Assure Wellness Group Coastal Carolina

In this episode, Christa sits down with Catherine Kittrell, owner of Assure Wellness Group Coastal Carolina, to discuss Hormone Replacement Therapy, or as Cathy calls it, “hormone optimization.”

Wondering if it's right for you? Tune in for an informative session where Cathy addresses common hormone-related issues like lack of sleep, weight gain, andropause or menopause symptoms, joint inflammation, and reduced sexual desire.

Cathy sheds light on the testing and diagnosis process, offering insights into individualized treatments. 

Assure Wellness Group not only specializes in hormone optimization and medical weight loss but also provides additional services such as Botox, fillers, body contouring, and more.

Join Christa and Cathy for a practical exploration of hormone-optimizing therapies and the wellness services available at Assure Wellness Group, Coastal Carolina!

Surf City Address: 13460 State Hwy 210, Ste 104, Surf City, NC 28445
Jacksonville Address: 624 New Bridge St, Ste 400-3, Jacksonville, NC 28540
Website: www.assurewellnessgroup.com
Phone: 866-551-6779
Email for Scheduling: dianajeanzuniga@gmail.com
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Transcript

Topsail Insider Intro and Coming Up

0:01

Welcome to the Topsail Insider Podcast, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns of the greater Topsail area of North Carolina. Coming up, I'm talking with Ms. Katherine Cottrell, owner of Assure Wellness Group, Coastal Carolina, with one location in Jacksonville and a new location in Surf City. We'll discuss hormone replacement therapy for both men and women, andropause and menopause, weight loss, Botox. Fillers, Cool Sculpting, and more. Stick around. Experience a new level of luxury on Topsail Island at Saltwater Suites in Surf City, North Carolina. With no nightly minimum, you can enjoy short getaways or an extended stay. Each suite features luxury bedding, full kitchens with dining tables and dishwashers. And all suites other than the three ADA suites have full size washers and dryers. And don't forget about those beautiful ocean views. 24 7 self check in provides a hassle free and seamless experience. Saltwater Suites is the perfect choice for your next beach getaway. Book your next Topsail visit at saltwatertopsail. com or call 910 886 4818. Saltwater Sweets, Topsail Island's Premier Luxury Hospitality Experience. Hello everyone and welcome to Topsail Insider Podcast. My name is Christa and I am your host. Today I'm interviewing Ms. Katherine Cottrell. She is the owner of Assure Wellness Group, Coastal Carolina, located in Jacksonville and Surf City, North Carolina. Welcome Kathy. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. Yeah. I appreciate it. Let's give everyone an overview of what your business is, what a Sure Wellness group is and what it's all about and what services you provide. Assure Wellness is actually a four practice group, and we have offices in Northern Virginia, Chesapeake, Jacksonville, and here in Surf City. Essentially a wellness practice looking at good health, ways to improve your health. ways to make you well, optimizing hormone therapies, medical weight loss. We do some Botox and fillers and body contouring. Some of my favorite things. Yeah. Not gonna lie. Okay. Um, you told me your mantra. Uh, when, in, in the pre interview, tell, let's tell everyone what the mantra is. I love it. Our mantra is live better, not just get better. You also mentioned that you are never too young to plan for aging well. And never too old to live longer and better. So when we spoke on the phone, you mentioned that you worked before you got into wellness. You worked for the ER and you worked in the urgent care. Did I get that right? You were in the medical field. Yes, ma'am. And for quite some time, actually, before turning to wellness care, can you tell me a little bit about your history? in the field, and then what prompted you to switch and ultimately open Assure Wellness? Sure. I went to medical school in Phoenix, Arizona, and then came back to my home where my family was at that time, which is Columbus, Ohio. And I worked in several emergency departments there, both in the community and at the university. Uh, Ohio State University and then, uh, Urgent Cares purchased a home here in Surf City about 18 years ago and started picking up some shifts at Onslow Memorial Hospital in the emergency department there. Had you always been vacationing here? We would vacation as little ones in Wrightsville and I wanted a beach house. and wanted to be able to go, from the cold winters of Ohio to the warmer temperatures here in North Carolina. So... Totally get it. Started looking for property and found this great home here. And are you still in that same home? Yes, ma'am. How about that? That's great. Yeah. Are you on the island? I am on the island. Okay. Yeah. What made you transition from traditional medicine to wellness care? As I spent time in the emergency departments, I became disappointed with the status quo. With, what we were offering to patients, which essentially was disease management. complications related to their disease management would often drive them to the emergency department. And it didn't seem to be the answer as COVID struck and we all struggled through that. It seemed to be worse and we were trying to find answers when I decided to make the transition to living down here in Surf City full time. I had to find better answers for myself. For yourself. Yeah, and that has worked out great and has been the precipitous to these practices and wellness. So you were working in the ER during the COVID outbreak? Yes, ma'am. Wow. It was a challenge. What city were you in at that time? Columbus, Ohio. I was at Ohio State in the ER. So how, how was that time? Can you tell me? Difficult. It was very difficult. We would have sometimes 10 and 12 hour waits. to see patients. Additionally, those who were sick and whatever your philosophy was regarding vaccines is your philosophy. But, um, we would have people who didn't vaccinate, who did vaccinate, complications from both avenues. And it was a challenge. It was difficult. Okay. Tell me how you got involved with Assure Wellness. Did you start Assure Wellness? I have a partner that I went to medical school with. Um, we have known each other for probably 25, 30 years almost. And I explained to him the challenges that I felt like I was facing. He knew I was moving this direction and his suggestion was to Let's look at opening some practices in your area. He had founded Assure Wellness in, started out in Chevy Chase near Washington, D. C. He expanded to Chesapeake when he left the military, which he was in the Coast Guard, and opened a practice in, Chesapeake, and then he's grown that practice. He's now back doing, Northern Virginia, which is in Arlington, right there near Washington. So, and then he was a great help. He was a great advisor. I was able to utilize his EMR system, which is our charting on the computers. And he's a great advisor. I have access to him pretty much 24 hours a day. You opened in Jacksonville first? Yes, we did. We opened in Jacksonville and, started out at a building there. and have slowly grown that practice while I was developing the practices. I was also working at the urgent care in Jacksonville. Okay. And then slowly worked my way out of there into the practices full time. And how long have you been in Surf City? We opened here in November of last year and we have been extremely successful. You just wanted to have a practice that was closer to home? Is that what? I really did. I didn't feel like we were fitting the needs of the patients, potential patients here in the. a surf city area in this, on the island, and I wanted to add that avenue to, to our practices. Well, I think it's great. And I think the really beautiful thing about what's happening in our area with the explosion of growth. and people are coming in and they're bringing their businesses with them or starting new things. I think all of us are kind of tired of driving to Jacksonville or Wilmington for everything. It's true. Yeah, it's nice. It's nice to have you here and, and have these businesses here now that we can just sort of really, really, truly keep it local. You mentioned in Jacksonville, the office that you're in or that you're moving in, it also has other things that are wellness related. Can you tell me about those? We happened upon this fabulous group. It's called the Dial Building, D Y A L, and it's downtown Jacksonville, actually directly across from the Children's Museum, which probably a lot of people know where that is. and they have really focused on health in general. so we have several augmentation to the, actual physical medicine that I would do. They have clinical psychologists, we have spin classes, we have Pilates, we have massage and aesthetics for your faces. There's a marketing firm there. They have really just... taken almost like one whole building and said, let's make it healthcare. How are you spending your time between the two locations? I spent mostly Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Jacksonville and Tuesday and Thursday here in Surf City. However, um, because I'm so close, I have no problem doing a Saturday in Surf City or swapping it around and doing a morning in Surf City and then going to Jacksonville in the afternoon. So speaking to that flexibility that you were just mentioning, you said that you're more like a concierge. Yeah, and I'm big on customer service, and I think there's so many places, especially after COVID, have suffered in the customer service area. Tell me a little bit about how you cater to your, you call them patients or your clients? I call them patients, but I completely agree with you, Christa, whether it's the grocery store, the pharmacy, or the gas station, I think customer service has seriously lagged since COVID. what we do is we allow our patients to have complete access to us. So they have my cell number, they can text me, they can call me. Um, having lived in the ER and kind of lived that 24 hour life, both my partner and I are more than willing to take calls and give advice and ask further questions and see, do we need to see you right away? Let's get you in. Which I think is a comfort for patients that, that haven't had that for probably three or four years. Alright, let's get into the services that you offer. I think the biggest, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but the biggest one seems to be hormone replacement therapy explain to us what hormone replacement therapy is. Christa, I think probably the best way to say it is hormone optimization. And what we do are bioidentical hormones, which essentially is what your body produces. We also call it bio human hormones. Hormone therapy started in probably the 1990s with products like Primarin and Primpro. And what transpired was these were actually synthetic hormones, which your body, your receptors in your body is not capable of accepting those molecules. And so you want to provide better optimization through things like Producing what your body already has. So as you age and you continue to lose hormones, the hormone optimization that we use is bio identical plant based producing what your body has produced in the past and your receptors in your body will pick up. that signal and start utilizing the hormones as your body is indicated to do so. Okay. Tell me some of the things that a man or a woman would be suffering from that they would come to you for this testing diagnosis and treatment. Sure. There's actually, and I like to call it a hormone deficiency epidemic, if you will, and a lot of traditional medicine physicians don't Recognize it. So instead of looking at some of the things that their patient may be experiencing, joint pain, low sex drive, depression, weight gain, vaginal dryness, instead of looking at those things and saying, how can we assess this more effectively and how can we treat this more effectively? They'll provide you pills for depression or pills for vaginal dryness or pills for a low sex drive. And quite often, those aren't effective, so now you've got the potential side effects from those medications as well as the disease state you saw the physician for to start with. They're treating the symptom. Yes. Putting a band aid over it. Yes, ma'am. And you got to keep that band aid on. Yes, ma'am. Because the minute you pull the band aid off, you're right back to square one again. You got to start all over. Exactly. All right. So, or stay on that forever and then the side effects kick in and now you're suffering a multitude of problems. Exactly. Gotcha. Exactly. And unfortunately, then we do pill on top of pill on top of pill on top of pill. Yeah. Some patients, I don't know how they're getting all these medications down. What age range are you looking at? Who are you treating in here? So people often say to me, Oh, I don't think I'm menopausal yet. But really what we need are the pre menopausal patients. For example, with a woman, a woman starts to lose her testosterone at about the age of 25. So by the time you reach menopause, you've probably dropped your testosterone to about 50%. Wow. The conditions that you're feeling, the joint pain, the depression, the weight gain, that's all real. And you said testosterone. Yes. I thought it was, it's not estrogen. It is both, actually. Women lose both. You have both in your body, your body produces both, and when you age, you begin to lose both. The loss of that is affecting our bodies in different ways? Yes. Okay. So we lose both estrogen and testosterone, but women produce more testosterone than we realize. Probably testosterone is the more important hormone. Really? That's surprising to me. It is surprising. Yeah, as a woman, it's surprising. What about progesterone? I know when I was going through, um, we were trying to get pregnant, progesterone played a big role in that as well. Do you work with... Yes, and it still plays a big role. Now, that is one that we give as a pill to patients and it, believe it or not, helps substantially with sleep, which is another indicator of disease state or what I hear patients complain about. I can't sleep. I never sleep. And you know, if you don't sleep, your body gains weight. I mean, you begin to fight your body. So you mentioned menopausal, but are you treating people as young as 25, as you had said earlier, you start losing, things start changing at age 25? Yes, ma'am. What age range are you treating? We can treat anywhere from 25 or earlier. Do you see that a lot? We actually do. We actually do. And as far as 87, 89. You know, so there's a whole span of, of people out there that, that need treatment. And what about men and, uh, versus women? Same thing. Yeah? We, we don't replace estrogen in, in men because they don't produce estrogen. Right. But testosterone becomes a big issue. And at this point in time, you do see a fair amount going with a traditional medicine approach. It's often that the traditional physician will say, Oh, let's give you testosterone injections, which is fine, but again, that's synthetic hormones going into your body and, and what side effects do you see from that as a man? You mentioned that there were studies where bio identical hormone treatments were effective with other diseases, such as cancer and so, can you tell me a little bit about those studies? Sure. There's a very large consensus study that's been done in the last several years. It's the largest study that's ever been done taking a look at breast cancer, for example, Alzheimer's disease, prostate cancer, and the findings actually demonstrate that there's a substantial reduction utilizing the bioidentical hormones. So, a 70 percent reduction, for example, in breast cancer. 70%! That is a, that's a huge number. Huge number, huge number. And you know, it's often patients will come to us and say, I don't want to do hormones. You know, I, I'm worried about breast cancer and it's a misnomer. In 2002, there was a WHI study that utilized Primpro and Primarin and synthetic, they were synthetic. And it did show an increase in heart disease, breast cancer, blood clots, strokes. Yes. And so 80%, about 80 percent of patients went off of hormones and at least an equal number of physicians stopped prescribing them because they said, gosh, I don't want my patient to be at greater risk. Right. So again, you're looking at synthetic versus a bioidentical component. Okay. The studies now, the consensus study is showing a substantial decrease, as I stated, um, in breast cancer. With the bioidentical hormones. That's wonderful. Okay. So when they come to you and they're like, I really don't want to take hormones, I'll just go back to my regular doctor, for instance, what is the feedback there? I like to cover some of the benefits. A lot of times our best advertising is done through word of mouth. I've seen the neighbor, or I've treated your aunt, or I see your family member, and they're doing really well. It's a great advertiser. It's basically word of mouth. Somebody says, Hey, I feel so much better. Give it a try. And I tell people, try it for a little while. Try it for six months. Give me six months, eight months, a year, and let's see where you are. You don't feel better? Okay, I can, I can go with that, but chances are that's not going to be what happens. Okay. Okay. Let's discuss some of the symptoms that the patients are coming in to see you for. When they come in, first of all, how do you diagnose them? We do blood tests. We do a blood draw and we look at several components. What is your testosterone level? What is your estradiol level? What is your follicle stimulating hormone level? We're taking a look, not just at your complete blood counts, your chemistries, but... Also your thyroid, also your hormone levels, and interestingly enough, I will have women say, I didn't even know they did testosterone studies in, in females. I was shocked when you told me that too, initially. Yeah. Yeah. So they, they come in, you determined that it's this or that. And now you're going to determine their treatment. How do you determine how much or which hormones to give them? BioT has done a, substantial assessment for a formulation that we use, to determine what levels are. So it will often come back with what their estrogen level is, what their testosterone level is. Do we need vitamin D? Do we need niacin? Do we need magnesium? What other things do we need? Potassium, etc. And then you create an individual dose. It's an individualized plan for each patient, yes. And it may change over time. I know you... I've talked about the span of say 25 to 87. It may change over time. You may have less, you may need more. You may lose weight and need less, or you may gain weight and need a little bit more. But there's certainly ways that we can continue to individualize your therapy. Okay. And the delivery mechanism for this dosage that you've now created comes in, and this was a surprise to me, it comes in the form of a pellet. Yes. So tell me about these pellets. Okay, so they're about the size of a grain of rice. I always start by showing the patient this is what it looks like. The nice part is, is you're inserting it under the skin, so into the subcutaneous tissue. And usually we use a buttock, but we can certainly use a tummy, we can use a flank area. Is it a, it's a fattier, softer part? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And, it's a simple procedure. It takes about 15 minutes. It's fairly painless and we do numb you and, and do all kinds of things, ice packs and all that to help with getting the procedure completed. And then what's, what's super is that the medication will deliver over a time frame. Probably the most effective way to deliver medication when you think about it is an IV because you're getting a steady state of medication. Right, yeah. Over a 24 hour, 48 hour, 3 day period, whatever. Right. This essentially lasts for 3 to 4 months and you get a dosage at a steady state throughout that time frame. It's just like a slow release. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And, and you said three to four months? Three to four months for women and, uh, slightly longer for men because typically they have more that we've put in, more pellets that we've put in. Okay. So, we're on men. Oh, it's multiple pellet. Men may get, 14. Fourteen. Fourteen pellets of testosterone. All at one time? All at one time. And a woman will likely get three or four. you're inserting them under the skin, right next to each other. It's all in the same place. Right. It goes into the deeper tissue. Okay. But yeah, there's something called a trocar that we use and implant the, pellets into. Okay. Okay. Yeah. You mentioned that the low testosterone in men and women is an anti inflammatory. So tell me what diseases or what problems we would have that are anti inflammatory that we would need to bump up that testosterone. Testosterone is a low grade, if you will, but still the same anti inflammatory. And it can be anything from the joint pain that you'll have, yeah, cause you know where you typically would take Motrin or Tylenol or something more, which is an anti inflammatory testosterone is going to hopefully pick up that pace for you and you won't need that medication. Can you reverse like arthritis, joint pain? Yes, we can certainly increase the, the ability to move your joints and feel less pain and those kind of things. I have one patient that has struggled and struggled with cholesterol, and he has been on all kinds of medications as a result. We did pellets, and his levels are now back to normal for him. Oh, really? And, yeah. So, to come off that medication? Exactly. Wow. Exactly. So, you can minimize some of the medications that patients are on. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about sexual health, and I know that this applies to both men and women, too. I'm assuming when you say sexual health, you're talking about primarily erectile dysfunction in men. Is that right? Okay. Okay. Yes, and I would say desire as well as desire in both men and women, you know, as we age and we have less testosterone, the desire to actually be with your spouse or your partner may become less and less. And certainly that can impact a relationship. A hundred percent. Yeah. So if someone is having these problems, of course it's going to be causing insecurity in your partner. So if you are out there and you're suffering from just, you know, just not being interested any longer, we might say, come on in and get checked and test your levels. Yes. In addition to the blood work we do, we also have a... questionnaire that gives a ranking of desire, sleep abilities. There's probably 30 questions and it's, it's surprising. I think people have, if they're honest, look and go, wow, I really had no idea that I really. That it was related. Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea that like not being able to sleep had anything to do whatsoever with hormones. Yeah. All right. Kathy. Yes, ma'am. I know a lot of folks are going to want to hear also about the Botox and the fillers. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. So let's just go ahead and hit that one. And CoolSculpting as well, which I've never seen it done. I've never, I don't even know how you choose to do like CoolSculpting over like liposuction or whatever. So let's talk about, let's hit the Botox and the fillers first. Okay. CoolSculpting. That has nothing to do with the hormones. Well, actually it does. It does. As you begin to age, so you begin to lose a lot of the tissue that supports your... Yes. Yes. Collagen and elastin in your face and body will start leaving. There's a sallowness to your skin that can start occurring. And Botox and fillers can help plump that back up. You know, wellness comes in many forms, and one of the ways is when we look in the mirror and... I don't think it's particular to women. I think men feel the same. You look in the mirror and go, gosh, I look different. I don't feel good about myself anymore. And you can evaluate that as you want to, but certainly that impacts us in our lives and what we think about ourselves. And so, yeah, we do Botox and fillers and we do cool sculpting, which is a body contouring. System here in, Surf City. We also do something called Bell Sculpt, which is a warm component of the cool sculpting, if you will, and we help contour bodies with warm as opposed to cool. Never heard of that. Yeah. So tell me how the Botox and the filler, that's injections, I got that. Tell me, tell me how the cool sculpting works. So there's a device that's got different size heads, if you will. So are we working on your thighs? Are we working on your abdomen? Are we working on your buttock? And there's a selection that the, The provider decides, determines, and then CoolSculpting actually attaches to your body and you leave it in place for whatever that protocol for that system is. And then the results can take probably three to four weeks to really even itself out. But you will often see a Beginning decrease in measurement, of a thigh, of an abdomen, of a... Let's just say, you know, I'm asking for a friend. The belly. Yeah. Okay, so you would attach this to... The device stays in place. Does it go cover the whole belly? Okay. Does it get really cold? It does. Yeah, it does. And you are going to plan on maybe a half a day to sit and, we can put blankets on you. If you're cold, you can read your book. You can play on your phone, do whatever as we continue to work the device. And then Oh, you're moving it around to different areas? As, as you work it across, say your abdomen or into your thighs, whichever part of your body we're doing. and then, that begins to flush that fat, that subcutaneous fat, out over the next three to four weeks and you'll, yeah, you'll see a remarkable difference. Now I will say this, you, you mentioned lipo. We certainly have access to plastic surgeons in our practice. If we don't think we can do it with CoolSculpting, we will gladly tell you that you may need to step up to the next level. Okay. But this is a great non invasive way to take care of that. Yes, ma'am. And then the Warm is the same concept? Same concept. It works a little more quickly and I think it has a little bit better skin. because it'll contract the skin a little more effectively at times than the Cool Sculpting will. And I think it's that warmth. As you begin to age, you'll see like your skin starts to hang as well. So you're not just losing muscle mass, which is a result of your lack of testosterone, potentially. Uh, or the skin, just the elasticity and collagen that you mentioned earlier. will begin to dissipate. So this helps pull that skin back up. Oh, I didn't know that that was a part of it. Yeah. Okay. So if you have lost a lot of weight on your own, and you don't want to have that extra skin surgically removed, this would also help with that? It can certainly help. You'll see a difference. Okay. Do you offer all of the services here at the Surf City location? Yes, ma'am, we do. We have the cool sculpting machine with Dr. Cannon in Chesapeake, um, who's my partner that I had mentioned earlier, and will be glad to, to come and join us at Surf City if we have patients that want it here. Gotcha. Do you perform these treatments yourself? Yes, ma'am. You do? Yes. Okay. We do. The Botox and the fillers are not permanent. Generally speaking, how long do they last? It depends on the type of fillers that you're using. It can depend on the type of Botox that you're using, but I would say three to four months, five to six months, something like that. Fillers can last for years, again, depending on the type of filler that you're putting in. The CoolSculpting is permanent, right? It is permanent. It is. Yes, ma'am. But you have to have several treatments before it typically has multiple treatments. Okay. Yeah. So I imagine that this is a popular service that you offer. A lot of us struggle with weight, especially as we get older. So tell me about your medical weight loss program and what that involves. And that's a great question, Christa, because we definitely offer medical weight loss in addition to other services that we have. but medical weight loss can be medication that you're taking orally. Or it can be injectables that we utilize. And then typically we have the patient meet with Dr. Cannon as a telehealth and then we plan a procedure. What are we going to do from here? What type of medication, what type of diet and where are we going to go with that? We set goals, we help you set goals. We help you determine what's realistic, what you can, give up. I have had several patients say, I don't know if I want to give up bread for the rest of my life. So I don't think I want to do keto. Okay, then how do we work with what you can give up and want to give up, and how do we balance those out so that you do have a successful medical weight loss? Mm hmm. This just popped in my head, um, Ozempic, whatever that's transitioned to now, um, as far as, as far as what they're calling it now for weight loss, are y'all utilizing that drug at all? We are. Ozempic is a brand name for a medication that's generic. at this point and it's called semaglutide. Semaglutide has been around for a good long while. It helps patients who are insulin insufficient, resistant, if you will. Yes. I saw that word on your website and I didn't recognize it and it's because it's, I mean, everyone's hearing ozempic right now. Sure they are. And Ozempic, part of the Ozempic medication is the delivery system. So it's in a pen, If you can imagine a large fountain pen, that's what you're dosing yourself with, a click of Ozempic. What we utilize is what we call compounded semaglutide that we, have access to. We, utilize several compounding pharmacies across the country. And we compound it with a variety of agents, one being B12. So we put B12 and Simoglutide together and we dose your medication on a weekly basis. Or you can do an at home program where you dose your medication. We make sure you're adept at giving yourself injections. Are you comfortable with it? You know, how do you do it? How do you continue to do it? And we check in every four weeks to make sure. That you are losing weight, that you're continuing to manage your diet and your weight, are we still doing okay with sleep, etc. So you had mentioned Incorporating intermittent fasting and also counseling is most of that that's in regard to the weight loss program that you're offering. Yes. it's surprising. I think some of the programs out there, um, in the past have been very successful because you do get some counseling along with your weigh ins or along with your food supplies. And we essentially want to make sure we cover that component as well. So every four weeks you would meet with Dr. Cannon. He's done medical weight loss for years, about 20, 25 years. So he's very adept at what works and what doesn't seem to work. He will often call you on your, insufficiencies, don't, don't cheat so much, or whatever we have to do. I thought that's what you were trying to tell me. I was like, insufficiencies? Is that what she's saying about cheating? Yeah. So, we, we help you discuss that. Okay. Yeah. Well, he'd probably call me on a few. I'm sure. So now I'd like to talk a little bit about you, Kathy. I absolutely love hearing where people are from and how they got here. We did cover that a little bit, um, with you. You were in Ohio? Yes. Is that where you were born? I was actually born in Kentucky. I was born outside of Lexington, Kentucky. And my father sold pharmaceuticals. And as he was promoted throughout the company, we moved to Columbus was where we landed. And I went to undergraduate and graduate school at Ohio State and then went to medical school in Arizona. How old were you when you moved away from Kentucky? Did you spend most of your youth there? I was in the fifth grade. Fifth grade. So, so fairly young. What's Kentucky life like? Gorgeous, beautiful. Is it really? The horse country is so beautiful, yeah. My grandmother, was born and raised there and there was such a respect for, the land and the countryside and the horses. Oh, you were really out in the country, huh? What we were exposed to, yeah. Yeah. Is most of your family still there? Do you have family still in Kentucky? We have no family in Kentucky anymore. I guess I still consider that home. My parents went to Eastern Kentucky University to college. And so, you know, when you hear that word, you kind of perk up because you know what that means for you. But Um, nope, everybody's here now. Everybody's here in Surf City. Wow, okay. You mentioned that your dad was in pharmaceuticals. Did that play a role in your choice to go into the medical field? I think it did, for sure. I initially was in the pharmaceutical industry as well and then felt like that wasn't answering all my questions and, started taking a look at what do I need and decided on PA school or Physician Assistant School and that's when I... was fortunate enough to go to Arizona. When did you start vacationing here? About 15, 18 years ago, I started looking. I wanted a beach home. And we had grown up going to Wrightsville, and yeah, and I thought, how do I do this? What can I do? I didn't leave anything in Florida, so I didn't really want to go there. My college roommate lived in Hilton Head, and I didn't really want to do South Carolina, so that sort of drove me to North Carolina, and it was the right choice. And you just found this sweet little island and. Sweet little island and I love it. Yeah. This is for me. And you moved here after COVID. Yeah, full time about four, three years ago, uh, and, uh, that was post COVID. My mother was living down here with my brother and it just, worked out, worked out well. Your brother and your mother are here? My mother passed away. Okay, sorry I didn't hear that. No, my, she had a very long, well lived life. She lived to be 94. Wow. And, uh, was at home and, just really did well. Uh huh. She did well. I come from good genes, I think, as well. Yeah, no kidding. My dad died at 93. What? You know, you start looking at yourself saying, if I'm going to live 40 more years, how do I do this well? You know, here I am in paradise. How do I do this well? Right. So. Right. That also drove me to wellness medicine. I see. Yep. I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much. In our phone conversation, you did share your history with me, in particular, your cancer battle. And so I was just wondering if you could share that with the listeners. Sure. About 25 years ago, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was a graduate student at Ohio State and I was getting a degree in speech pathology. And wasn't feeling well, didn't think much about it, went to the doctor, it was determined I had ovarian cancer. At that time, Ohio State was developing quite a reputation as a cancer center. And so I went through surgical hysterectomy, uh, complete hysterectomy. And then I did a year of chemotherapy. so I think it has you, taking a different approach to life. how you look at life, what's important to you and, health as well. So I imagine over the course of the years that greatly impacted your hormone levels. Exactly. I'm sure that played a massive part in the reason that you... And you ask about the 25 year old and ask me if that was a typical for the 25 year old. Well, it's not a typical, but at 25 years old... I essentially had a complete hysterectomy and had menopause and although surgical menopause, I was still thrown into the thrust of menopause. Oh, you went through the same things that... Same thing. Wow. Sure. So, you know, the hot flashes, the not feeling well, not really knowing because your advisor is your mother, you know, so I go to my sweet little 65 year old mother and go, well, what do I do now? And she was... I don't really know. Yeah, I don't really know because I'm sure hormones weren't something that they talked about, or that she was aware of for that matter. And I went through, as medicine expands and changes, I went through all of those things as well. At one time I was on the synthetic hormones. With an estrogen patch. And then in those, when those studies came out in 2002, that said, gosh, breast cancer increases by 75 percent in a person that we know already has had ovarian cancer. Do we want to keep that on her? And so then that was taken off. But I will tell you in that time to about five years ago, when my partner said to me, let's, let's try this bioidentical. Hormone stuff for you and see if it doesn't work. And no one had ever said the word testosterone to me except him. And that's when I started with the pellets. And it has made a complete difference in my life. Yeah. I think the fatigue, the brain fog that you don't think about, you walk in the room and go, wait, why did I come in here? Um, yeah, all those things that you, that you start to see, that you notice going up here on the island, fortunate as we are to live here, we're all on stilts, right? Our homes are built on, on pilings and so you're up and down the stairs, hundreds of Times, especially if you've gone grocery shopping, I tell people all the time, I had to grocery shop based on what I was carrying up the steps. So if I had the laundry detergent, I wasn't going to get the milk, you know, cause that's another trip. Yeah. You know, so, um, it's, it's made a huge difference in how I feel, how my joints feel, how I last throughout the day, how I'm not sleepy all the time or have that brain fog or the hot flashes or the vaginal dryness. Yeah. Okay. So you're in your twenties. You are diagnosed, you go through the chemo, you have a full hysterectomy. Did they put you on that estrogen right away? Within the first six months, they put me on the estrogen patch, which at that time was looked at as cardioprotective. So that was essentially why we're putting this 25 year old on estrogen, because we want to protect her heart. Well, as the studies came out, About five years later, and they said, wow, okay. Yeah, we're helping her heart But are we increasing her risk of getting breast cancer and they were by 75 percent or well Yeah, now let's take that off of her and from that moment on so I was about four years post hysterectomy Five years post hysterectomy. I had no hormones So you went with no assistance from that time up until, what you said, years ago when I started on pellets. Wow. And it's made a big difference in your life. A huge difference. Huge difference. I think you're more balanced. I've had several patients tell me, I feel well, or I feel normal. I don't know what that means and that's how that person defines it, but it's true. You feel normal. Because I didn't feel normal, I guess. Yeah. Even, you know, after you give birth. Your hormones fluctuate so much, you don't, you don't feel normal, and you don't know what it is. You can't define it, like something isn't, I'm not who I used to be. Makes absolute sense, makes absolute sense. Yeah, and you're looking at your little baby saying, Oh, this seems odd to me. Yeah. Yeah. Um, do you deal with a lot of postpartum patients? We do some. We do some. We, we certainly have dealt on the skin basis with melasma and some of those kinds of things. But yeah, we definitely talk with people that, who are postpartum and, um, have hormone fluctuations. I think if your traditional physician isn't acknowledging that, then. You want to find somebody who can help you acknowledge that. Okay, we're coming to the end of your episode, Kathy, and I just want to talk about, are there any future plans that you have here in Surf City or Jacksonville or anywhere else? We're very excited taking a look at a few things. We have some connection to veterans who are going through PTSD and we are trying to work on getting some raw data of studies that have already been done, seeing if we can somehow utilize that information to begin to treat more effectively our patients down here in the Jacksonville Surf City area. Additionally, this move. To the building downtown Jacksonville with all those augmentative kind of activities, be it the spin classes, be it the yoga classes or Pilates, I would like to somehow see us incorporating that onto our website. So maybe you get on and you can work out even though you're visiting somebody else on the West Coast today or something like that. we also have life counselors there. We have psychologists there. So we have additional, uh, opportunity to treat more effectively. Getting the whole person involved spiritually, mentally, physically, and hormones. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Four final thoughts. So I just want to know if there's just like one thing, one thing that you want people to know about you, Kathy, it can be personal or about a Sure Wellness group. What I would really like to stress is that I feel like we're changing people's lives. Our goal has never been to place pellets into people, but we are empowering patients to live better, more full, more effective, healthier, happier lives. And we often hear that feedback. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for sitting here with me today. You want to give out the contact information? Sure, I'll be glad to. So, Assure Wellness Medical Group, Coastal Carolina. What I'm going to do is give you our general telephone number. It's 866 551 6779, 866 551 6779. And that will put you in touch with our scheduler. Who's pretty adept, she's worked with us for years and she knows where do we go next and what information do I need from you to get you into the computer and get you on someone's schedule. Is there an email address? There is and it is her name, it's Diana Jean Zuniga, D I A N A. J E A N Z U N I G A at gmail. com. And I will have that information in the show notes, so if you didn't get that just now, look down and read those show notes and I'll have all the information there for you. Are you on any of the social media platforms? We are. We are on Facebook. Our goal is to be on Instagram, so that will happen in the next few months. Additionally, you can look up Assure Wellness Group as a whole. in the, in Jacksonville, have you moved fully to the new facility or you were in the process? We are in the process. Okay. Yes. So, I will have, in the show notes as well, your location address for Surf City as well as the new Jacksonville, address. Great. Okay. Thanks, Christa. Uh huh. No problem. So, thank you listeners for joining us today. I really appreciate it. And thank you again, Kathy, for being on Topsail Insider Podcast and telling us all about Assure Wellness Group. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. 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