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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
The Dark Side of Medicine: Tackling Healthcare Burnout
The episode highlights the urgent need for improved mental health support within the healthcare field and addresses the crisis of physician burnout following the pandemic. Our guest, an experienced physician, shares her deeply personal journey from stress and overwhelming responsibilities to advocating for holistic health practices.
• Journey of a physician transforming her approach to wellness
• Insights into the overwhelming pressures faced by healthcare workers during the pandemic
• The importance of mental health support and its impact on medical professionals
• Contemplation of societal misconceptions surrounding physician fatigue and burnout
• Discussing the critical need for preventive medicine and nutrition education
• Encouraging a reconnection with purpose for healthcare workers
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Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Hello and welcome to Help the Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony Amen, and today we have another great episode for all of you today, so without further ado, let's dive into it. Welcome, pam. It's a pleasure to have you on today.
Speaker 2:Hello, hi, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1:All the way from Missouri. So nice central US state, love it. Pam, tell us a little bit about how you got into the health and fitness world and what made you want to come on the show.
Speaker 2:Well, I've wanted to be a doctor since I was 12. And so I did become one. My pediatrician was really cool and I've been a physician for the last 20 years, currently working in an emergency room. And then I kind of went on a journey a few years ago, realizing that, you know, the way I was trained as a physician focuses on taking care of sick people, and I wanted to know how to keep people well, especially after the pandemic. I was thinking how can we do more service by teaching people how to prevent disease versus reactively, more proactively? And during the pandemic I was working all the time.
Speaker 2:I became unhealthy myself, gained a lot of weight and stressed out to the point that I was more than burnt out. I felt like I just didn't want to be here anymore and I realized it wasn't just one thing, it was several things. Of course it was because I'm an emergency room doctor and I was working during a pandemic, so I was thinking that was the thing. But that was really not it.
Speaker 2:I wasn't taking good care of myself, I wasn't getting any rest, I wasn't doing any self-care and I wasn't taking care of my mental and physical health, and so once I got a hold of that. It was a journey and I think that the universe has you go through things so you can be a better servant. So I learned how to be a better doctor and realized I needed to teach more people how to take a step back, slow down, focus on what your purpose is, focus on your mental health, take care of your body, and so I operate more in doing that. Now I have backed away from doing the er as much I do speaking and coaching now, because I think we need to do more preventative medicine yeah, I mean I really couldn't agree more with that.
Speaker 1:he's mentioned that you got you felt burnout and stress and all that during the covert time in the er, and I think that's a good place to start for us. Walk me through a little bit about one how overwhelmed you were and then two tie it into why were people so rushed coming into the hospital? Why did it get so overwhelming? Why did you experience how overwhelmed you were?
Speaker 2:Walk us through that the overwhelm was in the sheer numbers. I mean, you know, it was the percentage of doctors versus the whole world. And everyone was so afraid. I get that, and you know, information was coming in at the speed of light. A lot of it was misinformation, Some of it we could take, and then, let's be honest, our officials just didn't know and as doctors on the field, we were using our brains and making it up as we go. We took some of what thought she said and some of them were like man, I don't know. And so that's that's how we were. That's how I was practiced by the seat of my pants.
Speaker 2:It was exhausting and you know, not only do you have to practice medicine, you're also a therapist, you're comforting people and we couldn't let some patients in. You're with people in their final moments and it's like being at war. You didn't think about the sheer magnitude of what you were doing. All you could think of is the world needed us and people were banging pots. People were sending us food, all crap food. I realize that now we appreciated it, but pizza, and that no wonder I felt sluggish while I was working. But during that time we were all trying to hold together.
Speaker 2:I never got sick. I never got COVID the whole time. So I ended up working a lot more than my other colleagues. Some of my colleagues succumbed to COVID. One got really sick and he was in ICU. He still uses oxygen, so he's not working anymore, he's permanently disabled. One of my colleagues at a different hospital committed suicide and that was a point where I was like I need to take care of myself, I need to reassess, because I knew I was feeling some kind of way and I was just trying to work my way through it, like just take more shifts, stay busy, stay busy. And I also wasn't able to see my family. I was terrified to see them. Really I was trying to avoid them because I didn't want to be the reason that anybody in my house got COVID and I couldn't bear if I caused my family members to die. I had a son who's immunocompromised and I thought that if I gave him COVID I couldn't live that down. So a combination of things.
Speaker 2:And then, when it's time to get mental health, it was so difficult. I couldn't find anybody who took my insurance. I couldn't find anybody who had openings, and I'm a doctor, I'm well-connected, and the only reason I was able to find somebody eventually was. I have a friend my best friend's husband is a psychiatrist, and so they gave some recommendations Once I got myself together. It was expensive, insurance didn't cover it. It was expensive and sure thing cover it, and I just felt bad because how does anybody who's averaged, how do they get themselves taken care of?
Speaker 2:And so I just wanted to be part of more the answer and the solution than the problem, and I know that modern medicine doesn't do as good of a job. So now I work with the Lorna Breen Foundation for Physician Suicide Prevention and I'm active with other mental health groups. I do physician coaching because I think physicians need support, more support than people know, because one physician dies every day, one every day. I didn't even know that before this time. So a whole medical school class worth of physicians will be wiped out by the end of the year Because people just think we're bulletproof. And so that's how I ended up getting into what I get into, and now I've taken the time to learn more about nutrition and functional medicine and how our body can be best tuned up and prevent in a prevention mode versus how to use a pill to make it better I wish I was shocked.
Speaker 1:I think that's the. That's the sad truth, right? We talked a little pre-show. You mentioned I know what you went through and how you felt, going through it more than probably the general public does, and it's sad and you unpacked a lot in that. There was a lot.
Speaker 2:Because it was a lot. It was a lot and you know, I had to just realize it was a lot. We're not superhuman, we're just doctors. It was a lot a lot.
Speaker 1:My third. I think it was the third episode I ever did on this show, or maybe it was the fourth episode. I coerced my wife to do a show with me and talk about healthcare as it relates to nurses, and I mean the audio back then was atrocious. But if you do have a chance to go, listen to that I recommend. There's a lot of facts. Just like you mentioned, healthcare and doctors, one commits suicide every day. It's the same with nurses and it's a lot of people in the medical community and it's there's a lot of reasons why mental health in that field is so bad. And I think the best way to really go about it is just to bring light to what's going on, how you I mean how you guys are treated, and first off, especially the ER department, and really be like, like you said, you're everyone's human, no one's like you're a doctor, you're not God.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So you need as much help, as everyone else does.
Speaker 2:I need all the things that humans need. You need food, water, shelter and you know I, when you're working in the ER it's cold and flu season. So I feel every bit of this right now and sometimes it's even triggering emotionally because, make no mistake, I had to accept that going through the pandemic like war and there's going to be some remnants of PTSD and I recognize and have tools now. You know I get my mental health straight that some things are triggering and I recognize and have tools now. You know I get my mental health straight that some things are triggering and lately we're in COVID season right now RSV2. After the pandemic, because we were all hunkering down, those disease processes became worse than they were before because you let a bug be by itself and not go to the human genome, then it gets stronger and so we're seeing stronger cases of influenza now and stronger, more virulent cases of respiratory syncytial virus, which is RSV now Used to be. It's like a cold and you'll be all right, but now I'm seeing more. We need to hospitalize you, especially in young children and the elderly, not even the elderly people over 55. And so so it's triggering now and I kind of had a moment last week when every room was full, all the bells from the machines were going off. You know, the beeps are triggering because the beeps they give you that flatline sound when someone dies, and so those things can be triggering and the alarms just have to use tools and work through it.
Speaker 2:And, unfortunately, the majority of healthcare professionals, my friends, my colleagues, we don't take care of our mental health. We just think let's tough it up. We're doctors, we're nurses. This is how it goes. It is the wrong way to be, and we're in a crisis right now where 68% one of the statistics I checked that the 68% of doctors feel burnt out, and that's scary to me. I'm a person, I need a doctor. Sometimes I mean, I'm going to get older and I'll need to see a doctor more regularly, so we need to keep doctors and nurses in practice. The other thing is right now, during cold and flu seasons, we don't have enough beds open, not because there aren't actual physical beds, but because they're not nurses to help the patients in those beds, and so we're having a lot of patients just stick around in the ER for abnormal amounts of time while we're waiting for a hospital bed. You know what, I know what it is for physicians.
Speaker 1:I know what it is for nurses, but maybe you could fill this stat in. The average nurse lasts in the hospital three years.
Speaker 2:That's crazy for all the time ago. So it's different by different professions. So I'll tell you about emergency medicine. So it used to be when I first started out and I graduated from medical school in 2005,. The average age of burnout for an emergency room physician was 10 years, and so now it's seven and I've seen some young doctors three years in saying you know what? No, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 2:All that training think about it In school. All that time, four years of medical school, four years of college, four years of medical school and three to four years minimum of residency Depends on if you go into another subspecialty. It could be seven or more years. And now you're done with it and you decide, yeah, no, I don't want to do this anymore. It must really be bad if you would say I don't want to do this anymore. And then it's like you can make a decent living, but at what cost? And also the fact that people are walking away and a lot in debt. $300,000, $400,000 is how much it costs to go to medical school these days. I know I graduated with about just and I say just $180,000 in Chump change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's eye-opening. I can talk about nurses and this related all day and I'll add in the physician side of it. But you have to get a bachelor's degree to be an RN. In most states to work at a hospital that takes four years of schooling. Most of it's not paid for. Then you go and you do it for three years and you're making, depending on the state, anywhere from 50 to 90,000 a year and you're done in three years to either leave the profession altogether, which most do, or just try to switch out to outpatient facility because it's just horrible.
Speaker 1:I mean, I lived with my wife who's 12, 12 and a half hour shifts and she comes home and she's like well, I got punched, bit hit, like you're just like that's a typical day, just going on. And then she I'm going to tell the story, she's going to get mad, but it's okay. She was pregnant and she passed out on her floor and thank God there was another nurse next to her who caught her, so she didn't like get hurt and she came to about two minutes later sitting in a chair and her nurse manager said "'All right, you're back awake now. Can you go chart'? Like you're six months pregnant and you pass out and your nurse manager told you to get back to work and she called her uh ob, and everybody's like go to the er. Like exactly no, go to the er. But that relates kind of to doctors and I know when I was talking to my grandparents about this I know it's not the same anymore they did 24-hour shifts. How can any human being do 24-hour shifts?
Speaker 2:No, sir, it's still the same. So here's the deal. Here's the deal. When you're in residency, you do 30-hour shifts, so you're on call. So in my residency you're on call every three days, so every third day is a 30-hour shift, meaning that you're at the hospital on call that whole time. Maybe, if you're lucky and you may not be lucky, but maybe you get lucky enough to get yourself a two, three-hour nap right, and then you go and you take care of whatever it is you get paid to take care of for you the house officer for the night. So we still have that.
Speaker 2:And I work in Missouri. I'm just one hour outside of St Louis, and this ER does 24-hour shifts. So it's a small rural hospital. It's very busy though, and it used to not be as busy before COVID. Something happened after the COVID and I was busy 24 seven, so it used to be the one doctor was on call for 24 hours. He or she would be busy all day long, maybe until about eight o'clock. It slows down and you're probably going to sleep for a few hours. Maybe something comes in at four or five in the morning. So it wasn't as hazardous, you know.
Speaker 2:But now it's still 24 hour shifts and it can be that you're up all night and that I have done those 24 hour shifts. I still, uh, could do those. I lately told them I can only sustain myself for 12 because I did a 24. I have a few more 24 hour shifts, but I've resigned to do those after march because it's becoming too much, especially now that cold and flu season is here and we see that people just hear it's all the way at two, three in the morning, then maybe I lay down for an hour or two and it's time to drive home. I don't feel safe to drive home so I might go somewhere else and take another nap. And so, yeah, it still exists. People are still doing that and that's why they expect you to make a good decision.
Speaker 1:Right, I know just personally'm awake for 20 hours. I can't make good decisions after 20 hours, 23 hours a week. It's not possible?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's. It's not ideal. I'll tell you that it's not ideal, and unfortunately I don't think that's hospital administration's care. Their care is more, more. So how can we get the spot filled? And I believe that's why a lot of people are leaving the profession. That's why when I speak at conferences or I speak in workshop groups, I speak to hospitals about how to maintain their staff.
Speaker 2:To maintain your staff, you have to do a couple of things. First of all, to maintain your staff, you have to do a couple of things. First of all, realize they're human and treat them like humans, not pegs, not things to fill a hole. And lastly, let's reconnect them to purpose. We all have purpose and most people who decide they want to help people for a living at some point in time had a good why behind that. There's a reason why, and I tell you, this profession will beat that why out of you, but I think it's important to reconnect to that why. Because we need people like us who care so much for others. All we need to do on the back end is to care for the people who are caring for others, and if we could get administration to understand that, I know they care so much about profits. I know they care so much about profits, but I'm trying to tell you that you have to treat a human like a human, reconnect them to purpose, and then you'll get your profits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just lose that disconnect along the way and I think a lot of it has to do with just the people on top never really work to shift in their lives or they don't even come from that angle and work their way up.
Speaker 2:I think that would be beneficial, quite frankly, this is why I think that physician coaches need to just be prolific. I think they just need to be everywhere. I never heard of it until I was going through my own personal mental health struggles. I never even heard of it. And there are studies that show that health coaches, physician health coaches, specifically a physician who's coaching a physician, is as beneficial as a mental health professional, you know, in treating the depressive aspects of being a doctor.
Speaker 1:And I don't know the stats.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know the stats, but I think it would probably be similar for nurses, because I know that initially, when I'm seeing my therapist and I'm explaining the things, that going to the hospital, she's got her eyes, her eyebrows furrowed, like wow, I feel very judged, like why are you allowing this? This is what it takes. I mean, I'm not, I'm working a 24 hour shift because this is my job. You do your job and I do my job. You know, because therapists typically see five patients, six patients a day. She's like you saw 40 patients in one day. Yeah, I did, and so I feel just doing my job. So when I was seeing a coach, she was like, yeah, I get it, I get it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's the same thing me finding your coaches I can find a business coach, I can find a gym coach. They just understand and connect more and that's why I think it's so much more beneficial to have someone that did what you went through Like you talked about that human connection component of it To me. Before even owning a gym, I worked every position at a gym. I mean from scrubbing toilets, doing the cleaning side of it, to the sales side of it, to the training side of it, to the operations manager side of it, because I wanted to fully understand those positions and I feel like now that's just lost and maybe that's what makes me a good business owner is I understand what like the hardships of some of the positions and I can give them the right tools to get over it. But if you don't do that and you just start at the top like you lose all that and you just kind of start looking at numbers as opposed to looking at people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get that and you know, every time I have some kind of health issue, whether it be mental or physical, I have so much more appreciation for what my patient experience is as it relates to what the patient I'm treating is going through, and I just believe God does that on purpose to help me be a better doctor. I know we had the experience of one of our healthcare executives needing to have had a problem and needed healthcare. He was better for it because he was like you guys do so much and I think you know that's important to. Maybe, if you haven't been through that, try to remember a family member or a friend who's been through that and really think about what do people who care for you go through?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and here's the million dollar example. Tying this back to the beginning of the show you talked about how there's shirt nurses, right, that's why they don't have enough beds in the hospital, beds in the hospital. Why in God's name did they fire over 15% of them across the board during COVID? Like talk about people who have true disconnection from what the struggles were. Everyone was going through the stress everyone was going through. We're not talking right when it happened, we're talking a year after. They just said all right, you didn't get the shot, get out Next day, don't come back to work. You put a thorn into the side of those nurses who most didn't go back to the field. They found new jobs outside of it. And to those that were planning on going into the field decided not not to do it because of the restrictions, so you just took a shortage and made it worse. Because you're not looking at what's really going on it was.
Speaker 2:It was like tyranny right, and we should have autonomy and choices. And I and it was just so contentious at the time, like get your shot, don't get your shot became so political. I think a better way. And I always wondered why not do it as a happy medium, because this is not new. The same is true of the flu shot. All hospitals give you a mandate to get the flu shot and their thought process is that we'll have less sick days, we'll have a better patient population, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:But if you don't get the flu shot at the hospitals I've worked in, you wear a mask. So I'm like so let's just say these nurses didn't want to, or doctors didn't want to get the shot, then let's just give them a mask. Why do we have to fire them? And now we're hurting so badly? Because it takes a long time to make a nurse. And now you know administration is bleeding money, because now it's like a game, it's like highest bidder, because many nurses are coming from traveling agencies and then. So then you, darren, have to pay higher costs. So what's going to happen is soon to be have to be like you know, you think about 12 step program, that the administration of hospitals and have to make amends with this workforce. And I've seen how that can work because I like, why do I travel an hour outside of my city to work? Because at this little rural hospital they know how to treat people and I'm learning a lot of lessons for them and I put it into the workshops that I do and I just kind of call it the humanity framework. You really have to know a little bit about the people who work with you and for you, and you don't have to know a lot, you don't have to know that life story, but a little bit.
Speaker 2:In this place they take painstaking efforts to remember people's birthdays. You know the little things too, like, for instance, I'm going to health and wellness cake and so it was my birthday. I was like, do not bring me cake. They brought me fruit and some protein bars. Right, can you know that? Because that's what they see me eating, because I'm like I'm trying to eat to live. I don't want to be the statistic. The average ER doctor lives to 57. That was one of the statistics. There's so many varying statistics. I read one that said 51. Supposedly primary care doctors live the longest. But I don't want to die in my 50s from this job, and I won't die in my 50s from this job. I take a beat back and I take care of myself. I'm taking care of the vessel the one thing that God gave me first, and then I'll give the world what's left.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:I know I just learned this. Three years ago I was like, oh my gosh, I don't think people know and they teach us to die on our sword from the time you're in residency, even medical school, we treat ourselves horrible. Trying to become a doctor, I used to study 15 hours a day. You don't see your family and friends. All the weddings, baby showers, everything I missed, you know. People get to the point they don't even ask anymore. Oh, you can't come. They just assume that you know and it's not good for your mental health. I know there's a better way and we're just. You know we're doing it all wrong.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean my wife's hospital, which I can talk about now because she officially left. But four sick days a year they're allowed or they get fired.
Speaker 2:And think about that. How ludicrous is that. You are around sick people all the time, so you're going to get sick. We all have such strong, robust immune systems because we're around the bugs a lot. But when we do get sick it's a doozy, because I went through the whole pandemic, never got sick.
Speaker 2:I can't remember the last time I was sick, but this July I went on a cruise with my family and we turned up hardly any sleep alcohol was involved and we came back. We partied like rock stars, we kicked it hard and as we're flying back I remember vividly because it was when the Joe Biden announcement came and the airlines had all these issues and we were stuck at the airport for like 10 hours and my son said I got a headache. And I said well, damn, he's got COVID. I said we bought the all foul like dominoes as a family, but Aruba was cool, what did y'all? And yeah, we all got sick. And then I was the last one I was at the. Now it's like, nah, it's allergies. And then you know, black people shouldn't turn gray. I started to turn a weird color and my head hurt really bad.
Speaker 2:But I was at work at this time at the ER and the nurse manager is like you need to go get tested. At the old hospital I worked they would have been like let's give you an IV, let's tank you back up, get you back on the floor. This hospital was like. I was like but there's nobody to work. She said we will figure it out. That's what hospitals need to do. Because I've been so abused and so used to it. I was like no, I can't leave my muscles hurt, my fever's high. Give me an IV. I could keep going and I stay home, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you said, if they really cared they would treat you like that. My wife was throwing up in the bathroom and they're like all right, go back to work, you're not puking what nope, and that's why if you would treat nurses like that, you'd have a bigger pool.
Speaker 2:If you would treat doctors like that, you have a bigger pool also. Something that scared me is, in the last two years, my one of my er colleagues. He died in the call room and another one died off duty and they were both in their 50s. They weren't old people yet and I was like we got to take better care of ourselves. It's kind of the warning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I just kind of tie everything together just because it's going back to the main topic of this show and one of the things we've talked about the most, which is you touched on it Doctors themselves don't learn proper nutrition and proper preventative medicine, and I know that I read the books. As I told to Pam Prechel, my family wrote some of those books, so I'm very aware of what's taught to the doctors. But there's a lot like medical textbooks are huge and each topic is specifically dividend to it. So it's not their fault, it's not your fault whatsoever. There's a lot of information you need to learn. But when patients or just clients, like we call them go get advice about ABCDE from a doctor and then we're like no, that's actually wrong, but it's okay, we just try it this way. No, you're wrong, they're a doctor. And it's like yeah, they good for you.
Speaker 1:Have you get shot? Go to the ER, listen to that doctor, Do not listen to me. You go, you get COVID. Goes to the doctor, Don't listen to me. But if you want to learn nutrition, I got you as a good example. Do you have anything to like? Because you learned it? You went through all of it. What do you think of me saying something like that, and do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 2:I think you, and it won't be popular, but I think that you probably do know a lot more nutrition than most doctors. The only way a doctor learns about nutrition is if he or she takes the time to go learn it themselves. And I've just taken it upon myself to learn it because I want to know what foods are good for prevention, like I know that berries are good antioxidants, you know, and so eating berries can help prevent cancer, things like that. Some foods are high in fiber and some. You know the different vitamins A you don't receive better. You can eat certain things. You want more potassium. You eat sweet potatoes.
Speaker 2:You don't learn these things in school. You get little flares, glimpses, but I really wish they would incorporate some of the wellness into the traditional medical education. It makes me somewhat cynical like, oh, this really is a holistic thing. When I went into it to take care of people, money comes. It's not why I went into medicine. There's better ways. If you want to get rich, you want to be a doctor. You should have a heart for the people, a heart to heal, a heart to keep people well, and I think it's more important to stay well, so you don't have to get well than it is to treat sickness.
Speaker 1:And then here's the conspiracy question. You think?
Speaker 2:it's intentional. Yes, I do. I started thinking that not too long ago. Think about it when I first started out, there was like a few diabetes drugs. You know you had metformin and glipizide, some actos and then insulin. Now there are so many, like they knew everybody was going to become severely obese. So much visceral fat around the abdomen leads to type two diabetes. The majority of the diabetes that we have in America can be reversed and it used to be that the American Diabetes Association.
Speaker 2:The recommendations were when, soon as someone's a newly diabetic, you counsel them, you don't do anything. You don't give them any medicines. You counsel them on diet and exercise. You say, hey, we can reverse this if you lose weight. And here's what you do Watch your carbs eat more protein. And that's what we do. That's what when I first became a doctor Now doctors I remember when the recommendation changed to just metformin.
Speaker 2:Let's just give you medicine. And that's a shame because that's just saying we don't have any faith in the people. But on the flip side, our doctor's visit is how long? It's 15 minutes, and if you have a physical maybe they give you 30 minutes. And in that short amount of time, does this person have enough time to go into this detail with you. He or she cannot educate you, and that is the missing piece. We need to give people personal responsibility, because people you, me and everyone else we're responsible for our own body. Nobody else is responsible. I remember having patients who I felt like they thought I was responsible for them to stay well and kind of. The hospital makes that assumption too, because when you're in primary care and private practice, you get paid based on how well your patient population is doing. I cannot be there to take the cinnamon roll out of your mouth. I can, I can tell you, but I only have 15 minutes to educate you. The whole paradigm is impossible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I've been nodding my head, yes, the entire time.
Speaker 2:For those not watching the video, I think it, too, comes down to people not really knowing what they were made for, kind of like that Billie Eilish song just people just aimlessly bopping about, not operating in purpose, and purpose is the best of what you have to give to others. And just going through the whole process and figuring out what your purpose is I believe gives so much clarity so that you can do things like be happy in your career, decide that you want to take care of your body and operate in more prevention, not eat yourself to death when you really know who you are and know what you were made for. And that's a big part of what I do. That's like the first part I do when I'm working with someone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. Having purpose and having intention in the things you do makes everything more intentional, even down to what you put in your mouth down to what you put in your mouth, Like a good here's good psychology for you, ready For nutrition.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest things is not telling people like eat A, b, c, d, e. It's actually playing a little bit of a psychology trick on people which is hey, I want you to wake up in the morning and take vitamin whatever at 8 am, and then 12 pm I want you to take this supplement, and then at 4 pm I want you to take this supplement. And we tell people hey, this supplement's going to help with this, this supplement's going to help with this, even if that doesn't, or even if it plays only a minor role in it. What actually happens is astonishing.
Speaker 1:When you get people you have to take this pill or you have to take this supplement, with what they end up doing after that is now intentional. So now they're intentionally taking a supplement, so now they're going to intentionally eat the right foods. So if you don't even teach them how to eat right and you just said take ABC, they're going to eat healthier than somebody you sit down with and dive through about why you should be doing abc, because now it becomes purposeful to them about hey, I need to eat. Like this. It's absolutely astonishing, like how the human mind works and how people like just operate off of that. But it makes sense. It's. Having adding attention to everything in life will bring attention to everything in your life everything is a a psychology hack and habits, you know, have to be trained.
Speaker 2:You know you don't wake up one day and say I prefer kale. It's all intentionality and that you have to have a lot. I don't love kale either, I don't, but I know that it does some things for me, so I'll have it sometimes. That's why I take it. But I know that it does some things for me, and so I'll have it sometimes. That's why I take it. I don't love it, make no mistake. I don't know. I'm saying God, why do you make that taste like that? And it has 30 minutes? But yeah, so I have to get a lot of dark green vegetables. I am lactose intolerant and you need your vitamin D, your calcium. You can get that from dark green vegetables, which is why milk has it in it, but I can't drink milk, and so that's why I eat things like kale and a lot of spinach and greens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just to kind of start wrapping this up, my favorite sub-emotion which does actually work is creatine. You talked about depression. There's tons of studies coming out right now showing creatine actually helps curve depression and helps with mental health. So I mean, talk about a supplement that it's so easy to add to your diet and helps with so many things. But every time I'm telling a client who's like 50 plus to take it, they eye roll at me or they say my doctor said I shouldn't be taking this. I'm like this is one of the healthiest things you can take and has absolutely no side effects. So please, please, take it, please, god, whatever. So listen to the show.
Speaker 1:If you have depression, recommend it.
Speaker 2:And the activity of just exercise. Is well documented that cardiovascular exercise decreases depression and anxiety. Well documented, um you know. And most people can take creatine, except for those who have kidney problems. If you don't have a kidney problem, you can take it okay, go for it.
Speaker 1:Or even better, you want to actually produce more creatine, sleep better.
Speaker 2:That's one of the most under-thought about health issues. Sleep, because sleep is restorative. Sleep is good for your memory. It's good for restoration of muscles when you're working out hard. Get you for eight hours. It's the number one thing that you can do. Sleep for eight hours and drink enough water. You're 66% water, so sleep and water, not Dr Pepper, not juices, water From the ocean.
Speaker 1:I love it. We really unwrapped a lot in there and I hope people thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It was a lot tied in, so I'm going to ask the final two questions. I asked everyone the first one if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences what would be your take-home message?
Speaker 2:My take-home message is definitely connect to your purpose and your why for doing anything, and know that we need to support healthcare workers, those people who take care of you. Remember to take care of them. Be kind, be understanding when you're in the doctor's office, in the emergency room.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more. The second question how can people find you, get a hold of you and learn more?
Speaker 2:You can text STRONG to 55444 or get me at drbstrongcom. I do a newsletter and you can sign up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, pam. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, guys, for listening to this week's episode of health and fitness redefined. Don't forget, hit, subscribe, share the show with a friend. It's the only way we grow. And don't forget fitness is medicine. Until next time, thank you. Outro Music.
