In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:
🧡 Why your doc won’t order the labs that you want
🧡 What to say when your doc is worried about red meat and dairy
🧡 How to handle being pressured to get on The Pill (or others!)
🧡 Waiting for ADHD diagnosis & other listener questions
Episode Show Notes: www.getyourshittogetherpod.com/podcast/episode81
Follow us on Instagram @getyourshittogetherpod
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Enroll in self-paced Strength Training for Happy Hormones (STHH)
Connect with Diane:
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Enroll in Root Cause Reset Course (self-study): www.rcrprogram.com
In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:
🧡 Why your doc won’t order the labs that you want
🧡 What to say when your doc is worried about red meat and dairy
🧡 How to handle being pressured to get on The Pill (or others!)
🧡 Waiting for ADHD diagnosis & other listener questions
Episode Show Notes: www.getyourshittogetherpod.com/podcast/episode81
Follow us on Instagram @getyourshittogetherpod
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Enroll in self-paced Strength Training for Happy Hormones (STHH)
Connect with Diane:
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Enroll in Root Cause Reset Course (self-study): www.rcrprogram.com
Hey babe, and welcome back to part two. Ooh, it's a hot one.
Adina:It is hot and spicy.
diane:yes, hopefully you got some milk. For the spicy episode that we just released last week, we thought about just giving you a mammoth of an episode, but ooh, we had so many great things to go through and a lot more to get into today. So here we are. How to talk to your dumb doctor part. Other working title, how to Fight with
Adina:Yeah, we almost titled it How to Fight with Your Doctor, your Dumb Doctor. And then we thought, I mean,
diane:hard? Did it go too?
Adina:It's already pretty harsh.
diane:But you know what? After the first, after that episode came out last week, I got a DM from someone and they said, can I just add that I slapped a resident for doing a cervical check after her hospital birth, after she had decline. Twice. They just went ahead, went up in there and her primal brain took over and she slapped that resident, as she very well should have
Adina:No
diane:consent. It matters. Mm-hmm.
Adina:matters.
diane:They're lucky that all she did was slap them. So that's gonna be a, the first tippy here is that if they just go in, just, just give'em a slap Right on
Adina:have the right to slap them across the face.
diane:Oh. But first up, gotta talk about what we're consuming as we do So Adina is in the US of a
Adina:Yeah, there I am.
diane:Yeah. Tell'em. Tell'em why. Why are you stateside? What's going on
Adina:All right. Well, I'm staying at my parents' house right now in Jersey, the beautiful state of New Jersey. When we landed, Minnie was looking out the window and she was like, she saw the lights and she was like, wow, look at the lights. They're so beautiful. And it was like new work, New Jersey, and Donnie and I were just like, gorgeous New Jersey. Um,
diane:to New York via T Swift upon landing.
Adina:No, no, no, no. Just beautiful, polluted, swampy, New Jersey. Um,
diane:How was the flight?
Adina:you know, could have been worse, is what I'll say. There were no like incidences, like we weren't covered in barf. There were no tantrums. So for traveling with three. Kids under six, like I'll take that. Um, but it's just a long ass flight and it
diane:you did the red eye.
Adina:mm-hmm. So I had very red eyes because I wore Ori in the carrier for the flight, and he just needed me to do the most, you know, I just had to do a lot of rocking back and forth and you just, it's biologic. Unnatural to put three children into a metal tube where they're not allowed to move for 12 hours, you know?
diane:Yeah. And those tiny seats. So what did you guys do? Did you do, did you block like an entire row in the middle? Because sometimes they're like five deep, right? So the whole fam could sit next to each other
Adina:No, we did three in the middle. There was a row of three in the middle, and then Ri and I were the next door aisle seat,
diane:across the way.
Adina:yeah, it was like, it was rough. We survived and we did a wonderful job of kicking the jet lag E like early because we kept them up. They took an early nap. The first day we landed, we landed like 5:00 AM so I had everybody took a little nap around like 11:00 AM or so,
diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:and then they went to bed probably like their usual bedtime seven. Minnie got up pretty early that first day. She was up like 4 45, but she was just like resting and hanging out. It wasn't a big deal. Abe slept in really nicely because he was zonked. And then that next day, the first day, like our first full day, we just stayed outdoors. We went to the woods with our friend Kim and her cutie son, and it was so nice and we just spent the entire day outdoors. Sunshine playing, climbing, and. They were so tired when we got back and they went to sleep, like quick and dirty bedtime, and then now they're like on a pretty good schedule. Just got up, got grooving. So yeah, that's like our major, major jet leg trip. Jet leg tip is try to stay up till a decent bedtime
diane:Power.
Adina:get sunlight and move around the whole day. And you kick it. You kick it pretty quick.
diane:Mm-hmm. Yay. Well, welcome back to Eastern Standard Time for the time being.
Adina:Thank you.
diane:so you got outside, got to play. What food and things have you been looking forward to on your US visit?
Adina:So there's not too much that I was like, Ooh, I need this. Donnie and I might go on a date tonight if we can get the kids down to sleep. Early enough cuz my parents can be the adults that are in the house while they're sleeping.
diane:You don't just put them in their crate and then leave.
Adina:yeah, I wish it was that simple. Um, yeah, there's some like nice kosher restaurants in the city that we like, so maybe we'll do that. But my mom had a fresh batch of grab blocks ready for us when we got here, cuz Minnie requested it and Minnie gets what she wants, you know.
diane:I just imagine that your mom had prepared for her like a little container of crispy chicken and or salmon.
Adina:Yeah, right. Um, no, it was just beautiful, beautiful gra locks and gra locks are one of those things that's like so easy to make, but like a whole side of salmon is very expensive and you need a lot of fridge space to like put the whole tray in there and weigh it down for like four days. So it's something you can do if you have fridge, space and money for a side of salmon.
diane:This is my salmon fridge.
Adina:I know, by the way, it's so funny. So my mom has like a pantry downstairs with two extra fridges and an extra freezer, and I sent a, I sent a picture to our friend Hannah today, and I was just like, so much room for fermenting. I have currently,
diane:I can put here.
Adina:a, I've just made two fresh loaves of sourdough, and then I have a bowl full of pizza dough that's fermenting and a bowl full of Baca dough that's fermenting too. So I just like stacked them all up in her fridge.
diane:Yeah, living the life warming up. I like It
Adina:What
diane:reminds me there's, uh, I, um, actually, so I felt like I was in a rut for a while and then just making real basic, boring meals, but, I just wanna get excited about food again, like cooking food again. I always love food, especially with spring springing, like new flavors are gonna be popping up soon at the market. But I made last night some homemade Chipotle burrito bowls with instant pot intimate chunks is what I put here. Cause if you listen to my recent, our recent. Of our reunion in Tel Aviv, there was a very interesting beef stew pie situation that, uh, when translated from Hebrew to English, said something like intimate chunks thirsty for getting wet, which,
Adina:they were very thirsty. Those intimate
diane:they're very thirsty. So I got myself some intimate beef chunks, beef stew chunks, and a taco seasoning packet. There's some pretty good ones out there now if you don't want. Put together your own, I think it was
Adina:Do you have a brand for us? Yeah.
diane:Ci, they have some great ones, or I think it was Riga. Um, they have beautiful artwork and that's in part why I chose that packet or choose it if I can find it. Right. So I got that. Chopped up an onion, uh, brown the meat in the instant pot on saute. Added some broth to cover up the meat. Just I'm not really measuring anything. And added the seasoning packet. Put it on manual pressure for, I wanna say like 23, 25 minutes. And then while that was going, I roasted a bunch of bell peppers that were gonna go off soon. They're getting soft, some onions and added some more like cumin and just lots of garlic and onion to it. Roasted that up while I was waiting. Then I. Uh, Jasmine Rice cooked in broth and I chopped up basically like a whole bunch of cilantro and had some limes that were also on their way out. So I added all of that to the rice when it was pretty much done some salt, and it was delicious. So I let the pressure come down naturally for like 10 minutes on the Instant Pot, and when I opened it up, let the sauce reduce a little bit too, so it got thicker. It was so good. Those beef chunks were so tender and Neil was like, this is stew meat. I mean, I thought about doing stew, but sometimes it's, I get bored with it, like the carrots, potatoes, I like a more tomato E based beef stew, but I was just really feeling up upgraded Chipotle situation. So I mean, there you have it. Really simple. This honestly came together in like less than 30 minutes. The longest thing was waiting for the instant pot to come up to pressure. Well, I guess it was probably like 30, 40, 40, but the hands on time was really minimal, and then you've basically just put it all in a bowl and enjoy
Adina:Yeah, that's like my favorite dinner. You know, I'm all about, Rice bulb. I usually do brisket. I like to do brisket as the meat, cuz I'll do it in such a giant batch. And then we have it for a while. Um, which reminds me I haven't made tacos in a long time. I should really do that.
diane:I love a good taco, and yeah, we just really got rid of a lot of stuff. So I always tell my clients this, like, what can you do with a leftover remix? What's going off in your fridge soon that you need to get rid of? And so many times that ends up being like a stir fry or a frittata or a bowl like this. So yeah, the fridge is getting cleaned out and we're getting fill. This yummy, yummy taco meat stuff. Um, then on the media front, I actually did watch something, something I had been putting off because I didn't know when I wanted to have a good cry.
Adina:Mm-hmm.
diane:I watched the whale
Adina:How do you like.
diane:Girl Brennan Frazier. very very depressing. Very depressing. He did a fantastic.
Adina:That's what the critics are saying.
diane:Oh my gosh, it was definitely heavy. I am, I don't wanna ruin it for anyone who's not, who's not seen it yet, but it takes place over a week in, uh, this character's life and he's trying to rekindle a relationship with his estranged daughter. Oh my gosh. I like ugly cried throughout the movie, but,
Adina:it.
diane:His friend who was in the, I forget the actress's name, but she was also in the menu. Did you watch the menu or was that one Donny did
Adina:Donnie movie cheated on me with that one.
diane:Um, but okay, so we sit down for this and I loosely told Neil what it was about, and we get like 10 minutes in and he goes, well, Neil goes, well, this seems too emotional for me. I'm going to bed.
Adina:Me and Neil, me and Neil get it. Um, honest. I also had a really good cry. We did a nostalgia watch because Donnie asked me the question. Who do you think is your favorite director? And then he said, actually, I know who your favorite director is, and we talked about what it means to have a favorite director for a little while. Like is it volume, like you enjoyed the most movies by that person, or is it like stylistic choice? So at first, he. Maybe your favorite director is Steven Spielberg. And I was like, I don't think so. I think it's just because I'm a nineties kid, so like he made the most movies that I saw growing up.
diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:I think to me, the director of a film is like, this person has an artistic style that is so recognizable when I watched this movie. And I love that element, that element of it that sets it apart from all other movies. So like for me,
diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:Bosler Man or Wes Anderson.
diane:ooh. I was gonna say Wes Anderson was my high school through college. That was my shit.
Adina:Like you can look at any frame of a Wes Anderson movie and know this is a Wes Anderson movie and you don't need any more information every single frame. So like for me, that's the director at work, you know? Anyways, then we were talking about Steven Spielberg for a little while and it occurred to me that Donny had never seen a lot of the important movies. Like he didn't see Hook and I was cracking up. Cause I was like, it's not that great. But like I was just saying how Robin Williams was one of my favorite actors growing up just because
diane:Yes,
Adina:There were so many of those movies that changed things for me growing up, that
diane:and that was a celebrity death that hurt.
Adina:her, like, oh, what a heart, you know? But like between like Mrs. Doubtfire Hook, uh, Aladdin and like Dead Poet Society, like those were so many like formative movies for me, you know? Anyways, we were looking for one of them to watch. We fired a hook just cause, and I had such an intense ugly cry. Such an intense one, and Donnie was like, are you okay? Can we not watch movies anymore?
diane:And I'm looking here that Julia Ro, forgot. Julia
Adina:yeah, she played Tinkerbell. It was, yeah.
diane:Ah, Steven Spielberg definitely has the volume as far as movies. But when you mentioned Bas Lerman for sure, like that just over the top. Like I, I loved Gatsby. I know those odd people didn't.
Adina:loved Gatsby and I loved Mulan Rouge, like that was one of
diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:up. Donnie
diane:Me too, because I love musicals.
Adina:yeah, you're obsessed with musicals, but, um, yeah, I don't know. Like there's something about just that Bosler man flair that just, it's just movie magic for me. It's so fun. It's polarizing and like, I don't know. I love it. Anyways,
diane:Darren Aronofski. I like Darren Ar AOVs, who did the Whale and Think Re Rek for a Dream and Black Swan. I loved Black Swan and it was like one of my last Halloween costumes that I got real into.
Adina:wait, can we talk about something and then we'll get into the episode? I think it's important for people to remember that Natalie Portman made black swan and no strings attached in the same year, and those are just like polar opposites, but both amazing.
diane:Yeah. She's had a great filmography. I love her. I wonder what she's doing now. And she's Israeli born actress.
Adina:Israeli.
diane:Yes. All right. Well, that's our pop culture recap. Let's dive back. I guess we buried this disclaimer, but hopefully if y'all hadn't heard part one, you already went back there and heard that. No, not all doctors are dumb. We love our spicy quick baby titles, you know, and in that episode, part one, we covered the issues, the systemic issues. It's not just doctor's fault. What faults when they, uh, Help us the way we like to be helped and seen. We also covered client stories of how our clients have taken back their health. Just to paint the picture for you, what is possible when you go the functional route, and this is not to say that we are ever in one camp or the other, like you gotta go all in unconventional, or you're a holistic health girly all the way through and through. There are times and places for both, and I've said this to clients before, I'll say it again. Modern medicine is amazing. It can save your life, but the functional approach to health is what will improve the quality of it, and that's something that we're always going to focus on here. Dare we also talked about how we fired doctors mid appointment, including, well, I don't, wasn't, was it me or was it Ludia Lucy, on day 29 of
Adina:Who did that?
diane:Who did that, not me. And Adinas response to being bullied by her GYN during a prenatal appointment. We also gave you some ways to respond to very common scenarios, very common phrases like Your labs are normal, but you still feel like shit. So if you have encountered that, Definitely go back to that episode part one. We also covered how to handle doctors who refuse to order what you want, and some phrases that you can use, both non-violent and some that were more unhinged based on how you're feeling.
Adina:More violent.
diane:Yeah, more violent. And we ended with mindset chat and how to build your care team if your current providers just aren't a good fit. So lots of good stuff in part one, and we wanted to give enough space to dive into the rest of listener questions in this episode,
Adina:Yes,
diane:that's what we're gonna do. Yeah. Yeah. So this one, I know we touched on on the last one, but I think we can go into a little deeper because we had like eight of you. Sent in variations of basically the same question. We hear these all the time from clients too. Um, basically how to get labs. You want, my doctor argues with me every time thyroid testing, several of you ask about thyroid testing. What do you do if they won't do the thorough ones and how to get your doctor to run the panels that you want. So the short answer is they probably won't.
Adina:Yeah, sometimes they just won't, and then you might need a new doctor, you
diane:Yes, like they add flat out, refused. They're confused by it. And remember too, if you're seeing a primary care provider, maybe they're going to plan on eventually referring you out to someone like an endocrinologist. And they may not just, they just may not be familiar with some of these things. Like someone said, an dms, I asked for a comprehensive thyroid panel and they said, What, um, but also it's not totally doctor's fault when they say no to. Um, in many cases it can be that they want to avoid insurance. Getting big mad at them for ordering things because insurance, like, they're gonna say, why are you running these panels that are quote unquote unnecessary? Okay. So if a doctor was to order them for you, when you ask, sometimes they'll get a little slap slap on the wrist from insurance, and that's just unfortunately the way our system works.
Adina:Yeah, and so again, you can be aggressive about this. You can use some of our tools from the last episode. When it comes to non non-violent communication, you can explain more specifically by documenting your symptoms, like why specifically you're looking for those things. Also, make sure that you are thorough when you're asking for these things. So if you're working with like a nutritional therapy practitioner, make sure to ask, like if you're working with Diana myself, we can give you a list of markers that we want to. And you want to show up at your doctor with that specific list. Like if you just look at them and say like, give me a comprehensive thyroid panel. They're gonna be like, huh? Or if you're gonna say like, run a full Monty for me, they're gonna be like, I'm sorry, what? You know? So you wanna really make sure that you. You write down all of the mar the specific markers that you wanna see, and have them open up their little computer and sit on their little,
diane:beep.
Adina:their little rolly stool and people pee boo and search for the markers in the database that they have because they're, they're likely not gonna know what some of these, you know, functional catchall terms for the lab tests we wanna see are,
diane:Yeah, that's exactly what they'll do is beep boo, beep boo. And you're trying to maximize that. Remember, your average, the average length of a primary care, uh, general physical is gonna be seven to nine minutes. So the more information that you can succinctly share with them, the better for everyone involved.
Adina:If you're looking to run something like this, a full thyroid panel, yes it would include tssh, but we also are gonna wanna see free and total t3. We're gonna wanna see reverse t3. We're gonna wanna see free and total T4, TPO and thyroid globulin antibodies as well. If they will do that, cuz that will give us. A lot to go off. A lot of information to look at.
diane:Mm.
Adina:and again, there's other things that we would want to see to give us a full picture of what's going on in your body as far as, you know, they're just gonna look at, if they're looking for eye and they're just gonna look at ferritin and we're gonna be like, Hmm, tell me more. Or the. They're measuring vitamin D, like we're not gonna see active D, which we wanna see. So if that is something you're looking to dig deeper on, make sure you are working with someone that can help you navigate these types of lab tests and can get you the information that you're really gonna want about your body. And yes, sometimes you can go the functional medicine route and go to a functional medicine doctor, but we've had stories, our clients have come to us after working with functional medicine doctors too, cuz so. They function kind of similar, unfortunately to conventional medicine docs where yeah, they'll run some labs we wanna see, but then they might go ham with the supplements this, you know, and just use
diane:like here's 30 to take forever.
Adina:And if we're using supplements the same way we're using prescription meds, like is this better? Like we're not really improving function of the body and that's always our goal is to get at the root and to get. Physiologically, where is the misstep here and what can we do to get your own beautiful body working as it should and as it
diane:Yes. Yeah, I like to use supplements to, especially with one-on-one clients, like if we're going to do testing, like their chances are there's something that we're going to get more granular about their, with their plan, like if we're customizing that. But, uh, like to keep it as lean and mean as possible. But definitely have had many clients and the experience myself of going the functional route sometimes too, and they want to start out the gate with several tests and I think that's a red flag. You've heard us here talk about it on past episodes, but we're always going to. Encourage people to start with the foundations first, even if they feel like they're more advanced. Because I so many times find things that like, here's an opportunity to work on. Here's something we want to tweak in your basic routine before we start out the gate with a Dutch, a, a comprehensive hormone panel, a stool test, a blood test, um, urine test, like so many other things. Maybe we just don't need when we start out, um, from the beginning of someone's program. So something to keep in mind. Now, if you got that comprehensive thyroid panel on your own, maybe your primary care will doctor would look at it. Or if they have at least enough familiarity with it that they can refer you to a good endocrinologist, that's a possibility. But ooh, yeah. It really depends on the provider. And sometimes you just be better. Finding someone who can help analyze that from a functional lens
Adina:Yeah, and we've seen some fogy with endocrinologists as well, where. Yes, sometimes thyroid medication is necessary and there's no shame in that game, but we've seen a lot of synthetic thyroid medication being prescribed without doing some simple basics. And then also, yeah, we can prescribe all the thyroid medication we want, but if we're not understanding what medication we are prescribing and if this person can even convert that in their body to the usable forms that they need, like often. That can cause some issues as well. So
diane:Yeah, I've had some one-on-one clients who. We're on some put onto some thyroid medications, feeling like it wasn't making any difference. And then we ran an htm, a hair and tissue mineral analysis, one of my favorite gateway tests for one-on-one clients and like their sodium potassium was so low and so thyroid. Hormone cannot get into the cell. Their calcium's also really high, so thyroid hormone wasn't getting into where it needed to go. So we worked on a lot of stuff through food and lifestyle so that those cells could become more sensitive, more receptive to that, and their medication could work better. So it's not like an either or necessarily, like either you're gonna do meds or you're not, but like how can we make those interventions work better while also working on improving your baseline from a food and lifestyle?
Adina:Yeah. And so sometimes in the end you don't need the thyroid medication and sometimes, like Diane said, the medication actually works and you actually start to feel better because it's so simple. But this basic understanding of how the body works is not commonplace in a lot of conventional medicine, which sounds insane, but it's really. It's unfortunately true. right, so well, this next question is not a question, but somebody wrote in our question box that they wanted us to let you know to document all of the bullshit in the notes. If you had something go on in your session with your doctor that didn't feel right or didn't sit right with you, and Like we saw in Diane's case, sometimes you can get a refund.
diane:Yeah, sometimes you can get a refund. And I think what they were saying too is to, let's say you ask for a test or something of your doctor and they say no, and you say, can you put that in your notes? Put that in your notes, because then if you need to come back later and you're like, Hey, look. Look here. See,
Adina:Say
diane:something we need to explore, and you tell me no. Yeah. Just like that and or.
Adina:That might get them to do what you want. If you're like, could you just document this conversation please and just
diane:Yeah. I mean, mine did, whether she, I don't, I still can't believe. I mean, it was all for my, um, my laughs later. I can't believe that she said patient became upset. I mean, I was grouchy for sure. Patient became upset. She told me I was being condescending. She was, she was. She was being a bitch and she knew it too. I think she wrote it in her.
Adina:Yep. All right. This next, uh, few questions. These all kind of revolve around the idea of you need a doctor like you, there's some medical need and a reason that, cuz we've talked about is this a case where you can go outside of conventional medicine. So perhaps the question we were asked was like, what if you're navigating chronic illness where like you have to see a doctor, But you're
diane:Mm-hmm. Like regularly.
Adina:lifestyle changes.
diane:Yeah. Yeah, totally. So, um, maybe this is you have like Hashimotos need to go in regularly to have your thyroid checked with your, with your doctor or some other, Some other situation where you are regularly seeing that doctor, how do you maximize that appointment and your efforts? So we've said it a hundred times, but focusing on the foundations. So the basics. Things like food, lifestyle, stress management, sleep is always worthwhile. Even if you are someone who's more intermediate to advance like you've been making changes for a bit. We always encourage people. Start and tweak there. I've had nurse practitioners and other medical professionals go through my course Root Cause reset, and they learn so much about the why behind these foundations, how to support their digestion from mouth to butt, what symptoms mean, especially around digestion. Like, hmm, what does it mean when I bloat after a meal? What does it mean when, um, I have gas cramps a couple hours later, like all kinds. Troubleshooting in there, and then they learn how to address the root cause. Um, but if we are ignoring those things and going right to a medication or to testing, we're really doing ourselves a disservice. So always gonna start with basics because you have to eat, sleep, move de-stress anyway.
Adina:Yeah, and if you're looking to communicate with your doctor around these things, again, the tips that we provided in the, in part one of this episode, like always show up with curiosity. Don't show up as a know-it-all. Pose things as questions. Like if, if they're recommending an intervention or they're rushing to medication and you know, you're working on things outside of that, that you'd like to run the course with first, like as long as you. Pose those things in a way where it doesn't sound like you're belittling your doctor and you know everything and they know nothing. You can often get your doctor to be on your team around these things. Like we've had plenty of clients who maybe their cholesterol numbers came back in a way that their doctor was not happy with, and we'll talk a little bit more about cholesterol and that type of thing later. We've had situations where we've had a client say to them like, I am working on X, Y, Z with a functional practitioner, and here are the things I'm implementing, and I'd love it if we can try this thing for a month and then reassess if you know where my numbers are at or, or what that looks like. Or perhaps can we try this test instead and see and, and cross reference and just show up with curiosity. Don't be rude and approach it as. The collaborative effort that it can be and, you know, let them help you to, you know, oftentimes they'll be patient if you, if you really pose it in that way. And I'm curious about this, will this shift things? Can we
diane:And here's what I wanna try, here's what I propose. And then we can try, think about trying your way. I love that. And then also think about like the compliment sandwich when you wanna deliver like constructive criticism. But in this scenario, what I'm thinking of is maybe find some common ground with their suggestion. Like I, we can agree that, um, we want to work on my, I dunno, metabolic health. Here are the things that I would like to try. How does that sound? So like
Adina:Yeah.
diane:offering something that you can agree with, but just by saying, we can agree that we wanna work on X, this is what I would like to do. To do that. You know?
Adina:Uhhuh, I agree that my recent change in blood pressure is concerning. Here are the things that I am working on outside of this session. Can we revisit this next month and see if things have shifted at all?
diane:Yes, totally. Oh, actually, The cholesterol front. Ooh, this was a common question as well. So
Adina:Big, bad cholesterol.
diane:it's so bad. How to navigate the conversation around red meat, milk and egg consumption with my doctor. Oh, that big bad dietary cholesterol.
Adina:is the conversation. I love milk and eggs and red meat, and I will continue to eat them always and
diane:of my favorite things. Now I wonder how old, how old this doctor is, and I ask that because some of them who are more old school, it's so ages. Well, I'm asking because some of them, they didn't get the memo that. The stance has been changed. And I say these stance, the kind of mainstream stance on a lot of those foods, red meat, butter, um, eggs has been reversed in like the last, when was it? When did they change their stance on eggs? I can't even keep up a few
Adina:time. No, it's been a long time and it took a while to trickle, but still
diane:they flip flopped so much, but it's like not trickling into doctor's offices. And so I'm so, so I think some of them are operat. Around what they learned to be true about those foods years ago. Years ago. And remember first, that all doctors, primary care providers, not just the mature ones, barely received any nutrition education. A good doctor will admit that to you. A
Adina:of, most of the good ones will say that in their four years of medical school, plus four years of residency specialization, whatever it is, like they received a day a day of
diane:Mm-hmm. If that, I saw someone say that they received like
Adina:like a seminar. Yeah.
diane:Yeah. And same goes for like fitness, fitness, fitness conversations. Like that's not their wheelhouse. It's just not. But when it comes to food and that big, scary cholesterol conversation, They are concerned about saturated fats and they may even recommend to you that you go for heart healthy oils like vegetable oils. I still cannot believe that is like, looked to as this amazing, healthy
Adina:So heart healthy, made out of vegetables.
diane:It's, it's nuts. And if you look at, I mean, maybe. It might make sense like, oh yeah, well I've gotta, we don't want that clo, that fat clogging my pipes, the pipes of my arteries. But think back like a hundred years ago or more when these processed, highly processed oils did not exist and our instances of chronic disease of heart disease. We're dramatically lower than they are now. So what has changed in the last 150 years? A lot more of these processed, convenient foods that are so, so high in refined oils, sugars. So, Hmm. Is it really that the real food is so bad for you? Or could it be these convenient, um, food, modern foods that have really shifted
Adina:stuffs. Um, yeah, listen back to our heart healthy episodes cuz we dug deep on this stuff and I know, I know. It's, the problem is that it's really hard to, when something is so, um, I. Fear-based and emotional and you hear it or see it. Like, I think on that episode we specifically talked about the times cover, um, the time. A what magazine am I trying to say?
diane:I'm pretty sure it was Time Magazine.
Adina:Yeah, the Time Magazine cover of the like sad face with the bacon and eggs. Like that image is just so burned into people's brains.
diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:there's something about propaganda that like these images and these stories, Even if you learn new information, for some people it is so hard to unsee that and un unhear that. And even if they say out loud like, oh yeah, dietary cholesterol doesn't impact serum cholesterol. They still can't think of eggs and butter and meat as health promoting foods. You know, there's so much fear. Fear is so hard to unlearn.
diane:And I hate this term too, but like you hear about almond bomb and I mean parents, if you have parents, um, that grew up in like the seventies, eighties, or, um, they're all about like the low fat, right? But that's coming back to bite us too. It's just so, it's so frustrating, but. In the last a hundred years, just thinking about red, I know we've talked about red meat and why we still love it on many episodes, but um, over the past a hundred years we have as a nation eaten a lot less red meat and a lot more poultry, a lot more chicken, and really have cut back. On saturated fats as more fast foods, convenient foods have been become more popular, and that heart disease, chronic disease has gone up. Now, lifestyle also has something to do with this too. Um, we're a lot more sedentary, um, but the way that we eat and consume food and food stuffs has really changed. So
Adina:Well, I wanna go back to the original question cuz this person asked how to navigate this conversation with their doctor. And so I think as far as resources, listen back to our episodes, I think I would say leading cause of death, part one and part two and, uh, vegetables are overrated, like our plant-based convers. And I would look, honestly, if you go on PubMed and you do a quick little searchy search about dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, you can show up with the receipts. Like there is so much data that we are coming out with now. There are studies, there is a lot of conversation around this in medical literature, just that a lot of doctors may not be versed in that. Um, Diana Rogers of Sustainable Dish is also an amazing resource and she provides so many receipts. Yeah, Around.
diane:it's very digestible that one, if you don't wanna play on PubMed, uh, and roll in there with pm Id numbers for them to check out. But simply put dietary cholesterol is, does not mean that you are just filling your arteries with that big, bad cholesterol. Our heart health episodes are a great place to start, and that leads us into this next question. Someone said, my doctor wants to put. On statins and I don't want them what to do. So definitely go to those episodes. Statins come with their concerns too. We have a little side module and root cause reset talking about these because it's a common scenario where people are, um, pressured by their doctors to get on these cholesterol lowering drugs. But, so those are things like Lipitor. Um, that's the most common one I'm thinking of, but some other concerns with those is the weakness and muscle wasting side effects of those. Um, also cognitive impairments, another big one and depression. So there are some neurological side effects that should give us some pause too with, um, statins and it's really just. A short-term solution for one, that's a larger problem. And when we are looking at things through the nutritional therapy lens, we always wanna start with those basics. Again, your heart health is what we consider downstream. So, um, looking at what are we consuming day-to-day food and lifestyle, how are we moving, uh, what's your blood sugar balance like? So those are some places to.
Adina:And a couple things I wanna say about statins. Number one, you will notice a trend in conventional medicine that over the years, the number that we consider to be high cholesterol, to be the number that we put people on statins for, continues to get lower and lower. So we are adjusting these numbers to put more and more people on medication. So that's first of all. You wanna be mindful of that. Number two, we also need to understand what cholesterol is. Cholesterol is a protective substance. Being so mad at cholesterol would be the same thing as being so mad at firefighters for being close to fires. Like every time I'm out of fire, there's all these firefighters there. Did they cause this? Yeah. Like it's just so. So such a limited thinking about this protective substance like cholesterol shows up to solve another problem. It's the same thing as. I mean, people are still saying this, which baffles my mind, but like when people think of inflammation as bad, when there is injury or acute injury, so we have an acute injury in our knee, our body inflames in order to heal this injury, right? If we just shove ice on that thing, or we take an aspirin and we are cutting down the inflammation immediately, we are not allowing our body to do its healing, amazing healing process that it does on its own. Same kind of. With cholesterol. Cholesterol is a substance that shows up to heal something that is out of balance in the body. So we need to be asking ourselves, should we just be using a pill to lower this number, or should we be investigating what is driving the high cholesterol in the first place? Is it a thyroid issue, which it often is. Maybe we should run that full thyroid panel before we go ahead and prescribe statins, E n o.
diane:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Look at something upstream like that. Metabolic health. And what's your li your stress like mental, emotional load. What's interesting, what's funny, not funny, haha. Funny, weird about statin drugs. Is that one of the most common side effects? Of taking them long term and usually takes, it can take a couple years to show up as that weakness and muscle wasting. Um, and Heller, your heart is a very important muscle that this is supposedly helping and, um, this is due to the statins, um, interference of the production of co-enzyme Q 10 or coq 10, which is needed for muscles to function. So, Hmm,
Adina:Hmm. What a puzzle.
diane:that rates of heart failure have doubled since. Introduction of statin drugs. That's weird. Your heart needs that cocuten. Very interesting.
Adina:What a puzzle.
diane:then so as far as what to say to that doctor, if they're pressuring you, like see if you can explore the cause. Like I'm interested to know why, why this is happening. Um, and I would like to focus on food and lifestyle style. Here's how I propose to do that. And then see where, uh, they go from there. And then maybe get. Provider or doc if they are not supportive
Adina:Perhaps, Perhaps, we need a new doc.
diane:Well, speaking of being pressured to get on some drugs, these doctors, they're, they're pushers, they push people.
Adina:What are marijuana tablets?
diane:what's that one from? I was thinking Mean Girls,
Adina:it's the same.
diane:Lemon
Adina:joke.
diane:Is it? Oh, I didn't remember that
Adina:He goes like, did, did Miss Norbury ever try to sell you
diane:miss
Adina:ecstasy or marijuana? What is it? Marijuana or ecstasy? Tablets. And then one of the students goes, what are marijuana tablets?
diane:I know you didn't watch King of the Hill, but there was another clip that I saw recently and it was something about they're telling, they're talking to Bobby about taking some pills, and he's like, so do I pop'em? Or what medication? Do I pop'em or snort, I'm gonna put'em my butt or what? Anyway, where were we? So another common scenario that people in our dms were chatting about is, my doctor just wants to put me on birth control. That's the catchall. The catchall wonder pill, isn't it? I mean, I was swindled, bamboozled into taking that for 10 years, and I thought it was gonna do everything, everything short to pay my bills and whew, we have a whole series about that, but you are not alone, like
Adina:I know it's like you start it and then you just gotta flip it and reverse it, you know?
diane:as Missy says. Definitely go back to, I think it was season two episodes 54, 55 and 56. What they didn't tell you about hormonal birth control listener q and a. We did a full q and a episode about hormonal birth control and periods copper, i u d, losing hair, all that. And also tips for while you pop it and when you stop it. So important three parter, but here are some phrases that you can bring into that next GYN appointment if you want. So, Perhaps you want, you are someone who's tracking your natural cycle or you are exploring that method and you can say something like, I want to try a different method of birth control, like fertility awareness method, condoms, barrier method, whatever you choose. If your doctor critiques fertility awareness method, chances are they don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what it is. They might even be confusing it with something like rhythm method or assuming that you're just like pulling out whatever. They
Adina:like you're just using an app that guesses when you're
diane:Yeah. Right. Which some people tell us that they do and we, that is definitely not a birth control method we would advise you to do is going by the dates in an app without tracking other things. But anyway, if they're, if your doctor. Critiques fam, you can say, I imagine you're thinking of the rhythm method, which is not the same thing. I'm actually using the method of birth control where I track my basal body temperature cervical position. And other signs of fertility. Research shows that when done properly, it can be as effective or actually more effective than hormonal birth control without the side effects. So just clarifying that for them. Or if you are exploring a device, you can say, I'm actually using temp drop, which is a certified medical device of 99.4% accuracy when used correctly. And this is what I am happy with. Full stop. You don't have to explain away after that. I'm happy with this method.
Adina:Yep.
diane:I actually had. I've gone to a GYN appointment and they had a chart on the wall about different, uh, birth control methods. And so the, the top ones, oh yeah, it was hormonal birth control pill, hormonal, i u d, then copper, i u d, and then things like condoms. Uh, so barrier method, and it was talking about how effective they were and it said something next to the condoms, um, about how it's not very effective. I'm like, are we really telling people that condoms are not very effective, that you can only just use birth control? Hmm
Adina:Man, man. Yeah, It's so stupid. And again, if they're prescribing the pill for something dumb, like regulating your cycle, or
diane:Balancing your hormels.
Adina:Yeah, you can say, are you suggesting that I have a birth control deficiency?
diane:Or Yeah. Yes. Why do I exactly need this pill? Um, if they say that it balances hormones, you can say, actually know the fuck. They don't because they don't. Or maybe if you want to be a little bit more polite or pg, you can say, well, actually I understand that pill bleed is not a real bleed. I won't be having a real period and I am concerned about. And then if you have concerns about the side effects, you can list
Adina:Mm-hmm. Or if you have concerns about your own experience on it, like if you can say to, cuz we've had so many people in our DM say things like, it just breaks my heart when people say things along the lines of like, I am experiencing my, you know, P C O S symptoms again, and every time I go to my doctor, they just say, there's no other way to manage this without birth control. And like, please tell me it's not true because I really don't wanna get back on it. And if you can present to your doctor and just say like, I started taking the pill in X year. And I ex started experiencing anxiety and depression, a loss of libido, like whatever the symptoms were, which those are the most common that we hear from our clients.
diane:Hair fall. Yeah.
Adina:like I never have before. And since I have gotten off of it, those things have gotten better, or I am really looking to get off of it to see if those things improve. Here's how I'm planning on supporting my body. Like, oh man, please get off the pill if you don't wanna be on the pill. I'm not your doctor. Let us help you.
diane:Yes, yes, completely. A couple of others. Um, you could say, I've heard that the pill worsens insulin resistance. Is it really the right choice? And they might say yes, or maybe they might say, well try this pill. Oh God, that was
Adina:Oh yeah. If you just switch the brand, Diane, it solves everything. If you just switch the brand,
diane:and I mean, It's wild. Like how reckless I was and how I would just be so open to taking whatever, like years ago I remember all that stuff was coming out about Yaz and risk for blood clots and I was like, well, at least I won't be pregnant. Like that's how I acted and I was like, least I won't be pregnant cuz that would be the worst. Be a teen mom. I, I was just so terrified of it. And also at the time, I think I thought that like I could get. Any day of my cycle, like no matter what. So I was just so terrified. Um, and so the doctor would just be like, well, let's just try a different pill. And then I felt crazy on another pill and nauseated, and they're like, Hmm, well let's just try another pill. And never did. I think maybe I just stopped this because my periods were fine before I got on the pill. I got on it to prevent pregnancy and to improve my skin, but I
Adina:Oh my favorite. That's my favorite.
diane:crazy.
Adina:I love when it's for acne.
diane:Mm-hmm. And I mean, I was teen, I was eating junk. I was going, I mean, also too, I, I'm sure we talked about this in our episodes about the pill is when you first get your period, like maybe you're 13 years old, your dot drops for the first time and then it, your cycle's a bit crazy for a couple years. Like it's all over the place. That's kind of normal, like that's
Adina:Yeah, your body has to
diane:your.
Adina:calibrate like.
diane:Uhhuh. So I feel like so many women are, and young girls are just ushered onto the pill. Like as soon as they get that period, those
Adina:we're not like giving our body a chance to figure it out at all, man. We could go on forever about this one. I think we should try to get some other questions, but let us know if you want like a whole other episode about birth control clap backs and the
diane:Contraceptive clap X.
Adina:clap backs, there's the title. Um,
diane:There it
Adina:We could talk about birth control forever. So yeah, let us know. All right. Next one we wanted to dig into is what do you do when your partner thinks that the end all be all is a doctor and doesn't support holistic care? Uh, we've had clients who, their partner is a doctor also and like, or their partner is in medical school and doesn't support holistic care. So we know it can be super, super challenging. And we've had clients who, their partner. A conventional doc and then went on the journey with them, with the food and lifestyle stuff as they were making the changes and now practice in a much more holistic lens or have gone on to do some of the continuing education that we've recommended. So we love to see that. Um, But yeah, we have done two amazing episodes that I think you should listen to first because we did an episode called How to Help Your Loved Ones Get Their Shit Together, which was a great one. And then also what to do when you don't fit in with your friends and family. This was around like making changes in your lifestyle and how to navigate some of those conversations. So those are great places to start, but we do wanna just honor this question and. Say that it's really hard. It's really, really hard when you get into some friction with a partner, a loved one, around some of these conversations. And sometimes it just comes down to saying, I know this is what you do. This is my body and this is how I choose to support my body. These are the avenues that I'm going to explore because of X, Y, Z experience I had in the medical system. You know, you're welcome to do what you wanna do, and I know this can get even. Complicated if there are children involved and you're navigating decisions for your kids. So maybe we need to do a whole episode around that too, because I've mentioned some brief things that I, you know how I've navigated some of those conversations in the past, but just wanted to say like, man, this can be so challenging and I know how frustrating it is. It, it really is hard, and I don't know, I just wanted to say that.
diane:We've, we've felt it too, and me, not so much with a partner, but I've had. I have close in immediate family who work in the conventional medicine space and like, oh, you have a headache. Just, just take aspirin every single day. Just take it preventatively every day. Uh, or have you tried going to the doctor and get antibiotics for that thing that could be an ear infection? Like they just, they love it.
Adina:Just those
diane:and we just disagree on some. Yeah, just preventative antibiotics. I'm like, me and my gut went through that. We're not going back to that. Thank you. Um, and so something that I've employed is I'm not open to feedback. Thank you. That's it.
Adina:no thanks.
diane:Well, I just don't tell them, especially if it's, I mean, if it's not a partner, but it's other people in your life, I just don't tell them those things because maybe they think they are helping. Maybe it is coming from a good place, but if it's adding undue stress to your life, just. Don't bring them into the fold for that, Someone else asked about how to prepare for pregnancy, pelvic floor, physical therapy, normal thyroid. Well, maybe that was the bucket that we put here, but a few people asked about how to talk to their doctor if they are thinking about catching a baby soon. Maybe they're told everything from like, yeah, just get off hormonal birth control. If you are on that and. You know, get pregnant. Or maybe they're like, Hey, take these prenatals, and they're just not sure if that is a full and complete plan for them. So, ooh, this is a, this is a can of worms here. We got some tips
Adina:Yeah. I love that you're thinking about, this is my main thing because. Your thyroid and your pelvic floor are both largely impacted by pregnancy, and also many people have issues with both of these things prior to pregnancy and don't know it because our conventional system doesn't point you in that direction. Like if you've listened to any of our pelvic floor episodes, we've talked a lot about how constipation is totally a pelvic floor issue. Many of us who have struggled with that in the past, um, obviously there's a digestive component, there's a metabolic component to it. Things just moving slower through your system. There's a big pelvic floor component to this too. Like maybe things are moving through just fine, but no one's opening the gates at the other end, you know? So,
diane:That would you say the butthole is clenched
Adina:but hops, but a hops, we need to unc unclench our butt hole. But it's, you know, it's multifaceted. It's not just as
diane:Right. There are other parts to it.
Adina:yeah, and again, slow thyroid could be impacting this whole system, maybe. The poop's moving slow, then it's sitting in there. Then your pelvic floor gets tighter cuz it's dealing with this extra load that's kind of just hanging
diane:Literally extra load. Mm.
Adina:yeah, it's a whole, it's a whole ordeal. But, so yeah, love that you're thinking about this prior to pregnancy. This is a really great step. However, unfortunately you're gonna have a really hard time getting help with this within the conventional medicine system, so. Really good chance you gotta go outside of that for pelvic pt. If you're gonna find a good one. Um,
diane:Now, would this be a case to lie to your doctor to get that pelvic floor referral? So say you're, you're not pregnant yet, but you know how important that is and you're like, I don't know what I mean, normally we wouldn't support that, but if that's what gets you the referral to then go see someone who knows what they're talking about.
Adina:Yeah, sometimes it comes down to that. I mean, some doctors are great, like we said, some of them will write that referral for you and send you in the right direction. Um, but yeah, it, it can be really frustrating and like we've mentioned many times, unfortunately, At this point, a lot of the really good pelvic PTs work outside of insurance and so it won't really matter. But, um, yeah, don't not get this stuff addressed because of that. Like, the reason that they work outside of insurance and you have to pay these people out of pocket is because of how client-centered and how great their work is, and they need to be compensated for that. Um, and so, Sometimes you can get reimbursed for things like that, like hsa, all that. But yeah, deal with it before pregnancy. Might not happen inside of the conventional
diane:Yeah, at minimum, I think we mentioned this earlier in the episode, definitely on past episodes, try to see if they are strength focused. And so let's say that you can't go through insurance, but you still want to be proactive about preparing. And getting that pelvic floor to do what it needs to do. Um, I know someone who could help you build some strength.
Adina:Oh yeah, yeah. T h H is a great place to go preconception. Um, because. Like we always talk about when it comes to the pelvic floor, yes, there are certain things that are specific to pelvic floor dysfunction that it can be really helpful to have a pelvic PT work out with you. But for many of our clients, Learning how to breathe properly and gaining strength through the whole body. Cuz like we always talk about the body is a group project, and if your whole body is not strong, your pelvic floor is going to be taking on extra workload. So if we can get that entire body strong, we can learn how to breathe, we can learn how to coordinate our diaphragm in our pelvic floor, our pelvic floor prior to pregnancy. That is a wonderful place to be. And again, Building that muscle will help with thyroid. If you are looking for more specific dialed in nutrition, help to support your thyroid function, I would look into RCR Diane's signature program because a lot of the nutrition and lifestyle stuff you're gonna do in there will support a healthy body for a healthy pregnancy.
diane:That's right. Yeah. You don't have to go straight to chasing down thyroid specific nutrition plans. I'm sure that someone's got a course out there. We work on all of the basics first. this next, next question, how to be taken seriously about feeling crappy, even though I have young kids now, I. DMed her to clarify what she meant here, just to make sure that I was tracking and then I promptly lost the screenshot somewhere. But if I recall correctly, I think what she was getting at was, um, trying to tell her doctor, like, yes, I am exhausted because I have little people that I'm also taking care of, but I also know my body and I'm not feeling well. So wanting to be taken seriously in that regard. I think that was the gist of it. Yeah.
Adina:Yeah. Again, like very normal, very common for people to think that like the reason that you're exhausted and don't feel well is cuz you have little kids, cuz it is a lot of hard work, but, It's having kids is not a reason to feel miserable all the time. So it's so frustrating when every answer is like, you might not get what you need from your doctor.
diane:But is that the takeaway? I don't know.
Adina:kind of the theme. Um, yeah. I mean when I think about this, it's like we gotta get you doing minimum effective dose strength training. I have seen this change the game for so many mamas. Getting you feeling strong inside of your body, finding a workout routine that fits into your mom life that doesn't burn you out, and just makes you feel strong enough and energized enough to get it all done. So again, s t h h. Wonderful place to go for this. And then let's look at, are you eating enough food? Do we maybe, yeah. Do we maybe need to sneak in some calories by way? Night cheese by
diane:Working on Monday. Cheese as Liz Lemon says.
Adina:Yeah. Like some easy grab and go things. If we're not getting enough calories throughout the day, are we focusing on minerals?
diane:I see you put minerals for Dema.
Adina:Yeah.
diane:Yeah, I'd love to see an H T M A for my postpartum cas to see where things have ended up, especially if they've been making some changes for a while. We wanna see where we
Adina:thought you were gonna say making some babies
diane:been making some babies for a while and now they wanna make some minerals go up. That's my bit.
Adina:Yeah. Those
diane:take Yeah. They, they over withdraw those mineral accounts for sure. But I mean, as far as what to say to your doctor, if they're just saying, oh, it's just stress, you're just tired. Just flip'em the finger. Um, but maybe, you know, you try some of these things because in the scope of their seven to nine minute appointment with you there, there's only so much they can cover. Only so much that they know from doctor's school. So, so doing some of these things that Adino was just mentioning. Intentional strength training, making sure that you're eating enough and if symptoms continue, go back to your doctor and tell them, like, briefly, this is what I'm working on. And I, I know myself, I know that what I'm experiencing goes beyond the normal demands of raising little people, and I want to explore that further. Uh, so going from there and seeing what they.
Adina:Yeah, I know we dial in the basics so often here on this show, but I think this episode really highlights it too. Like so many of the questions we got in the question box for this episode, were people searching for their doctor to take them seriously about something, searching for perhaps a diagnosis or a reason or an answer to the thing that they're experiencing, Yeah, it's frustrating when they're not listening. But also, do we need a diagnosis in every case? Like, let's try these things and see if it shifts stuff and see if it gets you feeling like yourself inside of your body without having to search conventional medicine for like the answer to why. You know what I
diane:right. Or while you're waiting for a diagnosis, you still need to eat sleep manager stress. So I mean, let's say you ultimately do decide to add or keep. A prescription medication in your routine, but alongside that, you have to be working on these cuz otherwise those are just not going to work that well. You might even find that eventually you might not need them, but you have to
Adina:also I have to say this too, if you have been feeling like this for a long time, and maybe you've been scouring the internet and the Instagrams or the podcasts for. The reason and what's gonna fix it. We've said this on previous episodes, but if your life doesn't show it, you don't know it, and like maybe just absorbing content isn't fixing it and you need to hire a coach.
diane:Yeah, that part, that part. And that can be, I mean, I've CC'd myself on that advice before too, where I thought, oh, I should know this by now. I've, I've gone through all this continuing ed, but there's still so much benefit in going back to the basics. And starting simple, consistently can go such a long way. And that's where I wanna bump up this next question before we round out with some birth control and P C O S related episode episodes. Questions? Questions Di drip. This person said when yesterday, for H diagnosis, gonna take long, three months at least, but I need a diagnosis slash meds to try to graduate, so I have to put up with it. So, oh, let's talk about that. Unpack it a little bit. This could also be a full episode because we've received several questions over the last few months. Yeah. Let us know if you're interested in learning or having an episode about ADHD specifically, or brain fog. Attention to, I mean, coming out of the panorama, a lot of people, ADHD or not, were, we're experiencing brain fog and all kinds of steps. So first of all,
Adina:It's definitely trending on the
diane:It is. I mean, she's gonna hear too for until she gets banned, TikTok gets banned, who knows? Um, but I'm seeing all kinds of like, diagnose yourself content and I'm happy that people are like talking and finding community and feeling seen by other people when they're content like that. But anyway, digress. So first off, it sucks to feel like you're not getting the answers, or like being told that you're going to have to wait months on end to get the relief that you are seeking. Some, some intentionally dosed amphetamines could work. I remember thinking like, okay, I'm just gonna pound some Claritin d some p Sudafed for a time. Um, but that's just not the go-go juice. And the other side effects that I wanted, In the meantime, some things that we'd encourage you to do, food and lifestyle. What are some ways that we can support your blood sugar, your circadian rhythm, which are going to help with focus, whether you are dealing with ADHD or just a. Lowered focus or mental clarity, those things truly go a long way. I can't stress them enough. I know it might feel annoying to be like to hear Diana and Adina say, oh yeah, food and lifestyle, but far and away it's gonna make such a big difference than so many things. And maybe even make it so that some people don't need to have prescriptions long term. So some little approachable things you can do here. Let's do breakfast within 60 minutes of waking up. So no fasting, no getting into studying. I know that you're probably sprinting towards the end of the semester, but don't sprint past, uh, breakfast too. So breakfast within 60 minutes of waking. No phone or TikTok when you first wake up. So maybe that's waking
Adina:TikTok ever.
diane:No TikTok.
Adina:like, if you are waiting for an a ADHD diagnosis and you are pining for ADHD medication, this might be hard to hear, but I'm gonna be like, if you haven't deleted your TikTok yet and you aren't taking walks daily and eating real food, like let, we need to
diane:Yeah, of course there's a focus problem. I mean, attention spans have, uh, just generally lowered to now. Like, what do they say, like five to eight minutes on average or less. And definitely seeing that in the way that people are consuming content on social media. Videos are getting shorter, so of course it's difficult to focus. Um, so really making boundaries with screen time. I think it's gonna be. Helpful there. Um, so no phone when you first wake up. And if you can also add this to the end of your day by doing something else to wind down instead of scrolling and opening up all those browser tabs in your brain. Like, let's, let's minimize the input there.
Adina:I also wanna say someone is listening to this and is getting very angry, and so if that is you, I just want to make sure you are hearing us. Clearly, we are not saying that every single person who is experiencing symptoms of adhd, that their only issue is that they have TikTok,
diane:Right. Or that they're not eating enough. Yeah.
Adina:Right. However, this is a conversation we always have around medication. If your doctor is prescribing medication without asking you about basic food, lifestyle, stress, like that's an issue. I feel this way very strongly here. Like if you have not deleted. Your TikTok. At minimum, if you are not navigating boundaries around screen time, if you're not making sure you're getting natural light, if you're not making sure that the food you eat isn't only coming out of packages with tons of chemicals or dyes or processed oils, if you have no movement practice nowhere to send that anxious energy. Like we need to use our stress hormones. Stress hormones aren't like this dirty word like. You know, we have a stress response for a reason. Um, so if we are not getting movement in our day, if we are not getting natural light, if we are only on our screens, if we, you know, like those things gotta go first.
diane:First, first. Absolutely. I'm glad that you mentioned that. Cause I'm sure some people are feeling activated by this. I'm noticing just by, I mean, when I've seen this content around ADHD come up when I'm scrolling, like people get furious about like, don't just tell me to set an alarm. And yes, alarms don't work for many people, but I also know people who are dealing with ADHD and focus or them, those farms, those, those food alarms are great. So it's figuring. Combination of things, picking out systems that work for you, but also these basics are still, uh, they still apply to you. Uh, I was talking to a friend, she was like, I, I think that I need to talk to my doctor about getting a diagnosis and getting Adderall. And I was like, babe, I'm like, I have this relationship with her. We could talk about this. I was like, you don't eat br you don't eat until noon and you drink.
Adina:Right.
diane:Let's maybe start there and she's like, I know, I know, but I just want some amphetamines. Like also let's talk about that, that Adderall and some of these drugs are molecularly so similar to things like meth and cocaine, but they're just care. I mean, not, they're not the same thing in use of course, but there are very similar substances and so like if there are basics that we can work on before then, but all the better.
Adina:let's go.
diane:Who do I was just, I came across, no. The irony of this is that this is a really long episode. Huberman Lab did a great deep dive on ADHD and ways to improve focus. So whether you have adhd, think that you might ha, uh, be dealing with that, or you're just someone who's having trouble with focus and clarity, he does a deep dive on it. It's like two and a half hours long. I was like, hold up. Like if I am having trouble with focus, he but is, um, if someone was in.
Adina:get some timestamps in
diane:Yeah, sometimes stamps or like break it up on a, a few different walkies. Um, but yeah, attention spans generally have lowered dramatically, but we cannot ignore supporting blood sugar, eating enough, getting outside and moving your body. Like those are absolutely non-negotiables for everyone.
Adina:Amen. All right, let's round it out with this last question. We kind of answered parts of this throughout the episode, but basically we, this is. A couple questions related to getting off medication. So somebody mentioned that they have topical steroid withdrawal withdraw. All that is not being recognized by their doctor and they wanna get them back on the medication that they took years to get off of. Um, and they said that pictures and proof did not help them. And this sounds like the case of you need a new doctor so weei, because if they are still not going to hear you when you are trying to show them pictures and prove to them that this is not a good fit for you,
diane:That they are not a good fit for you.
Adina:Yeah, definitely. Um, and this, this question we hear a lot, but I have P C O S and I finally got off of birth control and my doctor keeps telling me to get back on it. And so you need to just constantly reiterate to this doctor that you did not feel good on hormonal birth control. And you have learned that it doesn't actually balance your hormones and you
diane:that though. This, this doctor didn't learn that though.
Adina:Yeah. And again, if you're someone. With P C O S or even post pill P C O S, which is lesser known to many doctors that this can happen after you get off the pill because of how it impacts your hormone production. I also just want you to hear very loud and clear. Cause I know that I've had many clients who needed to hear this. You do not have to get onto birth control to manage your P C O S. There are so many holistic options to support P C O S.
diane:That are not hormonal birth control. Yes,
Adina:yes, we've done an excellent episode. I think it was in season one, about P C O S and strength training. That's one of our most popular episodes
diane:How does strings train for P C O S without feeling like a p o s?
Adina:one of our most popular titles as well. and just, we've seen it with so many clients, the gigantic shift that food and lifestyle can make, and even, you know, give you back your fertility, which I know is a huge struggle for a lot of our P C O S clients. So do not let someone in a white coat tell you that the only solution is birth control.
diane:it is not full stop. Yeah. So, uh, definitely go to our P C O S episode and also we'll link for you in the show notes, our three part series on hormonal birth control. So there's a lot more q and a in there, and some more about how birth control works and things that your doctor didn't tell you before getting on the.
Adina:Mm.
diane:Yes. So to round things out, let's do some little recap e for you. We know how firsthand, how frustrating this conventional medicine system medical system can be. We've been there, we've heard so many similar stories from our clients, and know that it's really frustrating to feel like you're not being seen or heard in that appoint. We're here for you. We want you to know too that you do not have to settle for feeling like shit or for terrible bedside manner, like you are the patient and yes, doctors have studied long and hard to get to where they are, but at the end of the day, they still put their pants on the same way. They are no better than you are.
Adina:And remember, again, you always need to remind yourself that no matter how good a doctor could be, they're working within this system that really limits their ability to do what you might need them to do. So again, it's not their fault, it's just a matter of like, this is how the system is set up. And. Like Diane said, they study long and hard. They're in school for many, many years. But remember that those textbooks are written by pharma, like they learn how to
diane:curriculum. Is literally developed by them. Yes.
Adina:so not exactly the holistic care. That we are looking for, that honors our physiology, our needs, you know, the stuff.
diane:Yeah, we're, it's there when we need it, and for emergencies and for that we're thankful. But like we said earlier, or maybe in part one, Uh, conventional medicine can save your life, but functional medicine and a holistic approach is what will vastly improve the quality of that. We've seen it time and time again through adinas program strength training for happy hormones through mind, root cause reset. So whether you do join us there or we love to support you, or you just decide that you've had enough of the BS and want to learn about your body, we are cheering you. Along the way. So we have so many different episodes about all those things, holistic nutrition, gut health, metabolic health, strength training, all of those. We'd love to hear from you if you enjoy this episode. And within it, I know there were a lot of topics that we just kind of scratched the surface on. So if there are any other conversations around those that you would like us to go deeper on, let us.
Adina:Yeah, like we said at the end of our last episode, it's your. You can't be told what to do like you're a batty who understands how your body works, right? You listen to this podcast, you dive into our content. You can feel so empowered inside of your own body and you can advocate for the care that you deserve.
diane:That's right. It's your blood. It does matter. Stay hydrated and stay satiated. Love. Bye.