The Paid Leave Podcast

A Doctor is Helping Women Get Healthier and Using Social Media as a Tool

• The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority • Season 4 • Episode 6

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In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, we are talking to a doctor who is a social media influencer about her expertise in telehealth. March is Women’s Health Month and International Women's Day is March 8th, and my guest is a leader in women’s health and longevity medicine. Dr Tania Elliott is dual board certified in Internal Medicine and Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dr. Elliott embraced telemedicine first as a physician, and then as Medical Director of Doctors on Demand. She is currently Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care at Ascension, one of the largest healthcare systems in the country including 150 hospitals in 20 states. She serves regularly as a healthcare broadcast media expert and is featured on top shows including Good Morning America, Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, The Doctors, and CBS This Morning. She has over 250 million likes on her social media platforms.

Dr. Elliott discusses the importance of paid leave programs like Connecticut's for new parents. She highlights the benefits of extended leave for bonding with babies and prenatal care. She emphasizes the long-term impact of postpartum care and the need for extended support.

To follow Dr. Tania Elliott go to Dr. Tania Elliott | Doctor

Follow Dr. Tania Elliott on social media on Facebook @TaniaElliott on Instagram @drtaniaelliott on Tik Tok @drtaniaelliott

For more information or to apply for benefits go to ctpaidleave.org

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Nancy Barrow:

Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more. Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. March is Women's Health Month, and International Women's Day is March 8. And my guest is a leader in women's health and longevity medicine. Dr. Tania Elliott is a social media influencer and dual board certified in internal medicine and allergy and Clinical Immunology. She embraced telemedicine, first as a physician and then as medical director of doctors on demand, developing the nation's first fully employed nationwide virtualist physician workforce. She's currently chief medical officer at virtual care at Ascension, one of the largest health care systems in the country, including 150 hospitals in 20 different states. She served as Clinical Solutions medical director at Aetna, supporting the development of digital engagement and behavior change strategies for Women's Health virtual primary care and cardiovascular disease. And Tania currently chairs the telemedicine and technology task force for the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology and the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, and has published multiple peer reviewed journals. She served regularly as a healthcare broadcast media expert, regularly featured on top shows like Good Morning America. Rachel Ray, Dr Oz, Dr Phil, The Doctors, CBS This Morning, and many others. And she's a busy doctor and a busy mom. And welcome to The Paid Leave podcast Dr. Elliot!

Tania Elliott:

Thanks for having me!

Nancy Barrow:

So nice to have you. And how did you decide on the dual certification? How did you become interested in both?

Tania Elliott:

Yeah, so in order to do allergy and immunology, you have to do either pediatrics or internal medicine. And when I was in my final year of internal medicine residency, that's when I got turned on to allergy and immunology before that, believe it or not, like they don't teach much allergy in medical school. And then even in residency, you don't get much exposure to it. So I happened to do a rotation, and I was like, wow, this is really interesting, because it's one of the few fields where you're still dealing with a diagnostic dilemma. And what I mean by that is usually when you go to your doctor, like a specialist, like you already have the diagnosis, and then they're just kind of managing the condition, whereas with allergy, people are like, something crazy happened to me, help me figure out what's going on. Or like, am I allergic to this food? Am I reacting to something in my home? And so it really requires someone doing that detective work and really being a good, active listener to try to deduce and understand what it is that's going on. And then the immunology part is super interesting, because, you know, our immune system fights against infection. Our immune system can sometimes fight against ourselves, right, when autoimmune conditions. So it was just really a fascinating space to learn about the way in which the immune system works and how it can react to things that are normally occurring in the environment and think that there's something foreign, right? That's allergies, and then when they react to things within our own body, and that's autoimmune and I was lucky enough to do a fellowship that had both rheumatology, which Historically and traditionally focuses on autoimmune disease and the allergy part, because it's just two sides of the same coin, which is the immune system.

Nancy Barrow:

Is it very biased towards women having more chronic health conditions like that?

Tania Elliott:

Autoimmune disease is more common in women, and we think it has to do, of course, with our hormones and our hormones changing and fluctuations and relationships between our hormones and our immune system cells that aren't as well understood. We also know that, like during menopause, for example, asthma gets worse. We know also that as we age, we tend to get more sensitive to allergic skin disease and personal products we're suddenly we're like reacting to products and stuff on our skin that normally we're able to tolerate and get weird rashes and things like that. And we do know that there's a correlation between our estrogen levels, and the fluctuations and changing and changes in our estrogen levels and the development of allergies.

Nancy Barrow:

How did you make the leap to telehealth? Was it the pandemic?

Tania Elliott:

No, I was an OG, okay, this is like the pandemic. I actually that's when I took the role at Ascension, when during at the height of the pandemic, they're like, Oh, you're the telehealth lady, and they brought me on to oversee all, all of the virtual care, which is essentially all of the outpatient care that was being delivered, because all the offices were closed. But I was an OG and the way I got into it was I started practicing allergy on on Park Avenue. And I remember we used to hand our pay. So a sheet of paper, and it would be a picture, like a little diorama of their root, their home, and we'd say, okay, circle areas, or put an X in an area where you have a carpet, and put an X in the area where you have curtains or drapes. And I was like, This is ridiculous. This little diorama I'm looking at, and I'm asking these questions, can I just see into your house, for God's sakes, because I might be able to identify something that you didn't think to draw on this little piece of paper, right? Like, I might say, you know, Nancy, that plant behind you is that synthetic? It could be what's contributing to your symptoms, because it's off gassing volatile organic compounds, right, right? Or, like, how long ago were your walls painted and you wouldn't think to tell me about the fake plants you have in your house, right? And so we were, I was very limited in the diagnosis I can make, but meanwhile, everything I would say is avoidance of your triggers. That's the first line of treatment, avoid your triggers. But then I didn't have line of sight into what those triggers were. So I had also, during my last year of residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center, did home visits where we went into people's home. These were elderly patients who couldn't come in to see us in the office. But I was so fascinated by how people were living their lives. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm missing so much when they are just coming into my office on my terms, I'm missing the whole context. Like, of course, they're not going to be able to, like, go pick up their medications because, you know, there's this limitation, or, of course, they're having breathing issues because the quality of the air in their home is horrible, or they live in an apartment and the people next door are smoking where there's a rodent infestation, or all these other things that I would have never, like, come into mind. So I was in New York City, and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna just like, knock on people's door, go to people's houses, right? And then I'm like, this isn't gonna scale. I'll see like, three people, and then I'll be stuck in traffic all day, and this is not a scalable business. And so I thought, what if I did a Skype a Skype tour. That was when Skype was, Skype was big. And then, interestingly, you know, I, of course, I told my mother about this idea, and she called me one day, and she's like, Tanya, Dr Phil stole your idea. And I'm like, What are you talking about? She's like, Dr Phil stole your idea. He came up with this company. It's called Doctor On Demand. And the doctor comes up on the screen like a Skype and then you can do a visit with them. I just saw it on his show. So I go and I look up this whole Doctor On Demand thing, and thing, and it had just launched, and I'm like, Oh man, Dr Phil stole my idea, which, you know, the technology, right? This idea of being able to do a video visit, right? You write in your symptoms, you click a button, and then, like, the doctor pops up on the other side of the screen. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I could utilize this for my allergy home visits. I can utilize this for urgent care issues, and if someone has a rash, they could show me right away while it's happening, instead of waiting to get an appointment with me. So then I, like, became hooked very early on, I joined Dr on demand. I saw 1000s and 1000s of patients through telehealth, and then was like, I'm going to teach every doctor how to do telehealth. And there's way more applications than just allergy we could do virtual primary care, virtual urgent care. Behavioral Health is huge. When you're able to see into someone's home environment, even to say, like it's so dark in your house, turn on the lights, get sunshine into your home, all these things. And that was it. I was the telehealth evangelist. That's what got me started in Telehealth.

Nancy Barrow:

I saw you on my local TV station on Tuesday. You were talking about it. I think a doctor's best study about gaps in heart health. Tell me about that study, and it's the number one killer of women.

Tania Elliott:

It's the number one killer worldwide heart disease, right? Number one killer. Doctors best commissioned a survey just to understand, like, what do people understand and know about heart health? And they do. They typically will do a survey each year to get a gage and an understanding 60% of the survey respondents didn't know their heart disease risk. And I'm saying but one person dies every 34 second from a heart attack, every 34 seconds from a heart attack, but 60% of the respondents didn't know their heart disease risk. So that's really concerning, and it is the number one killer in men and women. And what happens in women if they don't receive any hormone replacement therapy, like they're that's it, estrogen and progesterone are protective of heart disease, right? So the minute you lose that, then all of a sudden, your heart disease risk skyrockets. And the other thing that's scary, you know, awareness is really important for in women, is when you think about symptoms of a heart attack. What do you think about?

Nancy Barrow:

Like someone touching their heart and you know,

Tania Elliott:

Chest pain, right? Yeah, in women, we typically do not present that way. We present with jaw pain, dizziness, back pain, shoulder pain, indigestion. So it's important for women to know that these are the signs and symptoms of a heart attack in women, attack in women, and when we look back at the data, the reason we were not aware of this, and the reason we called it atypical symptoms, is because all the symptoms and signs and studies around heart attacks and medications for heart disease were done in men. So it's really important for us. Understand. Now we know, and now it's important to get that awareness out around signs and symptoms of heart disease or a heart attack in women. Yeah, so jaw pain, it's not go to the dentist, it's it. Could there be something with my heart? So that's really important.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, lovely. And how did you start your focus? I know it was with Aetna, but like you did a lot of advocacy on women's health. You develop clinical programs specifically for women. Can you talk about that? What, what was, what was your reasoning for that?

Tania Elliott:

Yeah, you know, it's both personal and professional. When I was at Aetna, I was pregnant with my daughter, and when you go through it yourself as a doctor, and you recognize all the gaps in care, and you're like, I'm a doctor, and I can't figure this out. I can't imagine what patients go through. And like, I have to do something about this, right? And so one of the programs was, how do we improve access to GYN OBGYN, or just improve access to education around maternity, because lots of times, women don't even get care until they're in their second or third trimester. So that's one challenge, then this huge gap around even. I was so stressed out when I was pregnant about what prenatal vitamin to take, and I was shocked that there's no standardization. I'm like, What do you mean this range of folic acid, and, you know, make sure it's at least 800 milligrams, or don't go over 1000 milligrams. So then I was stressing out that I was going to take too much folic acid, and then I'm like, well, am I getting the right rest of the supplements? And why are these all different? And like, why don't we have a standard of care prenatal vitamin? I don't understand that. So if I'm confused and I'm looking at papers in clinical studies and talking to my doctor friends to try to figure out what prenatal vitamins to take. What is the regular person doing? So there was a huge gap there. And just to pause on that for a moment, folate is really important for neural tube development for babies like in the first trimester, right? Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate. So our bodies, when we take when we get too much of it, we can't break it down properly, and it becomes toxic at too high of doses. So what you want to take is methyl folate, which is the naturally occurring form of it. And so like, that's another eye opening thing that people need to be made aware of, that it's methyl fully. You know, when we're taking supplements, we want to take, make sure that we're taking the supplements that are naturally occurring, not synthetic supplements that our body can't doesn't know what to do with, and then it can build up and become toxic. So we're so many things like that, on the education side, on the access side, and we wanted to do at Aetna was design a virtual front door for people to be able to get education, get their questions answered, get reminders around, like when they should be following up with their clinician. And then the other piece of it was like, I can't be going to the Doc. I'm pregnant, but I'm also busy. I cannot be going to the doctor 10 times a month. It felt like, right? Can't we do some of this virtually, and so, like, you know, and this work continued when I was at Ascension, which was, like, which visits are essential to have in person, and which visits can I do from home with a scale? Right? Because they're just basically a scale and maybe a piece of measuring tape to measure my, like, waist, you know, my circumference of my belly, right, right? And reduce this burden on women who are already swollen, not feeling well, tired, not sleeping, have indigestion, reduce that burden of like, having to go in to see the doctor a million times, right? Which are essential and which are non essential. Because my goal is really to, like, help people live their life out of the doctor's office and empower people with like, healthy lifestyle choices, and just keep them out of the office. I want you living your life and enjoying it, so only come to me when it's necessary, when we really need to do something hands on, or if you're really not feeling well, right?

Nancy Barrow:

And obviously, like a C section, you would go in, obviously. But how does, how do C sections impact a baby's immune system? Does it? Does it affect a baby's immune system?

Tania Elliott:

Yes. So look, if a C section is an emergency, we got to do the C section. I had two emergency C sections. They were not fun, right? However, C sections are vaginal deliveries are important because it's a baby's first exposure to the right kind of bacteria. So it helps to train and teach the immune system really early on, and it also transfers healthy molecules and compounds that a baby needs in order to develop their immune system effectively. So when you bypass that vaginal canal that it's got all that good bacteria, you're bypassing that first important exposure that's teaching your immune system like, Hey, welcome to the world. Here's everything you need as you slide out, right, right? And so what you end up seeing is that babies that are born by C section tend to have more allergies, because allergies are our immune system. Reacting to something that's normally occurring in the environment. So it's basically our immune system's getting miswired in the wrong types of messages because they're not getting the right exposures early on. So C sections are a risk for allergies, and people who like live on a farm. People have older siblings, people babies, you know, who have, like, pets in the home within the first 12 months of life, they're golden. They are way less likely to have allergies because they're basically rolling around in dirt, and they're like, Oh, this is good, this is bad. And your immune system is learning when you're in, like, an urban environment and you're being, you know, hand sanitizer all around and you're not getting exposed or getting antibiotics early, or the mom got antibiotics during pregnancy. That's when the immune system gets confused and it starts reacting to things that are normally occurring in the environment.

Nancy Barrow:

It's interesting, like you say that, you know, going to the doctor's office, it really takes a lot of time out of a mom who's working, you know, she has to get in the car, she has to go to the doctor, she has to see the doctor, she has to come home. You know, this is The Paid Leave Podcast, and I guess I'm wondering how important are programs like Connecticut Paid Leave that give parents up to 12 weeks of income replacement to bond with their babies, whether by birth, adoption or fostering, but also we give an extra two weeks for prenatal care, so they get an extra two weeks before the baby's born to go to those doctor's appointments. How important are programs like this to people that you see and treat

Tania Elliott:

So important. And I wish it was longer, like in Poland, people have off for a year. I'm like, what I'm moving I know, you know, we're the only, you know, country that has such few leaves. So, like, that's why it's really important to take as much of the time as you can and understanding that there's Connecticut Paid leave, and then there may be whatever it is your employer offers. So go for the state Paid Leave, empower yourself and learn and understand and take advantage of all of the things that are available to you. Also, like, you know, checking with your insurance company. There's lots of stuff that's covered, like, you may have lactation consulting covered, and a number of other things that are covered that you wouldn't you might even have doula coverage. You never know, because you actually have to have that conversation and call because they're separate benefits from, like, your traditional plan. It's something that your employer may pay for that, like, it went to your work email, you never even saw it or knew it. So like, ask around, do the research, and then take advantage of all of those benefits. And especially, like, this is this blows my mind that, like, because there's like, 12 weeks of leave, and we talk about, like postpartum visit at like the 12 week mark, and then after that, the woman then will transition back to, like, her primary care doctor. In our minds, we think postpartum is only 12 weeks long, right? It's only three months long. And every woman knows it takes years for you to get back to who you were. But when you know before you had a baby, and then if you have consecutive kids, it could take a very long time. Take a very long time for your body to come back, for your mind to come back, for all of this. So I just want to, like, empower women and help them understand and acknowledge that, like, the postpartum period is more like 18 months. It's more like a year and a half. So don't just think you should be better and back to work and bouncing back to your pre pregnancy levels, just because, like, you're only you're getting 12 weeks off of work and your last doctor's visit is 12 weeks like, the journey to finding yourself again is a long one, you know, yeah, and there's lots of changes and lots of hormonal things that are going on.

Nancy Barrow:

It's really great that you said that, because, you know, we go from calendar year. So say you had your baby January 1, it resets that 12 weeks, you know, January 1 of the next year. So if you are battling, like you said, with postpartum depression, which can last, like you said, 18 months or longer, you can use Connecticut Paid Leave for mental health as well. So it's wonderful that we do that too.

Tania Elliott:

We all suffer from it. And like, it's, it's okay to say, I'm experiencing this, you know, yeah, giving everybody permission. Because, you know, we all go through it.

Nancy Barrow:

How did you get into social media, and how did that happen, that you got 350 million views, 200 million views on social media, like crazy.

Tania Elliott:

So I've been healthcare executive and this innovator in healthcare and digital health, and I've been doing that for like 10 or so years, maybe more 15 or so, 15 years, I'm dating myself, and I'd always been this person that was explaining these new models of care. And you know, the biggest challenge in telehealth right? Educating people on like, this is a modality that you can interact with your doctor. Educating doctors on like, Hey, this is a way that you can interact. So I was doing a lot of public speaking and television. And like I said, I got my start with Dr Phil's company. So I was on the Doctors TV show and the Dr Phil Show. And did a lot of media to, like, educate, hey, this is this whole new wave of medicine and healthcare. And I kind of like to say, like, I you know, is innovating from within and helping businesses and doctors understand these new care models and all this sort of stuff. And I really started missing the ability to reach patients. And I also you recognize when you're within healthcare that, like, there's so many challenges, and it's really messed up in a lot of ways. And I'm like, Gosh, I wish I could just figure out how to just keep everybody healthy and out of the healthcare system. It's really, it's helpful and good when you're sick and it's sick care, but like, the generally healthy people, like, there's not a lot of resources for like, let me, let me prevent you from getting sick. Let me help you stay healthy. So I'm like, I want to take all the skills I learned from like a public speaking and television, you know, and doing this for other companies, and do this for myself, as you know, to educate people on how to stay healthy. So I started doing social media. It was like November 2023 and like 10 posts in, all of a sudden it like blew up. And it's some one of my this post had like 20 million views, and I just started seeing, like, the followers go up, up, up, up. And I was like, I guess I'm on to something here. So I'd always love to do acting and television and education and public speaking. So what I also really like about it is it's a creative outlet for me, because, like, I care about my set and setting. I care about the graphics that come up behind me. I care about engaging people, and, you know, saying something that's going to matter, and, like, a 32nd sound by all that. So it's been really fun, and I really feel like I'm helping people, like, even if they just have, like, one takeaway a month of something that they didn't realize now, they have an aha moment and they're like, Oh, I could do that differently.

Nancy Barrow:

I washed my curtains because of you, because I know that you don't like curtains, you don't like rugs, you don't make your bed until like, mid morning. Like, there's so many cool things that I didn't realize that could lead to my allergies, because they've gone haywire this year, you know, they've just gone bonkers, and I'm getting allergy shots every week. But it's so interesting seeing you on Instagram and that you're so helpful with little tips that I

Tania Elliott:

Yeah, and it's fun, because some of the stuff, didn't think about! like, is lifestyle things, or, like, you know, little hacks when you travel and things like that. And so I'm able to bring like, little bit of that fun personality into stuff. I'm like, I could be like, the Martha Stewart of healthcare ya know!

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, I'll have to bring my own pillowcase when I travel now!

Tania Elliott:

That's for sure! That was a personal experience. And then I saw, I've seen tons of patients, but like, think about the quality of the sheets, even if you're at a fancy place, though, and they're high quality sheets. What kind of detergent are they using? You think they're like, investing in, like, fragrance free, plant based detergent, or they're just using commercial grade detergent, and they're washing your stuff with, like, a bunch of other disgusting towels and whatever else, and whatever else was on other people's sheets. And, like, you know, I It's bring your own pillowcase, just like use a t shirt if you forget, because sometimes I forget, just use one of your T shirts.

Nancy Barrow:

I love I love your hacks, and I think that you're so great on Instagram. So I do follow you on Instagram. I love it. I'll have to look at you at Tiktok because I'm a once I go down the Tiktok hole, though I'm down the Tiktok hole!

Tania Elliott:

I find it hard to even look at the platform. But don't most of it's the same. Every now and then, I'll do something a little different. A little different. I'm starting to do YouTube more now. That's really good, too, on YouTube, yeah. So that's really fun. And I'm going to, I've been doing some more travel stuff, which I really like to do. It's like, How to Travel healthy. So I just shot a really cool one on how I do Vegas healthy. Because anytime you think about Vegas. Think you come home and you're like, you know, wrecked, yeah, this is how you can do Vegas healthy in a weekend.

Nancy Barrow:

So your book, can you tell me what the topic is, or is that like, under wraps right now?

Tania Elliott:

Yeah, it's a little bit under wraps. But we did, I did put out just a, really a press release, but it is really reframing beauty and our reflection, like when we look in the mirror, not as something that's just an esthetic thing or a cosmetic thing, but actually as a more important biomarker of your health. And if you think about like, when you when your kid is sick, you know right away, you're like, Oh, you don't look right. But when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we're like, oh, I don't recognize that. But I'll get to it later. And it's empowering people to say, actually, no, this isn't just a beauty thing. This isn't something that, like, you know, putting on some makeup or concealer is going to fix, like, use it as a sign that maybe there's something going on internally. And prioritize your health.

Nancy Barrow:

Can you think of three things off the top of your head that might help people change their health?

Tania Elliott:

Well, sleep is really important. And you know, there used to be this whole like, I pulled an all nighter, and, you know, that's cool. I think we're moving away from that and recognizing we spend a third of our lives sleeping. So we should that's more than we spend working probably we should spend time prioritizing our sleep and getting it right. Um. Yeah, sleeping in pitch black as it relates to sleep. Sleeping in pitch black, not having any electronics in your bedroom. Like you don't need to have your phone by the side of the bed. No one's calling you at two in the morning. You have your phone on. Do Not Disturb anyway, like go put it in another room. And then showering and taking a hot shower before bed. So just trying those three things in the hot shower before bed, when your core body temperature raises, then you're you get ready and, like, prepared for sleep mode, because then your body tries to, like, cool down, which is what your body does, like, overnight. So those three things to help with sleep, and just understanding that sleep is a priority. The other thing, just last thing around sleep, is that melatonin that people take and they think is fine because it's been marketed as all natural. It's it's a hormone. Let's just call it what it is. It's a hormone. And there are ways for you to naturally boost your own melatonin levels. By sleeping in pitch black, you'll boost your own melatonin levels, and you could drink tart cherry juice at night, or have a handful of walnuts and pistachios, both naturally containing melatonin. So I would opt for natural ways to increase our melatonin, not to take this hormone, which it's a supplement, which means it's not regulated, which means you could be taking, you know, it might say one milligram on the label, and you could be taking 50 milligrams and not realizing it, because the concentrations of it are all over the place. So, yeah, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. Actually give you a million other things, but I think that that like focusing on prioritizing your sleep, you see the effects of after one night's sleep. That's bad, so imagine the cumulative effects of that. Yeah, women consider hormone replacement therapy, because taking micronized progesterone in the evening can help prevent that 2am wake up wired like, Oh my gosh. You know, from 2am to 5am that's probably due to your progesterone being low.

Nancy Barrow:

Really interesting. And what advice would you give women? You know, we get mammographies, like, we know that those are things markers that we should do. What other tests should women do for overall health? Like I know that you said heart health.

Tania Elliott:

Yeah, that's a really important question. And just as it relates to mammography, it's important, and I would even advocate for women in their 30s to have it done. But more importantly than that, and you know, some people argue, let me just say some people argue about mammographies and there being radiation and this and that, and there's always a risk benefit of everything we do. The amount of radiation is exceedingly small. The ability to identify micro calcifications early is, you know, incredibly important. So let's just say that. But self breast exams are one of the most important things that women can do, and it baffles me that the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against them, and the rationale is it's going to lead to more unnecessary tests, because women will identify something, and apparently women are not intelligent, right? And so they're going to identify it, they're going to do the test wrong, and they're going to do the evaluation wrong, then they're going to go to their doctor. It's going to lead to more downstream tests. So that is a decision that that is like an insurance company pocket decision, that's not a decision that's in the best interest of the patient if we're worried that it's going to lead to unnecessary tests. And let's invest in education for women on how to do a self breast exam and what's normal and what's not normal to help reduce the number of unnecessary, you know, scares that come into the doctor's office. But you know your body. You need to know your breasts. You should be doing self breast exams. It's free, and most of the women I know in their 30s identified a lump, went in, advocated for themselves, and that's the only reason why it was identified early. So that's incredibly important in terms of a test. The second test that's important is a DEXA scan. But I'm not talking about a DEXA scan when you're 65 years old. I'm talking about getting a DEXA scan early in your 40s, even if you have to pay out of pocket to understand what your risk is, because then you could really do something about it, as opposed to waiting until you're 65 when you have a high fracture risk, when you probably already have osteoporosis, and now you have to be on an injection medication. Also, it's not a test, but doing strength training, but because before you start to lose bone, you start to lose muscle, and that's a really big problem, especially now as more and more people are on GLP ones to help lose weight, you have to also work to build your muscles. So that involves eating whole foods with high protein content and doing strength training. And I don't care if it's just resistance, like you're just doing 10 squats a day, whatever it is, but building those large muscle groups is really, really important to prevent complications like fractures. It's also good for your overall skin and your brain health and everything. So strength training is really important.

Nancy Barrow:

Right and what would you like people to take away from this podcast with you? Dr Elliot, I know that you really treat a lot of chronic health conditions! To follow me on social media! How do they do that?

Tania Elliott:

I think knowing your body is one really important thing, and being in tune with your body, I think we're in our heads a little too much, and then we talk ourself out of things. So like, knowing your body, being in tune with your intuition, those things are really important. And I always go back to, like, as a mother, when you know there's something off about your child, you don't ignore it, but you also but, but like, we often turn off those intuitive signals when it comes to ourself and our own health, and we need to, like, drop into our bodies more. I think that that's really important. Another takeaway is I'm concerned about social isolation as much as I'm like the telehealth and technology person, and I'm telling people to go on social media and all this sort of stuff. I really want people to find their people and find their community, because social isolation is an independent risk factor for early mortality, and loneliness is a risk factor for early mortality, and so I want people to like prioritize hanging out with friends and finding like minded people. Like, I'm not saying go out for dinner and drinks and like, eat a bunch of unhealthy food and drink alcohol. Maybe go on a sauna date. Maybe go on a walking date. Maybe do like, a healthy potluck with people in your neighborhood. Or do a healthy eating challenge with like, some friends and stuff and like, make your health journey also an excuse or reason to connect with other people in community. Take a gardening class, I don't know, but making your health a way in which you can engage and interact with others, I think, is important.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, super important. I want to thank my amazing guest, a medical social media influencer, a dual board certified doctor in internal medicine and Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Dr Tanya Elliot, thank you so much for being on The Paid Leave Podcast and being such a an amazing, interesting guest.

Tania Elliott:

Oh, thanks for having me. Nancy, this is great!

Nancy Barrow:

For more information or to apply for benefits, please go to ctpaid leave.org. This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening.

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Nancy Barrow

Host