011: Fighting Off the Ick: Sunshine, Supplements & Sanity

We’re skipping the fluff and getting straight into the immunity tips you can actually use. Dr. Ashley joins us to talk about the power of vitamin D, why so many supplements don’t work, and how stress could be your biggest opponent. We cover probiotics, inflammation, and how to get back on track without overhauling your whole life. Plus, we round it out with a nod to an undefeated legend who knows all about strength inside and out: Laila Ali.

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Chapters

•  08:38 – Fights in Sports... and in Immune Systems
•  17:19 – Meet Dr. Ashley: Real Doctor, Not on TikTok
•  22:31 – Are Your Vitamins Just Fancy Sugar?
•  28:06 – Your Gut is Basically Running the Show
•  35:22 – Stress: The Silent MVP of Chaos
•  44:38 – She’s Got Game: Laila Ali is That Girl

Transcript

Speaker 3 (00:01)
You've said this a couple of times and I wanted to ask you about sunshine. I think this is so important because I feel it right when it gets gloomy here in Wisconsin in the winters and it's dark. How much sun do we really need and how do we get it in the winter?

Speaker 1 (00:18)
I mean you're not, you're certainly in the winter in Wisconsin not gonna get like vitamin D levels of sunshine. That's just not gonna happen. But even just 10 minutes of sunlight, even on your eyes is good. It doesn't have to be like everywhere. We just have that exposure, especially in the morning can be great.

Speaker 3 (00:39)
Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn.

Speaker 2 (00:48)
And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 3 (01:03)
Welcome to the Almost Fans podcast where we dive into the wild, weird and wonderful world of sports culture. And today we have a special guest on who's talking about ways to fight off the ick. So today we thought we would stay in that fighting realm and we would do our hat trick, our top three favorite fights in sports. So I'm going to kick it over to you, Ambre, with your number three.

Speaker 2 (01:32)
I'm going to start things off with the MLB. This is Nolan Ryan versus Robin Ventura. Such a good one. Okay. So let's just set the stage. Two MLB teams playing and Nolan Ryan, a 46 year old pitcher for the Texas Rangers, throws a pitch. It looks like a curve ball, but I'm not an expert. It hits Robin Ventura. Man, that had to sting. that had to hurt so bad.

Speaker 3 (01:38)
Such a good one.

Oh, those sting.

90 to 100 miles per hour. Right.

Speaker 2 (02:04)
There's no given those baseballs. So what happens when a batter gets hit, he gets to automatically, he or she gets to just go straight to first base. Robin Ventura, Robin Ventura, was just, he takes a couple steps. You can see he's thinking about it and he is tired of this and he's not ready to make a point. So he charges the mound. runs this 26 year old batter runs at the 46 year old. I keep mentioning

Speaker 3 (02:16)
about.

Speaker 2 (02:32)
years and ages. I think that's a key thing here. Charges this 46-year-old pitcher. mean, I know he's like a...

Speaker 3 (02:39)
You're not really in shape anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:41)
No. I mean, he looks like he should be on a couch, not on the pitcher's mound. So the batter charges him and this dude, the pitcher, gets that batter, that young buck in a headlock and just opens up. The young dude does not land a single punch. The bench is clear and it's just like an all out brawl. It's just like a pop culture moment, super, you know, talked about fight in MLB history.

Speaker 3 (03:09)
is epic. Okay, my number three is a kind of recent one. happened in 2019 and I remember this one and it was really shocking because it just doesn't happen a lot in NFL where they like get in these big fights. it was the Thursday night football game between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Eight seconds left to go in the game. Cleveland's leading 21 to seven and then basically all H broke loose.

Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph threw a short pass Brown's defensive end, Miles Garrett tackled into the ground and the play should have just ended there. But instead, Rudolph appeared to be tugging on Garrett's helmet, which he definitely like was, and then probably a little frustrated by the hit on him. And then Miles Garrett responded by ripping Rudolph's helmet completely off his head. And then before the officials could separate them, he swung the helmet and smashed it over Rudolph's unprotected head.

Speaker 2 (04:05)
Darn. That sounds really painful.

Speaker 3 (04:07)
It's kind of sad, actually. The more I thought about this fights thing, it's like a little sad. But I mean, it was like some harsh punishments came down. Garrett was suspended indefinitely, missing the rest of the season. There was another guy who got suspended for three games. There was another guy who got suspended for one game. Mason Rudolph was fined. Both the Browns and the Steelers organizations were fined $250,000 a piece.

Speaker 2 (04:35)
Wow.

Speaker 3 (04:37)
crazy. But anyways, I can still remember it. Yeah, it was it was brutal. I mean, kind of tough to watch.

Speaker 2 (04:43)
Yeah. Disclaimer, we do not condone fighting. And it is part of some sports and shoot, it's like, it's just one of those things. It's hard to look away. That's what we're talking about today. Okay. My number two is a sanctioned fight actually between the greatest Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. So this sanctioned boxing match,

I just, keep saying sanctioned because this was planned, you know, like they were wearing gloves. Everybody was consenting. So consenting adults in this fight. So this was 1975. This fight was much talked about and hyped up. They nicknamed it the Thrilla in Manilics. It was held in the Philippines. Ali and Frazier were, you know, as you do in boxing, there's a lot of trash talk leading up to it. This is the third time these two boxers met and this was personal. There was all sorts of trash talk.

mostly coming from Ali toward Frazier. So it was heated literally because the arena was a hundred degrees. I don't know. They're not doing air conditioning. Yeah. So, so it starts out right in Ali is really crushing it to begin with. And then the tides turn and it's Frazier. But then at the very end round 14, most boxing matches, by the way, just go to 12 rounds.

Speaker 3 (05:50)
they doing out there?

Manila maybe no you see there.

Speaker 2 (06:11)
But this one was so dramatic. It went all the way to round 14. But before the 15th round could start off, Frazier's trainer stopped the fights. He was concerned for Frazier's life. Yeah. So that means that Ali won the fight. And his famous quote for interviews afterward, he said, was the closest thing to dying that he has ever known. So it's one of those pop culture boxing matches because it was

So much epic lead up and obviously Muhammad Ali's name carries so much significance, but also just because the fight itself was so long. So that's my number two is Frazier versus Ali.

Speaker 3 (06:53)
Okay. My number two, speaking of kind of like sanctioned fights is, we learned this in our hockey episode that it is considered kind of like a sanctioned fight when the two players on opposite teams dropped their gloves. I learned this in our episode and this situation happened just recently, February 15th, 2025.

the US versus Canada hockey game in the four nations faceoff tournament. you heard about this?

Speaker 2 (07:24)
I have most definitely heard about this. Not the fight, but the tournament. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (07:29)
Okay, so the tournament is Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the US. They play each other in a round robin format, followed by a one game final. So the whole tournament, okay, so there's a lot going on in the world right now. We know that everybody was booing the US national anthem throughout the whole tournament, basically. It was happening and it was starting to get the team ticked off, right? So the game starts and...

Literally within one second of the game starting, two people drop their gloves and they start fighting each other. Okay. So they get them off to the penalty boxes. Right. And then they started off again. We, they dropped the puck and two more seconds into the game. Actually, I'm sorry. was two seconds into the game for the first one. And then it was three seconds into the game. Two more players, by the way.

Speaker 1 (08:05)
Okay.

Speaker 3 (08:25)
They were brothers, the two US guys were brothers, Matthew Kachuk and Brady Kachuk. They start squaring off again, so they fight each other. Then they send those two off to the penalty box.

Speaker 2 (08:38)
Zing

more peltie boxes. Was that? Peltie boxes are going to get full.

Speaker 3 (08:42)
They're getting full. So then they start the game again. then nine seconds in two more people drop their gloves and start fighting within nine seconds of the game. There was three fights. Absolutely epic. You need to go watch it because it is wild. And I, it's so interesting to me with Haki cause they like drop their gloves and the, the, I don't know what they call them. Officials referees, but they just, they stand around.

Speaker 2 (08:56)
Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:11)
They just, let it happen until it seems like until they fall to the ground and then they jump in. Is that the, is that the way it works?

Speaker 2 (09:18)
Yeah, I think until there's just like everybody gets their aggression out and now we need to like play some hockey.

Speaker 3 (09:25)
But it was an intense game. I watched clips from the whole game, I mean, just slams into the boards, just the whole entire game. The U.S. did end up winning three to one, I believe, but it was a crazy game.

Speaker 2 (09:37)
for sure. Okay. My final fight is a little bit of a reach in terms of fight. is Serena Williams versus umpire, Carlos Ramos. Do you remember this? Yeah. this is the U S open championship tennis from 2018. So Serena is playing Naomi Osaka, who Serena is

Speaker 3 (09:50)
Oh, I do.

Speaker 2 (10:05)
like Naomi's idol always has been. So this is a big deal for Naomi. And the match starts out and Serena is sort of keeping up by score, but just looks like she's driving the struggle bus. So at some point in the match, the ump accuses her and her coach of cheating. Her coach apparently flashes a thumbs up and I don't know if Serena saw it or not. She reacts like she didn't know what the ump was talking about, but he gave her a warning. said, you know, there's basically

Speaker 3 (10:34)
them from the stands.

Speaker 2 (10:35)
Yep, Unsanctioned cheating or coaching. I think that's what the first warning was. And Serena, who seemed like she was already on edge, flies off the handle. She's like, can't believe you would accuse me of cheating. I don't cheat to win. I'd rather lose. She references her daughter. She's clearly visibly very upset. I just like goosebumps. Yeah. This is his first warning to her. Okay. So she recovers her composure. Naomi is just quiet. know, nobody's, everybody's just focused on what's happening with Serena.

She makes some sort of mistake. I don't know if it was a double fault, right? So her serve goes out of bounds. can't remember exactly what it was. And she spikes her racket on the ground into something that many do. the time. So she spikes her racket, destroys it. She picks it up. She walks over to get another replacement racket and the ump gives her a code violation, something about decorum. This is their second warning.

Speaker 3 (11:17)
the time.

Speaker 2 (11:31)
She's now she's like really fallen off the edge. She's so mad. She's saying things like, you know, male players do so much worse and they don't get second warnings or warnings at all. Okay. So now she's at two strikes for all intents and purposes. So she's railing on the umpire. She's calling for the referee, which must be sort of like a higher person in charge of the tournament. She's demanding an apology. She's going on and on calling him a thief, demanding an apology.

because he gives her a third warning now and she loses a point. So first warning was for the thumbs up, supposed cheating with the coach. Second warning was for spiking the racket. Third warning was for this verbal abuse. I don't know how he was calling it. So now he's docked her point. Now he's actually impacting the game. So she goes on to lose. It was Osaka's first Grand Slam victory, which means she's winning.

all of the major tournaments that year, but nobody's talking about that. They're all just talking about Serena making such a big deal about these warnings, but let's talk about that big deal because exactly what you mentioned. So the coaching violation, I don't really know a whole lot about that, but I do watch men's tennis and man, they spike those rackets quite often and maybe get a warning. it just, it woke up this broader conversation about

officiating men's sports versus women's sports. And this makes me think of something we had talked about in our Caitlin Clark episode too, just about how referees hold women to a higher set of decorum or standards and don't emote exactly how referees or maybe the general public or maybe both, I guess, are more uncomfortable with women showing emotions and feeling big feelings out loud in sports, more comfortable with that.

Speaker 3 (13:13)
emotional.

Speaker 2 (13:27)
they are with the same coming from men. So sparked a massive debate over sexism in sports. And so cool, Naomi Osaka. Wow. Like congratulations. That was a big moment for her. It's such a bummer that it was overshadowed by all this other stuff.

Speaker 3 (13:43)
Serena did a really good job to try and put the spotlight back on her because she knew how important it was for her. like I watched that whole thing live and you could tell she felt bad. Like she was mad, but she felt worse about how that was affecting Naomi. And I think she tried really hard to be like, my time is done, beat me. And you deserve it. Cause she is, she's amazing.

Speaker 1 (14:07)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:12)
Yeah, so that was my favorite fight because it just has some more meaning and undertone beneath it as well.

Speaker 3 (14:19)
Yeah, that was really thoughtful.

Speaker 2 (14:24)
What's your final one?

Speaker 3 (14:25)
My number one fight is the Malice in the Palace.

Speaker 1 (14:29)
I feel like-

Speaker 2 (14:30)
No, I can't pull out my brain tell me what it is

Speaker 3 (14:32)
I

mean, it is arguably one of the most infamous fights in sports history. So this brawl erupted between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers in November of 2004. It started with Ron Artest, now Metta World Peace. He fouled Ben Wallace. You know already that he's one of my faves. This team is like one of my faves that led to a shoving match. But things got really insane when a fan threw a

beer or a drink or whatever it was on our test, who immediately charged into the stands to throw hands as they say. And then the players started brawling with the fans. The fans started punching back and the whole thing turned into like a full on riot in the palace. The game was suspended. They suspended the game. Nine players were suspended for combined 146 games and

To this day, the NBA changed its security policies forever.

Speaker 2 (15:35)
Yeah. man. Can you imagine being that fan and seeing Meta World Peace barrel at you?

Speaker 3 (15:43)
come in.

Speaker 2 (15:49)
Again, we do not condone unsanctioned violence and we acknowledge that it happens in sports and it can be fun and funny to observe, but not actually.

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All right, almost fans, we are thrilled to have with us today a very special guest. Dr. Ashley is with LSM Chiropractic and Forward Natural Medicine here today to share all sorts of awesome stuff for how you can fight off the ick and perform at your best. Suggestions on supplements, it's an amazing episode. We can't wait to dive in. So we're gonna kick things off right away with our first question here, Dr. Ashley.

Will you tell us what it means to be a naturopathic doctor and what made you want to get into this line of work?

Speaker 1 (17:19)
Yeah, so some people have heard of that term before, like naturopathic medicine or doctor, and some people have no idea. Or some of your viewers or listeners may have heard of like functional medicine. for me, you know, we went to a four year like grad medical school post, you know, our undergrad degree, and we learned more in terms of like, into the root cause for patients, like, why are you sick? What are the underlying issues going on doing comprehensive lab work? So it's

a little bit different than your primary care doctor instead of, know, most people are used to just going in, maybe getting some labs, here's your medication type of thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think primary care is amazing, but a lot of doctors don't have the time to kind of dig deeper in terms of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back up. What's really happening here? What else is going on? How can we look at, you know, diet, lifestyle, stress, sleep, all these other things and integrate it with,

primary care, because I'm certainly not anti-medication or anything like that. That's needed for sure, but what else can we do so we're not just turning to that med right away? What are other options for patients? It's not just like, you you go online and do a program on a weekend. You know what mean? I tell patients I went to four years of schooling after undergrad to learn this stuff, and it's a lot. So really putting the patients first for sure.

Speaker 3 (18:35)
Yeah, I feel like people want to get a quick fix, like one size fits all. So maybe that's obviously this might be a harder question to answer, but we know cold and flu season is a never ending fight. feels like, especially for those of us with kids or kids in daycare or kids in school. But what are some ways that we can strengthen our immunity naturally, especially for women?

Speaker 1 (19:02)
yeah, and I feel like I hear that all the time. I joke with my patients, I used to think I had such a great immune system, but it's just because I don't have kids.

Speaker 3 (19:09)
That's

your shoe.

Speaker 2 (19:11)
That's

Speaker 1 (19:12)
superpower

the second I around my niece's nephews around the holidays look up there it is. mean there are obviously if we can go to the basics that's great like are you getting quality sleep at night you know or are you restless you know what's your stress like how is your diet are you eating like nutrient-dense foods are you drinking enough water like there's a lot of those basics that are always really helpful.

But at the same time, I that's hard, you know what I mean? Like depending on what's going on. So there are some really great supplements we can use and just vitamin D is such a basic one. Vitamin A is a great one. Zinc, echinacea, things like that. But if I, what I'm seeing a lot in my office, especially like with women, like, hey, I'm sick. It's been going on a couple of weeks. I need to be done with this. Like what do you have right now? And sometimes supplements don't always cut it. They're great at like helping prevent. So I'm seeing a lot of

patients that need to come into the office, get like an IV treatment, like some IV glutathione or vitamins, minerals, things like that, and some saline just to get them feeling better as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2 (20:09)
I am so curious about IV treatments. I mean, is that what it sounds like? What is the science behind that? How does that help? And when is it the right time to use something like that?

Speaker 1 (20:18)
Yeah, so IV is just intravenous. So goes straight into your veins. So don't have to worry about like absorbing it from like, you know, supplements are great, but the nice thing with an IV treatment, it just goes right in your circulation immediately. And we can use a really high concentration of, know, whether it be a vitamin or mineral or whatever, to get things done really quick. So some patients will feel better like almost immediately, which is great.

Speaker 2 (20:43)
What are, I have so many questions about this. What are some common illnesses that you would use that for? Is that like a cold that's sticking around for a while? And would that be theoretically a substitution might be a scary word, but something that you could do instead of probably the antibiotics that maybe an urgent care would prescribe?

Speaker 1 (21:03)
Yeah, because a lot of honestly a lot of the stuff going around is viral. So most patients that you can kind of go to the, you know, urgent care to go to your doctor and they might say like, okay, maybe here's a antibiotic or even prednisone if it's like a bad cough or something. But most of the time it's kind of like, well, it is what it is, you know, just let it run its course. so, yeah, we'll do so let's say, you know, you or whoever has a long, it's like been a month, they are congested cough, things like that.

A lot of times I'll do, we have like an immune boost it's called. So there's a bunch of like B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, and a big bag of saline. So that just helps just feeling better, like energy. And then at the end of that, I'll do IV glutathione. don't know if either of ever heard of glutathione. It's like a really strong potent antioxidant. And the nice thing about that is that's really good for my patients with long-term.

Like stuff that's just not getting better. It's lasting weeks or just illnesses that are not getting better. Like I've never been well since this sickness or COVID or that. And so glutathione can be amazing for those patients just to kind of help stop that like inflammatory cascade before and just really help them getting better like right away.

Speaker 3 (22:17)
I wonder about this because you mentioned zinc or vitamin C and there's all those things that you can buy at the grocery store, right? And does that stuff actually help? I always just think it's like a packet of sugar that makes me feel like I'm doing something for myself. is it really helpful? I is there certain ones that are more helpful than others or is it just something small that we can do to make ourselves feel good?

Speaker 1 (22:31)
Yeah.

I think there are some little things here and there that are great. Like I tell some of my patients, know, there's certain supplements that are fine to go and buy over the counter, you know, but quite a few of them are, are junk to be honest. And a lot of the things you don't really know, is what's on that label actually what's in there? Is it pure? You know, is it standardized? What's going on here? And, and some of the, a lot of labels just look nice, but really it's in terms of most of the oversights or who's kind of.

seeing these things in terms of supplements, it's not that great. I think the basic one is what's it called? It's not USP, but the GMP that's stamped on a lot of supplements, that is like the most basic. It's like getting a D in class and passing, you know? And then that's not what you want. I tell my patients like the most expensive supplement you can buy is one that doesn't work, you know? So you're just buying, I don't if crap is a swear word or not, but junk off the counter and it's not doing anything, you know?

Instead, get stuff that's really good quality. It might be a touch more expensive, but get a really good quality supplement from at least like the stuff we use in our office. You can just get through a provider or pharmacist because it's kind of nutraceutical grade. So it's meant to be at high doses that studies have shown like, yup, zinc at this level actually helps or vitamin C at this level helps. the ingredients in, for example, like our supplement for immune support.

The levels that are in there, the amounts, it's what's been shown to help your immune system, not just like these smaller doses and you don't know if it's actually pure is what it says in the label actually in there or are there other ingredients? Cause it might, sure there might be some vitamin C in there, but it might be a more of a synthetic version and it might be impurities and it might not even be the amount in it. So it just can get really overwhelming for people to be like, I don't know what to get. And they just grab whatever and they don't know if it's doing anything.

Speaker 3 (24:33)
Sorry, that just like rocked my world that you can buy supplements like vitamin C from a doctor. I didn't even realize that.

Speaker 1 (24:40)
Yeah. So we use a lot of, orthomolecular brands or Apex Energetics brands and they're, they're meant to be orthomolecular, for example, is only one of two supplement companies that can be sold in Europe because it's been shown to be a nutraceutical. So it's just as effective almost as a pharmaceutical in terms of actually stating, like it does what it says it's going to do, if that makes sense. So it's a really good brand and it's actually from Wisconsin, which I love. And I just.

get really good results. So I tell my patients like, if I wouldn't give this to myself or a family member, I'm not going to give it to my patient. So it's worth every penny.

Speaker 2 (25:13)
You just rattled off a whole lot of information about supplements, but to maybe boil it down into folks who are interested in starting a supplement regimen just to improve their overall functioning, whether they're looking to play a sport or just sort of survive Monday through Friday. Can you maybe give us the three things as they're looking at supplements, the three things

to either be looking for or avoiding. What are the three most important things when choosing supplements?

Speaker 1 (25:44)
I feel like if you look at the back of a, let's say you look at the ingredient label, it's not just like the percentage or the amounts, but it's actually what's the formula, like what's the form of it? So if you were to see something, for example, I tell my patients, if you ever see a supplement that says cyanocobalamin or folic acid, put it back on the shelf and don't buy that because you know it's junk and everything else is going to be synthetic along with it. And it's not going to be for most people easily absorbed.

Speaker 3 (26:11)
get this information because that's also blowing my mind because I'm like how am I supposed to remember that you just gave me flashbacks to being pregnant and trying to remember which one I was supposed to buy, needle I was supposed to buy that had folic acid or folate, know, whatever it was. How just like is it just going into someone like at LSM and saying just give me the loadout?

Speaker 1 (26:23)
Which-

Exactly. It's nice when you have someone to just tell you what to do. that makes sense. I went to school and I have to do a ton of CEs. Like I have to stay on top of this stuff. So it's not like I'm pulling this out of thin air. Like there's a reason why we're recommending certain things that we're doing. So it's nice too when you have lab results, like at least in my office, we do run labs. So we know exactly like, hey, you actually don't need this supplement, but you would benefit from this type of thing. So that always helps kind of guide.

like our individual care plan type stuff, but not that you'd need to see us for labs or anything like that. It's more just, sometimes it's nice to know exactly what would benefit for you. Same thing with like vitamin D. That's another thing. You always want to look for vitamin D3, you know, not D2. D3 is better for patients with absorption rates, but a lot of times in like a multi, people are like, yeah, I get my vitamin D3 from my multi. It's like, eh, not enough. You know, like we're Wisconsin here.

Even in the summer when we go outside, have sunscreen on, which is great and whatnot, but we're just not getting enough vitamin D. Definitely not through diet. No matter how much cheese you're eating here, you're not getting enough.

Speaker 3 (27:42)
Need a lot of cheese here.

Speaker 1 (27:44)
Yeah, we do. I know, I'm guilty as charged.

Speaker 2 (27:48)
So speaking of diet, this is a very trending topic, gut health and its impact on immunity. If you had to sort of summarize how it impacts our ability to fight off illness, stay well, how would you characterize gut health's role in immunity?

Speaker 1 (28:06)
think

a lot of people do not realize that 70 % of your immune system is in your gut. that's huge. know what mean? So like that's why our diet is so linked and just gut health in general with our immune system. So diet's huge, stress, you're not taking time to just relax and cook and make nutrient dense meals and grocery shop and all the things. So sometimes, and sleep and all that. So good quality supplements for gut can be great. Ideally, if you can eat fermented foods.

daily, that's awesome. know, like the pickles in the refrigerated section, not off just the aisle. Good quality organic grass fed yogurt, sauerkraut, even good quality kombucha, things like that. Those are great for your gut. But and some people don't always tolerate that if they have other gut problems. But if you're not eating foods like that, okay, can we add in a probiotic? Something as simple as that.

Speaker 2 (28:59)
Is it safe to assume that a good probiotic is going to be one that is refrigerated, whether it's in food form or in a supplement form, or can you get shelf stable, you know, like room temperature? I've taken those before and I kind of questioned if they were actually helping.

Speaker 1 (29:13)
You can definitely get good quality ones that are on a shelf. It does not need to be refrigerated. If anything, some of the best probiotics are shelf stable. Not to say that if they're in the fridge, they're bad by any means, but like orthomolecular, have this, felt like a bio shield that they patent or whatever, where actually it won't open until it gets your gut lining. So it doesn't open up in your stomach because you don't want that.

Speaker 3 (29:37)
My favorite pickled item is a pickled artichoke. Are those good?

Speaker 1 (29:43)
I've never, you know, I've never even looked at them, but I would think if they're, you know, in the refrigerated section, not a bunch of sugar and other stuff added to it.

Speaker 3 (29:51)
That's true. Just buying from Costco and jars that are this big.

Speaker 2 (30:01)
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Speaker 3 (30:47)
Another trend we're on the topic of trends and diets. We hear a lot about anti-inflammatory diets and immunity. And should most people be concerned about chronic inflammation? How would you know if you've had chronic inflammation? Would someone be able to feel it in their joints? Would they be able to, are they just feeling tired?

Speaker 1 (31:08)
It could be exhaustion. could be joint pain. It could be getting sick all the time. It could be brain fog. It could be like I'm pissed off and irritated, or it could be my hormone, like around my period, I'm extremely irritable. Like my PMS is way worse. and you can do labs for it. It just kind of depends on your symptoms. So there's a ton of different lab work we could run for different inflammation markers. Some of them are very specific for things for like,

joint or gut, some of them are a little more vague. So when patients come in and they're telling me, okay, I'm having X, Y, and Z for symptoms, like, okay, these are the inflammation markers, we should check them. So an inflammation can also be like, quote unquote, hidden. That's where you have like heart attack, stroke, know, diabetes, things like that, where it just kind of slowly creeps up over time. It doesn't have to be that like acute in the moment symptom.

Speaker 2 (31:57)
So a personal question, I went in and I actually met with Dr. Ashley. This is about a month ago. And the reason why I went in is I get decent amounts of sleep. Stress is probably through the roof. Teryn's like, yep. I eat pretty decently, but I was still feeling like I had this energy dip in the afternoon around one, two, three o'clock. So I went in to see Dr. Ashley. Sorry, sharing my testimonial.

And Dr. Ashley, just like she's talking about today, asked me a bunch of questions, you know, said asked about diet, asked about sleep, asked about stress, asked about my routine, my supplements, et cetera. And it was so refreshing. didn't, I didn't feel like I had a major problem. I didn't feel like I should be going in to see a doctor because it wasn't very painful. wasn't super disruptive to my life, but it was still something that I wanted to change. So.

I really appreciated going in and she asked me all of these questions about all of the aspects of my life and then basically pulled out this sheet of different labs that would help us sort of get another look into instead of, it was more of a subjective thing, right? was the way I was feeling and then those tests could give us again more information, more evidence about what's actually going on.

So Dr. Ashley, will you just talk us through what do people see you for most often when patients come in? What are the topics that they're most often asking you about?

Speaker 1 (33:25)
I

see a lot of I'm exhausted. I mean, like I'm just can barely get more than what I have on my plate done. Yeah, chronic fatigue is a big one. Inability to lose weight, no matter like what they're doing in terms of, okay, I'm exercising, I think I'm eating right, you know, and nothing's happening. That's a big one. Sometimes digestive issues, you know, just constipation, diarrhea, bloating, all that fun stuff.

Sometimes it's going hand in hand with that chronic fatigue, just feeling like mood type stuff. I'm depressed or I'm anxious or I can't sleep at night. My mind's racing or I just don't, I feel like I'm irritated with my kids and my partner more often. That's not me. Definitely a lot of women like perimenopause is a big time because unfortunately it's just a very, to me, like an underserved population in healthcare because it's kind of like.

Okay, yep, you're perimenopausal, that's that. Do you want an antidepressant? Do you want birth control? What do you want? And that's unfortunate. Not to say that those are bad treatments. For some people, they were great, but for a lot of women, they're not happy with that answer and that's not really going to get at the, why did I gain 15 pounds this year and I didn't change anything? Why am I not sleeping? Why am I... All those things that they just feel like they're not themselves anymore, which is sad. Yeah, that is super sad.

Speaker 3 (34:48)
Ted,

I feel like I really, you hear this a lot and honestly you hear it and also it's the hardest thing to change in your life, which is stress is probably one of those invisible opponents that we're fighting against us to keep the sports analogy going. what, you know, how much does stress impact our immunity, our, all the things, you know, how much is that and how do

we get better at it. mean, what are some things that we can do to manage it?

Speaker 1 (35:22)
I know everyone is different. know, like, you have some people like they need to talk to a therapist or a counselor, you know, because there's just a lot going on. And I tell people like you, you're more than welcome to come to my office and vent. I'm just not the right person with the right tools to give to you. We can just both. Yes, exactly. can be a good listener. Um, but you know, like what are you doing for yourself? Like are you ex what's, what's your exercise right now? Even if it's just getting out for a walk, you know, and being in the sun.

or going to the gym, like what is your time so that you can be better for whether it's your coworkers or employees or your family, you know, what is that? And just making sure patients don't feel like that's selfish to do, but feel like they mentally are good for you. there's like some of my patients, they're not sleeping at night because like their mind is just kind of all over the place. And there's some really good supplements that can just help.

calm that down and so your mind's not racing and actually get into a better deeper REM sleep so you just have more energy during the day. But sometimes too just even lab testing to see what else is going on.

Speaker 3 (36:24)
Sometimes just get a peace of mind to know that there might be an answer, simple answer. You've said this a couple of times and I wanted to ask you about sunshine. I think this is so important because I feel it, right? When it gets gloomy here in Wisconsin in the winters and it's dark, what is the, I know you said it's.

Even in the summer, it's hard to get the right amount of sun. But like I've heard people say like just going outside for 10 or 15 minutes and having some skin exposed to the sunshine is so important. How much sun do we really need and how do we get it in the winter?

Speaker 1 (37:00)
I mean, you're not, you're certainly in the winter in Wisconsin, not going to get like vitamin D levels of sunshine. That's just not going to happen. I understand why my patients are snowbirds and like I'm jealous and I wish I could do that. But even just 10 minutes of some light, even on your eyes is good. It doesn't have to be like everywhere. If we just have that exposure, especially in the morning can be great. Um, but you know, my fair pale butt is going to be much different than someone with a darker complexion. So in the summer, I might only need 10 minutes.

compared to people with beautiful bronze skin might need half an hour.

Speaker 3 (37:35)
I would say that darker skin tones need more sun. I've never heard that.

Speaker 1 (37:39)
That's not to say like still don't apply sunscreen eventually or something like that. But yeah, you don't absorb it as much as someone who's really pale.

Speaker 2 (37:48)
That's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (37:50)
So like in the winter that's why people should be on a higher dose of vitamin D and then have it rechecked come like springtime before. Because there are a lot of people who are outdoor like you know I've got farmers as patients they're outside all the time. It's like okay let's get that checked.

Speaker 3 (38:07)
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Speaker 2 (38:38)
So as an expert in taking care of yourself, we'll just kind of summarize a lot of things that we've covered today. What is your regimen? Like what are the things that you cannot do without when it comes to self care?

Speaker 1 (38:51)
I feel like I'm just like any of my patients where it can ebb and flow depending on what's going on with life. And I try my best not to beat myself up when I fall off my regimen. Like, okay, that's it is what it is. And last week was crazy. And what can I do to get back on track? So I'm not by any means saying I am perfect. And I think people who say they're perfect are lying. But anyways, if I can get at least seven hours of sleep, I feel like that makes a huge difference.

I love magnesium 3 and 8 before bed. I feel like I sleep so much better, not that I have a sleeping issue whatsoever. I just take it and I feel like I wake up really rested and ready to go for the day. So that's one. I feel like I am a dog or if I get exercise, I feel so much better during the day and I am more productive. I'm a happier human to be around. So exercise for sure is a big one for me. And there's a couple of supplements, you know, I like to take too, but water, sleep, and exercise are big ones.

So, basic, yeah. So many people, you just say go exercise and sleep and they're like, wow, I half my problems.

Speaker 3 (39:47)
basic needs.

It's simpler than people want to make it out to be. And I think a lot of times we want to avoid the things that we know we need to do and we want to try and do the quick fixes. I hoping that a supplement will change everything for us, but really there, it's a supplement. It's the word, it's supplementing the other good things that you should be doing in your life to make sure your health and wellness is at its peak.

Speaker 2 (40:22)
You covered so far today a lot of information for sort of everyone and especially women, but can you talk about for maybe women who are extremely active, maybe their training for a race, an event. I love weightlifting and I think that that requires extra levels of iron, for example. Are there additional considerations on the supplement side of things or any other sort of wellbeing and self-care?

considerations for folks who are really, you know, heading towards a particular fitness goal.

Speaker 1 (40:55)
Yeah, I would definitely look into hormones and making sure those are spot on. That's a big one that I see, especially because I've had, you know, female patients who have been like cross fit or big into like all that type of stuff. And it just can wreck their gut and it wrecks their hormones, you know, and they just feel like crap. That's the medical term I use all the time, but they feel crummy after when all that stuff is done, you know, and so we're kind of going back to try and fix all that. So obviously if we can

take care of that or get that controlled while they're doing all this training and competing, that's great. And so they don't have those issues. I feel like a lot of those people are already on top of their protein, that type of stuff. So that's really something I don't need to get into, but hormones like vitamin D and things like that, inflammation markers, because I even had some of my male patients who...

overcompete, they're doing way too much. And then their inflammation is really high and their testosterone is low, you know, all that. So it's, it's all like this vicious cycle. So I know you want to train, you want to do that. That's great. And that's for some people, that's what they love to do. And I'm not going to say you can't do that. That's totally up to you. But what are the things we need to do kind of to help all the other issues, if that makes sense, you can continue to keep compete at this level.

So again, I'm never gonna be one to be like, nope, you can't do that. You can do whatever the heck you want, but what do we have to do to support you in the meantime? So you're still feeling good, you know?

Speaker 3 (42:20)
Yeah, this has been so good and I feel like we could do this for hours and hours. So thank you so much Ashley for joining us. One last question we have for you. If someone's listening to this and feeling a little overwhelmed, like they want to get their health in check or they want to come, you know, try and do some scans or whatever, but you're saying, okay, let's do one thing. What's the first thing that they can do today to start starting point?

Speaker 1 (42:49)
I feel like I'm on my own little like exercise journey. Exercise has been huge for me, but for some people it might be like cutting back on sugar, you know, cause sugar is extremely inflammatory and after the holidays and whatnot. So those are big things. But yeah, I would say after that, just getting some basic lab work done would be great. Cause there's like very simple things you can do, but it's not like patients have to spend a ton of money and do all this stuff. Sometimes it's very minimal little things to feel better.

Speaker 3 (43:18)
That was super informative.

Speaker 1 (43:20)
Good, I hope it was.

Speaker 2 (43:21)
That was fantastic. I feel like our listeners are going to be able to leave this episode with some really tangible tips and more information about what immunity means, more information about what supplements are going to help them the best and how to find quality supplements. They're going to maybe do what the bottle says they're going to do. So we really appreciate your spending time with us today and we just really appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you both.

All right. Now it's time for She's Got Game. It's my favorite segment. I'm pretty sure it's Teryn's favorite segment. Maybe it's your favorite segment as well. We're going to spotlight a woman doing something awesome in sports. This is a woman whose family member we already heard about today. It is Miss Layla Ali. Love it. She is the daughter of the greatest is his nickname.

Muhammad Ali. So she herself has also been a boxer. She has an undefeated record of 24 wins and 21 of those were by knockouts. Teryn, what's a knockout?

Speaker 3 (44:38)
I think it's just like when they officially say, you can't keep going on after that. I don't know if they like have to pass out or it's just such a big hit that they stay on the ground for a certain amount of time.

Speaker 2 (44:51)
Crushed it, nailed it. So that means she's powerful. I mean, she's not just winning by judges kind of judging. No, she's winning in a very decided way. She's 5'10". She has a huge wingspan. Thanks, daddy. I think she inherited quite a bit of her power, stamina, et cetera, from him. When you watch her box, stamina and endurance is something that she is really good at. She's like a gnat. She just doesn't stop. She just keeps hidden.

just keeps going. She's super patient. She waits for the right moment and then just clocks these women. So anyways, she is of course Muhammad Ali's daughter, his youngest. She's the eighth out of nine children. One was adopted, so she's pretty much the baby. She talks about growing up in the Ali household. Muhammad Ali loved to entertain. She said her house was always full of people like Stevie Wonder and John Travolta and all of these names.

Her childhood, her growing up was a little bit bumpy and I'm pretty sure she's proud of that. She was an entrepreneur. She started her own cleaning business when she was a kid. She employed her friends. She ran her own nail salon, stole her mom's car, went to a juvenile detention center for shoplifting at 15. that. Just going to toss in a sprinkling of what it was like for Layla growing up. She's a tough, tough kid.

Speaker 3 (46:10)
in there.

Speaker 2 (46:17)
I mean, gated community in LA, celebs everywhere. And let me just like do my thing. Like tough, tough girl. She decided to get into boxing, not until she was 18. So here's set the stage, right? She's at her friend's house and they've got the TV on. They're going to watch a fight. I think it was Mike Tyson versus I don't know who. And as a warmup match right before the headliners came out, there were two women fighting and all of a it clicked for Layla.

this was her direct quote. She said, I just remember the whole world stopping. She was always in trouble for fighting in school. She says, remember, I'm a fighter. I've been fighting, just not sanctioned. And I get into trouble for it. Women fight? I'm Muhammad Ali's daughter. I'm a fighter. I can fight and not get in trouble. She said it just looked so enticing to her to be able to hit people and not get kicked out of school for it. So she went to a local gym and asked a dude to train her a little bit, paid him a little bit of cash, gave him a ride home sort of thing.

you know, excelled really quickly. People started talking about her in her gym. She didn't tell her dad right away. He did find out eventually and begged her to stop. He said, it's a man's sport. It's not for women. Uh-huh. But later on, know later. mean, the danger is where... Yeah, I'm sure not. This was the early nineties is when she really started to kind of get into boxing, but you know, he got a lot of injuries and so he didn't want to see that same future for her.

Speaker 3 (47:34)
like big back then either.

Speaker 2 (47:46)
But then eventually he saw her boxing and I think he was really proud. He said something like, you're really good. You hit like me. So he came around and he supported her. Yeah. She wanted to say later, you know, my father, he was the greatest, his nickname, but he wasn't perfect. so she had an amazing career. Like I mentioned, 24 wins, a bunch of knockouts. She retired at 30 and so many people said, Layla, what are you doing? You've got so many more years left, but

She said she talked about boxing and said that the top boxers on both sides, men's and women's, didn't want to box each other because they were so protective of their records. didn't want to not be undefeated. So she said she just was sort of tired of boxing people who weren't at her level and she wanted to settle down, start a family. So she married a former NFL player. She's got two kiddos, a 13-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

who looks a lot like his grandfather. He really, his face looks a lot like Muhammad Ali. So fast forward, now she is an entrepreneur. She's an advocate for social issues. So she retired from boxing and started her own business called the Layla Ali Lifestyle Company. I'm gonna tell you what that is in a second, but first listen to this. She has been said to be difficult in business. Can you guess?

how I feel about women being called difficult in business. Who says that about a man? Anybody ever say that man is a difficult businessman to work

Speaker 3 (49:23)
The level of male difficulty versus women, woman difficulty, I'm sure is significantly different, but you know, yeah, no, I do. I do feel like I understand what you feel about that.

Speaker 2 (49:35)
I'm always, you know what? I'm just always looking at things through a lens of what if this were a man? Yeah. We've kind of talked about that in a couple other ways in this episode already, but yeah, she's difficult because she's really particular about her brand. Okay. So the Layla Ali lifestyle company, she's got spices, she's got cookbooks, skincare, home decor. I mean, it's basically like an upscale all the things. Yeah.

She's been in TV all over the place. She's been on Chopped, Dancing with the Stars, hosted a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. She does speaking engagements, social media. She's talking about strength resilience, just a really cool message. And I just want to end with a couple of awesome ways that she's using her platform to create some good in the world. She created the Knockout Human Trafficking Campaign, which was to raise awareness for human trafficking.

And then she's also connected to the women's sports foundation. So she was the president for an amount of time, still connected, but it's all about social justice, racial and gender equality in sports. Overall, like a cool, cool lady. You listen to her talk and I mean, she's intense. She still looks like she could take your head off. She's 5'10", right? You know, and she does not let herself go. She's an athletic, powerful woman, super smart.

super sharp and for all of those reasons, she is our highlight for the She's Got Game segment today.

Well, that's a wrap on this episode of Almost Fans. We hope you had as much fun listening as we did chatting. Remember, we're here every week with more laughs, a dash of knowledge like hanging out with Dr. Ashley today and the occasional sideline scoop or maybe ringside in the case of today's topics. If you enjoyed this episode, go on and hit that follow button. And if you've got a question that you want answered or a topic that you want covered, we want to hear it.

email us at almostfanspodcasts.gmail.com. See you next time, Almost Fans!