reminded of you and your story about having a pulmonary embolism, something I know so little about. So, for this interview, I really just want to kind of open the floor up to you and have you tell your impactful story for people because I think that this is something that women really need to know about. So kind of tell me how this all started? Shelley Rael 5:40 Yeah, well, this was in November of 2020, some at a time where a lot of us may not remember now, but it was a different time in that we weren't. A lot of people weren't seeking out medical care as they usually were. But I'll back up a little bit. I have a family history on my dad's side of blood clots. And I've always been aware of it. And when I fly on planes, I wear compression socks, like they've got fabulous compression socks these days, everyone so and I would take low dose aspirin before I flew because I was always aware that there was a family trait for blood clots. And I'll always thought about your legs or calves, the blood DVT as we call it, the deep vein thrombosis that tends to start in the legs. And that was something I'd always pay attention to. Now, let's talk about November 2020. This was a little over a week before Thanksgiving, on a Tuesday, I had finished eating dinner. And I just remember I had a lot of cruciferous vegetables. So I just assumed that I was uncomfortable because I had gas from these veggies, because it was right in the center of my stomach, or my abdomen right below my sternum. So I just didn't think much about it figure, you know, a day or so later, I'll be better and didn't sleep well that Tuesday night. And just again, figured it was gi related. And Wednesday was doing things, you know, kind of putting my thoughts on the back burner of this being anything serious, although I did make a call to the nurse line. And the first question that is asked is are you experiencing chest pain? And I said, Yeah, cuz it was going to the chest and they said, go to the emergency room right now. And I'm like, No, that kind of chest pain, healthy, not that kind of chest pain. And they wouldn't talk to me further. They said I needed to do this. And being a stubborn person who doesn't like to go to the emergency room because I feel it's something that isn't serious. I didn't go to the emergency room. Now, this is Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night, I wasn't feeling that great. And even when I can't even remember, I just remember I wasn't feeling good. And I ended up sleeping downstairs and I didn't really sleep. When I say downstairs, it was on the couch, sitting up and didn't really sleep. I had a lot of things going on that Thursday morning, I have delivery expected to deliver as expected, I had a couple of meetings, so I couldn't possibly cancel those to go to the emergency room. So as I walked the dogs both days, I walked the dogs that Thursday morning, and by about noon that day, I could barely breathe. I couldn't take a deep breath. I could very, couldn't really do shallow breaths. And this is where I get admonished. But let me clarify. I did drive myself to the emergency room. It is about three miles from my home. Shelley Rael 8:46 And a very straight shot. So I do justify, it probably would have been a lot more time to call 911 and have somebody come get me and take me home. You know, I didn't want the drama in the neighborhood either because I'm one of those neighborhoods. Yeah. So this this is a standalone facility near my home. It's an urgent care and emergency room. It's not a hospital that is affiliated with one of the hospitals. And I'll tell you what, when you do say chest pain is no joke that I've always joked about saying, hey, just claim you have chest pain you cut to the front of the line. I was seeing within minutes of walking in the door. And within minutes I was had my blood pressure checked I had leads on my chest. And they did say it wasn't a heart attack. Now, they still of course had to do more things. I got an x ray I had the blood draw and still not quite sure what was going on until a nurse came in and gave me a shot in my stomach which turns out it was Lovenox which is a shot that helps reducing the risk of blood clots. And then I got a CT scan. So I got these very quickly. I think within an hour and as I said November 2020, I was there by myself. My husband was at work. And he had even said, Do you want me to come home from work like, but you can't come in if he was not allowed to come in. So even if he had gotten off of work, what would have been able to do? Nothing. So. So I'd say maybe an hour, it might not have been that long. But when you're in an emergency room, it feels like forever. The doctor comes in and asked me some questions. As if I took any medications. And here's the key for our listeners here is yes, I was taking birth control pills at the time. She said to me, it was a woman, some people have assumed otherwise. She said, What is it 50 year old woman doing taking birth control pills? Well, I'm 51. And I have a six year old grandchild. What do you think? I, the reason, a lot of women take birth control, and I was still capable at that time of becoming pregnant in theory. So that was my last day taking birth control pills. And it's like, she told me I had blood clots in my lungs. And I just burst into tears, because I had an uncle who died at the age of 53, back in 2013, have blood clots in the lungs died. And I was about the same age as him. And it's like you that overwhelming feeling of oh, I don't even know how to describe it. And, as I've said, You say this, and it's not until you experienced you acknowledge that one, like, one acknowledgement of how close you came to being not here anymore. But also I texted a couple people and said, I'm going to be I quickly learned I was going to be admitted to the hospital. And within, I'd say less than 10 minutes, it was probably much quicker. I had people covering work I was going to be doing the next day. Nobody balked at me canceling anything. I had a new clients appointment that afternoon, that person didn't second guess anything. And it was, I mean, the calendar clears when it has to. Yeah, and I mean, that morning, that very morning, I didn't cancel a couple things, because, you know, it was important stuff. Which turns out it wasn't that important. After all, once again, my my husband was calling, wanting, you know, do you want me to come home and like, what, you still can't do anything. And then of course, he took the next day off, because to take care of the dogs and, and and whatever people do when they can't, you know, their hands are tied, they can't do anything. I found out my extended family knew within the hour, thank goodness for text messaging, I was admitted to the hospital. Now that took a little bit of time, I was worried that there would be no beds. Because that was the time where there were no beds, half the hospital I did get admitted to water were COVID patients, and very tight. And so this was about noon is when I drove myself to the urgent care. And by the time I was transferred to our local hospital facility for admission, it was about midnight, two in the morning. Shelley Rael 13:31 And I'll tell you what, Regan the whole time I was in a lot of pain, chest pain, because those blood clots contribute to a lot of pain. Never ever had anything in my legs that I'm aware of. And I would tell you, there was no signs or symptoms. Other than that Regan Jones 13:51 I want to ask you, if you if you don't mind me stopping you there. Sure. When you were talking about being admitted, and some of the tests that they ran, and you know, it taking your blood pressure and all these different things. And then the doctor comes in and she says you have these blood clots in your lungs is that they were able to see that through X ray through a CT scan. How are they how do they find those blood clots, specifically Shelley Rael 14:13 The blood draw, the blood draw that they took the test that they looked at is called a D dimer. And I became a little bit more familiar with it. Through this process. It's not something that dieticians tend to look at when we're in a clinical setting. And it's not a routine check either. Mine was above 13 And I should have done sorry, but 1300 From my recollection, I may be wrong on this. It's like supposed to be less than 300. Regan Jones 14:43 Okay, so they're kind of looking in they're able to see already whatever's going on in your blood with this marker shows I guess either an existence or a propensity for these for blood clots. Shelley Rael 14:55 Right. The X ray I don't think showed anything but the CT scan did. And the reason I remember it was a CT scan because it's I've had many CT scans in my life for various reasons. And those just take a few minutes for an MRI takes a lot longer. Yeah, very quick, very quick. And it was, I think it was able to confirm the presence of the blood clots. And when she used the plural, I've never got clarification of how many it was. It was multiple. And here's here's another challenging aspect to this right. Again, I had a routine annual checkup, literally the week before, no issues, I, there was nothing, I get my annual checkups because that's what I do. And there was no flags at that time, I had gotten my lab paperwork to have my blood drawn. And because I had gone on Wednesday morning, the day before I was admitted that my blood drawn and I just didn't, because I wasn't feeling that good, because we had to sit out in the parking lot and wait for them to call us and that sort of thing. So I didn't do i…

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no. 123 - The Glutathione Episode Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

Aging bodies are subjected to more and more oxidative damage, and yet our master antioxidant, glutathione, decreases as we age. Today’s guest details what we can do about it. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES: LINKS MENTIONED IN THE GLUTATHIONE EPISODE: Dr. Patel’s Book “The Glutathione Revolution” To purchase Dr. Patel’s patented glutathione delivery system, visit AuroWellness.com To learn more about Dr. Patel’s glutathione-based skin care, visit https://aurowellness.com/skincare/ COMMERCIAL LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Dry Farm Wines – If you sign up today using the link http://dryfarmwines.com/unmillennial, you’ll get an extra bottle in your first box! Wild Grain subscription – IF you sign up today HERE you’ll get $10 off the first box + FREE Croissants in every box! EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, apps, umillennial, Gen X, aging parents, Gen X women, Gen X podcasts, glutathione, best glutathione supplements, immune system, benefits of glutathione EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) (Opening Commercial) Today’s episode is brought to you by Dry Farm Wines. Dry farm wines sources wine to the highest standards of quality and purity while most wines sold today, are commercially produced and full of sugar, they can also include up to 70 plus FDA approved additives. Dry farm wines, however, sources real wine naturally grown from small family farms that use heritage winemaking practices because they care about what they consume. They lab-test everyone and only source wines that meet a strict set of criteria. Every bottle is organically and biodynamically grown lower in alcohol. No sugar, lower and sulfites dry farmed with no irrigation for minute with 100% native non GMO yeast free of additives and friendly to both keto and paleo diets. Dry farm wines is offering listeners of this unmillennial life an opportunity to receive an additional pinnae bottle so an extra bottle for a penny when they get their first shipment at dry farm wines.com/unmillennial that’s dry farm wines.com/unmillennial If your skin doesn’t know whether to breakout or wrinkle if you’re caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life. I’m your host Regan Jones and welcome to today’s show. So this is an episode that has been in the making for many, many months actually recorded it in the spring of 2022. Thinking that I would release it in early 2023. Things got shifted. And my plan as you know was to continue releasing episodes in the spring of 2023. And last week’s episode detailed how all of that got sidelined. So I am thrilled to be able to release this episode to you today because I think as you listen to today’s guest and this topic of glutathione, which may sound somewhat dry to you as a nutrition related topic, I think you’re going to hear though for those of us who are, you know, increasingly an aging population and are increasingly subjected to all kinds of environmental toxins, sun exposure, various assaults on our body, you’re going to hear about why glutathione as a powerful antioxidant is so important. Okay, so I’m not going to go any more into detail about glutathione itself, but I am going to tell you about today’s guest joining me in today’s episode is Dr. Nayan Patel. He is a sought after pharmacist health expert, and really a key thought leader in this industry. He has published a book that you’ll hear us talk about in the episode, the glutathione, revolution, fight disease, slow aging and increase energy. And it is a result of 11 years of clinical research on glutathione. He’s a highly sought after global authority on the critical role that glutathione and other any oxidants play in the body. And I am honored to have him on the show delightful gentlemen, really appreciate his time. And I’m so glad to finally get this episode out to you as the audience. And with that, I’ll say Dr. Patel, welcome to the show. Happy to be here. Regan. It’s great to have you for a particular topic that honestly I had not anticipated covering glutathione is a nutrient. I don’t know nutrients, maybe not the best word you can correct me when you went in just a minute. But it’s something that I’ve known about for a while because I have used it from a supplement standpoint. But when your team got in touch with me, and let me know about the work that you’re doing and educating people on the need for glutathione, I was really excited about it. Because this is a you know, it’s a scientific subject that we want to be able to break down and easy to understand terms for people. And I know that you are on a mission to do that and are able to do that. So you know if you will just kind of open it up for us. I’ve already told my audience a little bit about you. So open it up for us, and just kind of let people understand what glutathione is, you know how it functions in the body? Absolutely. So glutathione its chemical, it’s a protein. It is the most abundant protein produced in human bodies. And the reason we’re talking about this today and not 100 years ago when it was first discovered, is because for the very first time, we have the ability to make a difference. And even though our body produces on a daily basis, the need for glutathione has far exceeded what a body can produce. And this has to do with all the modern day vices that we have that we cannot get rid of it. So, so in a nutshell, it’s a protein. But it is defined by the function it does. So even though it’s a protein molecule, the function often it can it is the master antioxidant, it can be a massive detoxifier. It’s an enzyme. It can. It can it has, it has different names based on the functions it does in our body. So different names because it does multiple different things. And you said a term there that I’ve heard before in relation to glutathione. I’d love for you to just expand on that a little bit. It’s the master antioxidant. Yes. So the one of the functions of glutathione is to reduce oxidative damage. Well, that’s oxidative stress it I mean, the simple term is, you’re exposed to sunlight every day, and the sun exposure increases our free radicals in your under your skin. And you can see that by your skin getting burned or singling discolored. And it’s a it’s a visual thing that you see every day that supercharged electron molecules in our body needs to be neutralized. And think about it that your body has over 3000 chemical reactions happening every day. And the byproducts of the reaction is also producing reactive oxygen species. And those molecules have to be neutralized by body. And we take things for granted because abide does so so efficiently. But just imagine if it doesn’t do that part. And so glutathione takes electron neutralizes the molecule and keeps the body clean and safe at all times. I think what Dr. Patel just said, For listeners that are paying attention, one of the things that he just mentioned, I think is really important to underscore is this notion of these, you know, 3000 plus reactions that are happening in the body. So just by virtue of being alive, we are, you know, having all of these reactions that are taking place, that can be oxidative, and that oxidative process can be damaging, it’s so funny, because I think sometimes we hear about different ways to reduce oxidative stress or to reduce stress in the body, but we can’t forget that just a part of being alive and the metabolism that goes along, just even in digesting your food, you know, it’s just going to it’s going to produce some of that. So that’s, that was one thing that I wanted to draw out so that people didn’t miss. So you know, when we hear all of that, I guess then sometimes in the the dietitian slash food community will often hear people say, you know, food first. And we can get what we need from foods. So unpack for us a little bit about glutathione in relation to your diet and dietary sources, and your body’s ability or inability to produce it because that I think, is the big key area, that people that may have heard about it as an antioxidant. Maybe they don’t know that full story. You absolutely right. And it’s I’m a pharmacist by trade, but I’m one of the farmers of the other side that doesn’t like medication. So if I can get every single thing from from foods and plant based diet, or whatever diet that you choose to have, I’m all for it. So to produce glutathione, you need three amino acids, which is glutamine, glycine, and cysteine. You need to enzymes and a catalyst like Selenium to produce glutathione. So from your diet, you can get all those amino acids from from your diet, for example, you can get cysteine, which is the most needed in our diet, which is which is kind of hard to get all the time. It comes from whey isolate a whey protein can give you cysteine is one of those molecules, combine that with glutamine and glycine and all of a sudden, you can make in your body can produce glutathione now the body has the ability to produce a lot of glutathione for us. But as I said earlier, as we age, ability sort of decreases as we age, but our needs in fact never decreases. And as we age our our needs are actually increasing. And so there is a disconnect from what a body can produce from our from the regular diet to to what our body actually needs and it shows up in the aging process. It can literally dampen the aging process to the point where you can still enjoy what you do at the age of 25, even though you’re 55 today. And that’s a goal I have for all my clients if possible. Yeah, that’s a that’s a good goal. And then those of us that are listening at the 45 plus range, who were thinking, I wish I wish I had started this earlier. The message still is though it’s not too late, right? It’s never too late. What would it tell you about the planting a tree? The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, or picks best is today? Yeah, that’s such a good analogy. I actually saw that analogy. I saw that saying this week. So I’ve seen it before. But you’re right. That’s such a good. That’s such a good analogy. Okay. So I think that’s a really compelling case for why supplementation is important. But I’m speaking here completely without enough knowledge to expand on myself, which is why I’m glad that I have you on my understanding is it’s not as easy as just going to, you know, the pharmacy shelf and popping a pill for glutathione. Is that correct? In terms of a delivery system, like we think of other supplements as being something you just pop the pill out of a bottle. But that’s not really the case with glutathione, is it? It’s not and it is really hard to understand, because it’s at a chemical structure, it’s a protein. Protein molecules are not easily digestible by humans, because what what a body does is when you consume proteins, you’ll break it down into various amino acids. That’s what we do, right? Everybody eats protein, the bottom would break it down to a various amino acids. So if we take a protein like glutathione, in a capsule forms, it doesn’t matter how you mask and you can mask into just a regular capsules, or there’s some technologies out there that does make into liposomal forms of glutathione, which is supposed to protect it from degradation. But all the technologies that’s out there, the body will break it down into various amino acids. And then the body has to take those amino acids and try to make glutathione. Again, it’s so it doesn’t make sense for us to take a product, the buyer is going to break it down, and then he’s going to use the parts to make it again. So the so the on the other side, on the medical side, I have been training a lot of physician that have been using Bluetooth and for intravenous therapy. And so that was another option that was available for all these years for the intravenous therapy of glutathione. By glutathione is a such a large molecule that once it gets on what’s it produced intracellularly inside your red blood cells, in basically unfolded cells outside the red blood cells, and they can can never go back in there. So that means if we take an IV or intravenous form of glutathione, it never enters your blood cells, it stays in your blood in the plant, the blood is plasma, which is water base and cell, which is the red blood cells. And it stays in the plasma only. And that was a shocker to the medical community for the first time because Wait a second, I’ve injected this strain to the bloodstream, but it’s not available to the body. And is no it’s not available to the body. And so we have a technology that we developed 13 years ago, that that we’ve been studying for the last 13 years. And we just basically figured all those things out as to how to stabilize fluid outside the human body, how to deliver to the human body and improve your red blood cells. Because the glutathione in the red blood cells is the only way to see the results that you’re going to experience by taking glutathione Okay, so tell us about this technology. Okay? So technology is it’s two parts. If the gluten molecule it smells it has a sulfur odor, because teen has a has a has a group on that one that smells like sulfur. So the first key was for us to protect the sulfur group or the Theil group is what they call them. So it doesn’t get oxidized. So that was that was my first patent. And the second patent was we took the protein molecule and sort of twisted it to to bring down the particle size. So it can it can it can go through your skin into your blood. So it’s a two part technology that we have. And so we use that technology to not just to stabilize the glutathione but also to deliver and if you’re working with the Physician, you can literally measure your blood cells level within the first hour of applying this glutathione topically on your skin. Okay, so that’s really important because my question was going to be when you said, you know, you apply it to your skin and then it gets in your blood, I thought, well, isn’t the issue though, when you were giving it intravenously that the molecule still didn’t, the glutathione molecule still didn’t get into the red blood, what cell but you’re saying that you all have been able to verify that it did actually get into blood cells, red blood cells, that was a pattern that we received upon topical applications of glutathione. Interesting, because the liposomal product, I’m be honest, that’s the one I’ve taken. So I’m a little disappointed to hear, like, that’s probably not helped me much. You’re set, you’re that you’re saying as a delivery system is is not providing benefit. There was a study that in 2010, at Texas University, and they took kids and they were with with spectrum disorder, and they will, they will also include the thigh on. And of course, they measured the liposomal form of glutathione, because the kids at that time didn’t want to take shots. And so they did a study, and they found out was 100% of the patients do not increase a red blood cells levels of glutathione. Not even one had increased in there. And the conclusion was that the body breaks down into various amino acids. And amino acids will eventually increase the glutathione level in the body. But not the red blood cells were not been improved with the glutathione levels. So that was the conclusion of the study. But that was like in 2010. Okay, so there’s there’s no benefit. If the asking a question, you’re not stating one. But it’s not stating a fact there’s no benefit. When the glutathione is outside of the red blood cell, it has to be within the red blood cell where everything’s happening for there to be benefit. Is that what you’re saying? So the benefits, though the benefits are there both ends. But if not in the red blood cells, it only stays in the body for about 14 to 15 minutes. So it doesn’t stay for too…

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no. 122 - The Life Saving Apps Episode Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

Most unmillennials acknowledge that having aging parents is a life change you are never really prepared for. This episode details my experience realizing something was wrong with one of my parents simply by looking at the apps we were using to communicate on a daily basis. THIS UNMILLENNIAL LIFE PODCAST SHOW NOTES: LINKS MENTIONED IN THE LIFE SAVING APPS FOR AGING PARENTS EPISODE: The Parenting Aging Parents Episode Marco Polo Life 360 Your Color Guru – use code REGAN for 10% discount off your consultation EPISODE KEYWORDS podcast, apps, umillennial, Gen X, aging parents EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors) Regan Jones 00:00 Today's broadcast is brought to you by your color guru, your color. guru.com is where I went this last year to get my color consultation done. And there's a little bit of comedy in thinking about having your colors done. I say that in air quotes because many of us as unmillennials, remember back in the days of the 80s, doing your color, but let me tell you what your color Guru is doing is so far beyond that. And they're giving you so many tools when you actually have your colors done. And the reason that I say so far beyond that is because back in the day, when we would find out what our colors were, I think it was like four seasons, winter, summer, fall and spring. But your color Guru is much more robust than that. For instance, I'm a moonlit summer which is different than a sunlit summer. And one of the things that I love the most about your color guru and the color consultation consultation that I had done is that it comes with a color card, I have both a printed card that I can throw in my purse, so that when I am out shopping, I can pull that card out of my purse and hold it up to anything that I'm looking at to determine Hey, is this one my best colors, I also have the JPEG on my phone. So if I don't have the card with me, I just simply look at my phone. And it has been invaluable. It makes shopping so much easier. So if you are interested in having your colors gone, or gifting it to someone else, you can get 10% off of your color guru consultation by simply using the code Regan, which is r e g, a n at checkout at your color guru.com. There's a link in the show notes. If your skin doesn't know whether to break out or wrinkle if you're caught between planning the third grade class party and researching retirement plans, or if you want to work out but the idea of CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you've come to the right place. Welcome to this on Millennial Life. Regan Jones 02:03 I'm your host, Regan Jones. And welcome to today's show. And Welcome to Season Seven of this unmillennial life. Before we get started in what is going to be a very personal story about what I've already shared with you in the season seven teaser trailer about my experience with my dad and his hospitalization. I want to be transparent with you in a way that I haven't been transparent in the past. Not that I've been trying to hide anything from you, as a listener of the show. But the last few years, really as COVID kind of came onto the scene and the country went through a very divisive election, which it looks like we are headed into another divisive election season as those things unfolded, and as I was confronted with what I have been very transparent about my experience being diagnosed with breast cancer, and going through the treatment of that I very honestly have found myself over the last few years with this podcast, in a position to frankly not talk about some of the issues. And some of the topics that were top of mind for me. And the reason is because to be very honest with you. And I'm going to say this upfront knowing that for some of you, this may change how you feel about me and this podcast. And it's taken me a long time to get to the point where I am comfortable with accepting that for some of you you'll you'll frankly turn this podcast off and not listen to it moving forward because of the transparency that I'm going to share. But the reality is, over the last few years, I have realized that some of what I thought was my own millennial illness is actually my conservativeness. It's actually my Christianity. And there are a lot of topics that have come up over the last few years that I had a different opinion than many of my peers. And the majority of what I would say is the legacy traditional media. The way things have been reported on various topics, the way things have been reported. They have been different than how I saw things. And early on. As I began to realize, Wow, I have a considerable difference of opinion than a lot of the prevailing opinions online. When I first realized that and after some personal attacks that came my way, as I was realizing that it really made me stop and pull back and reevaluate how public I wanted to be with my opinions on different topics. And when I say that to you, I'll say this just to go Go ahead. And I guess, get to the point, I do not in any way intend to turn this podcast into anything that is trying to push a political agenda to you that you may have a difference of opinion. I don't intend to weigh in on topics that I think are exceptionally divisive. But I also feel like I owe it to you, as someone who I assume has listened to the show. Over the years, or maybe you've just recently discovered it, I owe it to you to be a little bit more transparent, just so that you understand that sometimes the take that I have on different topics may be different than what you hear on other podcasts or in the mainstream media. And for some of you, that will mean you don't want to listen to this podcast. And I understand that I did not for a number of years, want to run the risk of alienating you from me or myself from you. But what I've come to realize is that one of the things that I think that we lack in this country right now is the ability to separate people, there may be political leanings, or their religious leanings, or that lack thereof, we have come to a point where we don't seem to be able to alienate those things, from our known experience with those people have those people been kind to us, have those people, you know, brought some sort of value to our life. And while the overwhelming majority of people that listen to this podcast, I don't know you personally, I hope that you know that over the last six seasons, I have done my very best to bring to you episodes that provide some sort of either insight, and maybe some entertainment, but mostly insights that help you in some way. And even if it's just to offer a difference of opinion that you potentially hadn't considered on a topic. I've done that as a service to you and our relationship. If knowing that I do consider myself conservative, and Christian, and I may have some viewpoints that differ than yours. If knowing those things makes you not want to listen to this podcast, I'm okay with that. I would love to keep you here. I would love to be able to continue to offer episodes to you on topics that are of interest in my own millennial life and potentially of interest in your unmillennial life. But I've also come to accept that I really shouldn't feel like I have to hide behind a microphone, and keep all of my opinions to myself. So that's the transparency that we're starting off with season seven. Putting that all aside, I want to jump into today's episode. And thanks for sticking around. If you're still here, and then tune out after that brief introduction. Today's episode, as I said, it's gonna be a very personal detailing of what happened in the spring of this year. As you know, I've been getting back up to speed trying to produce episodes of the podcast after taking a little bit of time off or a lot of time off, however you want to look at it for my cancer treatment. And I now realize that I actually had a lot less energy coming out of that for about a year, then I really realized I am back to work, full speed ahead. But it is been, you know, an uphill climb to kind of build back from that experience. And I know there are many, many women who listen to this podcast who've been through the same thing. And I just commend each and every one of you for showing up to work during treatment and trying to build back because nobody can prepare you for how difficult that is. But that all being said, I really found myself in the spring of this year, beginning to get things moving again, getting back to work. I have launched a brand new website. We'll talk more about that and in a different time, but just about the time in the spring that I was really getting going about a week after Easter break. As I've told you in the season seven teaser, if you listen to that my dad suffered a very serious fall in his home, had to be rescued and had an extensive hospitalization Intensive Care Unit, hospital stay rehab stay. And I was really sidelined from working for quite a significant period of time. The reason that I wanted to do this episode is because as I've told this story to a number of people, the thing that continues to jump out in my conversations with people is that so many people are somewhat amazed at the way it all unfolded. So here's what happened. About a week after Easter break. I knew that my dad had what we thought at the time was a cold. I've called this the life saving apps episode because I have a couple of different apps that I'm synced up with, you know, friends and family, specifically, my mom and my dad, both of whom live alone, they're not married, have it been for 40 some odd years, and they live separately. And I don't have any brothers or sisters. So their, you know, network of extended family is not terribly extended. And with both of them, I have them on life 360, and I have them on Marcopolo. Now, with my mom, I'll just go ahead and say my mom's very socially active. So she has a lot of people checking in on her kind of on a daily basis, places that she's going doctor's appointments, things like that. So historically, I haven't worried quite as much that if something happened with her, that, you know, we wouldn't be aware. But I'm not saying anything that my dad wouldn't say to you himself, if he were on this episode, my dad is is not as socially active as my mom. He doesn't as I said, he doesn't have any other children. He has one sibling, and she lives a few hours away from him. And he had someone significant in his life for a number of years that he saw on a daily basis. But she passed away a year ago, this past January. So I increasingly have fought over the last couple of years, hey, you know, my dad is at an age now where I just want to make sure that I'm checking in on him on a daily basis. And as I said, about a week after Easter break, I knew he had what he called a cold. And I was checking in on him. You know, every morning, my routine was to drop my youngest son off at school, and then send a quick Marco Polo, you guys have heard me talk about Marco Polo, I started using it. In the early days of the initial lockdown with COVID, it was a great way to communicate with people, you know, sort of almost face to face, similar to FaceTime, but a little bit more flexibility in terms of timing, because it's more of a walkie talkie type video. And I still use it all the time to communicate with family and friends and I love it. But I would check in with him every morning at about, oh gosh, 705 Eastern Time. And typically his routine was to follow me back within an hour, maybe two Max, this was on a particular Friday. And I did have what I would say is that small still voice, I consider that personally the Holy Spirit speaking to me, you can call it what you want. But I had a small still voice that said, when he did not check in within an hour or two, you need to dig a little deeper, you need to go a little further. My dad was pretty formulaic about his routine. And I looked on life 360 Because again, I was connected with him on life 360. And I saw that his phone battery was dead. So those of you who have children that are a driving age, you probably have like 360 It's such a common app. And it gives you you know, the opportunity to see where your kids are right at the moment, where they've been, how fast they've been driving all kinds of things. But one of the things that it will also show you is how much battery do they have on their phone and we're constantly battling this with my oldest son did like keep your phone battery charged up. But my dad being someone who spends a pretty good bit of time at his computer at his desk. He is a longtime retired engineer. So you know, he's not at all a stranger to electronics and computers. And that's sort of, you know, part of his routine would be to keep that phone charged up and right by his desk. When I noticed that morning that his phone battery was dead. And he had not responded within the last couple of hours, I began to get worried. I gave him a little bit more time because, you know, there comes this unique moment in our lives. And we've done this episode on parenting aging parents, but there becomes this unique moment where you try to balance or I've found that you try to balance you are the child and you want to respect the autonomy. I guess that's the best word of your aging parents and not saying like you're trying to take over and you know, run their lives and also did not want to, you know, panic needlessly. But when both of those things, both of those apps, I should say because I think they're so key to acknowledge that it's these two apps that I really relied on to See that something was out of the ordinary. When both of these popped up, I then began to text and did not receive the text back from my dad. And I thought as a last resort, Hey, is it possible that he's sitting at his desk that he doesn't realize his phone battery, his rundown, and he's, you know, reading email because he spends a lot of time going through email and reading newsletters and that type of thing. And so I sent him an email and said, Look, I'm trying to get in touch with you, you're not responding. Let me know you're okay. And I gave that all of that experience about one additional hour. And at that point, when I didn't receive anything back from him, I to be honest with you got extremely worried. It's still even today, all these many months later, it's very hard to talk about. Because it was such a very scary situation. And what I've detailed so far was not the scariest, and I'll go through that with you have called this the life saving apps episode, and I'm realizing as I'm beginning to detail this that some of this is gonna be a little bit is about the apps, but a lot of it's just about the story. So, at that point, I did call his sister, my aunt, and just said, Hey, I've been trying to get in touch with him. You know, here's the story. And what do you think I should do? Do you think I should call the police, you know, and we both agreed, you just really don't want to needlessly panic if you don't have to. So we agreed to ask my mother, my dad's ex wife, you know, they're they've been very, very cordial my whole life, which I'm so so very fortunate. Any of you all who have been through a divorce, know that it doesn't always turn out that way. And I'm very, very fortunate that they have always been cordial to one another. So I sent my mom over to his home. And she blew the horn, tried to knock on the door, cou…

Full show notes at the publisher

no. 121 - The Ozempic Episode Apr 21, 2023

Show notes

SHOW NOTES

LINKS mentioned in the episode:

The Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Obesity Episode

The Continuous Glucose Monitor Episode

Dr. Sadyk Fayz at Beso Aesthetics

Dopamine Nation

"Lean mass loss on GLP-1 receptor agonists: a downside of the “miracle drugs” by Peter Attia

Odds & Ends Links

The societal role of meat—what the science says - Animal Frontiers