Cocoa Pods
Podcast - Cocoa Pods Series: A feature of the Birth Center Foundation.
We discuss all things' women, all things' pregnancy, all things' after. Reasons why women fall very sick ( morbidity) or die (mortality) before pregnancy (adolescent girls and young adults),during pregnancy and after are discussed in this maternal morbidity and mortality reduction academy; especially with an emphasis on minority women, all over the world; and ways for all involved in care to work together collaboratively and mitigate and or eliminate risks in women’s health.
Cocoa Pods
Holistic Solutions & The Synergy of Natural and Conventional Medicine
Transform your health by tuning into our enlightening discussion with Dr. Jessica Patella, a leading naturopathic physician, as we uncover the simple yet profound benefits of naturopathic medicine. Discover how swapping sugary drinks for water can revolutionize your cellular health and learn about the integration of evidence-based practices within naturopathy, especially in maternal health. Dr. Patella highlights the importance of harmonious collaboration between naturopathic and conventional medical practitioners, emphasizing mutual respect and the enhancement of patient care through shared expertise. We also dissect the practicalities of naturopathic care, from treatment durations and costs to the often daunting hurdles of insurance coverage, advocating for a deeper understanding and education among healthcare providers.
Dive into the complexities of menopause management with homeopathic remedies tailored to individual needs, and uncover the power of diet and lifestyle changes in alleviating symptoms like mood swings and hot flashes. Explore the efficacy of botanical medicines such as black cohosh and African yam, and understand the long-term benefits they offer. Our conversation sheds light on the struggles faced by underserved women in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, offering tangible solutions like indoor walking and community gardens. We also stress the importance of holistic health practices, including stress management and adequate sleep hygiene, to achieve optimal health outcomes. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in bridging the gap between different healthcare approaches for comprehensive, integrative wellness.
One thing that is completely free. If you could just do one thing and that's to remove all of that soda or sugary drink whatever it is sweet tea in the South, right. And if you can just get somebody to replace all of their fluid intake to be water, that's free. The other things cost money and that is a huge, huge difference in the health right. And we know that the cells communicate, right, your cells are filled with water and so making sure that you're, you know, getting that healthy amount of water is literally going to help the cells and their ability to communicate in your body and that you can do without costing any amount of money. That would be very beneficial.
Dr Bola Sogade:Hello and welcome to CocoaPods podcast. My name is Dr Bola Sugade. I'm a women's health specialist. We have been talking to Dr Jessica Patella, a naturopathic physician, who has been talking to us about naturopathic medicine with respect to maternal health. So you know, now we want to look at evidence-based practices and some latest research in naturopathic medicine. Does the naturopathic doctor integrate evidence-based practices into their treatment?
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, absolutely, and I'm so glad you brought this up because I think there just needs to be so much more knowledge around this topic. And so, as naturopathic doctors, we're trained not only to reach out to our medical colleagues, so reaching out to the medical doctor, so that way we can work together. I think the best patient medicine comes when you have somebody that's well-educated in the natural and holistic sense, that also can work with the medical doctor, and it can almost become a team for that patient. So, you know, I feel like that is a great resource. But then we also, you know, read the medical journals and look at what is the most up to date with different supplements, herbal medicine, homeopathic medicine and how those are being used to treat different conditions and different disease states. So, absolutely, using medical research to guide what we're doing is absolutely used across the profession.
Dr Bola Sogade:Thank you. Thank you, and so it's best to have collaboration with people in what we call conventional medicine, or is there a lack of it most of the time? And I want to look into the relationship between naturopathic and conventional medicine. So is the naturopathic doctor open to collaborating with the conventional medical practitioners and vice versa? Have you seen anything?
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, the majority I mean I can't speak for everybody, you know, we're all different, but I know that that's how we were trained is that it's best to work as a team to help that patient and recognizing the differences in our education and background, right. And so you know, I fully recognize that I'm not an OBGYN and those are, you know, those are different skill sets that I don't have and I'm not able to do those things, but I can help with homeopathic remedies, right. So having that team to work together to help the mother in all those different aspects is very helpful. Now, this is just my personal opinion. I do feel like, as naturopathic doctors, we're more open to that collaboration.
Dr Jessica Patella:You know, even with medical doctors that I, you know, have worked with and I adore, there's a lot of like misunderstanding as far as the education and the background, and so I feel like sometimes that's a harder thing to jump, because they're like well, you know, you don't do anything that has any research and it's like well, we do. And there are medical journals that focus on a lot of the health related supplements and nutrition and diets. So, you know, I think it's just the more we learn and the better educated we become, hopefully the stronger that connection and that communication can become.
Dr Bola Sogade:Yeah, and I think everybody has to respect everybody else's line of expertise. And it would be nice to have naturopathic doctors present at the annual meetings, the annual conventions of OBGYNs, and vice versa. No knowledge is wasted. You know every knowledge is good. But you know, just moving on, there's the issue in terms of the duration of treatment, the frequency of visits and a personalized treatment plan. So you know, the women out there will want to know what are the costs associated with naturopathic care. Does insurance cover naturopathic treatments and, if not, what are the payment options? And I know naturopathic doctors put an emphasis on holistic and individualized care. So what are patients looking at cost-wise? So what are patients looking at cost wise?
Dr Jessica Patella:Great question. So the first visit with a naturopathic doctor and again, this varies based on the person, but that first visit is typically an hour to two hours long. It just depends on who you're meeting with. So a lot of time is spent understanding that patient, trying to understand what it's like to be in their shoes and to make the treatment plan individualized to them based on what their concerns are. A lot of times when I was in North Carolina, most of my time would be spent explaining labs and that they had two patients. So a lot of it comes down to spending time educating within that visit and trying to understand that person.
Dr Jessica Patella:And then follow-up visits get shorter you know 30 minutes, sometimes 20, because it kind of depends on what is needed for that person. And then as far as payment, most of it is cash-based, depending on the state. There are a handful of states out of the 26 where naturopathic doctors are on different insurance plans. So it kind of depends whether you are in a state that licenses naturopathic doctors. So if it's a licensed state, then some of those states do have insurance options for naturopathic doctors. So it's just going to vary based on where the where the woman is in the country.
Dr Bola Sogade:Yeah, this is almost like the problem we run into with birthing centers. Is it that the insurance companies just don't understand what naturopathic doctors do, or what freestanding birthing centers do, or what is involved in holistic care? Because why do you think most of the care is cash-based when it comes to payment?
Dr Jessica Patella:I know it's a great question and I feel like it's mostly poorly understood, right, like you know that the services that you're providing are actually saving a ton of money by having them in your center. It becomes a more intimate situation, right, it's a more peaceful situation overall. So they have this amazing benefit and probably even a little bit more of your time and attention, because it's it's done with that as the heart behind it. So I can't even begin to tell you that I understand insurance companies and why things are covered and why things aren't. But again, I just think most of what we do as naturopathic doctors right, if it was understood, the, the idea is that we save a lot of money for people in the long run.
Dr Jessica Patella:You know, I've had patients before where it's just teaching them about their body and how to kind of be aware of what they're eating and the different symptoms they have, and once they have that knowledge, that's there for the rest of their life, you know. So maybe it was an investment of a few hundred dollars over a period of time to come in and see me as we work through those things, but then that's life knowledge and they have that forever, versus just a script that you take and you pay that a few hundred dollars and you take it a few times. They now have a base knowledge that they can come back to at any time in their life. So yeah, it's just very different and I think probably most of it's just not understanding the benefit of the difference in a burning center in naturopathic medicine and how much it does offer.
Dr Bola Sogade:Thank you for that. The use of herbal medicine, botanicals, is a common practice in naturopathic medicine, that is, you may prescribe other remedies to address a range of health issues, and this brings me to the condition of menopause. Okay, how can homeopathic remedies address common symptoms of menopause, like the hot flashes, the night sweats, the mood swings, the sleep disturbances, the dryness in the female parts? Are there specific homeopathic remedies that cater to individualized symptoms experienced during menopause?
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, this is a great question. So and this helps me to describe a little bit about the kind of the list of remedies that I shared with you for labor and delivery A lot of times we see if it's an acute situation, right, like labor and delivery is acute, it's going to be very intense and it's going to last a short period of time. We see that certain remedies kind of show up and have that picture and we can kind of in acute, like almost like first aid type situations, things tend to follow the same symptoms, so it's easier to say like, okay, these would be the top remedies. When it comes to menopause, right now, we're looking at more of a chronic thing, right. So perimenopause can last for years. Some people it's a decade right Of their life as they're transitioning out of their menses. So that becomes more of a chronic remedy in the sense that every person that comes in with symptoms of menopause are likely leaving with a different remedy, because some people are having the mood swings and they're very irritable, but it's different things that are making them irritable, so that would indicate different remedies.
Dr Jessica Patella:As far as hot flashes, it depends almost where the heat is coming from in the body, right? Some people describe that it comes from like their abdomen and their core and it moves up their whole body. For other people it's like it starts at their head and it's moving down. For other people it's like it starts at their head and it's moving down. So all of those different things go into trying to figure out an individualized homeopathic remedy for that woman going through menopause. So it's a little bit different because it's more of a chronic state. So that would take a different individualizing that to that woman for that period of menopause. So yes, you can still use homeopathic remedies quite well, but it becomes a more in-depth process as far as finding it, because it's not like acute to where everybody gets the same exact symptoms.
Dr Bola Sogade:So can homeopathy provide relief from hormonal imbalances associated with menopause and lifestyle changes. Dietary recommendations that can complement homeopathic treatments for men diet.
Dr Jessica Patella:So almost every time I speak with somebody it's diet and supporting with that, so trying to get in. I mean it comes down to the basics, right. Usually it's trying to get in more vegetables, less sugar, less processed food. I mean that's kind of the basics of overall food. I mean that's kind of the basics of overall. And you know, then varying that based on the person and what they might be sensitive to or not sensitive to, you could totally work, depending on the state right. So some naturopathic doctors are able to prescribe, you know, bioidentical hormones, others are not right. So there's another way that collaboration can be really helpful of looking at the different labs and what the hormone levels are and collaborating with a medical doctor that can prescribe that, but then also adding that diet and also adding the homeopathic remedy into. So really collaborating on that I think would be the best, depending on, of course, what state you're in.
Dr Bola Sogade:Well, I've had, you know, African women like talk about the African yam and the skin of the African yam helping with menopause, and there's black cohosh out there. I mean, you know, what are some of the things that the actual things in homeopathic medicine that we could use in menopause, and are there side effects? How long does it take for them to kick in?
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, no, black cohosh and yam are both great remedies. So again, that's more of the botanical medicine. With botanical medicine it can take longer. In botanical medicine it can take one, two, sometimes three months to see that change. I think of it as almost like a more. It's almost like a more mild form, right. So it can kind of take a little bit longer to see those results when you're using it. Some people are very sensitive and they'll react fairly quickly. But with botanicals just be prepared that sometimes it can take a few months in order to experience the benefits of taking those.
Dr Bola Sogade:Thank you. You know you did talk about obesity and weight and we are experiencing an obesity epidemic in America. This is a field I believe especially emphasizes preventive health care, that is, homeopathy, and it promotes overall wellness and disease prevention. So how does the dietary advice you give and the recommendations for nutritional supplements help support health and address specific conditions such as obesity?
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, I did my research actually at Florida State on this, so let me try to remember the you know we have to give all these wordy titles to research. So it was lifestyle modification in lower socioeconomic, overweight and obese women with yes, I'm like, is that all the words, that I put them all in there. And so this was like right when pedometers were coming out, and so we were researching, you know, in exercise physiology, how much could movement help with these things? And I specifically wanted to look at glycosylated hemoglobin and see, okay, will movement help with, essentially, blood sugar? So like looking at diabetes there, essentially, and it was really an eye-opening experience.
Dr Jessica Patella:So we went into an area that was more underserved in Tallahassee, at Florida State, and a lot of our visit was like are you wearing this? I mean some, some of the steps for the whole day were three to 400 steps for the day, and so I don't know if you've counted your steps before, but that's kind of just getting up to go to the bathroom and that's about it for your whole day. So I think so much of it is is movement right? We have to move. Our bodies were made to move. Our bodies were made to move and do physical labor, which we don't really do much anymore, right? So most of us are sitting at desks most of our day and we get very little walking. So any opportunity there is to be outside walking, I think being outside helps so much with stress, no matter what the age, from young children all the way up to adulthood, right? So having that ability to just be outside, moving and walking as much as possible, and then with diet. So, you know, having this background in nutrition and I and I teach nutrition to students, and so I a lot of times I'll have them analyze different diets, because we get so much information and they're one of their final projects is usually to compare two different diets and I tell them you know, choose some that are the opposite ends of the spectrum, you know, choose a vegan diet versus, like, an omnivore diet. So like almost it's completely opposite as you can get, because when you read these things, they're all going to say that their way is the best, right, that what they're presenting is the best way, you know. So over the years I've read and studied so many different diets, typically across the board. Almost all of them remove sugar or limit it significantly. Most of them are removing more of the processed foods and grains and increasing our fruits and vegetables. So, across the board, with that knowledge, if people can add that in with with movement, I think that's really important.
Dr Jessica Patella:The challenge becomes the affordability right, it's very affordable. Well, I feel like this is starting to change. It's getting very expensive in our state of our economy right now, but it's more affordable for somebody to go to fast food and be able to use you know five, $10 to get a very calorie dense meal versus how many fruits and vegetables can they buy with that. You know it's very expensive. The thing of blueberries sometimes now is, you know, five to $7 versus you can go to go get a whole fast food meal. So this is where that like discussion I think needs to come in on creating like, almost like victory gardens that they had during World War II, where a community would come together and create a garden just to help with having those fresh things available for the little neighborhood. Essentially.
Dr Bola Sogade:Yeah, because that's a fact, because at times the underserved women or people with limited resources number one, they say you know they can't walk outside because the neighborhood is not safe. So we encourage them to, you know, maybe you know, walk within, indoors, within the apartment complex, up and down the steps, or find a park that they can go to. And some of them say, well, I just can't afford to eat healthily, I just, like you said, it's just so expensive. And I think you know the victory gardens, the community gardens, and you know, even when they get support from the government, making healthy choices, you know, can all help, you know, towards this better, healthy living. And you know weight management and obesity prevention. I mean you would agree with that right.
Dr Jessica Patella:Yes, and even you know, it just pops into my mind one thing that is completely free if you could just do one thing, and that's to remove all of that soda or or sugary drink, whatever it is sweet tea in the South right, every soda or or sugary drink, whatever it is sweet tea in the South right, every that's hard to take away from somebody, and if you can just get somebody to replace all of their fluid intake to be water, that's, you know that's free. The other things cost money and that is a huge, huge difference in the health right. And we know that the cells communicate right, your cells are filled with water, and so making sure that cells communicate right, your cells are filled with water, and so making sure that you're, you know, getting that healthy amount of water is literally going to help the cells and their ability to communicate in your body, and that you can do without costing any amount of money. That would be very beneficial.
Dr Bola Sogade:Yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. You know I don't believe conventional medicine adequately addresses stress like life stress.
Dr Jessica Patella:You know so as also a lifestyle counselor, I believe you are also a lifestyle degree or certification in that but that is a lot of what we do as naturopathic doctors is talking about what life stress is and what's going on.
Dr Bola Sogade:In our upcoming episode? Yeah, so well. As somebody who does lifestyle counseling, how do you work with patients to make positive lifestyle changes, including, you know, stress management, exercise sleep hygiene. You know dealing with life crisis. You know issues in life with all the ramifications of that. Thank you.
