Episode 134: Jenni Is A Special Guest on "The Dr. Diane Show!"

Unlock the mysteries of your gut health and embrace the healing power of functional medicine with Jenni and Dr. Diane Hayden. Our dialogue brings forth a refreshing perspective on treating health concerns at their roots, rather than just masking symptoms. We delve into the world of functional medicine, discussing how a personalized approach, which considers diet, lifestyle, and individual biochemistry, can empower you to reclaim your health. From food sensitivities to gut health, learn how your daily choices intertwine with your genetic blueprint to shape your overall wellness.

Facing fertility challenges can be a deeply personal and emotional experience. In our heartfelt conversation, we shed light on the multifaceted aspects of functional fertility, emphasizing the importance of both partners in this intimate journey. We address the impact of environmental toxins, the critical yet often neglected dimension of male fertility, and the profound effect stress can have on conception. Listen to Jenni's personal insights and find inspiration in how alternative pathways, including adoption, can miraculously pave the way to natural conception.

Finally, we tackle the intricate web of weight gain, stress, sleep, and hormones, emphasizing that sustainable health is more than a quick fix—it's a way of life. Discover the comprehensive approach functional medicine takes to craft personalized, long-term solutions that cater to your unique body and lifestyle. And as we discuss the potent influence of thoughts and beliefs, you'll be inspired to focus on your desires and cultivate unwavering confidence in your ability to shape your reality. Join us on this transformative journey of mind, body, and soul expansion with Dr. Diane Hayden and I, and tap into the potential that lies within your own consciousness.

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Email us - 
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jenni@bermanwellness.com 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Berman Method Podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.

Speaker 2: 0:35

And we're rolling baby with this very quick intro because we've got an interview that Jenny did with Dr Diane Hayden coming up quick here in a minute Real quick though we want to give a big shout out to us this weekend is our health fair 2024 Longevity Expo this Friday afternoon 2pm to 7pm. Yes.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Come out and see us for the awesome sponsors and vendors that we are going to have to really get the word out, present some brands about companies that can help you with improving your longevity, your quality of life, from a more natural approach. We are going to have giveaways. We are going to do raffles. Over $10,000 in prizes going into the raffles, including Everblades tickets and offerings from our wonderful vendors and sponsors that are going to be there.

Speaker 2: 1:33

Yes, and if you're listening to this some other time, the date that we're talking about this is coming out Monday February 19th. This episode is coming out Monday February 19th and our expo is Friday February 23rd 2024. So that's five days from now. I can't believe it.

Speaker 1: 1:52

I know it's getting really close the 2024 Longevity Expo from 2pm to 7pm. The Bayfront of Naples is the location, so it's where we have Tavern on the Bay, k-rico, the Cabana Bar and several other restaurants. The 4-5-7 Bayfront Aesthetics is within that complex as well, and they are a vendor of our event as well. So we have Berman Health and Wellness that is putting on the event. Berman Golf, berman Physical Therapy and Ostiosdrong are all sponsors to the event. And then we have some wonderful vendors including Higher Self and Sound, heal Thyself, classic Edge Nail, creative Solutions, counseling, pilates, coach, beauty Counter, summing Jewelry, holistic Health and Wellness, which is Public Floor Physical Therapy. Spenga, which is a studio gym, naples Family Fitness. We also have the One Blood Bus Drive coming as well, so you can give blood and donate.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Give blood before happy hour.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Before happy hour Enjoy happy hour. There's going to be music again, the giveaways. So come see our vendors, come see us, come put your face on the news and say hi.

Speaker 2: 3:10

Awesome. See you guys there this Friday from 2 to 7.

Speaker 1: 3:13

2 pm to 7 pm at Bayfront of Naples. Google it, you'll find it.

Speaker 2: 3:18

Cool, all right, stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Listen up next for the podcast recording with Dr Diane Hayden and myself. Jenny Berman, physician Assistant.

Speaker 2: 3:28

See you Friday.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy, and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy. Wwwbermanptcom for wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.

Speaker 3: 4:47

Health, performance and relationships. Learn about the power of thought and how it shapes your life to take risks, change careers, find love, go on adventures and live passionately with me. Dr Diane, get ready for revolutionary ways of thinking, being and creating an amazing life. The Dr Diane Show starts now. Hello everyone, I'm Dr Diane Hayden and you are listening to the Dr Diane Show on Transformation Talk Radio. Stay with us for the next hour where we will explore revolutionary expansion of mind, body and soul. Each time on the Dr Diane Show, we have experts from around the country discussing cutting-edge topics on longevity, medicine, natural health, mindset and sole purpose to help you shift your perspective and become a mindset warrior like me.

Speaker 3: 5:34

I'm excited today to have Jenny Berman as my guest. She is the owner of Berman Health and Wellness and has a team of registered dietitians and nurse practitioners and PAs working with her. The team is the best at helping individuals to reach their goal weight and optimize their gut health, while avoiding needless medications and achieving the highest quality of life imaginable. This functional medicine practice is based in Naples, florida, and is helping individuals with weight management, gut health, autoimmune disease and hormone balance. She focuses on treating problems, not symptoms. Jenny is a physician assistant certified and is also a certified fertility specialist, certified nutrition specialist and certified personal trainer. She was trained by the Institute of Functional Medicine Board Certified Physician, dr Carolyn Cedarquist in Naples, florida, and Jenny earned her degrees from the University of Florida and Nova Southeastern University. She's currently a fellow with the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and A4M, and her passion is helping one more individual to add quality years to their life. So welcome Jenny. How are you today?

Speaker 1: 6:37

Thank you so much. What a great intro.

Speaker 3: 6:40

Yeah, yeah, you definitely have an amazing background and we've worked together for a while now. You've done a lot of writing for my magazine, essential Naples, down here in Naples, florida, but I think what I try to do with these interviews is really help my listeners get to know who you are as a person and why you started this practice. Like a lot of natural health providers, have had different types of things happen to them in their life that kind of let them down this journey to becoming the practitioner that they are and the work that they do. So how did you come about functional medicine and get involved in all this?

Speaker 1: 7:22

That's great, and, yes, I totally agree with you that a lot of us in medicine end up in medicine for one reason or another, usually for something personal or family related, and I started on the track of getting a physician assistant degree and going out into orthopedics. I thought that's where I wanted to be. Because of my own history growing up being a gymnast and having repetitive injuries and countless casts and all sorts of physical therapy I thought orthopedics, specifically pediatric orthopedics, is where I wanted to be. So I got in the field and I absolutely loved it, though the lifestyle was not what I was anticipating as a new grad young female that had not started a family yet. But while I was going through this and even going through PA school, I actually started having some of my own health concerns and was seeing Western medicine doctors from a year prior to graduating to PA school until two years into my career, postgraduate, and I was being bounced from doctor to doctor to doctor for various symptoms I was having. And so, to go a little bit deeper on that, it started out in PA school that my liver enzymes were extremely elevated, which they found off of just regular blood testing that I had done during school and I had a regular annual exam and shortly after that I started having significant GI upset. So I was having very loose stool, bloating, abdominal pain, and so to the point where I was severely dehydrated and ended up in the hospital, actually on a day that I had to present my final thesis in school, and so I was kicking and screaming telling my mom and my boyfriend who's now my husband, but boyfriend at the time I did not go to the hospital, I have to go to school and present my thesis, I have to graduate. And they were like you don't really have a choice, like my lips were bleeding because I was dehydrated and, you know, couldn't, couldn't retain any food, essentially. And so I ended up in the hospital, spent three days there, wasn't getting any answers got out, was bounced from one GI to the next, to the next, and I dealt with this for essentially five years.

Speaker 1: 10:02

You know, I did end up presenting my thesis and graduating PA school, got married, moved to Naples and I was still just in this realm of trying to figure out something to at least stabilize me. Moving forward from that, I finally got to a point where I essentially was stable, I was able to go to work and not spend, you know, hours in the bathroom to make it sound really interesting. But you know, at the end of the day, I was taking 24 pills a day to be able to be stabilized. And my husband through now, through this. He was working with a GI doctor at the time. He's a physical therapist and was working with a GI doctor and was talking to him about my scenario, my history and the fact that I was on these 24 pills, and he said so. How long is she gonna have to stay on these?

Speaker 3: 10:59

Yeah, that's not sustainable.

Speaker 1: 11:01

No, especially. I mean at the time I was 25 years old and he told Jake, forever. And he's like, so my very healthy 25, otherwise healthy 25 year old wife is gonna have to stay on 24 pills forever just to stay out of the bathroom consistently. And he said yes, and this was after I had multiple scans, colonoscopy is. I mean the whole thing, the whole workup, and that's where we decided that that wasn't the answer and Western medicine wasn't giving up what we needed and so we had to start doing something differently and we started reading books and we actually read the Green Brain by Dr Poemutter and that was the start to this journey down functional medicine. So, taking a step further, we were in Naples and that's where I connected with Dr Carolyn Cedarquist, who is an Institute of Functional Medicine trained board certified physician, and she really opened up my eyes even further to functional medicine and gut health and food sensitivities and allergies. And through all the testing with her and the food elimination and the gut healing, I started thinking back and told my family. I said I've really had food sensitivities forever.

Speaker 1: 12:21

I had eczema as a kid, psoriasis, I had asthma as a kid.

Speaker 1: 12:26

When I got into high school I had severe seborrheic dermatitis, which is like psoriasis of the scalp. I was on oral steroids at one point at 16 years old for psoriasis and I got to thinking like but nobody knew at that point that it was related to gluten and to dairy, which is where we're at now. So this journey of taking medicines and being bounced from one doctor to the next and being told at 25 years old that I was gonna have to take 24 pills for the rest of my life is really what got me on this path. This journey of functional medicine and through this and what occurred with me and how much healing I had just from changing my meal plan, just from changing the foods that were coming into my system, being able to come off of every medicine. I really was passionate about it and that's where I said I have to change. I have to help that one person like me that's out there struggling and ended up working with Dr Cedar a factor that yeah, it's pretty amazing.

Speaker 3: 13:38

I mean, when I hear these stories, the thing that keeps popping up from me is oh my gosh, it's so sad that people have to go through all of this the traditional medicine to finally figure out that that route is not gonna help them. I mean, traditional medicine is great for acute situations. You know you gotta go to the hospital, you break your leg, whatever that kind of thing but when you talk about things like food sensitivities or gut health or a lot of different issues that are more chronic, it really should be that functional medicine, integrative medicine, is the first place people go, and then whatever. If let's just say they need a prescription, that's like way down on the list and it's. I mean, I think it's changing a little bit, but I feel like so many people just are not aware of all you know. That's like things that you as a practitioner do that could help them avoid all the years of having to be bounced around like you were.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Right, right, and you're absolutely right. You know Western or traditional medicine is fantastic in many areas and for many reasons, 100%. I still believe in it. I'll still recommend it for certain individuals. But, like you said, the functional or integrative medicine isn't talked about enough.

Speaker 1: 15:05

And you know our clients now so fast forward from working with Dr Sue Cedarquess I was with her for over three years before I opened up my own practice of Berman Health and Wellness down in Naples where we're continuing to do the functional and integrative type medicine and clients will ask me well, why hasn't anybody ever talked to me about this? Why hasn't my regular doctor looked at these blood tests or talked about the dietary changes into? You know, just touch a little bit more on functional medicine. It's not just about gut health that's a huge part of it but, as you mentioned in the bio, the weight management, the insulin resistance, diabetes, the hormone imbalances. So you know these women are like oh, I have postmenopausal symptoms or my hormones are terrible, I have to go on hormone replacement. Well, there might be alternative options to that.

Speaker 3: 16:03

Yeah, it really is amazing how much can be solved with just food, with literally just changing your diet you know, some supplementation, figuring out what your food sensitivities are and eliminating those things. And I think, people you know it's not to say that you're not ever gonna be able to eat that food again. I mean, there may be some situations where, yes, you really can't, but a lot of people I know have been able to introduce things back into their diet and so I wanna also kind of dispel that myth that you know, don't feel like, oh my gosh, if they tell me I can't have, you know, x, y, Z, I'm never gonna be able to have it again. Sometimes it's just a sensitivity that you've developed because you've been eating too much of it for too long, and if you reduce it and kind of eliminate it for a while, you can introduce those foods back in for sure. So this is really really fascinating. We're gonna get into a lot more information with you, jenny.

Speaker 3: 16:54

You're listening to the Dr Dianne show with me, dr Dianne Hayden. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back we will explore more about functional medicine with Jenny Berman, owner of Berman Health and Wellness. Stay tuned, we'll be right back. Whatever that may be. We're back on the Dr Diane show with me, dr Diane Hayden, but before we continue, I want to make sure everyone knows how to contact me. You can find me at wwwdrdianhadencom or at either of my two publications, wwwnaturalnupmegcom and wwwessentialnapelscom. You can learn more about Jenny Berman at wwwbermanptcom. That's B-E-R-M-A-N-P-S-P-L-T-S-N-T-Mcom. So welcome back, jenny. We were talking about just your journey to discovering functional medicine and all the things that you had to go through before you found this path. I think that that term, functional medicine, is becoming more and more common and thrown around a little bit more, and I want to know what your definition of that is, because I think some people still are not sure. Like, what does functional medicine really mean? Like, what do you do in your field of medicine?

Speaker 1: 18:20

Absolutely so. In simple terms, what I tell people is we treat problems and not symptoms. So you're coming to us to identify why are you feeling the way you're feeling? Why do you have the fatigue, the headaches, the weight gain, the poor sleep, the eczema, psoriasis, migraines whatever the symptom you're experiencing why is that happening and how can we treat the problem that's causing that symptom, as opposed to just giving you a prescription medicine and saying here, go, take this for your headaches that you're having. Another way to look at it with functional medicine is alternative medicine. Some people think holistic and I'll put quotes around. Holistic because we're not just straight herbs with our type of medicine. We like to do nutrition-based, looking at your gut health. If we need to utilize supplements or prescriptions, we have that ability, but that's not our first-line therapy. We really want to treat the body from the inside out. When it comes to that, quote unquote functional or alternative medicine.

Speaker 3: 19:30

Yeah, I love that. I think the key takeaway from that is, when people come see you, you're trying to get to the bottom of why. What is the root cause of these things? Why are you having these symptoms Not? Oh, you're having a headache, so let's put you on this prescription, or you're having I don't know. Your cholesterol is high, so let's put you on this prescription, or whatever, like these drugs that are all kind of band-aids. You're really trying to get to the bottom of. Well, let's figure out why you're having this symptom and if we get to that and we fix that, the symptom goes away. Correct, that's exactly right.

Speaker 1: 20:11

It's something as simple as you said. It's cholesterol and everybody, not everybody. Many think, well, it's a normal part of aging. Or my family had it, my mom had high cholesterol, my dad did, my brother does, so I just have to go on cholesterol medicine. That's just life and it's not. And the same thing for, oh, my mom had hypothyroidism or my grandmother had a heart attack, so I'm probably gonna have heart disease. And the thing we have to remember is we have genes, but we have the ability to turn these genes on and off based off of our insides, our gut health and our environment. So we have to understand that this is not a normal part of aging.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Taking hormone replacement, having bad sleep when we go through postmenopause, having that 10 to 15 pounds in the abdominal area that is not normal. That is a symptom of something else, of a problem. So we really have to identify where is that problem coming from? How do we reverse it? What is causing the endometrial problem? What is causing the inflammation that's increasing your cholesterol? What is causing your sleep issue? And most of the time it's a blood sugar issue or cortisol, that stress hormone issue, as our body does go through that hormonal change. So being able to really look deeper into your body from the inside out, based on blood testing, your dietary plan, your medical history is gonna be the key factor to treating you as an individual, and not what the rest of the population is doing.

Speaker 3: 21:53

Yeah, I think it's important also for people to know that, like you said, genes are not the be all end all. I mean there's actually been studies on identical twins and one develops a chronic disease and one does. So we know there from those types of things that that's not the sentence for you, like, yes, you may be predisposed to certain things, but depending on what you do in your diet, your lifestyle, whether or not you exercise, whether or not you smoke, how much alcohol you consume, like all these things, the amount of toxins, like you said, are gonna turn these genes on or off, which really is why we go down that path to disease, not just because we have the gene.

Speaker 1: 22:33

Correct, that's exactly it. And there's that new Netflix series out now. You Are what you Eat. I don't know if you've heard of it or seen it.

Speaker 1: 22:42

But that's the new talk and, just as you said, there's twins in that series where they put them on different meal plans. They have the same DNA, put them on two different types of meal plans and one goes down one path of disease and the other one doesn't. So it really shows again, like you just said, that the nutrition is such a big part of why we start to develop these deficiencies or autoimmune diseases and the other part of it is our vitamin deficiencies. So, depending on, again, the gut health and our nutrition and our insides, we can be deficient in certain vitamins, which is going to increase our risk for certain diseases like the high blood sugar, the migraines, the poor sleep that we have, the hypercholestral, so high cholesterol values.

Speaker 3: 23:35

Yeah, that is really important and I also want to point out that it's, you know, the quality of the supplement that you're taking is really important, because I think some people still think, well, I'll just go down to Walmart or whatever and I'll get my Omega-3 or whatever, my multivitamin or whatever, and really you do get what you pay for in the whole supplement world for sure. And so you know, I have worked with people who have been on what I'll call crappy supplements and they're like, well, nothing, nothing changed. You know it didn't help me, nothing changed. I'm like well, that's because think of it like just the type of food that you're eating. I mean you have to have a really high quality. To me it's like get your supplement from your provider, because they're the ones who've done their due diligence in terms of finding different companies that they trust and what they think that works best. So it is important where you get your supplements from.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Well, definitely the brand or how they're manufactured will affect not only the absorption, but some of these vitamins that you'll find over the counter at your typical drug store will have added ingredients into them, so they'll contain gluten or they'll contain dairy or, even worse, vegetable oils that are put into these supplements and those are inflammatory by itself.

Speaker 1: 24:54

So you think you're doing something good for your body when really these certain supplements are causing more inflammation. And it's interesting I was just having conversation this morning with my husband, who again is a PT and a business owner also, but we carry a certain line of supplements in our office right now and they got bought by a corporate company, and we were just discussing how many supplement lines that you think are good supplements are being bought by big corporate companies like Clorox. Clorox owns a supplement company and I was like wait, what Like? That's just not even optimal. So we're actually, in our practice, transitioning to a privately owned supplement company back to a privately owned, because one we were on was until they just sold to a corporate. So, yeah, you have to be very careful about that.

Speaker 3: 25:51

And all that stuff that goes on behind the scenes that the general layperson doesn't even know about for sure. Yeah, it is kind of crazy. It's all about the money. Now these big companies are like oh, let's purchase a supplement company, we can add more billions of dollars to our bottom line, right?

Speaker 1: 26:07

Right.

Speaker 3: 26:09

So I mentioned in your bio that you're also a certified functional fertility specialist. What does that mean?

Speaker 1: 26:16

Good question.

Speaker 1: 26:17

So I myself had a history of infertility.

Speaker 1: 26:22

So, again, before we finally figured out all the gut health issues I said, it took five years and we went through fertility to fertility specialists and infertility, used infertility drugs for about four years before I ended up finally getting pregnant on my own to have to have babies so, and we had several miscarriages before that happened as well.

Speaker 1: 26:46

So again I went down this path of nobody should have to go through the four year roller coaster that we just went through between losing babies and taking all these medicines and going to the doctor every other day to find out that my gut health was a huge impact to that experience that I had. So again just became passionate about it and, through the A4M who I'm now doing a fellowship with, I actually went through a certification to be a certified fertility specialist. So it's more looking at infertility and fertility from a functional standpoint, looking at it from this nutrition-based medicine and natural approaches how we can reduce the toxins in our body from our foods and from the environment to improve our hormone levels and improve the ability to hold a healthy, growing fetus for these women.

Speaker 3: 27:47

Yeah, that's really awesome. I mean it's tough enough as it is, I think, with all of the stress just trying to decide that you're going to start a family and all that, and then it takes the time that it takes and then all of the struggles that you've been through for sure. I mean there's definitely You're actually the. I know a couple of naturopaths who specialize in that, but I think you're actually the first. This is the first time I've heard of functional fertility specialists, like they're actually offering a certification for that. So I think that's awesome because that's really needed.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Thank you. I loved it and now I've, you know, I'm trying to pass this all information along to my team as well, so that we can continue to help more women out there, so they don't have to feel stuck in this world of infertility and seeing fertility specialists. It really, you know, all comes down to what's going on inside of your body. We can't treat every single person with infertility the same way, which is kind of what happens when you go into this field of seeing a fertility specialist.

Speaker 3: 28:52

Yeah, a lot of the things I've talked about with the naturopaths that I know that happen to be up in Connecticut that do Infertility work is even. Just, you know, it's one thing to deal with the hormones and things like that that you have in your body that might be not working with you, but it's also like all these toxins in the environment now that are causing infertility and all that stuff. So that's really, really important to know. So we're gonna talk more about this. We're gonna take a quick break. You're listening to the Dr Diane show with me, dr Diane Hayden. When we come back, we'll be talking more about functional medicine with Jenny Berman. Stay tuned, we'll be right back.

Speaker 3: 29:38

We're back on the Dr Diane show with me, dr Diane Hayden. I am talking today with Jenny Berman and you can learn more about her at wwwbermanptcom. Forward slash wellness. That's B-e-r-m-a-n. P is in Paul, t is in Tom com. Forward slash wellness. So just before this last break we were talking about Infertility and all the things that you know it could be causes of that, and I know we typically, as we are on break and, jenny, you mentioned like we should talk about the fact that it's you know we need to.

Speaker 1: 30:12

We look at men as well, because I think, a lot of times the infertility focus is always on the female right, right, right, and you know, being a female and going through it, you feel so much guilt and pressure that it's all on you. But a lot of times that has to do with the male as well, and so, through that Certification that I was able to obtain, we had a whole entire day talking about male infertility and the fact that we have to treat both parties. We can't just treat one, and so sure we have more females than males that come to us for Fertility help. But at the same time we're Educating the female that we're seeing on things to relate to the husband or or partner, to help with his aspect too. But a lot of times we'll recommend getting blood testing on both so we can make sure that we're doing everything we can.

Speaker 3: 31:04

Yeah, which totally makes sense. I mean, when you really look at it, it is a 50-50 thing, right, right. So I think it's. You know, it's kind of funny that for years there was really not that much focus on men. Like you know, it can't be their problem right.

Speaker 1: 31:20

And it could be even simple things like holding their phone in their front pocket, like that can reduce the Ability for you know, pregnancy to happen.

Speaker 3: 31:29

So yeah, we're even just stress. I mean you know that's like that's a huge thing. I can't tell you how many times. And you I think you even alluded to it yourself that people Um, got to the point where I mean you didn't adopt. But I know so many people that adopted because they could not have a child, because they and once they, once they did that, then they got pregnant. Naturally. It's like, okay, you have to. You can't make me believe that that wasn't like that stress didn't have a major thing to do with that.

Speaker 1: 31:59

It is so interesting that you're saying that we had gotten to that point. We were at the point of you know we had lost several, we had done IUI. You know we're at the point that it was okay, we're either going to adopt or we're gonna go to IVF, because they really cost the same amount of money. And not that it's about the money, but through adoption not only are we helping some, somebody else, another family, a baby, but we also were at that point essentially guaranteed to get a baby versus we weren't going through IVF. So we actually went through the process. We applied for the adoption, we did the home inspection and A month later I got pregnant.

Speaker 1: 32:39

And so you know we have not gotten rid of the idea of adoption Because it's still. It's still a challenge to be able to get pregnant and hold a pregnancy. Once you know you do have that autoimmune, you're always treating it and we would always love to Be able to adopt and help somebody else, so that that card's not off the table. But to come back to what you're saying is, I was just like okay, I threw my hands up in the air, we did the home inspection like we're ready, we're on the list, dress had been lifted, and there we go. So yeah, yeah, it absolutely is a big part of it and there's a pathophysiology to that. There's a reason that stress affects our hormones and the ability, but that's a whole. Nother talk radio.

Speaker 3: 33:28

Oh my gosh, yeah, that's all another transformation talk radio show for sure. And I was gonna say and this is another show for sure there's also like a whole spiritual component, like behind it as well, if you, you know, you've ever heard of people talk about how they had, you know, some type of chronic disease, or they had cancer, whatever. When they finally, just like you said, like through their hands up in the air, like, okay, I'm accepting this, you know, this is this, this is my journey, my path, whatever, all of a sudden, whatever it is, the issue goes away, it's like wow, I mean, that's pretty, that's pretty impactful in terms of, you know, understanding how much just your head, space and stress and all that plays a role in all these things from a negative perspective.

Speaker 1: 34:14

It is and we talk about that in our practice with the clients. We see, you know, the cortisol, which is a stress hormone, is one of the tests that we check in every single client, or Recommend that we check. You know, if you tell us you know what blood work, we don't do it. But we recommend checking a cortisol in every single client because of the impact that cortisol, that stress hormone, has on every aspect of our body, every autoimmune disease, every weight gain, sleep Inabilities, migraines, headaches, fatigue, cravings. That stress hormone, that cortisol, is a huge factor when it comes to Reversing all of these symptoms or diseases that our clients are coming in with. There was one study showing that stress causes is, 97% of the time, the cause of 97% of diseases that were diagnosed with, whether that is cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, mental health disorders, autoimmune you know 97% the time for 97% of the diagnoses that are out there.

Speaker 3: 35:27

Isn't that crazy.

Speaker 1: 35:29

You know, and I'll say one more thing though the stress doesn't have to be the outside stress, it doesn't have to be the fact that you're a mom or a wife or a husband or a business owner. It's internal stress too. So these vitamin deficiencies, the food sensitivity is not getting the optimal nutrition Through your food as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:52

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting when you talk to.

Speaker 3: 35:55

You know people who, like, for example, my mom, who's 89, and just the way that she grew up, like how she grew up, and she, you know, she does actually take some vitamins now she's finally come over to the dark side with me but she she was like for a long time didn't understand.

Speaker 3: 36:11

She's like I understand like why you should be able to get everything you need from food and I eat all different kinds of foods and whatever I'm like you don't understand that, like you know, you didn't have to live through all the process, stuff that we did, and I'm probably I'm at least 20 years older than you Like even I had to live through less of it than you did. So I feel like women you know women that are now in their 20s and 30s are, you know, dealing more with infertility and more of these chronic diseases and things like that that you went through. People might be like, oh my god, she's so young, why does she have all those issues? Well, I mean, look at the environment that we're in. It's just so much more toxic and more processed and Things that we have to deal with, whether we're eating, breathing, drinking, whatever it is right, right, and you're absolutely right.

Speaker 1: 36:57

That's the same thing we'll get from clients is well, I never had a gluten allergy before. Why do I have it now? Or I never had blood sugar issues 10 years ago? Why? And I don't eat any different now than I did 10 years ago? Why is this happening? And there's two cause, two reasons. One, our hormones change, which changed the way that we're able to metabolize different foods and sugars and carbohydrates, but to the amount of genetically modified organisms, gmos, that are in our foods, the amount of processing that's occurring through our Gluten and our wheat, through the dairies, to be able to Mask produce or to extend the shelf life.

Speaker 3: 37:39

Oh yeah, totally, totally, um. So I think it's just. It is just so interesting just to you know, talk about how things have changed over time and and all that and how we have to look at things differently and, you know, treat things differently. What kinds of things are you seeing in your practice now, like what typically is the issue that most or more people are coming to you for?

Speaker 1: 38:09

Great. So when I first started my practice back in 2020, we were primarily a weight management, so we treated a lot of individuals who wanted to lose weight or had pre-diabetes or diabetes, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, so it was primarily revolved around weight when I first started. But now that you know from my own personal journey and Now that gut health is becoming so much more popular and people are hearing more about it, we've really shifted to probably 60% of our practice being more Revolving around gut health and autoimmune disease.

Speaker 1: 38:52

So again going back to some of the things I've already listed, but the skin disorders, the migraines and headaches, the sleep concerns low energy levels, hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune thyroid disease, arthritis, joint pain, fertility. We've really shifted into more of that autoimmune world, though we still treat everybody with the nutrition changes. So we have to get down to your macro nutrients, meaning your proteins or carbs, your fats, what types of foods you're eating, what is right for your body versus not your vitamin levels. So, even if they are coming in for gut health or they are coming in for weight management, we're still covering all the bases.

Speaker 3: 39:38

Yeah, and it's interesting, as you were talking, I'm thinking to myself Well, all those things you're saying high stress, lack of sleep, you know, many of the things you listed are the reasons why people probably gain weight. Right, like the gaining weight is more like the symptom, correct, and it's trying to figure out like, oh well, why is this happening? It shouldn't just like, like you were saying earlier, you know, you know, oh, we just say, well, this is, I'm getting older, so this is what's gonna happen. No, you shouldn't necessarily have all these issues or even gain weight as you get older, unless you become more and more sedentary, right?

Speaker 1: 40:14

But yeah, that's exactly it, you're. You hit it on the nail, the that we have to Look at the hormonal changes that are happening and, yes, we can't prevent the hormones from changing right as we age, the women's hormones change, the male hormones change, but what the problem is is how are how we react to that, so our ability to break down food, our ability to process foods, our ability to maintain our vitamin levels and that, again, is really what we need to be targeting in order to prevent that part of the weight gain or the headaches or the sleep issues happening.

Speaker 3: 40:53

So I think what's awesome Just I just want to mention this quick before we go to another break is that when people come to see you, the cop I mean, from what I'm hearing, the comprehensiveness of what you do is amazing. I mean versus like you go to your traditional medical person, you probably aren't even going to see the doctor you might see like an APRN or a nurse practitioner or whatever. They're gonna spend 15 minutes with you maybe and probably just write you a prescription, whereas with you guys it's like wow, I mean it's a lot of comprehensive work and discussion and testing and all that kind of thing. So I want to touch on that. When we come back you're listening to the doctor Dianna with me, dr Diane Hayden. I'm gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we'll be talking more about functional medicine with Jenny Berman, owner of Berman health and wellness. Stay tuned, we'll be right back. We're back on the Dr Diane show with me, dr Diane Hayden. You can learn more about me at wwwdrdianhadencom.

Speaker 3: 42:00

I'm talking today with Jenny Berman. You can learn more about her at wwwbermanptcom. Forward slash wellness. That's B-E-R-M-A-N-P-I-S-N-P-I-S-N-T-O-M dot com. Forward slash wellness. Before we broke, we were talking about just the comprehensiveness of your practice, jenny, when you see a new patient, all of the things that you do for them. So kind of walk me through. Let's say I'm a new patient coming to you for the first time and I know it's different based on what are my health issues? What am I presenting with that kind of thing? But in general, what would someone expect by becoming a patient of yours? Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 42:42

First and foremost, we started off by seeing the patient for the first initial consultation for an hour, or going through their very in-depth medical history, from being very young to where they're at now, what their goals are, medicines, et cetera. A lot of individuals will be like I have never told a doctor this much information in an hour ever. But that information, as long as they're open to giving it to us, is really important for us to navigate where we're gonna go on their health journey to reach the goals they wanna reach. So going through that very detailed medical history is important, reviewing any testing, that blood testing that they've already had done. But from there we'll generally recommend doing our panel of blood testing, which is certainly more in-depth than we generally get at a physical exam every year by our primary peers, and we decide on what blood testing our individuals, our clients, need, based on their goals and their history. So, in addition to our normal plan as far as blood work goes, where we generally will check about 13 blood tests, if there's anything additional we need to do food sensitivity testing, stool testing, micronutrient testing. We have the ability to do it, but we won't do it on everyone if they don't need it, and after that, our clients will work with us on a weekly basis, working with our dietary team.

Speaker 1: 44:09

So, you mentioned, we have two registered dietitians, so they will work with the dietary team and the medical team so the PA or the nurse practitioner as well to really navigate through this health journey, figuring out what foods you're exactly right for them, what their fuel is gonna look like as far as how much protein, how many carbs, how many fats should they be eating, and what does that look like Providing them.

Speaker 1: 44:35

Specific examples of this is what a day looks like. These are some items for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Do you like to cook all of your meals or do you need something more convenient? Doing our follow-up, blood testing, making sure that what we're doing nutritionally and supplement-wise is working well for them. So, as you mentioned, it's very comprehensive but also very personalized. We need to be able to speak to you at least once a week, or a couple of times a week, to make sure that we're answering your questions and guiding you appropriately and most importantly to developing a lifestyle, something that can be we can do it for the next three months and help you reach your goals over the next three to six months, but it's something you have to be able to maintain forever, regardless of what your goals were.

Speaker 3: 45:22

Yeah, I think that's so important. To Try to get people's minds wrapped around is it's like don't think of this, like, oh, I'm just gonna do this diet for three months or whatever, and then I'm gonna be able to do whatever. We need to figure out ways where we can, like you said, make this more of a lifestyle, and maybe now that's the word that people are getting stuck on like, oh, I have to make this a lifestyle, just like before it was like, oh, I have to do this diet. But think of it in ways, of good ways. It doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice everything. It means how can we create a plan for you that is gonna be something you're gonna stick with, not something you're gonna power yourself through for three months and then be like, okay, I'm done. That's why people might lose the weight or might get rid of their issues, but then, a year from now, they're back in the same spot.

Speaker 1: 46:14

That's exactly it. And I tell all our clients we live in Naples, florida, so we're a very popular happy hour time location and so I tell them I'm not gonna take your wine away, but I do need to know how much wine you're drinking so I can modify the rest of your day to account for that and certainly we'll make the healthier recommendations. But again, I'm not gonna tell you to do something that you don't see yourself doing forever.

Speaker 1: 46:40

And you mentioned earlier on in our talk here that just because we do food elimination or food sensitivities doesn't mean we're avoiding these foods forever. We have to get to a point where we can heal your gut enough or get you to optimal, to where then we can start reintroducing the foods or modifying. And I also tell everyone from the start is what you start out with. Here is not where you're gonna be six months from now, because as we heal or as we get to a maintenance state where now we can maintain, we have to adjust for that. So your nutrients will change again and the types of foods you're eating will change again.

Speaker 3: 47:21

Yeah, we've gotten so far away from, like the way our ancestors ate, based on seasons and things that were available, because now you can just go to the grocery store and get whatever you want anytime of year, and so I think so many people tend to fall into eating the same thing I mean, even I'm guilty of that, like I, just out of convenience sake, like I do, I try to rotate through things that I find myself falling into that pattern of oh my God, I've had the same thing for breakfast for like the last six months, I don't know. Right, right, and so that's when food sensitivities can develop, and sometimes it's just a matter of okay, let's switch this up, introduce different things, and then, in three months or six months, maybe you could introduce eggs, for example, like back into your diet.

Speaker 1: 48:08

That's exactly it. And same thing goes for our metabolism. The metabolism gets used to doing the same thing every single day for months and years. We have to have that confusion. We hear muscular confusion right In the gym. We can't do the same workout all the time. But the same thing goes for your metabolism. You have to have that metabolic confusion or the metabolic adjustment where you have the change and you're altering. We call our plan a flexible eating plan. Right, you're not gonna be strict and diligent seven days a week for months on end. We can't do that. We have to have flexible eating and that's why we go off of macronutrients, meaning that level of protein, carbs, fats, why we don't focus on calories, why we don't give you a set meal plan and say, here, eat this, good luck. Because we have to have the ability to be flexible?

Speaker 3: 49:02

Yeah, yeah for sure. So what would you say is the primary goal of your practice?

Speaker 1: 49:08

And that's a challenging thing to answer, but if I had to summarize it, it's longevity. Our primary goal is to improve the quality of life, so not just adding years to your life, but quality years to your life. And so, for you, adding quality years of your life maybe that you can continue to cycle for another 10 years versus another client is just to be able to get on the ground with their grandkids and get back up for the next five years. So it has to be based on their personal goals. But we want to add quality to you, and so if I had to summarize it in one takeaway for the client or the individuals listening here, it's really question your providers, question yourself that you're seeing the right person to look further into your body.

Speaker 1: 50:01

Are you being treated for a symptom? Are you being treated for the actual problem, to fix the symptoms and to prevent you from having to use medications long-term?

Speaker 3: 50:13

Yeah, for sure. It was so funny as you were saying like maybe you want to cycle or maybe you want to play with your grandkids and I'm thinking Naples, Florida, people, just want to play pickleball, Pickleball yeah, so I almost said that, but you're exactly right.

Speaker 1: 50:26

I just had a client today. I was talking with she's up in the Cape but coming back next week and she's, like I, already booked my pickleball lessons.

Speaker 3: 50:36

Oh my God, it's so funny. It's getting crazy up there too as well, like we go back and forth to Connecticut and we've got friends that live in our complex that are from Rhode Island or Massachusetts or whatever, and it's booming up there too. So, yeah, and that's the thing I think people down here in Florida they are more just make conscious, I guess, of how do I want my quality of life to be in my retirement, or for the last 20 years or whatever it might be? And they're more where I don't know whether it's just the weather or we're out more. You have the ability to be out more, all those things probably but I think people are definitely more conscious of it.

Speaker 1: 51:16

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 51:17

So this has been awesome. Jenny, thank you so much for all the amazing information. Again, people can learn more about you at wwwbermanptcom. Forward slash wellness and I wanna thank you so much for all of your time and all the great information, and definitely people will be reaching out to you for sure.

Speaker 1: 51:36

Thank you so much. I had a great time here and we'll be happy to talk with anybody that comes our way.

Speaker 3: 51:44

Awesome, awesome, and I wanna thank all of you for tuning into the Dr Diane Show. Please join me the first and third Thursdays at 11 am Eastern, 8 am Pacific. Next time on the show we'll be discussing more about the power of thoughts and beliefs and the impact they have on your life. Have a great week and I will see you back here next time. Thank you for tuning into the Dr Diane Show. Revolutionary expansion of mind, body and soul. With me, dr Diane Hayden. Tune in every Thursday at 8 am Pacific, 11 am Eastern, on transformationtalkradiocom Center your thoughts on what you want and shut the door on every suggestion of fear, worry or lack from your own consciousness or the consciousness around you. Once you master that, everything is possible. To learn more about me, dr Diane, and receive a free digital subscription of my magazine, visit naturalnutmegcom.