Rediscovering Women's Health and Nutrition: A Conversation with Karen Sullivan

Connect with Karen Sullivan here: https://thewellnesstop.com

Buy Cardio Miracle on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JfxJ7K
Save more with “Subscribe & Save”: https://bit.ly/4rJVRRk

In this episode, Karen Sullivan shares her powerful personal journey through thyroid cancer, postpartum anxiety, and the path that led her to functional medicine. Discover how personalized nutrition can play a critical role in women’s health, the myths surrounding menopause, and why hormonal changes don’t mean health concerns are over. Karen also discusses the impact of environmental toxins, processed foods, supplements like Cardio Miracle, and how women can become stronger advocates for their own health by asking better questions and seeking credible information. This conversation explores the balance between traditional and functional medicine for a more holistic approach to wellness. 

00:00 - Introduction to Karen Sullivan and her health story
02:21 - Karen’s journey into functional medicine and holistic health
04:25 - The importance of nutrition in overall wellness
09:23 - Advocating for credible health practices and research
12:39 - Supporting kvinnor's hormones with quality nutrition and supplements
14:44 - The significance of vitamin D and environmental toxin impacts
17:00 - How modern food choices impact hormonal and cellular health
20:16 - Walking as a tool for physical and mental health
24:20 - Supporting immune and hormonal health with Cardio Miracle
28:58 - The conversation around GLP-1 medications and their responsible use
42:42 - Myths about menopause and long-term health risks
43:00 - Resources for finding credible practitioners and high-quality products
44:35 - Final thoughts: empowering women with knowledge and nutrition 

Complete Pulsebeat Podcast Playlist: https://bit.ly/4mhgT6O

Explore our scientific studies: http://www.cardiomiracle.com/studies 
Check out the latest from our blog: https://cardiomiracle.com/pages/blog
For questions, email us at support@cardiomiracle.com 

Instagram | https://instagram.com/cardio_miracle
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/CardioMiracle1
Twitter (X) | https://x.com/cardio_miracle
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardiomiracle/
TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@cardiomiracle
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/cardiomiracle

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome to the Pulse Beat Podcast sponsored by Cardio Miracle. Today we are joined with Vice President of Cardio Miracle Josh Hewlett and none other than Karen Sullivan. She is a certified health coach, functional medicine specialist, and midlife wellness advocate, whose story is inspiring as the work that she does. So she's faced thyroid cancer, uh, postpartum anxiety, severe panic attacks. Karen has rebuilt her health through integrative and functional medicine, and that is what we are all about at Cardio Miracle with our nitric oxide and D3 formula that we love. So, Karen, we are so happy to have you. She is now the founder of the Wellness Stop, where she helps women navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife with confidence and clarity. Karen, uh, we are so excited to have you and to dive into your journey and the incredible work that you're doing for women. So welcome, glad to have you here and Josh too.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Of course. No, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Um, I'm excited to kind of get into this and and really have the opportunity to share, you know, all the amazing things that we're all working on independently, really, but collectively, right? Right to heal, to heal our community. I mean, that's really what this is all about. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

John Hewlett, the founder of Cardio Miracle, his mission is to save one million hearts. Wow. Um, and so absolutely, we are all in this together. I love that. That's awesome. All right, let's do it. Let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

We have a huge we have a huge mission where actually, you know, we we feel like possibly we have hit that one million. So now we're on to a hundred million or like the hearts of mankind.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So I misquoted it is a hundred million. I'm sorry, you're right, Josh. It's a hundred. We're we're saving lives over here. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Not to be too nitpicky, but um, Karen, I'm so excited, so excited to have you on the show today. We're we what we like to do is we like to interview and talk with people who are like-minded and who have overcome some dick things and who have crazy knowledge on what we're trying to accomplish, which is getting the science back into people's lives. And and we really would like Cardi Miracle to be a household name. And so we're so excited to have someone like yourself on the program. I want to jump right in and and just ask you if you could walk us through your wellness journey and uh incorporate the life-functioning medicine that you've incorporated.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Yeah, so I'm now 58. Um, my husband um owns a heating and air conditioning company. So when he started his company in 2001, um, I, you know, jumped on board to help him and helped him kind of get that up and running. Um, my background and my degrees initially, um, you know, out of college in my 20s was in business administration, business management. Uh, never had any, any inkling of going into anything in healthcare. And had my son at 34. Um, and by the time I got to 39, um, that's really when the bottom just completely dropped out of my health. My cancer diagnosis was much earlier on. So that probably was like the gasoline that kind of started to smolder the fire. So that was at 29, had my son at 34. Then I what I suspect happened between 34 and 39, my body just never really rebounded, you know, after having cancer, after getting going through, thank God, a successful pregnancy. But um, my body just never really came back online. And um, that's when all the issues kind of started cropping up um around anxiety, depression, panic attacks, all kinds of horrible stuff. Um, and you know, I went to my local doctor at the time and he was like, here's some Xanax and here's some Ateninol for your blood pressure. And surprise. Yeah, and I wasn't um I wasn't really freaked out about the Xanax. I was more freaked out about the blood pressure medication, to be honest with you. And um, because again, I was very naive, right? I was 39. We didn't really know what we know now about, you know, benzos and and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

So um I really did not want to take any of that. And so I literally started, you know, thank God we had computers and the internet back then, but I started like just typing in naturopathic doctors, holistic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's literally how the whole journey started. And after kind of getting my body stable again, um, that's when I went back to school. That was 2010, went to my first coaching school, and just then really started kind of moving through that whole field of integrative, holistic functional med really was not discussed back then. It wasn't even really talked about. It wasn't a category of anything. Right, exactly. Um, yeah, it it really just kind of catapulted me. And then in 2016, um, had some really uh significant um career opportunities in front of me um and started working in clinic with functional physicians, um, which was an incredible, incredible experience. But um I realized like, oh, I don't really know as much as I thought I did. So I've all had that moment.

unknown 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Right. I was like, ooh, I was like, I'm I'm in this big arena and I really don't know what I'm talking about. Um so I went back to school again, and this time I went to a functional medicine coaching school, and it was probably one of the best decisions that I ever made, and then graduated again in 2019. That was like a two and a half year program, and did that and and then really just kind of kicked around coaching and you know, kind of just collaborating with some incredible physicians and doctors here in New York. Um, and then I went into retirement probably about two years ago, and I was like, I'm retired, I'm gonna just kind of take a step back. It's not the end of the story, though. I know it's not. You know, and I and I call, you know, people that are very growth mindset and entrepreneurial. You know, some of my friends, you know, that I kind of run with, we talk about business, how you kind of have to be a little unglued to kind of do the things that we do, right? Um, and really have very deep conviction inside, you know, starting your company, Josh, and kind of me doing what I'm doing now. So I decided to open a wellness store. Um, and that's what I did two years ago here, still in the same community where I've lived for 30 years. But the intent really was um more about creating a space of gathering for the community um and learning what their options are and how to get connected to the right team of individuals and people that are going to be good for their body and really for their entire family. Um, and that's really the network of people that I've created, in addition to sharing, right, all the things that I've been through and my wisdom and, you know, and kind of showing like all these things that my body's been through and coming out the other side and you know, and and what that can look like, right? So that's that's really what this is all about. And that's what my mission is here is to create a space that's filled with love and support, um, but also credible, credible, credible, I can't say that enough, um, credible practitioners.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Um that is why Cardiomerical has three published studies. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yeah, and that's super important because you know, we are in we are in information overload um as a society. And, you know, for me as a practitioner, I am up against Dr. Google, Dr. Facebook, Dr. Instagram, Dr. TikTok now. I am I am up against all of that all day long. So whenever a client like sends something to me where they might send a link to a product, I'm like, do it, do your research. It's so important to advocate for yourself. But let's let's take a look at this. And and I don't pretend to know everything. Um, because if if you know if a patient or client sends me something, I'll be like, you know what, let me get back to you. Let me just reach out to some of my other colleagues and see what they know. Um, but most of the time, some of the things that they're researching is just not credible. So it's it's usually a hard no for me, um, unless, you know, we've done, we look at all the studies and and we do this deep dive into you know what everybody deserves, right? Um, I think that's incredibly important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I'm I'm No, I mean, you have the peer network.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Sorry, go ahead, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Sorry, I'm running and walking every day, right? I do like 9.6 million steps a day or a year. And so when I I read something, I had a little thing on my Instagram come up that said, you know, your future doctor that's taking care of your heart attack is looking for answers on chat GPT right now. Oh my gosh. Start running, start taking care of your health.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Start doing your own research. Yeah. So sorry, good job, Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

No, no, that was great, Josh. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

How how I and this is what I tell everybody is that Google, do it. Look at ChatGPT because what I'm hoping it's gonna do is create a spark in your brain that's gonna get you to take action and think and advocate for yourself. Absolutely. Because because sometimes what I find, especially with women, is that you go into a doctor's appointment and they get completely intimidated and paralyzed and don't and and they're not confident to speak up. Um and I yeah, and I and I say to them, like, it's okay for you to ask questions, like it's okay. And if and if they get kind of snickety about it, that's okay too. And and if it and if they do get snickety about it, or or they pull out a study that's from 2002, because we're still up against that as women from the WHI study with hormones, like that's a whole other it's just a hot mess. But I tell my clients, listen, like if they pull out studies that are just from 24 years ago, that means that they're not doing their research on their side, right? So I say to them, listen, you need to find another practitioner, you need to go and find another gynecologist. So usually that's they come to me and they're like, who do I go to? Right. So um, so it's good. Like it's just creating a network, and and I just want people to feel seen, heard, and supported. So that's that's all I care about. If they use me as a coach, that's awesome, you know. But but if they don't, that's okay too. Because I just I want people to really live very, very optimally because we all deserve it.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So tell me more, Karen, about so you do do you do remote work then with clients and you do your inpatient?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah, both. Yeah, absolutely. I work virtually, I work in person. Um, you know, my my wheelhouse is nutrition. So that's really where all my certifications lie. So, but the doctors that I work with here locally, you know, if I if I, you know, someone comes into my fold and we need to do a deeper dive with labs or other testing, you know, then obviously I network them to these other practitioners. And then the, you know, the clients come back to me when it comes to nutrition. Um in my 20 years of doing this now, um, the one constant is nutrition. Amen to that.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I mean, it's whole food everything that you do. Whole food benefits whole body health. It is. It is. And I'm I would love to to dig into that a little bit with the nutrition. I'm sure you would too as well, Josh, um, especially with vitamin D and women, hormones, um, cancer. You were talking about your thyroid cancer. I mean, that is such a most people call it vitamin D, but it's actually a hormone. It's so essential. Um, you know, that's a huge component of the mechanism of action within Cardiomerical, um, with over five, four thousand IU a day. Um, but I yeah, tell me more about the nutrition side of what you do. And obviously, we we love that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

And and I think, you know, for women, right? We have a lot of moving parts inside. There's a lot going on all day long. All day. All day. It's it's all day, every day. It's insane, really. I mean, when you think, you know, I mean, we can grow a human. I mean, that's that's crazy, right? Um, so, and again, it's a complete miracle, but but it's like there's a lot going on. There's a lot of mechanisms and checks and balances that are going on all day. And and I think I think what's happened is with women's health in particular and men too, because you look at the rate of testicular cancer in men, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on with their health levels.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Correct. Um, I think when when someone is bombarded by everything that we're exposed to in the environment, the the quality of our food, or really the lack of quality, um, that puts a big toll on all these other mechanisms, like how our D functions, how our like everything. Yes. It it kind of like really creates this sludgy system inside. Um, and that's why our hormones are just not really running as optimally as they can be. Um, so when someone starts with me, we have to really, we have to clean up the terrain inside, but it's about we have to start with nutrition first. Because if any of my clients are gonna go on hormone replacement, which most of them are at this point, um, that doesn't happen until three months down the road. Because we've got to get the nutrition really kind of dialed in in order to create, right, like all this great absorption that we want our bodies to have. Um so yeah, so the nutrition piece is important. Um, I definitely believe as in in as organic as you can, um, pasture raised, grass-fed.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Um, you know, again most doctors only get four hours of nutrition training. I know. They're not really getting educated. What are they eating? Maybe that's causing you anxiety. I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah, it's so you have two you had two years, or you went to additional schooling for that.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Yeah, I did. And and really, if you if you combine both schools that I went to, it's really four years of nutrition, right? Amazing. Nutrition coaching. Love it. And again, I I love staying in that wheelhouse and kind of in that lane. But what happens is as a certified functional medicine coach, the the conversation when I work with somebody, it it starts out as nutrition, but then what happens is after like session two or three, then it's like we start to peel and look at everything. So that's why like all the products that that I carry here in the store, because we have a wellness boutique and wellness services as well that we just expanded into in August, but all the products are clean, there's no chemicals in anything that we have. Yeah, like, you know, and again, like aluminum-free deodorant, which you know everyone's talking about right now. They should have been on this 50 years ago, but that's literally been poisoning people for 50 years. You know what, Elizabeth? You know what's great though? What's great about this, especially for my age at 58, was a lot of the shifts that are happening, right, with with our federal government and all the things that they're trying to change, right? On the health side with HHS, is um, I never ever ever thought that I was gonna see that in my lifetime. I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So I am my mom says the same thing because she was ahead of her time. I was getting like applesauce cake at three years old instead of like actual birthday cake. So, and my aunt was like, this weighs like 10 pounds. Like, let's throw this in the trash.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

I'm I'm I'm so grateful that I get to witness this. Um, and and again, you know, I'm not saying like, you know, I'm Gen X and you know, our generation, we are like probably one of the most resilient, hardy generations you're ever gonna encounter. Um, and we were exposed to a lot of chemicals and TV dinners, and you know, that's what I was raised on. Um anything that came in a bag or a box is how I was fed as a kid. Um, you know, because my mother went back to work at a very late age, so all that home cooking like stopped. Um so I think now though, we're seeing a massive shift, right? That comes back the other way. Well, even now there's processed food that's clean.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

I mean cleaner, we'll say.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah, cleaner, yeah. And I tell all my clients, like, listen, just because it's gluten-free, or it doesn't mean that it's necessarily good.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

You know, are you familiar? Are you familiar, Karen, with moms for America? They're testing like chickpea pastas and all these different quote unquote healthy products. I mean, bonza, bonza chickpea pasta was so popular among families and it had the highest level of glyphosate, uh glyphosate in it. Wow. Yeah. So I mean, to your point, exactly, just because it says gluten-free does not mean it's the end-all, be all. Even organic now. I mean, really, I I mean, I like to sense the energy of things, especially with food, um, you know, and even supplements, muscles testing is actually a huge thing people do with cardiomerical too. So I'm sure you offer some of that as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Yeah. So I, you know, and and I I tell everybody, like, I feel like now what God and the universe has built and given me here is that I I always describe it as the visual is like, I'm standing behind this buffet, and and the buffet's really healthy, and there's a big spoon in each little compartment. And my job is to kind of expose you to everything that's on the buffet, and really, and then you've got your plate in front of you, and you're taking a scoop of this and a scoop of that, and hopefully cardio miracles mixed in there, and yes, and that's that's right, and that's my job. My job is not you don't need everything, but you're gonna need most of what's on the buffet, and and I feel like that's kind of what my job is supposed to be is to help you cut through all that noise and kind of help you kind of be like, okay, this is where we start, because people are so paralyzed and overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Supplement fatigue and supplement overwhelm. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so so that's that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

I always tell people these days, obviously. I I was a strongman competitor, so I I was almost 500 pounds. I actually was 480 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Josh's journey is incredible.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

I I hurt my back. I kept eating all this 10,000 calories a day, just crap. And and then I got hooked on a cookie out here in Utah. I don't know if it's made it to New York yet, called Crumble Cookie. So I don't know if it yeah. So anyway, you know, they have a they have a special of four cookies that come in like a daily thing. I used my my former wife's friend was a worker there, and she used to drop off every other night. She'd drop off four cookies to us, and I would just pound those cookies one at a time. 2100, 2500 calories a cookie. Anyway, I I started eating whole inorganic fruits and vegetables. I started intermittent fasting, and I started walking, and that has changed my life since uh April 1st, 2021. I have not missed one day of 12,500 steps for five years. You know, so I I walk like a I I call myself I walk like a you know psycho, but it's more like Force Gump, you know, just running.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

He literally is. It's a it's incredible. No one walks more than Josh. He's probably walked around the earth at this point. How many steps he's done?

SPEAKER_00 20:53

It's like 22 million, 22 million steps in five years. So it's insane. I actually everyone that I talk to, not everyone, but a lot of people that are wheeling up to me in like a wheelchair or something, heaven forbid, at at these live events, they always say to me, I can't walk because my knee, I can't walk because my feet, I can't this, and all I say is, Look, focus on your diet, focus on your foods. If you're eating whole foods and you intermint fast or you start with protein or whatever, like I go to a butcher now. Like, I I don't I don't know. I I read about this, you know, this tick thing or whatever that has been created that's in meats and the grocery stores, and I'm like I gotta go get it from a butcher who I can see is cutting it right.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Cutting it right out. I know. Yeah, my husband, my husband has the meat allergy, actually. He he has it. So it's it's it's a it it is a very, very challenging um allergy to to navigate. I mean, hopefully this year, again, you know, we can talk offline, but there's There's a couple of things that we're going to be working on with him physically to do to hopefully try to reverse that. But yeah, it's it's I mean, now here in New York and in Suffolk County, uh, my my husband, when he got diagnosed, it was 10 years ago. Um, he was only one of nine cases. Now there's there's hundreds, if not thousands, here in New York. So yeah, it's it's it's pretty it's pretty significant.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Um I ask you as far as like female hormones and nutrition, as well as like the meat quality in our country being so poor, like Josh was saying, you really need to like have eyes on the food that you're getting. Um, what about if you know the quality of something like uh organ, beef, you know, that they they sell the organs and the capsules now? Um, and if you know it's like a high quality bovine New Zealand, you know, it's as clean as you can find it. Um, and then I because I know that they will make that for for female health as well. What do you what's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 22:57

I I think I think if if someone, you know, because again, um you have to kind of really have the strong mindset and the palate if you're gonna eat right, like organ meat, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Well if it was in a capsule form though, now they make it so it's digestible completely.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

So again, I I think it I think it's great, but but here's the but the but is is that it's in a capsule, right? So so again, if their microbiome is not really optimal, how much of that are they really absorbing in the end? Yeah, they're definitely getting some of the benefit of that. Right. Um, you know, and and Dr. Fandos, who's one of my colleagues, um, is him and I like we talk about like, oh my god, like, you know, we're taking all these supplements and we're swallowing all these plastic capsules. So it's like, I don't know, is is that good? Probably not, you know, but we yeah, but we have to, we have to some things, you know, like D and things like that, right? It's very challenging to get some of these essential nutrients and minerals that we need from food. And that's where cardiomerical comes in. Right. You have to you have to get it, right? Um, and again, like most women don't know um that vitamin D helps to convert down to testosterone, and women need testosterone. Um, and again, D's amazing for immune support, brain health, you know, and again, cardiovascular health. So it's like that's like one of the first questions I ask. Like, when was the last time you got your D level tested?

SPEAKER_01 24:38

And it should be doc, tell me. Um, I mean, 82 nanograms per milliliter of blood is about where you I mean, that's a very good level, and most women are not at that level. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

And and again, you know, here I I tell, and again, right? So you look at these reference ranges at labs, you know, and it again, it's not their fault, right? But but the range will be, you know, 30 to 100, and and the traditional GP will say, Oh, your D level's normal, and then they come to me and I look at the blood work and I'm like, your D levels at 32. I'm like, that's not normal.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yeah. I I said, right, Josh? I mean no, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yeah. I mean, we here in New York, I mean, we typically like people to be definitely around 80, but if we can get them north of 50, um especially in your cold, darker climate.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Absolutely. I love that uh yeah, what's that called, benchmark for the D. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Yeah, exactly. And again, like a lot of women, like a good example is let's just keep talking about D for a second, right? Um, they don't know that they should be probably if they take their D in the morning, um, that they should be eating it with something that's a little on the fatty side, right? To create better absorption. Um progesterone, if someone's taking oral progesterone, you should be taking that with a healthy fat source to create better absorption and activation and breakdown. So it's like little things like that can make a huge difference. Um, you know, with but again, it's the terrain inside has to be optimal to accept all these things that we're taking, you know, externally.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

So it's important one of the greatest things that I I have to point out about Cardiom Miracle that it does actually, we've proven this in our in our studies. Um, if if anybody were to go to cardiomiracle.com forward slash studies, they can see our vitamin D study that it says actually when I take my cardiomerical on a fasted stomach, what it does is actually utilizes the the vitamin D stored in your fat cells, and it uses it. And uh the only I use a glucose patch when I take my cardiomycalon on a fasted stomach to see if it spikes my insulin or raise my blood sugar, and the only thing that spikes is my vitamin D while I'm taking it while fasting. So that's a huge benefit of the 58 whole inorganic fruits and vegetables that we offer. It's it's just uh, you know, I have to throw it in there for a little a little call for cardiomyrical. Oh, I love it. We're so grateful.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

It tastes good too. It tastes like candy, and most health stuff that you're drinking now is like chalk or dirt or I don't know. It's like, hey, it's clean. I won't ever complain about the taste of something if they said it was the fountain of youth, you know. Yeah but you know, not to say cardiomyrical is, but for me.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Yeah, and again, like like supplements. Um, you know, I again I tell people please don't buy anything on Amazon. Um, you know, please don't buy anything from a personal trainer in a gym. Um, because now we're we're getting a lot of here in New York, um, you know, with peptides and stuff. You know, I have clients that were getting peptides from the personal trainer in a gym, and now we're we're battling um high levels of heavy metals and aluminum because they were injecting themselves with definitely not a clean product. So um, yeah, so again, the the the spaces I run in is, you know, any of the supplements that we have have been very heavily studied. Um, and again, when people are looking for stem cells, peptides, you know, we're we're I'm not sourcing, but the doctors I work with are sourcing this from places that are very, very, very heavily regulated. Um, and that's and and again, we don't want to be over-regulated, right? But in when we're talking about these kinds of things, you do really want that. Um the ethics yes, good manufacturing practices so so so important. Um, and and again, it's you know, uh I just like please don't buy any supplements on Amazon, you know. Like, I just beg people not to do that. Um, it's just it's just not a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah, it's rough. And so Karen, what are what are your um because we're talking a lot about GLP1 these these days with Zosepic and Summit and Tears Episide. And so what our suggestion is with what Cardiomiracle does is it helps people get those nutrients that all of a sudden they're not having, you know, uh people aren't eating and they're getting the as much. Yeah, eating as much and and whatever, having the suppressants. What what are your thoughts on the GLP ones and the Ozat pics up?

SPEAKER_02 29:26

It's uh you know, and I'm glad you asked that because if you had talked to me two years ago, I was completely against it.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Um as a functional practitioner, right? And that believes in integrative medicine. But here's here's where my brain has now gone is that um I think if it's used correctly, um, definitely a very, very low dose initially, and and it has to be very heavily decided upon between the patient and the practitioner. I am not a fan of you know these GLPs and peptides kind of where there are practices that are not really credentialed and should not really be prescribing these medications.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

There's a lot of those.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Yeah, and and again, I I think I I mean, and you look, right? It it initially, you know, everybody got their hands on Ozempic, right? And everybody was on Ozempic. That drug is not really meant for somebody that's not really a true diabetic, um, and and they should not be taking that medication. But now though, you see all these spin-offs that have happened, right? Um, but again, when you look at when you go back to the research, and Pendulum Health has done an incredible job in in showing this in their studies, we all have GLP in our bodies. So it's the question of how do we reactivate that and and how do we get our own GLP hormone to work efficiently again?

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Um, and there's definitely God gave us nicotinic receptors and they tried they tried to get us off nightshades because nicotine can actually help with things like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and whatever. So studies say.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yeah, so I I feel I feel like it has its place. Um I I am I am more of the practitioner mindset that I want somebody to do something low and slow initially. I am not a big believer in blasting the system like right out of the gate. Um I just don't because then then if the body reacts differently, then you're you're course correcting and then trying to kind of stop this cascade of like the microdosing, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Is that yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Yeah, yeah. And again, I I I don't I don't think a GLP is good for everybody. I think I think if someone is gonna be committed where they have to work with the right team of practitioners where they're gonna get the proper support, especially when it comes to nutrition, because and you know, and we have an in-body machine here. So I'm I'm about that, yeah. I'm taking muscle. We're we're like, we're we're trending and watching the data. Um, you know, we've got the tools to make sure to keep you healthy. And I can tell, like, if someone's on one and their muscle, they're slowly losing muscle. I tighten we go back to nutrition because I know that they're not, they're not, they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:29

That's wonderful to hear. That's actually comforting. I mean, at least for me, just because you know, I don't talk to people every day that are, you know, giving that to patients and doing it safely, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

So Yeah, and and again, and and and and I think too, you know, traditional doctors that are not really open-minded, they don't believe in what I do and they think coaches are ridiculous and whatever. But then they, you know, my client will get in-body scanned, and the doctor that's prescribing their GLP, I will go back and I say to my client, Mary, listen, you got to show this to your doctor. Like you're losing muscle rapidly. Like that dose needs to be adjusted.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Or, or we have to really work on your nutrition. So, but it really is both. But and then, and then all of a sudden, now because the my client shows up with a printout that's very credible. Um, now all of a sudden they're sitting up and paying attention. Um, you know, and that's fine. If if that's the mechanism that we needed to get them to kind of, you know, make the call and put the connection together, that's fine. I don't really care.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Actually, I have a funny story about this. So I am not a doctor, just to state that obviously I work in trying to help people. And, you know, I've been working with nitric oxide cardiomerical for eight years. So, you know, I know my stuff. We've talked to so many biochemists, you know, doctors, researchers, whatever. So I'm on a call with a guy and, you know, he pulls up this chat GPT document on research he's done about his issue and just wants to share this with me and just, you know, wants a safe place to share it. So obviously I give him that. But he got very like uh angry, I guess we'll say, when I was like, hey, is this, you know, Chat GPT? Because he was like, this is my own research. This is not from any doctor. I did this. And I'm like, it's Chat GPT, right? I mean, he knows I in the work that I do, so I'm like, of course, I'm looking at Chat GPT on a weekly basis. So, you know, I'm just I was just laughing because, you know, this document, I'm like, hey guy, we've seen this, you know, we've seen it. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

I suggest to people all the time that if they, if they are, if they do need something like a GLP one, maybe they have a food addiction or a sugar addiction, then that's fine. But I tell I tell all of them, make sure your strength training or your diet is 100% locked in. Nutrition. That's the thing. You gotta put that healthy whole and 100% whole of foods in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

So yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, again, I just feel like it goes back to education and it goes back to support. Um, you know, and at the end of the day, I mean, I love the fact that we all have freedom of choice and you know, nothing is being, you know, we're we're not nothing is being forced upon any of us, right? We all have choices. When, you know, Dr. Mark Hyman, who was actually one of my professors for the first coaching school that I went to fift 16 years ago, um, he said you vote with your fork. Amen. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah, I think. So every time you go to the grocery store, you're voting. Yeah, right. Michael, um, what's his name? Michael Pollin? He's a food writer. He talks about this too. If you don't pay for your health at the cash register, you're gonna pay for it with your your medical bills or something later, however he puts it.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah, and it's unfortunate that a lot of the the major corporations that we all know about you know have bought up a lot of these small organic companies, right? Because they always they see the amount of money that they can make, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Everybody I go to the store now, all the organic stuff is sold out for the most part, and the other stuff is still sitting there, and I'm like, oh boy, you know, but then you're getting smaller amounts, smaller jars, plastic. Some people are going rather where they had glass before now, going to plastic. So I mean, all these shifts that we then have to be as educated consumers to stay on top of it, it's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Yeah. And I just I tell everybody too, like, you know, here in New York, right? Like, you know, now our farmers' markets are starting to crop back up again. You know, just try to go to a farmer's market, you know, get your eggs there. Just try to buy local on a Sunday if you can. Um, you know, all the meat I get, I actually source from the Midwest. You know, I'm not, I'm not really eating anything that's kind of trucked in. Um, you know, it's being shipped to me. So obviously it is being trucked in, but it's more about like the quality. And I tell everybody too, like, listen, if you're gonna eat any kind of like protein that comes from an animal, remember, whatever the animal eats, you're eating. So that's translating down, right? So I again I think it's really just you know about the educational piece first, um, and nutrition then is really at the foundation of everything that you know that we're doing. Um, yeah. And you know, and again, I'm not against traditional medication at all. I'm not, yeah, you know, right? Like, and I know Josh can attest to this. If if you're having chest pain, um, yes, you probably definitely want to take cardio miracle in that moment, but you also need to get to the but you want to get to the ER.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

Yeah, you gotta get to the doctor.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

You're not gonna call your chiropractor or your acupuncturist and be like, needle me up, you know, or or if you know, if you're I actually do that, Karen, to be real with you.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

I'm gonna be that person.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

No, I want you to go to the ER. No. Or if you're running and you fall and you break your wrist or your arm, you're gonna go to the ER and get your case, yes. Like there are amazing, amazing advancements that have happened in medicine, and it's more about using wisdom and discernment about about like what is what do I want to tap into on the traditional side, and what do I want to tap into on the integrative side? That's what functional medicine is. Functional medicine is kind of bringing those two camps together. And and for me personally and for my clients, I refuse to have to choose. I don't think we should have to choose. I don't think that's fair for us. I think you should be able to have both. Common and and have both when you need it and when you want it, right? Um yeah. So I, you know, again, I I think I think that, you know, uh like just again, just some of the diagnostic tools that we have in modern medicine are incredible.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Um and and that's on that same note, w Western medicine, amazing. And then you look at the ancient medicine, and actually um many times those two things blend beautifully together.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Yeah. Well, I mean, geez, you know, like you look at where aspirin, right, came from, right? Um, you know, or you look at where statins initially came from. Um and and it's you know, unfortunately, you know, there are entities that kind of take that technology and kind of spin it into something where it's gonna make tons of money and and take advantage of that. Um, but again, it goes back to us having these conversations and and really, again, just just educating people.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

That's all. I'm I'm so grateful for this conversation. And you had given so many good tips, like as far as on the health, and we were talking getting into the tidbits and the nutrition. I'm just so curious because this question's been on my mind, I have to ask you. Um, are you familiar as far as to the hormone conversation for women with uh Purea Murifica? The 700-year-old Thailand plant. Wow, no, I am not. I was just curious because we have a um an affiliate that we work with, Dr. Christian Northrop, a model life, and she is um it's a it's an herb from 700 years ago, I guess they've been using forever, and it's like the core staple of her products for perimenopause and menopausal symptoms. I just felt like I wanted to I wanted to ask you.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Oh, I don't, but I, you know, again, right? Like I said earlier, I don't pretend to know everything. Yeah, um, I would love to learn more.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

So cool.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

So cool. Now, one question that I had uh that I wanted to wind down with, I know it's a big one, but um uh well first of all, I want to thank you so much for being on here and being so open. But what is what are some of the biggest myths that you've seen about menopause you wish women to stop believing these days?

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Um well I mean the bit the biggest myth is that you know once a woman's period stops, right, and you go through that one year transition, which is kind of not actually totally accurate, but but the myth is is that once you get through that, that you're done with menopause. That's completely not true. You are never done with menopause. You you can call yourself post-menopausal, but what then begins to happen is the silent stuff that starts to erode inside our bodies, like our cardiac health, um, our bone health and our brain health. Because if our hormones are not really being looked at and optimized to whatever however we want to optimize, like what Elizabeth was talking about with Dr. Northrop, um, it it's the onboarding of those things that are incredibly dangerous for us as women. Um, and and I can't stress enough the cardiovascular component is gigantic. Um and and I have learned so much about my body in the last year because of some health issues, again, that I went through cardiovascular-wise in May of last year. Um and it it that's the myth. The myth is like, oh, I'm good, you know, I'm good. No, you're not. You're not. You're actually there's so many, so many like disease processes that are onboarding inside your body that you are not yet aware of until like the body like gives you a sign, and then usually then you're in trouble. Um, so so that's that's the big myth.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

That's amazing. You're you're amazing, you're so knowledgeable. It's yeah, I love it. And it's such an honor, it really is. And I uh I really can't stress enough how how much this has been a lightning for me, but the food, the the nutrition is such a big part of everything, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 43:06

Huge.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

I wonder I wanted to if you could help us, how how can our people find you? How can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Yeah, so again, I I have a love-hate relationship with social media. Okay. It's like, you know, I think we ought to do at this point because everybody's got more second attention spans. We're very active on Instagram, so the wellness stop PJ is where you'll find us. Um, obviously, my website, thewellnessstop.com. Um, yeah. And honestly, like I tell people just pick up the phone and call me. Like just make a phone call.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Sounds awesome. Elizabeth, do you have any final questions?

SPEAKER_01 43:45

I don't. This is this has been amazing, Karen. Um, I mean, I love the conversation I always, of course, love conversations around women's health, and and that's something that's that's near and dear to our hearts. Um, I did actually have other I mean, there's so many things. I know, I know we have to wrap this up, but Hopefully we can have you on again. Um, and maybe even me and you and Lisa um can join up and we can do like a little women's symposium thing because you're absolutely fantastic. So excited for you to try Cardio Miracle as well. Um, thank you for entertaining Josh and I today. And uh this has been a great conversation. We're we're blessed to have that.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Thank you. Thank you so much for both of your time. And and and again, I it's just great to connect with people that um truly have a mission and a vision behind a company that really truly wants to change the trajectory of people's health. And um, and I and I love that very much, and and I'm blessed to to connect with with both of you. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Absolutely. Thank you, Karen. And one I'm gonna ask you one last thing. If you could wrap up everything for this site, give us a 30-second to 90-second just blurb about what you do and how you promote it and just uh overall wellness. Um could you Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Um, again, my background is you know, I'm a functional medicine coach and my my specialty is analyzing your nutrition, um, but then getting the opportunity to help tap you into all these other avenues that are gonna create optimization, you know, for people's health. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you, that's a pleasure. Have a wonderful day.