The Care Collective
Join Dr. Uwaila Oronsaye, Pharm.D. and Dr. Siddhi Chandra, OD as they launch The Care Collective—a monthly podcast dedicated to empowering and connecting individuals passionate about creating positive change. Through insightful conversations and shared knowledge, they foster a supportive and inclusive community that inspires growth, connection, and action. Together, they aim to cultivate care and amplify the power of collective impact. Tune in and be part of the movement!
The Care Collective
Health & Wellness: "Vital Vibes"
In this episode of The Care Collective, board-certified cardiologist Dr. Christina Paruthi, MD, joins hosts Dr. Uwaila Oronsaye, Pharm.D. and Dr. Siddhi Chandra, OD, to break down heart health into simple, actionable steps. Dr. Paruthi dispels common myths about fitness, shares how even five minutes of daily movement can make a difference, and explains why strength training is essential after 30. The conversation also explores how stress affects weight loss, the latest research on alcohol’s impact, and updated blood pressure guidelines. Tune in to learn how small, consistent habits can help protect your heart—without a complete lifestyle overhaul!
The Care Collective Podcast | @sthopehealthcare
Hi, welcome to the Care Collective, a podcast brought to you by St Hope Healthcare.
Speaker 2:I'm Dr Uwaila Aranse and I'm Dr Siddhi Chandra. The Care Collective is a podcast dedicated to empowering and connecting individuals who are passionate about creating positive change. Our mission is to share valuable insights and knowledge, foster a supportive and inclusive community and provide engaging and entertaining. Foster a supportive and inclusive community and provide engaging and entertaining content that inspires growth and connection. Together, we aim to make caring contagious and amplify the power of collective action.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone. Welcome to the Care Collective Podcast, where we're all about nurturing connections, empowering energy and embracing femininity. I'm your host, uwaila Aronsaye, and.
Speaker 2:I'm your co-host, Dr Sidney Chandra. Today's episode is Vital Vibes, talking about fitness and health. To start off this episode, we have a Zoom call with Dr Christina Paruthi.
Speaker 1:Speaking of health and fitness, it'll be great to hear from our health and fitness expert.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Today we have a pleasure of welcoming an incredible physician who is making a profound impact in the field of cardiology. Dr Christina Paruthi is dedicated to providing top-tier cardiologic care, helping patients lead healthier and stronger lives. A proud Texan, dr Paruthi began her medical journey at St George's University School of Medicine before completing her internal medicine residency at St Louis University. She then returned to Houston to further specialize, completing a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at University of Texas Medical Center, followed by additional year of fellowship in advanced cardiology, heart failure and transplant. She is a board certified in cardiovascular disease, advanced heart failure and transplant, nuclear cardiology and internal medicine. With her deep knowledge and passion for heart health, we are thrilled to have you on the show today, so please join me in welcoming Dr Christina Paruthi.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you both so much for having me. Wow with that bio. I'm like I did all that.
Speaker 2:Yes, girl. I know I was reading. I was like oh my gosh, how many board certifications does this girl have?
Speaker 3:Like oh my god, bad memories.
Speaker 2:And fun fact, Dr Pruthi and I are in an Indian dance team called T2. Oh, I love that. Yes, so we perform for the Indian holidays, Diwali Holi. So you have to come watch us perform. Shout out to our dance team.
Speaker 3:Which is a really great segue because dance is like a huge part of my fitness routine. So I don't know if you've ever tracked my journey, but I've lost like 80 pounds and a huge, a huge part of that was dance. Like I've always been into dance and when I first started getting back into classes as an adult, my weight was like holding me back as well as just like feeling like I could do better, I could perform better if I was more fit. And then now like it's part of my ongoing journey, which is where I'm at city.
Speaker 1:I love that because like combining workouts with something fun to do, like you're like literally looking forward to it every day.
Speaker 3:So a hundred percent, because I have patients all the time that are like I guess I could walk, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. What is fun for you? Is it pickleball, is it tennis? Is it walking with your kids? Is it dance Like it should be something that's fun and the fitness part is like the benefit, rather than forcing yourself to do something you don't want to do. Because how often are we going to do that, especially as adults, right? We? Because how often are we to do that, especially as adults, right? We already do so much stuff that we don't want to do. The last thing that we should force ourselves to do is exercise when that should be good for us.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that goes like into kind of what I want to know more about. As a cardiologist, how do you feel like everyday habits, diet, exercise, stress management influence heart health, our fitness, overall health and the big question what is the minimum amount of physical activity to keep us healthy?
Speaker 3:Definitely Okay. So I'll answer the second part first. So, per the guidelines the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association, we really want to try to hit 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise. So activity is great. Somebody who's active versus sedentary will reduce their risk of death from heart disease by 30%. So just being active is really good. But I do try to stress to people unless your heart rate's getting up, you're huffing and puffing, you're breaking a sweat we're not hitting that moderate intensity requirement that we want to hit. Or somebody who's doing a high intensity interval training, like a workout class where you're on a treadmill and things like that, then you only need 75 minutes. So really making sure that you're getting your heart rate up there to the 130s 140s to get that deep exercise benefit. And then, of course, the more active that you are, the better. Now the first part of your question. I feel like I can answer better, just as someone who's been on a transformation journey as opposed to just being a doctor, because it's really easy to say like okay, make sure you follow a Mediterranean diet, exercise 150 minutes a week. But that's not taking into account like as adults. I'm assuming we're targeting adults with your podcast.
Speaker 3:Children are so different, like activity is their main built in, and for us it's like, okay, I have to get my kids to work, I have to go work myself, I have to take care of my parents, like we have. So many of these have tos, that the first thing we put on the back burner is our own health. And so what I try to implement in my own life and then share with my friends, family and my patients, who I consider the same for myself, is that it all starts up here and in here. So, like our mental well being is the place to start. So oftentimes we think, well, I don't have time for myself, I'll do it later, I'll do it later, and then, when you wait till later, unfortunately you could have had a stroke, have heart disease.
Speaker 3:It becomes too late Exactly, and that time that you thought you were going to live, that time that you thought that you were going to have, it's gone. I saw that happen in my dad. My dad worked so hard his whole life and then, when he was ready to slow down and retire, he had had multiple strokes, he was losing his mobility. And you know, I try to point out to patients like, if you die, that sucks and that's hard, but almost what's worse is being disabled and losing your independence and losing your ability to care for others. So, as much as we've been cultured to believe that taking time for yourself is selfish, it's not.
Speaker 3:If you don't start with taking your time time for yourself to like make sure you're sleeping, make sure you're eating well, make sure you're happy internally, you can't give to all those people around you You're pouring from an empty cup. So the first place I think that we start with is just realizing it's okay to take time for myself and taking off that time burden. I told you 150 minutes per week. You know what? If you did five minutes of alternating jumping jacks 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off before you got in the shower today, that's a win, Because if we did that every day. That's 35 minutes for the week and that's almost more of the high intensity versus moderate intensity. You're halfway towards your goal. You didn't even really have to do anything but five minutes a day.
Speaker 1:So breaking it up? No, I was just saying so breaking it up, and, you know, try to make it achievable by breaking it up into smaller timeframes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. And then the second thing I would say is like consistency. So for myself too, if I take more than two days off, that's turning into two weeks off. Or like people I'm seeing today will be like you know, the holidays they derail me, and I'm like guys, it's March, we're a quarter of the way through the year.
Speaker 3:So, consistently like making exercise and fitness a part of your life, that every day I'm either driving to the gym find a gym that's on your way home or I'm heading to the park with my family and try to like have that consistency, that for 30 minutes a day I am active, combining that with like even meditation. So like maybe you don't listen to music when you walk, you just enjoy the sights around you, become more present, have do deep breathing exercises. All of that plays a role into health and fitness and it helps bring us from like operating at a level of this. And just like there's no time there's never any time to like okay, deep breath. What can I do? Like in the next, in the five minutes I have today 10 minutes I have can I be active, can I make a better choice for what I'm going to eat? Can I even do some deep breathing exercises so I have more time for my space and my for my family, more space for them. That all contributes to our overall health and wellness.
Speaker 1:What are some tests that you would recommend to a patient that's wanting to make sure their heart is healthy? Any things that they should actually be asking their doctor for? Any tests that they should be checking for?
Speaker 3:So routinely. Adults over the age of 20 should get their cholesterol checked as a baseline and then, depending on if it's abnormal, more frequently or if it's normal, every at least four to six years. Same thing with blood pressure screening. They should start that once they hit adulthood and then hopefully it's getting checked more than every three to five years. If it's normal, I would say at least annually.
Speaker 3:For people who have high blood pressure, this is not an official recommendation. But if you have high blood pressure, this is not an official recommendation. But if you have high blood pressure and are treating that or are borderline, checking it a couple of times a week in the morning or the evening, so that way you can kind of see what the trajectory is. The guidelines have changed. So before we used to consider hypertension to be 140 over 90. The goal and normal for everyone is 120 over 80, but already moving into the 130s is considered stage one hypertension. This is really important for people to understand because we don't see the long-term effects on our blood vessels immediately. When our blood pressure is sitting elevated at 135, 140, 150, it's slowly damaging our heart vessels which lead to thickening and calcification of those vessels. That a process that starts now in our 30s or 40s can be leading to a stroke in our 60s or 70s.
Speaker 3:There's not great screening recommendations for cardiovascular health. Previously we used a risk calculator that would help us to know okay, how often, when do you need to start an aspirin, cholesterol pill, get testing, and testing was mostly done for symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath. But new studies have shown and it hasn't met the guidelines yet that coronary imaging is picking up over two to one times, and even more than that, of what we would see with the risk score. So I do make my patients aware of newer testing that's available, like a calcium score, which is a CAT scan to look at the heart arteries. Score doesn't involve any type of injection or IV and so it can miss soft plaque as well as any type of anomaly in the artery.
Speaker 3:So for people that are more high risk than just routine screening with no risk factors, we can also do a CAT scan with the injection of contrast, and I see a lot more cardiologists offering that to their patients, because the gold standard for knowing what's happening in your blood vessels is to take a direct look at them. So obviously these types of tests are a conversation with your doctor, because anytime that we are injecting contrast, if you have allergies or sensitivity, we don't want to just generalize and put everyone at risk. But it's a great place to start with talking to your doctor. Hey, I have these risk factors I used to smoke or I have high cholesterol, diabetes, a very strong family history. That way the best decision can be made for the patient with their doctor.
Speaker 1:Okay, Good to know. Good to know so much information I need to go get my heart checked. Right, Because I'm like okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I need to. Yes, if you could bust one major misconception about heart health, what would it be?
Speaker 3:I think it's that it's too hard. It's too hard to do everything right. I think, breaking it down, like I said, instead of having that pressure on ourselves, like I don't have an hour so I can't go to the gym, do what you can with the time that you have. The second thing I would say is that you can't just target the heart. All of our organs are so interconnected that it really has to be a top to bottom, inside out approach. So, like I said, simply doing short breathing exercises or meditation can reduce your stress and anxiety, which in turn affects your blood pressure and heart rate.
Speaker 3:Making sure you're sleeping Okay, A lot of people don't relate sleep to their heart health, but sleep apnea can affect our overall metabolic wellness, our blood pressure, our heart rate. So you know, being open to getting a sleep study if you snore or making sure you have high quality sleep, getting treated if you have insomnia. Same thing strength training. I am a huge believer in strength training because it improves our metabolic wellness by improving our insulin sensitivity. Unrelated to the heart, but a lot of times I have to like screen patients to get surgery and hip fractures are huge, especially in women, and strength training can help to stop the process of osteoporosis and even reverse it. So I think it would just be thinking that it's too hard or that I don't have the time, because definitely something is always better than nothing.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So me being a pharmacist, I know I did a lot of questions from my patients about certain supplements that they can take, and we also get a lot of patients who get prescribed like omega three fatty fish oil. So what are your thoughts on fish oil for heart health or any other supplements that you would recommend?
Speaker 3:recommend Fish oil is not a huge part of my practice. Supplements in general I try to be very cautious with because they don't have the same FDA approval or FDA regulations that prescription medications have and they often haven't gone through the same rigorous testing and trials to know for benefits. Common things that I do like patients to use, that I use myself my mesium glycinate I really like. I like more lifestyle-intuned behavior. So like, if you have high blood pressure, watching your sodium, because just reducing sodium intake can hugely affect our blood pressure. So part of that is just tracking your blood pressure and like, oh, if I had soup one day or I went out for margaritas or Chinese food that my blood pressure went up. I'm not saying never do that. Definitely still enjoy your life, but don't have burgers, fries, margaritas, mexican, like don't do that all in the same day.
Speaker 3:Pick one meal and the rest of the meals, like still cut oats, egg whites, grilled chicken to balance out that sodium intake. Because the Mediterranean diet and the dash diet have definitely been proven to help improve our longevity and risk of death or reduce our risk of death from cardiovascular disease. So supplements I always suggest first again talk to your doctor, make sure that you're taking what is medically indicated, prescription wise first and then include your pharmacist to run an interaction checker with the supplements that we want to take to make sure that we're actually getting those benefits and not hurting ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a definite common thing that patients think that you can just take a vitamin or supplement. It can actually be harmful to you, especially with the medications that you may already be taking.
Speaker 3:Exactly and consistency. A lot of people cannot be consistent with their supplements. So, yes, there are supplements that can lower blood pressure, but if we're not taking those supplements or using those foods like hibiscus, tea or beets regularly, then we're not going to get that consistent flatline benefit. We're just going to be going like this and we don't want our blood pressure to be doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I definitely learned a lot. Thank you so much, Dr Paruthi. I definitely think it's about making those small steps to achieve big goals, so we're definitely going to get into discussing that in a little bit. Your insight was very, very helpful.
Speaker 1:We appreciate it. Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Stepping into it. Dr Aranzai, I would love to know what are some ways you try to balance fitness with a busy lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Fitness with a busy lifestyle. Yeah, that's definitely something that I've struggled with, especially after becoming a mom. So you know, we work all day, like even without having any kids. Taking care of yourself is a lot of work as a working woman, a working person in general.
Speaker 1:But yeah, balancing it all, what I found that has worked for me is trying to habit stack, like trying to like, if, say, I want to get more time with my family and friends or with my kids, hey, let's go to the park and go walk around or let's do an activity thing where we're kind of moving around. I found that that has kind of helped me to stay fit and I'm still getting some time with some friends and kids and my spouse. So habit stacking has been the only way I've been able to try to get it in. But of course I do, like you know, working out on my own and having my me time. So if I'm able to at least get one of those a week, or if it may be every other week, like I do need that too. So I try to plan ahead of time to really squeeze it in.
Speaker 2:You know, I actually agree with you. I never knew that term, habit stacking but I, you know, guilty of doing it as well. It's actually great with my husband. He's always like, oh, let's do dates, let's do dates, and I kind of was like, okay, moving forward, any dates we're doing need to involve a physical activity, like so, like we'll go to crossfit together or we'll go for a walk together, because I'm trying to get our physical health improved, and so that's definitely habit stacking is a great way to do it and also, I think, another way. For me what really resonated was with Dr Paruthi.
Speaker 2:She was talking about how just breaking it down into smaller things. So, you know you're talking about how be like just working full time. Being a full time working woman is so challenging and also being a mom is so challenging for me. When I started this job, you know, I was an optometrist. That's what I've done my whole life and I'm pretty comfortable with that. And I got promoted and I became a director Right and that was a whole new world, a whole new world of things.
Speaker 2:So at that time I was like okay, I really don't want to let my team down, I really want to be the best I can be. So I ended up hiring a career coach. Oh, wow, yes.
Speaker 3:Not many people know that, okay.
Speaker 2:I was like I need some help to figure out how to navigate this. And one of the things that incidentally came up which was so helpful was work-life balance Right, because I was working all the time and then, you know, like Dr Pruthi says, it's like oh, there's no time, there's no time Like, where is it Right? And she gave me probably the best advice I've ever had in my life, which is make it stupid easy. Make it stupid easy, yeah, it should be so easy. It's stupid not to do it right, like even if it's just go outside and walk for five minutes, yeah, just start there, because you'll be shocked where it leads to. Right, because I think especially it was true for me I put so much pressure on myself because there was another version of me in another world that you were trying to get to.
Speaker 2:That was running 10 miles a day a week and like going across it twice a day. It was like insanity and she's like that's just not gonna work it's not gonna last long.
Speaker 1:You're gonna do that for like two weeks, maybe three, and then you're gonna be like okay so, yeah, it's kind of like that. I've heard the kiss um, keep it simple, keep it simple.
Speaker 2:Stupid, stupid, simple but there's like an acronym for that as well where people are like just start with one step, one foot in front of the other first, before you try to go to the next level and it does work because you know people like right now I have a pretty good fitness routine, but it actually started with me just forcing myself to walk five minutes a day, right, and with me working full-time and being in management and being married and all the things that encompass being a woman it's a lot.
Speaker 1:It's a lot for us to look like this and get here, you know. So, yes, I definitely understand. But what about weight lifting, like, do you go to the gym? What are some? Things you do in a gym that you enjoy.
Speaker 2:So I've really incorporated weightlifting. I used to CrossFit back in the day and then I kind of stopped for a couple of years and then I just started again this year. And the major reason why I think a lot of people don't know is at the age of 30, we start to lose muscle. Yeah, we're losing three to 8% muscle per decade. So weight training is essential because this decline in muscle can lead to weaker bones, loss of metabolism, falls, fractures. Weight training really helps us maintain that muscle and build that muscle that we're losing. We want to prevent muscle loss, we want to boost our metabolism, we want our bones to be stronger and I think it's something that's really overlooked or undervalued. And you know, when we think of weightlifting especially with women, right it's like oh, I'm not a bodybuilder I'm not that.
Speaker 1:No, I don't want to be bulky you know how much it takes to get bulky like, and you would have to, like, eat a whole bunch of protein.
Speaker 2:Seriously, it is very challenging, yeah um so definitely, weight lifting is essential and I also would say, just using your body weight right, squatting um push-ups, pull-ups, stuff like that resistant bands for beginners is incredible Body weight is something that I do a lot now because for me I don't have a lot of room to go to the actual gym, so at home workouts using your body weight, you still get great results.
Speaker 2:So it's all about technique and, yeah, really pushing your muscle to the fatigue and it's interesting you bring up technique, because form is critical you have to have good form, but with today's technology like youtube has 100 videos on form you can learn right, you do not need to go to the gym. You do do not need a personal trainer. You can just pull it up and watch and learn. So I think there are a lot of tools out there definitely to learn that. And speaking of like with that, I was actually Tabitha. She works here at St Hope.
Speaker 2:Yes, she told me because I was like I really just don't squat enough. She's like every time you go to the bathroom, do 10 squats. Imagine doing the bathroom do 10 squats imagine doing 10 squats it's actually such a good idea, but I think I would be so sore yeah, I haven't tried it yet, yeah, but it's been on my mind see, that's a good one I did.
Speaker 1:and it reminds me because when I used to be like okay, I don't really have too much time to work out, and what dr peruthi was saying earlier, like, like breaking up your times, like I used to, which I probably need to get back to but in the mornings, before I would shower or before I got ready, the first thing is like okay, 25 squats before I even get ready.
Speaker 1:And it helps you get it helps you wake up, it helps warm your body up, and then you kind of feel more energized. So, I'm going to bring that back.
Speaker 2:You should, you should I more energized. So I'm gonna bring that back. You should, you should I support you. What do you feel like is a major?
Speaker 1:misconception that people do not realize about fitness and weight loss. Oh so stress can cause you to not lose any weight, no matter how much workout you're doing, no matter how much exercising you're doing, no matter how much exercising you're doing, if you're really stressed, it's still. You can actually still see yourself gaining weight. It's so funny. I had a conversation with a friend before because I was. There was a point where I was like, okay, I was challenging myself. It was toward the end of last year and I was challenging myself. I said, okay, I'm gonna wake up at four o'clock in the morning do my workout. I was doing it. I did it for a whole almost six weeks. Wow, and I would work out. You know I was really pushing myself because I just wanted to. I don't know, I do things like that where I push myself and I want to see some results, and after the six weeks I was like I gained weight, and so that's when I was reminded.
Speaker 1:My friend was like, uh, while I yeah, if you're putting, you are at a certain age, some of us, you know, we're older and at a certain age, stress really can take um a toll on our bodies and show more on our bodies, and so there's different types of exercises that you know. Know older ages have to do. So when you are doing more stressful exercises and maybe you're already stressed in life or you know you're a little overwhelmed it's not the best thing to do like high intensity exercises like every day. So, yeah, making sure that your stress is managed, because what happens when we're really stressed is our cortisol levels can shoot up, and so cortisol is it can be really stressful on your body, and so it kind of stops a lot of things in your body from happening that would help you to lose weight and to relieve the stress.
Speaker 1:So, yes, relieving the stress is first step things first. So do exercises that do relieve stress. So going on a walk, it just because it's more high, intense, doesn't equal that you get better results. What a walk can give you a really good results on your fitness. So, yeah, don't stress yourselves out. Start off small and then we can increase it and if you are stressed at the moment, reduce your stress.
Speaker 2:I can definitely resonate with that. It's something I've been thinking about the last few months and I decided because I'm on a huge fitness journey as well that I was going to invest in much as recovery as I do in working out. Okay, and I started researching a ton. I was like let me see how these professional athletes recover. Yeah, let me like investigate here. So we're talking about cryotherapy. We're talking about yeah, they were talking about cold pledges. We're talking about the sauna, right?
Speaker 2:yeah so I started actually incorporating that into my weekly routine. Today is Friday. Today is my sauna day which I can't wait to go to afterwards and it was shocking. Like you're right, if you're going to sit there and do all this fitness stuff, which is absolutely amazing, incredible don't forget a key component, which is recovery and stress relief. And if that's walking or cryotherapy, sauna, cold plunges, all of that you know you really you got to self-care. You know, like Dr Pruthi was saying you got to fill your cup before you can fill others'.
Speaker 1:She said it starts here and here, so, and it's true, it's really true. So, yes, that was my thing. I learned my lesson. So, I don't stress myself too much and even if you don't have time to work out, if you have a five-minute stretch, a stretch will relieve so much tension on your body and it also helps to relieve some stress as well. So, yes, I know, with all the workouts that we do and exercising, do you do protein supplements or how do you watch your protein?
Speaker 2:Okay, need a significant amount of protein just for day to day. I think that you know what dr pruthi also. She's talking about, how she prefer, prefers natural sources. I'm along a similar mindset because I follow the paleo mindset paleo and keto. So it's more caveman cave like diet and lifestyle. So we try to get our resources and our nutrients from food. So I would say 90 my my protein comes from food right but it is hard right, I did not realize how much protein we actually needed right so, for if your goal is to gain muscle, you're supposed to be having about 0.75 grams per pound of your weight.
Speaker 2:Right, if your goal is to lose weight. It's actually supposed to be higher. You need more protein to lose weight, and that's around one gram per pound of your goal weight, and that's a minimum, that's. If you want to go a little bit higher than that, that's great, right, and so say your goal weight is 150 pounds. You need 150 grams of protein. Yeah, and just to give a little perspective.
Speaker 1:I'm like, I'm thinking of my meals, like how do you cut that up? Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Let's say, one egg is six grams. Okay, okay, that's not, that's not a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Four ounces of chicken, 25 grams.
Speaker 3:Okay, chicken breast.
Speaker 2:Roughly right, so you would have to have chicken A lot.
Speaker 1:And that's why I don't eat that much meat.
Speaker 2:It's too much for me I know, it's six pieces of chicken breast. It's 25 eggs, that's a lot of protein. I feel so overwhelmed by it some days. I do. You know. They say breakfast is the most important meal, so I try to really eat protein-heavy meals, with vegetables of course.
Speaker 2:Don't just eat your meat only Right, we need veggies, but I bring it up because it's just something important to know and to really look at. If you just look at how much protein you're eating, it wasn't until I looked at it I was like at I think I'm eating, like I was probably eating 40 percent right of what I was supposed to be, and that's what so now?
Speaker 1:because, yeah, protein I okay. I can't eat that much, so I'll have to supplement with a shake. Do you do shakes?
Speaker 2:I do one shake a day Okay. So, that's where I was like 90% is natural food, but I have to have a shake because there's no way. I'm hitting that goal. I'm going to be able to eat all that.
Speaker 1:That's not point too, that you have to have high protein. And so sometimes I'll look at my plate and I'm like, okay, because I don't know where I got this from, but I remember, um, seeing it somewhere where you know, if you look at the palm of your hand, your hand, here you should have. Your plate should be mainly protein, and then, um, you want some healthy fats and then a small amount of carbs. So I don't know if that's true, but I try to like you know, get the my main thing to be protein, Definitely.
Speaker 2:But you know, but still, even then that's a lot.
Speaker 1:Right, and you know, I come from a Nigerian background. We love our rice, we love our carbs. Yes, and so it's just like yes, I have to literally retrain my mind to be like no, we need more meat yes, I think if I start earlier in the day, like I said, with breakfast, it helps me get there yeah but, oh my gosh, yes, I'm still working on it, but for all our viewers, right?
Speaker 3:no, you can do it, you can do it look at your protein.
Speaker 1:You can do it.
Speaker 3:You can do it, you can do it.
Speaker 2:Look at your protein. You can do it.
Speaker 1:Alrighty. So I know, with fitness and everything, people still like to have fun. So how do you handle alcohol when you're on your fitness journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so recently I've done a 75 hard challenge. Okay, today is day 75. Oh my goodness, congrats, thank you, it was two workouts a day.
Speaker 2:A gallon water. Progress picture. Read 10 pages and no alcohol. Okay, I will actually say the no alcohol was my favorite part. Okay, one of the most like learning experiences.
Speaker 2:Um, with alcohol, you know, previously the dietary recommendations were like okay, as a man you can have about two drinks a day and as a female, maybe one. But recent studies have really changed that. It's actually showing that any even like a mild to moderate amount of alcohol can be extremely detrimental. The US Surgeon General in January actually announced that there's a significant linkage between alcohol and cancer. Yeah, right now there's about seven types of cancers related to alcohol and there is an increasing amount of deaths as well related to alcohol use.
Speaker 2:Dementia and brain health is highly associated with it. And then we also have brain shrinkage. You're seeing brain atrophy, especially in regions like the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory and learning, and you're also seeing that alcohol consumption can impair muscle recovery. So in a lot of ways it's detrimental. Yes, and there's a sober movement. Right, there's a change in perspective where previously it's like, oh, it's okay if you have one or two drinks, and I think socially it's a big thing and it's also was like the cool thing to do, right, to have a drink, but with younger generations being more health focused and the research that's coming out, I think we have a huge sober movement and in like the last 75 days, I think what was the most interesting component for me. We're very fortunate. We live in the fifth largest city in the United States let's go Houston so a lot of restaurants have mocktail menus.
Speaker 2:And there was a time before where I was like, why the heck would I ever get a mocktail Like, please just get a cocktail. No, but because of this I had to explore this new menu.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they are amazing. They are so delicious and they feel great the next day and overall I think it's so funny because when that came out.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of friends talk texting me about it and I'm like that's, it's not a new thing that alcohol was linked to cancer or it can cause cancer, which is why they kind of told you to limit it. But I think they went more into detail with that study that yes, it can slow down your brain function and all of that thing. So, yeah, yeah, I personally have never been like a big drinker or like I don't really drink much, but I would go out for social drinks. It was the only times I would drink out. But when I became pregnant with my first child and you know you can't drink. The mocktails are delicious.
Speaker 1:I'm like okay, I'm not missing out on anything so that's really what surprised me the most.
Speaker 2:Um, and of course, like I'm not saying that I'm never gonna drink again or I don't love a cocktail- right but I just think it's.
Speaker 2:It's just a shift in perspective and there is a huge sober movement and there's a lot of room to explore, right. So if you are out at a restaurant, maybe try a mocktail, because you will be surprised. Yes, actually, last night I went out with my husband and I got the best drink ever it was. It was a muddled strawberries with sparkling coconut water and a little bit of almond flavor in it.
Speaker 3:It was so good.
Speaker 2:Yes, that almond was a nice little twist. Okay, talking about healthy eating and drinking, why don't you tell me more about supplements, versus like someone improving their diet?
Speaker 1:Yes. So I guess supplements, supplements and vitamins whichever one or supplements in general. I think, before anyone I always tell my patients, like before you want to start a supplement or you know, just take one without you know changing your diet I'm diet first as well. Like how Dr Paruthi said, I would rather change my diet and increase the nutrients in my diet. But if you are someone who feels like you're not feeling so great or you're just starting out your fitness, your fitness challenge with yourself, then scheduling an appointment, getting your blood work done, and scheduling an appointment with a doctor to get your blood work done, to just see where you are, is something I always recommend, because otherwise you're kind of just guessing around. You know taking this and that and you're not really sure what it is that you need.
Speaker 1:So that's something that we do here at St Hope. You can schedule with one of our physicians and you can get your annual physical. So if you do have insurance, that is something that your insurance does cover for everyone anyone who has insurance and if you don't have insurance, we do have great prices for that. So get your blood work done and they'll be able to run. Your labs is what they call labs and it's called an annual physical with routine labs. So they're gonna do your routine labs and you'll be able to see what exactly is going on in your body and from there, your doctor or your provider will be able to guide you on things that you may need to supplement. As you change your diet and make changes to your diet, you can start off supplementing and as your diet does change, you may find that you may not need those supplements anymore. So, yeah, that's one thing I always recommend Make sure you get your blood work done and you'll know for sure and not just be guessing around and it's so great that we offer that.
Speaker 2:You know, I was talking with provider vasquez and he was talking about how he runs blood reports and blood labs, like you were saying and they also do ekgs here for the heart. I didn't know that I was like, oh okay, right, so we do provide it all.
Speaker 1:I think it's absolutely come in, take, take care of your health, get your routine work done, your routine annual or something yeah get it done and you'll be able to feel at ease and not feel that, okay, where do I start? It's a great way to start, so, yes, okay. So that brings us to the end of our episode. Thank you everyone for watching. I hope you enjoyed and if you ever need to schedule an appointment, see a doctor, find a doctor, you can always schedule one with St Hope. You can follow us on all of our social media platforms and we'll be there waiting for you.
Speaker 2:Have a good one and please make sure you check out our website offeringhopeorg. Thank you for joining and stay tuned for our next episode.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 3:You've been watching and listening to the Care Collective, a production of St Hope Healthcare. Join us monthly for new episodes as we explore the latest thoughts and ideas on living your best life.