Podcasts about bladder

Nocturia, or frequent nighttime urination, destroys sleep, which can create a cascade of health issues. Discover how to sleep better and resolve your nighttime urination problems for good by addressing the root cause. Just so you know, my full line of high-quality supplements is available on Amazon — search Dr. Berg Supplements.

Every winter we hear and experience it - and it's been 6 years since we last talked about it, so we figured it's time for an update! In today's episode, Anita and Jessie talk all about bladder leakage during cold and flu season: what it is, what it isn't, and how to end leaks for good!- - - - - - - - -If you liked this episode of To Birth and Beyond, tell your friends! Find us on iTunes and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show.Want more? Visit www.ToBirthAndBeyond.com, join our Facebook group (To Birth and Beyond Podcast), and follow us on Instagram @tobirthandbeyondpodcast! Thanks for listening and joining the conversation!Resources and References Work in-person with Jessie in 2026: https://programs.jessiemundell.com/kingston-training/TBAB Episode 92: How To Help Your Pelvic Floor Through Cold and Flu SeasonAnita's “Beyond the Kegel” workshopShow Notes 0:55 - Jessie's got space for in-person clients in Kingston, Ontario!2:02 - Anita introduces what we are talking about today - and the frustrations around it!3:20 - We discuss WHERE your pelvic floor even is for those who are new to the pelvic floor education world!4:54 - What causes leaking with coughing and sneezing?6:54 - If someone has been working on their pelvic floor strength - here's a reminder for you!8:23 - A common habit that isn't helpful: gripping your pelvic floor to stop leaking9:28 - Anita walks us through a 3-step strategy that will help with pelvic floor pressure and strength in the moment13:46 - Jessie shares a tip she gives clients in the moment15:55 - It's not so much a strength issue - it can be a timing issue, and final advice as we bring the episode to a close

Millions of Americans are frustrated with their urinary problems. More specifically, the need to urinate multiple times a day and night and leaking urine is frustrating to many people over the age of 45. Fortunately, there have been successful advances in the herbal treatment of common urinary problems. We are excited to share these breakthroughs on the show today. Tracey Seipel, ND, is CEO and founder of Australian-based Seipel Group. Dr. Seipel is a renowned naturopathic doctor, medical herbalist, and clinical nutritionist. Dr. Seipel is also a diabetes educator, researcher, and an award-winning natural products formulator with 35 years of experience in clinical practice.She pioneered the natural urological health category receiving a Nutrition Business Journal award in 2006 for innovation. During the 1990s, Seipel was a leader in establishing standards of education for Australian naturopathic colleges and as an advisor to government boards, including developing nutritional training for Australia Medical Schools. During her research as a product formulator for nutraceutical companies, she uncovered the significant prevalence and underreporting of urinary incontinence in women and then overactive bladder and incontinence in both men and women. Together, this led to her pioneering this natural health category. Understanding the significant health impacts and seeing no other companies willing to take on the challenge of improving bladder control, Seipel developed the initial formulation.Learn more about UROXUROX StudyLearn more about Emerald Labs Bladder Health which contains the branded ingredient UROX. Listeners can save 20% OFF at Emeraldlabs.com when using the code: Forever 

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Back to work! In the news this morning, the new Wisconsin license plates are now available, RIP to Bob Weir, Daniel Stern got busted for soliciting a prostitute, and Timothy Busfield is facing child sex-abuse charges. In sports, a recap of the NFL Wild Card games, the College Football National Championship match-up is set, a look at the Bucks weekend, and the Badgers shocked #2 Michigan this past Saturday. We let you know what's on TV today/tonight and we also discussed last night's Golden Globes award ceremony. Elsewhere in sports, the latest on the NFL coaching vacancies, Books Koepka is trying to rejoin the PGA, and Kevin Durant passes Wilt Chamberlain on the NBA's all-time scoring leaderboard. Cool story about a guy in Indiana who got a free truck after his community pitched in to help purchase it for him, and a woman battling cancer got a free wedding while in the hospital thanks to the staff at the facility. We talked to Elias from the might Nonpoint about the upcoming Riverfront Revolt. And in today's edition of "Bad News with Happy Music", we had stories about a guy who allegedly fired a gun inside of a middle school and then had a very interesting interaction with the judge assigned to his case, a dude in China who stuck a leech up his pee hole & into his bladder, a drug dealer who had a bunch of his drugs stuffed into his underwear, and a guy in Nevada who tried to run over the cops with his bulldozer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-08-2026: Dr. Dawn concludes her 2025 medical advances recap, noting that while GLP-1 weight loss drugs showed unexpected benefits for addiction, schizophrenia, and dementia risk, Novo Nordisk recently reported semaglutide had no effect on cognition in people with existing dementia or mild cognitive impairment. She describes the first successful human bladder transplant performed on May 4th. The 41-year-old recipient received both kidney and bladder due to the bladder's complex blood vessel network. Surgeons practiced on cadavers with active circulation before achieving success, opening pathways for future bladder-only transplants for the 84,000 Americans diagnosed with bladder cancer annually. An emailer follows up about purslane for cognitive health. Dr. Dawn reviewed the referenced studies and found neither actually supported claims about purslane and cognition—one discussed the Lyon Heart Study's Mediterranean diet, the other described antioxidant properties. She cautions listeners that websites citing "scientifically proven" claims often reference articles that don't support their assertions. An emailer asks about statin alternatives after developing severe muscle pain on both atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. Dr. Dawn suggests he shouldn't be on statins given his classic adverse reaction. She recommends ezetimibe plus oat bran for cholesterol, metformin for his elevated triglycerides indicating insulin resistance, and checking LDL particle size and inflammation markers. She emphasizes that cholesterol is a risk factor, not a disease, and treating 50 low-risk people for 10 years prevents only one heart attack. A caller discusses plaque formation theory, comparing it to calluses. Dr. Dawn explains Linus Pauling's similar hypothesis that plaque forms at vessel bifurcations to protect against turbulent blood flow damage. She warns against driving total cholesterol below 130, as it disrupts steroid hormone production. The caller shares his mother's near-fatal rhabdomyolysis from statins—muscle breakdown releasing myoglobin that clogs kidneys—and criticizes data transfer failures between hospital systems. An emailer reports four UTIs in two months at age 79. Dr. Dawn questions whether all were true infections, since vaginal contamination causes false positives on dipstick tests. For confirmed UTIs, she recommends D-mannose and cranberry to prevent bacterial adhesion, post-void residual ultrasound to check for incomplete emptying, lactobacillus probiotics, and vaginal DHEA (Intrarosa) to restore mucosal thickness and disease resistance. Dr. Dawn describes Stanford's Phase III trial for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, where defective collagen-7 causes skin layers to separate at the slightest touch. Researchers take patient skin biopsies, use retroviruses to insert corrected genes, grow credit-card-sized skin grafts over 25 days, then suture them onto wounds. At 48 weeks, 65% of treated wounds fully healed versus 7% of controls. She reports a Stanford study showing premature babies who heard recordings of their mothers reading for 2 hours 40 minutes daily developed more mature white matter in language pathways. The left arcuate fasciculus showed greater development than controls, demonstrating how early auditory stimulation shapes brain circuitry even in NICU settings. Dr. Dawn concludes with tattoo safety concerns. Modern vivid inks contain compounds developed for car paint and printer toner, including azo dyes that break down into carcinogenic aromatic amines—especially during laser removal. Pigment particles migrate to lymph nodes and persist in macrophages, causing prolonged inflammation. She advises those with tattoos to avoid laser removal, wear sunscreen, practice lymphatic hygiene, and reconsider extensive new tattoos.

Stupid News 1-9-2026 8am ...The ol' leech in the bladder treatment ...Yeah, that will play well with the judge ...So 50 sheep walk into a grocery store

Join My Private Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://theaxioncollective.manus.space/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email List: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://huntershealthhacks.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get My Book On Amazon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/avbaV48Download⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Peptide Cheat Sheet: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://peptidecheatsheet.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download The Bioregulator Cheat Sheet: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bioregulatorcheatsheet.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1 On 1 Coaching Application: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamscoaching.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book A Call With Me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamscall.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Supplement Sources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamssupplements.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Storefront: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/shop/hunterwilliams/list/WE16G2223BXA?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_R7QWQC0P1RACB2ETY3DY⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Socials:Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hunterwilliamscoaching/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Video Topic Request: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamsvideotopic.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠In today's episode, I'm breaking down a peptide that doesn't get nearly enough attention, but can be genuinely life-changing for the right person: Vesilute.This is one of the Russian peptide bioregulators developed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, and in this episode I'm specifically focusing on the injectable bladder peptide, not the oral version. If you've heard me talk about Prostamax before, Vesilute is its natural counterpart on the bladder side — and when paired together, they form what I call a bladder–prostate axis strategy for comprehensive urinary health in men. For women, Vesilute stands on its own as a powerful option for overactive bladder, especially during peri- and post-menopause.I walk through exactly how Vesilute works at a cellular level — how these tissue-specific peptides enter bladder cells, influence gene expression, and help restore a more youthful, functional state to the urothelium and detrusor muscle. We talk about why urgency, frequency, weak flow, nocturia, and even that awkward “can't go when you need to” situation happen as we age, and how Vesilute may help normalize those patterns rather than just masking symptoms.I also dig into the Russian clinical data, including placebo-controlled trials in men with BPH and women with overactive bladder, showing meaningful improvements in urinary flow, symptom scores, and quality of life — all with an excellent safety profile and virtually no systemic side effects. This is where AI translation has really opened the door to research that's been siloed for years, and I share what I found most compelling.From there, I outline my preferred injectable protocol: 1–2 mg daily for 60 days, run 2–3 times per year, why I prefer that over shorter high-dose protocols, and how to pair Vesilute with Prostamax in men for better overall results. I also talk through what people typically notice week by week, how long benefits tend to last after a cycle, and why even reducing nighttime urination from three trips to one can have massive downstream effects on sleep, energy, mood, metabolism, and overall longevity.This isn't a hype peptide. It's not flashy. But if bladder issues, frequent urination, BPH, or overactive bladder are impacting your sleep or quality of life, this may be one of the most underrated and cost-effective peptides you can use. My goal with this episode is to give you the full context — the science, the data, the real-world experience — so you can decide if it makes sense for you.As always, thank you for the support, for being here, and for helping me keep this information free and accessible. If you've used Vesilute, I'd love for you to share your experience in the comments so others can learn from it too.

Did you know that 46% of women completely stop exercising because of pelvic floor problems and most wait nearly 7 years before seeking help? If you've been waking up multiple times every night to pee, crossing your legs when you sneeze, or planning your entire day around bathroom locations, this episode is about to change your life. And no, the answer isn't just "do more Kegels." In this conversation with Kim Vopni, also known as The Vagina Coach, to uncover the shocking truth about what's really happening to your pelvic floor in midlife and why everything your doctor told you might be wrong. Kim reveals why most women are doing Kegels completely incorrectly, making their problems worse instead of better. She explains the real reasons you're waking up at night (hint: it's probably not your bladder), and shares the one appointment every woman should schedule annually that most have never even heard of. You'll discover why bladder leaks aren't just an inconvenience but a cascade effect that's destroying your sleep, your exercise routine, your sex life, and your confidence. Kim breaks down the difference between normal aging and actual pelvic floor dysfunction, revealing that what you've accepted as "just part of getting older" is actually completely reversible in most cases. From the truth about vaginal estrogen and the black box warning that's medically inaccurate, to hypopressives and vaginal red light therapy, this conversation goes deep into solutions that actually work. Kim explains why surgery and medication should never be your first option, shares the retraining technique that stops night waking in as little as one night, and reveals the hidden connection between your nervous system and every single pelvic floor symptom. Whether you're dealing with stress incontinence, urgency, pelvic organ prolapse, or you're just exhausted from getting up six times a night, this episode gives you the roadmap to reclaim your pelvic health (and your life). Because hiding from photos, avoiding social events, and wearing black leggings every day isn't the solution.  Ready to stop planning your life around bathrooms?   Catch the full episode on YOUTUBE HERE: https://bit.ly/MidlifeConversationsYouTube    Learn More About Kim Vopni Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/VaginaCoach  Website ➜   http://vaginacoach.com/   Thank you to our show sponsors! TIMELINE: Timeline is offering 20% off your order of Mitopure! Go to https://timeline.com/NATALIEJILL Free Gifts for being a listener of Midlife Conversations! Mastering the Midlife Midsection Guide: https://theflatbellyguide.com/ Age Optimizing and Supplement Guide: https://ageoptimizer.com   Connect with me on social media! Instagram: www.Instagram.com/Nataliejllfit Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Nataliejillfit   For advertising inquiries: https://www.category3.ca/  Disclaimer: Information provided in the Midlife Conversations podcast is for informational purposes only. This information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. Do not use the information provided in this podcast for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before making any changes to your current regimen.  Information provided in this podcast and the use of any products or services related to this podcast does not create a client-patient relationship between you and the host of Midlife Conversations or you and any doctor or provider interviewed and featured on this show. Information and statements may have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent ANY disease. Advertising Disclosure: Some episodes of Midlife Conversations may be sponsored by products or services discussed during the show. The host may receive compensation for such advertisements or if you purchase products through affiliate links. Opinions expressed about products or services are those of the host and/or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsor. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement of any product or service by healthcare professionals featured on this podcast.

Dr. Deb 0:01Welcome back to another episode of Let’s Talk Wellness Now, and I’m your host, Dr. Deb, and today we’re pulling back the curtain on a topic that barely gets a whisper in conventional medicine. Chronic bladder symptoms, biofilms, and the hidden genetic drivers that keep so many women stuck in a cycle of pain, urgency, and infection that never truly resolves. My guest today is someone who is not only brilliant, but battle-tested, like myself. Dr. Kristen Ryman is a physician, a mom, and the author of Life After Lyme, a book and blueprint that has helped countless people reclaim health after complex chronic illness. After healing herself from advanced Lyme, she has spent her career helping patients recover their most vibrant, resilient selves through her Inner Flow program. Her Healing Grove podcast, her membership community, and her deep dive work on bladder biofilms and stealth pathogens. And what I love about Kristen is that she teaches from lived experience. In 2022, she suffered a stroke. And not only survived it, but rebuilt her brain, resolved lateral strabismus, restored balance, and regained her ability to multitask That journey uncovered her own genetic predisposition to clotting, the very same patterns she sees in her chronic bladder patients. And that personal revelation ultimately led to her Introducing this groundbreaking work that we’re talking about today. So let’s get into it, because bladder biofilms, clotting genetics, stealth pathogens, and real recovery is the conversation women have been needing for decades. And we’ll get started. Where did this one go? There we go. Alright, so welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now. I have Dr. Kristen with me, and I am so excited to talk to her for multiple reasons. A, she’s got a fabulous story, and B, she’s an expert in a topic that nobody’s talking about, and I want to learn from her, too. So, welcome to the show. Kristin Reihman 3:07Thank you! I’m so happy to be here, Dr. Deb. Dr. Deb 3:10Thank you. Well, let’s dive right in, because we have so much to talk about, and you and I could probably talk for hours. So, let’s dive into this conversation, and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in this. Kristin Reihman 3:23Well, I mean, like so many people, I think, on this path, I had, had to learn it the hard way. You know, I had to find my way into a mystery illness, a complex, mysterious set of symptoms that sort of didn’t fit the… the sort of description of what, you know, normal doctors do, and even though I was a normal doctor for many years, nothing I’d been trained in could help me when I was really debilitated from Lyme disease back in 2011, 20212, 2023. And so I kind of had to crawl my way out of that, using all the resources at my disposal, which, you know, started out with a lot of ILADS stuff, you know, a lot of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, resources online, found some Lyme doctors, and then my journey really quickly evolved to sort of, like, way far afield of normal Western medicine, which is what my training is in you know, I think within a year of my diagnosis, I was, like, you know, at a Klingheart conference, and learning all sort of, you know, the naturopathic approach to Lyme, and really trying to heal my body and terrain, and heal the process that had led me to become so, so ill from, you know. A little bacteria. Dr. Deb 4:29Yeah. Yeah, same here. Like, I’ve been an ILADS practitioner for over 20 years, and when I got sick with Lyme, I was like… how did I not realize this? And I knew I had Lyme before I even was ILADS trained, but when I got really sick and got diagnosed with MS, I never thought about Lyme or mycotoxins or any of that, because I was too busy, head down, doing what I’m doing, helping people. And I, too, had to take that step back, not just physically, but more spiritually and emotionally, and say, how did my body get this sick? Like, what was I doing, and what was I not doing? That allowed this to happen, and now look at this from a healing aspect of not just the physical side, but that spiritual-emotional side as well. Kristin Reihman 5:13Totally. I have the same… I have the same realization as I was coming out of it. I was like, wow, this wasn’t just about, sort of, physically what I was doing and not doing. There was something spiritual here as well for me, and I… I feel like it really was a wake-up call for me to get on the path that I’m supposed to be on, the path that I’m on now, really, which is stepping away from the whole medicine matrix model and moving into, you know, working with really complex people. Listening to their bodies, understanding intuition, understanding energy, understanding all these different pieces that doctors just aren’t trained to look at. Dr. Deb 5:46Right? We don’t have time to learn everything, right? Like, you have time to learn the body and the medical side of things, and that’s a whole prism of itself, but then learning the spiritual energy medicine, that’s a completely different paradigm. That’s a full-time learning aspect, and it’s so different than what we learn in conventional medicine. Kristin Reihman 6:04Yeah, it’s a complete health system. Like, it’s a complete healthcare system. Dr. Deb 6:10Yes, and nobody takes it that seriously, but I, for myself, I’ve been spiritual healing for decades, and it wasn’t until I got really sick that I dived deeper into that and looked at what is it in this world that I’m owning, what belongs to generational things that were brought to me from childbirth and other generations in my family that I’m carrying their old wounds. And how do I clear some of that so that it’s not still following me? And then how do I help my kids so that they don’t have to carry what I brought forth? And it’s just… a lot of people, that may sound crazy, but that’s the kind of stuff that we need to be looking at if we want to truly heal. Kristin Reihman 6:54Yeah, and I think it’s also, it’s inspiring, you know, because when people… and I would tell this to my patients with Lyme and these sort of mystery illnesses, like, look, you are on this path for a reason, and this is going to teach you so much that you didn’t necessarily want to learn, but you need to learn. And this… nothing that you learn or change about your lifestyle or the way in which you move through the world is gonna make you a worse person. Like, it’s only gonna sort of up-level you. You know, it’s gonna up-level your diet, and your sleep habits, and your relationships, and your toxic thinking, like, it’s all gonna change for you to get better, and that’s… that’s a gift, really. Dr. Deb 7:27It really is, and I tell people the same thing. Like, we can look at this as… something that’s happening to us, or we can look at this as something that’s happening for us. And that’s how I looked at my MS diagnosis. This was happening for me, not to me. I wasn’t going to be the victim. And you have a very similar story, so tell us a little bit about your story and what kind of catapulted you into this in 2022. Kristin Reihman 7:52Well, by 2022, I was, like, 10 years out of my Lyme hole, and I had been seeing patients, you know, I had opened my own practice, and I was working for another company, seeing, families who have brain-injured children. I was their medical director, still am, actually. And so I was doing a patchwork of things, all of which really fed my soul. You know, all of which felt like this is, like, me, aligned with my purpose on the planet. And so, based on a lot of my thinking, I sort of figured, okay, well, I’m good now, right? Like, I’m on my path now, like, the universe is not going to send another 2×4. And then the universe sent another 2×4. And in 2022, I had an elective neck surgery. You kind of still see the little scar here for my two-level ACDF. Because I had crazy off-the-hook arm pain for, like, a year and a half that I just finally became, like, almost like it felt like I was developing fasciculations and fiery, fiery pain, and I just got the surgery, and the pain went away. But when I woke up, I was different. I didn’t have a voice. Which is a common side effect, actually, of that surgery that resolves after a few months, and in many cases, and mine did. But I also didn’t have, normal balance anymore, and my right eye turned out a little bit, and I couldn’t multitask. And my job is all about multitasking. As you know, with very complex people in front of you, you’re hearing all these pieces of their story, and you’re kind of categorizing it, and thinking about where they fit, and you’re making a plan for what to work up, and you’re making a plan for what to wait until next time. It’s like all these pieces, right? You’re in the matrix. And I… I couldn’t hold those pieces anymore. And I didn’t realize that until I went back to work a couple months after my, surgery, because my voice came back and was like, okay, well, now I’m going back to work. And then I realized, I can’t do simple math. In fact, I can’t remember what this person just said to me, unless I read my note, and I can’t remember taking that note. What is going on? And so I had a full workup, and indeed, I had some neurological deficits that didn’t show up on an MRI, so they must have been quite tiny. Possibly were even low-flow, you know, episodes during my surgery when my blood pressure drops really low with the medicines that you’re on for surgery. But I, basically had, like, a few mini strokes, and needed to recover from that. So that was sort of the… that was the 2×4 in 2022. Dr. Deb 10:09Wow. So, what are, what are some of the things that you learned during that process of that mini-stroke? Kristin Reihman 10:17Well, the first thing I learned is that, something that I already knew from working with the Family Hope Center, which is that organization I mentioned that helps families heal their kids’ brains, I know that motivation lives in the ponds, and if you have a ding or a hit to the ponds, like, you don’t want to get out of bed in the morning, you don’t want to do the work it takes to heal your brain, in my case. And I remember spending several months in the fall of 2022 just sort of walking around my yard. With my puppies, being like, This is enough. I don’t really need to work anymore, right? Like, I don’t… why do I need my brain back? Like, I don’t need to have my brain back to enjoy life. You know, I’ll have a garden, I have people I love and who love me, like, why do I need to work? Like, my whole, like, passion, purpose-driven mentality and motivation to kind of do and be all the things I always strive to do and be in the world, was, like, gone. It was really interesting, slash very alarming to those who knew me, but being inside the brain that wasn’t really working, it wasn’t alarming to me. I was just sort of like, oh, ho-hum, this is my new me.Well, luckily I have some people around me, I like to call them my healing team, who sort of held up a mirror, and they’re like, this is not you, and we’re gonna take you to a functional neurologist now. And so, I ended up seeing a functional neurologist who, you know, within… within, like probably 6 visits. I had all these, like, stacked visits with him. Within 6 visits, my brain just turned on. I was like, oh! Right! I need my brain back! I gotta fix this eyesight, I gotta get my balance back, and I gotta learn how to do simple math again and multitask. So, after that sort of jumpstart, I actually did the program that I, you know, know very well inside and out from the Family Hope Center, where I’d been medical director for 10 years. And, it’s a hard program, it’s not… not for wimps, and it’s certainly… I wasn’t about to do it when I had no motivation, so I’m really grateful to the functional neurologist who helped me kind of, like get my brain… get my pawns back, and my motivation back, my mojo. And then I’m really grateful to the Family Hope Center, because if I didn’t have that set of tools in my back pocket, I would still have an eye that turns out to the side, I would still have a positive Romberg, you know, closing my eyes, falling over backwards, and I would still have, a lot of trouble seeing patients, and probably wouldn’t be working anymore. Dr. Deb 12:32I can totally relate to that. When I got my MS diagnosis, you know, there’s a period of time where you go, okay reality kicks in, and I’m thinking, okay, how long am I going to be able to work? How long am I going to be able to play with my kids and my grandkids and be able to be me? And I started looking at, how do I sell my practice, just in case I need to do this? How do I step back? And I spent probably about 9 or 10 months in that place of, this is gonna be my life, and it’s not gonna be what I’m used to, and, you know, how are we gonna redesign my house, and do this, and that, and… Finally, my husband looked at me one day, and he’s like, what the hell is wrong with you? And I was like, what are you talking about? He’s like, this is ridiculous. He’s like, you fix everybody else. He’s like you can fix yourself. Why do you think you can’t fix yourself, or you don’t know the people that can fix you? You need to get out of this, and pick yourself up, and start doing what you tell your patients. And… and I sat there, and at first I was like just did he know that I’m sick? Like, I have MS. I took that victim mode for a little bit, and then I went, no, he’s right. Like, this is my wake-up call to say, I can reverse this, I can fix this, and total, total turnaround, too. Like, I started reaching out to my friends and colleagues, because I kept myself in this huge bubble, like, I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on with me, because I was afraid my patients wouldn’t see me, what are my staff going to say? My staff are going to leave, and if I lose my business, what am I going to do? And da-da-da-da, all those fears. And then… when I finally started opening up and sharing with people, people started bringing me other people, and you need to talk to this person, you need to talk to this person. They connected me here and there, and this place, and 18 months later, I was totally back to normal again. And now my practice is growing, and we’re adding on, and it’s bigger, and I’m taking on more projects than I feel like myself, and… and I was a lot like you, too. Like, I couldn’t remember my protocols that I’ve done for 20 years. I had to depend on what was in the EHR to pull forward, because I always had them in my notes, so I didn’t have to type them all the time, but I was like I have to pull that forward, because I don’t remember the name of the supplement that I’ve used for 15 years. I don’t remember what laps I’m ordering. I don’t remember the normal values of this stuff. And now it’s back on the tip of my tongue, but at the time, it was a little scary, for sure. Kristin Reihman 14:47Wow, so scary. Well, that’s a remarkable story, and why I can’t wait to have you on my podcast, but I’m really… I’m really happy that you had a healing team around you, too, who was like, yeah, nope, that’s not your… that’s not the train we’re on. Get off that train. Come back on your usual train. What are you doing over there? Dr. Deb 15:03Yeah, and you know, I hope that a lot of patients have that, or people that are experiencing this have that, but there’s so many people who don’t have that. And they need somebody, they need somebody in their corner, like we had in our corners, to help pick them up and say, this doesn’t have to be your reality. It can change, but it is a lot of work, like you said. It’s a lot of work. It’s not… Kristin Reihman 15:25Yeah, no, it’s a lot of work. So when I started off. I was work… I was doing probably 4 hours a morning, like, 4… basically, my entire morning was devoted to brain training and healing my brain through the ref… you know, we… I mean, I can get into the details of it, but basically it’s a lot of, like, crawling on the floor. On your belly, creeping on your hands and knees, doing reflex bags to stimulate, you know, more blood flow to the brain, doing a lot of smells. You know, and just staying with it, you know? And I remember balking, even in the beginning, I was, like, seeing some changes, I was feeling more motivated. I remember feeling this… I started noticing it was changing about 2 weeks in, when I would get up in the morning. And I would… I noticed I would start… I would do my, like, beginnings of the day, I would get the kids on the bus, I would do everyone’s breakfast, I’d do the dishes, and I’d be, like, sitting down and being like, hmm, like, what am I supposed to be doing now? Like, where… What is my purpose today? And because I had this plan, I was just like, well, I know that has to happen, so I may as well do that now. And I would get on the floor, and I would start crawling down the length of our hallway. And within about 8 laps, I would feel my brain, like. I felt like it integrating. I would feel things, like, just coming online, and I’d be like, oh, right. I know who I am, I know what I’m doing today, I have these other things this afternoon, I gotta get this done before noon, and I would do it. But it was really interesting, and I’ve never been a coffee drinker, but when I thought of what that felt like, to me, that’s how people often describe, like, my brain doesn’t wake up until I have coffee. I never needed coffee to have… my brain woke up before I’d wake up, and I’d be like, bing, and I’m ready to go. But when I had the brain injury for those 9 months, it wasn’t that way the whole time. In the beginning, it was very hard to get my brain back in the morning, and it was creeping and crawling that would pull it in. Dr. Deb 17:08Wow. Is there one particular thing that you did that you felt made the biggest difference to rebuilding your brain? Kristin Reihman 17:15Crawling on my belly like a commando, wearing elbow pads, knee pads, actually two sets of knee pads, wearing toe shoes, and just ripping laps on my floor. Dr. Deb 17:26Oh, and that’s so simple to do. So why does that work? Kristin Reihman 17:31So interesting, and I… this is the kind of… this is the… the story of this is something that I think is bigger than all of us, and I wish everybody knew how to optimize your brain using just the simple hallway in your house. But essentially, if you take a newborn baby. And you put them on mom’s belly, and they’re neurologically intact, and maybe you’ve seen videos of this. There used to be a video circulating about a baby born onto mom’s belly, nobody touches the baby, and in about 2 minutes and 34 seconds, that baby crawls on its belly, like, uses arms, uses its toe dig with its little babinsky, and pushes its way up to mom’s breast. Latches on with its reflexes, and there you go. That baby keeps itself alive through its primitive reflexes. So it’s essentially telling its brain, every time it runs those reflexes, every time it does a little toe dig, every time it, like, swings its arm across in a cross-later, hetero… what do we call, a homolateral pattern. That little baby is getting a message to its brain that says, grow and heal and organize. And because all the reflexes come out of the middle and lower brain stem. That’s the part of the brain that’s organizing as a baby. And as a baby grows and does the various things a baby does using its reflexes, like eventually on its belly, crawling across the floor, and then popping up to hands and knees, and creeping across the floor, and eventually standing and walking, all of those things are invoking a different set of reflexes that tell the brain to grow and heal and organize. So it’s almost like the function creates the structure, and if you run those pathways again and again and again your brain will get the message to basically invoke its own neuroplasticity, and that’s how a baby’s brain grows. And it turns out, any brain of any age, if you put it through those same pathways, it will send a message of neuroplasticity to the brain, and the brain will grow and heal and organize. Dr. Deb 19:16That was going to be my question, is why aren’t we using this for elderly people with dementia, or Alzheimer’s, or stroke, or Parkinson’s, or things like that, to help them regrow their brain? Kristin Reihman 19:28Well, because number one, nobody knows about it. Number two, even when people do know about it, nobody likes to be on the floor like a baby, creepy and crawling. And least of all the stubborn old people with dementia who are, like, who don’t even think they have a problem. I mean, the problem with the brain not working, as I discovered, and it sounds like you discovered, too, is the brain that’s not working doesn’t know it’s not working, or worse, doesn’t care. You know, and so it’s tricky with adults. With kids who, you know, you have some sort of power over, you can often make your kids do things that they don’t want to do, like eat their vegetables, or creep and crawl on the floor for 80, you know, 80 laps before they get to go, you know, do their thing. But adults are a little trickier. Dr. Deb 20:10Is there another way for us to be able to do that same thing without the crawling on the floor? Like, could they do it in a sitting motion, or do they need that whole connection to happen? Kristin Reihman 20:21Well, they need to be moving in a cross pattern, and they need to be moving their arms and their legs in such a way that stimulates the reflexes. But you can do that on your bed, you can do it face down on your bed by getting into a pattern, and switching sides and, you know, moving your legs and your arms in the opposite… in the, you know, an opposite cross pattern, and that will get you some of the benefit. And we, in fact, we have… we work with kids who are paralyzed and who don’t… aren’t able to independently move forward in a crawling pattern, who have people coordinating their movements so that they get the same movement, and the brain registers it, and they do make progress, and some of them eventually. Crawl, and then creep, and then walk. Dr. Deb 20:59Wow, that’s so… and it’s so simple and easy for people to do. Kristin Reihman 21:04Well, it’s simple. I don’t know that it’s easy. I do… I do… having done it myself, I will say it’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, was literally crawl my way out of that brain injury. And I’m so glad that I knew what to do, and I’m so glad I had people push me to remind me that it was important, because… I’ll even… I’ll share another story of my own resistance. So, about 2 or 3 weeks into it, I was up to 300 meters of crawling on my belly. And 600 meters of creeping on hands and knees, which was really killing my knees, which was why I was wearing two knee pads. And, I started to get this feeling that maybe I wasn’t doing enough. Like, even though I was noticing changes, and even though I was feeling more purpose, and I was getting organized in the morning, I could tell it was making a difference. I… I knew, I remembered that usually the kids on our program are doing a lot more than that, including my own… my youngest kids, but I made them creep and crawl, even though they didn’t have serious brain injuries, I just thought, we’re gonna optimize everyone, get on the floor, get on the floor. Lord so I was… I was nervous about not doing enough, so I… I reached out to the member… one of the members of the team, and I said, you know, hey, Maria, what’s… what do you think about my numbers? And here’s a… here’s a video of me creeping and crawling, what do you think? Am I doing it right? And she said, you’re doing it right, but how many, how many meters are you doing? And I said, I’m doing 300 meters of crawling on my belly, and 600 meters of creeping, and she’s like, oh. Yeah, that’s not nearly enough for an adult. She’s like, Matthew probably gave you those numbers because he felt bad for you and thought you were going to be still working. He didn’t know you were going to take off from patients. Now that you’re… since you’re not working, you need to do more. I was like, okay, tell me… tell me how much I’m supposed to do. And she goes, you need 900 meters of crawling on your belly, and 3,600 meters, 3.6 kilometers of basically crawling on my hands and knees. Dr. Deb 22:51Oh my gosh. Kristin Reihman 22:52And I just shut down. Dr. Deb 22:54Yeah. Kristin Reihman 22:55I was like, okay, screw it. I’m not doing it. Dr. Deb 22:58And I spent a day or two just not doing it and feeling petulant, and then I was like, you know what? Kristin Reihman 23:01Forget that, I was noticing some benefit. I’m gonna do my 300-600. So, the next day, I went and did 300 and 600 while my daughter was at physical therapy, and we got back in the car, and I said, hey, I’m so excited, I finished my… all my creepy and crawling, and it’s only 10 a.m. on a Saturday, I’m done for the weekend. And she did this. She’s sitting in the car, she looks at me, she goes. Was that your whole program, or was that a third of your program? Dr. Deb 23:28How old is she? Kristin Reihman 23:01Well, she’s, like, 20 now, but she was 18 at the time, and she… she had my number, and I was like, Tula! How can you say that? I’m working so hard! And she’s like, Mom? You need to stop seeing patients completely, and do what they tell you at the Family Hope Center. Because we’re your family, and this is your brain we’re talking about, and we need you to have all your brain back. And I must have looked terrible, because she goes, too much? Dr. Deb 23:54You raised a good daughter. Kristin Reihman 23:58And I was like, well, let me tell… let me ask you, do you mean that? She goes, yeah, I really mean that. I’m like, then it’s not too much. I needed to hear that. Thank you. And I went home, and I finished another 600 of crawls. I didn’t… I never got up to 3,600 of creeps. It was just too much for my knees. I got to 900 and 900, but that was the end of my resistance, and I just did it. Dr. Deb 24:17I just did it. Yeah, your family needed you, right? I mean, when somebody in your family that you love tells you they need you, that’s a huge motivating factor. Kristin Reihman 24:27Yeah, yeah, I’m so grateful for that. So, I did that for 9 months, and at the end of 9 months, my eye was straight and stayed straight, my balance was back, I was multitasking again, and I could take, you know, days and days off of creeping and crawling and not notice a dip. I was like, I’m done. Dr. Deb 24:45Wow, that’s awesome. Kristin Reihman 24:46Yeah. Dr. Deb 24:47During this process, you also discovered that you’re part of 20% of the people with clotting genetics. Tell us a little bit about that. What’s your understanding in that? Kristin Reihman 24:58Well, so, I’ll back up. So, before I had my stroke, I had already been seeing patients with really complex, you know, patients like yours, really complex stories, lots of different things going on, kind of the perfect storm for if they got a tick bite, they tanked. Dr. Deb 25:12and… Kristin Reihman 25:13And I’m one of those people, and my patients were those people. And about 7 years ago, I had one of these patients who said to me, you know, I’ve never told you this, but when I was in my 20s, I had so many bladder infections, so much, like, you know, kind of interstitial cystitis, they said it was, and they said it wasn’t an infection, but it felt like one. And I’ve been doing a little research, and I’ve learned about this woman whose name’s Ruth Kriz, she’s a nurse practitioner, and she sees Patients, and she has… she works with practitioners, and she basically heals interstitial cystitis. And I want you to work with her, I want you to learn from her. And I was like, I’m game. That sounds really interesting, I have no idea what she’s doing, and you don’t usually hear the words cure and interstitial cystitis in the same sentence, so, like, I’m in. So I reached out to Ruth, and long story short, I’ve been working with her for the last 5 or 7 years basically increasing the number of patients who I’m diagnosing now with these hidden bladder infections that are really often what’s at the root of these interstitial cystitis symptoms, meaning, you know, you go to the doctor, you pee in a cup, they look for something, they say there’s no infection here, so, you know, you’re probably crazy, or, you know, you probably have just a pain syndrome, we can’t help you. And actually, if you look with a much more sensitive test, and if you break down the biofilms where these bugs kind of are living in the bladder, you find them. And then you can treat them, and then people get well. So I knew about this, and I, didn’t have any bladder infections that I knew about, and what I did start to think about after my stroke was, well, maybe, since these people who have these bladder infections often have issues breaking down biofilms, the same genetics that lead you to have trouble breaking down biofilms, which are these places where the bugs are kind of hiding in your body, have trouble breaking down clots. And I just had some strokes. I wonder if I have maybe some of these clotting genetics that I’m looking for in all my bladder people. And so I looked, and surprise, surprise, I had not one, not two, but, like, six of them. Ruth said to me, Ruth said, Darlin, I don’t know how you’re standing up. This is more than I’ve ever seen in any of my patients. And she’s been doing this for, like, 4 years now. I was like, oh boy, that’s not good. But in retrospect, it made a lot of sense to me, because having the clotting genetics I have. puts me at risk for severe, you know, chronic Lyme that’s intractable, which I had. It puts me at risk for trouble with, you know, having surgery and clotting and, you know, low blood pressure and low flow states. It puts me at risk for the cold hands and cold feet that I had my entire life until I started treating the clotting issues by taking an enzyme that breaks down little microclots. I mean, I was the person in med school who’d put my hands on people, be like, I’m so sorry. My hands are ice. Warm heart, cold hands, warm heart. Yeah, not anymore, because I’ve treated it. But yeah, so I was surprised slash not surprised to find that I’m one of the people in my community who is a setup for chronic infections and, strokes and bladder infections. Dr. Deb 28:22So you just had that predisposition that took you down that path. Kristin Reihman 28:28Yeah, I think so. Dr. Deb 28:30What are some of the layers of biofilm and the stealth pathogens, like tick-borne diseases and things like that, hiding inside us that… what are some of the symptoms look like, and how do they look different in people with clotting disorders versus the common tick-borne disease? Kristin Reihman 28:47I would say they’re very similar, so it tends to be poor peripheral circulation, so if you put your hands on your neck, and your hands feel cold to your neck difference in the heat, right? The amount of blood flow in your sort of axial skeleton and area as compared to the periphery. And that can indicate a biofilm kind of predisposition or a clotting disposition. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s there, but it’s a clue, right? Another clue is a family history of any kind of clotting disorders. So, miscarriages, heart attacks, especially early heart attacks, strokes, especially strokes in young people. These things are… are clues that we should probably look for some kind of clotting issue. And of course, in my population, I’m always thinking about it now, because if you have not been able to get well with the usual things for Lyme disease, for example, or Babesia or Bartonella, all of which, by the way, can form biofilms or, you know, love to live and hide in biofilms, then chances are your body’s having a hard time addressing those biofilms. And it turns out, so the connection between the clotting and the biofilm piece is that the same proteins that our body uses to break down Biofilms are used to break down microclots, blood clots, and soluble fibrin, which are the sort of precursors to those clots. And so, if we have an issue kind of grinding up those just normal flotsam and jetsam in our blood flow, then our blood flow is going to become sticky, and our blood will become sort of stagnant and sludgy, and that’s sort of a setup for not being able to heal from infections. Dr. Deb 30:25Is one of the genetic markers you look at MTHFR? Kristin Reihman 30:28I look at that, but I don’t consider that a clotting issue, unless it leads to high homocysteine. So, homocysteine can be either high or low, they’re both problematic. And MTHFR can create either an over-methylation situation, and sometimes if people have low homocysteine, it’s almost worse, because they’re such poor detoxers that they can’t actually get anything out of their system, and they get sludgy for that reason. But I think in terms of the clotting, the bigger issue is high homocysteine, which, you know, typically the MTHFRs, the 1298 would be more implicated for that. Dr. Deb 31:02Yeah, it kind of sets you up. Dr. Deb 31:04Yeah, yeah. Kristin Reihman 31:05I’m curious what you’re seeing. I know since the pandemic, we see a lot of people with elevated D-dimer levels.Are you seeing some of that in your practice, too? Like, we’re seeing more of it, and now that you’re talking about this, I’m wondering if some of those people are predisposed to some of these genetic makeups, and that’s why we’re seeing such a high rise in that.It… and this is connected, and it’s a piece we’re missing. Kristin Reihman31:29Yes, I do think it’s a piece we’re missing. There was a very interesting study that came out of South Africa. A physician in his office did a clinical study on his patients using 3 blood thinners. So he put people on Plavix, and Eliquis, and aspirin, all at once. It… yeah, you’d be hard-pressed to find a doctor in the States to, like, you know, kind of risk that, because most people don’t even want people on aspirin and Flavix at the same time. Dr. Deb 31:55But Kristin Reihman 31:56They put them on 3 different blood thinners, people with long COVID, and in 6 months, 80% of those people were completely free of symptoms. Dr. Deb 32:04Wow. Kristin Reihman 32:05Yeah, yeah. Now, my question is, what about that 20%? Like, what’s going on with them? And I suspect, they weren’t looking at the other half of the pathway, because when you give a blood thinner, you’re not doing anything to help the body break down clot. You’re simply stopping the body from making more of it. And you rely on the body’s own mechanisms, you know, plasminogen activating inhibitor, for example to kind of grind up those clots and take them out. But when people have a mutation, say, in that protein, they’re not going to be able to grind up the clots, and so my suspicion is the 20% of people who didn’t get well in that study were people who had issues on the other side of the pathway. Dr. Deb 32:44Yeah, they weren’t able to excrete that out and maybe have some fiber and issues and things like that, and that wasn’t being addressed. Kristin Reihman 32:50Yeah Dr. Deb 32:51Yeah Kristin Reihman 32:52Of course, COVID makes its own biofilm. There’s a whole… there’s a whole new, you know, arm of research looking at sort of the different proteins that get folded in the body when COVID spike proteins are in there, kind of creating these almost, like, little amyloid plaque situations in your blood vessels. So, I do think that people who can’t break those down are really at risk for both COVID and the shots. You know, the spike protein comes at you for both of those, right? Dr. Deb 33:17Yeah. Did you use any lumbrokinase or natokinase in your situation? Kristin Reihman 33:22So lumbar kinase is what I use. It’s my main player. I use the Canada RNA one, which is, you know, I think, you know, more studied than any of the other ones, and because of its formulation, it’s about 12 times more potent than anything else out there. So that’s what I’m pretty much on for life. You know, that’s… I consider that kind of my…My… my main game. Dr. Deb 33:44Yeah, I agree, I love Limerocheinase for that, that’s really good. So you recently hosted a retreat around this topic. What were some of your biggest aha moments for the participants as they started unraveling some of these biofilm layers? Kristin Reihman 34:00Yeah, no, it was so fun. My sister and I host retreats together. She came out from California and did the yoga, and I did the teaching about biofilms and bladder issues, and it was really fabulous, because a lot of these folks are people already in my community. A few of them were new, and so we had this wonderful Kind of connection, and learning together, and just validation of what it is to live with symptoms that are super inconvenient, you know? Like, one of the… one of the members even, or participants even brought a big bag of, like, pads, and she’s like, listen, ladies. This is what I’m going to use to get through the week. If you want to borrow, I’ll put my little stash over there, and I think they all went by the end of the week. So we… my aha moment was just how powerful it is to be, hosting community and facilitating conversations where people really feel seen and heard, and just how important that is, especially post-COVID, right? When we, you know, so many people just really missed that piece of other humans. And, yeah, I love… I love being able to help people connect around stuff like that. Dr. Deb 35:00That’s awesome. So, for people who are listening that have that mystery, quote-unquote bladder issue, frequent UTIs, interstitial cystitis symptoms, or pelvic pain, or bladder spasms. Where should they start, and what are the first clues that tell you this is biofilm-driven? Kristin Reihman 35:20So, I think it’s always a good idea to… to do a test, you know, to take a microgen test. There’s a couple companies out there, I think Microgen’s the one that I rely on more than any of the others, and it requires, you know, not only doing a very sensitive test like Microgen, but breaking down biofilm before you take it. So, I always encourage people to take a biofilm breaker like lumbrokinase for 5 days leading up to the test, so you’re really grinding into the bladder wall and opening up those biofilms so that when you catch whatever comes out of your bladder, there’s something in there. If you don’t have bladder biofilm, nothing will come out, and you’ll have a negative test, and that’s usually confirmatory. If you’ve done a good provoking with BLUC or, you know, lumbrokinase for 5 days, and nothing comes out then I usually say mischief managed. That’s… that’s a great… that’s great news for you, right? And most people in my community, when they look, they find something, because, you know, not for nothing, but you’re in my community for a reason, right? Dr. Deb 36:17And so… Kristin Reihman 36:18So, yeah, and typically then we need to get into the ring with those bladder biofilms, and it doesn’t… it doesn’t usually take one or two tests, it’s many tests, because the layers are deep. I’m working with children, too, and even in small kids, they… if they have the right genetics, and if they’re living in an environment that is… that kind of can also push them to make more biofilms, like living in mold, for example, is a huge instigator of inflammation and biofilms, and also, you know, microclots and fibrin in the body. then those layers can go deep. And so, we’re peeling the layers one at a time, and we’re treating what comes out, and supporting people along the way. Dr. Deb 36:57With these microgen tests, can you find biofilms in other parts of the body as well, or is it primarily bladder? Kristin Reihman 37:03No, you can find… you can culture… and you can send a microgen PCR for any… any, you know, secretion you want. So they have a semen test, they have a vaginal test, they have a nasal test, you can send sputum, you can culture out what… you can stick a swab in your ear. There’s all sorts of… anything that you can put a swab in, you can… you can send in there. Oh, that’s awesome, that’s amazing. Yeah. Dr. Deb 37:26So, once you identify the drivers, genetics, environment, stealth infections, what does an effective treatment or reversal process look like for people? Kristin Reihman 37:36For the… for the bladder in particular? Well, I wish I could say it was herbs or oxidation, which are my favorite things for Lyme. I haven’t found those to work for the bladder, and so I’m using antibiotics. Which, even though I’m a Western-trained MD, it was not my bag of tricks. You know, when I left, sort of, the matrix medicine model, I really stopped using those things as much as possible, and I’ve had to come back to them, because they really, really work, and they’re really, really needed. So I love it if someone else out there is getting results with something other than antibiotics, please contact me and let me know, because I have plenty of patients who are like, really? Another antibiotic? I’m like, I know. But they work. We also do a really careful job, you know, I work with Ruth Kriz on every case, and we do a very careful job in finding the drug that’s going to be the least broad spectrum, and that’s really only going to tackle the highest percentage bug there. So, MicroGen does this really cool thing. It’s a PCR, next-gen sequencing, they’re looking at genetics, so you don’t have to have it on ice, it can sit on your countertop for a month, and you can still send it in. And they, they, they categorize by percentage, like, what’s there. And they’re not just looking for the 26 or 28 different bacteria that you would get if you were looking at a culture in your doctor’s office. They’re looking for 57,000 different organisms. Fungal and bacterial, yeah? And so, this is why I say, if there’s something there, and you’ve broken down the biofilm, microgen will find it. Dr. Deb 39:06That’s really great. That was going to be my question, is does it pick up fungal biofilms as well? So I’m so glad you mentioned that, because a lot of times with bladder stuff, it’s fungal in that bladder, too, and then we’re throwing an antibiotic at it and just making it worse if it’s fungal in there. Kristin Reihman 39:21Yeah, yeah, that’s… they… and I recently saw one, I had a little Amish girl who came back with 5 different fungal organisms in her bladder. And a whole flurry, a slurry of bacteria, too. Yeah, pretty sick. And that’s usually an indication that you’re living in mold, honestly. Dr. Deb 39:37Now, conventional medicine treats the bladder as a sterile organ, and rarely looks at biofilms. Why do we believe that this has been overlooked for so long, and what are they missing? Kristin Reihman 39:53Dr. Dr. Deb 39:53I’m loaded up. Kristin Reihman 39:54One of the many mysteries of medicine. I have no idea why people are like, la la la, biofilms. I mean, we know, so when I say we know, so when I trained, you know, I trained at Stanford for my medical school, I trained at Lehigh Valley for residency. Great programs, and I learned that, oh yes, biofilms, they exist in catheters of bladders. When people have an indwelling catheter for more than a month and they spike a fever, it’s a biofilm, but it’s only in the catheter. Really? Why does it stop at the catheter? Dr. Deb 40:23Yeah. Kristin Reihman 40:25Or, you know, now chronic sinusitis, people are recognizing this is a bladder… this is not a bladder, this is a biofilm infection in your sinuses. But we’re really reluctant to kind of admit that there’s, you know, that we’re teeming with microorganisms, that they might be setting up shop, and for good, right? Like, it’d be great if they were in biofilms as opposed to our bloodstream. Like, we don’t want them in our bloodstream, so thankfully they wall themselves off. But yeah, I think they’re everywhere. I mean, they found a microbiome in the brain, in the breast, in the, you know, the lung. There’s microbiome, there’s bugs everywhere. And the question is, are they friend or foe? And the bladder really shouldn’t have anybody in it. Because, think about it, you’re flushing it out, you know, 6 times a day. You know, most people who can break down biofilm because their clotting genetics are normal, and because they’re peeing adequately, will never set up an organism shop in their bladder. Even though things are always crawling up, we’re always peeing them out. Dr. Deb 41:23Yeah. Kristin Reihman 41:23And then there’s the 20% of us who… Who aren’t that way. Dr. Deb 41:30Oh, so you run the Interflow program and a number of healing communities. What tools and teachings have been the most transformational for people going through this journey? And tell us a little bit about the Interflow program, too, please. Kristin Reihman 41:44Okay, maybe I’ll start there, because honestly, I have to think about the which tools are most transformational. The Interflow program is my newest offering, and we developed it because my team and I were looking around at the patients we had, and so many folks were needing to go down this… we call it the microgen journey, like, get on the microgen train and just start that process. And there was just a lot of hand-holding and support, and… education that they were requiring. And by the way, their brains aren’t working that great, because when you have these infections, you know, you’re dealing with, like, downloads of ammonia from time to time from the bladder organisms, you’re dealing with a lot of brain fog, overwhelm, you know, there’s just a lot of… you know how our patients are, they… they… they’re struggling, and they really need a lot of hand-holding, and so we were providing that. But we kept thinking, like, gosh, it would be great to get these guys in community, like you know, we can say all we want, like, you know, it’s important to check your pH, it’s important to, like, stay on top of the whatever, but it’d be great to have them hear that from one another, and to have them also hear, sort of, that they’re not alone. So, because we had some experience running communities online, which we started during the pandemic and has been super successful, we said, let’s do this, let’s create a little online community of our inner… of our, you know, call them… informally, we call them our bladder babes. But, like, let’s create a community of people who are looking to really heal and get to this deep, deep root that no one else is doing. And that was really the key for me, that nobody else is really doing this. Very few people are doing it or aware of it. I wish that weren’t the case, but as it stands now, it’s pretty hard to find someone to take this seriously. Most doctors, if you even take a microgen to them, they’ll say, oh, there’s 10 organisms on here, that’s a contamination. That must be contaminated. Well, yeah, buy your biofilms, but they don’t know about biofilms, so they think it just comes from the lab. Dr. Deb 43:31Something. Kristin Reihman 43:32I don’t know. But, yeah, basically it was because I felt called to do this service that no one else is providing, and I wanted to do it in a way that was going to be really optimally supportive for people. So we created a membership, basically. Dr. Deb 43:44Do you see a difference in men and women? Obviously, women have this problem more than men, but do you see a difference in how many men that have these self-infections or live in mold compared to women? Kristin Reihman 43:57I… it’s hard to know, really, what the, sort of, prevalence is out there, I will say, in terms of who calls our office. Dr. Deb 43:03It’s, you know, 95% women call our office. Kristin Reihman 44:08And occasionally, we’ve had someone call our office on behalf of a husband or a son. I just saw a woman whose 2-year-old son is in our Bladder Babes community. But typically, it’s the women who are seeking care around this, and I don’t know if that’s a function of their having more of the issues. I suspect it is, because as you said before, so many more women deal with these complex mystery illnesses than men.But there certainly are men who have them. Dr. Deb 44:33Yeah. So, you’ve lived through Lyme, chronic illness, stroke, and now biofilm-driven bladder issues, and you’ve come out stronger. What mind shifts helped you stay resilient through all of these chapters? Kristin Reihman 44:50I think there have been many. I think the first one I had to really, Really accept and lean into and kind of internalize. Was this idea that, I… I couldn’t… I didn’t have to do the work that I was doing. Dr. Deb 45:09You know? Kristin Reihman 45:09In order to be of value to the world. You know, I’d trained in a certain way, I had, you know, I had this beautiful practice. I was working in the inner city, I was working with my best friend, we were seeing really needy people who had no money, and it felt really, like, you know, I felt very sort of service-driven and connected to a purpose. And I think the hardest thing in the beginning for me was realizing, I can’t do that work anymore. That’s not the work that I’m… needing to do, and to make a leap into the unknown. It felt like, you know, having a baby at 45 and not doing any ultrasounds, or any tests, and just being like, I’m birthing something here. I don’t know what it is, it’s me, but who knows what she’s gonna look like, or… what this doctor is going to be, you know, what, you know, peddling in terms of her tools. That was a big leap of faith, and I think letting go of the kind of control of needing to be… needing to look a certain way and be a certain kind of doctor was a big step for me, my big initial step. Dr. Deb 46:05That’s really hard, because you’re taught and ingrained in who you’re supposed to be as a doctor, and what that person’s supposed to be, what your persona’s supposed to be. And doing a lot of the Klinghart work and some of those things, and I’m sure on the days crawling through the floor, you’re like, this is not what I was trained to do. If my colleagues could only see me now, they’d… they’d… Commit me, right? But like you said, just giving that leap of faith and saying, I’m gonna turn this over to your higher power, and you’re gonna bring me out on the other side, and trusting that, that is a vulnerability for us that is huge. Kristin Reihman 46:43Yeah, and I mean, I’d like to say it’s because I’m some sort of strong person, but truthfully, I feel like there was no other choice. Like, I had to surrender because there was… the alternative was death or something. I didn’t… I don’t know, right? There was no other choice. Dr. Deb 46:56Yeah. Kristin Reihman 46:56I couldn’t move. I was in so much pain. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t get out of bed. Dr. Deb 47:01Thank you so much for sharing all of this and being vulnerable with our audience. Where can people find you? Find your book, your podcast, your programs, if they want to go deeper with you? Kristin Reihman 47:12Yeah, thanks for asking. So, I have a website, it’s my name, kristenRymanMD.com, and all my programs are listed there. I have several, you know, I have a, sort of, a wellness… I have an online membership for well people who want to stay well and pick my brain every week around, sort of, healthy, holistic tools. It’s called The Healing Grove.I have a podcast that people can listen to for free, where I interview people like you, and you’re gonna be on it, right? She’s gonna be on it soon. Dr. Deb 47:38I’d love to. Kristin Reihman 47:39So I can share stories of hope and transformational tools with people. I also have a Life After Lyme coaching program, which is kind of the place where I invite people who are dealing with a mystery illness to come get some support, community, and guidance from someone like me, and also just from the other people in the room. There’s a lot of wisdom in those groups. And that’s… I guess that’s the answer I’ll share for what you asked earlier, like, what’s the main tool they take away? I think they take away an understanding that community really matters, and that they’re not alone. You know, I think it can be very lonely to be stuck in these… to feel stuck in these illnesses, and people need to be reminded that they’re… that they’re human, you know, and that they’re worthy of love and acceptance. I think that’s what people get from my… from my community, is kind of like, that’s the common thread. Dr. Deb 48:23They definitely need that. Kristin Reihman 48:25Man. Dr. Deb 48:26Kirsten, thank you so much for sharing your powerful story. Your work is so needed, and your ability to weave personal experience and advanced clinical insight is exactly what our community craves. And this kind of conversation helps women finally be seen and heard, which is my motto too, and gives them just the real tools to get their life back. And for everyone listening, if you’re struggling with unexplained bladder pain, frequent UTIs, pelvic discomfort, or symptoms that never match your labs, because they never quite do. You are not crazy, you are not alone. You need to find the answers, you need to be with community, and there are solutions, and conversations like this is how we bring them forward. So, thank you all for tuning in to Let’s Talk Wellness Now. I’m your host.And until next time… Kristin Reihman 49:15Thanks, Dr. Dove. Dr. Deb 49:16Thank you. This was awesome. Thank you so much. This was… Kristin Reihman 49:21You’re so welcome, you’re such a great interviewer.The post Episode 251 – Chronic Bladder Symptoms, Biofilms, and the Hidden Genetic Drivers first appeared on Let's Talk Wellness Now.

In today's livestream, Tom discussed how Chris Shaw has weighed in about science, and also held a Q&A with questions previously submitted to us from our community.Topics included:-Soft tissue sarcomas-Bladder infections-Dental implants-Strophanthus-Injection in a child-How to talk to cardiologists-Is graphene real?-Electroculture in the garden-Primal diet-Can a mosquito transfer something into the blood and make you sick?-Herpes Simplex I and IISupport the showWebsites:https://drtomcowan.com/https://www.drcowansgarden.com/https://newbiologyclinic.com/https://newbiologycurriculum.com/Instagram: @TalkinTurkeywithTomFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTomCowan/Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/CivTSuEjw6Qp/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzxdc2o0Q_XZIPwo07XCrNg

Please visit answersincme.com/FUA860 to participate, download slides and supporting materials, complete the post test, and get a certificate. In this activity, an expert in urology discusses overactive bladder in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to: Identify overactive bladder (OAB) in men who are being treated for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); Review pharmacotherapy treatment expectations for treating OAB in men with BPH; and Formulate strategies to enhance treatment plans and support quality of life for men with OAB and BPH, including those with additional comorbidities.

In this week's episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS is joined by OT mentor Briana Elson, MS, OTR/L, BCPR, CBIS to dive into one of the most essential topics in spinal cord injury rehab: bowel and bladder care. We unpack why every rehab professional (not just nursing) plays a role, how unmanaged bowel and bladder can lead to serious health issues, and practical strategies to support independence, dignity, and community reintegration. Brianna shares equipment ideas, education tips, and real-world problem-solving for both bladder and bowel programs, plus how this all connects to intimacy, relationships, and quality of life after SCI.   Resources: Follow Mason Ellis on YouTube and share with your patients! Find a peer mentor through Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation facingdisability.com https://www.sexualitysci.org/ https://otafterdark.com/ https://msktc.org/sci/factsheets/sexuality-sexual-functioning-after-sci https://craighospital.org/resources/sexual-function-for-women-after-spinal-cord-injury **As a note there are a couple of corrections in the episode we wanted to make clear: Bri may have misspoke… suprapubic catheters are placed below the belly button, not above. She may have said you can wear a bag with it, but you don't always have to. Disclaimer would be to defer to urology.

1 in 3 women deal with bladder leaks, with stress incontinence being the most common type of urinary incontinence. Most people & companies don't talk about it. This week's guest, Cntrl+ Founder Karen Brunet, created the most effective, comfortable, and reusable bladder support available for active women. Hear the top triggers for stress incontinence, how bladder leaks impact your confidence & physical activity levels, how Cntrl+ provides bladder support, how often you should wear it, and their focus on consumer safety & ease of use. Tune in to this episode to normalize the conversation around bladder leaks & bladder support.   Learn more: Cntrl+ Cntrl+ LinkedIn Karen Brunet   Today's Hot Flash and other stats from: Cleveland Clinic Mayo Clinic

Dr Nam Lee, LAc, PhD, QME, FABORM is the Founder of Lee Acupuncture Wellness Center Fellow of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM)Dr. Nam Lee is a highly respected practitioner specializing in reproductive health, women's wellness, and fertility acupuncture. Dr. Lee is a Fellow of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM), a Qualified Medical Evaluator certified by the California Medical Board, and holds a Ph.D. in Eastern Medicine from American Liberty University in Fullerton, CA. In 2015, she graduated from the Kalish Institute, receiving extensive clinical training in functional medicine with a focus on women's health and hormonal imbalance. She is also a certified Gokhale Method Primal Posture Teacher, emphasizing posture's role in overall health.In 2016, Dr. Lee apprenticed in Traditional Western Herbalism and is also a trained Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbalist, giving her a comprehensive understanding of herbal therapies across different traditions. She is deeply committed to a mind-body connection and a whole-person treatment approach, ensuring the best possible outcomes for her patients.https://www.leeacupuncture.com/https://www.facebook.com/leeacupuncturehttps://www.instagram.com/lee_acupuncture/https://www.youtube.com/@leeacup______________________________________________________________________________________Learn more about my pelvic health supplement line here https://rejeuve.com/Join my Buff Muff Method here https://get.buffmuff.com/methodThank you so much for listening! I use fitness and movement to help women prevent and overcome pelvic floor challenges like incontinence and organ prolapse. There is help for women in all life stages! Every Woman Needs A Vagina Coach! Please make sure to LEAVE A REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE to the show for the best fitness and wellness advice south of your belly button. *******************I recommend checking out my comprehensive pelvic health education and fitness programs on my Buff Muff AppYou can also join my next 28 Day Buff Muff Challenge https://www.vaginacoach.com/buffmuffIf you are feeling social you can connect with me… On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VagCoachOn Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vaginacoach/On Twitter https://twitter.com/VaginaCoachOn The Web www.vaginacoach.comGet your Feel Amazing Vaginal Moisturizer Here

In this episode of The Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh sits down with Danielle, a therapist and mother of three, to share a story that challenges the narrow ways we often define birth and postpartum trauma.Danielle's trauma did not occur during labor or delivery, it unfolded months postpartum, following what was supposed to be a routine surgical procedure to remove a fibroid. Instead, a cascade of medical complications led to a medical emergency, multiple surgeries, bladder injury, and an unplanned hysterectomy that permanently ended her ability to carry another pregnancy.Already navigating life with three young children, including a baby under one, Danielle suddenly found herself recovering from a major abdominal surgery, managing a catheter for weeks, and confronting the profound grief of losing her fertility without warning or choice.As both a therapist and a patient, Danielle brings a deeply reflective lens to this conversation, naming the invisible grief that so often accompanies medical trauma, especially when it doesn't “fit” neatly into recognized categories of loss.Together, Kayleigh and Danielle explore:

Guests Dr. Andrea Necchi, Dr. Ashish Kamat and host Dr. Davide Soldato discuss JCO article "End Points for the Next-Generation Bladder-Sparing Perioperative Trials for Patients With Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer," focusing on the evolving treatment landscape of MIBC (muscle-invasive bladder cancer) and the need to properly design novel trials investigating non-operative management while including the incorporation of biomarkers and patient perspectives in clinical trials. TRANSCRIPT The disclosures for guests on this podcast can be found in the show notes. Dr. Davide Soldato: Hello and welcome to JCO After Hours, the podcast where we sit down with authors from some of the latest articles published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. I am your host, Dr. Davide Soldato, medical oncologist at Ospedale San Martino in Genoa, Italy. Today we are joined by JCO authors Andrea Necchi, Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at University San Raffaele and Medical Oncology at Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, Italy, and Ashish Kamat, Professor of Urologic Oncology and Cancer Research at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Both Professor Necchi and Professor Kamat are internationally recognized experts in the field of genitourinary malignancy and particularly in bladder cancer. Today we will be discussing the article titled "Endpoints for the Next Generation Bladder-Sparing Perioperative Trials for Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer." So thank you for speaking with us, Professor Necchi and Professor Kamat. Dr. Andrea Necchi: Thank you, Davide, and thank you JCO for the opportunity. Dr. Ashish Kamat: Yeah, absolutely. It is a great honor and privilege to be discussing this very important article with you. So thank you for the invitation. Dr. Davide Soldato: The article that you just published in JCO reports the results of a consensus meeting that was held among experts in the field of genitourinary malignancy and particularly for bladder cancer. So the objective was really to define endpoints for a novel generation of trials among patients diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. So my first question would be: what is the change in clinical practice and in clinical evidence that we have right now that prompted the start of such consensus in 2025? Dr. Andrea Necchi: So, we are living so many changes in the treatment paradigm of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. In general, patients diagnosed with bladder cancer or urothelial cancer today, thanks to the advent of immunotherapy or immunotherapy combinations, and today thanks to the advent of novel antibody-drug conjugates like enfortumab vedotin in combination with immunotherapy that are actually changing the landscape of treatment of patients with metastatic disease and also are entering quite fast into the treatment paradigm of patients with organ-confined disease with a lot of clinical trials testing these combination therapies, neoadjuvantly or adjuvantly, before or after radical cystectomy. Having said that, by potentiating the efficacy of systemic therapy, an increasing number of patients that receive neoadjuvant therapy of any kind, at a certain point in time, result to have achieved a deep response to systemic therapy, evaluated radiologically with conventional imaging, CT scan or MRI, or with cystoscopy or with other urology-based techniques, urinary cytology, and so. And based on the fact that they achieve a complete response, so no residual viable disease after systemic therapy, they raise concern about the fact that they have to undergo surgery like radical cystectomy that is quite impactful for their quality of life and for the future of their lives after the surgery. So the point that the patients are raising, and the patients are raising this point, is primarily due to the efficacy of systemic therapy. And we have seen so many cases fortunately achieving a deep response. So the question about what to do with the patient that at a certain point, at the start with the commitment to radical cystectomy, but at a certain point in time change their mind towards something else if possible, depending on the fact that they have achieved a deep response, is something that is a question and is a need to which we have to provide data, information, and guidance in general to the patients. Dr. Davide Soldato: If we look at the population that the recommendations were formulated for, we are mainly speaking about patients who would be fit for cystectomy, and this is a very distinct population compared to those who are not fit for cystectomy, both from a medical oncology point of view but also from a urologic point of view in terms of surgery. So, can you explain a little bit to our listeners why you think that this distinction is critical and why you developed this recommendation especially for this population? Dr. Ashish Kamat: That is a very important distinction that you made. To build upon what Professor Necchi mentioned earlier, this question that we get from patients after neoadjuvant therapy or systemic therapy is not a new question. It has been something that they have been asking us for the last 20 or 30 years. "Do I really need to have my bladder taken out?" And patients who are especially not fit for surgery will sometimes say, "Do I need to have my bladder taken out? And if I cannot have my bladder taken out, am I going to just not have anything done?" Because the eligibility for radical cystectomy is also a moving target. Over the years with improvement in surgical technique, improvement in perioperative therapy, ERAS protocols, et cetera, it is really unusual for us to deny a patient the opportunity to have major surgery unless clearly they have very significant comorbid conditions. So I think this endeavor is more broadly encompassing of the patient population than what was evident in previous years. And I really want to give a shout out to Professor Necchi because what we did was, as part of the International Bladder Cancer Group and Professor Necchi is an integral part of the scientific advisory board, we broached this topic broadly during one of our discussions. And of course, Andrea always does this, he picks on a topic and then he says, "Okay, we need to discuss this really in detail," put together a multinational, multicenter collaborative group, but the driving force was our patients. Because our patients are constantly asking, "Do I need to lose my organ? Do I need to have radiation therapy?" which again, also, has a lot of side effects. So this was really to answer the question in today's day and age as to do we need to do local consolidation, and if so, in what way? It is not a new question, but we have newer therapies, newer technology, and better ways to answer this. So it is a much needed question that needs to be answered. And I think the distinction between non-surgical candidates and surgical candidates is a little bit blurred in today's day and age. Dr. Davide Soldato: What about the eligibility, for example, for cisplatin-based chemotherapy? Because I think that that is a very fundamental part of this type of strategy that we apply to patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. So we know that there are some caveats for proposing such treatment. And also this population was specifically defined inside this recommendation. Dr. Andrea Necchi: I think that the focus of our work is just to analyze what is happening after any type of systemic therapy the patient may get neoadjuvantly. So it is not actually a question of treatment eligibility or including cisplatin eligibility. This is an old question of today's practice and clinical trials. But regardless of what the patient received neoadjuvantly, the point that we have addressed in our consensus meeting was what to do next as a further step after systemic therapy or not. So basically we are- the consensus guidance includes all-comers, so patients to get any type of systemic therapy. So really non-selected based on specific features that determine a special eligibility to a special or a particular therapy. But an all-comer approach is always the winning approach for the translation to be in practice, an all-comer approach just focusing on what has happened after treatment and that we are assessing by the use of conventional imaging, MRI or CT, cystoscopy, urinary cytology, and trying to merge all together this information, all these features in a unique, shared, reliable definition of clinical complete response that could be used as a biomarker for the selection of newer therapies instead of pathological response that has been historically used, and maybe surrogate for the outcome, the long-term outcome and survival of these patients. Dr. Davide Soldato: A very specific point of the consensus was actually the definition of clinical complete response. As you were saying, this is actually a combination of several parameters including urinary cytology, the use of cross-sectional imaging, for example CT scan, but also the evaluation in cystoscopy of the bladder. Do you foresee any potential problems when applying this type of recommendation, not inside clinical trials, but in the context of routine clinical practice? Dr. Ashish Kamat: Absolutely. And that was the whole reason we had this consensus meeting. What happens nowadays in daily practice, and we see this every day at our center, we see patients referred to us. This definition or this sort of attempt to define clinical complete response is an ongoing issue. And urologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists are always looking to see, does my patient have a complete response? That definition and those paradigms have changed and evolved over the years. The FDA had a workshop many years ago looking at this very question. And it was to address the proposal that complete clinical response, which is a clinical definition, a clinical state, does this correlate with pathologic response? And with the technology and the systemic therapies we had then, the answer was 'no'. In fact, more patients got recurrent disease than did not get recurrent disease. And that is why, of course in the paper we mention the trials that looked at this question, the trials that evolved around this question. And I think the distinction between a clinical trial and daily practice is extremely important when we are looking at this definition per se. Because essentially what happens with this issue is that if the patient is not appropriately counseled, and if the physician does not do the appropriate clinical complete response assessment as Professor Necchi mentioned, right, cystoscopy, cytology, imaging, use of markers that are still in evolvement, we risk doing harm to the patient. So we caution in the paper too that this definition is not ready for prime time use. It is something that needs to be studied. It is a rigorous definition and currently we are recommending it for clinical trials. I am sure eventually it will trickle down into clinical practice, but that guidance was not the purpose of this consensus meeting. Dr. Davide Soldato: There are several parameters that are potentially evolving and could potentially enter inside of clinical practice. For example, you mentioned pelvic MRI and we have now very specific criteria, the VI-RADS criteria, we're able actually to diagnose and also to provide information. So along with these novel imaging techniques, we also know that there are novel biomarkers that could be explored, for example ctDNA and urinary DNA. So what I was wondering is, why were not these included inside the definition that you provide for clinical complete response? And do you think that, as we are designing these trials to potentially spare cystectomy for this patient, we should include these biomarkers very early so that we can actually provide better stratification for our patients and really propose this type of cystectomy-sparing strategy only to those where we are very confident that we have obtained a clinical complete response? Dr. Andrea Necchi: I would say you have just to wait. So a follow-up is ongoing and hard work is ongoing. At the time we met, at the time we established the meeting in mid-December last year, we had no information on the ctDNA data from major trials, with only a few exceptions. So we were just at the beginning of a story that was more than likely to change but still without numbers and without data from clinical trials. Now in just nine months or 10 months time, we have accumulated important data and newer data will be presented during just a few weeks and a few days regarding the ctDNA, circulating tumor DNA in particular, as a prognostic marker assessed baseline or assessed after neoadjuvant therapy. So the point is certainly well made and ctDNA is certainly well shaped to be incorporated in a future definition of clinical complete response. But you have to consider the fact that most of the data that we are accumulating related to ctDNA are about the post-cystectomy field or the metastatic field. So regarding neoadjuvant therapy, you know, we have neoadjuvant therapy in the context of bladder-sparing approach, basically we have no information. And the point that is emerging in our daily practice when using these biomarkers or in clinical trials, and the impression in general, is that it is a very strong biomarker associated with survival, but we absolutely do not know what is the performance of the test in the prediction of superficial bladder relapses, high-grade pTa relapse in the bladder that is left untouched in the patient. We are considering, and maybe it will be just a matter of further discussion, not just what is happening within the immediate endpoint of clinical CR, but also what is happening later with other survival endpoints. And for example, when looking at the type of events that we may see in this kind of bladder-sparing approaches, most of the events, also in the trials that have been published including the RETAIN study published in JCO, most of the events are related to superficial high-grade superficial non-muscle invasive relapses. So the ability to predict these types of events with ctDNA is completely unknown. Maybe, maybe other liquid biomarkers like urinary tumor DNA, utDNA, could be a bit better shaped in the prediction of this kind of events, you know. But we have still to build the story. So the question is good. The answer is yes, we will likely, more than likely incorporate liquid biomarkers in the definition, but we have to wait at least more data and more robust data in order to translate this information in routine practice, you know. Another consensus meeting is organized by IBCG and the same folks for November. This meeting will be primarily focused on the liquid biomarkers, the interpretation and use and approval and so of liquid biomarkers including bladder cancer. And we will likely be able to address all these, most of these open issues, so most of these points in the next meetings. Dr. Davide Soldato: In the consensus you say that probably clinical complete response is now ready to be included in early phase trials, so actually to test what is the efficacy of the regimens that is being evaluated inside of these trials. But you actually do very in-depth work of defining what are the most appropriate endpoints for later phase trials. So to be very specific, the phase three registrational trials that bring new regimens inside of this space. So I just wanted to hear a little bit about what was the definition for event-free survival, which you define as the most appropriate one for this type of trials. And as you were mentioning before, Professor Necchi, there is a very specific interest on the type of events that we observe, especially when we look at these superficial relapses inside of the bladder. So was this a very urgent matter of debate as we define which type of events should actually trigger event-free survival? And did you make a very thoughtful decision about why using this type of endpoint instead of others, for example metastasis-free survival? Dr. Ashish Kamat: Yeah, this was a matter of intense debate as you might imagine. And again, this is a moving target. So as Professor Necchi mentioned, we tend to partner with each other, our organizations, on having definitions of clinical complete response, biomarker, retreats, and then using that as a marker, and you might imagine this definition of what is appropriate event-free survival, what events matter to the patient, is something we have been talking about for two years. It was not just something that came up at the retreat. But at the retreat there was intense discussion. One of the things that we talked about was bladder-intact event-free survival because we are trying to spare the patient's bladder. And do we count bladder-intact event-free survival as something that is relevant? The patient advocates absolutely liked that, right? They wanted that. But then we also learned from some of the studies, for example from the RETAIN study, that the non-muscle invasive recurrences can actually lead to metastatic disease. It is not as benign when you have a patient with muscle-invasive bladder cancer that then develops a non-invasive tumor because maybe there is cancer growing underneath the surface that we don't detect when we look in the bladder. So a lot of those discussions were held, debated. It was a consensus. I have to say it was not 100% agreement on that particular definition, but it was broad consensus. And Andrea, do you want to clarify a little bit as to how we came about that consensus? Because I think this is a very important point we need to make. Dr. Andrea Necchi: We focused on a bit different definition of BI-EFS, Bladder-Intact Event-Free survival. Just stating EFS as an all-inclusive parameter including all type of high-grade relapse or progression or death that may happen to the patient. So that we were counting high-grade pTa, pT1, CIS relapses to the bladder and of course more deeper involvement in the muscle layer and so, and metastatic disease as a relapse. But the point is that as compared to the classical bladder-intact EFS definition of chemoradiation bladder-sparing approaches that is including muscle-invasive relapses only or death as events, we tried to be as inclusive as possible in order to be as much conservative as possible and to raise as higher the bar as possible for the success. And this is actually what the patients are asking us. So they are asking, "Okay, I can save my bladder, sparing radical cystectomy, but at which cost?" So in order to provide an answer, we have to be very, very cautious and be on the right shape, on the right position to say, "Okay, we have accomplished the most, the safest points, you know, by which you can proceed with the bladder-sparing." This is the first point. The other point is related to the MFS, metastasis-free survival that you have mentioned. For sure, it was recognized as a very important point for sure. But in the discussion was clear that our focus was in saving patients, curing the patient, and saving the bladder. Any single event, superficial event that may occur in the bladder-saving approaches of this kind may expose the patient to an extra risk of developing distant metastases, as it happened for example in the RETAIN study. So EFS defined as we have agreed and published, is actually a way of including or anticipating in a safest position the MFS. Because most or if not the entirety of the events of metastasis development in patients undergoing bladder-sparing after neoadjuvant systemic therapy were preceded by a superficial phase of disease relapse, you know. So I remember very, very few, or we can count just on the finger of one hand, the cases that have been reported in the literature developing de novo metastatic disease in the similar bladder-sparing approaches, in particular when using a maintenance immunotherapy strategy, you know, after they reach TURBT. So this is the reason why with all the limitation that Ashish has mentioned, with all the uncertainties that are still there, the nervousness that is still there, EFS, as defined in the protocol, as put in the paper, is to us at the moment is the safest way to use a primary endpoint in potentially registration trials of this kind with perioperative systemic therapy and response-adapted surgery. Dr. Ashish Kamat: And David, just to be absolutely clear for our listeners, right, so what was the event-free survival that we defined? Essentially it was a very inclusive definition. Event was defined as high-grade tumor persistence, recurrence, or progression during or after perioperative therapy, and receipt of any additional standard of care treatment including radical cystectomy, radiotherapy or even intravesical therapy. So this was done at the behest of our patient advocates because we really wanted to make a very robust definition that could be utilized appropriately as an adequate primary endpoint for both early and late phase bladder preservation trials. Dr. Davide Soldato: I think that it really highlights one of the points that I liked the most about this consensus is that it really incorporated the patient vision and a sort of shared decision making process when we are deciding how we want to design these trials that will explore this bladder-sparing surgery. And Professor Necchi mentioned something that I think will be also a very interesting question for trials that will be developed considering the activity of this combination that we are seeing right now, which is maintenance. Because right now our approach in the few cases where patients do not do any type of treatments after an induction with neoadjuvant treatments is basically represented by observation. So I was wondering if you think that the field will actually evolve to a sort of maintenance strategy even in patients that will achieve a complete clinical response? Dr. Andrea Necchi: We just mentioned briefly in the paper, this is a very important point that was touched during the discussion, and in particular was raised and discussed by FDA people participating in the meeting. And when looking at the data from the trials that were available and are still available thus far, we could provide a suggestion that maintenance immune therapy is the preferred approach in this kind of approach as it currently stands, as the data currently stand. Because the cleanest data towards the successful part of this journey is related to the studies that provided a kind of maintenance therapy, like the study with nivolumab or the RETAIN-2 study with maintenance immune therapy instead of RETAIN study that was just stopping treatment until surgery with MVAC chemotherapy. So in general the impression is that maintenance therapy may help in reducing the type of events, including the events that we incorporate in the EFS definition that we mentioned in the paper. The point that you mentioned is very important because on the other side we have a problem, a big problem of affordability and cost of the treatment. The de-escalation trials are an urgent need and represent a call for the studies. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, this is something that moves beyond the possibilities of this type of consensus because we don't have data and we have to accumulate data from clinical trials prior to saying, "Okay, certain patients could de-escalate therapy and stop therapy and some other not." So we are still at the very beginning. So we can do- we can discuss about this in the radical cystectomy paradigm but not in the bladder-sparing paradigm, you know. But this is for sure a point, a discussion point that will be taken, pretty well taken in one year or two year projection. Dr. Davide Soldato: I was wondering if in the consensus, considering that patient advocates and patient associations were also involved, did you decide to actually suggest the inclusion of patient-reported outcomes or the evaluation of shared decision-making in the development of this trial really as endpoints that should matter as much or as much as possible as event-free survival and clinical complete response? Dr. Ashish Kamat: Oh yeah, absolutely. We had patient advocates, we had the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, patient representatives. And we always consider this. Shared decision-making is actually the impetus behind why these efforts have been launched, right? So it is the shared decision-making that is very, very important. It is the driving force behind what we do. And it is worth noting, for example, for the design of such studies, regulatory agencies consider response-based endpoints or overall survival as primary endpoints. But the patient advocates consider quality of life to be just as important, if not more important sometimes than overall survival numbers. Because patient advocates will say, "Well if I live longer but I'm miserable living longer, yes that works for regulatory agencies but doesn't work for us." So PROs clearly are very, very important. And, in fact, we just literally had a meeting in Houston, the IBCG meeting where PROs were a main point of what we discussed. So incorporating PROs in everything we do, not just this but everything we do, Dr. Necchi, myself, everybody involved in these fields realizes it is very, very important. So absolutely. Dr. Davide Soldato: I want to thank again Professor Necchi and Professor Kamat for joining us today. Dr. Andrea Necchi: Thank you. Dr. Ashish Kamat: It is our pleasure. Dr. Davide Soldato: Thanks again and we appreciate you sharing more on your JCO article titled "Endpoints for the Next Generation Bladder-Sparing Perioperative Trials for Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer." If you enjoy our show, please leave us a rating and review and be sure to come back for another episode. You can find all ASCO shows at asco.org/podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Allison Kendall is back on the podcast, and she brings with her a fascinating deep dive into a completely new approach to treating feline idiopathic cystitis (FIC). Yes—you read that right. Radiation therapy, traditionally reserved for oncology patients, is now being explored as a potential tool for one of the most frustrating and painful conditions our feline friends face. Dr. Kendall walks us through the rationale, the early clinical findings, and why this modality might just shift our entire perspective on chronic lower urinary tract disease in cats. It's innovative, surprising, and exactly the kind of boundary-pushing veterinary medicine we love to highlight. From there, we pivot smoothly (or as smoothly as you can pivot when discussing irritated bladders) into another urinary challenge: difficult stones. Dr. Kendall unpacks the diagnostic traps, the surgical dilemmas, and the metabolic mysteries behind those stubborn uroliths that refuse to behave. Expect practical tips, thoughtful insights, and a few “aha” moments that will make you rethink your approach to these cases in practice. Another great conversation with one of our favorite guests: equal parts science, clinical pearls, and inspiration for anyone who has ever managed a blocked cat at 3 a.m.Thanks for tuning in to the Purr Podcast with Dr. Susan and Dr. Jolle!If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review—it really helps other cat lovers and vet nerds find the show. Follow us on social media for behind-the-scenes stories, cat trivia, and the occasional bad pun. And remember: every day is better with cats, curiosity, and maybe just a little purring in the background. Until next time—stay curious, stay kind, and give your cats an extra chin scratch from us. The Purr Podcast – where feline medicine meets feline fun.

Thank you for joining us for our 2nd Cabral HouseCall of the weekend!   I'm looking forward to sharing with you some of our community's questions that have come in over the past few weeks…   Svetlana: Hello, could you please talk about incomplete bladder emptying in females specifically? What is causing it and what can be done to fix it? Someone said that squatting over the toilet without sitting on it to urinate could cause it. Is that true? This is the need of having to urinate again within 15mins of going the first time with small amounts of volume and difficulty "pushing" it out. No infection symptoms.                                                                                                                          Eric: Hi Dr. C, thanks for all your efforts! I use melatonin (extended release) regularly to help w/ sleep. A recent large international study published on the News Medical Life Sciences website, and presented at the American Heart Association's 2025 Scientific Sessions, stated that long-term users of melatonin had a higher risk of heart failure, hospitalization, and even death compared to those who didn't take it. The study looked at more than 130,000 adults with chronic insomnia. This sounds crazy to me. Any thoughts about this? Thanks.                                                                                  Audrey: Hi Dr. Cabral, Is doing a coffee enema while breastfeeding safe? I know detoxes are not safe, but I wasn't sure if a coffee enema is different because the main reason is to increase glutathione                                                                                           Angie: Hi Dr. Cabral, My last job I worked, there were a lot of wireless devices and 5G networks. I noticed how easily drained I would feel and I didn't even work a full 8 hours. I have been dealing with chronic pain and fatigue off and on for years now, and recently have been more cautious of how often I use technology. I am now seeing the trend of products like grounding mats and functional silver infused garments. Can you talk about the connection between adrenal fatigue and EMF exposure? And the new EMF products that may potentially reduce exposure or make it bearable to work in a high-tech environment. Thank you so much for all your help and support that you and your team provides!!       Savannah: Is there any supplement/herb/product to help someone with gastroparesis? what about acid reflux too? i'm wondering what can help with natural stimulation of the stomach nerve/muscle contractions in order to have a bowel movement. i was told that i have slow gut motility & little to no peristalsis. the only thing that works for me is senna but it takes extreme higher dosages. i completed the cbo protocol and finisher and everything was better but now im chronically constipated & have been diagnosed with gastroparesis. i use to go everyday during the protocol but now i feel that ive lost the gut/brain communication too.. as i no longer go by myself as im laxative & enema dependent. any advice? thank you in advance.         Thank you for tuning into this weekend's Cabral HouseCalls and be sure to check back tomorrow for our Mindset & Motivation Monday show to get your week started off right! - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/3593 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!  

Takeaways:Slimmer's Paralysis is a recognized condition.Ethical boundaries are crucial in patient relationships.Medical professionals must maintain professionalism at all times.Humor can sometimes arise in serious discussions.Patient stories should always be handled with care.The importance of clear communication in medical settings.Understanding patient experiences is vital for effective care.Ethics in medicine is a complex and nuanced topic.Medical discussions can lead to unexpected topics.Maintaining a professional demeanor is essential.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Isaac is a medical-device innovator, entrepreneur, and the CEO & founder of Zida Therapeutics. He developed the Zida Control Sock, a wearable neuromodulation device intended to empower people living with urinary incontinence or overactive bladder to manage symptoms without relying solely on clinical  or pharmacalogical treatments.Isaac's passion for pelvic health comes from a deeply personal place. As he traced his family history, he learned his grandfather—who escaped Nazi Germany—struggled later in life with bladder control. That personal narrative sparked Isaac's mission: to create effective, noninvasive tools that can restore dignity and ease to the lives of those dealing with pelvic or bladder conditions.Under his leadership, Zida has secured FDA clearance for the Control Sock, and in early clinical use the device demonstrated ~80% “treatment success,” with meaningful reductions in urge incontinence and urinary frequency. Academically, Isaac holds a Master's in Technology Management, and professionally he's navigated the intersection of wearables, medical product development, and health tech start-ups. He's driven by the conviction that neuromodulation therapies should extend beyond clinic walls and into everyday life.Outside of his work with Zida, Isaac loves to spend time with his kids. https://livezida.com/https://www.facebook.com/p/Conquer-your-incontinence-ZIDA-control-sock-100064025981121/Thank you so much for listening! I use fitness and movement to help women prevent and overcome pelvic floor challenges like incontinence and organ prolapse. There is help for women in all life stages! Every Woman Needs A Vagina Coach! Please make sure to LEAVE A REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE to the show for the best fitness and wellness advice south of your belly button. *******************I recommend checking out my comprehensive pelvic health education and fitness programs on my Buff Muff AppYou can also join my next 28 Day Buff Muff Challenge https://www.vaginacoach.com/buffmuffIf you are feeling social you can connect with me… On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VagCoachOn Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vaginacoach/On Twitter https://twitter.com/VaginaCoachOn The Web www.vaginacoach.comGet your Feel Amazing Vaginal Moisturizer Here

The boys are back! Barry Munro, John McAleavey, and Sasha Rabchevsky, three men with over 100 years of lived experience with spinal cord injury, have teamed up to share our knowledge on all things SCI related. Today's episode is dedicated to bladder management. We chronicle how each of us manages our situation (they're completely different), while also highlighting areas of need, concern, hope, and progress on the horizon, regarding this extremely important topic for the entire community.

Joylux is is a proven at-home red light device for enhancing and revitalizing your vagina. If you're suffering from bladder leaks, vaginal dryness, or painful sex, this is an episode you don't want to miss. If you're read ing this on Black Friday, today is the ONE DAY of the year where they offer their highest discount: 25% off! Shop now!New episodes of Welcome to Wellness released every Friday!

Why do so many indoor cats develop urinary disease? Meet Dr. Allison Kendall, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at NC State and feline nephrology & urology specialist. In this episode of Purr Podcast, we talk pee, pain, FIC, minimally invasive procedures, and why the bladder is just the beginning when it comes to cat urinary disease.Thanks for tuning in to the Purr Podcast with Dr. Susan and Dr. Jolle!If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review—it really helps other cat lovers and vet nerds find the show. Follow us on social media for behind-the-scenes stories, cat trivia, and the occasional bad pun. And remember: every day is better with cats, curiosity, and maybe just a little purring in the background. Until next time—stay curious, stay kind, and give your cats an extra chin scratch from us. The Purr Podcast – where feline medicine meets feline fun.

Why do we ignore the bladder… until the exact moment it refuses to be ignored? In this pre-Thanksgiving episode, Dr. Stephanie Hack is joined by expert urogynecologist Dr. Charelle Carter-Brooks to break down the bladder symptoms that sneak up on women during perimenopause, postpartum, and the busy midlife years. They talk urgency, leaks, “mom jumps,” nighttime peeing, and the pelvic floor habits we were never taught — including the surprising thing most women do on the toilet that actually makes their symptoms worse. If you've ever wondered, “Is this normal?” this episode is your clarity.

Wound care is an important part of recovery for patients with neurogenic bladder undergoing complex lower urinary tract surgery. In this episode, Madison Hughes talks with Dr. Kyle Rove and Dr. Kelly Harris, pediatric urologists at Children's Hospital Colorado, about the latest advancements in wound care and what patients can expect along the way. 

Why do so many indoor cats develop urinary disease? Meet Dr. Allison Kendall, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at NC State and feline nephrology & urology specialist. In this episode of Purr Podcast, we talk pee, pain, and common causes for urinary probems in cats.

Adam creates a hypnosis session to help a client resist the temptation to have toilet breaks during the night when they didn't really need to go. This helps them to maintain their sleep for longer or to get back to sleep quickly even if they awake. To access a a subscriber-only version with no intro, outro, explanation, or ad breaks with just the hypnosis and nothing else click subscribe. To access all hypnosis-only versions and exclusive subscriber sessions and have invitations to live hypnosis sessions over Zoom, tap 'Subscribe' nearby or click the following link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/adam-cox858/subscribe⁠⁠

A sensitive bladder affects one in three women of all ages. Many women who suffer from this condition just do not want to talk about it. Marilu Henner joins the To Your Good Health Radio Show to share why women should not feel self-conscious, isolated or alone.She explains that women should be open about it with their doctors, family and friends, and not let it hold them back.  

For the first time in history, a human bladder was transplanted. Dr. Nima Nassiri (UCLA) joins Dr. Ruchika Talwar to share how his team completed this landmark operation alongside a kidney transplant. He walks through the clinical scenario, key steps in donor and recipient selection, and how years of preclinical work informed the operative approach. --- SYNPOSIS The conversation explores the broader future of bladder transplant surgery, from ethical considerations to the potential for merging bladder transplantation with tolerance-induction protocols that could one day eliminate the need for lifelong immunosuppression. Dr. Nassiri reflects on the importance of patient-first decision-making, teamwork, and careful innovation as the field moves toward new possibilities in restorative urology and transplant medicine. --- TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction02:51 - The Path to Bladder Transplant Surgery05:00 - Scientific Challenges and Barriers06:45 - Patient Selection and Initial Outcomes12:28 - Quality of Life Considerations14:18 - Performing the First Bladder Transplant18:59 - Donor Matching21:28 - Ethical Considerations24:51 - Research Gaps and Future Prospects --- RESOURCES Clinical Trial: Vascularized Composite Bladder Allograft Transplantationhttps://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05462561 Clinical Trial: Retro-active Immunological Tolerance in Patients With Well-functioning Pre-existing HLA-identical Kidney Transplantshttps://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05525507

Honoring Bladder Health Month! Originally Published September 2024. In this episode of Fempower Health, Dr. Tamra Lewis, a board-certified urogynecologist, discusses bladder health, UTI misdiagnoses, and how pelvic floor dysfunction, menopause, and the microbiome impact bladder issues in women. Learn how to advocate for better care and understand your symptoms.Bladder Health Episode SummaryIn this episode of Fempower Health, we sit down with Dr. Tamra Lewis, a board-certified urologist specializing in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (also known as urogynecology). Dr. Lewis shares her expertise on common bladder health issues affecting women, many of which are frequently misdiagnosed as urinary tract infections (UTIs). We explore the importance of accurate diagnoses, the potential causes of bladder issues, and how women can better advocate for themselves in healthcare settings. This episode is essential listening for women seeking clarity on their bladder health and for clinicians looking to improve patient outcomes.Discussion Points:Why are so many women misdiagnosing themselves with UTIs?What are the common symptoms of bladder problems in women?How can women better describe bladder issues to their healthcare provider?What are the underlying causes of frequent bladder issues in women?How can you tell the difference between a UTI and other bladder problems?Why is it important to have a pelvic exam for bladder issues?How does pelvic floor dysfunction contribute to bladder symptoms?What are the most effective treatments for overactive bladder?How can you prevent recurring urinary tract infections?What role does menopause play in bladder health?What is the impact of the microbiome on bladder health and UTIs?Why should women advocate for more thorough evaluations from their doctors?"It's easier to treat a small problem than to let a small problem become a bigger problem." - Dr. Tamra LewisRelated to this Bladder Health episode:Learn more about Dr. Tamra Lewis and follow her on LinkedIn and InstagramCheck out Fempower Health resources on Pelvic Health

Send us a textIn this episode, I'm taking you with me down into the Grand Canyon—21 miles, 13 hours, eight of us ages 44–53 (seven women, one very patient man), and every bit of trail talk you can imagine. What started as “Can we actually do this?” turned into the most honest, hilarious, and wide-open conversation about pelvic health, perimenopause, and how physical therapy for women has completely evolved since we were first told to “just do your Kegels.”Spoiler: the canyon will make you talk about everything.Is it sweat or is it pee?  Might be both.Bladder habits on switchbacks? Yep.Hormones while you're sweating through a sunset climb back to the rim? Absolutely.The stuff we wish someone told us 20 years ago? All of it.We get into:How women's health PT grew from basic kegels to running, lifting, sport, pregnancy → postpartum → peri/menopause careWhy it always comes back to the bladder (and why that's not a bad thing)The real story on preventative peeing + hovering on trail bathroomsWhat you should actually know about menopause hormone therapy (without the online panic spiral)Navigating peri/menopause with confidence, support, and a sense of humorIf you've ever wondered what happens when seven midlife women (& one very patient younger brother) take on the Grand Canyon… it's this. And it's so, so good.Time Stamps1:00 Introduction3:57 getting informed early5:20 taking a nature break on trail14:28 urine frequency and output19:39 unexpected leakage22:52 what we don't know about perimenopause28:40 weighted vests, walking, and yoga33:46 supplements38:00 exercise in pregnancy and postpartumCONNECT WITH CARRIEIG: https://www.instagram.com/carriepagliano/Website: https://carriepagliano.comThe Active Mom Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause & beyond for active moms & the professionals who help them in their journey. This show has been a long time in the making! You can expect conversation with moms and professionals from all aspects of the industry. If you're like me, you don't have a lot of free time (heck, you're probably listening at 1.5x speed), so theses interviews will be quick hits to get your the pertinent information FAST! If you love what you hear, share the podcast with a friend and leave us a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review. It helps us become more visible in the search algorithm! (Helps us get seen by more moms that need to hear these stories!!!!)

Cough, laugh, sneeze… and leak? You're not alone — and it's not just "part of getting older." In this episode, Dr. Andrea McSwain unpacks the real reason women experience bladder leaks when they cough, laugh, or sneeze — and what it reveals about your pelvic floor, fascia, and hormone balance. You'll learn how declining estrogen and progesterone can change tissue strength, how pelvic muscles lose adaptability under chronic tension, and why holistic support (not just Kegels) is key to restoring control and confidence. Dr. McSwain also explores the surprising link between hormones and lung health — plus practical ways to reduce seasonal coughs, support tissue repair, and strengthen your core from the inside out. Whether you're in your 30s, postpartum, or perimenopausal, this episode will help you understand your body's signals, calm the frustration, and start healing naturally. #PelvicFloorHealth #BladderLeaks #HormoneBalance #WomensHealth #FunctionalMedicine #HolisticHealing #StressIncontinence

The post 143 Bladder disorders – How you’ll see them on your exam appeared first on Physician Assistant Exam Review.

Urinary tract infections — or UTIs — aren't the most glamorous topic, but they're incredibly important, and we just don't talk about them enough. If you've ever had one, you'll know how miserable they can be: the burning, the stinging, those endless trips to the loo, the pain, and that bone-crushing fatigue. They can really knock you sideways.For many women, UTIs become more common — and more stubborn — during perimenopause and menopause.In this episode, I'm joined by the brilliant Helen Lake, a specialist urology nurse, to help us understand why UTIs happen, why they mustn't be ignored, and what you can do about them — from medical treatments to nutrition and supplements.Helen explains everything you need to know about identifying, understanding, and managing UTIs — and hopefully banishing them for good. We cover the key symptoms, prevention strategies like staying hydrated and double-voiding, why test results aren't always conclusive, and when antibiotics are needed. We also look at the role of beneficial bacteria, cranberry and D-mannose, vaginal moisturisers, topical oestrogen, and how to advocate for yourself with your GP.If you've found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend who might benefit too. And if you love The Happy Menopause podcast, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a five-star rating and a quick review on Apple Podcasts — or wherever you like to listen.And don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss out on upcoming episodes. These small steps make a huge difference to the algorithm, and help more women find the show.After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause.Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places.

In this episode, Nichole Brooks, CRNP, breaks down common misconceptions about overactive bladder (OAB) and reminds listeners that bladder changes aren't simply something to “live with” as you age. She discusses what causes OAB, how it can impact daily life, and the effective treatment options available to help you regain control and confidence.

Bladder leaks are very common in women, especially after childbirth (even years after!). But you don't have to worry about needing adult diapers as you age because there is breakthrough treatment that can help. Emsella is a state of the art treatment for bladder incontinence. And if you've got questions about it, here are your answers! Want to try Emsella for just $49? Visit us at https://drjakewellness.com/emsella-socials

Send us a textUrologist Dr. Yaw Nyame joins Dr. Michael Koren to discuss bladder and prostate cancers. Dr. Nyame talks about his journey through college - including the choice between rock stardom and medical school - and how he got to the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. Dr. Nyame explains symptoms, the history, and treatments for prostate and bladder cancer. He tells us "if you have blood in the urine, you definitely want to get to your primary care doctor." He also expands on gaps in cancer outcomes for Black men. Along the way, we weigh benefits and harms of PSA screening and talk honestly about sexual health after treatment.Show Note: Lynch syndrome is a genetic condition also known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). It represents an increased risk of several cancers, including colorectal, endometrial, gastric, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer. It is caused by an error in the DNA mismatch repair mechanism, which normally corrects for random insertions into the DNA code.Be a part of advancing science by participating in clinical research.Have a question for Dr. Koren? Email him at askDrKoren@MedEvidence.comListen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsWatch on YouTubeShare with a friend. Rate, Review, and Subscribe to the MedEvidence! podcast to be notified when new episodes are released.Follow us on Social Media:FacebookInstagramX (Formerly Twitter)LinkedInWant to learn more? Checkout our entire library of podcasts, videos, articles and presentations at www.MedEvidence.comMusic: Storyblocks - Corporate InspiredThank you for listening!

Leaking after sneezing or exercising, rushing to the restroom and experiencing pelvic discomfort are health problems often tucked away on a to-do list of things to deal with later. These everyday disruptions though are signs that your pelvic floor needs some attention. Whether you've recently had a baby or you're approaching your menopause era, there are treatment options that can fit into your routine and help you feel better.  If you're looking for ways to support your bladder naturally or wondering how pelvic floor physical therapy could benefit you, you'll want to listen to the latest episode of The Healthiest You podcast. In Part Two of our pelvic floor podcast series, you'll hear from urogynecologist Nabila Noor, MD, and rehabilitation clinical specialist Karen Snowden, PT, DPT, both with Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health.Which supplements may support your bladder health? What is pelvic organ prolapse? What treatment options are available for pelvic floor disorders? How can you strengthen your pelvic floor at home? What can you expect at your first pelvic floor physical therapy appointment? We answer these questions and more on The Healthiest You podcast this month.Chapters:     • 0:01 - Intro     • 0:04 - Toilet stools     • 3:52 - Bladder supplements     • 7:16 - Pelvic organ prolapse     • 9:11 - Treatment options     • 12:11 - Pelvic floor physical therapy     • 20:42 - Exercises at your appointment     • 26:20 - How to strengthen your pelvic floor at home     • 35:18 - Advice for your bladder and pelvic floor

Bladder leaks are no joke. If you don't stop them now, they often get worse. In this episode, Dr Jake shares information on a breakthrough treatment that is helping men and women with bladder leaks. Emsella is a state of the art treatment for bladder incontinence. And if you've got questions about it, here are your answers! Want to try Emsella for just $49? Visit us at https://drjakewellness.com/emsella-socials

In this episode, we explore:Why your body waits until the end of your shower to signal you need to peeHow this everyday moment reveals deeper truths about tension, distraction, and missed signalsWhat it means to actually feel safe enough to tune inWhy slowing down isn't indulgent—it's essentialHow this connects to mental health, nighttime overthinking, and suicide preventionThrive With Leo Coaching: If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:In the US: Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386Outside the US:International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

This is one of the craziest client transformations to date! Katie broke her pelvis 13 years ago when she had her first baby. Ever since then she's been dealing with severe back pain, and bladder leaks bad enough to wear a pad all day. We started slow, but I had her lifting heavier with more intention, working on slowing down, and connecting back to her body and it shifted everything for her.If you feel like it's "too late" to fix pee leaks and back pain, you're wrong. It's never too late, you just need the right strategies in order to heal.If Katie's story hits home for you and you're ready to take the next step, click this link to get startedWork With Me:https://mailchi.mp/chloepufftraining/offers Connect with me on social media: Instagram: @chloepufftraining & @riseradiopod

Overactive bladder affects about 1 in 6 U.S. adults and disrupts sleep, focus, and confidence in daily life Low magnesium levels are strongly linked to higher rates of overactive bladder, with risk climbing steadily as depletion worsens Magnesium helps calm bladder muscles and reduce nerve overactivity, making sudden urges and leaks less frequent Inflammation triggered by magnesium deficiency further irritates bladder tissue and worsens symptoms Restoring magnesium through the right supplements and pairing it with bladder-friendly habits offers a natural, evidence-backed path to relief

Your pelvic floor is ready and waiting for you to break up with these habits:Power-peeing – Going to the bathroom is not a race. Forcing urine out or relieving yourself as fast as you can causes more harm than good to your pelvic floor. Hovering – This seems like a natural solution to avoid germs in public restrooms. But hovering over the toilet tenses your muscles which makes your bladder work harder than it needs to.Peeing “just in case” – Went 15 minutes ago? Maybe going once more is a good idea … or is it? Whether you're heading out for an errand or a road trip, going again “just in case” is training your bladder to go more frequently.  If you're ready to take back control of your bladder, you'll want to listen to the latest episode of The Healthiest You podcast. In Part One of our pelvic floor podcast series, you'll hear from urogynecologist Nabila Noor, MD, and rehabilitation clinical specialist Karen Snowden, PT, DPT, with Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health. How do you know if you have a pelvic floor disorder? What bathroom habits are harming your pelvic floor? How many times a day should you urinate? Can bladder training help? Which exercises can strengthen your pelvic floor? We answer these questions and more on The Healthiest You podcast this month.Chapters:     · 0:01 - Intro     · 0:17 - About your pelvic floor     · 3:31 - When your pelvic floor changes     · 6:49 - Signs you may have a pelvic floor disorder      · 15:54 - Treatment options     · 17:45 - Bladder leaks and overactive bladder      · 20:26 - How to address overactive bladder     · 23:56 - When to stop drinking before bed     · 29:06 - Bathroom no-nos     · 34:07 - Bladder training

Urinary incontinence affects millions of women, yet many continue to suffer in silence due to stigma or the misconception that it's just a normal part of aging. Bladder control issues can impact women of all ages, and they are highly treatable, and there are real solutions that can help. On this episode of the Healthier You Podcast, Dr. Ashlee Williams welcomes Dr. Nwamaka Fadahunsi, a board-certified urologist at Kaiser Permanente, to discuss the causes of urinary incontinence and the many tools available to treat it. Dr. Fadahunsi explains the differences between stress and urge incontinence, debunks common myths, and offers practical guidance on what women can do at home. She also outlines the full range of treatment options, including physical therapy, medications, and outpatient procedures, helping women regain control and confidence without relying on pads or assuming surgery is the only answer.  Learn more about Nwamaka Fadahunsi, MD 

Many people with Parkinson's disease experience urinary or bladder issues at some point in their journey. These symptoms can take different forms and may affect people differently based on gender. Recognizing the signs is the first step toward understanding how to manage them and when to seek care.   In this episode, Dr. Ankita Gupta, MD, MPH, FACOG, a urogynecologist at University of Louisville Hospital, talks about common bladder issues in Parkinson's, such as urinary frequency, urgency, and nocturia. She explains how these symptoms can affect quality of life and even contribute to social isolation, and she highlights treatment options that can help manage them.   Follow and rate us on your favorite podcast platform to be notified when there's a new episode! Let us know what other topics you would like us to cover by visiting parkinson.org/feedback.

Do you get the blues when the weather turns cool? In this episode, Dr. Motley tackles seasonal depression from a TCM perspective. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart is connected to the kidneys and bladder, so if you feel that you're not your best self in the colder months, pay attention to signs of bladder issues.  Show Notes: ⬇️ For UTI testing: https://microgendx.com/ For kidney issues: Uva Ursi https://shorturl.at/QTKEK Your Seasonal Depression Recommendations: Sunshine Infrared Sauna Mineral Support (check out BEAM Minerals. You can get 20% off with code DRMOTLEY - https://shorturl.at/ySEiA) Multivitamins: Thorne Research https://www.thorne.com/products, and Xymogen EFT - https://www.thetappingsolution.com/ Neuroemotional Technique - https://netmindbody.com/ If you love this content and want more, check out Doctor Motley's YouTube Channel! ------  Follow Doctor Motley Instagram TikTok Facebook Website ------  *Do you have more questions for Doctor Motley about seasonal depression? Do you want to get deeper into his material? Take advantage of ALL Doctor Motley's clinical experience, with his membership where you can get the most out of your health and help the people you love. Check it out for free for 15 days: doctormotley.com/15 *If you want to work with Dr. Motley virtually, you can book a discovery call with his team here: https://drmotleyconsulting.com/schedule-1333-7607 *Charge your cells with pure antioxidant power! Liposomal supplementation has been proven deeply effective and LivOn Labs got there first. Get 10% off your liposomal supplements with code DROMTLEY at livonlabs.com Your Seasonal Depression Recommendations: Sunshine Infrared Sauna Mineral Support (check out BEAM Minerals. You can get 20% off with code DRMOTLEY - https://shorturl.at/W8MO5⁠) Multivitamins: Thorne Research https://www.thorne.com/products, and Xymogen https://shorturl.at/JIowR⁠ EFT - https://www.thetappingsolution.com/ Neuroemotional Technique - https://netmindbody.com/ If you love this content and want more, check out Doctor Motley's YouTube Channel! ------  Follow Doctor Motley Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctormotley https://www.tiktok.com/@doctormotley Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctormotley/ Website: https://doctormotley.com ------  *Do you have more questions for Doctor Motley about seasonal depression? Do you want to get deeper into his material? Take advantage of ALL Doctor Motley's clinical experience, with his membership where you can get the most out of your health and help the people you love. Check it out for free for 15 days: doctormotley.com/15 *If you want to work with Dr. Motley virtually, you can book a discovery call with his team here: https://drmotleyconsulting.com/schedule-1333-7607 *Charge your cells with pure antioxidant power! Liposomal supplementation has been proven deeply effective and LivOn Labs got there first. Get 10% off your liposomal supplements with code DROMTLEY at livonlabs.com

Back from speaking and a few live events, Sally shares about the importance of human connection & the longing we all have for community. Other Episode Highlights:Fall is here and so are the allergiesTrailfest & Mammoth 200 chatHiking for ice-creamSpeaking in MissouriImpactful stories and people Sally met in KY, TN, & MOKids and families Sally connected with Running with othersEarly morning coffee & gym routineConnect with Sally on LINKEDIN & on SUBSTACKGoing to be a Javelina this year? Let us know what you will be doing out there! Send us an email at contact@sallymcrae.comAll links, discounts, and ways to support the podcast are here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Choose Strong Book ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sally McRae Strength App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Choose Strong Podcast YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sally McRae YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Choose Strong Merch ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bare Performance Nutrition⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Code: SALLY⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Choose Strong Strava Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to send us mail? Here is the address if you want to say hi!6771 Warner Ave. P.O. Box 2051Huntington Beach, CA 92647Episode Sponsors:Boncharge: boncharge.com w/ code SALLY to save 15%Janji: Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠janji.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and use code CHOOSESTRONG for 10% offPlan to Eat: plantoeat.com/sally for 25% off an annual subscription

Study Discovers Increased Cancers After MRNA Vaccines, Bret Weinstein- Covid & mRNA: Harms and Damages Exposed Bret Weinstein- Covid & mRNA: Harms and Damages Exposed (NEW!) REMINDER: CDC Didn't Track VAERS Safety Signals John Campbell- Increased cancers after mRNA vaccines   Study- Covid & mRNA: Harms and Damages Exposed (NEW!) | DarkHorse https://youtu.be/zkrbZmYuRoY?si=_0yO0y5ftLacoVJ1 Bret Weinstein 512K subscribers 25,699 views Sep 5, 2025 A new article on the harms and hazards of both SARS-CoV2 and the mRNA biologics said to counter the virus. Full Episode: https://youtube.com/live/wQWkKrM3Dt8 Mentioned in this segment: Zywiec et al 2025. COVID-19 Injections: Harms and Damages, a Non-Exhaustive Conclusion. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 30(3): https://jpands.org/vol30no3/zywiec.pdf ***** Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com Heather's newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.com Our book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned) Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org   REMINDER: CDC Didn't Track VAERS Safety Signals | DarkHorse https://youtu.be/u3UAyr6s7xc?si=VUoenskCyMdViArS Bret Weinstein 512K subscribers 16,906 views Sep 5, 2025 RFK Jr. fires the new director, after which other CDC officials resign, and eight former directors of the CDC pen a letter to the New York Times arguing that Kennedy is a hazard to our health. Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss "The Plot Against Kennedy" in Episode 292 of The Evolutionary Lens. Full Episode: https://youtube.com/live/wQWkKrM3Dt8 Mentioned in this segment: NYT op-ed #2 from former CDC directors: We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American's Health: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/op... Bret and Heather 132nd DarkHorse Podcast Livestream: 50 States not in a Roe https://youtube.com/live/usP2D_qGUZs CDC didn't monitor VAERS for COVID safety signals (June 2022): https://childrenshealthdefense.org/de...   Increased cancers after mRNA vaccines Watch this video at- https://youtu.be/3dnIGqUlluc?si=sDbAdXTgOsCiCLev Dr. John Campbell 3.25M subscribers 143,152 views Sep 5, 2025 COVID-19 vaccination, all-cause mortality, and hospitalization for cancer: 30-month cohort study in an Italian province https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40881... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/brea... The rate of first hospitalization for cancer of any site Unvaccinated group: 0.85% Vaccinated group (one or more doses): 1.15% N = 296,015 population Hospital admission with a cancer diagnosis, 3,124 (p less than 0.001). Vaccination with at least one dose Colon-rectal cancer HR: 1.34 Breast cancer HR: 1.54 Bladder cancer HR: 1.62 After three or more vaccine doses Breast cancer HR: 1.36 Bladder cancer HR: 1.43 All significant After one dose (180 days after) Rate of first hospital admissions for cancers All cancers: up 23% significant Colorectal: up 34% significant Lung: down = 10% Breast: up 54% significant Uterine: up = 75% Ovarian: up = 65% Prostate: up = 1% Bladder: up 62% significant Thyroid: up =58% Haematological: up = 33% After three dose (180 days after administration of third dose) All cancers: up = 9% Colorectal: up = 14% Lung: down = 5% Breast: up=36% significant Uterine: up = 20% Ovarian: up = 86% Prostate: down = 3% Bladder: up=43% significant Thyroid: down = 3% Haematological: up = 5% More about the study Population-wide cohort analysis Evaluating the risk of all-cause death and cancer hospitalization by SARS-CoV-2 immunization status. National Health System official data, entire population, Pescara province, Italy Followed from June 2021 (six months after the first vaccination) to December 2023. 296,015 residents aged ≥11 years Hospital admission with a cancer diagnosis, 3,124 16.6% were unvaccinated 83.3% received ≥1 dose 62.2% ≥3 doses. Compared with the unvaccinated, those receiving ≥1 dose showed a significantly lower likelihood of all-cause death Cancer hospitalization was significant only among the subjects with no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection Some cancer risks went down after 1 year (relative to 180 days) (But breast, ovarian and bladder went up at one year relative to 180 days after 1 vaccine dose) Given that it was not possible to quantify the potential impact of the healthy vaccinee bias and unmeasured confounders, these findings are inevitably preliminary.