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Imagine your gut as a security gate, carefully controlling what enters your bloodstream. Now, picture that gate with broken locks—allowing harmful toxins, undigested food particles, and bacteria to slip through. That's leaky gut, and it could be the hidden reason behind your bloating, brain fog, autoimmune issues, skin problems, and chronic fatigue. Your gut lining is supposed to act as a protective barrier, but when it gets damaged, it no longer filters properly. This can trigger widespread inflammation, worsen allergies and asthma, contribute to autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's and psoriasis, and throw your hormones out of balance, leading to issues like PCOS. Even your mood and mental health are deeply connected to what's happening in your gut. On this episode of Medical Disruptor, we're breaking down the truth about leaky gut—what it is, why it's causing more than just digestive issues, and how stress, antibiotics, NSAIDs like Advil and Motrin, sugar, alcohol, and processed foods could be fueling the damage. We'll also explore how gut health directly impacts your skin, hormones, and brain function, plus the foods silently making it worse—and what to eat instead. If you've been struggling with unexplained symptoms and haven't found the answers, this episode could be the breakthrough you need. Tune in and learn how to take control of your gut health once and for all.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4: 6:05pm- Stanford economist, and philosophical hero to many on the political right, Dr. Thomas Sowell expressed concern over the Trump Administration's reciprocal tariffs during a recent interview. 6:10pm- In response to the Trump Administration's reciprocal tariff announcement, the S&P 500 fell 4.6%—with American companies Nvidia and Apple shedding a combined $470 billion in market value. However, the Trump Administration remains optimistic—with General Motors, for example, announcing an increase in domestic manufacturing. 6:20pm- Rich notes that the stock market's downward trend is, at least in part, due to media panic. And rest assured, if the tariffs end up having a negative impact on the economy, President Donald Trump will alter his strategy. More likely than not, countries will make deals to eliminate the tariffs—ultimately creating a truly free market where American-made products aren't hit with onerous tariffs by foreign nations. 6:40pm- Snow White is now projected to result in a $115 million loss for Disney + Cory Booker wants you to know he did NOT wear a diaper…but he did take Motrin. Weekday afternoons on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Rich Zeoli gives the expert analysis and humorous take that we need in this crazy political climate. Along with Executive Producer Matt DeSantis and Justin Otero, the Zeoli show is the next generation of talk radio and you can be a part of it weekday afternoons 3-7pm.

Liz, a mama of two from Long Island, New York, joins us today sharing her experience with preeclampsia, an unexpected C-section, and her successful VBAC with her second. Liz had a perfect health history and never had any surgeries before her C-section. It was so frustrating to feel so out of control. In between her birth and her second pregnancy, Liz's mom unexpectedly passed away. She shares how she has been processing the intense grief from her mother's passing and from the positive birth experience she wasn't able to have. Liz made lots of changes going into her VBAC birth including diet, switching providers, and choosing to birth at home!Liz's DoulaCoterie Diapers - Use code VBAC20 for 20% offHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan Hello, everybody. We have our friend, Liz, from New York with us today. She is a mom of two and almost two years old. Right? Your VBAC baby?Liz: Yes.Meagan Almost two years since your VBAC baby.And then an almost six-year-old. And yeah, like I said, she lives in New York, and she's going to be sharing her stories with you guys today. With her first birth, she actually had preeclampsia, so she's gonna talk more about that. And then with her second birth, she didn't have preeclampsia. I think this is an important thing to talk about because we know that having preeclampsia again is a possibility, and it might be slightly increased if you've had it, but it doesn't mean you will. So I'm hoping that we can talk a little bit more if you did do anything to try to avoid it. The second one, we'll talk more about that in a little bit. But knowing that it's still okay. If you have preeclampsia, you can still VBAC. Now, in her second one, she didn't have preeclampsia, but you can still VBAC if you have preeclampsia. So we're going to talk about that a little bit after your first birth too, because I want to know more. All right. We do have a Review of the Week today, and this is by jess2123. It says "Best Podcast for VBAC". It says, "I listened to the podcast after my son's birth. I learned so much that I knew I wanted a VBAC for my second birth. When I became pregnant again, I would listen to this podcast during my walks. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge that I gained, I had my unmedicated VBAC in 2023." Congratulations, Jess, on your VBAC, and thank you so much for your review. I know this year we're tossing it up between reviews and educational pieces, but I just do want to remind you really quickly that if you haven't left us a review yet, we would love it. You can push "pause" right now and listen or leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can go over to Google. Google "The VBAC Link", and leave us a review there. These reviews really do help us and bring us so much joy. So without further ado, I want to turn the time over to you.Liz: Thank you so much. I guess every VBAC story starts with the Cesarean story, or at least there's one in there. My pregnancy journey did start with a Cesarean as far as the first birth. As Meagan mentioned, I am a mom of two. With my first son, I fortunately have been reproductively very healthy and otherwise healthy my entire life. I was able to track everything. I had regular cycles and really no issues there, so I feel really, really blessed in that regard. I was able to get pregnant pretty easily. I believe I got pregnant in about February 2018 for the first time. I found out mid-March after I tested in my bathroom and just ran out with the test to my husband, nothing super special. I think I was just shocked. I remember I had gone to a St. Patrick's Day parade and felt so tired that I said to my friend, "I'm going to go home and nap in between that and another event." They were all like, "Why are you napping?" I was like, "I don't know, I'm just really tired." I took the pregnancy test to rule out pregnancy. It was immediately positive which was amazing. My EDD, my estimated due date, was supposed to be Thanksgiving that year, so it was November 22nd which was Thanksgiving 2018. That just made me laugh because I was like, wow, what a far cry from Thanksgiving Eve spent even a decade previous. But yeah, so my pregnancy started out pretty status quo, I would say. I definitely experienced that nausea. My morning sickness was definitely an all-day thing, so it was a little tough. I think it threw me for a loop because I didn't know what to expect. I had always wanted to eat healthier, especially being pregnant, but it was like my body would not allow me to eat what I wanted or what my brain wanted me to eat. It was a lot of carbs to start out. I know that's pretty common. I remember when I went for my first appointment, I had called an OB's office. I'm trying to think. I think I had gone for one well-woman visit before, but I had two friends, actually three friends who had delivered with this OB and had good experiences, so I figured I would give it a try. The funny thing is, pretty much from the jump, I could tell that we weren't very aligned. I didn't really see eye-to-eye with him, but he had this nurse practitioner who was wonderful, and I feel like she drew people in because she was just very nurturing and calming, and she just had that great energy. I knew, obviously, she wasn't going to be at my birth, but I still stayed there.Meagan Oh yeah. So can we talk about that a little bit? So you had one provider that you're like, "I don't know, our energy doesn't match." And then one that you're like, "Our energy totally matches." But then they wouldn't be birthing with you. So tell me a little bit more of what that provider was that wasn't matching your energy.Liz: Yeah. So I guess because I had always been so healthy, my experiences with medical professionals were very limited. I had just gone to doctors for routine checkups my entire life, and everything was always fine. I think because I wasn't very experienced in the medical world, I almost had this aversion to it. I just was like, they're there if there's an emergency, but it'll be fine. Everything will be fine. I'm trying to do this as naturally as possible. He seemed very old school. I don't know how to describe it, just very set in his ways. I remember, I'll circle back around, but towards the end of the pregnancy when I had finally gotten the gall to tell him that I really wanted to try and do this unmedicated because I was so nervous to say that, he was like, "Well, don't expect this baby to just fall out of you. You're a first-time mom."Meagan Wait, what?Liz: He literally said that to me. And I was like, "Okay, I didn't think that." Meagan: I wasn't saying that. Liz: Yeah, I wasn't saying that I didn't think I wouldn't have to work hard. That's not what I'm saying. So just comments like that. The bedside manner just didn't seem very nurturing. He was very by the book, quick appointments, and asking me his little checklists of items, and that was it, whereas I felt like his nurse practitioner was very warm, had great bedside manner, and really just cared about mothering the mother in that situation. It wasn't just about the baby and how I was going to give birth or how I preferred to give birth. It was the entire experience. I remember at one point, she even said, "Obviously, there is a need for testing certain things and for keeping an eye on everything, but I really just feel like if we left women more alone to go through their pregnancies, they might be better off because we're so hands-on in the United States, and it just causes sometimes more anxiety throughout a time that's supposed to be really beautiful."So she did mention that she reminded me of, I don't know, a woman who crouched down in the field and gave birth to her babies in the woods. That's who she reminded me of. I don't know if that's the truth for her. I never did ask anything about her birthing experiences, but that's who she reminded me of. Just super warm and nurturing. I think also I maybe just aligned more with a female provider. It could have been just that too.Meagan: Yeah, it could have been. But I mean, what you were saying, comments like that, if I'm being super straight, we've interviewed providers on here that have come across really great, and then the more I've interviewed them, I'm like, "Oh, I don't know if I like that. I don't know."That can just happen. I think that's where it comes with vetting your provider and going with who makes you feel warm and fuzzy. But at the same time you're in this place where you're like, well, we've got this medical. We'll see how it goes. I've got this to also like, I've got this warm, fuzzy, filling-my-cup over here. So it seems like it's an okay match, right?Liz: Yeah. And I also manipulated it to the point where I would only make appointments when she was available throughout my pregnancy where the office was like, "You have to see the OB. You have to. He is going be the one who's attending your birth." I'm just like, "But I don't want to. I don't want to do that."Meagan: Yeah.Liz: I just stuck with the practice, I think, because I was nervous. I was new to it and like you said, I was getting my warm and fuzzy cup filled by that nurse practitioner's presence. Things progressed. I finally outgrew that morning sickness. By the second trimester, it was week 12 or 13 and it let up, and I was feeling good. I was pretty energetic. I was doing yoga on a somewhat regular basis. Nutritionally, I do want to mention because I think this does play a role in how things may have gone with the preeclampsia. But nutritionally, I was actually coming off of a vegetarian diet. I had been a vegetarian for a few years. I had gotten really deep into yoga in the early 2010s, and I became a vegetarian when I was doing teacher training for that. So I was purely vegetarian for a few years, and then I started integrating poultry back into my diet. I ate very little because my husband also doesn't consume a lot of meat, so we just didn't eat a lot of meat. I feel like I'm already a picky eater even as an adult. I definitely was as a child, but even as an adult, I still have things that I just don't like, so I feel like my diet was pretty limited, and I perhaps was not getting the nutrients that I needed, especially when my body underwent this or got pregnant and was going through this stressful event.Meagan: Yeah. Growing a placenta and a baby. Yeah, it needed its nutrients.Liz: Yeah. So I feel like during my pregnancy, especially once I started to feel good again, I ate whatever I wanted. So that whole like, I'm just going to eat so healthy, I was just like, yeah, no. I'm eating for two. I totally knew that's not what you're supposed to do. Meagan: I did the same thing. Liz: Yeah. I was like, whatever. I'm feeling great. I'm going to eat it. It's there. I'm going to eat it. So I get to my 20-week anatomy scan. I'm not even sure if it was exactly at 20 weeks, and everything goes well. Fortunately, no complications with the baby. Oh, I had also gotten a NIPT to find out the sex of the baby, so I knew I was having a boy. The anatomy scan did validate that. But that week, I don't know if it was right before or right after my anatomy scan, I noticed that I was starting to swell just on my right side of my body. My right foot was swollen. My right ankle leg was a little swollen. I remember reaching out to my social media friends. I just put out a status like, "Hey, pregnant lady here. I don't really know what's going on. Is this normal? Is this something I should bring up to my provider? What do you guys think?" There were plenty of people who were like, "No, it's totally normal to be swollen at that point." I even said, "It's only on one side though. It's weird."Meagan: Yeah, yeah.Liz: So they were like, "Just elevate your feet. See what happens." It would always go down, but it was just odd that I happened to notice just the swelling on one side of the body. So definitely interesting. Yeah. So I keep going. I'm getting bouts of pretty much every pregnancy symptom, but it would always be very short-lived. I definitely had some reflux, short-lived. I got sciatic pain so bad one day that I couldn't get out of the car. I remember I was sitting in the passenger seat and I said to my husband, "I can't walk on my right leg right now because of my sciatic nerve." So I was doing all these exercises to try and get the baby off my nerve and all of that, and everything just waxed and waned. Nothing was long-lived by any means. So I get to 30 weeks. I think it was at my 30-week appointment, and I believe it was the medical assistant who come in and took my blood pressure and wait like they always do. I don't know if it was her or the nurse practitioner who said that I had my first high blood pressure reading. Like, "Oh, it's elevated a little bit." And I was like, "Oh, that's so strange. I've been a 120/80 girl this entire time, and my whole life, I've never had blood pressure issues." And they're like, "Okay, well it's something to keep an eye on. Let's see. We're going to let you lay on your side, and see if we can have it come down. We'll take it at the end of the appointment again." And it did. It would come down, but they definitely were like, "We're going to keep this in our back pocket, and we might have to have additional monitoring if this progresses." I didn't really know what high blood pressure and pregnancy could mean, so of course, I go to Dr. Google like a good pregnant lady does, right?Meagan: Yep. A lot of us, I'm guilty.Liz: Guilty. Yeah. I was like, okay, so it could be hypertension in pregnancy or it could turn into preeclampsia. I was reading all the things, how this could turn and what that all meant. So in the back of my head, I always thought like, okay. I'm aware of what could indicate preeclampsia, but that's not going to be me. I am a healthy person, right? I've always been healthy my entire life. There shouldn't be any issues while I'm pregnant. And that wasn't the case, unfortunately. But I did go in a few more times, and I did get elevated blood pressure readings. So I don't know what week I was, but I know it was the beginning of October. I saw this other nurse practitioner who was not warm and fuzzy. She was new to the practice and she saw me. She took my pressure, and you could see the alarm in her face, but she wasn't saying much. This stuck with me to this day. It's just so crazy. She handed me this paper. The hospital that I was delivering at is a small community hospital, but it's affiliated with this Catholic healthcare system where I live, so they have a few different hospitals that are also within that same system. She just gave me this paper that had a listing of all these numbers for these different departments at these hospitals, and she just said, "You need to call them and make an appointment." And I'm like, "I have literally no idea what this is about." She's like, "Your pressure is high. You need to go make an appointment with them," but that's all she said to me. Meagan: For what? Yeah. Liz: Yeah, what is happening right now? I remember even that day, she asked me about my face. She was just like, "Is your face swollen? Does your face normally look like that?" I was like, "I have a very round face. I have big cheeks. To me, my face doesn't look different." Yeah. So she handed me that paper, told me to call, and like the good patient I am, I was like, "Sure, I'll call." So I called. I found out it was maternal-fetal medicine, which for those of you out there that don't know what that is, that's a high-risk doctor, and I had no idea. So this is my first experience with that. I did call. I made an appointment, and my OB office had me do a 24-hour urine drop or urine drip, however you want to call that. Meagan: Urine catch? Urine catch, probably?Liz: Yeah, so for those of you who don't know what that is, they give you a jug from a lab, and you have to put your urine into that jug for an entire 24 hours. They test it, and they're checking to see if there's any protein that is spilling into your urine because that could indicate decreased kidney function. Meagan: Preeclampsia. Yeah.Liz: Yeah. That is a symptom of preeclampsia. So I did do that. I went and saw MFM, and in the office there, my pressures were labile. They even called them that-- labile. It had elevated a little bit, probably in the 130s over 90s, but then by the end of the appointment, it had come down. My labs for that urine catch did indicate that there was protein present, but it wasn't within a diagnosable threshold. It was below that lab threshold, so I basically wasn't diagnosable. But they were like, "Now we're going to watch you." Most people like to see their babies on ultrasounds. That's an exciting thing. I became so fed-up with having to go in. I was, at that point, a frequent flyer. I was going in weekly earlier than a pregnancy that wasn't having any sort of complications. I was getting not only an ultrasound, but an NST every time I went in, so I'd have to lay there for 45 minutes while they looked at the baby's heart tones and everything. Yeah, at that point, I was just really stressed out because I was like, is that what this is turning into? But I don't have preeclampsia. I think I also saw my OB within that timeframe and he mentioned, "If this progresses, we will be doing a 37-week induction." And I was like okay, so I'm going to keep that in mind. But again, this isn't going to progress to that because I'm healthy and we're going to make it past 37 weeks. I probably wouldn't get the type of delivery that I wanted. And that's probably something I should mention. If I was induced at 37 weeks, I was preparing to have an unmedicated birth, a vaginal birth, and I was even taking a HypnoBirthing class to try and labor as long as I could at home. My whole thing was that I didn't want to go to the hospital until I needed the hospital or until I felt I needed the hospital. So here I am thinking, okay. I want this unmedicated, low-intervention birth, but I'm having all these interventions right now because they need to monitor me. There's some sort of issue that might be brewing. Yeah. I already said I went to MFM and all of that. My symptoms, at that point, were mostly swelling. I was getting very swollen at this point. I had that pitting edema in my legs, so I could press my finger into my leg. Meagan: It stayed. Liz: It stayed, and then my feet were like little loaves of bread. My feet will never forget what they went through. My husband would just massage them every single night, trying to get the fluid to move out of my tissues. It was crazy. I had another experience with a different OB who was not my OB, but I was out at a family event at this restaurant, and this woman approached me, told me she was an OB, and asked me if I was okay because my legs and my feet did not look so great.Meagan: What?Liz: Yeah. I was just standing in the lobby minding my business, and she's like, "Are you okay?" as if I'm not being monitored, but do you think I'm just going through this free and unaware of what's happening? Yeah. So that was interesting. She said that she was an OB. Yeah. So I went for weekly NSTs, the ultrasounds, and everything looked great with the baby. He was never under any sort of distress. No concerns of intrauterine growth restriction, nothing like that, but my pressures just kept being labile. I actually borrowed a blood pressure cuff so I could monitor at home. There were some mornings where I'd lay down on the couch after I woke up, and my blood pressures were reaching into those like 140s over 90, 91 maybe. I just would cry. I was just hysterical. Like, why is this happening? I don't want to go to labor and delivery right now. I don't want to be monitored. I'm already being monitored so much. There were probably some weeks towards the end where it was more than once that I went into my OB's office for monitoring. So fortunately, we made it through that 37-week mark. We made it all the way to, essentially, the end. And we get to Thanksgiving Eve, right? So my due date is the next day. I'm at 39 and 6. This was one of those appointments where they said, "You have to see the OB." I know I just kicked and screamed, not really, but in my head like, "F"ine, I'll see him. So the medical assistant comes in, takes my pressure and my weight, doesn't say anything, and leaves the room. He comes in, takes my pressure in my weight, and he asks me to meet him in his office.Meagan: Really?Liz: Yes. So I get myself dressed out of the gown that they had given me, and I go meet him in this fancy office. And he's like, "Your pressure is very high today, very high. So you're going to be going to labor and delivery straight from here." He's like, "I have a few meetings that I have to attend to here, but I will meet you over there in a few hours." And I was like, obviously, on the verge of tears. I'm just like, "Can I please stop home and get my stuff? Like, I have bags, I have a dog."Meagan: If you can go to your meetings, I can go to my house.Liz: Right. And yeah, my OB's was maybe 12-13 minutes away from my house, and the hospital was about five minutes down the road. So I was just like, "Can I just go home and grab my stuff?" And he's like, "No, no, no. Go straight to the hospital." And he goes, "And you're probably going to have a Cesarean."Meagan: What?Liz: This is after I tell him my natural birth, or my unmedicated, definitely wanting a vaginal birth. I was like, what? Literally, that was when the tears of waterworks really started. I was just like, "there's no shot at me having a vaginal birth?" And he's just like, "Well, I'm going to be putting you on medication to prevent seizures, so you can either labor with that and have it cancel out my induction medication, or you can just be calm and go to a Cesarean." Like, go to the OR, essentially.Meagan: What were your pressures?Liz: 170/110 that day.Meagan: Okay. Okay.Liz: So, high. Meagan: Yeah. But he's like, "You can do this, but it's not going to work, or you could just calm down and do this."Liz: Yeah, yeah. It was like, those aren't options, so that's not really an option. Right? That's what you're telling me. Meagan: Yeah. Liz: Yeah. So I called my mom. I called my husband, frantic. I was just flipping out. I get out of the office, I'm crying in the parking lot telling everybody. They're telling me to go right to the hospital. So, of course, my husband rushes home from work. He was at work. It was a Wednesday, and he got my dog. He had to bring my dog to my mom's, grab our bags to the extent that they were packed, and he met me there. I was crying. I walked myself into the hospital. It was the most surreal thing. I checked myself in knowing that I was going to come out with a human being, which was bizarre. And when I finally got to labor and delivery, my nurse was so sweet, but I was crying so much that she was just like, "Are you going to be okay?" And I was like, "I really want a vaginal delivery." And she's just like, "Honey." She goes, "I understand. I do think he's making the right choice. I do think you're making the right choice," which again, I don't really feel like I had a choice in that.Meagan: Yeah, you're like, "I wasn't really given a choice."Liz: She was also trying to relate. She's like, "I've had three Cesareans. I promise you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay." I was just like, "I've never even had a tooth pulled. I don't know if I could do this."So my husband arrived again. I'm just crying. He's trying to cheer me up, trying to keep our eyes on the prize and the fact that we were going to hopefully have a healthy baby at the end of all this. I want to say between check-in and when my OB arrived and scrubbed himself in, it was probably about three hours. Yeah. And I walked into the OR, another bizarre experience. I just walked in.Meagan: Yeah. Yep.Liz: Okay, so everybody scrubs in. There's a whole host of people in there, including my nurse. I had never had surgery, so they're giving me all the instructions as to how I need to lean forward so that they can put a spinal block, I think, at that point, the anesthesiologist, and it was so bizarre. It felt like the most claustrophobic thing. If any of you have ever had Cesareans, hopefully you can relate to me, but feeling the numbness just go up your legs.Meagan: It is very strange. I walked in for my second one. With my first one I just had an epidural, but the second one I had a spinal.Liz: Yeah, yeah. So I mean, so bizarre. Then, like I had already mentioned I was so swollen, so they had to just take my very swollen-- I felt like a beached whale-- body parts and put them onto this operating table because I couldn't move once. Obviously, the spinal had activated. So that was bizarre. But my husband, I mean, this man is the calmest person and the nicest person I know. Thank God for him and his presence on that day. He kept me nice and calm. Everybody was really, really nice in the OR. The only thing I happened to notice at one point was they had my blood pressure cuff on. That's why I'm here, right? Because my blood pressures are so hig,h and it had slipped down to my wrist, so I had my arms out. I don't think my arms were strapped down. I don't remember that. I had them out, and I look over to the extent that I could to the anesthesiologist, like, "Hey, does somebody want to maybe put this cuff on? Because that's why I'm, here. That's why we're in this position right now." But yeah, my husband and I just chatted and laughed the entire surgery. Everything worked out really well with the spinal. I did not feel any pain. They did talk me through to an extent about what I would feel as far as tugging or pulling or pressure. My son was fortunately born really healthy, screaming, great Apgar score, the whole nine. He came, and oh my god, what a feeling. Obviously, I was so emotional because of how the birth had gone and what had led me there. But becoming a parent and seeing your child for the first time, you can't really describe that. It's amazing. I have really nice photos and video that the nurse took. They brought the baby over to me. They did not do skin-to-skin with me. Again, I had all of these birth plans, preferences, and, none of that came to fruition. None of that pertained to my or situation. I was so, so happy and also so sad. I don't know how to describe it. It was like the happiest and saddest day of my whole life up until that point. So recovery was interesting. I feel like I got maybe 5 hours of sleep in the hospital total. I was on a magnesium drip. People had told me that the side effects could be a little bit gnarly with that, but I fortunately didn't find anything abnormal. I think I had so much adrenaline. But I did try to get my son to latch, and he was having a really hard time latching. They had a lactation consultant from the hospital come in and see me, and I could not get him to latch. I happened to notice that his tongue was really tethered, super tethered. I could see the tie was really far forward, and he couldn't lift his tongue. So I kept telling them, I was like, "He can't lift his tongue up the way that I feel like he needs to." They just kept telling me how to hold my own body to try and breastfeed properly. I'm like, "I don't think that that's the problem though." So that was really challenging. They did want me to stay extra time for some monitoring. So the next day was Thanksgiving. I don't think my OB wanted to be there. It was a holiday, right? He took his sweet time coming in because they wouldn't even let me eat. That was the thing. I was on magnesium. They brought breakfast in at like 7:00, and he strolls in at like 10:30. I just watched my breakfast get cold in the corner. So that was interesting. But yeah, I think at that point, if you had had a Cesarean without complications, they were looking at about a 48-hour stay. But they asked me to stay an additional day because my pressures were still labile. They were still elevated. I did get put on-- I can't remember the name of medication, but it was blood pressure medication. I was taking Motrin for pain management, the hospital-grade Motrin for my Cesarean. I cannot even describe what it was like trying to get up and walk around that first time after surgery. It's insane. That was something I didn't expect. But yeah, I didn't get much sleep. The last day that I was there, my dog had gotten into a place in my mom's house that she couldn't get him. He had gotten into something, and she couldn't reach him, so she was flipping out. She called my husband. She didn't call me and just told him, "Listen, you have to come get the dog. I can't get him." So he did. I told him, "It's fine, it's fine, you can leave." While he was gone, I had friends come and visit me. They were still visitors pre-COVID. The covering physician came in. I had my son on Wednesday. Thursday was Thanksgiving and I saw my OB, and then there were covering physicians for Friday and Saturday. So we're at Friday now, Friday evening. He came in and saw me and he's like, "You know what? I might be able to discharge you tonight." I got so excited because I was like, this is my first experience having a newborn baby. My husband is trying to go deal with my dog. How awesome would it be if we could just go home tonight?So I got super excited. He said this right in front of my friends, too. He comes back in a short while later and was like, "I just looked at your chart. I looked at your pressures." He didn't clear out the room, nothing. And he's like, "You know what? I can't discharge you. Not with pressures like this. I can't do that." And he's like, "And the covering physician tomorrow won't be able to discharge you any sooner than late afternoon, early evening because that is when he will be here." I was like, okay. So here I am in my head thinking I could go home tonight, and now you're telling me I might be able to go home tomorrow afternoon or evening. I'm already very hormonal. I'm very emotional. My husband's not here.My friends wound up leaving, and I just sobbed. I just sobbed in my room like, oh my god. this is a nightmare. Why can't my body get it together? Why can't I just have normal blood pressures again?Meagan: Yeah.Liz: Yeah. We did wind up getting discharged the next day, but I remember that physician just being so the last straw for me in that experience. You didn't have to say anything at all, and then you also set it in front of all of my friends.Meagan: Uh-huh. Yeah. So you didn't stay with this provider, did you?Liz: I did not stay with this provider.Meagan: For your VBAC? Okay.Liz: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah. I guess I should probably get into that story, right?Meagan: No, this has been great. This has been great. Yeah. Yeah. So you were done. You went home. You're like, last straw, no more, never again.Liz: Yeah. Yeah. And I did have my. My son assessed by a lactation consultant, and she said that was one of the most severe tongue ties that she had ever seen. She did recommend a release. I was four days postpartum at this point. I wound up supplementing with formula which was something I so didn't want to do, but I was just like, this kid is starving. He can't latch properly. I did. I went and saw a specialist, and I had his tongue and lip ties both revised, and it was severe. That was a severe tongue tie. I know people have mixed feelings about that, but he needed it. Even in my opinion, as a lay person.Meagan: Yeah. Yeah.Liz: But yeah, pretty much immediately I knew I wanted things to be different the following pregnancy and birth. I think I started thinking about my VBAC probably that day. It was probably the day I gave birth to my son. This cannot be how this goes every time.So it took me a really long time to even want to conceive again. Not only did I have all these complicated feelings about my birth because yes, I did have a healthy baby. Yes, I ultimately weaned off of blood pressure medication and my body came back to however you want to phrase normal, but I had had this experience that I was holding onto a lot of trauma from, and unfortunately, my son was four months old and my mom suddenly passed away. So yeah, it was unexpected. It was sudden. I still to the day am shocked that I didn't lose my milk supply, but I was able to pump in the hospital and get my son milk. That is a crazy, surreal experience losing a parent, but I don't think that there's much more cruel than losing someone that you care about so much. My mom and I were so close in a postpartum period that's already complicated by birth trauma. So now I had this grief for my mom. I had this grief for the birth experience I didn't have. I think that largely contributed to me waiting to conceive again. I also wanted to try and find out as much as I could about what causes preeclampsia. What exactly goes on in the body that would cause that to happen? Funny thing is the verdict is still out there. They're not exactly sure what causes it.Meagan: Yeah. And there are things that we can do to try to help avoid it, but there's nothing specifically that's like if you do this, you for sure won't have it.Liz: Yeah.Meagan: The same thing with gestational diabetes. It's within the placenta, but we don't know. It needs to be further studied.Liz: Yeah. I have heard that it has to do with the father. Have you heard that too?Meagan: I have heard that as well, that there's a connection. Yes.Liz: Yeah. So I wound up, I remember I saw a home birth my wife just for blood work between having my son and conceiving my daughter. She did mention, "Preeclampsia is largely a first-time pregnancy illness. Largely. It doesn't mean you can't have it a second time," but she was the one who mentioned to me you have a higher instance of getting it again if you have the same father for your child. And I'm like, "Well, I'm married."Meagan: Well, I am going to have the same father.Liz: Yeah. So that was always in the back of my head. It's like, okay well, subsequent pregnancy, less of a chance. But same father, more of a chance. So I was just wondering what my odds were. It definitely was there on my mind for a long time. I studied as much as I could about what could cause it. I've read Lily Nichols, Real Food for Pregnancy, cover to cover. Obsessed with her. Obsessed with everything she has to say. There it is right here.Meagan: And right here and right here. Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. Real Food for Pregnancy. Food is powerful, you guys. It's very powerful. But it's changed over the years.Liz: I know. I love how she presents the research because she's the one who really delves into it and presents it in such a digestible way. It was such an easy read. I was like, okay. Okay, here are some things that I can control. Can I control everything? No. But here are the things that I intend to do the next time.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: So my mom passed away in April 2019. It took, again, a few years, but by spring 2022, I was feeling ready. And my husband and I kind of discussed it. It was in little passing. "Hey, should we try and get pregnant again?" And it was one time. It's not lost on me how lucky I am in that sense that it took me one shot to get pregnant.Meagan: Which is awesome. Liz: Yeah. I found out my EDD for that pregnancy was going to be on Christmas Day.Meagan: Oh my gosh.Liz: Yeah. And I just said, "Wow, I can't avoid major winter holidays, apparently, with my pregnancies."Meagan: Yeah. Oh, my gosh.Liz: So we did not find out that we were having a girl, but she did wind up being a girl. Spoiler alert. But, yeah, I was really not feeling well that pregnancy. It was like aversions times 1000. I had this really bizarre one that I had never even heard anybody discussed before, but I had so much extra saliva in my mouth. I'm sorry. That might sound disgusting. It felt like when right before you're going to get sick, how your mouth fills up with saliva but all day.Meagan: Like your saliva glands were just excess all the time, giving you all the spit possible.Liz: Yeah, it was disgusting.Meagan: That is interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of that.Liz: Yeah, it was terrible. Fortunately, I was working from home. I was working full-time, but I was at home. I would just walk around with a spit cup. Like, how disgusting. It disgusts me to even talk about it. It's just like, what is happening? I was waiting for those aversions to let up because I couldn't stand the smell of coffee, which, I love coffee. Basically the sight of anything that wasn't pure oxygen was disgusting to me. The sight of opening up my refrigerator was like, ugh. Exactly. The gag reflex. That lasted my second pregnancy until 22 weeks. So it was rough. I joked that I was horizontal for 2022, and that's not even a joke. I really was lying down. I had so much guilt because my son was so energetic at this point. He was nearly four years old, and he had so much energy. He wanted to do things, and I could not muster up the energy most of the time. My husband was the default parent, and I never thought that that would be the case. That was really, really hard. That was probably the hardest part of the pregnancy. But yeah, so I started to really actively plan for that VBAC. I started to see a hospital-based group of midwives. I loved them. I had gone for well-woman visits between as well. But every provider that I saw was just amazing. I didn't have any bad things to say. I knew that I would be with them if I was in the hospital. But deep down in my heart, I really, really wanted to be at home. I had seen so many beautiful home birth videos when I did HypnoBirthing. And I also associated hospitals with sickness. I had been there because I developed preeclampsia.Meagan: Uh-huh.Liz: I had been there when my mom was sick and passing away. It was a sick place. I wanted to be at a place where I felt most safe. For me, that was home. I know people have a lot of feelings and opinions about that all over, but for me, that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to do all of the things to keep myself low-risk and able to birth at home if possible while still making plans for transfer and even surgery if it was needed again. So I wasn't ignorant to the fact that it could turn into that, but I was going to try all of the things.Where I live, there actually aren't a lot of home birth midwives who support HBACs, VBACs at home. But I found one and we clicked immediately. When I spoke to her on the phone, I was like, she is my girl. I need her. I need her energy at my birth. We met in person a few weeks later, and she was so, so gung-ho about it. She had mentioned that her mom actually had an HBAC, and she witnessed her mom having that HBAC. It was just ingrained into her. She really supported me with advice on diet. She helped me with supplementation. I was on a lot of supplements for this pregnancy. I'm not even going to front. I had so many alarms set for all my supplements daily. So yes, I was trying to support myself with diet, of course, but I was trying to also fill in any gaps that might be there with supplementation. I just know my diet's not perfect, and it certainly wasn't when I was feeling terrible.Meagan: Yeah, no one's is. No one's is. That's just the reality of it. We can be eating the best we can, and we still are often falling short. That's why supplements are really great.Liz: Yeah. Yeah. I was seeing a Webster-certified chiropractor the entire time to get myself into the best alignment to have that vaginal birth. The supplementation, I was doing reformer pilates. I had started it the year before, and I did it all the way until the very end of November 2022, so I was staying active. I was really trying. I basically said that I will do almost anything to keep myself at home. That was really my motto. Yeah, I really can't say I was totally worry-free. I was waiting for something to go wrong. I was. I was trying to keep this brave face as like, okay. I can do this. I can birth the way that I want to. I can have this complication-free birth and pregnancy experience. And in the back of my head I'm thinking, when is the next shoe go going to drop?Meagan: I mean, it's what you've experienced in the back story, the last story. And it's hard. Even if we've processed through things, there's still sometimes those little creeping thoughts that come in.Liz: Yeah. That is for sure. My midwife did recommend that I get a third-trimester ultrasound. That was more for her, but it was also for me. She never ever said, "You have to do this." Everything was really a conversation. The appointments, especially with a home birth midwife were an hour long or more sometimes. Just amazing. I loved going to see her. So I did get that third trimester ultrasound. It was more to check to make sure that the placenta wasn't compromised in any way and whether it was in a good position. There was no accreta. That was something that we really wanted to rule out to keep me low-risk and at home. I agreed with that. I am not anti-medicine by any means. I just want to put that out there just because I chose to have a home birth. I do respect medical professionals and their jobs and the need for surgery but I also wanted to keep myself in a place, again, that I felt safe, and that's really what it came down to. So in my head, I had mentally prepared to go to 41 weeks. I think that's where I prepared to go because I had learned that many, many women, especially first-time laboring women, because I did not labor with my son, I neglected to mention that I didn't labor at all. So first-time laboring women will go into labor typically, but somewhere between 40 and 41 weeks. Post-dates is very, very common. So in my head I prepared to go to 41 weeks and we got there. We got to Christmas. We through there. I was like, I'm going to go somewhere before New Year's Eve. No, nothing. So we got to New Year's Eve and here I am in my 41st week, and I'm just trying to keep myself calm. What am I going to do? I cannot go to 42 weeks. I can't do it. Mentally, I can't do it. Physically, I can't do it. I'm going to wind up at the hospital. Of course, all of these negative thoughts are swirling. I went for another adjustment with chiropractor. I went for an acupuncture session. I went for a few of them, but I did induction points with my acupuncturist. I was just trying to do all the things-- curb walking, I did the Miles circuit and all the things to try and help this baby engage. So we get to 41 and 1 for me, which is a Monday, and I was woken up with contractions that felt like period cramps. That's how I would describe them. Around 2:00 AM, I started timing them. They were 12 to 15 minutes apart at that point, but they weren't letting up. They were consistent. I woke up my husband getting all excited like, "Oh my gosh, this might be it. Here we are." And they weren't getting closer, but they weren't easing up. So they just continued like that for the rest of the day. I had gotten up from the couch at one point, and I felt like this small trickle. I went into the bathroom, and it didn't look like anything to me. It didn't look like much. There wasn't a huge gush of fluid, nothing. So I was like, oh, I think it's probably just discharge or maybe part of my mucus plug. I have no idea. I have literally no idea. But I was like, nothing seems off to me, and it wasn't enough fluid to be concerning. I did text my midwife to update her and she mentioned to me, "A lot of women will drop into more active labor when the sun goes down. Things get quiet. It starts to get calmer. I can almost guarantee that we're going to have a baby at some point in the next 24 hours." So I go to bed that night and thinking, I'm going to wake up Tuesday probably either be having a baby or have a baby already. I woke up Tuesday, and I was still pregnant. Here I was.Meagan: You're like, this is not what I was thinking.Liz: I remember I would wake up with a contraction, but again, they were 12 to 15 minutes apart. I would go to sleep between no issues and just wake up, breathe through the contraction, and go back to sleep. And that's how the whole night went. I just couldn't believe I was still pregnant. I really was starting to get a little down on myself. I was like, these aren't coming closer together. They're not intensifying. They're not letting up, but there's nothing really happening at this point. I texted my midwife again that morning, Tuesday morning, and she said she needed to come see me for the 41-week appointment anyway, so she said that she would come by that day. She was going to come to my house. And then we get to the mid-morning. It was probably around 10-10:30 and my contractions stopped, like literally up and left. Like, what is happening right now? I can't. I was in shock, literally in shock. Especially because labor had been going on for over 24 hours. It was absurd to me. But she's like, "Don't worry. I'm going to come see you for your appointment anyway." When she arrived later that day, I did ask her to do a cervical check because at this point I'm like, "Something has had to happen whether the baby moved down into a better station or I'm a little bit more dilated or just more engagement. Whatever it is, I just want to know at this point."Meagan:: Yeah.Liz: So she did. She said, "I'll go in there. I can do a cervical check and if I can get in there, would you like me to do a membrane sweep?" And I was like, "I would love that. Anything to get this going. Let's get the party started." I'm at my house. She does the cervical check. She's like, "I can do a membrane sweep." And as she basically finishes up, I feel this gush of fluid.Meagan:: Your water.Liz: Yeah. She stopped, and I said, "Was that fluid?" She's like, "I'm going to make sure it's amniotic fluid. I have the test strip," and of course, it lit up like a highlighter. She's like, "Yes." She goes, "So guess what? We're going to go after baby today. We're going to get this. We are going to get this party started." I had kept telling her, "I can't go to 42 weeks," and she kept saying, "Let's not go to 42 weeks. You'll be fine. We're going to get it moving." And here we are. She did mention, I was at that point, about 3-4 centimeters dilated, so pretty good. But she was like, "I can offer you, I have a Foley. I can offer you a Foley balloon just to put a little bit more pressure on the cervix and maybe we can get those contractions to start to start up again, and then hopefully come closer together." Yeah. So she did. She put that Foley in and she waited with me at my house, and we just chatted. It came out a short time after. It took very little. I didn't have discomfort with that, thankfully.Meagan: That's, good. I mean, your cervix was starting to come forward. Things were going.Liz: It was going. Yeah, yeah. So again, she stayed with me and once the Foley came out, she just advised me to put on some sort of protective underwear whether it was the adult diapers or a pad because now we knew that my fluid was at least leaking, but it wasn't coming out consistently anymore. I don't think it fully came out. It wasn't a big enough gush for it to be all of the fluid, if that makes sense.Meagan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Liz: So she told me to do a few things. She's like, "I'm going to head out. You're going to call me when you need me," which, at that point, I was like, I have no idea what that means, but okay. And she's like, "Here are the things that you can do. Obviously nothing in there anymore, because we know that your amniotic sac is open.Meagan: It's broken. Liz: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But she said, "You could do some pumping. You could use some clary sage essential oil." She gave me her TENS machine, and she's like, "You could try the TENS machine." I had never known that you could actually use that not for pain management. I only thought it was for pain management. So I was like, "That's so interesting." So she's like, "Do the pumping. Do that." So I did. I did one session, I think, before I put my son to bed for the last time as an only child. I did. I went and laid down with him and just knew that was probably going to be the last time that he would wake up or the last time he had woken up as an only child. And then I did it one more time, and not only did my contractions come back, I started timing them on the app, and I'm watching them get closer. They're going from 10 minutes to 8 minutes to 7 minutes to 5 minutes. I'm just watching them like, oh, my gosh. So we get to 11-11:30 at night, and it's just me and my husband there, and they are three minutes apart, and they're not easing up, and they are getting intense. So there it was. They came back.Meagan: And labor begins.Liz: Oh, it began. It began. I have so many interesting photos that my doula wound up taking. Thank God for her. Not only for the photos, but for everything that she did during the labor and delivery. It was intense. It gets intense, or in my experience, active labor when you get the breaks between the contractions and you are able to rest. I took every opportunity to rest. My doula was trying to guide me into different positions. She would help by putting a warm compress on my back at times. She would encourage even location changes in my house just to see if I could use the toilet. She told me to get into the shower at one point. I was like, "I'm too claustrophobic in here." I didn't like that, but she was trying to get me to try different things. But it was so intense. The craziest part for me was transition. That was truly an out-of-body experience. Everybody was doing these hands-on manipulations, my husband and my doula. But I could not do anything but just sway. I was standing, swaying back and forth in my living room, arms up. Why were my arms up? I have no idea, but they were up. I was doing that horse lips, breathing. Yep. It was just what my body did intuitively. I just, at that point, wasn't really getting a break. It was just insane. So that was intense. Out-of-body. I cannot replicate that level of pain in my head. There's just no doing that, but I knew that even if I needed to transfer, which I wasn't planning, but even if I needed to do that for pain management, I couldn't sit down in a car. I was at that point, so I thought to myself, the only way to this is through this. Like that is it. You've got to do it. We're just going to do it. So I knew that in my head. At no point did the pain concern me though. I mean, was it so intense and crazy? Yeah, but it was never like, there's something wrong.Meagan: Uh-huh. Yeah.Liz: So that was really good. I didn't think anything negative during that time except that I was in an intense amount of pain. But it was like pain with a purpose, if that makes sense.Meagan: Productive.Liz: Yes, yes. In the meantime, my doula had set up a birth pool because I definitely wanted to try to be in the pool when I gave birth, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the water since I didn't really like the shower experience. It took a while because the hose kept slipping off of our faucet or whatever, so they had to boil pots of water. I just remember my doula walking back and forth. In the meantime, they did call my midwife. Somebody did, and she showed up with her assistant. So there were like three or four adults trying to hold me in transition or do some sort of physical manipulations and then pour hot water into this birth pool.Meagan: Oh my.Liz: Yeah, it was very interesting. But yeah, my contractions, at that point, were 30 seconds apart and they were lasting a minute and a half. It was intense, yes. But the pool was finally filled at 6:45 in the morning on Wednesday, and the only reason why I know that is because we have pictures of me right before I got into the pool. When I got in, my body just relaxed. I didn't think I was going to be wanting to be in a supine position at all, beyond my bottom at all because I couldn't have even tried to sit on land. But once I got into the pool, everything relaxed and it was like, oh, this is what I needed. This is what I needed. I needed some relief. I also kept telling everybody how tired I was. Anybody who walked past me, I was like, "I'm so tired." They were like, "Yeah, no. We know. We know, but we're going to keep working."Meagan: Yeah.Liz: But yeah, I was in there for a really short time and I had heard of this before, but to actually experience it is next level. I had the fetal ejection reflex.Meagan: Oh yeah.Liz: So I did not even have another cervical check. Nothing. My body just started pushing that baby down and out. I couldn't have stopped it if I wanted to. I was making the most primal sounds. I have video of it, like low guttural sounds. It was probably going on for about 15 minutes. My son walked down, I heard his little pitter-patter of his feet, and he walked down. My stairs go right into my living room where I was. And the whole time the most nerve-wracking part of having a home birth for me was that I knew he was going to be home with us, and there really wasn't an adult aside from my husband and my birth support team who I wanted in my birthing space. So there was no other option of anybody to take care of him besides my husband if it came to that. I think in the back of my head, that was the most anxiety-inducing part of this.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: So down he walks. And of course, he's hiding. He sees these three other adults in our living room. I'm in the tub groaning.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: He's a little nervous. He's a little guy. Fortunately, I think it was either the birth assistant or my doula handed him his little digital camera that I had actually bought as a gift from the baby for him. Yeah. She encouraged him. She's like, "Why don't you take some pictures? Take some pictures of mommy and daddy." The minute that she said that and he started to do that, he calmed down and just wanted to be in it and part of it.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: Yeah. And I told him, "Mommy's making some interesting noises, but I'm okay. I'm safe. I'm okay." And he was just really good about it. I feel like all that anxiety went away, thankfully.Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.Liz: Yeah. I noticed my midwife was starting to gather her supplies and in my head, I actually probably said it out loud like, "Wait, we're doing this here?" And she was like, "Yeah." I was like, "I'm having a baby here in this room." She's like, "Yeah." I was like, "I don't need to go to the hospital?" She's like, "No, no, no. You're okay."And, yeah. My body just kept pushing the baby out. And it was an hour, not even an hour. It was less than an hour from when I first got into the pool until my daughter was out. My husband got to reach down and put his hands there. As she came out, he felt her really chubby cheeks. She has big cheeks like me and her ear, and brought her up to my chest. I was just in shock. I couldn't believe that I had done that. But then, of course, I look and I see that she's a girl. I just knew my mom had sent me her. That's how I felt.Meagan: Oh, that just gave me the chills.Liz: Thank you.Meagan: Oh my gosh. That is so beautiful. I love that your son was able to be involved, and you could feel your mom. Oh huge. Congrats. Liz: Thank you so much.Meagan: Yes. Liz: My mom's name was Faith, and so my daughter's middle name is Faye because everybody who loved my mom called her Faye. She was Aunt Faye to everybody, every cousin. So my daughter's name is Luna Faye. So she is her namesake, and she's amazing. And like you said, I can't believe she's almost two. I can't believe this was almost two years ago.Meagan: Two years ago. I know. We get so many submissions and sometimes we can't get to everybody, but it does take a while sometimes. I'm so glad that you were able to come and still record your beautiful stories and give us so much detail of each one and guidance, and the experience. Yeah. I'm just so happy for you.Thank you so much. I don't think I'll ever come down from that high, that birth high. Like, I think I'll be riding it out for the rest of my life. I'm not sure I'm going to have any more children. I think we're pretty much done, but I would love to give birth like that a thousand more times. It was the redemptive story that I needed. It helped so much with my previous birth trauma, and it made me feel so strong. I have never felt more strong and more powerful than that experience. I don't think I ever will.Meagan: Yeah, well, and there's so much that went into it-- time preparing, research, finding this team, and then even dealing with the prodromal. I mean, that could be defeating within itself. You're so tired, but then you just kept going.Liz: Yeah, I kept doing the things. I mean, that was one thing that my doula and my midwife both commented on. They were like, "You did everything that you could, and you tried to control everything that you can control, and look what happened. That's amazing."Meagan: Yeah. Thank you again so much.Liz: Thank you. I'm so happy to have been able to talk to you and share my story.Meagan: Me too. Do you have any final advice to any of our listeners?Liz: I think my ultimate advice for any birthing person is to find a provider that you align with. I think they can really make or break that experience. No matter where you choose to birth or where you wind up birthing, have that provider that you trust, that you feel like you could have open conversations with. If you say you want a natural birth, they're not going to scoff at that, and somebody who's going to have conversations with you instead of talking at you.Meagan: Yeah, I agree so much. I want to add to just vet them. If they're feeling good at first, okay, stay. And if something's happening, keep going. Keep asking the questions, and if something's not feeling right, don't hesitate to change.Liz: I know. And I not only hesitated, but I knew I had to change with my first provider, and I just didn't. I think at that point, I was so tired.Meagan: Yeah well, it's daunting. It's a daunting thing. I mean, I was there too, so no shame in it. It's just hard when you realize looking back, oh, I could have. I should have done something different. I didn't, but that's okay. We've learned, we've grown, and we've had healing experiences moving forward.Liz: Yeah. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Jobs That Bite Jeremy Brandt has a strange and scary job. One minute, he'll be doing dental work on a lion. Next, he'll be tattooing a bear. It's all part of a day's work as a Nat Geo WILD television host. Listen Now Does Your Cat Have A Smart Phone? Yes, there's an "app" for that.  Just released, the Human-to-Cat Translator. This intriguing app says it can translate human words into cat language. Speak a word or phrase into your phone, and the app plays back a collection of meows, supposedly translating your English into Catlish. When we tried a translation for "come here," our cat tester showed a little curiosity but not enough to actually get off the couch. Of course, even if the app does work accurately, there's a good chance your cat will ignore you, anyway. Listen Now St. Francis of Bloomberg Ex-Mayor Bloomberg's daughter makes a pretty decent living riding horses. Georgina Bloomberg continually wins big stakes in riding competitions. But now she's taking time off to have a baby with her boyfriend. She has more info on the big Tinsel & Tails event. Listen Now Medicines Safe For Humans May Not Be Safe For Pets When people feel pain, they often reach for common medicines such as aspirin or Motrin. However, NSAID use in pets carries risks as well as benefits. Pet owners must be informed about possible side effects, including those that could signal danger. Listen Now Ahhh, The Holidaze Are Here. It's time to endure another year with drunk old Uncle Ned. This year, Vinnie Penn defends the right of the family dog to have a sock hanging from the fireplace mantle. This doesn't end well. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

As weight-loss meds surge in popularity, BigPharma builds pipeline of even more potent, pricey drugs—questions arise as to their sustainability, cost-effectiveness; 93 million Americans may be candidates for them, at an annual price tag of $600 billion; Tufts nutrition chief calls for 12-18 month limits on their use, conditioning their prescription on mandatory behavior modification for weight loss maintenance; German man opts for 217 Covid shots—researchers claim he's still “fine”; Alpha lipoic acid for diabetic neuropathy; Does Motrin affect the liver? Consumer alert over “free” urinary catheter scams.

One factory making pain and fever medications for children used contaminated water. Another made drugs for kids that were too potent. A third made nasal sprays for babies on the same machines it used to produce pesticides. A new Bloomberg investigation reveals that big pharmacy chains have used cheaper, independent factories with a history of manufacturing violations to make store-brand drugs that compete with the likes of Motrin and Tums.  Today on the podcast, host David Gura speaks with national health care reporter Anna Edney about her new research into the factories making tainted drugs. She reveals that one pharmacy chain has had nearly double the recalls of its closest competitor – and the loophole that shielded all of these pharmacy chains from liability. Read more: Dozens of CVS Generic Drug Recalls Expose Link to Tainted FactoriesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Even with the snot and sniffles, we're back with another episode of Brothers in Arms! Tonight we determine “Yeah something like that,” he's far from home, you were merely born into it, script flip, singing stupid songs, wash your hands and say your prayers cause Jesus and germs are everywhere, it's already weird, rub your ear hole, one knuckle deep, “have you changed your socks?,” this is more than Motrin, Ravenclaw, I got some brain fart, Covenant and lots of singing, I passed but I failed, somersaults, come out swinging, I don't know if I'm invited back, flash questions, and a few Dad jokes to round us out. All this from different sides of the world on this week's episode of Brothers in Arms!   Where you can reach us: YouTube: BrothersinArmsPodcast Instagram: Yourbrothersinarmspodcast Twitter: @YourBIAPodcast Gmail: yourbrothersinarmspodcast@gmail.com Twitch: Twitch.tv/brothersinarmspodcast (schedule varies due to life) Website: https://brothersinarms.podbean.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.widerlenspod.comAs the medical establishment continues to extract valuable lessons in the aftermath of the opioid crisis, the medical use of cannabis has become legalized in many US states. But is it an appropriate substitute for opioids? With a lack of scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of cannabis compared to traditional over-the-counter pain relievers (like Motrin), do we fully understand the impact that elevated THC levels can have in patients long term? The push for medical marijuana parallels the opioid crisis, with both instances involving the broad application of treatments without sufficient consideration of potential harms — sound familiar?“So you've created a whole new set of adverse effects that of course they didn't think of…it just got so broadly applied that now they've caught a giant mass of young people that are exposed to interventions that aren't appropriate or they're ignoring adverse effects”In this bonus episode for premium subscribers, Carrie highlights concerns about the medicalization of ‘spiritual' problems and the over reliance on medication as a solution.“My job isn't to practice medicine based on what message you want to hear, it's based on diagnosing your problem and treating it.”She also discusses her shift in focus towards gender-related issues, particularly after encountering cases of young individuals undergoing drastic medical interventions.Watch our full length episode with Dr. Carrie Mendoza:https://www.widerlenspod.com/p/episode-159To listen to our premium content in your favorite podcast app click here for Substack instructions on setting up a private feed.

In this pivotal episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, your host unlocks the secret link between spinal health and hormonal balance with none other than the spine whisperer himself, Dr. Ryan Wohlfert. Dr. Wohlfert isn't just any expert; he's a titan in the realm of spinal wellness—a Certified Mindset Specialist, Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, and a master in the esteemed art of Chiropractic BioPhysics®. With over 23 years of transforming lives through education and renowned clinical practice, he returns to the podcast with an invigorating discussion on Essential Spinal Hygiene for Your Hormonal Function & Vitality. Key Insights From This Episode: The Spine-Hormone Connection: Dr. Ryan unravels how the spine directly influences our hormonal symphony and why maintaining spinal integrity can sing health into our lives. A Lifetime of Vitality: Discover Dr. Ryan's spinal correction protocol, a groundbreaking approach that has helped alleviate chronic pain and fend off dysfunction and disease for thousands. Beyond Manipulation: Learn how specific spinal care goes a step further than traditional chiropractic work, empowering not just relief, but a total revival of energy and endurance. The Pillars of Pain-Free Living: Dr. Ryan shares his wisdom on how simple, daily spinal hygiene practices can liberate you from the grips of medication and pave the way for a lifetime of vibrant, pain-free living. Mindset Matters: Embark on a mindset makeover that aligns your spinal health goals with success, as Dr. Wohlfert elaborates on how mental fortitude underpins physical wellbeing. Dr. Ryan's Mantra for Listeners: "Your spine is the conduit of life energy. Nourish it, and it will nourish every cell in your body. Neglect it, and wellness will elude you. It's that simple, and it's that miraculous." Stay tuned as Dr. Ryan leads us through the intricacies of spinal hygiene and its paramount role in nurturing our hormonal health—not just for today, but for a future brimming with vitality. And remember, your pathway to hormone harmony might just begin with a healthy spine.   Speaker 1 (00:00): You don't have to do anything except deal with the consequences of your choices. Dr. Ryan Wohlfert, stay tuned to find out what you're not doing for your spine that could be affecting your hormones and your health. Speaker 2 (00:14): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast. Speaker 1 (01:08): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. Ryan Wohlfert to talk about the spine and spinal hygiene. I know you're thinking my spine takes care of itself. I don't need to do anything for it. You need to think again, , you really do. Your spine needs TLC. It is your backbone. It houses what your central nervous system, your brain, brings to the rest of your body. And a lot of us, many of us may have problems with it in our lifetime, overt or surreptitious, but it can cause problems in the long run if you're not doing some simple things like you brush your teeth every day and floss, right? There are things you need to do for your spine, but you know, it's pretty obvious when you have a tooth problem because you get a toothache or your teeth turn yellow or you get bad breath or right. Speaker 1 (02:03): It's pretty obvious, but you're probably not gonna have the obvious signs from your spine until a problem is down the line and has become more severe. And there's some simple things you can do for your spine, just like brushing your teeth and flossing that you can do for your spine and why that's super important. So, Dr. Ryan's gonna dive in with us on that topic. He has some great quotes, , like the one that I shared with you in the beginning, and he really has a deep knowledge of this subject and can speak about it in a really down to earth, practical way. I think you're gonna enjoy it. So without further ado, I will tell you a little about Dr. Ryan and then we'll get started. So, he's a certified mindset specialist. Love that. He is a certified chiropractic sports physician and certified chiropractic biophysics physician. He uses a specific spinal correction protocol to help patients resolve chronic pain and avoid dysfunction and disease. Yes. So he has over 23 years of education and clinical experience. He's worked with thousands of people to improve their spine energy longevity, eliminate dependence on medication, and make simple healthy pain-free living possible. Please help me welcome Dr. Ryan Wolfert to the Speaker 3 (03:21): show. Thanks for having me, doc. I appreciate you, you reaching out and us getting able to talk. Speaker 1 (03:27): Yeah, I think that this is such an important topic because it's very neglected, I'll say in the functional medicine space, even though we cover a lot of things, we don't cover the bioenergetics of the body, which I think is super important. And we really don't cover the structural aspects which are super important. And part of your metabolic homeostasis, right, from a, from your bones and your muscles, they're very highly metabolically active tissues. And this all ties into the bones and the musculoskeletal system into the spine, which is kind of ground zero, I'll call it, for your overall musculoskeletal balance. So I think it's super important, and that's why everybody listening needs to listen up and pay attention to this. Don't just say, oh, I don't have any spine problems, . Right? And if you're saying that you might, you're likely to have a very high possibility of that in your life. And this contributes to your overall metabolic and hormonal health, believe it or not. And we're gonna get into that a little more. So welcome and I, I would say Dr. Ryan, you're a chiropractor by training, right? Correct. And so what makes you focus more on the spine than anything else? How did you come in your chiropractic career to believe that that's really the linchpin? Speaker 3 (04:56): I love that. And I love what you said right at the beginning too, how, you know, especially in functional medicine, the mechanical aspects of things and structural aspects do get pushed to the background because we're, nutrition is important obviously, but the mechanics of how your body uses that nutrition is also important. And with the spine, my whole journey with the spine started when I was a kid, when I was 13 years old and I had my first migraine headache, and I'm already jumping the gun there. But again, I had these episodes and I would have headaches and I would have colds, and I would have infections and I would've bronchitis and all these things, but I was still an active kid, you know, playing all these sports with my brothers in the backyard and, and eating homemade food that my mom would make. Speaker 3 (05:49): But one time, or I shouldn't say one time, the first time I remember was sitting in class and all of a sudden I couldn't see outta my right eye. The right side of my body went numb like this, I shouldn't say numb, but a tingly feeling in my hand and down my leg. And just seeing spots, you know how you look at the sun and you get that sun spot or a light? Mm-Hmm, . But I couldn't see out of my eye. And then the craziest thing, and probably the scariest thing happened about 20 to 30 minutes after those symptoms started is I couldn't talk. Like I would just, I could have thoughts, but the words weren't coming out. And this was all, I was in class. I was, oh my gosh, asking questions and I didn't know what it was. But then after those symptoms, about a half hour, that's when I got my first migraine headache, like just this debilitating headache. Speaker 3 (06:43): I didn't, like I said, like I said, I thought it was just a headache, just a really bad one. So I went home, slept, and probably took some Tylenol and some ibuprofen that my mom gave me. I don't know, I can't remember. So it went away after a day or two, and then I was again sitting in class and it happened again the next week. So a week later it happened again. I knew what was gonna happen or after, like those first symptoms, the tingling, the sun, like the spots that I couldn't see went down to the school office and asked the secretary, I asked her, you know, I, I'm gonna have a bad headache. Do you have any Tylenol that I can take? And so what she said actually changed the course of my life. She said, I can't give you that, but what it sounds like, it sounds like you got a pinched nerve and you need to go see my chiropractor . Speaker 3 (07:35): So again, I was 10 years old, in the eighth grade. I was like, whatever. It's not like I could take myself, but she called my mom to come pick me up. And she told my mom when she came to pick me up, the same thing she told me. So then we went to the chiropractic office of her chiropractor. He took x-rays, showed me my spine was crooked, which was, I still remember that, again, I'm just giving you a summary version of it. But it was all very thorough. And I remember us sitting in the room, he showed my mom and myself the x-rays and said, look right there, it's on crooked. So then I got my first adjustment, and it was like fireworks went up. It was just, wow. Just, he said, feel your face. And all the circulation I could feel, my face was like beet red and was warm because the circulation was coming back. Speaker 3 (08:23): And so that was my first experience and it, it, it wasn't right then that I said, oh man, I'm gonna be a chiropractor. But it gave me the taste of it. And ever since then I've been, I've been going, but along the way, it wasn't until probably my, my junior, up until my junior year of high school, I was gonna be an engineer, a mechanical engineer. That's what my focus was. But then going into my senior year, somebody told me about kinesiology. Like, whoa, that sound, what's that? The study of human movement, the study of movement, musculoskeletal system, how the body works with that. So I I went into that major and while I was there, that's kinda like a stepping stone to either pre-med, athletic training, physical therapy, occupational therapy. But while I was at University of Michigan my freshman year, I was like, you know what I, I know the power of chiropractic and how the spine works. Speaker 3 (09:16): So that's where my focus led and it's been great along the way. Obviously I've learned a lot. You probably know as well as anybody the, your education and ex it starts after you get outta school. That's basically because after the last, you know, I've been a chiropractor for over 23 years, and the last 15 of it has been in this corrective form, which we'll talk a lot about today and the research behind that and how this actual structure, 'cause you know, there's chiropractic that, again, the adjustments are great, but if you're trying to fix the structure and posture and the, the normal curves of the spine and the positioning of the spine because of how the ligaments and muscles and nerves all intertwine, the adjustment is great for a jumpstart. But if you want to correct the actual positioning and structure and alignment of it, then you have to create a sustained load onto it. Speaker 3 (10:13): Similar to how braces correct the structure of teeth. Just like we can't push on our teeth one time a week or one time even a day, and it will correct the structure of them. There needs to be a sustained load to do that. And that's again, what we focus on. And by correcting those curves and the structure and the normal positioning of the spine, that takes the stress off of the nerves, off of the musculoskeletal system. So like how you mentioned ground zero is the spine. I, you know, I like to say it's the foundation of our strength and our function, because if that's off, then it puts excess wear and tear on the rest of the system. Speaker 1 (10:54): Right. So you said so much in there that's so rich, thank you for that. Before we dive into ground zero, I, I just have to point out a few things that you mentioned. So you said you were gonna go into mechanical engineering, which is interesting because you kind of are a mechanical engineer just of humans, not machines. And it gets to something else that you mentioned. It's interesting how many of us, I want everyone listening to think back, how many times did you go to the school nurse in your educational career with an ache, a bump, a pain for us ladies, a lot of times it's menstrual problems. And did they just give you a Tylenol or a Motrin, right, for your cramps, for your headache? They just gave you the pill. But it's fascinating to me that you are now in the pro profession and path that you're on and that this woman said something completely different. Speaker 1 (11:49): And out of the blue from 99.9% of the school nurses globally, that actually planted seeds that impacted the course of your life. Or rather, maybe she was one of your guides along that path, kind of planted by the divine, the universe, whatever you like to call it, to guide you on your path. And, and why I think this is so important. So why I'm so passionate about what I do is yes, do I want people, women, particularly women over 40, but all women to be as healthy as possible, vital and alive and feel great in their bodies? Yes. But it's so that you can live your purpose, live your passion. And a lot of women, they're so stuck in their health problems that they've even stopped dreaming about that passion. They've stopped listening to that internal voice that's guiding them. They're like, I just, Karen, I get it, but I just wanna feel better. Speaker 1 (12:47): But what I find is when I work with you to get you feeling better, then you're like, okay, now I wanna get back on my path and my purpose, what I think Dr. Ryan shared there was so key because all along your life you've been getting these seeds planted, these walk in angels who say things to you that are so out of the blue, like instead of here's the Tylenol, you've got a pinched nerve and you need to go to the chiropractor. And a lot of times we discount those and we think, oh, this is happening to everyone. I know I've done that. Oh, this happens to everyone. But now looking back, you know, I was in the nurse's office with period problems from the time I first got my period, right. Not realizing that that was guiding me on my path to women's health. So I just wanna highlight that. Thank you for sharing that very beautiful story because people listen, they're also looking to feel better, but they're also looking for their purpose once they feel better. So I think it's beautiful and, and anything you wanna add about that, please feel free to. But welcome to drive into Ground zero, whatever you feel called. Speaker 3 (13:55): I love that you brought that piece into it because I got the chills. You just say that, you know, the divine and God just leading me in that direction and you're not really, you don't know it, you know, until, until you know it, until again, I was going through my journey and you mentioned the mechanical engineering part of it. You're right, essentially that's what we're re-engineering, we're restructuring the body. It's interesting because this technique that we use, it's called CBP chiropractic biophysics, which you mentioned in the intro. It's it, the, the person who developed it, he you know, is a doctor of chiropractic, but he's also, he had a, a master's in engineering and a master's in in math. So he understood the relationship between that of the body and the mechanics and how that affects the overall health of the, because he has such a deep understanding of it. Speaker 1 (14:53): I have not heard of the term chiropractic biophysics. I'm gonna have to look it up. But is this related to, so I went to a chiropractor several years ago who was unlike any chiropractor I had been to before, and I've been to many of them. And he was the one who really introduced me to this whole concept that if there's a torque in your structural mechanics, meaning your spine, and it's kind of twisted and off kilter and things aren't aligned properly, that it alters the way blood flows through all of your blood vessels. It alters the ability of cells to take up nutrients and distribute nutrients that everything is affected. And he's like, think of, if you kind of take a city and you twist it a little, like take Manhattan, which kind of looks like a person and you twist it a little, well then Broadway isn't gonna, the traffic's not gonna flow smoothly along Broadway like it's supposed to. And then, you know, the UPS guy isn't gonna be able to deliver the packages properly 'cause there's gonna be traffic jams at certain places. So think of your blood vessels getting torqued and then calcium can't be delivered and then potassium and blood glucose can't be distributed properly. Is that what you're talking about? Or is it, am I totally off base? Speaker 3 (16:12): No, that's a great analogy. The flow of information, the flow of communication gets interrupted because, and that's a big reason why the spine is ground zero, why it's the foundation. And I think it's one of, I think it's the main reason why it's so important is because it houses the nervous system, the spinal cord and the nerve roots. So if you torque that as well as, again, it, it will alter the circulation like you had mentioned. And that's actually been shown through at least one study in, called in brain circulation journal, showing how the curve of the neck, which we haven't even gotten in the structure yet and what the normal structure is. But you should have this normal side curve of the neck and when you lose that, it alters the vertebral artery chemodynamics of that. So it's not delivering the oxygen, not delivering the blood to the brain, and then you can't get rid of the waste either. Speaker 3 (17:04): But no, that's very similar and like that torque that you mentioned, if there's some sort of mm-hmm, interference like that, and it's not allowing the communication just downriver down the highway. Like I love that analogy. Now the UPS driver can, you know, deliver the package. That's how our organs and organ systems can be affected by the spine not being in the correct alignment because it, you know, at the end of that highway route of that UPS driver is somebody's house. Well, at the end of these nerve roots and or the spinal cord, nerve roots to nerves at the end of those are your organs as well as your muscles and cells and all these tissues that they have to have this communication back and forth. Where if they don't, now the body, the brain's gonna try to figure things out on its own. Speaker 3 (17:55): And here is, I call it a perfect design, but somebody might call it a cruel joke. , your body, your body can handle a certain amount of dysfunction before it gives you symptoms, right? Right. If you felt a symptom every time you did something stressful to the body and that symptom didn't go away, you, your body, you wouldn't be able to function. So we need that nice communication in order for the brain to make decisions on what the body and the organs and the cells and tissue should be doing, including absorbing nutrients, including having your body heal and, and making the correct amount of hormones for, for, for, for your body. Speaker 1 (18:32): Right? And yes, so hopefully everybody listening, you're getting the picture right? And so this chiropractor was explaining to me like you're explaining like if you can do all the functional type of treatments you want, take all the supplements, change your diet, but if your skeletal system is wonky, which you proceeded to show me how mine looked wonky, you're not getting the proper delivery of nutrients, balance of hormones, excretion of waste. And isn't this happening to all of us just from gravity and living? We're all losing our C curve with us sitting and crouching over computers all day long. And kinda what are the situations that we're dealing with in everyday life that are causing us to have difficulties, whether we know it or not. Like you said, we might not have symptoms and we might think we're fine , so please enlighten Speaker 3 (19:27): Us. I got you led right into it. Beautiful. Because yeah, with the world that we're living in today, just going at a global level, you know, six in 10 US adults have at least one chronic condition. What does it have to do with the spine? Well, if you look at our world, almost 70% of us are in the distorted spinal posture that go forward hunched over prolonged flexed posture that leads to chronic issues and including chronic pain and disability fatigue, accelerated aging and arthritis, anxiety and mood problems, and increased medication use, which is a big you know, that's one of the things that I never wanna be on any medications, and this is, and I never will because I already put that in my mindset. And yes, it even impacts our hormones and our metabolic system. So what's even more, which I think is the most interesting part of what people don't know about the spine, is that multiple studies show that this spinal posture, you know, losing the C curve, as you mentioned, that hyper kyphosis of the mid back, that slump hunchback posture Mm-hmm that significantly increases the risk of death from heart disease, pulmonary issues, and all causes, which is surprising to a lot of people until we explain it, is think about it, if we're in that hunchback posture where our, the stress is on the nerves going to the heart, going to the lungs, going to the, the gut. Speaker 3 (20:56): Mm-Hmm. not only nerve stress, but just mechanically, if we're in that hunch position, well now again, we're putting increased mechanical stress on the heart to work the lungs. We can't, you know, get, you know, air into our lungs because there's not even enough space for that. So these, you already mentioned a few, you know, our phones, you know, sitting at a computer on the couch looking down, you know, propped up in our lazboy, driving, you know, even lying down, sleeping either on the couch or in bed or propping up ourselves up on pillows. But yeah, the major one is the phones being on our, our technology, which it's nice and I know that's not going away. So we better know how to counteract that stress with exercises, with adjusting our lifestyle with specific forms of, of traction we call it. Especially if you are already caught in that position where you have arthritis, where you have chronic back pain, where you have, you know, low energy, that's a big one because your body is fighting day after day just against gravity to stand up. Speaker 3 (22:03): And I'm saying a lot here, but I like to put images in, in people's heads and give analogies. If, if you are a, a, a parent or a grandparent and you, there's a, you know, when you had your babies and they were 10 pounds, 15 pounds as there were, you know, hopefully not 15 pounds when they were born, that'd be a, a pretty big baby. But if you took that 15 pound weight or 20 pound person, or even if you don't have a baby around or can't think back to that, just get a dumbbell or aa weight plate or something, 15 pounds and hold it at arms length away from your body. So that's like having this hunched posture where your head's forward and collapsing down is if you have a weight that's 15 to 20 pounds out away from you, do you see how your muscles, your spine, your joints are gonna be on overload, trying just to hold you up against gravity. And now we add things onto it to make it even tougher. So if we retrain our posture and spine using specific techniques to take that stress off of it, bring that weight closer to the body, now we're decreasing the stress, yes, on the spine, but also the spinal cord we're decreasing. And by that we're also decreasing stress on your organs, on your metabolism, on your entire cell tissue system, anywhere that these nerves go. Right? So that's how that works. Speaker 1 (23:28): Yeah, I love how you detailed that. It's, it's funny, I became a nomad about a year and a half ago. I've traveled all over the world and I don't know, somehow I thought in America, maybe we were in a bubble that we're all on our phones all day long. Everywhere. But no, everywhere I go, , , all, all over Africa, the Middle East, and now I'm in London, everybody's on their phone all the time in that hunched over position. And you listen, you know, you do it too. So I love this quote you shared with me before we started. You don't have to do anything except deal with the consequences of your choices. Your choices. So why I love that so much is that a lot of times we're not aware of the consequences of our choices. What are the consequences of being hunched over on our phone all day or our computer every day? Speaker 1 (24:19): And you're really highlighting that for us. You're waking us up to, oh, this is something I need to pay attention to. Whether or not I'm having a spine problem or a pain problem. It's something I need to pay attention to. And I know you've got solutions, . So we're gonna dive into that. But before we do that, how would somebody know if this is like, you need to drop everything and take care of this now position, or this applies to everyone, including me, and I need to start integrating some things into my daily life. What are some symptoms people might have to know where they fall on this continuum of needing acute attention or care versus, oh, this is a chronic problem and I do need to pay attention to it. Like fixing your diet. How do they know? Speaker 3 (25:07): An acute problem would be like any types of acute injuries, especially if you had like sciatica, shooting pain, debilitating pain, like with me when I was, when I had my migraines, that was a sign to me and that was well sign to our school secretary to tell us that, to, to tell me that any type of intense pain would be a, alright, you need to get this checked out. Which again, pain is a great motivator. So that's kind of a simple way to know if you have more on that lower spectrum, but still low energy and fatigue is another big one because your body's wasting so many resources. If your body is in this, your spine is in this distorted, abnormal, weakened position. So those are the two big main ones. Chronic pain in different areas of your body, especially spine and the nerves, disc problems arm, if we're talking may with a neck stiffness, achiness, where again you see a progression of not able to turn your head side to side, tilt it pain, shooting down the arm, numbness, tingling in your hands. Speaker 3 (26:17): Those are all signs of, okay, acute, get these checked out. Now if and hopefully that answered the question with that. If you are, and I'm glad you asked this, because if you don't have these acute symptoms, how can you test yourself to see what your spinal posture is like? And I love that. 'cause That's the, basically that's the first step is how do you assess to make sure that my ears over my shoulders, over my hip is over my ankle? 'cause That's the normal posture. We're looking at you straight ahead. We wanna make sure that if we have a, a straight line or a plumb line dropped down from the ceiling, we want your pelvis under the middle of your chest, under your, you know, middle of your head, like right between your, your eyes. Any deviation from those, again, you can, we call it, you do a selfie test where you take a, you got your phone, right? Speaker 3 (27:08): And you can try to take a selfie, you set it up somewhere and take a picture of yourself. Just get in a comfortable standing position looking straight at it, take a picture. And then also you could from the side especially, and you wanna make sure that you're going from the ground up, that your ankle is right on top of your, the outside of your hip, and then your shoulder and ear are all lined up. So that's one easy way. You can also look in the mirror for the front one. It's a little bit harder to do with the, the side, you know, a side picture of your body. Mm-Hmm, . Now another good one is the wall test because the most common postural distortion is that, you know, the hunchback, right? So you can stand up against a wall, your back is against a wall. Speaker 3 (27:51): Your feet are about two to four inches away from the wall. The back of your, your heels, your hips, your mid back. Your head should touch the wall. If you can't get your head to touch the wall comfortably, again, more than likely you're, there's arthritis. That's the hunchback, it's the degeneration of the disc. It's the common problem with osteoporosis because if they get weak spinal bones and fracture, not, they don't even need acute fractures, but these chronic fractures on the front, it, makes it hard for you to get in that aligned position. So that's another wall test. You can also do it lying down. Now if you, if you're lying down on your back and your head, it's uncomfortable to have your head on the floor or it can't even get in that position. I would call that more of an acute case where you need to get that checked out because you're stuck there. The restrictions that ligaments have gotten so fibrotic and so worn out and they're tight, that it can't do it. Like the muscles by themselves are not gonna allow you to do that. So just postural exercises and exercise by itself won't allow you to get back in the healthy position. Mm-Hmm, Speaker 1 (29:11): . Okay. Does that make sense, yeah. Yeah. Those are some great tips on things to do the wall test or lay on the floor doing the selfie. Or even if you could get someone to take a photo of you from the side or the front and kind of look at this alignment. You know, I have found that some of these skews in your posture are so subtle that I can't necessarily tell them. But then I go to the chiropractor and they're like, duh, , don't you see this? You know how your left hip is slightly higher than your Right, right? And, you know, they look at leg length and they're like, oh, this foot is a centimeter longer than the other leg. And they can really see it. Like, you guys have this very acute vision. And so I like that you're really, Speaker 3 (29:56): It's just like, you're just like, you're trained in what you do that I wouldn't be able to see, just like the, the listener, they're, they're trained in what they do. Like that whole purpose thing that you mentioned at the beginning, that purpose is what your skill is in, in developing that skill. Because I know I'll be adjusting to somebody in my brick and mortar clinic and I will like to start working on them. And they're like, I, how did you know that was there? It's just, you know, after 20 some years of doing it, you get a feel for it based on the symptoms they're telling me or their posture or what it is. Same thing again, in your profession. Yeah, Speaker 1 (30:34): Yeah. You just know. And everybody listening, I love this other quote you shared Dr. Ryan, don't complain about the results you didn't get from the work. You didn't do . So if you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Ryan, I know I should be tense paying attention to my spine, but I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna lie on the floor. I'm not gonna go against, well I'm not gonna do this selfie. Well then don't complain. 5, 10, 20 years down the line, , when you didn't do the work. Like, these are simple things y'all you can do tonight when you're at home or you know, wherever you are. Just stop, drop and do it really quickly to see if, if it applies to you, what are some things that we need to be doing. You know, I think a lot of us got the memo on aerobic exercise. Hopefully more women, if you're listening, have got the memo about the weight bearing exercise resistance training, essential for us women, almost more important than the aerobic exercise. But so many women don't do it. Shy away from it. It's super important. But what things do we need to be doing for exercise for our spine to preserve it, to reverse or counteract some of these kyphotic positions we're in all day long? Well, what do we need to be doing? Speaker 3 (31:49): Beautiful. I love that because that exercise is part of it. I've said the words a little bit at the be, you know, as we've gone through this, but as a simple little acronym, think of eat EAT, that is the protocol of chiropractic biophysics. So EAT stands for exercise adjustment and traction. And I'll go quickly through each of those because when you hear, like, I'll just touch on for a second, adjust you think, okay. Adjustment of the spine. But I'll, I'll show you how adjusting your lifestyle also is under that adjusted part of it. But let's start with exercise. You mentioned great ones, general exercise that you just mentioned. Beautiful. Not even gonna talk about that. But now there's general spinal exercises that you can do. And I know they'll have access to the spinal hygiene mini class. And this is part of that, but I'll go over it here. It's just like we take care of our teeth and brush our teeth every day, or at least what we're supposed to. Speaker 3 (32:48): We wanna take care of our spine every day. And it doesn't have to take long. Very simply taking your spine through all of its ranges of motion at least once a day, maybe even twice a day. So what are the ranges of motion? So side to side, bending side to side. I know people can't see me, but as I'm doing it, I have to do the actions as I do it. So your trunk and then also your head and neck, the rotation, just taking it, rotating it side to side. And you can either hold at the pain-free end range of motion for 10 seconds, or you can do five to 10 reps in each direction with these. If you have, I'll put the caveat right now, or the disclaimer, if you have osteoporosis or fractures, you want to be careful with the twisting and with these exercises, that's why it's always gentle, it's always controlled. Speaker 3 (33:38): So we have the side to side, we have the rotation. Now we want to flex. Although we are in this prolonged flexed posture for a lot of, you know, most of our day, we still wanna be able to do that motion. We just don't wanna be in that chronically flexed position. So flexing down, like either doing like a, and then also extending back. So the cat cow, a lot of people are familiar with that exercise or on your hands and knees where you're rounding your back, taking your chin towards your chest and then arching it up, squeezing the shoulder blades, dropping the pelvis down, but you're flexing the spine and extending rounding and then flattening going towards their, I don't like to say extreme, but their, their final range of motion under control gently and pain free. So that's called spinal hygiene. And just like I said, taking two minutes outta your day to do that. Yeah, Speaker 1 (34:32): I love that. And you could even do it while you're brushing your teeth. You know that great book Tiny Habits where one of his main tips was to link a new habit to something else that you already do. So if you're already religious about your teeth, brushing, flossing, all the things and the evening, then you could just tack on spinal hygiene to your dental hygiene right after. So it makes it super easy. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Speaker 3 (34:57): That's okay. And there are more sp if, if you find during the assessment or if you ever get your spine checked from a doctor that specializes in, especially this corrective technique and like you said, Dr. Karen, we're good at seeing things that other people can't either through x-rays or through this postural analysis. But if you find during your assessment, your self-assessment, that your posture stinks, for lack of a better word, that it's, it's not aligned, your head's in front of your shoulders, your kyphotic or your, you know, your body side to side, one shoulder lower than the other, your head's tipped. There are specific postural exercises, spinal exercises that we would recommend based on your specific needs in the opposite direction to counteract that postural distortion. So unlike exercise, generally, you know, general exercise, we wanna do it bilaterally or if we go in one direction, we wanna do it on the other side of the body. Speaker 3 (35:55): Specific. Postural and spinal exercises are different because you have to counteract the position it's already in. So if I'm hunched over, heads forward, we don't wanna do a prolonged exercise where we're doing that, but we're doing an exercise where we're bringing the shoulder blades back, taking the head back, called the full spine exercise breathing. And it's not just a stretch, but it's retraining. Holding that position for five to 10 seconds, starting off at three sets of 10 reps and working your way up to even like 5, 6, 7 sets of 10 reps every day because we have to retrain it. Now you could do that type of exercise if you are at a computer, if you're hunched over, if you're on the couch for 20 to 30 minutes. And it's always good to have a timer on. So, mm-hmm, , another little tip, a timer on at 20 or 30 minutes. So you get up and just do this exercise for like 30 seconds where you're shoulders squeezing your shoulder blades back, taking your head back. That actually helps to increase circulation. Mm-Hmm, , which you'll feel. So that's the exercise part of it now. Speaker 1 (37:00): Yeah. Well I wanna add in there. Yeah, I just wanna put a plug for yoga. 'cause I always say that the triad is aerobic weight bearing and stretching because the constriction of your joints where the connective tissue starts hardening and getting tighter happens very gradually that you don't even notice it. And then before long, you know, you're having trouble reaching over your head or you can't touch your toes or whatever. And so yoga takes you generally through a lot of these stretches. So I wanna put a plugin for that, but please proceed. Speaker 3 (37:32): No, those are exactly the three cardio weight bearing resistance type training and flexibility ability. Absolutely. And it's funny because we'll get into the, with the traction part, eat, we'll talk about that. You said it perfectly. The connective tissues get tense, they get tight and you don't even know what's happening. And, and how do you correct that? So it is an adjustment. So adjusting the spine, which chiropractors are known for, but like I said in the beginning, it's not gonna correct the structure long term. It's gonna give you a jumpstart to a dead battery like I did with my daughter's car this morning. It's going to again give you, get the nerves working again and functioning, but also adjust talks about lifestyle, how you sit, how you stand, how you bend, lift, sleep, how you carry things. Think about your day and the postures that you're in and how you can improve on the postures that you're using. Speaker 3 (38:27): The biggest one, which we've mentioned multiple times, is on your phone, on your smartphone. I'm not sure how your phone being down in your lap or your tablet or your, well it's called a laptop. So I guess that's why, how that became the normal positioning to look at your phone. But it's very simple how to correct that, how to adjust the positioning of that. If you're sitting down, make sure your butt is up against the back of the chair of the couch, whatever it is, prop pillows behind you to keep you more upright. And then you can also put pillows or blankets or something on your lap. Rest your elbows on those blankets or pillows on your lap. Bend your elbows in arms to about 90 degrees or more and bring your phone towards, you know, more in front of your face. Definitely in front of, more like the chest area. Speaker 3 (39:20): Chest level, not down in your lap. And, have that be the normal position. Have, you know, let's make it so when we see somebody in the flex position looking down at their phone, you know, walking around or standing there waiting for something or at the airport waiting, that, that becomes like the abnormal where it's like, man, that doesn't look very good. Let's, let's lift it up so you can do this. Not just when you're sitting, but when you're standing too. Check your posture with that. So that's the, I will say another lifestyle adjustment. How you bend. It's not all about squatting, but it's more of a, in weightlifting terms, like a deadlift or a hip hint, you want to hinge at the hips when you're, you're bending because we're not always gonna be in a, I wanna say position to squat, but we're not always gonna be squatting. So we need to learn how to use our hips to bend. And I'll give a plug to a great technique called foundation training. It teaches you how to use your hips using this hip pinch. And I explained it in one of my, one of my handouts. But yes, how you hold your phone and how you bend are two huge things that you can adjust in your lifestyle. Speaker 1 (40:31): Awesome. Those are super important. We are running out of time, but before we wrap up, and I know you've got some great resources for everyone we wanna share, you mentioned osteoporosis or osteo products, spinal fractures, which are horrific. We don't want anyone here to have those. They're very silent, but they're also very painful and they're devastating because they do decrease your lung capacity. So your ability to breathe and, and oxygenate your tissues and have so many consequences. Can you just talk a little bit about osteoporosis? I can't tell you how many women I come across who have not had osteoporosis screening and they are well beyond the age at which they qualify for that or the medical risk factors that should qualify them and their doctors aren't talking to them about it. So I'm wondering if you could just put a plug in for women to get osteoporosis screening, what that should consist of, who should be getting it and how important it's, well, Speaker 3 (41:30): I don't know, like, you know, that's not in my area. I just see a lot of it because of the spine that I, you know, the, the 'cause I've been on the spinal health and because we have to make sure with that, I mean obviously Kevin Ellis is really good at explaining that Margie Bissinger because they deal more with osteoporosis. So look them up obviously. And you are even very well versed in what, when people should be getting checked because as they go through life changes and hormonal changes that affects the bones, that affects the, the, the strength and the density and the mineralization of the bones. But also what I, I like to point out too is I'm gonna take it back to the spine. Osteoporosis will affect the spine, it will affect your posture and that hyper kyphosis, especially if it's weak. So if we're weakening the bones, if we're weakening the bones of the spine, it's gonna cause these micro fractures, it's gonna cause degenerated disc because now there's increased stress on that, it's gonna cause that hunchback. Speaker 3 (42:30): So if you're, you know, per menopausal postmenopausal, they need to get that checked. But even more I think it is important to learn these things that you're teaching through nutrition, through detox, through posture, through sleep, all these healthy living practices to help prevent it. Yes, I know it's, it's a big, big story right now. And I think another big reason why osteoporosis is so profound and rampant now is the medications that people are taking. Mm-Hmm the side effects of these. And there's patients who I've talked to that have been on, they were on 20 years of, of prednisone and it's a steroid which weakens the bones 20 years. And those are obviously acute, special, hopefully they're special cases and not the norm because that is just gonna make your bones trash if you have been on medications, that's a, a good benchmark there is, if you've been on medications for a long period of time, it doesn't have to be steroids, it doesn't have to be prednisone. Speaker 3 (43:31): Make sure you get your bones checked because of the side effects caused not just the bones but your gut health, which affects how your body can absorb these nutrients. That's for osteoporosis. And I just wanna plug one time here, not a, not a plug, but because the most unique part of this whole eat protocol is the T part is the traction. We have to make sure we are addressing that and possibly using some form of traction similar to how braces are put on teeth to correct the structure. We have to put the spine in a position for a certain period of time, hold it there so the ligaments can reform. Alright? And we can use different towels, different techniques of the guy explain it in the spinal hygiene mini class that they'll have access to. Yes, Speaker 1 (44:16): There's so much to talk about it. I know we can't get it all in one show, but we will give them a link which will be in the show notes to share with everyone. And, and I do wanna reiterate, yes, Margie is great about osteoporosis. She's been on the show. So if you miss that episode, go back and listen. If you are a woman over 50, you absolutely should have a dual femur, dual hip DEXA scan to check for osteoporosis. And if you're at increased risk, 'cause you've been on medications like chronic prednisone, there's a whole list of medications that will increase your risk, family history, et cetera, then you wanna get a bone density. So thank you Dr. Ryan for joining us for this essential information to highlight things that we need to be aware of so that we can have great vitality and have an increase in our vitality span, not just our longevity, but how vital and alive we are in those extra years that we're gonna live. Because we do all the things and tell everyone about the spinal hygiene mini class that you have for them. We'll have the link in the show notes and where they can connect with you online. Speaker 3 (45:20): Yeah, I mean the spinal hygiene mini class, it's a simple one pager that shows you like what are the like four simple steps you can do to hydrate your body and spine to exercise at which we, we went over here how to, I went into more like how to adjust your lifestyle and went into examples of how to do that and then also the traction part of it, how to use towels, how to use household house, things they have around the house to use your advantage to help correct and support your spine. And then you can always go to dr wolfer.com, D-R-W-O-H-L-F as in Frank, ER t.com and that's where you can find me. Speaker 1 (46:05): Awesome. Well, I hope everyone will check Dr. Ryan in those places. Download the guide, add spinal hygiene to some other habit that you're already doing. It just takes a few minutes and enjoys the benefits of improved spinal function, which means improved hormonal balance, improved overall health. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Ryan. Speaker 3 (46:28): Thank you. Speaker 1 (46:29): And thank you for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. This really is essential information that I don't know, honestly. Is your doctor telling you to take care of your spinal hygiene? I don't think so. So , you need to know about this, so I'm glad you're here. One last quote that Dr. Ryan shared with me before we started recording. I'll leave you with for when the one great scorer comes to Mark against your name. He writes, not that you won or lost, but how you played the game. That's from Grant Lynn Rice. So how will you play the game with the information that you get? What do you do with it? Do you want to know and keep it moving? Or do you go, nice to know. I'm gonna see how I can implement this in my life. I look forward to hearing what you do with this information on social media. So reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook at Kyrin Dunston md. Hope you have a great week. I'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all. Thank you so much for Speaker 2 (47:28): Listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.   ► Get Dr. Ryan Wohlfert's 1-Page Spinal Hygiene MiniClass: Learn Simple Solutions to Hydrate, Move & Support Your Spine, Maintain Healthy Postures, and Live a Pain-Free, Active Life: CLICK HERE https://drwohlfert.com/spinalhygiene/   ► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way. With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results. Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause. Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer! CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!   ► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try? It might be time to check your hormones. Most people don't even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what's going on with your hormones and get you back on track. We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started. Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.  

Be especially cautious with anticholinergics if you are concerned about your memory, diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, or want to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's.  —Melissa Batchelor, PhD, RN, FNP, FGSA, FAAN   Anticholinergics are medications that block acetylcholine, a crucial neurotransmitter in the body. This blocking leads to lower brain function and can cause drowsiness. While some people take these drugs for their sedative effects, these drugs can be problematic for someone who has a vulnerable brain – meaning a person already experiencing memory problems.   Research links anticholinergic drugs to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and hospitalizations in older adults. The American Geriatrics Society warns against these drugs, listing them on the Beers List updated in May of 2023 of medications older adults should avoid or use cautiously. Common Anticholinergic Medications to Avoid   Anticholinergics are present in allergy medicines, muscle relaxants, painkillers, and many over-the-counter (OTC) medications.   Here are seven types of anticholinergic medications that older adults should be cautious about: Sedating antihistamines: e.g., diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is a prime example as a medication that is available over-the-counter but has strong anticholinergic activity. Non-sedating antihistamines, such as loratadine (brand name Claritin) are less anticholinergic and are safer for the brain.   PM versions of OTC pain medications: Most OTC pain medications, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen (brand names Tylenol and Motrin, respectively) come in a “PM” or night-time formulation, which means a mild sedative — usually an antihistamine — has been mixed in. The same is true for night-time cold and cough medications such as Nyquil.   Medications for overactive bladder: These include bladder relaxants such as oxybutynin and tolterodine (brand names Ditropan and Detrol, respectively).   Medications for vertigo or motion sickness: Meclizine (brand name Antivert) is often prescribed to treat benign positional vertigo. It's also used to treat motion sickness.   Medications for itching: These include the strong antihistamines hydroxyzine (brand name Vistaril) and diphenhydramine (brand name Benadryl), which are often prescribed for itching or hives.   Medications for nerve pain: An older class of antidepressant known as “tricyclics” isn't used for depression that much any longer, but these drugs are occasionally still used to treat pain from neuropathy. Commonly-used tricyclics include amitriptyline and nortriptyline.   Muscle relaxants: These include drugs such as cyclobenzaprine (brand name Flexeril) and they are often prescribed for back or neck pain. Also Paxil (paroxetine) is an SSRI-type anti-depression/anxiety drug that is anticholinergic which is why this drug is almost never prescribed for older adults by a provider with expertise in geriatrics. However, other SSRIs, including Lexapro (Escitalopram), Celexa (Citalopram), and Zoloft (Sertraline) are not anticholinergic, which is why SSRIs aren't on the list above. Find out if you are on an anticholinergic medication by consulting a list or using an "anticholinergic burden scale" calculator.  If you discover that you or a relative is taking such medications, consult a doctor or pharmacist to discuss potential adjustments, safer alternatives, or non-drug treatments.   Read more about the BEERS LIST here: 

Grace: “'If you are COVID-positive as the mother, you are not allowed to do skin-to-skin, you are not allowed to breastfeed your baby, and you are only allowed to hold your baby two times a day for 15 minutes.'”Meagan: "That's what they told you?"Grace: "That's what they did. That was their policy."Today's episode is a must-listen for everyone in the birthing community. We know 2020 was an especially tough year to give birth and Grace's first birth story shows exactly why. Grace unexpectedly tested positive for COVID upon arriving at the hospital for a recommended induction after providers were worried about her baby's size. She was immediately subject to the hospital's policies for that day. Grace felt like her birthing autonomy was slipping farther away with every intervention. She ultimately consented to a C-section for failure to progress. Her lowest point was watching a nurse feed her new baby a bottle in her hospital room while she felt perfectly fine and capable of doing it herself. Grace was a compliant and obedient patient, but her heart was broken.Though she went through so much, Grace's positivity and commitment to a redemptive second birth experience are so inspiring. Grace is sharing all of the warning signs she wishes she recognized before along with so many helpful VBAC preparation tips. While we wish Grace didn't have to go through what she did, we are SO very proud of her resilience and strength!Additional LinksThe VBAC Link Blog: 10+ Signs to Switch Your ProviderThe VBAC Link Blog: How to Find a Truly Supportive VBAC ProviderNeeded WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello, Women of Strength. I am bringing another VBAC to you for you today. I always do that. To you, for you. It is for you today. We have our friend, Grace, and she is actually from New York, right? Yes. Grace: Yes. Meagan: New York. Yes. That too, is something I want to start highlighting on the podcast because we have a lot of people being like, “Well, where are they from? I want that provider. How possible is it for me to get that provider?” She is from New York, everybody, so if you are from New York, definitely listen up extra sharp on this one. Yeah. She is going to share her traumatic C-section story and her healing VBAC. It just tickled me so much when she said in the beginning when we were chatting that this podcast truly helped her so much. It truly is so heartwarming to hear those things because this is exactly why I'm still doing this podcast. It is because I want everyone to have these stories, to be able to feel empowered, and to learn along the way because I think in addition to inspiring, these podcasts really, truly inform and educate. We can learn from other peoples' stories. We can be like, “Oh, I didn't even know that was a thing.” Even though birth is really the same, it's just the same concept. Our cervix gets to 10 centimeters. We get 100% effaced. Our baby comes out through our pelvis and we push a baby out, it's just treated so differently truly worldwide. That's what is kind of crazy to me still that we haven't caught up to evidence-based birth in every state or country and we do things so differently. I think that's something really cool too to learn where people are from so we can learn what birth looks like in that state or in that country. Review of the WeekWe are going to read a Review of the Week and then we are going to turn the time over to our cute friend, Grace, to share her stories. Grace: Yay. Meagan: This is from stephmeb and her title is “Positive Stories Inspire Birthing Women”. It says, “As a VBAC mama myself, I have to say that one of the things I drew strength the most from were the most positive birth stories. I wish this existed with my previous babies and cannot wait to listen and gain strength from the stories that we are blessed enough to have one another sharing.” It says, “What a beautiful thing to have and it all is in one place.” I love that she highlighted that. That is something that we love to do here at The VBAC Link. That's why we created it. We wanted you to have all of the things– the stories, the information, the education, the resources all in one place because I too, when I was going for my VBAC, had a hard time scrambling all over the place trying to find out the information. It says, “These ladies are really blessing and inspiring birthing women, VBAC or not.” I love that. Thank you so much. As always, we love your reviews. They truly make us smile. They keep us going. I even still to this day will get a review and send it over to Julie so she can see that her legacy is still carrying on today. So if you haven't left a review, we would love one. You can help us on Google if you just Google “The VBAC Link”. You can leave us a review there. It helps everyone out there looking for VBAC to find us, to find this podcast, and to hear these amazing stories. Or on Apple Podcasts or you can even email us. Thank you so much for your review. Grace's Stories Meagan: Okay, Grace. Before we were talking, we talked about not the best C-section experience. Grace: Horrible. It was horrible. Meagan: We talked about being COVID-positive. That was a really hard time. We are still having COVID. COVID is not going away, so I think this is also a really good thing to hear about what things to do or what things to know if you are COVID-positive. Fortunately, the hospital system has changed substantially since then. I was probably one of the most angry people that I have ever been. I was a very angry person during COVID watching what was happening to my clients and what was being told to my clients. It was heartbreaking to see and I can't imagine going through that. So if you are a COVID mama birther whether you had COVID or not, just know I am sending you so much love because I know you went through hell a lot of the time. And then you had a redemptive VBAC. I am going to turn the time over to you to share with the listeners your stories. Grace: Awesome, yeah. Going back, since my first birth which was a C-section, my first is three and a half. It's been crazy trying to go over what happened before I started recording with you just so I had all of my points down. I started to cry at one point just because it was so traumatic. I don't know if other women have gotten as traumatized as I have, but I'm sure some have because it just was terrible. So maybe that's why it's good I have everything written down. I don't know where I should start because it's just so much. So again, I was COVID-positive. This was 2020 and this was right when COVID started becoming so serious that they shut everything down. So March and April 2020, I had to start working from home. At that point, I was 6 or 7 months pregnant with my first baby. I didn't think anything of it. COVID at the time was scary, but because of my age– and I didn't have any other conditions. I wasn't a diabetic or anything where COVID can be really scary. Other than that, we were just isolating the way we were supposed to. I am a teacher and we didn't have to go to work so that was actually kind of nice. I got to work from home. I went on really long walks and just enjoyed the end of my pregnancy. Nothing was phasing me. I had a regular OB. I picked this OB. Why did I pick this OB? I think it was that I wanted to give birth at this hospital that when I was picking hospitals in my area, I was told that this hospital has the best NICU. I'm like, “Okay.” I had no reason to think my baby should need a NICU, but when you are picking, you're like, “What are the pros and cons?” I picked that one and I went with the OB practice that was connected with that one. It was, I think, private. There were a lot of providers in that practice. A few people did say, “Just so you know, a lot of people have C-sections there.” I already knew two women who went there and both had C-sections. Warning sign number one, if you are hearing people say that a particular provider or practice is likely to give you a C-section, just be aware of that. Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. Grace: I didn't listen to that. So probably in mid-April, I started losing my sense of smell. Immediately, I'm like, “I might have COVID.” My husband and I about a few weeks earlier than that did have five days where we didn't feel great. We were tired. We were run down. We kept thinking, “Maybe it's COVID,” but our symptoms were super mild. No fever, no difficulty breathing. And remember, in early 2020, everybody was petrified of COVID and expecting it to be this super terrible thing. You're going to go on a respirator and all of these things. We had that one week. We weren't feeling great and then mid-April which was a few weeks after that, I lost my sense of smell so I was like, “Crap. I think I might have COVID.” I hope I can say that. Meagan: Yeah, you can. I just said “hell” so “crap” is good. Grace: I called my OB and I called a few other people. I said, “I don't know what to do. I lost my sense of smell. I feel fine.” I felt fine. They were like, “Okay. Isolate for two weeks. Let us know how you are doing.” We were. We weren't going anywhere. We were just working from home. I would go out with my mask and my gloves. We did all of the things then, but we didn't really go to work or anything. So then those few months go by. This is something I didn't want to forget to mention. Even at 20 weeks of my pregnancy, almost every appointment that I went to whether it was a checkup or a sonogram, they started saying, “Your baby is very big. It's big. He's going to be–” Not that they would give me a weight, but they were like, “He's going to be a big baby. He's going to be a big baby.” He was a boy, so I was big in the front. I was gaining weight which was concerning me. Meagan: Also normal to gain weight. Grace: Right. Totally normal, but when they started saying that so early, and then at the time, my sister had her first and her son was, I want to say 8 pounds, something. She really struggled to get him out. I'm not going to tell her story, but the things she had to go through to get him out were tough. She didn't have a C-section, but when I started hearing, “Oh, he's big,” it started making me concerned like, “I hope I can get him out.” Again, another foreshadowing that you're not seeing the right people because they shouldn't be saying that to you. They should just be letting the baby get where it needs to get and letting you know that everything is going to be fine. So I'm going through isolation. Time goes by and I'm getting into my third trimester. As we all know, women who have been pregnant, when you get to the end, you start to lose your mind. You start to get very vulnerable. You start to be like, “Please get this baby out of me.” By that point, I was rotating OBs so I had met everyone because you don't know which OB you're going to get. So I went to this one OB and he was the main OB of a girlfriend. She would only want to see him. He did make a comment that was bad bedside manner and it should have been an indicator that this guy was not looking out for you. He said, “Oh, you're having a boy? We don't like when you ladies have boys.” Meagan: Oh, whoa. Grace: Yeah, he said that to me. I giggled out of awkwardness, but after leaving, I was like, “Who says that to somebody?”Meagan: Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. Grace: I didn't like it either. I think that was the first time I had seen him. I only had seen him twice during my whole pregnancy and then the last time was before I got admitted to the hospital. It was at 40 weeks. I think I went in to see them and he goes, “Okay, again. Your baby is really big. Let's give it a few more days and then we'll schedule an induction for you.” You know, at the end of your pregnancy, you're like, “Yeah, get it out.” Meagan: Vulnerable, yeah. Grace: Vulnerable. And because my sister had gotten induced that January, inducing didn't seem like any kind of fearful thing to me. I had heard stories of women getting induced and getting a C-section, but I just kept thinking, “I'm full term. I'm healthy. There's nothing wrong.” Again, I didn't want my baby to get too big. They kept putting that thought in my head. They scheduled my induction and right when I told my mom, my mom had five kids all natural. She never had any chemicals put in her body every. When I told my mom they scheduled my induction, she flipped out. She was like, “No!” Another warning sign for me that I should have listened to. “Don't do the Pitocin. Don't do it. It's not good for you. You don't need it. Your labor is going to be really hard. It's going to be really long.” She was telling me, “Don't. This is a terrible decision.” “You know,” I'm like, “But they're telling me that this baby is going to get too big. I don't want it to get any bigger. I don't want to go too far.” Meagan: It's scary.Grace: And it's scary. They do say my risk goes up once you go past the 40 weeks and all of these things. But I did it anyway. I go to the induction. We get to the hospital. They're like, “Oh, you have to do a COVID test when you get there.” I thought it was a good thing. I'm like, “Oh, good. They're making sure the COVID people are separate. It's such a good thing.” No thought in my mind that I would ever be positive. I felt perfectly fine. We were keeping ourselves in the house, wearing the masks and doing all of the things. They do the test. Meanwhile, my husband and I are sharing a water bottle in the room. Then they were taking a really long time to get back in the room. I remember thinking, “That's not good. Where are these people? We took the test at least 30 minutes ago and these tests don't take that long.” They come back in full get-up, all three– the OB and the two nurses– full get-up of the gown and everything. Immediately, my heart sank. They're like, “So it turns out that you are COVID-positive. Your husband is COVID-negative so he can stay.” If he was COVID-positive, he would have had to go home. Yes. I'm hearing this. I'm starting to freak out. Remember, I'm a first-time mom. I'm already petrified of giving birth in general, so hearing that, I'm like, “Oh my god. Oh my god.” Then they told us that the policy that day– because the policy with COVID patients was changing every day. They were like, “So if you are COVID-positive as the mother, you are not allowed to do skin-to-skin and you are not allowed to breastfeed your baby, and you are only allowed to hold your baby two times a day for 15 minutes.” Meagan: Shut up. That's what they told you? Grace: That's what they did. That was their policy. Meagan: No. See? This is why I was the angriest doula in my life. It was the angriest time I have ever been because of this stuff. That doesn't even make sense. Grace: It made no sense especially because I'm thinking, “I'm bringing the baby home with me.” The baby is going to be 100%. I'm going to nurse this baby. I'm going to have this baby on me.” If I was coughing and had a fever and a runny nose and all of these horrible, contagious symptoms, obviously, it's like, “Yeah. I shouldn't maybe hold my baby. I don't want to get my baby sick.” At that time, COVID was scary, so it's like, “Okay, if I am this COVID-positive, deathly-looking patient, fine. I get it. Baby's safety first,” but I was fine. I said I was sharing germs with my husband who was negative. I kept saying, “Please retest. Please? Clearly, these tests are wrong.” I actually did all of this research that the COVID-positive gene or swab or whatever it is in you will stay in you for months and I was pregnant. My immune system was not what it normally is. Meagan: Well, and you were pregnant meaning you were sick. You had the antibiotics. Guess who has the antibiotics? Baby is inside of you. I don't actually know the evidence, so I can't say that there is no way, but in my head, it doesn't connect. There's a disconnect there. How did baby not– anyway. You were the same human– I mean, human in human during that time. Grace: Yeah, like you said, not only could I not do the skin-to-skin, but neither could my husband which all of the antibodies and all of the healthy things, my baby really didn't get any human skin touch until he got home which was three days later. Meagan: I'm so sorry. Grace: Yeah. I mean, I know he's fine, but there are these things. Now he's three and a half, when he has sensory issues or anything, I always go back to how his birth was horrible. Obviously, there's more. So that hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm just devastated and I'm calling all of my family. I can't see any family. No one can come to the hospital and I'm just crying. Already, it's like the downhill is starting. So that happened. I have to just– over the few hours that I'm there getting everything set up, I have to come to terms with, “I can't have skin-to-skin. I can't nurse. I don't know how I'm going to handle that.” Still thinking about that makes me really upset. Meagan: Even the nursing too, those are good antibodies and strong. That's what helps our babies. Grace: Yeah. I know. It's completely backward. The OB that was there was actually no one I had met before. She really didn't seem concerned. She was totally– what's the word– I use this when it comes to these healthcare workers in the hospitals. They are desensitized. That's the word. They were desensitized to my reaction and my husband's and all of it. They were just like, “Yep. This is how it is. Whatever.” Anyway, they get us in the room. We had to be locked in the room. Anytime another nurse came in or whatever, we had to put a mask on. Meanwhile, every time they came in a room, it was the full getup so obviously, I was already a patient that they didn't want there. That was how you kind of felt. The nurses weren't nasty or anything, but they gave you the vibe of, “Oh, great. She's hitting the button. We gotta go help the girl with the whole getup.” You know? I know I'm not the only COVID-positive one there, but you don't want to feel that. You don't want to feel like that type of patient. So you know, they started me on Pitocin. We're trying to get through it. We're watching TV. The contractions weren't too bad. I was getting through it. I'm moving around like crazy. The first nurse I had made a joke. She said, “I've never seen a pregnant woman move around as much as you.” I was trying so hard to get contractions going. Meagan: Movement is good. We should be moving around in labor. Grace: 100%. I mean, I had to do it in my room. I couldn't go anywhere which was dumb, but I'm doing all I can do. Hours are going by. Again, Pitocin is slow to go. I think after, I'd say maybe 10 hours of it, I go, “I am so tired and I'm not really progressing.” I think I was only 2 centimeters after 10 hours. I'm like, “I am so tired.” I was feeling contractions at that point that was enough that I needed a break. This is another warning sign that I should have said no to. I was only 2 centimeters. She comes in and maybe it wasn't 10 hours yet. Maybe it was 8 hours. She comes in. She checks me. She's like, “Yeah.” I'm only 2 centimeters. She suggested to break my water. She said, “Yeah. That'll get things going.” I'm like, “Oh, great. Break my water. Totally. Do it.” Now, I shouldn't have done that. I had read books and I had learned things, but again, you don't even– it all goes out of your mind when you are trying to have a baby and get from A to B. You're uncomfortable and you don't have support around you and all of the things. Already, my vulnerability was so high because of COVID and the fact that I couldn't hold the baby. At that point, I said, “Great. Break my water.” 2 centimeters? Who does that? Crazy. What was I thinking?Meagan: You're not alone. You're not crazy because you weren't in the space to make a “better informed” decision. You were being told by your medical staff that this is what could help so you are not crazy. Offer yourself some grace, but yeah. It's just one of those things that we take as a learning experience and a nugget for next time. Grace: Yes. That's what I think is upsetting. She knew that. My OB knew that. She wasn't technically who I would consider my OB to be because the one woman I was seeing each time, I don't think would have done that to me. Meagan: The attending OB. Grace: Exactly. It's like whoever you get in that Russian Roulette lottery of that day. She didn't even know me. She clearly didn't care about me. Oh, and she also made a horrible comment to me that day. I don't remember if it was before or after she broke my water. I think it was after. She breaks my water. Contractions are going again and they are way more intense. At that point, so much time had gone by that I was exhausted. It was maybe 10 hours. I don't totally remember exactly, but I think it was 10 hours that I spent. I said, “Let me get an epidural because I can't take it anymore. I need sleep.”After I got the epidural, I was in bed and I feel like either the next morning or maybe it was the night right before I went to sleep, I was crying to her. I said, “I'm really upset. Is there anything we can do? I would really like skin-to-skin with my baby.” I said, “Wrap me in a garbage bag. I don't care. I really hate that I can't have that with the baby.” She looked at me and she said, “Well, you don't want to give your baby COVID.” I couldn't believe she said that to me. I was crying already. I'm like, “Of course not.” It made me cry more. How could you put that out there and look at me right now? If it was you and it was your baby, how would you feel that it got taken away from you and I felt perfectly fine? I'm like, “Obviously, it's not me. My husband just took a test and he was negative.” For her to say that to me, I didn't want her back in my room again. So the epidural came and I was under the impression– again, looking at my sister's birth– that with the epidural, I would go to sleep. I'd wake up at 9 centimeters and I wouldn't even feel a thing. I didn't know. Again, because my sister did something similar. I don't think she woke up super dilated, but she definitely progressed after she had gotten her epidural, so I was like, “You know what? Maybe that's what I need.” And my water was already broken. I get my epidural. I go to sleep. I get some rest and then the next morning, the OB comes in and I'm relaxed. I'm calm. She checks me and I'm only 3.5 centimeters. I barely moved. It was very disappointing. I couldn't even handle it. I'm like, “Okay. Will I have more time? There is more time now. It's okay. It's okay.” But then, yeah. No. I didn't progress again. This is another warning sign. The OB comes in around a quarter to 4:00 and I remember hearing this on other podcast episodes that it's that 5:30 PM C-section time, right? Meagan: It does happen.Grace: It's before the end of the day. I mean, listen. Maybe it was coincidental, but given the fact that she comes in. She checks me. She's like, “Listen, you don't have much more time because you broke your water however many hours ago.” I don't remember the amount of hours after you break your water. You probably know. I don't remember. Meagan: Well, there's a lot of other factors than just the time. It's like, “Are we having signs of an infection? How is baby doing? How is mom doing? Are we making change in other areas?” You know? So after 6 hours of getting in labor, 6 hours after waters have been broken with no progress, they will start discussing things but it doesn't always have to be a C-section. Grace: Oh, so she definitely gave me a lot of time. She gave me more than 6 hours, but I wasn't progressing at all. I don't really know. I will be honest that my timeline will be a little funky because of how long ago it was. This I do remember because of the time he was born. He was born at 4– oh my gosh. I should know the exact time. I think it was 4:36 or something like that. Meagan: Whoa. Really fast after. Grace: That's just it, right? She comes in. “You're not progressing. We really don't have much more time before we're going to have to give you a C-section. Otherwise, the safety of the baby is going to be at risk.” Now that she says that, I'm freaking out, right? Meagan: Of course. Grace: I'm like, “Oh my gosh.” You know what? A lot of women I had spoken to before said that C-sections are no big deal. It's fine. Don't be afraid of them. They're fine. At that point, I said, “You know? I'm already going through hell right now. Let's just do it. Let's just get the baby out.” It's so crazy how they are so slow to do so many things, but the moment I sign that form, nope. The operating room is ready to go. The team is ready to go. It's within seconds. They are so ready to get you on that operating table. It's almost like they want to get you out of the door. She wants to get out of the door. We all know that C-sections are going to bill your insurance way more than if you just had the baby naturally. I hate to think that is how a provider would think, but given the time and given everything that would happen, it's like, what else am I going to think now? It's not clear, but I feel like that was a piece of it. They were just trying to get me in and out. Oh, on the operating table, she yelled out, “Just know that this patient is COVID-positive!” to the whole staff. I'm just the diseased person that is in the room. I was walking around like a perfectly healthy person. It was just so awful. So they begin the C-section. I hope I'm not sharing too much and talking about things that don't have meaning, but I guess I have to live through it a little bit. Meagan: This has meaning. You're sharing them. We can feel it. Yeah. Grace: Okay. Now, at that point, during the C-section, you're on a lot of pain meds. I come out of the operating room. Everything is fine. I'm not having any issues. I didn't throw up or anything. All I wanted was to see and hold my baby. I heard the baby cry. My husband got to see the baby. No one got to hold the baby just yet. We'd get in the room. They immediately put the baby, I think, in the isolette. This is at the time where if you were COVID-positive, the baby could be in the room with you, an isolette I think? Or an isolette? Is that what it's called? Meagan: Like another room? I don't know. Grace: You know for NICU babies, they're in this– Meagan: Oh yeah, I do know what you are talking about. I don't know what it's called actually. Grace: I think maybe it's called an isolate and that's what the rule was. When you are COVID-positive, your baby would stay in the isolette. You couldn't hold your baby unless it was those two times during the day for 15 minutes. He went into that. My husband came in. I think that the attending nurse I had at that time–Meagan: Your husband wasn't with you in the C-section?Grace: No, no, no. He was. I'm in a bed. I'm just trying to go through it again in my head. Meagan: No, you're fine. Grace: So the whole time, I kept thinking, “I just want to hold him. Please just let me hold him. I won't do skin-to-skin. I'll follow all of your rules, whatever. Just let me hold him. It's my brand new baby.” Again, I'm a first-time mom. I do think regardless if you are or not, I totally get it. It could be your fourth baby and you would still feel that way. When my mom had my sister who was her second, she was like, “The nursery can have her. I need rest.” There is a sense of, “I've been there. I've done that. I don't necessarily have that need to hold them in that moment,” but as a first-time mom, seeing my first baby, that was all I wanted in the world was just to hold the baby. So this one nurse comes in. I don't know. I think she was just a post-delivery nurse and she was very tough. I was like, “Please, can I hold him now?” She was like, “You need to wash your hands. You are COVID-positive.” Nasty. I'm like, “Okay, fine.” I can't move becaus I just had surgery. They bring me over this bucket of soap and everything. I'm washing my hands and I'm just constantly looking at him trying to get him. She yelled at me. She was like, “You're not washing your hands enough.” She was like, “I'm an ER nurse during COVID. You have to take this seriously,” just belating me. It was so horrible. But they did finally let me hold him. It was great, but it was obviously short-lived. Then after that, they took him. The nurse had to feed him a bottle. I wanted to breastfeed. I didn't want to give him any formula. I remember just seeing her sitting there with him thinking– I'm so sorry– that I failed. My body failed. This woman has to feed my baby for me and I'm right here. I can do it. I couldn't even give him a bottle. I just felt like such a failure at that moment. I did not think I was going to start crying, but just to see a stranger do that just really upset me. That was pretty much that. Right then, I was there and then that nurse would come and feed him every 15 minutes. You know, it's a baby. You have to feed them every 30 minutes or something. But then that moment when she first did it, I thought I was such a failure. Meagan: Not a failure. Grace: I know. My husband had no idea what was going on. They never really do. He was very much like, “We have to listen to the hospital.” When they would leave the room essentially, I was like, “Give me the baby. Let me just hold him. What are they going to do? There are no cameras. Even if there were, what are they going to do? Kick me out? I just got cut open.” Honestly, I was so ready to break those rules. The baby was going to be right there. My husband was like, “They could walk in. You could get in so much trouble.” He didn't know what could happen so we had to just follow the rules. He got to hold the baby, but every time he'd pick up the baby, he had to put on a new thing of gloves, a mask, and a gown, and he ended up having to feed the baby because he was allowed to. That started to drive him crazy because he was also on no sleep. If you go back from when we got to the hospital to when we had the C-section, it had already been two days of time where we were just there. He wasn't really getting the best of sleep. He has had so much going on, so now he has to care for this newborn baby. He's never held a baby in his life. That ended up being what was going on at that point. Now at this point, the epidural was still in me and I wasn't in any kind of crazy pain. Then the nurse comes in. She's a new nurse and was actually very nice. She goes, “Listen, I have a few other pills.” I can't remember what they are but then she goes, “I have oxycodone for the pain.” I was like, “I really don't want to take any opiates because I'm going to try to breastfeed when I get home and I am pumping. I don't want to have any opiates in my system.” I was saying this while the epidural was still in my system. She looked at me like, “Okay,” and I have a Motrin allergy. I can't take ibuprofen so all I was taking at the time was Tylenol. She gives me probably the Tylenol at that point. The epidural was still there. I'm like, “This will be fine. I'll just take Tylenol.” But it was a dumb thing to think. When that epidural wore off, I don't know how many hours later, I was in so much pain. I could barely talk. Motrin and Tylenol work together because some women don't take the opiate, but working together helps a lot. But when I wasn't getting Motrin, all I had was Tylenol. It just was so, so painful that she got to my room. I look at her. I go, “You need to get me the oxycodone right now. I can't move. I'm in serious, serious pain now.” So she gets it for me, but the thing is with pain– oh, I'm sorry my friend texted me– when you don't catch up to the pain and you have the pain meds in your system, you kind of can never stay on top of pain. Does that make sense? Meagan: Mhmm. Chasing it.Grace: You're chasing it. So even with the oxycodone in my system, the pain would finally subside, but then once it came back, it came back so bad that I just never felt okay anymore. I just constantly was uncomfortable and in pain. Those moments when the meds would wear off to get your new set of meds, I could barely talk. It was so intense. Then also when you get surgery, you get gas that radiates up and that was insanely painful. The night nurse ended up being late with the oxycodone at that point. It was 3:00 AM. My husband was sitting next to me. He couldn't even sleep because he was so worried about me because of that pain. I wasn't myself anymore. I don't know if other women with C-sections have gone through anything like that, but it was just really bad. He was sitting next to me. It was 3:00 AM and he was like, “I'm really worried I'm going to lose you.” I actually muttered, “I think I'm going to die.” That's how intense it was. She was probably 45 minutes late with the medication and again with pain meds, if it's not in your system, you feel everything. That made it even more intense and horrible on top of everything else– all of the emotion, the fact that I didn't even want a C-section, and it just kept spiraling into horribleness. I will say one positive good bit though that I look back on and I remember. The attending nurse that I had during the day of my C-section actually came in after and was so sweet. She did know that I wanted to breastfeed, so she was trying to get the colostrum to give to the baby. One thing my sister told me to do was she goes, “Make sure before you are planning on giving birth that you start eating lactation cookies and getting your supply to come in.” Because I had done that, when I showed up and she wanted to get colostrum, there was tons of it. He was in shock. He was so happy. He was a bit older, almost like you could tell he was old school. He was like, “I've never seen anything like this. This is amazing.” It made me feel like somebody had faith in me instead of some diseased, horrible person. That's what I felt the whole time. That was nice having that moment. But yeah, so then with the pain, that was starting to make the whole experience really bad. We ended up leaving a day early and even the day we left, the pediatrician made a point to me. He was telling me about the baby and things to do with the baby and everything. I go, “I'm so really worried. I'm COVID-positive. I don't want to get the baby sick. Everyone is making it like I'm going to make the baby sick and what should I do? Can I hold the baby? Can I do these things with the baby?” She looks at me and says, “Of course you can. You are going to take your baby home and you can nurse your baby. You're going to hold your baby.” She was like, “Wear a mask,” and was almost looking at me like, “This hospital is crazy. This policy is horrible,” but because this is the routine for them and they are desensitized to everything, I wasn't getting that from anyone else. It was just common. It made me really look back and say, “How stupid that they put me through this.” I don't even know. I think there were some COVID-positive mothers where their babies went in other rooms and they couldn't even see them at all. Meagan: Mhmm. Grace: I mean, I'm sure you've heard other horrible stories. So we go. We get to leave and my husband at that point had no sleep either. It was maybe three or four days that we had been there with no sleep. I had no sleep because I was in so much pain. We get home and my mom opens the door because she was waiting there for us to help us. My mother was really upset too. She was crying all night that I was going through that. She looked at me and was like, “Oh my god. What did they do to you?” I had dark circles under my eyes from being exhausted but also from crying. Meagan: Yeah. I was going to say, I'm sure that you instantly knew that you wanted a different experience next time. Grace: Oh my god, yeah. I wanted it different and you know, I have a beautiful, healthy baby so it's not like it was the worst experience it could have been, but it wasn't at all what I wanted or what I thought it would have been or that it really should have been. So many things went wrong and I take a lot of blame that I should have researched providers better. I should have researched the policies better. I didn't know, you know? You never think it's going to happen to you. You think everything's going to be fine. My one girlfriend, I think had placenta previa. Something like that, but she said, “I immediately knew I was having a C-section. There was no question there.” That's one thing. You have physical limitations where it is very dangerous. Okay. It's fine. You have a C-section. It's fine. But when you are put in a horrible hamster wheel of horribleness where they already know you are going to have a C-section and they don't even care, it's so long. And the COVID-positive on top of it was just really, really hard.My husband said, “Honestly, Grace, the C-section wouldn't have bothered you as much had you been able to actually hold your baby.” Yes, and all of that positive adrenaline and endorphins in your body probably would have helped you heal faster. So when I brought him home, we had to get him latched and that was a whole other hurdle, but I did. I had a lot of nursing issues with him because he had this torticollis. He had all of these issues, but I totally powered through and I still did it. But now with my daughter, I'm sharing her VBAC story, right? I'm sorry. I hope I'm not talking too much. With her, I had no issues. Nursed fine. She is a thriving, wonderful, beautiful baby and I totally believe that it is because of the birth with her and it went so differently that it is just so much better for me and it was better for her. It was better for my husband. It was better probably for my son too. That was my horrible, horrible C-section birth. Meagan: I'm so sorry. Grace: I think I covered everything. I'm sorry too. I keep talking. Yeah. It was horrible. I mean, looking back, I've learned so much and hopefully, other women can learn from it. I hope I covered all of those warning signs I want women to look out for. I don't know but hopefully I did, but yeah. My heart goes out to the COVID-positive mothers who went through something similar or worse. I can't even imagine. I do think that if you are positive and you are sick– if I were visibly ill, it's so different to me. My mindset would have been way different. I would have still been sad, but I wouldn't have felt like my autonomy was taken away from me. Meagan: Stripped. Grace: Yeah, stripped, which is much more where you feel like you are at their mercy. You don't feel like you have freedom at all and it's horrible. Meagan: Yeah. Grace: Yeah. So I get pregnant. My son at that point, I think, was about a year and four months. He wasn't 18 months just yet. I got pregnant with my daughter and again, I knew I definitely wanted a VBAC, however, I had known a lot of other women who wanted VBACs too, and still ended up getting a C-section. They would say, “Yeah, we are going to try for the VBAC, but if it doesn't work, you will have to have a C-section.” Every woman I spoke to who said that, ended up with one. As I was going through my pregnancy, I was trying to educate over time. I was like, “What is this that they are missing that I don't want to miss?” I did not want another C-section. I did not want to ever go through that pain unnecessarily again. Obviously, listen. C-sections save babies. I am not against them. Meagan: Absolutely, yeah. Grace: You know that and you know that in so many ways, they are super important, but for me, if I have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby and I don't have anything going on that would require that other than I had a C-section prior, then I am going to do everything I can to not have another C-section. So I discovered The VBAC Link, I want to say it was further into my pregnancy. I want to say I was at least 5 months into my pregnancy. Meagan: Yeah. Grace: How many weeks would I have to be for that?Meagan: 20?Grace: Was it 20?Meagan: 20 weeks is about 5 months so probably a little over. Grace: It was a little over 20 weeks and I discovered The VBAC Link. I am like, “Okay, I will give this a thought.” I already found a midwife. I didn't want an OB and the midwife that I had, I really liked her. She had VBACs of her own. Meagan: Awesome. Grace: I was super adamant. I'm like, “I do not want another C-section.” She understood. Here's the thing, though with these providers and I liked her. I'm not trying to make it seem like she did anything wrong, but they don't educate women on what to do. There are so many things that women can do to get themselves in the best situation to have a nice, vaginal birth potentially not even needing medicine. They don't. I don't know if it's that they don't on purpose, but a midwife is not an OB. She's not going to give me a C-section, so why wouldn't she want to give all of the resources to her patients? I didn't even know what Spinning Babies was until I listened to your podcast, then I researched Spinning Babies and I used Spinning Babies. So anyways, I discovered you guys or you ladies and I started listening to you every day on the way to work and the stories were just so wonderful. I learned a lot. I learned that one of the big ones was to find a hospital that is more likely to support a VBAC and has a high success rate of a VBAC. Now, the hospital I picked, I was told it was a good one. It is a good hospital. Nothing specific about childbirth or anything. It was very close to me. I had known other people who had delivered there and it was fine, but I'm like, “You know what? Let's look at their success rate versus other ones.” Their success rate was 7%. Is that high or is that low? Meagan: That's low. 7% of their success rate of a VBAC, that's low. Grace: That's low. That's low. There was another hospital I heard about from someone who gave birth there and it was an hour away. Most women who gave birth there had the best experience. It's a hospital and then it had a birthing center connected to it. Because I was a VBAC, just birthing centers wouldn't have let me go there because if they needed an emergency C-section. That setup was great. I looked at their VBAC success rate and it was 22%. Meagan: Higher than 7. Grace: Now that you say that, it was probably still fairly low, but that was the highest I found. Meagan: Yeah. Grace: Yeah, and now I went ahead and listened to your podcast for a few months and I started getting scared. I was like, “I don't have a doula. I don't have a lot of information that a lot of these women had.” Now that I have it, I was already at that point, I want to say 7 months in my pregnancy. Not going by weeks just because I don't know why months make more sense to me. That's when I started becoming very much doing more research and being more actively aware of my birth and wanting to make sure that this birth goes better. I find this hospital. At that point, I go, “I'm going with this hospital and no one is going to stop me.” But because I was already so close, I was actually in my third trimester already and I told my– the way it works is I was very lucky. My provider was part of a bigger company. I'm not going to give out any names or anything unless should I? Meagan: If you have a supportive provider that you would suggest, I highly suggest giving the name because also, Women of Strength if you are listening, we have a provider list. We actually have that, so we will be adding this one to your list. But if you guys have a provider that you highly suggest as being VBAC-supportive especially if there are multiple Cesareans, please send us that at info@thevbaclink.com because we want to add them to our list. Grace: Okay. Okay, yeah. I definitely will. At the time, they were called CareMount near the area where I was, but they just got bought out by a new company called Optum. Meagan: Optum, okay. Grace: Most adults of my age remember them as CareMount because it was super recent that it changed. Optum was in my area and because they were big, they also had a practice up near this hospital. I called the practice up near the hospital and I said, “Listen. I've been going to midwives down by me, but you have all of my information because it's all the same system. I want to go to your office because I want to deliver at this hospital.” Can I say the name of the hospital? Meagan: Yeah. Grace: I can, right? It was Northern Dutchess. They are amazing. They have a birthing center. The staff there is incredible and yeah. I said, “That's what I want.” The immediately were like, “We don't take on patients so close to the end like this, but given that you are in the system, I guess it's okay.” I was going to say to them, “I don't care if it's allowed or not. You're going to help me give birth in your hospital.” I also was going to be like, “I don't want to see any OBs. I only want to see midwives.” They still had me see two OBs and it's actually fine because even their OBs were just better. They were more understanding. Believe it or not, the male OB was even more. I was scared to see the male. Nothing against men, but the fact that with my son it was a man and he made that comment to me, treating me, I don't know. They didn't give him any kind of nickname, but I think he was known for only really doing C-sections. I was so scared to have a man especially because by the time I saw him– so before I even get to that, they do the switch and at that point, again, I was listening to your podcast still and I'm like, “You know, I really should get a doula.” I'm in my 35th week or something. I'm like, “I need to get a doula. I need this birth to be what I want it to be.” I find a doula in my area. She is amazing. She said the same thing. She was like, “We're meeting pretty late, but it's okay.” She was super understanding. I told her about my whole horrible birth and she said, “You'd be surprised but that part is super common.” Not the COVID part, but the whole story. Meagan: The whole story, yeah. Yeah. Grace: Also, I think me being allergic to Motrin and that recovery being so– I hate to say it but traumatic for me because when you're in so much pain and you are already in so much emotional pain, it is just horrible. She was like, “Yep. It's a super common story. I'm not going to guarantee you a VBAC, but you're going to get through this birth. It's going to be beautiful. You're going to have a wonderful connection with your baby.” She said, “Don't worry about the COVID thing anymore. It's not at all what it was in 2020. Try to think of all of the positive things.” She introduced me to Spinning Babies. I started researching so much of my own and I was like, “Should I do all of the dates and tea and the stretching and the walking?” She goes, “Do all of it.” It's what they say. It's like an old wives' tale, but it's not going to hurt. Do all of it. Take a deep breath. I started to get almost obsessive at the time. I even made a joke to my provider at an appointment. I was like, “I'm sure it says in my file that I'm the crazy VBAC girl.” He laughed. He said, “It doesn't say that,” but I was very determined. Again, your podcast helped me so much because there were so many women who have gone through so many things and had to work even harder to get the providers that they wanted and get the support that they wanted. It's so important and it's so wonderful that you have it. So thank you. Meagan: Mhmm, yes. Thanks for being with us. Grace: So then, yeah. I changed my provider. I get the hospital. I get the doula and then I start those last, I want to say 5 weeks. I'm walking every day. I'm eating a disgusting amount of dates. I don't think I'll ever eat a date again. I'm sure you've heard that, but it's true. Doing the tea and I was doing these stretches I saw on YouTube every night. My husband was very supportive. He was a little scared for me. He was kind of like, “Oh my god. If this girl doesn't get her VBAC, what's going to happen in the world?” I was very intense about it and then, yeah. We just waited and waited. Toward the end, this part was scary for me. We also joined this Evidence-Based VBAC Facebook group and it was not– I can tell by your face. Yeah. Meagan: Ugh. Grace: It was not what I thought it was going to be. Meagan: No, unfortunately. Grace: Because I did this all kind of late, by the time I was up to 40 weeks, I went on that page maybe a week before or at 39 weeks. I started reading and I'm like, “Oh my god. Now I'm terrified to go into labor.” Note to listeners, please don't go on that Facebook page. Meagan: Join The VBAC Link Community. Grace: Yes, 100%. Meagan: Shameless plug right there. I think our community is just one of a kind. Grace: 100%. But the thing is at that point in time, to read any of that at 39 weeks put me into a fear mode. At 40 weeks, I started crying every day that I wasn't going into labor. I wanted to go into labor at 39 weeks, but that likelihood I think was very low because I was late with my son. I never even technically went into labor with my son. With my son, I was 40 weeks and 5 days when they induced me. So from 40 weeks on, again, because of reading those posts, I started really freaking out. I was crying. I was calling my doula every day. I'm like, “I'm not going into labor. I really don't want a uterine rupture. I'm scared.” This and that. She was so great. She just was like, “You need to relax. Everything is going to be fine.” She said, “If something is going to happen, it could have already happened. One of my best friends is a nurse and she actually was a nurse in an OB's office for a while. Every time I would go to talk to her, she would go, “You need to stop.” She would be like, “Anything could happen.” Meagan: Spiraling. Grace: Yeah, yeah. But it was good to have that. It was good to have somebody say, “Anything that could happen. You can't sit there and say that just because you have this thing which is unique to you that you want to have a VBAC doesn't mean that you're definitely going to have something happen. You could have a perfectly healthy pregnancy and everything would be fine and then something bad would happen. You can't worry about it. It's not in your hands right now. You need to just relax.” That was a tough part though, just going through that week and then I started getting really bad prodromal labor about a week after at 41 weeks. I started getting it really bad and I kept thinking, “Should I go to the hospital? Is this it? Can I get the baby out?” I was so excited and my doula every time would go, “No, no, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere near that hospital right now.” Thank God she said that. So then I think I had prodromal labor for about three days or four days or something. Then finally, on the final day, my mom was over and I was in so much pain just from all of the prodromal labor. I'm like, “Something is not right.” She looked at me and she was like, “You are in active labor. I can see your stomach contracting.” I'm like, “But I called. My doula said I shouldn't go. I don't know what to do.”I already lost my mucus plug a few days before that. I had never gone through anything like that. Nothing like that. Meagan: You're getting into labor though, yeah. Grace: Yeah, but my mom again, has five kids. She goes, “No, no. This is labor now. You really should go.” She even talked to my doula two nights before that because I thought that two nights before that I was going into labor and my doula was saying to my mom, “No, not yet. She's not ready yet.” I don't know how she knew that. At that point, I called my doula again. She said, “You know what? Your mom is probably right.” I was timing them. I don't remember what the times were, but they were so strong. I think my mom was like, “I don't even think it matters. This is labor now.” I get to the hospital and I was 100% effaced and 5 centimeters dilated. Something to start. Meagan: Yay! Getting ready to get into active labor right there. Turning that transition. Grace: Yes. He tells me that. I was COVID-negative. It was like the clouds were opening up. Things were falling into place. The only thing is and this is a totally okay thing. My doula had another birth that night so she couldn't go. I forgot to mention this. She already knew she was going to not be there. She actually called a backup doula and this was actually the morning before I went into the hospital. I called her. We had a nice conversation. She was like, “I will definitely be available.” I go, “I'm having a lot of prodromal labor. It's really uncomfortable. I'm tired.” I'm like, “I just don't know what to do. When should I go?” She was like, “Okay, at this point in pregnancy, it's totally normal. Why don't you just go on a two-hour walk?” What? Meagan: A two-hour walk? Grace: I was walking every day for two months. A two-hour walk? I'm struggling to sit. I'm like, “Okay.” She told me at 9 AM. I went on a two-hour walk and listen, I was at the hospital by 4:00 PM that day. She totally knew. She ended up coming and she was so sweet and amazing. I had never even met her before. I would totally recommend either doula if anyone is asking. If it means anything, their rates were nothing crazy. I listened to a bunch of doulas which again, I got from your podcast that you want to really interview your doulas and make sure you know your doulas. They were super reasonable and both were wonderful. That all fell into place. I was just starting to have my contractions. She was there to do all of the lunges together and all of the movements together. She put me in all of the right positions and I ended up not needing an epidural. Let me rephrase that. I ended up not having to require an epidural even though it was very, very painful. But it was a very welcomed pain. I was in labor for about 14 hours. It was a long, long day. I made a birth playlist which I did for my son too and I never got to really use it. One moment during labor, that particular experience was when the doula goes– this was around 6 centimeters, maybe 7 centimeters. She goes, “Why don't you go dance with your husband?” I had my birth list on and I think it was a Justin Timberlake and maybe Beyonce song. It was a very romantic, lovey dovey song. We were just standing there. The lights were off. We were dancing and it was just so beautiful. The nurse told me after. When you're in labor, you're not totally aware of your surroundings. She told me the next day after the baby was born and everything and she goes, “I almost started crying when I saw you and your husband standing there dancing.”Meagan: Such a precious moment. Grace: Both she and my doula I remember were kind of off to the side standing there. It was just so wonderful and yeah. She got me through labor and I had to push for a solid, I think, hour which was fine. It was really painful. At one point, I screamed, “I want someone to help me!” You know, it was really hard, but she was there. I give a lot to her. She did all of these things to help me feel comfortable and safe. I was with someone who was going to make sure I was going to be okay. Yeah. The midwife came and I loved the midwife. She was wonderful. I had met her before. She was very knowledgeable. She wasn't necessarily the most nurturing. She was much more like, “I've given birth to thousands of babies. I've done VBACs before. We've got this, no problem.” At one point, she came in and she was worried my contractions had slowed down, but right after she left, my doula was like, “All right, let's go. Get up. Ramp up the speed. We're going to do this. We'll put you on the peanut,” and all of the things because she knew I didn't want an epidural. I am curious about having the doula there if that is why they didn't push anything on me. They didn't push anything. Meagan: Good. Grace: Part of me is curious but I also think the hospital is known to not do that. My sister gave her second baby there and they didn't push anything on her. So now again, you want to go to a good hospital that takes care of you. Meagan: Yes, you do. Grace: She came out and how big was she? She was 7 pounds, 8 ounces. My son was 8 pounds, 5 ounces. He really wasn't even that big. Meagan: No. Grace: He could have come out. Meagan: He wasn't. Yeah. Grace: No. I actually forgot to mention that before. He wasn't even that big. They gave me all of that nonsense and yeah. Everything about her birth was wonderful. She went right on my breast. He latched not right away, but within 24 hours. He latched and was eating fine. It was wonderful. I didn't have to change rooms or anything. They let me stay in the same room. I got to get up and walk around. Yeah. It was exactly the experience that I had wanted. Meagan: Yeah. Grace: Yeah. Meagan: I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy that you could have that more healing, redemptive experience where you felt the love. You felt that connection. You had the people there for you. You felt safe. You weren't being pushed. You weren't having people rushing in like you were some scary alien. You weren't having these things that honestly doesn't help our cervix dilate. There are so many things from your first story where I'm like if we can create a special environment, a comfortable environment for us, then that is going to help us progress in labor. We know one of the number one reasons for a Cesarean is failure to progress and a lot of the time, it's situational. We did this and it's baby's position or something like that, but a lot of the time, I think it's truly the environment and what we've got going on and if we feel safe because our bodies are smart. If we don't feel safe and if we don't feel comfortable, we are not going to progress. We're not going to have those things and so yeah. I'm just so, so happy for you. I'd love to touch on a couple of signs when it is time to switch your provider or time to switch your location because I think it is one of the most daunting things to change your provider mid-pregnancy. It can be hard. Grace: Yeah, yeah. Meagan: And/or change your location. I changed my provider and my location at 24 weeks and it was emotional a little bit too. It was just like, “Oh, I hope it's okay. I don't want to hurt any feelings and this and that.” Anyway, just so much. We have some blogs on so many topics that we talked about today. But number one, I want to talk a little bit about some of those warning signs because like you said, you were like, “That was a warning sign. That was a warning sign. That was a warning sign,” but you weren't in that space. Sometimes that's how it goes. I had the same thing. I go, “Whoa. I should have switched.” One, I want you to know, Women of Strength, that it's okay to switch. 100%. We do have that provider list if you are looking for a provider in your area or you start hearing some of these signs and you're like, “Oh crap.” If one of those fits, email us at info@thevbaclink.com and remember VBAC is spelled V-B-A-C instead of V-B-A-C-K. Email us and our team will get you that list. Okay, so warning signs. Recommending a third-trimester ultrasound to check on the baby's size. When you go in for that 20-week ultrasound and they're like, “Oh, this baby is big.” Right there, that's a huge warning sign. I'm just going to say, if your doctor is talking about your baby being big in general, that's a red flag. That means that they are starting to doubt your ability. Their confidence in you is going down to get that baby out and they will probably push things like induction and all of those things, right? So talking about your placenta dying. They actually use these words. “Your placenta could die if you go past 40 weeks pregnant or past 41 weeks pregnant.” Not true. Not needed. You know? It's not. You don't need to have an induction just because you are 40 weeks. Your placenta is okay. Yeah. Making those one-off hand comments of, “Your baby is big. Your pelvis could be too small. You're looking big. You're really a petite person.” I don't like that. Refusing to let you go past 40 weeks. Refusing to induce at all. If your provider is completely refusing to induce you because you are a VBAC, they are not following evidence-based care. I cannot tell you that enough. We see it all the time in our community where it's like, “I can't be induced because I'm a VBAC.” False. False, false, false. False. Big F. False. Now, is induction ideal?Grace: No. Meagan: It could be less ideal. It is less ideal. Not even could be, it is. It is less ideal. But it is not impossible. If you are facing an induction or a C-section, do the research. Learn about it. Know that it is still possible and you will not just for sure rupture because you are induced with Pitocin. That's another myth out there. Overemphasizing the risk of uterine rupture. Telling you that you last time didn't have good success so you are unlikely to have good success this time, putting doubt there, and so much more. We actually have a blog about it. We are going to put it in the show notes today on 10 Signs it Might Be Time to Switch Your Provider. I also think there are some really good tips for preparation. You talked about that. You did the Spinning Babies. You ate dates until you literally probably couldn't eat any more or you couldn't stand the smell of them. You did all of these things. Preparing for birth. You got the doula. You found the location. You researched your area. You found your birthing location. You found your hospital and midwife. You found a VBAC doula. Even in the end of pregnancy, you can find a doula and if you didn't know, we have a resource online at vbaclink.com where you can find a doula that is actually VBAC-certified. They have taken our course. They understand all of the things about VBAC. They can help you find a VBAC-supportive provider. They can help you find that confidence. They can help you and see those moments of, “This is a really great time. Go dance with your husband. Let's release the oxytocin naturally,” or “This is prodromal labor. Maybe don't go to the hospital right now. This is what you can do instead.” Okay, you know? Those types of things. Mental– Grace: Get you off the ledge. Meagan: Yes, talk you off of the ledge. Mental preparation– preparing, we have the VBAC Link Course. We have the blogs. We have the stories. We have the communities. This is what this is for. Mental prep, finding the confidence, processing your op reports, and these things. Physical prep– doing those things. Eating the dates, drinking the tea, and making sure you have good nutrients like our favorite Needed. You're making sure that you are taking care of yourself nutritionally so that you can also prep in other ways and so many more. We're going to make sure to have that. We're going to have blogs and books and things to suggest at the bottom of the show notes. I think that this story although it did start off with a heartbreaking experience– I could see you. I could feel it. Your experience is hard. It's three and a half years ago and it's still with you. These experiences stay with us. I think that's where we owe it to ourselves to give us the best experience and to put us in the best situation possible. Sometimes, I think it's, “Oh, well a doula could be more expensive. Oh, taking a course is a lot,” but in the grand scheme of things, if we look back at our experiences, my first two C-sections and even with my second, I had educated pretty okay. I'd say okay, not great. If I had looked back and taken the course to help me know that information, if I would have hired the doula to help me feel not so backed in a corner, absolutely. Yeah. I would have paid that no matter what. Grace: Yeah. Money is of no value at that point. Meagan: It's of no value and it is. Money is a huge thing in this world, especially with the way our world is going. Money is a big deal, but in the end, you deserve it. You deserve to get those prenatal massages, to go to the chiropractor, and to get those prenatal vitamins that are going to truly help you. You deserve these things. Women of Strength, it's okay to spoil yourself for your birth. Grace: Right. Meagan: Recognize these things and get the tools we can so that in the end, even if it ends in a repeat Cesarean, it can hopefully be a more healing experience. You're going to know the things. You're going to know your options. You're going to know you did everything. I just think there is so much power in these two stories all along the way that you can

You've probably come across Advil and Motrin for pain at some point in your life. These are easily accessible and cheap. They belong to a class of medications called NSAIDs, short for non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. But why do they work? How do they work? Did you know there are prescription strength NSAIDS? What are the drug interactions? What do we need to consider if we're dealing with sciatica pain? Today we interviewed Dr. Bailey Schroeder, PharmD, and we discussed the science and use case scenarios for this. You can reach out to Dr. Schroeder at drbaileyschroeder.com and her instagram @getinformmed. Here's the episode on tricyclic antidepressants: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/antidepressants-for-sciatica-pain/id1563055005?i=1000635130020Check out the patient advocate program here: ptpatientadvocate.comHere's the self cheat sheet for symptom management: https://ifixyoursciatica.gymleadmachine.co/self-treatment-cheat-sheet-8707Book a free strategy call: https://msgsndr.com/widget/appointment/ifixyoursciatica/strategy-callSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/fix-your-sciatica-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Detailed Shownotes for This Episode of The 6-8 Weeks Podcast:-- What is Knee Arthritis? https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/knee-arthritis#:~:text=What%20is%20knee%20arthritis%3F,to%20smoothly%20bend%20and%20straighten.-- What is Bursitis? https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bursitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353242-- What is Return to Play? https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/what-does-return-to-play-really-mean-- How Often Does Arthritis Impact Construction Workers? https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/20166-construction-agricultural-workers-at-higher-risk-of-knee-osteoarthritis-study-- What is an Anti-Inflammatory? https://www.healthline.com/health/pain-relief/otc-anti-inflammatories-- What is Advil? https://www.advil.com/faqs-en/-- What is Aleve? https://www.aleve.com/frequently-asked-questions-safety-and-usage?gclid=CjwKCAjwp8OpBhAFEiwAG7NaElXGOEjUEaFYifyMEVBvwGwZaj2pvDOTihkIH0ASBdL0rycLV3ewkRoCtXAQAvD_BwE-- What is Motrin? https://www.motrin.com/what-is-motrin-- What is Meloxicam? https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/meloxicam-oral-route/description/drg-20066928-- How Does the Human Bloodstream Carry Medications? https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/Inside-Life-Science/Pages/A-Medicines-Life-Inside-the-Body.aspx-- What is Prednisone? https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/20469-prednisone-tablets-- Learn All About the Knee Joint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-Jxj5sT0g-- What is Synovium? https://www.physio-pedia.com/Synovium_%26_Synovial_Fluid-- What is a Narcotic? https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Narcotics-2020.pdf-- What is Vicodin? https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/hydrocodone.pdf-- What is Norco? https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2019/040148s073lbl.pdf-- What is Hip Arthritis? https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/hip-arthritis-- What are Meniscus Root Tears? https://tcomn.com/meniscus-root-tears-on-the-rise/-- Be Sure to Listen to Our Episode on Meniscus Tears! https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/74f824ce-3c64-4e14-8c64-da985a8ea19a/episodes/d4b9f236-ce61-4abb-9eb5-dba27edd8a7d/6-8-weeks-perspectives-on-sports-medicine-meniscus-tears---when-should-you-worry-- What is Knee Replacement? https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/knee-replacement/about/pac-20385276-- Learn All About the British Medical Journal: https://www.bmj.com/-- What are the Tell-Tale Symptoms of Arthritis? https://www.painandtherapy.com/blog/5-telltale-signs-of-arthritis-- What is a Knee Injection? https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/hyaluronic-acid-injection-route/description/drg-20074557-- What is a Spine Injection? https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/treatment/spinal-injections/-- Learn All About the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama -- What is a Placebo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RhG_ySxhDA-- What is the Value of Utilizing a Placebo? https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect-- What is an ACL Tear? https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/anterior-cruciate-ligament-acl-injuries/-- What is Bicep Tendinitis? https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/biceps-tendinitis/-- What is Arthroscopic Surgery? https://losrobleshospital.com/your-health/video/what-is-arthroscopy-or-arthroscopic-surgery-- What is a Hamstring?— A Little Something About Steroid Injections to Read Over on Reddit:https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/j32d4q/cortisone_injections_increased_risk_for_knee/— Will There Be Trouble When Getting Injections Prior to Surgeries?https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37058158/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36737032/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35829737/— Should You Get a Steroid Injection Before Rotator Cuff Surgery?https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36734466/ — Learn About the Differences Between Cuff tendinopathy Vs PRP: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34020672/=== Connect with Dr. Brian Feeley:On the Web: https://twitter.com/drbrianfeeley On X: https://twitter.com/drbrianfeeley=== Connect with Dr. Nirav Pandya:On the Web: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-nirav-pandyaOn X: https://twitter.com/drniravpandya=== Connect with Dr. Drew Lansdown:On the Web: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-drew-lansdown

We all have preconceived notions when it comes to "injected steroids". Now - thanks to our three orthopedic surgeons, it's time to learn all about HOW AND WHY, in many cases, injecting steroids makes definitive sense. Whether it be to treat a soon-to-be-vacationing construction worker or a troubled athlete, all of the answers to resolve your questiosn are here inside this episode of The 6-8 Weeks Podcast. Connect with The 6-8 Weeks Podcast: There's a LOT of detail included in this program. Do you want to share YOUR perspective about it? Connect with The 6-8 Weeks Podcast Now! Subscribe to, Like and Share The 6-8 Weeks Podcast Everywhere:     The Detailed Shownotes for This Episode of The 6-8 Weeks Podcast: -- What is Knee Arthritis? https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/knee-arthritis#:~:text=What%20is%20knee%20arthritis%3F,to%20smoothly%20bend%20and%20straighten. -- What is Bursitis? https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bursitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353242 -- What is Return to Play? https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/what-does-return-to-play-really-mean -- How Often Does Arthritis Impact Construction Workers? https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/20166-construction-agricultural-workers-at-higher-risk-of-knee-osteoarthritis-study -- What is an Anti-Inflammatory? https://www.healthline.com/health/pain-relief/otc-anti-inflammatories -- What is Advil? https://www.advil.com/faqs-en/ -- What is Aleve? https://www.aleve.com/frequently-asked-questions-safety-and-usage?gclid=CjwKCAjwp8OpBhAFEiwAG7NaElXGOEjUEaFYifyMEVBvwGwZaj2pvDOTihkIH0ASBdL0rycLV3ewkRoCtXAQAvD_BwE -- What is Motrin? https://www.motrin.com/what-is-motrin -- What is Meloxicam? https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/meloxicam-oral-route/description/drg-20066928 -- How Does the Human Bloodstream Carry Medications? https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/Inside-Life-Science/Pages/A-Medicines-Life-Inside-the-Body.aspx -- What is Prednisone? https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/20469-prednisone-tablets -- Learn All About the Knee Joint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-Jxj5sT0g -- What is Synovium? https://www.physio-pedia.com/Synovium_%26_Synovial_Fluid -- What is a Narcotic? https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Narcotics-2020.pdf -- What is Vicodin? https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/hydrocodone.pdf -- What is Norco? https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2019/040148s073lbl.pdf -- What is Hip Arthritis? https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/hip-arthritis -- What are Meniscus Root Tears? https://tcomn.com/meniscus-root-tears-on-the-rise/ -- Be Sure to Listen to Our Episode on Meniscus Tears! https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/74f824ce-3c64-4e14-8c64-da985a8ea19a/episodes/d4b9f236-ce61-4abb-9eb5-dba27edd8a7d/6-8-weeks-perspectives-on-sports-medicine-meniscus-tears---when-should-you-worry -- What is Knee Replacement? https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/knee-replacement/about/pac-20385276 -- Learn All About the British Medical Journal: https://www.bmj.com/ -- What are the Tell-Tale Symptoms of Arthritis? https://www.painandtherapy.com/blog/5-telltale-signs-of-arthritis -- What is a Knee Injection? https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/hyaluronic-acid-injection-route/description/drg-20074557 -- What is a Spine Injection? https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/treatment/spinal-injections/ -- Learn All About the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama -- What is a Placebo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RhG_ySxhDA -- What is the Value of Utilizing a Placebo? https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect -- What is an ACL Tear? https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/anterior-cruciate-ligament-acl-injuries/

When choosing a chiropractor, it's essential to understand the diverse spectrum of practice, from holistic to medical base. Finding a familiar comfort level is key and building trust with the doctor is crucial. Dr. Rachel Skolnick, a chiropractor with expertise in treating sports injuries and athletes of various levels, shares her journey from a PE and health teaching degree to becoming a world-famous chiropractor. She reveals the misconceptions surrounding chiropractic care, emphasizing that it's not just about spinal adjustments. She highlights the importance of myofascial work, tissue understanding, the benefits of stretching and more.She joins podcast hosts Amber Beger and Dina Wizmur to discuss the frequency of chiropractic visits and the individualized approach based on the severity and type of injury. Dr. Rachel stresses the importance of preventive care, encouraging patients to address issues before they become acute. She explains the relevance of chiropractic care for infants and how traumatic experiences during childbirth can impact their well-being. Dr. Rachel sheds light on differentiating between chiropractic and physical therapy, emphasizing the need for both in certain cases. They discuss the role of medication in conjunction with chiropractic care and explore the debate over ice versus heat for injuries.Learn more about Dr. Rachel's practice Episode Highlights: -Patient Range and Chiropractic for Babies: Chiropractic care is not limited to adults; specialists cater to prenatal care and even babies. Dr. Rachel explains how childbirth can cause trauma to babies, and chiropractic care helps realign their bodies. -Chiropractic and Physical Therapy (PT): Dr. Rachel discusses the differences between chiropractic and PT, emphasizing the importance of manual therapy in chiropractic care, which may be lacking in insurance-based PT. -Preventative Measures: The importance of preventative measures is highlighted, including regular stretching, the use of stretching devices, and finding activities like yoga to maintain flexibility. -Home Remedies and Self-Care: Dr. Rachel suggests home remedies like Epsom salt baths, hot showers, and topical treatments for pain relief. The debate between heat and ice is addressed, and the choice depends on the nature of the injury. Medications and -Chiropractic Care: While chiropractors can't prescribe medications, Dr. Rachel recommends over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like Advil or Motrin in combination with chiropractic care, especially for acute discal pain. -Recovery Tools and Techniques: Devices like the CastleFlex and posture pump are mentioned as tools to aid recovery. Kinesiology tape and preventative measures play a crucial role in helping patients recover from injuriesTHE WELL DROP - Be sure to leave a review and subscribe!Follow on Instagram @thewelldrop Produced by Haynow Media

Visit: https://nursing.com/140meds to request your free copy of "140 Must Know Meds" Generic Name ibuprofen Trade Name Advil / Motrin Indication Mild to moderate pain, inflammatory states Action Decreases pain and inflammation by inhibiting prostaglandins Therapeutic Class antipyretics, antirheumatics, nonopioid analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents Pharmacologic Class nonopioid analgesics Nursing Considerations • may cause GI bleeding, hepatitis, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome • may cause anaphylaxis • monitor for headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation • therapy should be discontinued after first sign of rash • monitor renal and liver labs • patient should avoid using alcohol

Although it is common, it is not natural for your period to be painful and a miserable experience! Today Jenn is joined by functional nutrition practitioner Leah Brueggemann who specializes in balancing hormones. Leah walks us through the four different phases of a woman's cycle, including what your energy may be like in each phase, the ways to eat and move your body, and what signs to look for if your cycle is out of sync. Leah discusses the impact that birth control has on your cycle, and what approach to take while going through perimenopause. Tune in today for some valuable information around your cycle health. The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let's dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.IN THIS EPISODE:●   [6:28] Leah shares her story and what made her get into the health field. ●   [13:06] Can birth control balance your hormones?●   [14:40] The Menses Phase. ●   [19:10] The Follicular Phase. ●   [21:20] The Ovulatory Phase. ●   [24:57] The Luteal Phase. ●   [28:40] When should you have progesterone tested?●   [33:45] What lifestyle things should we do to align with the phases?●   [38:27] How does birth control manipulate the phases?●   [40:38] How to approach the perimenopause/menopause phase of life.●   [44:30] What minerals should we add to our diet to support hormone health?KEY TAKEAWAYS:●   Your cycle is continually going, there are 4 different phases that affect each week of the month. Understanding the phases helps you to understand your energy, mood, nutrition, and how you can fuel your body to set the building blocks up for optimal hormonal regulation. ●   Calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium are the 4 main minerals that are our building blocks. 78% of women are deficient in the US in magnesium. Add potassium through your diet before adding supplements. Always talk with your doctor before adding in supplements.●   Changing your lifestyle habits, managing stress, getting enough sleep, moving your body, are the best places to start with managing your hormones, as well as partnering with a functional medicine doctor. When getting blood testing, you may be told everything looks normal, but you want everything to look optimal, which a functional medicine doctor can help with.QUOTES: “Women's health is human health, across the board. Full stop." - Jenn Trepeck“Nobody was talking about this, they just tried to put me on a progesterone cream or whatever it was. So that's why I just threw everything out the window. I was like, this isn't working and I started just eating for nourishment.” - Leah Brueggemann“But we have just been taught that periods are the bane of being a woman. Like they're horrible. You should suffer. And you think you need to have all of this Motrin and Midol and you're gonna be bloated and you can't go anywhere on your period. And you guys, that's not normal. It's so common.” - Leah Brueggemann“Stress is like the cascade for everything. When you're in that luteal phase, if you have lower progesterone, you'll tend to notice symptoms like maybe tender breasts, or maybe you have spotting before your period, or maybe you get a ton of bloating, or maybe you just wanna kill everybody that comes into contact with you. If you get super snappy or maybe you get really anxious or super pms, or you start breaking out, progesterone may be the culprit. But you wanna think about the estrogen and progesterone in relation. Progesterone may be okay, and then estrogen is just too high in relation to it. Or maybe progesterone does get up high enough, but then it falls too quickly.” - Leah BrueggemannRESOURCES:Become A Member of Salad with a Side of FriesJenn's Free Menu PlanA Salad With a Side of FriesA Salad With a Side of Fries InstagramGUEST RESOURCES:Leah Brueggemann's WebsiteLeah Brueggemann's InstagramBalancing Hormones Naturally InstagramBalancing Hormones Naturally FacebookGUEST BIO:Leah Brueggemann is a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional practitioner, specializing in hormonal balance for women. She helps women balance their hormones naturally with nutrition, lifestyle and finally getting to the root issue. She has personally helped over 400 women get painless periods, stabilize their moods, lose weight and scale to 6 figures in their business. Leah has a passion for helping women connect to their cycle, which is their super power. When Leah is not chatting about hormones you will probably find her hanging out with her two sons and husband in the outdoors or reading a good book.

She is an attorney, an NFL sports agent and Founder and President of KMM Sports. She created her website to inspire you to pursue your calling with confidence and boldness. Kelli has represented more professional athletes than any woman in the industry, having served as agent/contract advisor to players in every NFL draft since 2006 as well as numerous athletes in the MLB draft and the Olympics. In 2010, she made history as the first woman to represent a first round pick in the NFL Draft. Her story of progress through pain was featured as part of Motrin's national "Women in Progress" campaign in 2017. Kelli created the Pushover to Pioneer email course to share with you the best lessons she's learned about pursuing your calling with confidence and boldness.  Kelli is a former National and World Champion baton twirler, and was also Miss Oklahoma 1997, winning awards for talent and community service at the Miss America pageant that year. Currently, Kelli serves as an Adjunct Professor at Oklahoma City University and Oklahoma Christian University, teaching Sports Law. She is a sought-after writer and speaker on topics of sports and nonprofit as well as leadership, diversity and discovering purpose in life. Her first book was released in 2021, High-Impact Life: A Sports Agent's Secrets to Finding and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can't Lose. Recognized as one of the most influential women in sports business, Kelli Masters often hears, "You have a DREAM JOB." But she chooses to inspire others not with her successes, but with her vulnerability, sharing not only the victories but also the battles and failures along the way. Kelli is an attorney, an NFL sports agent and Founder and President of KMM Sports, a full-service sports management company with offices in New York, Los Angeles and her hometown of Oklahoma City. www.kellimasters.com

In this episode of BackTable ENT, Dr. Shah interviews pediatric otolaryngologist Dr. Kevin Huoh about intracapsular tonsillectomy, including the postoperative benefits of the procedure and his personal techniques. --- CHECK OUT OUR SPONSOR Smith & Nephew ENT Solutions https://smith-nephew.com --- SHOW NOTES First, Dr. Huoh explains the principle behind intracapsular tonsillectomy. This technique involves removing the tonsil but leaving the capsule intact to protect muscles of the pharyngeal wall and lateral vessels. When he performs this procedure on patients, he notices that their recovery period is less painful and their lower risk of hemorrhages when compared to extracapsular tonsillectomy patients. According to the literature, there is only 3% risk of tonsil regrowth, but he considers regrowth a safer complication than tonsillar hemorrhage. His postoperative recovery regimen includes Tylenol or Motrin for 24 hours, and his patients can start on a regular diet immediately after surgery. Then, he and Dr. Shah discuss differences between American and European guidelines on intracapsular tonsillectomy. Next, Dr. Huoh explains the type of equipment he uses and his intracapsular tonsillectomy technique. He encourages surgeons to follow their tonsillar regrowth rate, as this data can inform surgeons on whether they are removing enough tissue during the procedure. Additionally, he also emphasizes that it is never too late to learn a new procedure like intracapsular tonsillectomy. He finds it easy to add on an intracapsular tonsillectomy as a minor procedure if he is already taking a patient to the OR for another surgery because of the minimal risks of the procedure. Finally, Dr. Shah and Dr. Huoh discuss tonsillectomies in adults and children with recurrent peritonsillar abscesses. --- RESOURCES Smith + Nephew Coblation Technology for Adenotonsillectomy https://www.smith-nephew.com/en/health-care-professionals/products/ear-nose-and-throat/coblation-technology-for-adenotonsillectomy#overview

#18 Kathy Hoseth was the first patient to be unroofed for her myocardial bridge in the state of Michigan at age 58. She began experiencing symptoms at age 8 from a myocardial bridge but would not receive the diagnosis until age 58. Throughout childhood, she couldn't catch her breath, her legs hurt, and she just didn't feel right. She even passed out when standing in line for too long in high school. She kept living her life, had two boys in her 20s and even went back to school as a mom. She had her first ER visit during college and was discounted as having stress. She kept going back to the doctor and was diagnosed with pleurisy as well as pericarditis. She was told to take Motrin. She kept living her life. Then, she bought a Fitbit and noticing her heart rate which would be as high as 185. After several more doctors and a heart monitor, Kathy spoke up and said "my inner voice said something is not right." Finally, she had a nuclear stress test and heart catherization which found the myocardial bridge. BUT! Then she was put on medications which did not help. Finally, Kathy had another heart catherization with a female doctor who could see how significant her bridge was. Thanks to Spectrum Health Hospitals for performing the first unroofing procedure at that facility. Kathy is now living her best life. She reflects at the end about how heart surgery changed her. Boots also weaves in some of her story with Kathy's including her ridiculous experience attempting to participate in track in high school.Website: The Heart Chamber (theheartchamberpodcast.com)Transcript: Joyful Beat | The Heart Chamber (theheartchamberpodcast.com)The Heart Chamber (@theheartchamberpodcast)Thanks to Michael Moeri for being my right hand man. Michael Moeri - Audio Editor, Podcast Producer and Marketing Director

Hour 1: Jerry is in for Boomer again this morning and we start with him telling us he's not feeling great. Gio is having a hard time finding Children's Tylenol and Motrin. The Mets lost to the Padres last night and it was annoying. The Mets offense is struggling while the Mets minor leaguers are hitting the ball all over the park. Scherzer and Verlander are here for a very short window so you have to win now and right now the offense is not getting it done. With Jerry hosting today, Peter Schwartz is on the updates. He starts with complaining about the new LIRR schedule. ‘Franchy poured the ranchy all over the Guardians' according to Peter. Gerrit Cole gave up 2 early runs but settled in and cruised the rest of the way. The Mets lost to the Padres and Francisco Alvarez said he needs to be more disciplined at the plate. Peter went around the NHL for the locals. In the final segment of the hour, the Phillies did the first of their $1 hot dog nights. They sold 58,000 hot dogs in one night and sold the stadium out.

Jerry is in for Boomer again this morning and we start with him telling us he's not feeling great. Gio is having a hard time finding Children's Tylenol and Motrin. The Mets lost to the Padres last night and it was annoying. The Mets offense is struggling while the Mets minor leaguers are hitting the ball all over the park. Scherzer and Verlander are here for a very short window so you have to win now and right now the offense is not getting it done.

Hour 1: Jerry is in for Boomer again this morning and we start with him telling us he's not feeling great. Gio is having a hard time finding Children's Tylenol and Motrin. The Mets lost to the Padres last night and it was annoying. The Mets offense is struggling while the Mets minor leaguers are hitting the ball all over the park. Scherzer and Verlander are here for a very short window so you have to win now and right now the offense is not getting it done. With Jerry hosting today, Peter Schwartz is on the updates. He starts with complaining about the new LIRR schedule. ‘Franchy poured the ranchy all over the Guardians' according to Peter. Gerrit Cole gave up 2 early runs but settled in and cruised the rest of the way. The Mets lost to the Padres and Francisco Alvarez said he needs to be more disciplined at the plate. Peter went around the NHL for the locals. In the final segment of the hour, the Phillies did the first of their $1 hot dog nights. They sold 58,000 hot dogs in one night and sold the stadium out.  Hour 2: David Bakhtiari of the Packers was a guest on the ‘Bussin' with the Boys' podcast and talked about Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. He floated a theory out there of the Packers paying Rodgers to not play if the trade with the Jets is not on their terms. Joe Douglas told us Rodgers will be a Jet at our live show, but he also mumbled something when the crowd was screaming so we have no idea what he said. Buzz, No Buzz: The NFL Draft for the Jets and Giants. No Buzz. Gio also told us about the times he attended the draft as a fan. Peter returns for an update and starts with the Yankees win over the Guardians and the Mets loss to the Padres. Jerry wonders what issues the Mets have with Francisco Alvarez. Jack Hughes got the record for most points in a season last night. In the final segment of the hour, Darin Ruf talked to The Athletic about the pressures of playing in New York.  Hour 3: For being one of the great players in the history of the game, Gio has zero interest in watching LeBron James. He wants him out of the playoffs as soon as possible. Gio gets more joy watching Steph Curry over LeBron. Maybe he would have liked LeBron more if he stayed in Cleveland the whole time. Peter returns for an update and starts by enjoying some Pringles dipped in ranch. In between shots of ranch, Peter has sound from the Yankees win over the Guardians and the Mets loss to the Padres. Jerry finds it odd that Gio had to book Peter's Uber. In the final segment of the hour, we remember WFAN host Rick Wolff who passed away.  Hour 4: Carlos Rodon remains on the IL for the Yankees with back stiffness. Gio has been very impressed with the home crowds at Yankee Stadium in April. If you were going on a three day trip, would you go to Nashville or Austin? We talked about hanging out with Jordan Davis when he came to lunch with us in NYC. Gio told a story about almost getting into a fight over a car after a Mets game for his mom's birthday. Peter returns for his final update of the day, but first a caller tells us that getting an Uber from MetLife is a  nightmare. In the final segment of the show, Jerry is sounding sicker and sicker as the show goes on. The Knicks playoff series against the Cavaliers starts Saturday and we give it a brief preview.

EPISODE 167: SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION, COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Associated Press reports that at least one of the reported 34 charges against Trump for falsifying business records is a FELONY offense. That not only lines up with previous reporting but when added to the CBS reporting that Alvin Bragg had obtained communications and documents not previously known to the public, it supports the theory that the Felony charge could involve TAX CHEATING. David Frum guesses "this case will turn out to be about Trump cheating on his taxes (again): allegedly creating false invoices so as to convert the payoff to Stormy Daniels into a LEGAL BILL to his lawyer - and then DEDUCTING the fake legal bill from his TAXABLE INCOME." There were way too many updates to NOT do a special weekend edition. On Social Media, Trump is in full-fledged panic: by dinner-time last night he had already exceeded 100 posts full of rage and Mark Levin clips and in one verging on the same kind of terroristic threats as a week ago: "HOW MUCH MORE ARE AMERICAN PATRIOTS EXPECTED TO TAKE?" The Secret Service has toured the courthouse at 60 Centre Street so Trump is scheduled to appear at 2:15 PM EDT next Tuesday. After saying "Democrats want Civil War" (six weeks after demanding a "national divorce") maybe Marjorie Barney Rubble will lead protests when she comes to New York Tuesday, but so far there's been nothing - for or against - in NYC. There was one guy in front of Trump Tower yesterday (and he was whispering). Trump and his various attorneys (and they need numbered ear-tags, like cows) will move to throw out the judge, and the charges, but they will not approach a plea deal. And District Attorney Bragg will not approach giving Trump's house chairman the documents and testimony they want: in fact he may have just warned them that they could be charged with interfering with his prosecution. There were developments in two Trump-adjacent cases Friday. The election fraudster Douglass Mackey (who conned a couple thousand Clinton voters to try to vote by TEXT in 2016) has been convicted. And Dominion's defamation suit against Fox will proceed and the judge will tell the jury NONE of what Fox said about Dominion was true. And two belly laughs. One, I'll save for the podcast itself. In the other: Eric-Fredo Trump on Thursday told Fox that Bragg is obsessed by his father even though shoplifting is so bad in New York that he went to CVS to get some Tylenol and found it behind plastic protection. On Friday he told NewsMax that he went to Duane Reade to get Advil and found it behind plastic protection. Time to get Eric some Motrin. B-Block (21:52) COULD TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST, Part 1: An updated version of the 2016 Vanity Fair piece and video that forever linked me to the Oompa Loompa. C-Block (44:50) COULD TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST, Part 2: The conclusion and the final score and guess what...he COULDN'T.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows! This is where we answer our community's wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track! Check out today's questions:    Gary: Hi Dr. Cabral, I perhaps have the stump Cabral of the day. (I know this will be 12+ weeks until answered and that's ok) A little context for me (chronic constipation, leaky gut, and bacterial overgrowth, tons of gas and bloating) I did the FM detox followed by the CBO Protocol with Mastic Gum (because of C.Diff) and the Citricidal Drops followed by the CBO finisher. (I followed it all to a tee) It helped some but definitely did not fix the issues. 5 1/2 years of this now. I've been working with your team and they've been very helpful, but I think everyone is out of answers of what to do next. I know it is stressed based (been doing sauna, relaxation exercises, bineural beats, etc) Where do I go from here? P.S. perhaps ileocecal valve dysfunction? Thank you! Gary   Maria: Is it true that kale and spinach cause kidneys stones.   Alexandra: Hi, first I'd like to say thank you. I've worked with one of your health coaches and the results are truly amazing. I am writing to you today at our daughter. Our 2.5 year old had split nights (up for 2-3 hours and just can't sleep. Mostly calm) at around 18 months old and lasted almost 8 weeks straight. We thought it was a sleep pressure thing and did all the things to try to fix it, but in the end we had to just ride it out and we think it was developmental. The split nights have now started back up. My husband and I both work and with having a 5 month old, split nights with our 2.5 year old are extremely exhausting. She had the flu and we did have to give her Motrin to keep her comfortable. I usually let her ride out the fevers, but she was miserable. Anyway, looking for help ! Thanks   Geoff: Hi Dr. Cabral! Have you had any experience with high alkaline phosphate levels? My levels have been above the normal range (as high as 156, currently 135) since May of 2022. I'm 44, active, and in good shape, 5'10" 152 lbs. I'm sure I'm leaving out vital background info, sorry! I started TRT (cypionate injections after about 10 years of taking Clomid) around the same time as the high readings of the alkaline phosphate. Would that have anything to do with it? My PCP sent me to have an ultrasound that looked at my kidneys, liver, and gall bladder which came back normal. His suggestion is to keep an eye on it, but I'd prefer to take action if there is anything I can do. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank you for all you do! You are a real beacon of light for all of us!   Kelly: Hi Dr. Cabral! I'm a Registered Dietitian currently going through your IHP Levels 1 and 2. It's been a great learning experience so far and I am very thankful. I had the virus back in November 2020 (the OG virus) and my main symptom was loss of smell along with a severe headache between my eyes and above my nose. Over the past 2+ years, my smell has slowly returned but is not nearly the same as it was prior to losing it. Most people I know had a return of smell after a few weeks. I'm not too sure why I have it so severe. Do you have any    Thank you for tuning into today's Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community's questions!      - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/2591 - - - 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!  

You have back pain, a headache or a fever. Typically, you'd turn to acetaminophen (like Tylenol®) or Ibuprofen (like Advil® or Motrin®). But can you take acetaminophen with ibuprofen for additional pain relief??? This question and many more are answered in this episode!! Webseites from this episode: Research and Information: www.clevelandclinic.org Living With A Disability: www.famousapple.com/group An Apple A Day Chat: www.famousapple.com/applechat  

Tom was a three sport varsity athlete and two sport team captain with dreams of attending West Point. Tom put all of his efforts into attending a service academy. When he wasn't selected he chose to enlist in the Army as a Tanker. Tom captured the attention of his leadership at his first duty station and they were instrumental in getting his application resubmitted and approved. Tom's experience as an enlisted soldier and at the preparatory school gave him the tools to be successful at West Point, but also aimed his sights out of the mud and into the sky. Tom commissioned as an Aviation Officer and became an Apache Pilot; serving overseas in S. Korea and multiple times in Iraq. Tom retired as a trained Physician Assistant and now serves the sick and injured in an Emergency Room. This is his story. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joe-harrison0/support

Episode 80. Learn about lifestyle modifications and medications used to prevent headaches and treat them. Notes about tension headaches:  Medications: Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, or Aspirin. Read the label and talk to your doctor first! Ask your doctor about prophylactic therapy (amitriptyline). Notes about migraine headaches: Medications: Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, Excedrin, Aspirin. Read the label and talk to your doctor first! Ask your doctor about triptans and prophylactic therapy like Topamax, Depakote, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and tricyclic antidepressants. Other options: Botox (Onabotulinum toxin A), monoclonal antibodies (erenumab, galcanezumab, fremanezumab), acupuncture, therapy, and biofeedback Editing Service and One-on-One Consultation for Pre-Med and Medical Students (CV, personal statement, applications): ⁠https://www.fiverr.com/firstlinepod⁠  Visit First Line's website and blog: ⁠https://poddcaststudios.wixsite.com/firstlinepodcast⁠ For a discount off your TrueLearn subscription use link: ⁠https://truelearn.referralrock.com/l/firstline/⁠ and code: firstline Instagram: @firstlinepodcast Facebook: ⁠www.facebook.com/firstlinepodcast⁠ Email: firstlinepodcast@yahoo.com Content on First Line is for educational and informational purposes only, not as medical advice. Views expressed are my own and do not represent any organizations I am associated with.

Here at The VBAC Link, we often talk about how to VBAC with a big baby, but what about the tiny ones? When Eve received an IUGR diagnosis with her first baby, she was no longer able to birth at her desired birth center. A medically necessary induction occurred soon after which then led to one unwanted intervention after another. Finally, her baby boy was born via an emergency C-section and was admitted to the NICU.Nothing about her first birth experience went as planned. Eve's second baby was also measuring very small, but she was able to avoid an IUGR diagnosis. Everything about her second birth experience was different than the first…in all of the best ways!Additional LinksEve's WebsiteEve's Instagram: @get.creative.wellnessHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode DetailsFull TranscriptMeagan: Good morning, everybody. This is Meagan with The VBAC Link and we are here today with our friend, Eve. She is amazing. All of you guys are amazing. We love you all and are excited to hear her story and a little bit more about what she does. I'm kind of excited to pick her brain a little bit about what she does as a profession. She is an art therapist and a mental health counselor. As you know, in the VBAC world, there is a lot of– well in the whole world, there is a lot of mental health. Mental health is a crisis. Eve, I don't know if you would agree, but I feel like we are in a mental health crisis right now, and sometimes right after birth whether it be the birth that you wanted or not even that you wanted, with both, we can have struggles and we also know that through birth and postpartum and all of the things that mental health is a big, important factor. So I'm excited to talk more with her about that and of course to hear her share her story. Review of the WeekMeagan: We have a Review of the Week first and this is from Anne. She says, “These ladies are an absolute joy to listen to on their podcast. I feel so fortunate to have found them on my journey to what will hopefully be 2VBAC” which means a second VBAC “with twins.” That's awesome.“When I had my first VBAC, I felt educated as I had read through books and websites. Now, I feel empowered thanks to Julie and Meagan. I feel more confident advocating for myself and asking the right questions. I recommend you to all of the mamas I come across in the VBAC groups and often refer to specific episodes I've listened to. Thank you for all that you do, you women of strength you!”I love that. I love that. That is something that we totally encourage. This podcast, although it's VBAC-specific, can really benefit anybody listening to it. So a first-time mom can learn how to avoid the C-section, learn how to advocate for herself, learn how to find a supportive provider, all of these things for first, second, third time, and fourth-time moms. Whether you are a C-section mom or not, it's going to benefit you. Eve's stories Meagan: Okay, Eve. First off, I wanted to just say thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to be here with us and I also really want to dive into a little bit of what you do before we get into your story. Can you tell us a little bit more about art therapy? What is an art therapist? What do you do because you wrote a little bit in the form that you sent us and I was like, “Okay, this is awesome.” So share more with us. Eve: Sure. Thank you so much for having me first of all. This is such a privilege and I feel like this is the icing on the cake to my whole experience so just thank you. So as an art therapist and a counselor, I provide traditional talk therapy, but there is an extra spin on it because I invite the creative process into the work I do with my clients. So sometimes we have traumatic experiences as a lot of listeners have had and I myself have had, and sometimes that trauma makes it really difficult to speak about the things that happened to us to be able to move forward. That's just one example of a reason why doing some of the creative could really help you to draw out some of those emotions and make it a little easier to speak about it or just to get some of that off of your chest by putting it out onto paper or making something out of clay or even through movement. There are a lot of different ways that creativity can be expressed, but for the things that are really challenging to speak on, the creative process can be really wonderful to help benefit clients. So what I do, my specialty is using the creative process one-on-one with clients, but I also have recently launched a new part of my program which is doing professional development with companies and also community groups who believe that they want to bring more self-care into their worlds. What I would do is I would come in, I'd do a mental health wellness piece, whatever feels relevant to that group, and then we will do a related art project and talk about how that went so that they can deepen the experience and learn a bit more about themselves and hopefully bring some of those tools into their lives for their own self-care on a regular basis.Meagan: Wow, I love that. So you have a course. Did you create the course or is this a collaborative thing?Eve: Yeah, it's all me. This is something new that I'm just launching. I'm really excited to share it. I have done professional development in other ways and I wanted to bring my creativity and my passion for art therapy to the general population, so this is for people who are not just interested in therapy, but people who want to deepen their self-care and gain some more self-awareness and hopefully find some better ways to relax. Meagan: Gosh, I love that. That is so awesome. Do you mind plugging in your website? Will you tell everybody about your website? And then we're going to have that in the show notes for you as well, listeners.Eve: Sure. Absolutely, yep. It's getcreativewellness.com and I will drop it into the chat right now so you can see it. Meagan: Awesome, awesome. And you are on Instagram as well, right? Eve: Yes, yes. Meagan: It's @get.creative.wellness so definitely check her out. Awesome. Is there anything else you'd like to share about mental health?Eve: No, just that it's something that applies to everybody and not to let it go if you sense that something is off with you. Definitely follow your instinct and don't let it go because the longer you let it go, the more it will take over your life and be harder to come out of. So it's really important not to keep pushing through some of these mental health challenges that we have because sometimes it's a lot more than just day-to-day stress and we really don't want to let these things build up inside of us. It really affects all of the things that we do. I mean overall, I think that moms tend to put themselves last a lot and self-care is really not selfish. It's really something that is necessary in order to be the best mothers and partners and daughters and all of the other roles.Meagan: Person, the best person that you can be. You've got to be well-balanced. It's okay if you're unbalanced. That's okay too. It happens. Eve: Exactly, yeah. Meagan: It's okay to take charge of your care. So I love that message. Eve: Thank you. Meagan: Okay, well let's dive into your story because you have a lot of things in your story as far as an induction that didn't go as planned, IUGR (intrauterine growth restrictions), baby in the NICU, so you've got all of these little things that are unique, so I would love for you to share. Eve: Thanks. I was really excited to share my story because I've listened to so many episodes and I know I hear a lot of stories about big babies, so I've always listened and been like, “Are there any episodes on small babies?” because that has been my experience with both of my babies. They both were a little bit different, so I'm excited to share and hopefully, it will help some other people who might be experiencing something similar. All right, so I will start with my first pregnancy. My husband and I were married for about a year and we figured if we were going to start a family, we should probably get on that because I was 35 and we didn't know what that journey might look like for us. So we figured we would give it a shot. We were fortunate to be pregnant very quickly. We said, “Okay. We're really doing this now.” So we had planned for a natural birth at a birth center. I tend to be very natural and holistic-minded in everything I do in life, so that was a no-brainer for me that I really wanted an out-of-hospital birth if possible. I really never gave much consideration to other possibilities because I didn't realize how often interventions are pushed and the frequency of other outcomes. I thought a C-section of a hospital transfer would only happen if I was in labor and something went wrong and we would have to go that route. I really didn't think about any other ways that you might end up with a C-section. I thought that we were going to have this birth at the birth center. My pregnancy was fairly easy and comfortable. I took very good care of myself. I was eating well. I gained the right amount of weight that was recommended. I was doing chiropractic my entire pregnancy and also before that, I had been in chiropractic care for many years so I just continued with that through my pregnancy. I was exercising a lot, a lot of walking and doing some light weights and yoga. I was drinking red raspberry leaf tea. Just in general, I felt really great throughout, so I had no inkling of, “Oh, this is not going to happen for me.” We went for our anatomy scan at 19 weeks and there were some concerns with the size. I believe at the time, my son was measuring at about the 12th percentile. They also saw that I had complete placenta preva, so I was recommended to come back again to check in the 3rd trimester to make sure the previa had cleared and do another growth scan. I came back at 28 weeks and the previa had cleared, so I was good to go with that, and then I was also very thankful that the weight was now measuring around the 23rd percentile I believe, so I said, “Okay. We're in the clear.” I didn't have any more scans. At 40 weeks, I got to my 40-week appointment. I should mention that I still continued to feel great throughout. In fact, now looking back, maybe I felt a little too comfortable towards the end of my pregnancy but at 40 weeks, I was still pregnant, so I went to my appointment and I had a cervical check. I was hard and closed and the midwife there said, “There's a strong chance that you'll still be pregnant next week.” She said that I should go get my amniotic fluid levels checked. So I did that at 41 weeks. My fluid levels were fine and the blood flow to and from the placenta looked good. Everything was looking pretty good. However, the baby was measuring small. I had to go to a hospital to get these scans done since I was having my care at a birth center and they didn't do these tests there. So the doctor at the hospital who read my scan recommended that I induce that day. They said, “Your baby is estimated at weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces and that would be considered IUGR for a 41-week pregnancy.” But to me, I felt like, “Well, 6 pounds 13 ounces. I'm only 5'3”. My husband's not that tall.” That probably sounded like a decent-sized baby for us to have. So I declined the induction and I called the midwives and they had me come in that day to the birth center. I remember being very awkward because the office was closing soon, so the lights were out in a lot of the office and they sort of took me into this one room that was still open. So already, it was kind of an eerie feeling just being there at that time of day. I think it was maybe 6:00 or so. They had me come in and do a non-stress test and a membrane sweep. They had three different people try to put in a Foley balloon, but they couldn't get it in so that was really probably the first time that I started feeling like I was being experimented on because it was like all of these people trying to do this thing which was really vulnerable because I also never had that done to me before. But I was willing to try anything because I really didn't want to be induced and I was still hoping at this point that I could deliver at the birth center. However, while I was getting my non-stress test and they were telling me, “Oh, everything is good,” they also dropped the ball on me that I was now considered high-risk with my pregnancy and I couldn't deliver at the birth center because now my baby had this IUGR diagnosis. That was really difficult to accept because I was really pumped about having these natural childbirth classes and I was reading all of the books. Meagan: You were ready, yeah. Eve: I was ready. I was ready and I really believed wholeheartedly that this was the type of birth that I wanted and that this was going to be possible for me. I really had no thought in my mind that this was not going to happen to me. I felt like if I willed it, it would be so which I obviously realize now is foolish or maybe just naive, but I think that that's a big part of my story is feeling like a failure because I didn't get the things that I hoped for. I know that there were people along the way who questioned my choice to deliver at a birth center and the fact that I wanted everything to be natural and I had this feeling that people would say, “See? See? You can't just go in and do that.” So I already was sort of feeling a bit like I failed because now I was going to have to deliver in a hospital. Part of me was also angry because I didn't even know that they were going to be measuring the baby at that time. I thought I was just getting my amniotic fluid levels checked and I didn't give consent to do any other testing and then they just came in and they were like, “The baby is measuring small.” So I was angry because I said, “Well, what if it's wrong? What if the baby is really 7 pounds, 13 ounces?” With that being said, at this point, I was 41 weeks and I finally decided to stop working. I was working all throughout and I was showing up to work every day and people were saying, “Why are you still here? You're still pregnant? Why are you still here?” That was also getting frustrating because I knew that the baby should be coming soon, but I was frustrated too, and to have people just point it out to me wasn't really that helpful. So I decided to stop working and at that point, I was being pressured to be induced not in a harsh way, but I was getting a lot of phone calls daily from the midwives at the birth center saying, “Are you feeling anything? Do you think that anything's happening?” I had to go for daily non-stress tests and I had all of them passed, but I felt very pressured to go into labor on my own to avoid the induction, so I told myself, “Well, at least if I have to have a hospital birth, if I could somehow get something going without an induction, maybe I could still have somewhat of a natural birth experience.” I had no education on this at all. This was not anything I had even considered, so now in the last week of my pregnancy, I was trying all of these natural induction methods so I was doing evening primrose oil and eating pineapple and walking a bunch even though I was already walking. I was just increasing that. I did acupuncture a couple of times. I had a couple of membrane sweeps and then the last thing that I tried was castor oil. That was very intense. I did have some mild contractions after taking the castor oil, but I think it was just because it was such a violent cleanse coming out both ways because then it sort of just tapered all off and didn't turn into anything. I was getting frustrated about being encouraged to induce from my providers and even one of my family members was starting to turn in that direction. I was starting to question if I really was putting my baby at risk by staying pregnant. I agreed to induce at 41+6 and I just remember so clearly the feeling of walking into the hospital already clutching my pillow and feeling really defeated. Each step in the process felt like it was against what I wanted. I was in the hospital and every time there was an intervention proposed, I was asked if I wanted it, but I really didn't know of any other choices and I didn't feel good about any of the interventions that were proposed to me. I was just like, “I guess I have to go along. I don't really think I have any other choice.” So I was very closed to the process overall and I do think that that really affected my recovery emotionally because I was so against it. I think being close-minded and wanting this really natural childbirth experience hindered me in a way because I was not open to anything else. There were a couple of things that were on my hopes and dreams list that I was able to do while at the hospital during this induction. They let me take a shower and I brought music and I brought some aromatherapy and some visual aids, but I didn't use most of those things. The first thing that they did was they inserted Cervadil and two hours later, I remember I was talking with my husband and I started laughing and my water broke. I was like, “Oh, maybe something's going to happen now.” I asked to wait an hour or so to see if anything would pick up because I had heard of people who once their water broke didn't really need any other interventions and contractions just picked up on their own. That did not happen for me. After a couple of hours, they started me on a low dose of Pitocin. I remember at this point, I needed to be hooked up. Since I was now on Pitocin, I needed to be continually monitored. That was the first time where I really started to feel that I was being experimented on because I was hooked up and they didn't have mobile monitoring at this hospital, so I had to stay tethered to the bed. I could only move about 5 feet from the bed. Meagan: That's so hard when you're already feeling like you're an experiment and now you're feeling stuck. Eve: Yeah, and also, until the very end of my pregnancy, I had a very comfortable pregnancy. I didn't have any issues with high blood pressure or sugar issues. I felt really good, so I felt like I really didn't want to be hooked up to things. I wanted to go to the bathroom, so I got up and I went to the bathroom. I unhooked myself and I remember one of the nurses came in and yelled at me and said, “What are you doing? You're on Pitocin.” I was like, “I have legs and I want to use the bathroom. I don't want to sit on this toilet right next to the bed.” So clearly, that was not allowed. I basically stayed in the bed the whole rest of the time. After about 18 hours of my water being broken and really no changes happening, I was barely dilating, I started leaking meconium. I think I might have had a mild fever. I'm a little fuzzy on it, but I think I was starting to have a fever too so when I was checked, I was only at about 3 centimeters, so the midwife who was there with me from the birth center recommended that we increase the Pitocin to try to deliver vaginally because we were really up against the clock. Those were her words. That made me feel very pressured and I was just like, “Okay. Well, I guess that's my only choice, so okay. Let's try it.” I agreed to get an epidural even though I was really scared and I really didn't want it. The anesthesiologist came in and I remember she was very, very impatient. She had no empathy for the fact that I was unsure about wanting this and she said to me, “I have other people waiting, so I need you to make a decision.” So I was just like, “Okay. I guess I'll do it.” I got the epidural. There were no issues actually placing it, but as soon as I laid back down and I started to go numb, I had a severe panic attack. I'm not really prone to panic attacks. I've definitely had some general anxiety and I have had some more mild panic attacks, but this was really, really bad. My teeth were chattering. I felt totally out of control and I had no feeling in my legs at all. There was one spot that didn't take on the right side of my pelvis, so they were telling me, “Oh, you have to turn your body.” I'm like, “Well, I can't move.” So they had to turn me. I just felt totally out of control and like I had no choices and I felt like everything just had gone from bad to worse by this point. Now they were like, “Okay, well we can't start the Pitocin again because your heart rate is totally too high right now.” It took me about 45 minutes to finally get my heart rate to a normal level. I remember the midwife who was there came in and she started doing needlepoint right next to the bed. I remember at first being very annoyed by that, but then I was like, “Oh, I think I know what she's doing,” because as an art therapist, I'm thinking, “Maybe she's doing this to distract me because she wants me to be able to try to focus on something else.” So that's what I did. I just sort of watched her. I watched her fingers as she was doing the needlepoint and that was what helped me to calm down. Finally, I said, “Okay. I'm ready. I feel calm. Let's try putting the Pitocin back on.” So the nurses came in. They put it back on and then literally less than a minute afterward, the baby's heart rate was not responding well. I don't remember if it was going up or down, but it was not even a minute and they were like, “You're coming in to have a C-section.” I will admit that in some ways because I knew the C-section was the last stop in the road, I felt relieved that there would not be any more interventions to try and fail or be coerced into without having enough information, but I also did not understand what would happen in a C-section besides that they cut you open and they take the baby out. I really had no idea what really happens in a C-section. So the same anesthesiologist comes into the room and it was just like a movie. She comes in and she goes, “I'm back.” I was like, “Are you kidding me? As if I already didn't have ill feelings towards you from the first time.”Meagan: Thank you for announcing. Eve: Yeah. And honestly, I have no idea if this is true, but I had this feeling that she made it so heavy because I felt so drugged, I could barely hold my eyes open or form sentences after that and while having the surgery, I felt that she was kind of like, “Oh, she's a live one. Give her a high dose.” But who knows? So I also remember at the time before we went into the OR, someone came in from the NICU who I had never met. I don't remember if it was a physician. I don't know who it was, but somebody from the NICU who was on the team that would be working on the baby if it was necessary came in. I remember she was holding my hand and being really syrupy sweet and saying, “Don't worry. I'll take care of your baby.” I found it to be very inauthentic and annoying because I didn't want to talk to her. I really just wanted peace for a few minutes and I wasn't very welcoming of her support. I later did apologize to her for that, but the timing was not the best. I also felt like I could see through it. I felt like she was putting something on because I had never met this woman and she didn't know me and here she was holding my hand really tight. I was like, “I didn't really show you any signs that I needed my hand held right now.” So anyway, right before surgery, I'm laying on the table and my husband came in with me and the midwife was there next to me on the other side, so I did have their support. I remember not being able to form sentences and she said to me, “Don't worry because sometimes people feel like they can't breathe from the anesthesia.” I'm thinking, “I just had this massive panic attack and now you're telling me that I might not be able to feel that I could breathe?” I tried to not let it get to me because I was like, “Well, here I am. I'm not going anywhere.” But what I did like is throughout each part of the C-section, the doctor explained what was happening. They said, “You might feel this here. You might feel a little tugging.” Every single thing that was happening they did tell me, so I felt that I was included a big in the process. But one thing I do remember was once they actually got to my son, the doctor said, “You made the right decision. This baby wasn't coming out.” I didn't know what that meant. That was the first time where I felt really the mom guilt like, “Did I keep him in too long? Should I have induced sooner?” type of thing. After he came out, he wasn't crying yet and I was very drugged, so I really didn't know what was going on. The midwife brought him around for a brief second before taking him off to the side where people were working on him. I'm assuming because they were pumping out all of the meconium. It felt like a very long time before we heard him cry. I remember thinking, “Oh, his cry sounds really cute,” even though I always hated the sound of babies crying before. I asked my husband, Mike, and I said, “Is he beautiful?” because like I said, I was really drugged. He didn't really say anything because he wasn't really sure what was happening. I could tell he was worried. Finally, the midwife brought him over to me and he was all wrapped up. I tried to hold him to my chest as best as I could and she said, “He's doing well. We're going to take him to the regular nursery” which meant to bring him to our room. I felt some relief that he was okay. He was born on the small side. He was 6 pounds, 7 ounces which might not sound super tiny, but he was also 21 inches long so he was very thin. After talking with other people after the fact, it sounds like his presentation was very typical for an IUGR baby because he had a very large head and his body was very skinny, so it's like all of the weight and energy was going toward the brain and the areas that most needed it, so his body had lost all of that round fat, so he was very thin. I remember in his newborn pictures, you could see his ribs and that was another time when I felt some guilt like, “Did I cause this somehow?” That sort of thing. My mom and stepfather met us in recovery. My husband was the first one to spend time holding him because I really didn't feel stable enough to hold him while being wheeled on a bed and then he was really only in the room with us for half a day because his temperature kept going down. So at one point, it had gone down to 92 degrees. He went to the nursery under the warmer a couple of times, but at the hospital where we were, apparently the third time that happens, they get sent to the NICU. After they had done the warmer a couple of times and it wasn't working for very long, he went down to the NICU and we had so many tests run. Everything was coming back to normal. It seems like getting him to gain weight was really what was needed to get his temperature to stay in a healthy range. They were giving him a lot of formula and this was also not my plan because I wanted to exclusively breastfeed in the beginning and now he was being pumped full of all of this extra calorie formula, but I felt fine with that because I was like, “He needs to gain weight.” I didn't really have milk coming in yet, so I just went with it. Shortly before he was discharged, I remember a NICU nurse who was there telling us that she was in the surgery. She said, “I thought for sure he would be going right to the NICU because he was covered in poop when he came out.” He was there for a week and during that time, it was really difficult to process because I was recovering from a C-section and we were in the hospital for most of that week as well, but I had a lot of disappointment and shock. I just felt very disconnected from my body. It was really hard to move and walk. I felt a lot of times like my body was just ripping in half where I had the incision if I moved the wrong way. It was just really challenging and frustrating. I also felt exhausted and very sad. I felt like I had no time to process what had happened at all. I just really felt like I got robbed of the birth experience in general. I felt like I really didn't have the chance to experience any part of labor and that the birth experience I had hoped for was taken from me. I don't feel that way now necessarily. I feel that certain parts could have been different, but I know that my son definitely needed some help and some extra support when he was born, so I'm accepting of that now. So the feeding schedule in the NICU was every 3 hours. We would go down. We would do a diaper change. We'd take his temperature. We'd feed him whatever breastmilk I had, then give him some formula, then we'd go back to our room. I would pump for 20 minutes to try to get some supply going and I would have a snack and then I would have people coming in and out of the room constantly all reminding me to eat and rest, but there was really no opportunity to be alone to do that, so it was very challenging to be on this really rigorous schedule after having surgery and trying to be there for my son but also not having a chance to emotionally process everything that had happened. The nurses really weren't communicating well during changes of shifts about my medications and I was really just taking Motrin and Tylenol so it would wear off and I would be in a lot of pain because I wasn't taking anything stronger than that, so I kept reminding them when I needed my medication and it was just very frustrating. So we spent 5 days in the hospital including Thanksgiving which was really sad because I was thankful that my son was there and that he was okay, but we also really didn't know if he was going to be okay yet and so we had a lot of mixed feelings and it was hard to be alone in the hospital during that time. I should mention that this is before COVID by a few months, so it wasn't that we were alone because of COVID. We were just alone because with him being in the NICU, a lot of visitors were not allowed. The nurses and doctors gave him great care. We learned a lot in that experience. We had a lot of help with breastfeeding. We learned how to change a diaper the right way and how to take his temperature. We got him on a sleep schedule right from the beginning so we did get some benefits from the NICU experience. But shortly before he was discharged, one of the nurses said, “He makes his needs known.” I remember he was one of the only full-time babies that were there and he had the loudest cry in there so I think they were ready to discharge him too because it was pretty quiet except for our son screaming, but I realized that comment that she made how fortunate we were to have a generally healthy, full-term baby who just needed to put on some weight to be able to take him home because I know a lot of families who experience the NICU have much greater challenges than what we went through, so I just want to mention that. He was long and skinny when he was born, but eventually, his growth did catch up after a few months and I worked really hard to build up my milk supply. Now, he is almost 3 and he's smart and energetic and he just amazes me every day. I had a lot of guilt about my son's beginning even though there was really nothing I could think of that I had done to cause it and that was hard to accept because I really wanted to have an answer. I knew I wanted some support around my recovery and I was really having trouble relating to the birth experiences of the people in my inner circle even though they were trying to be supportive because nobody really had an experience like mine. I Googled “C-section support group” and that was how I found The VBAC Link. Meagan: Oh, that's awesome. Eve: Yeah, and I remember I was just back to work. I was about 3 months postpartum and I found the podcast. On one of my breaks, I started listening. I was like, “Oh my gosh. This is exactly what I need. I need to hear people who have stories that I can relate to and get some inspiration from that,” because I knew that I didn't want to have a similar experience if we had another child. I also started seeing a postpartum therapist in addition to listening to the VBAC Link. I was having some past trauma come up, so I knew that I needed some more formal therapy, so I was doing that as well. And then a little over a year later, our son was 14 months and we got pregnant again but we had an early pregnancy loss. We believe I was only about 7 weeks pregnant, so we decided to wait a while to try again and process that experience. We were working on some other goals at the time, so we figured, “Let's put having another baby on hold for a little while,” because I felt like I really needed to process that and I didn't want to rush into it. During that pregnancy that we lost, I had started care with a midwife in our area who people have called “The VBAC Whisperer” and I thought, “Oh, she's going to be a great fit for me,” but when I had my pregnancy loss, she had no compassion and I remember when I called because I was bleeding and I said, “Should I be alarmed?” Because she sounded a little annoyed that I called and she goes, “I don't know. Do you want me to tell you to be alarmed?” just like that. I was like, “Um.” I was thinking that I would like some education about what I could do or some possibilities. There was nothing constructive for me to try anything. So I swore that I would never work with her again and I ended up getting much more support around that loss from the midwives at the birth center where we had gone for our prenatal care with our son. Luckily, I still had other providers that I trusted that I could reach out to. That baby's due date was estimated to be October 8th of 2021 and we found out we were pregnant again on October 6th, 2021 a couple of days before the baby we lost would have been born. It was very meaningful to me because it made me feel like somehow the loss made way for a new life. I just held that with me. It helped me to remember the loss in a more positive and meaningful way. So I started my care at the birth center even though I knew that I couldn't continue there because they don't accept VBAC clients, so I ended up moving on to care with a different midwife who I had never met or worked with previously and this midwife was VBAC supportive and very trauma-informed and was able to deliver my baby at a different hospital which I had heard was more VBAC supportive. I really liked this midwife because they kept it real with me about possibilities about what to expect in a hospital setting to help me prepare to go into this birth expecting to be in a hospital because I think like I said, I was thinking all along with my first pregnancy, “I'm going to be in a birth center. It's going to be all-natural. It's going to be like being in a bedroom.” I hadn't even considered, “Well, what if I end up in a hospital?” so it was helpful for me to consider some other possibilities this time around. I was trying to be more realistic this time. I also hired a doula who was very comforting and nonjudgmental. She had two children with a similar age gap to what my children would have and so I felt that she could relate to some of my experiences and that was really nice. This pregnancy was very similar to the first one. Again, I did chiropractic throughout. I had minimal discomfort throughout the pregnancy until the third trimester for a couple of weeks, I did have some sharp pelvic pain which made walking and moving, and even lying down comfortably very difficult. I also had some digestive pain for a few days, so I was wearing a support band and I went to the chiropractor a little bit more during that time. I went to a pelvic floor specialist. Eventually, it did get better, so I was thankful that it got better because I was 37-38 weeks at that time, but luckily, it improved before I was at the very end of my pregnancy. So at one point, I thought, “Maybe I'll deliver before my due date this time,” because I was having that discomfort, but then my due date came and went and I started asking my midwife more questions about what an induction might look like because that was really what I most feared and I wanted to have more information this time so that I could prepare. I feel much more comforted when I have more information. I was really worried about the cascade of interventions happening again and going into the process in a similar way as I did with my first birth. This midwife that I was working with said that they would be comfortable with me going to 41+5 or 6 before inducing as long as everything was looking good, so I might have to go in for a non-stress test again or something like that. Because my son was an IUGR pregnancy, my third trimester, I was being monitored more closely this time and we wanted to make sure that we didn't miss anything because we didn't have the IUGR diagnosis until 41 weeks and that really, I think, made it difficult to prepare. I had more ultrasounds at the hospital where I was going to deliver and at 32 weeks, we had a scan that looked like we might have another IUGR diagnosis. Her abdominal circumference was between 10-11% and once you get below 10%, that's considered IUGR. So now, I had to keep going for more scans because of that. The doctor who read my scan at the hospital came in and warned me that with IUGR, they recommended delivering by 39 weeks which, of course, made me nervous because I had gone to 42 weeks without labor the first time. I wondered whether I'd be able to have the experience of labor at all since this would likely be my last child and I was 38 years old. I wasn't really planning to have more than two children. I really just wanted to have some experience in labor. When I told her of my hopes for a VBAC and my preference not to induce, the doctor said to me, “Look, as someone who has done it three times, it's not all that.” I remember being like, “Oh my gosh, lady. That's great for you to say, but you've had three vaginal births so you obviously don't know. You don't know what it's like to not experience it.” She had no sense of how that could be a loss. She didn't know that could also be a loss. The birth experience can be mourned as well. I actually considered not having another scan because I wanted to avoid everything that had happened with my first pregnancy and I still had it in my mind, “The numbers could be wrong.” It was causing me so much stress. Ultimately, I did decide that I wanted more information so that if we did end up with an IUGR diagnosis, I would have more data to decide on the next steps and have time to accept a change of plans this time if I needed to. Luckily, we went back at 36 weeks and her growth had improved and now the abdominal circumference was about 23%. So now, we just were going to wait and she was just considered constitutionally small, so I did not have the IUGR diagnosis with her. I started taking red raspberry leaf. Meagan: That's so awesome. Eve: Yeah. So I started taking red raspberry leaf tea again. I decided to stop working at 38 weeks this time, so I already had some time on my hands to just be pregnant and relax and do things that I needed to do. So as I was getting to 41 weeks, I started to feel like I was on the clock and I was pressured to make something happen to avoid another induction. That was my own pressure. Nobody was putting pressure on me, but it was in my own mind. So at 41 weeks, I went for acupuncture and I felt a lot of movement. My midwife never pushed cervical checks, but when I was there, I asked, “Is there anything that we can do to get this moving?” My midwife said, “Well, we can do a cervical check and a sweep,” so I decided to do that. I was 2 centimeters and 80% effaced at 41+1. I was shocked and very excited because I hadn't had anything. Meagan: That's awesome. Eve: Yeah, something's happening. So I had this membrane sweep and then that night around 8:00, I started having sharp cramps. They were about 10 seconds long and they were coming every 3-5 minutes. My doula advised me to rest and hydrate, so I tried to do that. I was lying on the floor with the lights dim and my birth ball, but I asked my husband to stay up with me because I was starting to need some support with the contractions. I wasn't sure if I was in labor, but I asked my mom to come anyway because she lives about an hour and a half away and our plan was for her to stay with our son while we went to the hospital. She got there at 1:30 in the morning and I had these contractions that were not really following a pattern yet. The next morning, our son got up around 6 and my mom and my husband were taking turns watching him and then giving me counterpressure. They were sort of going back and forth. Since I hadn't been in labor before, I didn't call the doula to come because I was expecting that I still had a while to go. I was coping fairly well just with them, so I said, “Why don't we just ride it out a little longer?” And then my contractions started spacing out, so I asked my husband who had gone to the park with my son to come home. This was around close to 10 in the morning. At 9:30 or 10 in the morning, I asked him to come back because my contractions started picking up again once they had left. I think my body was having trouble focusing when my son was there and wanting me and needing me, and then once they left the house, everything picked up and started to get much stronger. So of course, our bags weren't packed and it took us a while to get out of the house. We get in the car and now my contractions are 3 minutes apart in the car. I was putting my left fist behind my low back and gripping the handle above the window with my right hand and doing horsey layups and moaning really loudly. I don't know how my husband was even able to drive throughout all of that, but luckily, there was no traffic and it was 25 minutes to get there. We got to the hospital. It was 12:40 PM. We left the car on with the hazard lights in front of the hospital and of course, my husband's bag dropped with everything in it in front of the hospital. We get in there and immediately, they obviously realized I needed help so they put me in a wheelchair and we rushed to triage. Our midwife met us there and I couldn't even lie down to be checked because my contractions were so close together. I really felt like I needed to bend over and get counterpressure. My midwife was like, “You're obviously staying. Let's get you in a room.” I got in there and they were trying to put the monitor on me. The nurse in there, as they were having trouble getting the monitor on, says to me, “I really need you to get this monitor on because of the great risk you're taking of uterine rupture.” I was, at this point, so in the zone getting through the contractions that I was like, “I can't let this get to me.” I was just too busy trying to cope, so I just silently rolled my eyes. My husband and the midwife were both like, “Okay. Lay off.”At this point, I still hadn't gotten a gown on or anything. I basically just stripped everything off to get on the monitor and I just stayed naked the entire time because I had no modesty at this point. Eventually, we got the monitor going and I started feeling pushy almost immediately after that.I realized we never told the doula to meet us, so my husband texted her to come. She got there as I was pushing. We tried a few different positions and at some point, it started to be clear that it wasn't effective. I wasn't really, I guess, pushing effectively. I remember the midwife saying, “I'm going to give you some help so that this baby doesn't need any NICU time. I'm going to put my fingers inside you and I want you to push to where you feel them.” I did that a couple of times and I was able to feel my daughter's head which was really awesome. Then I pushed again one more time the same way and she was out. It was just so awesome and shocking that it actually happened. I pulled her to my chest and it was just amazing. Like I said, she did not have IUGR. Meagan: I was going to say, how big was she? I was just curious. Eve: She ended up being actually smaller than my son. She was 6 pounds, 4 ounces and she was almost 20 inches long. She was in the 5th percentile for weight, but overall she was healthy and so I will say that the difference was when she was born, she was considered SGA which is small for gestational age, but her presentation was different. She was more proportionate. It was just interesting how you could have a baby weighing less and be almost the same length, but very different. Meagan: But not have that diagnosis, yeah. My baby was 6,2. Eve: Oh wow. Meagan: Yeah, but she was 18 inches. Eve: Yeah, so it puts it in perspective, right? Meagan: Yeah. Eve: I will have to say, my husband was so amazing the entire time. He stayed calm. He advocated for me. He believed in me. There were times during my pregnancy that I got annoyed because I felt like he didn't understand how difficult this could be to actually have a vaginal delivery after having a C-section because he sort of was of the mindset, “Well, this is how it's supposed to happen.” I was like, “Well, that's what I thought the first time.”So I felt like I wasn't getting through to him, but I do feel like that mindset that he had really helped to normalize the process in that he could stay positive when I was doubtful. And during the contractions, we basically labored at home the entire time. She was born two hours after we got to the hospital. When they finally checked me after I started pushing, I was like, “Maybe this isn't working because I'm not really fully dilated,” and the midwife was like, “Well, I never really got to check you.” But I was complete. I was complete so it was time to push. But one thing that I think helped me cope for as long as we did while we were home was my husband kept reminding me, “You really only have to get through the first 30 seconds and then it starts to ease.” So each contraction, we would have the build-up, and then once we were halfway through, it was like, “Okay. Now you're downhill.” I think having that mentality really helped me to stay with it and be able to cope for so long at home without going to the hospital or even having the doula present. But like I said, since I was never in labor, I was thinking, “Well, we might get to the hospital and I'll be 7 centimeters and I'll still have a little ways to go,” or even 5 or 4. Who knows? So it was really a shock that we got in. The last thing that I want to share about this experience is that during this whole time, I wasn't even thinking about how long it would take me to push her out. I was just trying to push. I had never done this before. The midwife did share with me because I asked about the urgency, “Why did we need to get the baby out so soon once she was coming out when you needed to help me?” The midwife said, “Well, they were getting ready to use a vacuum because the baby's heart rate was starting to not recover as well after each contraction.” I guess since I was complete and pushing for about an hour, for some reason, I guess they thought the baby maybe had been in the canal far down enough where she should have been out sooner or they thought I would be able to push her out sooner and because it was taking so long, her heart was having trouble recovering. I'm glad that nobody told that to me in the actual experience. It was scary. It was scary and I told my midwife I was scared before I started pushing and they said, “You're safe.” I remember feeling, “You're right. I have these people around me. I have you. I have my husband. I have my doula,” and I had people around me to support that process and I'm grateful that this birth experience and that this hospital was very different than the first experience because after my daughter was born, I just remember feeling, “We did this. We did this together.” Me, my baby, and my husband, this was a team effort. The nurses really just let us be. We had all of this time alone in the room with her and it was just so special. Even though we were in a hospital, it really was as good as it could have been. We got to go home the very next day, so it was a night and day experience hospital-wise, birth-wise, recovery-wise, and now after having this birth experience, it's really helped me to make peace with my first birth experience and I don't really see that as a failure anymore. I just see it as a different birth story. Meagan: Yeah. I love that. There is no failing at birth. We often times label ourselves as that failure, but it's because of the way the world creates that word failure. They place it into our minds and they say that word and it's like, “Oh, well if this doesn't happen, then you failed.” It's just not true, so I love that you have come around to say, “Okay. I didn't fail. That was just a different birth experience.”Eve: Right. Right, and I'm grateful that I've had both experiences now because I do have two beautiful, healthy children and they arrived in two very unique ways even though I had similar pregnancies and similar questions throughout both pregnancies, the way they arrived was very different and I feel like I learned so much from them. I hope that my story can help other people who might have experienced something similar. Meagan: I love it so much. Thank you so much for being with us today. Like you said, being on the opposite end of a big baby with a small baby. A small baby can be a quote-on-quote “concern” or problem if you want to say from a provider's standpoint. They can view things differently, so yeah. It's fun and unique to have the opposite end of things. Thank you so much again and congratulations to your cute two babies, to both of your babies. Thank you again. Eve: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It's really been a true pleasure. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Many parents around the U.S. still can't find children's Tylenol and Motrin, after a shortage began weeks ago in the middle of the “tripledemic” of flu, RSV and Covid. Plus, the effort to restore order in Brazil. Guests: Axios' Dave Lawler and Tina Reed. Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Alexandra Botti, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Fonda Mwangi and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go Deeper: Brazil police detain about 1,200 after Bolsonaro supporters storm Congress, other buildings Why we (still) can't find any children's Tylenol Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maney & LauRen both had an eventful weekend, for completely opposite reasons. You're not washing well enough. The Motrin struggle is real for LauRen. Getting called home from your babysitter. Murder mystery Monday. Things they'll never throw away. Bar Rescue update. Support the show: https://www.mrlshow.com/

Do you want to know the secret to reducing inflammation and boosting your immunity while healing your gut?   Listen up!   Donna Mazzola, a Pharmacist with an obsession with natural healing, will be joining us on this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast - Immunity Food Fix. Donna obtained her Doctorate in Pharmacy and then was diagnosed with Hashimotos in 2015. Through her journey, she has learned the importance of the balance between nutrition and medicine that impacts disease.   Donna will be sharing with us tips on how to reduce inflammation, boost immunity, heal the gut and more.   In this episode, you'll learn:   - How to make lifestyle and dietary changes to reduce inflammation - How to construct a diet plan that works for you - Which foods increase immunity, heal the gut and prevent disease - How to incorporate nutrition into your health care routine   Don't miss out on this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast - Immunity Food Fix. Tune in for the tools, tips, and tricks of how Donna has been able to keep her immune system balanced and healthy.   (00:00): Do you know how the food you eat impacts your immune system function? Stay tuned and find out what foods you should be eating and not eating to impact your immune system positively.   (00:14): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.   (01:07): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest is Donna Mazzola and she is Dr. Autoimmune Girl and she is super passionate about how what you eat impacts your immune system. Did you know that what you put in your mouth impacts whether you get sick or not? Or do you know whether you get the flu or not, how severe covid infection is and all these other things? Probably not. Most people aren't aware that maybe that sticky bun could be the reason why you got the flu this year and nobody else did. Not saying it's the only cause, but it's a big contributor because the food you eat really programs. What is your body? Your body is your food body. Literally you are what you eat and that means your immune system too.   (02:03): So we're gonna get into that today. And your immune system and food also interact with your hormones. So you always hear me bring everything back to your hormones and how it relates to your hormones cuz this is the foundation of how you function as a, as a female, as a woman. And we're gonna get into that in detail. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Donna and then we're gonna get into it. So Donna is a pharmacist. She's fascinated with natural healing and preventative care. She has a doctorate in pharmacy, but she realizes that although medicine has a place in healing, it's really the balance between nutrition and medicine that impacts disease. And this fascination became an in obsession for her after a personal diagnosis of Hashimotos in 2015. And her disease pushed her to embark on a journey to seek answers and identify the root cause related to the rise in autoimmune and other inflammatory related chronic conditions.   (03:07): So on her journey, she obtained a master's degree in functional medicine and human nutrition and she birthed Dr. Autoimmune Girl. And that really is her vehicle to share her passion with people, to empower them with the knowledge, to take control of their health. Her mission is to educate the world on the healing powers of food. Yes, the food you eat several times a day has the power to heal you and give meaning to the concept of food as medicine. Her blog is dr autoimmune girl.com. She shares reputable scientific information related nutrition and health there and she's the author of Immunity Food Fix Guide to a hundred Superfoods and Nutrition Hacks to Reverse Inflammation, prevent Illness, and Boost your Immunity. Welcome Donna to the podcast.   (03:59): Thank you. I'm excited to be here.   (04:00): Yeah, I'm super excited to talk with you about immunity and fixing it with what you eat because I think for a lot of people they're just not aware that what they eat has anything to do with their immune system. So can you start by maybe helping everybody understand the   (04:18): Relationship? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think my, one of my favorite things to say is, you know what you eat matters because it does and it, it matters on so many levels. And I think over the past couple years people have learned, you know, whether it was the correct information or misinformation more about their immune system than they ever have before. And so I think this book that I wrote with the Immunity Food Fix came out at the right time really with the idea to educate people and number one, what the immune system is and how it functions. And it's extremely complex, but at the root of so much of it, what I really want people to really understand is inflammation at the root of your immune system and reducing inflammation through food in order to boost your immune system and boost your health. You know, it's complicated but I feel like if we can center around inflammation as kind of that central point, there's a, people can gain a deeper understanding on what we mean to boost our immunity through, through what we eat.   (05:29): Yeah. So let's start there with inflammation, how I think people hear about that term and they kind of have a nebulous idea of what it is. So maybe if you could start by helping everybody understand what is inflammation, why is it problematic and how it relates to the immune system, that would be   (05:47): Great. Yeah. So inflammation, when we hear it, we automatically think negative. But inflammation, when you truly think about it, is a positive response that our body is, is having. So if our body is within complete homeostasis, imbalanced, there is an event that occurs, let's say you cut your finger or you catch a cold, you have a virus, your immune system upregulates at that point and says, ah, there's something going on, we need to fix it. So it ink, it boosts, it like sends out the soldiers right to fight, to fix what's going on. And those soldiers fighting are all these inflammatory cytokines that are released. Right. To that point, once that problem is fixed, those soldiers should go back to their base and mm-hmm , the inflammatory response should be decreased. Unfortunately, we don't live in this homeostasis and especially from the start of, I really feel like the industrial revolution, right?   (06:46): Where we've started to process our foods, we have convenient foods, we live in extremely stressful lifestyle, we never turn off that inflammatory response. Mm-hmm . And so we are living in what we call this chronic inflammation in that your immune system is always on, which it's not supposed to be. It's always fighting something because there's something foreign going out in our body. And whether that's, you know, linking our gut health, you know, we hear the term leaky gut where we have, you know, an inflammatory response that occurs within the bloodstream. You know these, the stress response as I talked about, you have an inflammatory response going on, lack of sleep, you know, where we don't give our body the ability to kind of regenerate itself. You have an inflammatory response. And of course, you know, linking all of this together, it goes back to a lot of it is the food and nutrition.   (07:41): Food and nutrition is at the center of all that. And it's not just about the fact that we are consuming inflammatory foods, like I mentioned, like the processed foods, processed sugars, high sugar intake, saturated fats that are causing this inflammatory response. We're also not consuming the anti-inflammatory foods that come from whole foods, anything from the earth, right? Plant-based food mm-hmm . And not to say anything wrong with, you know, animal protein or things like that, but really just thinking about the benefits and the an anti-inflammatory benefits of plant-based foods. It's like we have such a mismatch with the food, you know, and the dietary lifestyle by which we live today.   (08:27): Right. So I know some people are listening and they're thinking, well Dr. Donna's a pharmacist, why is she talking about diet? My pharmacist never talks to me about diet when I go to the pharmacy. And I think that's a a valid question. So maybe we even back up and can you tell everyone how you got involved with looking at immune system function and diet? Cuz I know you have a very personal story around that.   (08:56): Yeah, so I mean, when I was started in clinical practice probably about 20 years ago, I was doing a lot with patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart failure, C O P D, and really trying to help them manage their medication as a pharmacist. But what I found in many of my consultations was that I was focusing on nutrition. I was focusing on what they could do to potentially reduce their medication, you know, and feel better. And so I realized at that time that that was my true passion. There's a time in place for medicine, but it's the balance between nutrition and medicine that's critical. That's really how I practiced. And I didn't have any formal training in nutrition, but you know, you learn a little bit about it through conventional mm-hmm. , you know, schooling. But it wasn't until my personal diagnosis with Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune thyroid disorder, that I took that leap to say, you know what, I have been helping many with chronic illness, but I've never connected the dots between an autoimmune disorder or the immune system and nutrition. And so I didn't know how to help myself mm-hmm. . And that's when I went back to school to obtain a master's in functional medicine and human nutrition. And the primary reason I did it was to help myself. I had no idea where it was gonna take me. And I didn't care because all I wanted to do was try to figure out why this happened to me and what I was doing wrong, because I thought that I lived a healthy life.   (10:34): So can you say more about that, Donna? Because I think there are a lot of people listening who also think that they lead a healthy life and they're really shocked to find when they find someone who can give them a root cause resolution approach or a functional approach that they're really not. So can you talk a little in a little more detail about what you considered was the healthy lifestyle you were living and what you   (10:57): Discovered? Yeah. So I would say I was probably over exercising, following all kinds of fad diets that really were chemically based, right? Like sugar alcohols, the fat free movement, you know, all of that. I fell into all those traps, um, and tried all kinds of things. I wasn't sleeping right. Meditation and mindfulness was not even something I considered or understood, you know, working long hours. I was young, so, you know, partying, drinking, all that stuff, you know, everything. When I look back I'm like, my gosh, I thought I was so healthy and yet everything I was doing was so inflammatory on the body and no wonder I developed this. But on top of that, like I think about the types of foods that I was eating and the type of life that I lived and what it did to my gut. And I know now looking back based on like symptoms that I've had that I ignored and things like that, that you know, the gut was central to what led to this development and autoimmune disease.   (12:06): Mm-hmm. . And so it was kind of like, I go back and I can connect the dots now, but at that time I had no idea and I was thinking I'm super healthy and nothing, you know, bulletproof, nothing can happen to me. And then it's kind of like an awakening. Gosh, there's so much we don't know. And in conventional medicine there's so much we are not taught about how to get this. So I actually am proud of the fact that I have both sides because I, like I said there, I do believe there's a place for western medicine. You know, many times it, it can save lives, but it's not for everything. And I think there are opportunities where prevention is key and for probably majority of chronic illness, it's in our hands, right? We can prevent it, we can reverse it, and we just have to understand the why behind it, the how and implement it.   (12:59): Yeah. I think you're so right. We, you know, let's not throw out mainstream medicine. We need it, we need our drugs, we need our surgery. But there's so much more that we can do. And I love that in your book you really focus on the things that need to be done, where you need to reduce your inflammation, you cover that, boost your immunity, heal your gut, and prevent disease. So when you discovered this and you got your master's, you were able to reverse your hashimo Hashimotos, (13:26): It's been what now? Probably seven years on this journey. Mm-hmm. and I haven't completely been able to reduce my antibodies, um, my Hashimotos to zero , but I've been able to bring them down from what it was, 2,500 antibodies, which is a measure of inflammation, truly, if that's probably the simplest way of putting it down to 200. And it's a constant learning that I continue to implement. And everybody's different. You know, there's, I have some people who have implemented and yeah, within a couple years they've been able to completely reverse. And I think we all start at a different place, which is important to understand. And everybody's baseline is different. And so not everybody's story is gonna be the same and not everyone's gonna, you know, kind of reach that finish line at the same time. And sometimes it may be a much longer marathon than someone else, but it's just kind of understanding that it's progress, it's not perfection.   (14:26): Yeah. And you know, for everybody listening, you might not be aware of what the numbers mean with Hashimoto's antibodies, but that's a tremendous amazing difference. from 2,500 down to 200 is incredible and it's really unheard of in mainstream medicine. So everyone should take that very seriously as a pretty dramatic improvement. Um, that is not medication related. You know, it's lifestyle related and everybody listening, they hear me drive home that autoimmune disease when it comes to hormones has to do with a, it's a cortisol problem and it's a gut problem, right? A foot on the accelerator of gut inflammation and then cortisol is not breaking that inflammation. And so that's really at the basis of it. Why is this such an important topic for women over 40, do   (15:16): You think? Oh my gosh, I could talk about this for the next five hours. . So Hashimotos is in my mind an epidemic problem right now. And for women especially over 40. Well, so there's two main times in a woman's life that we're seeing a rise in Hashimoto's diagnoses, and that's postpartum. So after they have a child and mm-hmm post-menopause or in through the menopause phase, and when you think about hormones and you know, they're all connected and your thyroid hormone works with your sex hormones, right? And so when there's an imbalance in your hormones, there's opportunity for Hashimotos to develop. And so that imbalance between estrogen and progesterone kind of can impact the development of thyroid disorder. And so that we do see that a lot postpartum and probably the majority happened. That's what happened to me, um, after I had kids. Um, that's when I, um, developed Hashimotos.   (16:25): But then I also think that women need to be aware, especially if they're trying to conceive that your thyroid hormone is ex incredibly important in the conception as well as during pregnancy for the health of the fetus. And I think that this is not talked about enough. And I've had women who finally have their provider check A T S H and their thyroid hormone and identify that that's the reason why they're not able to conceive. And once they, you know, sometimes need treatment and they're able to conceive, it's recognizing the importance of especially someone who has Hashimotos once you're pregnant, the importance of ensuring that you are getting enough thyroid hormone for yourself and for your fetus, for that fetal development, especially early on in the pregnancy. So I think for women across the stage, right? So like if you're older, you know, you're listening to this and maybe you have a daughter or a cousin or somebody and like you can share this information with, or you know, maybe you're going through menopause and you can start recognizing there's differences in shifts. Like being in tune with our body to identify what's going on can be life changing because carrying those symptoms, it should not be our baseline. It should not be the norm. And we should be able to reverse that so that we feel our best self, especially as we age and we as we're getting older.   (17:51): I think it's so true what you're saying. I love these quotes that you shared with me. All you have is your health. Uh, when I talk to women and they are concerned about their health, I have them do this exercise. Maybe you've worked with women to do this too, where I have them kind of itemize where they spend their time, where they spend their money in their lives. And everybody will say that their health is their number one priority, but when they look at the actual numbers of where they're spending their time and their money, they spend the least money and the least time on their health. Mm-hmm. . So I always try to help them see that their health is their greatest asset. It's not an expense to be mitigated. And what does that really mean to you? All you have is your health.   (18:34): I mean, think about it, at the end of the day, you could think you're living your best life. And then I say that because of how I felt and I was, you know, seven years ago, a lot younger when I was diagnosed. And as soon as I received that diagnosis, while it wasn't something terminal, I still felt like, oh my gosh, I am losing my health. And like you take a step back and reflect and put things into perspective on what's important. And ultimately it's keeping myself healthy so I can enjoy the things in life, my family, the memories, all of it. And I think even through the pandemic, people realize that, right? It's like getting sick. You know, whe whether it be acute or chronic makes you take a step back and reflect that that's all you really have. Because once you lose your health, you, you lose it all. Really.   (19:28): I know it's so true. And , you know, when women tell me, I ask them, well, what's your, your most valuable asset? And they're like, my house, my job, my car. And I go, well, when you lose your help, that's when you're, your the dash on your tombstone ends and then you lose all that. You lose your house, you lose your car, you lose everything. So do you really think that's your priority? So I think it's important to get focused on this. There's so many women I come across and they say, oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Oh, I'll worry about what I'm eating later. And you know, sometimes it's too late is really too late. So I love that you've created this resource for women that they can start and men they can start working on this. Now, what would be some of your favorite, I know that your book has lots of like 150 citations, a hundred and you cover a hundred superfoods and nutrition hacks. What are some of your favorite ones?   (20:23): Honestly, my favorite foods, I think I'll start with one that's super personal to me. Cause when I talked about earlier, reducing my antibodies, reducing inflammation in the body, I really attribute that to the daily intake of turmeric. And that is really the king of anti-inflammatory foods. You know, it blocks a particular pathway that works similar to the pathway that we use Motrin or ibuprofen, you know, in order to reduce inflammation. And so the intake of that daily has really changed my life. So I think that's a top favorite for me. Another one, I mean I love the root vegetables and obviously turmeric is a ru vegetable of itself, but carrots are another big one. And as we consider hormone health, carrots have a special ability to help detox estrogen from the body. And so obviously, you know, keeping that balance within our hormones is critical.   (21:25): And you know, when there's an excess amount, you feel it, that's when those symptoms arise. And so I found that, you know, consuming raw carrots, especially kind of like a week before my cycle helps to reduce all symptoms and kind of detox that estrogen out. So I love carrots. Once I learned that and try to, I was like, ah, this really works. Uh, food is magical. So those are big. And then, you know, really thinking about seeds as well, just because there's such, there's just such a super food when you think about a seed of a plant grows the entire plant. So it's like this powerhouse. So when you think about when you consume the seeds, all the HealthPRO promoting benefits that you get from it. So you just think about it that way. You know, anything from chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower, hemp, pumpkin, all of it.   (22:20): And we talk about all of it in the book. They all have different benefits, but you know, it's that balance of the, the good fats that reduce inflammation that kind of help rebalance that inflammatory fats that's in our body. Mm-hmm. kind of balancing out the omega three and six considering seeds, there's also benefits for seeds on your hormones as well. And so I think if I were, I would pick that entire chapter and you know, turmeric and carrots have been super important, but it's so hard to pick just any, and as you go through the book, it's all put together by color. And so you can, what I will take give you is like kind of how we categorize 'em by color in that your red foods are your anti-inflammatory, your orange are more hormone regulating. Yellow foods focus on digestion. The green are for detox, and purple foods are more that antioxidant benefit. So based on that you can probably plug in your favorite foods and identify if you're kind of hitting all five of those pillars.   (23:23): So I love that, that you divided it up by color. That makes such sense. And it sounds like it hits all of the categories. And we're gonna have a link to your website. People can purchase your book there and then they can get some bonuses too. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about that?   (23:42): Yeah, absolutely. So you could, could purchase the book and then there's directions on how to obtain a micronutrient guide and its impact on the immune system. So the micronutrients are like your vitamins and minerals that are found in foods and how those impact your immune system. So we didn't get into all the details, but you know, the macronutrients in whole based foods, which are carbs, fats, and proteins have an impact on your immune system. And then that balance of the various micronutrients, whether it be vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, the composition of all of those, you know, and how you're consuming them through Whole Foods helps support your immune system. And so there is a guide on the various micronutrients that help support your immune system.   (24:29): Okay, awesome. And the instructions on how to get those bonuses is on the website and we will have the link in the show notes, so you can go there and look at it. What would you say would be a take action plan for anyone listening who's like, okay, I get it, Dr. Donna, I need to work on my immune system. I need to work on reducing inflammation, healing my gut. Where should they start?   (24:53): I mean, I think you kind of have to go with the la the low hanging fruit, and to expect anybody to kind of reverse their entire lifestyle and shift over anight is unrealistic. I think what's important is to remember that, you know, living your best health as a marathon and not a sprint. You know, I talked about my own personal journey, it's been seven years and I'm not perfect either. Like it, you know, it takes one day, one month, one year at a time to live your best life. So for some food is the place to start. You know, as I mentioned, the various kind of points of focus. Maybe it's sleep, maybe it's making sure you get eight to nine hours of sleep every night. You know, turning off that Netflix and getting to bed earlier. Maybe it's identifying how to mitigate stress, recognizing when it's happening, incorporating meditation before bed just for 10 minutes while you sleep.   (25:47): Seeing what that does to your sleep. You know, going, going through a meditation for 10 minutes and seeing how deep you fall into a sleep that night and wake up restored. Maybe that's life changing for you. If it's removing some inflammatory foods, maybe you can't tackle and hit every single anti-inflammatory food that we talk about, but maybe you're gonna remove some inflammatory foods like processed sugar, removing saturated fats, not eating, carry out, you know, reducing that to maybe one day a week. But if you do wanna go after it and go beg, you know, and really change your lifestyle and your diet, not only focus on removing those inflammatory foods, but the goal to consume nine to 12 servings of whole plant-based foods a day. And that's kinda what we talk about in the book. And that's not just fruits and vegetables, you know, plant-based foods include, as we talked about, the seeds, the oils, the nuts, the herbs that you cook with. All of that is plant-based food. So really tracking that and ensuring you're consuming that much in order to support that anti-inflammatory response in the body. So I gave a lot there. Mm-hmm. , but I think everybody's different. And that's okay. But you have to start somewhere. And so, you know, whatever works. But I always say if you start somewhere, you recognize how you feel and once you start to feel better, you don't wanna go back to where you were.   (27:10): Yeah. You know, I hear you so loud and clear and I, a woman is coming to mind who I've been working with, and she says, well, I guess I'm not feeling bad enough to do all the things that I need to do. So I think there's some people listening who are thinking, that sounds like a whole lot, Donna, you want me to sleep? You want me to eat seeds? You want me to change my diet? You want me to restrict the sugar? Like, that's so much. And they, they'll say to themselves, well, I don't have a Hashimoto's autoimmune diagnosis, I don't have this, I don't have that. And so it seems like a lot. So what do you say to someone who's this, these thoughts are running through her mind.   (27:51): I say just start with one, start with one and grow from there. Right? Like, that's what we mean by it's a marathon. If it were a sprint, you would implement all those things that I just said at one time, but it's not a sprint. Mm-hmm. , you know, and it's a marathon. And so start with one, you know, maybe for the next 30 days you're gonna prioritize your sleep and you're gonna see how that changes your energy and changes how you feel. Then the next 30 days after that, you are gonna incorporate daily movement and it's just gonna be something you like. And you're gonna see how that, right. So now you're building on it. Maybe it's another three, four months before you start to really wanting to prioritize your diet and looking at what you're doing. You know, maybe you wanna master sleeping, right? And you know, maybe having, even if it's 15 minutes of movement in the mornings, fine, right?   (28:37): And so everyone's different. As I said, some people maybe they just focus on sleep for a whole year before they take it to the next step. That's fine. But recognizing that you're making progress in the right direction and kind of making those changes as you see fit and as you will be consistent with them. Because I tell you what you have to do, it's doesn't work. It's has to come from the person from within and recognizing what they can handle. Because consistency is key. And if you can't handle it, then that's where inconsistency comes up.   (29:11): I think that is so important, what you just said, , you've gotta make it work for you. If it doesn't work for you, you're not gonna do it. And that equals failure. So you've gotta make it work for you and start with one thing. And if you just pick one thing, like Dr. Donna is saying, the the sleep, get that straight and then notice the benefits that you experience. I find that sometimes we become accustomed to a new norm and we don't even realize how bad it is until we get rid of that symptom, right? And then we go, wow, I didn't even realize how the lack of sleep was affecting me. Mm-hmm. . So I'm gonna encourage everybody listening to just pick one thing you can start working on. Definitely go to Dr. Donna's website, download her, get her book, get the bonuses, start working with the a hundred Super foods.   (30:02): Maybe that'll be your one thing. Or maybe you're gonna start working with sleep. You could even pick, make it fun and pick the color that you wanna start with, with the foods like she described. What resonates most with you. I really think we all have an innate knowledge of, of what's best. So maybe you need to work on your detox or maybe you need to work on your antioxidation. So pick that. We'll have the link in the show notes. And thank you so much Dr. Donna for joining us today and for this wonderful resource that you've created. Thank you. It's been my pleasure. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone and Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Hopefully you have learned something today that will help you change your health and change your life for the better. I look forward to hearing about it on social media. Join me on Facebook or Instagram at kirin dunston md and tell me all about it. Wanna hear about your wins and your discoveries. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.   (30:58): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.   ► Get Donna Mazzola's book, supplements & more! CLICK HERE. Send an email to immunityfoodfix@quarto.com with proof of order to receive pre-order bonuses.   ► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?   It might be time to check your hormones.   Most people don't even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what's going on with your hormones and get you back on track.   We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.   Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before.   CLICK HERE to sign up.  

Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk is on the show to discuss overcoming medication-induced challenges. This challenge is one area of focus in her new book, Living In the Moment - Overcoming Challengees & Finding Moments of Joy. In addition to learning how to overcome specific challenges, I also learned that there are only 3500 geriatricians in the country. Unfortunately, few geriatricians can be found in suburban and rural areas. Dr. Liz is trying to provide information and training to help alleviate this. The focus of Liz's book is to help guide family caregivers to understand what doctors should be thinking, and looking for, medications that may work, others that may cause other problems, and more. Essentially, this book is "what to expect when you have dementia." Most of us know that correctly treating pain can significantly reduce agitation. Did you know that older adults are at higher risk for high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, edema, and kidney failure if their pain is treated with Motrin? However, Motrin is suggested regularly. To get the most out of our doctor visits, explain what's been happening in the past week or so, what was happening when the symptoms started, what you have tried, and what has worked. Sometimes you need to find the right doctor for your needs. This episode is chock full of great advice, tips, and chunks of knowledge that pair well with her book. If you only have time to read one book, this is one I highly recommend. More About Dr. Liz here here are three things necessary for a podcast to be successful. One, great listeners like yourself. Two are sponsors who help cover the expenses of producing the podcast. Three great listeners who help support the podcast by taking advantage of the sponsors' special offers. With that said, here are our sponsors; Pharma-C Company (previously Pharma-C Wipes) Pharma-C-Wipes, helping you care for yourself and those you love. ​Life is a journey, and at Pharma-C-Wipes, we provide products that support you at each twist and turn.  PicnicHealthhttp://picnichealth.com/memories:  http://picnichealth.com/memories Your medical records are now in your hands. PicnicHealth collects, digitizes, and encrypts all your medical records—then arranges everything in one intuitive timeline. No need to worry about a doctor's note or the lab results. It's all there for easy reference, right when you need it. Relevate from NeuroReserve Make Your Brain Span Match Your LifeSpan http://www.neuroreserve.com/discount/FM15?redirect=%2F%3Fafmc%3DFM15 With Relevate nutritional supplement, you get science-backed nutrition to help protect your brain power today and for years to come. You deserve a brain span that lasts as long as your lifespan. Join Fading Memories On Social Media! If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers! You'll find us on social media at the following links. Instagram Twitter LinkedIn  Facebook Contact Jen at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

Episode 73. What are the symptoms of the flu? What are the symptoms of the common cold? How do I know which one I have? What should I do if I think I have the flu or the common cold? When should I see my doctor? What should I take over the counter? Over the counter medications mentioned in this episode: Acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain/fever Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) for pain/fever Oxymetazoline (nasal spray) for congestion Chlorpheniramine (allergy pill) for congestion Benzonatate (Tessalon perles) for cough Dextromethorphan (Dayquil, Robitussin) for cough Guaifenesin (Mucinez) for cough and congestion Before using a new medication, consult with your doctor, especially if you have liver or kidney impairment. First Line is created and hosted by Aubrey Ann Jackson. Visit First Line's website where you can view blog posts: https://poddcaststudios.wixsite.com/firstlinepodcast This episode is sponsored by TrueLearn. For a discount off your TrueLearn subscription use link: https://truelearn.referralrock.com/l/firstline/ and code: firstline Use this link to easily find First Line on different platforms and social media platforms: linktr.ee/FirstLinePodcast First Line is now available on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Audible, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, Breaker, Castbox, PocketCasts, Castro, Player Fm, Pod Bean, Reason, Vurbl, and TuneIn. First Line is on Instagram @firstlinepodcast and on Facebook www.facebook.com/firstlinepodcast You can reach First Line via email at firstlinepodcast@yahoo.com Content on First Line is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. Please see your primary care physician (DO or MD) for any medical concerns you have. All ideas expressed are individual ideas of the host and do not represent any organizations the host is linked to. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/firstline/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/firstline/support

Many people suffer from pain & inflammation, and they often reach for over-the-counter drugs like Motrin or Aspirin. But there are actually natural remedies that can relieve pain without potential side effects! In this video, I go over simple fixes to reduce pain and inflammation, and how they can help you feel like a new person, naturally. Want to know more about inflammation? Here's a free cheat sheet for you to check out: https://go.drlivingood.com/inflammation-cheat-sheet-lp1 A great way to take down inflammation in the body is with my Omegas + Turmeric, which you can find here: https://store.drlivingood.com/products/livingood-daily-omegas Celery Juice: https://youtu.be/IoM6zWUzLuk

Download the cheat: https://bit.ly/50-meds  View the lesson: https://bit.ly/IbuprofenMotrinNursingConsiderations    Generic Name ibuprofen Trade Name Advil / Motrin Indication Mild to moderate pain, inflammatory states Action Decreases pain and inflammation by inhibiting prostaglandins Therapeutic Class antipyretics, antirheumatics, nonopioid analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents Pharmacologic Class nonopioid analgesics Nursing Considerations • may cause GI bleeding, hepatitis, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome • may cause anaphylaxis • monitor for headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation • therapy should be discontinued after first sign of rash • monitor renal and liver labs • patient should avoid using alcohol

Inflammation and the Mediterranean DietThe https://www.yourdoctorsorders.com/2022/08/the-modern-mediterranean-diet/ (Mediterranean) Diet is the most anti-inflammatory diet studied. The inflammatory response is the body's mechanism to fight infection, repair itself and rid itself of cancer.  Inflammation is a coordinated response to trauma, infection, and cancer. Without inflammation, we would be dead within twenty-four hours. Too little or too muchToo much inflammation results in wanton destruction of tissues, pain, fevers, and misery. It is associated with heart disease, cancer, aging. It is that delicate balance of inflammation we need. Does diet play a role with inflammation? The answer is "sort of." Short Course about InflammationInflammation is involved in: Wound healing, removing dead cells - breaking them down into components so they can be recycled Removing and destroying bacteria Inactivating and eliminating viruses Destroying cells that have changed into cancer cells Repairing injury from infection Destroying parasites Removes toxic chemicals The immune system is one branch of the inflammatory response. Five Signs of InflammationThe five signs of acute inflammation and their Latin names: Redness - in Latin this is called rubor. Swelling - in Latin this is called tumor. Fever - in Latin this is called calor Pain - in Latin this is called dolor Secretion - in Latin this is called https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(89)92957-7/fulltext (fluor) Medical school teaches inflammation as one of the first series of lectures. Simple InflammationYour finger was hit with a hammer. You have an injury to your finger. Some cells are injured. The cells send a distress signal, and immediately white blood cells begin to swarm into the area to help the injured cells.  All that extra blood flowing to the area will lead to redness (rubor) and swelling (tumor). Soon, the finger will feel a bit hot (calor) and will have pain (dolor). Some cells are so badly injured that they are no longer viable. Your inflammatory reaction breaks down these cells, removes the debris, and recycles the parts to create new tissue in the area. Unwanted InflammationI love nature walks but like to avoid Poison Ivy. Sometimes, we want to decrease the immune response. Inflammation is the response of our skin to poison ivy.  We reduce the immune response by reducing hives and itching. Rheumatoid arthritis is another example of unwanted inflammation.  Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease.  The resulting inflammation leads to pain, fever, and joint destruction. The aim of the treatment is to reduce the inflammatory response that saves joints and improves well-being. The inflammatory response of COVID, influenza, or the common cold is reduced by the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin or Motrin. Acute Disease and InflammationHeart disease is partially the result of inflammation. When you have a heart attack, the coronary arteries are blocked. As a result, a part of your heart muscle is without oxygen. The cells send out inflammatory signals, and you begin to feel pain (dolor). If the blood flow is restored, your cells can heal, but if it takes too long, some of those cells will die. Then your body will get rid of those dead cells and replace them with scar tissue. The result is that your heart becomes less effective. Cardiovascular disease and inflammationPlaque formation in the arteries is the result of genetics, https://www.yourdoctorsorders.com/2022/08/the-modern-mediterranean-diet/ (diet), and inflammation. The increased cholesterol, either from the genetics or from a diet high in saturated fat, is deposited in the arteries.  When cholesterol enters the artery wall, the body's inflammatory response tries to get rid of it, causing inflammation in the arteries. Did you know that 18-year-olds already have signs of early plaque formation in...

Strange Animal Laws David Rosengard, a Staff Attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) explores the 10 Weirdest Animal Laws on the Books. He'll also share some of the important work the ALDF does for animals worldwide by being a voice for the voiceless. Listen Now How Much Would You Spend to Save Your Pet? More and more pet parents these days are willing to go the financial distance for their pets to give them the best. Americans dog owners spend $2,033 toward their pets on average each year and cat owners about half that at $1,042. But when pet owners are forced to choose between big vet bills and the life of their furry friends, dog owners are willing to pay around $7,000 more than cat owners according to a new survey. So what's the actual number? Those who have dogs say they're willing to spend up to $10,725 to save their pets, while cat owners say they're willing to spend up to $3,454. But for those people who had both cats and dogs, they'd be willing to spend up to $10,200 on average for either their cats or dogs. Listen Now Spare Fido the Advil Ibuprofen is the #1 medication about which the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) receives calls. Never, ever, give a dog ibuprofen without first consulting a veterinarian. Pets metabolize ibuprofen differently than humans and even small amounts of the human pain reliever can be dangerous to animals. Giving your dog ibuprofen can cause vomiting and gastric distress and could also lead to seizures, coma and death. APCC's annual report breaks down the most common pet toxins across the nation. Popular brands of ibuprofen include Advil, Motrin and Midol. Owner Leaves $300,000 to Her Cats A couple of cats in New York will be living a better life than many of us after their elderly, wealthy owner passed away and left them $300,000 in her will. A health care aide who worked with their former owner is now caring for the cats, Troy and Tiger. Now they are trust fund cats. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

You don't think much about your teeth unless there's a problem. For babies who can't communicate yet with words, teething can be a difficult time. Their gums become inflamed and tender as the teeth get closer to the surface and they take time to erupt or fully break through the gums.Jade Elliott spoke with Pediatrician, Jenna Whitham, MD, Intermountain Healthcare, to discuss some tips for when your baby is teething.When will that first tooth appear?Babies typically don't have teeth when they're born, but on average babies get their first tooth at about six months of age. Typically, they have a complete set of 20 “baby” teeth by 30 months of age. The lower central incisors usually come in first and the molars last.Signs of teethingTeething is a process that all children experience. Prior to tooth eruption the gingiva or gums may appear blue-ish and swollen. The symptoms seen most consistently with children immediately prior to and right after a tooth erupts are: biting or putting their mouth on things, drooling, rubbing their gums and fussiness. Sometime children may show less interest in eating solid foods and have mild elevations in temperature.But teething does not cause thick congestion, severe diarrhea, vomiting, cough, fevers or inability to drink liquids/take formula. If your child is having these types of symptoms, call your baby's doctor to find out if you need to bring your baby in for a visit.Four simple ways to manage teething pain1.Teething toys may be used, but liquid filled teething rings should be chilled in the refrigerator, not the freezer). Be sure to sterilize in boiling water before use.2.Teething biscuits, crackers or cold food items like frozen yogurt or fruit popsicles may be used for children older than nine months who are used to eating solid foods.3.Tylenol (acetaminophen) and Advil or Motrin (ibuprofen) may be used for children over six months if needed, but you should verify correct dosage with your child's doctor.4.Distraction – play with your baby or take them outside or for a ride in the strollerWhitham does not recommend using topical medications containing Benzocaine (Oragel) due to risk of overuse or ingestion.Tips for breastfeeding once your baby has teethMost moms can keep breastfeeding without difficulty through tooth development. If baby bites, the feeding should be over immediately, baby will quickly learn that biting is not ok.What foods are appropriate as teeth emergeBabies as young as four months who have good head control can start pureed baby foods, and at six months we encourage parents to start solid food introduction. In fact, despite not having a full set of teeth, babies as young as nine months can “chew” solid foods by mashing bites with their jaw regardless of the number of teeth that have emerged.When to start brushing baby's teethI recommend parents start brushing baby's teeth with a soft bristled brush when they notice the first tooth emerge. I recommend using a fluoride containing children's toothpaste. Use a grain of rice sized amount or less depending on how many teeth are to be brushed. Make tooth brushing a twice daily habit.For some ideas to make brushing teeth fun, click here.Preventing Baby Bottle Tooth DecayYou can help prevent your baby from developing cavities or what is called Baby Bottle Tooth Decay or by beginning an oral hygiene routine within the first few days after birth. Start by cleaning your baby's mouth by wiping the gums with a clean gauze pad. This helps remove plaque that can harm erupting teeth.If you are bottle feeding, only give your baby a bottle with formula, breast milk or after one year of age, cow's milk, and avoid giving them sugary beverages like juice or soda. Infants should finish their bedtime and naptime bottle before going to bed and not fall asleep with a bottle in their mouth.Do babies need fluoride drops?This depends on where you live. A good resource for this information is your county health department web site.Intermountain Healthcare has pediatric dentists and adult dentists.It's important to establish care with a pediatric dentist by 18-24 month of age. Intermountain has pediatric dentists and family and special needs dentists. For more information about pediatric dentistry, click here.For more information about family dentistry, click here.The Baby Your Baby program provides many resources for all pregnant women and new moms in Utah. There is also expert advice from the Utah Department of Health and Intermountain Healthcare that air each week on KUTV 2News.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aloha friends, it's Robert Stehlik, welcome to season two of the Blue Planet Show.  On this show, I interview wing foil enthusiasts, athletes, designers, thought leaders, and go into great detail on technique, equipment, but also tried to find out a little bit more about the person, what inspires them, and how they live their best life. You can watch it right here on YouTube. For those of you who are visual learners like myself, that's really helpful to have that visual content. But of course you can also listen to it as a podcast on your favorite podcast app. Just look for the blue planet show. In this interview with Alan Cadiz is we start with very basic beginner tips, the top five tips for beginners, and then we get into a much more advanced stuff as well. So there's something here for everybody. And we also talk about equipment, including what Alan used in the recent wing foil race on Maui that he actually won against other wingers that were less than a third of his age. So a nice work Alan, on that. I really hope you enjoy this interview. If you do, please remember to give it a thumbs up here on YouTube and subscribe to the blueplanetsurf YouTube channel. And without further ado here is Alan Cadiz: Allen, welcome to the Blue Planet Show! Actually, welcome back to the blue planet show. Thank you for inviting me back. Yeah, so we, we had a great interview last year and there was one of them actually, it was the most popular video on the Bhutanese show with almost 40,000 views on YouTube and then a lot of listens on the podcast as well. You always have great information. People love to hear about it. So that's great to have you back on the show and just wanted to catch up and see what happened over the last year. So what's new or what's the latest and greatest that's going on Maui? It's during the last year, it's just been more, more winging. We've had consistent wind all year on winging is growing in popularity on, it's still been quiet, with COVID winding down. It's not as many people as in the past, but we just had our first competitive event in three years. And what else is new? That's cool. Yeah. We're going to get into that more later that definitely hear about that Patagonia, kite and wing festival, but to get started like last year, I'm usually asked all the more advanced questions first that I was interested in. Hearing about, and then at the end I asked the guests to talk a little bit about beginner tips, but I want to turn it around the other way, start with the beginner stuff and then work up to more advanced things. Cause I figured that most people that are really into winging are gonna watch till the end or listened to the end and the beginners, we got to get them into it right in the beginning. So I asked you to come up with your top five tips for beginners to get into wink foiling. And you not only prepared some answers, but you've made a little video from what I understand. So let's start with that. What are your top five tips for beginners? All right. Thank you. Yeah. So I was thinking about those tips and there's so many different things. But I've tried to think about the key things and I put together a little timeline video here. Tip number one. And I just pulled these clips out of my inventory of clips and start on a big board. Now this is a winter Ford. We have a surplus of wind surfboards here on Maui on you can, you might think a sup board would be a good substitute, but you really need the daggerboard unless you can put strap-on fins on your support. I don't recommend using the support. It really needs to have something with the daggerboard now. And I recommend this for people who are just learning, how to use the wing, just to learn the basics on you can learn on a set board a foil board, but I recommend a large foil board to start with. Here, I've got Frank my, my pay here. He's a very skilled. And using a smaller board. It's challenging. So as a beginner, if you're on a smaller board, it's pretty tough to get going. And, in the extreme case, a really small board, it has its advantages, but it's tough to get up on the smaller boards and this is goes through the whole spectrum. So as a beginner, you really want to have a floaty board is just more challenging to get up. There are advantages to the tiny board once you're up. But in the learning stages, you really want to have a floating board. Yeah, I totally agree with that. So that's tip number one. So not everyone has access to the big boards on and. It doesn't because the learning curve is so fast. It doesn't always make sense to buy a big board. Maybe for some, they've got a big family or they've got a slow learning curve or they're sailing in light wind, but if they have the option to rent on, I would encourage that for the first, a few runs on a mistake that a lot of people make is they'll run out and buy the board that they think they're going to end up on, maybe an 80, 80 liter board. And it's a real struggle to learn on those smaller boards. You can do it, but it just takes a lot longer. So if you have access to a bigger board take advantage of. Yeah, very good. And then I just wanted to mention too, for people that have an old standard board or something, a big floaty signup board, there is a kind of a stick-on center thin daggerboard available from Slingshot. I believe that you can basically glue onto the bottom of your board and make if your board doesn't have a dagger board. And that makes a big difference because it keeps the board from this going downwind. If you only have the fins on the tail, the boards is going to turn down when, and it's going to be very hard to stay cross winds. I've seen people show up at the beach with the sup board and have that problem where they just go straight down wind. So yeah, that's basically I as tip number one, before you try this foil, learn the wing handling with a regular board that doesn't have a foil on it, basically. Yes. And if you don't have access to that, you can, learn on a foil board, but really get your hands on the biggest foil board you can get. Yeah. And I, I don't know if this is another tip you had to, but I'm also practice as much as you can on the beach before you get it on the water. The wing handling a lot of it. You can practice on the beach before, before you're in the water. Yes, I do have that. I think it's tip number four or five. Okay. So tip number two, you want to learn how to steer the board and turn around? Very close to the beach specifically, learn to turn around before you get out there on, so this is my daughter she's she has an interesting technique. She'll kneel down at the end of her run, do the turn on her knees. So she doesn't fall. And then stand back up. But the point is that you're turning around close to the beach. And when I say close, 20 feet out, get on the board and turn the board around 180 degrees to come back in. You don't want to get a hundred yards off shore and realize you can't turn around. Now I can keep going or I can keep going, or we can discuss that idea. Yeah. I think that's a really good tip. I guess a lot, I know I've heard of people, like they were so excited about getting up on foil and be able to go there. They just kept going as long as they could before they fell in. But then when they got way outside, like in Hawaii, Kai, for example you realize, oh, I don't know how to go the other way. Yeah. And why Kai is slightly off shore. If I remember. So maybe that's a tip in itself, you want to go in a place where it's side shore, if it's off shore wind, make sure you're sailing with a partner to keep an eye on you. Yeah. And then I'll also, it's a good idea to just if you have a place where you can just go down when, and maybe park your car at the other end, then don't have to worry about staying up when in the beginning. Yes. This next clip is all about staying up wind. And this is something that when I'm teaching my students, I try to focus on getting them to go up wind for a number of reasons. And the biggest reason is that you're not downwind. You don't have to walk back up or find transportation. You spend your time sailing back and forth instead of walking back up. So this next clip here is a little bit longer. It's actually a section of a video that I call maximum performance. This is the tip for beginners on turning the board up when, and this is one of my edited videos on, so I'll go ahead and play the whole thing. It's about two or three minutes, and then we can stop and talk about it. Okay. Great. One of the things I want to cover with quickly, this is more of at the novice level. And this is for almost the first time wingers. It's really easy to go down, wind and end up down wind very quickly. What I want you to try and do is turn the board into the wind. This does two things. One is it gets you going up wind. So you're not losing as much ground. And it slows the board. The struck is like a wind sock or a weather vane. It wants to point the wing into the wind. You can use this constant to leverage the board upwind or downwind by pointing the clue towards the back or front of the board. Respect. So we call the back of the struck clue or back end of the wing. And if I point that wing pointed down wind, it's going to point the board down wind. So I want to point the struck behind or in this case to my left, the more I aim it to the left I'm pulling here. The more it turns into the wind. If I push it away, it turns down with this is done while luffing the wing overhead and steering the board through your core. If you come from a windsurfing background, you'll recognize this as similar to wind surfing in that if you drag the clue towards the tail of the board will turn up. When you twist the wing toward the tail of the board, the wing wants to return to pointing into the wind and as it does it torques your body and board up wind. However, if you sheet in while pulling the clue back, the sheeting will overpower the steering effectively canceling the wings, torque to turn the board up wind, I'll say it again. Over sheeting cancels, the upwind effort, move your hands forward or sheet out as you twist the clue towards the back of the. You're going down when you need the sheet, it out, turn it up when, and then start simply stated left the wing. As you twist the wing to torque the board up wind. I actually really like how you explain what the weather vain and that, when you pull it the. The strike wants to point straight down downwind. And then if you manipulate that'll give you a steering momentum. So I've never really heard it explained that way, but it like intuitively we know how it works, but it's hard to explain it to someone who doesn't understand that concept. So I think that's a really good way to explain it. Thank you. I've been trying all different ideas, one way to think of the strep as a rudder or a guide. And you're aiming that guide to torque the board on a bunch of different ways to show it. And I even, I look at this and I'm like, oh, I might've might do that a little bit differently next time or try to explain it differently, which is I try to attack the idea from a different angle and try different ways. And on teaching this to my students early on, I couldn't understand why they were going down when, what was causing it to go down when, and even myself, I couldn't understand what was the technique to get it, to turn up, wind on until I started well, trying to solve the problems at night, going to bed at night, thinking that why were they having trouble? Why can't they do that? Yeah, I've been trying to capture it on video. Nice. Yeah. Okay, cool. I think we're ready for the next tip. Yeah. Okay. The next tip is more or less where you're standing on the board. So food placement on the board let's start with being off foil. So when you're slogging out to the wind line your front foot should be slightly on the Windward side and your back foot on the more or less on the stringer, as opposed to being this orientation. This is going to actually set you up to point further down. Or that is it's harder to go up wind in this position than this position. Now, the next thing to determine is where to stand on the board regarding the board's flotation. So you may be comfortable standing in the front, but if the nose of the board is curling, you need to move back. On the other hand, if the tail is sinking, you need to move forward. Again, this is off foil. And once you find that flotation point, you want to adjust your foil so that you stay in this position, as it comes up on foil, you can't be stepping forward as it transitions to on foil. So you want to have your feet in the spot when it foils. Okay. One thing that I've done in the past with some of my boards is I've marked on the board. Some lines just as a reference for. So I have an idea of where to stand before foils. Ideally you want to be comfortably on the flotation, but when it foils, you want to make sure that your foil is matched with that flotation point and having marks on the board, just give you a better idea of where to place your feet. Yeah, exactly. And if the D or does design well and you and your files in the right place, basically where you stand to float in the center of flotation, that should also be more or less where you want to stand once the board lifts up, right? Yes. Yes. You can put the foil too far forward in the track or too far back, or if you have a foil with a lot of lift in it on, you may have to adjust that, but. Yeah and then another good point you add it. And then in a different video with the was being centered over the center line of the board to cause you might be able to fly on when the boards on the water, if you're not exactly in the center, it's fine. But once the board lifts up and you're on foil, you have to be centered exactly over the foil the center line of the board. And that's the next clip here staying centered. I do have in this shot here, you think more of front and back where you're pressuring the nose down and you're kicking it up, but there's also the side to side. So that's this next clip here. Okay. We'll just play that whole thing. Okay. Some people are afraid to learn to foil for fear of falling on the foil, a legitimate concern. So let's look at what causes this type of. So let's look at the foil. It generates lift. The front wing is lifting up the back wing. The stabilizer is pushing down, but together there's force up through the mast lifting the board. Now it's important that you trim your weight for, and AFT. If it's too far in the front, you're going to stick to the water. If it's too far in the back, you're going to overflow. So you're constantly trimming the weight and a half, but it's also equally important to keep your center of mass directly over the foil. So the foil is lifting up. Gravity is pushing you down and if they're equal, you stay centered over the board. But often as a sailor, you have another force that the sail is pulling you laterally. So you need to compensate by leaning back against that pole. And when the. It's flat on the water. You have the stability of the ocean. So you can put lateral push on the side of the board, but as soon as it comes up on foil, you don't have that stability and any sideways push is going to cause it to in this case flip away and you fall towards the foil on your bum. And here's a couple examples, unlike windsurfing, where you're pointing your toes to keep the board flat in foiling, you're flexing your foot to keep your ankles at a right angle to the board, or that is your body. Mass is always over the top of the board. And the top means at a right angle. I have this drone footage, which really shows it, centered right over the top of the board, even though he's hiked out he's on. And then here, if you draw a line from the mast up through his center of mass, you can really see it here. So if you're not centered and I've got one more clip here of not being centered and you can see it right there. It's the beginning of the. Yeah, that's a really good point then. And I always like to tell people too, when they, before they try to wing and foil together, maybe just try to learn how to control the foil first. I guess even going behind a boat though is sometimes you got to pull from the rope, so you can lean against the rope. So you can be a little bit off centered on, on, on the floor away from the pool of the rope, if you're going sideways. But but just to have that feel where you can, where you're foiling on the board without getting pulled or without pressure, so that you understand that you have to be right over the center line of the foil and you can't be like offset, yeah. Trying to isolate just the foil skills. Th the foil is one way, but the foil is different. The board is pretty heavy, so it's not as responsive. As a regular foil board certainly the prawns surfers that come to wing foiling, they have the skill already going behind a boat on is good. But I have seen people that have learned behind a boat. And when they're out on the wing board, they're leaning back against the wing, trying to wheelie the board. And I'm like no, you can't leverage, you can't leverage the board like that with the wing, the way you can with the rope. But any foil time that you can get before you get on a wing is good. Yeah, I agree. So the next clip here is about wing handling. And that is we talked about it earlier about practicing on the beach and here's just a few things on. A few things you can practice on the beach, simple stuff like flipping the wing over. And this is a six meter when I'm trying to flip a six meter wing over in the water is pretty tough. So you can practice it on the beach. You can practice standing up, having the wing help you get to your feet. And the wingspan on a six meter, you have to go up to the wing tip to flip it over. So it looks easy and it's relatively easy on the beach. It's harder in the water, but that's something you can practice. And just practicing, like for tacking or jiving, just practicing the hand movements of flipping the wing over on, just leaning back against the wind and the wind. And this is something you have to do where there's a breeze. You can't do it in your backyard where the winds all squirt. You really need to have steady wind to get steady feedback, but this is worth doing, taking the time. And that there's in most of my instructional videos, I've got some kind of beach homework where you practice on the beach, whether it's the Heineken jibe or tacking or whatever. Yeah, no, that's really good advice. I think in a lot of times the beginners too, don't if you don't have a wig like a cutting or windsurfing or a sailing background just beginners have a hard time understanding exactly where the wind is coming from and how to angle your wing and relation to the wind and which way you want to go in and out, what's what direction can you go? And what does. You can't, you can't go straight into the wind obviously, and things like that, that's things people don't understand at first, I think, or don't think about really. So just learning that. And then also I like to get people to just keep the wing tip, kinda get the wink to blow to the sand, but without touching it, like controlling the height of the wing on the beach, and that, that's something that, that I'm in. I've got videos on that and all the clips here, this is just a fraction of the stuff that I have. And there's so much more there's so many more tips and these, I wouldn't call these the top five tips. These are just five tips in general on, and I also, the sport's still relatively young and we may look back in a few years and think, oh, we were teaching that progression where it's so much better to teach this progression. There's still so much we're learning about the sport. Yeah there's there's definitely the idea of sheeting and steering the wing on, I've taken a couple stabs at explaining that in one video, I have one video up there already on what I'm going to. I have another video where I'm trying to explain it more clearly to sailors or non sailors, and just the idea of sheeting in and out to catch the wind and spill it. That's relatively easy. But when you throw in the steering of the wing up and down in front of you, like you said, having the wing tip right on the sand and taking it above your head and separating those two skills it's a challenge to get people to understand that. It's really simple once you get it, but it's sometimes difficult. Yeah, you have to grasp that concept first and the I, and I like to even the more advanced maneuvers and all the different tax and things like that on your patron channel, you have like really detailed info videos breaking it down. Step-by-step into really easy to follow steps that very detailed and, I highly recommend that your instructional videos are great, and I think, those beginner tips are great, not just for the beginners, but also for more advanced guys. Cause you're going to have to show other help, other people that are learning and just understanding how to explain things like how to steer the board up into the wind. Th those are kinds of things. If you have a good way to explain it and to make it easy to understand that'll help a lot. Yes. Yeah, that's good. My following on Patrion has grown almost a 700 at the moment, or just over seven to 700 at the moment. And the range of skills on, there's beginners on there that are just trying to get up for the first time. And then there's advanced sailors that are asking for jumping and more advanced stuff. This recent video, the one you're looking at gliding on foil, that's more for entry-level. It's gliding is a skill that you take for granted, it's really easy to do once you know how to do it. But I had a number of students recently that I could see, they were relying on the wind for support and they didn't have the feel for gliding. Yeah okay. So yeah, I just find it too. I'm just, screen-sharing this now you're at your patron channel and yeah, it's 747 patrons. That's great. Congratulations on that. So it's actually I guess if you get enough people supporting you, then it's actually, you can actually make a living, being a virtual instructor, basically. Just making the instructional videos and teaching. Yeah, I so that, that seems like it really good business model for you, huh? I fell into it, with COVID when they shut down all the restaurants and airplanes and they closed the beach parks. That's when I started doing this and someone suggested I do a premium online video here on Patrion. And so I've been doing that for the last almost two years now. I think there's 20, 22 or 24 videos, instructional videos ranging from. The first time holding the wing to more advanced stuff like three sixties and Heineken jibes and that kind of stuff. Heineken jibes and the three sixties. That's probably the top 10% of wingers out there. I think the majority of wingers are working on basic stuff like this jibe here, that's George, one of our local sailors. This came to wild, demonstrating how to glide on the swell on. So this is a clip from the wave video on. So there's all different skill levels here and I've tried to try to address all of them. Yeah. I like how you explain how to I guess that's a challenging thing at first for people that are used to just always having the wing powered up and leaning against the wind. That to transition into not using the wing and deciding on the foil without using the wing wind power. So that's what you explaining it and just doing it kind of real step-by-step slowly getting used to this using the energy from the foil without having the wing pull you along. Yes. And if you come from a prone foiling background, you already know how to do this automatic. But for the prone boilers, I've got tips on how to use the wing. Yeah. That makes sense. And I think this is a really important skill for jiving because basically when you're going into the jive, you have to de power the wing and just surf a turn on, or, do a turn on the foil without using the wind power basically. Yes. That was the idea of it. So that angle right there that's, I got this new camera, actually it's not new, but I had to modify it for that board. Yeah. I just wanted to ask you about the the different handles. On the duotone wings, you have the rigid handles. And then some, you have some that have the longer boom handle, like this one, and then the new D-Lab unit that you're using has two, two separate handles. We'll look a little bit about the handles and yeah the advantages and disadvantages of having rigid handles and two handles versus one long handle and so on. Coming from a windsurf background, I've always liked the boom. And in fact that the first wings that my neighbor Ken was making all have booms. So we started with boom. I don't know if you remember the first echos on they had a boom and. The nice thing about the boom is it's infinite hand placement. You can put your hands anywhere along the boom. When you're flipping the wing over your head, it's really easy to feel where the boom is. You don't have to look where the handles are. You shouldn't be looking even if you have handles. And the boom is so much more rigid than the webbing handles. So in fact, most manufacturers now are switching to some kind of rigid handle. The handles I've gotten used to the handles, but initially when I went from the boom to the handles, I was grabbing in between the handles and missing and falling in. Now I can grab the boom or grab the handles pretty much every time without looking. I know where they are. Some of the bigger wings, the handles are a little further apart. So I've got to remember to reach further back on. That's one of the things you miss when you have the boom or the two handles. I noticed like when I come out of the jive, I like to grab the wing right in the middle with one hand so that it kind of flies. But it would be right between those two handles. So do you ever miss having that that grip in the right in the middle or you just get used to? I did get used to it. I did have that problem. I grabbed right in the middle and fall. So it, it took me a while to retrain my hands. I still prefer the boom over the handles, but these, this D-Lab wing is really superior. This cloth it's super stiff. So the wing is really tight and light. You can see there. It's just, it's really nice. So I'll tolerate the handles to use that wing. And so let's talk about that a little bit, so that new this is the Lula fabric on the new do a tongue D-Lab weighing, and then they also have the unit in with the regular Dacron leading edge and and strike. So can you talk a little bit about the difference between the two? And I know that there's a big difference in price, so I just wondering what you think they are the different between the difference between the two and if it's worth it for the average user to spend more, to get that well there, the wings are virtually the same shape slash design, just different cloth. So the yellow cloth, the Lula cloth makes it really stiff and light. So if you're into performance, the Alula is the way to go on the, I think the sizes are from up to seven. Or no two and a half to seven meter, but the Alula the D labs don't start until three five on, but you're really gonna appreciate the Alula cloth in the bigger sizes on, 5, 6, 7 meter that's in the light wind where you want that lightness and stiffness. Now, as far as the value on, money is different things to, it's a different thing for everybody. For some people money's not an issue, they can get whatever they want. I think as a novice Patty, my wife, her favorite wing is the SLS three, five unit on, I really liked the Fibo D-Lab I think that's what we're looking at here. Yeah, this is, I think this is the three, five, or the three meter SLS. This is one of her favorite wings, although she recently tried the D lab for, and she said, this is my new favorite wing, and this is my shit. She tried to claim my fluoro. I'll share it with you. That's interesting. Yeah, that you're saying that that yeah. Makes more of a difference than in a bigger wing on, in lighter wind, obviously. Yeah. Because if you have plenty of wind then I guess actually sometimes having a little bit of weight in the wind can actually be a good thing too, in some cases. It's not always the case that lighter is always better, but definitely in a big wing and light wind, it makes it, it can make a big difference, right? Yes. Yes. I'm not sure we're heavy is good, but that's true. But my thank you. You're gonna they're all good, but you're gonna appreciate the bigger sizes with the D lab and. As a novice sailor, you'll be fine with the SLS. I think you're going to pay a little extra for that performance in the Alula cloth. Okay, cool. Let's talk a little bit about that recent event you mentioned earlier, the Patagonia Caden, Wade Fest. You said that was just recently and there was a freestyle part of it and the race part of it. So let's talk a little bit about that event. I did a film, a little bit of the freestyle on, and I can try and share that here. I was the Patagonia Maui, kite and Wingfield festival was that canal beach park. And when I got my camera out, the battery was flashing almost dead. So I just filmed one year. This is Chris McDonald. He won the event with moves like this he's 16 years old from the Gorge. That's here's Kailani. He dropped in and he was doing moves. I'm not sure how he finished up. I think he made it to the final. I only filmed one heat. Just this Andre. He's a local ripper. He did pretty well. Wow. And I think also in this heat Otis Buckingham, no, that's Chris again. That's so you can see why he won the event there. Oh, so there was racing and unfortunately I don't have any video of the race stuff. But you told me earlier that you actually won the race event. So just tell us about it. I did I spent a lot of time training for it and I had some really good gear and one of the guys I sail with all the time, he says, when you're out there, I can see you're sailing with purpose. You're training for this. And I did. I worked really hard on it and I actually, I'm going to just show a little clip of the board that I used on. So I got this new board flying Dutchman. This is what that camera Mount I'll show you that. And then I posted this on Instagram clip coming up here. So this flying Dutchman is different from my previous board in that it's a little. Mark made it a little narrower. So I wouldn't drag the rail while I was going to Winward other dimensions, sorry. Or what are the dimensions? Is the board it's four foot 11 by 21 inches wide. And it's about 60 liters, 20 to 60 liters, 2021 wide 2121. Okay. Pretty narrow four foot 11 engine the board so that when I do touch down, there's more of a planning surface, the rails not digging in and on the back. There's no tail rocker, no tail kick, just a sharp edge. And this really helps to release the board from the water. Now it's also matched with a Mike's lab and I wasn't sure about the Tuttle box, but after trying it in this board, it's super solid. It's all one piece, no moving parts. There's no play whatsoever. It's just really tight. And then my result in the racing I finished, I actually won the racing event. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you. Then. You're probably not the youngest one in there by far. In fact, you could probably fit a whole generation in between me and the next place. When I went to the registration up in , it was at a. Mandatory. I went up there and I got in line and everyone in front of me was a teenager and I thought, oh man, what am I doing here? The older guys were in their twenties. Yeah. So one third year age. Yeah. Yeah. But I have to say that the Maui fleet and a wife who, they were a couple of people that came over from wahoo, both the men and women, young men and women, they're going to be a force. They've got some talent and, they were going plenty fast in the racing, but the start line and the tactics. That's where my experience came in. So tell us how that whole, how it worked at, what was the format like? How did this start work? W were, how were the terms and upwind, downwind, and so on. Tell us how that format works. They had a rabbit start that is that a jet ski raced across the start line and you'd pass behind the jet ski on and we'd race out. It was a close reach to a mark outside. And then from that mark, we had to go up wind to a Windward mark. So it, the way it was set up, it spread everyone out on and I had some good starts. And then the upwind leg, it was favored on the inside. It was a little bit north wind. So you'd get a good lift along the shoreline, which I knew from experience where most of the fleet went outside into deeper water where the wind was lighter and there was more current on there were. Some of the kids that Chris McDonald, he was very fast. He beat me to the Windward mark twice. But I was able to catch him on the downwind run. It was almost a straight downwind run to the finish line. So you had to zigzag your way to get down there. And Kai, I think he was able to pump downwind faster than with the wind, his pumping skills where most other sailors had to zigzag back and forth. And I was using a six meter. It was light wind by Maui standards on, I was using a six meter. So yeah, I feel pretty good about that when I think it's probably my last competition, I'm passing the Baton onto these younger people. That or I'm anxious to see where they take the sport. And I'm confident in the riders. We have so much window defending champion. You can't give up after the first time. No. I've yeah. I'm 60 years old Robert it's tough to compete 16. And I remember when I was doing wind surfing competition, when I was 20, I was looking to the guys that were 25 and I thought those guys have peaked. They've peaked at 25. And for sure, in, in windsurfing jumping freestyle, doing the leaps and having the flexibility, I think you do peak in your early twenties, more endurance style type of stuff on more in your thirties, in your sixties. I'm not sure. I think what I've earned is that shirt that says old guys rule. I think that's about. Experience too, right? You have, you got the experience and then, like you said, you train with the purpose and you're ready for it. So you're not just winging it, you're actually winging it. Yeah, yeah. No, it's awesome. I love that. You can still beat everyone, including the guys. I Lenny, that's pretty awesome. No, Chi is, I, he it was funny during the wave event, one of the announcers talked about Chi being a legend. And I thought he's, he is a legend, as far as his ability. There's no question there, but when I think of legend as an old, if he is a legend, what does that make me? Am I guess I'm a fossil, but no, Kai and all the younger kids, Chi's, he's so good at everything. And he hasn't really put effort into wing racing. And I think if he spends just, a very short period of time, he'll be on the top of his game. It seems like whatever he tries out, he succeeds, but there's a lot of other young talent on Maui. That, that is really good. And I, we have the amount of advantage in that we have wind almost every day you can wing. And with the waves came to wild is doing some turns in the waves that are really impressive and he's just getting started. So it's going to be really exciting to watch as this younger generation leads the way right. I'm stepping aside. And then I guess something, I was going to ask you to like, Yeah, generally two foot straps in the front and then not no foot strap in the back, which means basically you're not really jumped. You can't really use that set up to jump or not jump very high anyways. Yeah. Or do you most, do you just avoid jumping usually or do you actually do jumps with that sort of, I do not do jumps and early on, I made a pledge to myself that I would not take the sport to the air on. I had a back injury surfing, a compressed vertebrae, a wedge vertebrae, and my physical therapist says I can't afford another fall. So I don't trust myself. I'm looking at these guys do in the jumps, I've studied Chris McDonalds, flips and I'm like, I could do that. I know I could do. But no, I know better. The back there's no back foot strap because I do move my foot around a lot and it does keep me from jumping. I was just noticing in this picture, the leash, I have it attached to the foot strap because when I have it attached to the back of the board, it would flip and get in the way of the camera. Okay. So I want to show you my, and one of those retracting leashes that like, I should send you one of those, but yeah I noticed actually, why don't you keep that up for a little bit. I want to talk about the equipment a little bit. Yeah. I noticed you have the leash pug monster on the tail of the board, is that, so it's kinda more out of the way of your feet or less drag or what's the idea behind that? Putting it back there? Oh, sorry. Here. Rapid horse at flying Dutchman suggested I put it back there and it seems like a good spot. I noticed I do have a prom foil board that I use for surfing. And the Mount is, I don't know if you can see my mouse here, but the amount is right there. And I found as a regular foot surfer as I stand up, my foot would always drag over the leash and I'd end up standing on the leash cord. No, I'm not planning on doing any prone for them with this board, but it made sense on, there was one of the rider that had the same setup and he felt that the leash was dragging in the water. So I think for racing, especially to have a lease dragging in the water, it just totally doesn't make sense. Yeah. So anyway, but okay so yeah, the two front shots. That way you, the back foot if you just had one center strap you tend to have both feet a little bit off to one rail, right? So being able to offset your back foot more towards the opposite rail helps with keeping your weight center too. And that's one of the reasons why you don't use the back foot strap to ensure it? Yes, because I would stand on it. And I also found too that sometimes when I would do attack, as I switched my feet, I found myself stepping on the far side of the board to keep it from rolling over from scissoring. And the other reason as I did, I was using a back strap for awhile and I fell and tweaked my ankle. Didn't injured myself, but tweaked it enough that I thought I'm taking that strap off. And then, it also helps sometimes moving your back foot forward or backwards, depending on how fast you're going or trying to get up and light when and things like that. Right now. 50, wait a little bit on this board. I don't have the foot straps. Doesn't show the bootstraps here, but the foot straps I have, they're longer foot straps. They're not the standard eight inch they're about 12 or 14 inches on. I placed the inserts further apart so that I could slide my foot forward in when I was going real fast to compensate for the additional lift by the foil and then move it back when I was going to Winward or so I really liked the ability to be able to move my foot four and a half still in the strap. And I've taken some other videos. I've got a lot of different camera mounts. And in fact, let me pull up one of those camera mounts. Okay. But yeah, actually I did want to ask you about the foil as well. So I noticed you had that a few shots of the foil there too, but yeah, so don't turn off the grease screen sharing yet, but yeah, this particular clip here it doesn't really well, lot of times I'll do different camera angles and trying to capture one thing. And I realize, oh, this is a really good example of where the foot is, or I didn't realize the wing was this way. Or when I put the camera on the front of the board, it really shows my front foot, my toes curling up and down not so much in this video, but I didn't realize how much I was using the front strap to manipulate the board or leverage. Yeah. I find that, yeah, having footsteps just allows you to turn much harder to you just feel more connected to the board. So you get, you're able to like crank Carter turns that you have that those foot straps, right? Yes. And I did do some video recently, then the board didn't have foot straps and it was a performance oriented board, but I just didn't put the foot straps on there. And I found that I couldn't do the tax and the jibes as aggressively without the foot strap. So I do definitely pull with my front foot to pull the board around or leverage it this way or so, yeah. Okay. So let's talk about the foil, cause I think maybe the foil might be one of the most important parts of the equipment and like those Mike's labs foil, I know that like Johnny Heineken and San Francisco has been winning a lot of the races there with those foils too. And it just seems like he's going faster than everyone else. And so anyway, talk a little. Yeah. Mike has been making the carbon foils for the kite racers for quite a while. He's been making foils and more recently for, he's got a reputation of making the fastest foils, particularly in the kite race and fleet. Now I think he's winging himself and he's made foils for Wayne's specifically for winning. And this is one of them. It's the bullet series. I believe he makes an 1100 and 800 and a 600 and this is the 600. And let me see if I can get a little bit better angle of it on. So it's actually the smallest foil and is in this series. Yeah. Yes, he does have a smaller foil for kite racing, but it has a shorter fuselage and he's also got a tiny little race foil on, I think it's a four, 10 tow foil. And apparently I think one of the kite racers clocked 46 knots on it. Wow. Yeah, I don't want, I don't want to go that fast. So this the 600 sizes at square centimeters, like projected surface area or something like that, or this is a full-on top performance race, foil. It's not something that, the average person. Is going to use, it's very sharp edges on it. It's pointy and it's delicate, you bumped the bottom and it you don't want it. You don't want to scratch it, not just because it's expensive, but because the performance of it on, I used the Gulf soils and they're tough. They're tough on, I scraped the bottom all the time coming in, hitting a rock right in the sand. Sorry. I I just find it to describe it a little bit. For those listening to the podcast sites, it looks like it has a really thin front wing pretty flat with a little curve the tip slightly curved down or straightened out basically with those dihedral man. And everything's full carbon was the extended finish. And then we'll take it as a really long mass to it. Is that like a hundred centimeters? Something like that? Or how long is it mess? This one is a 96. Okay. They make a 1 0 2 and I believe an 80 something. I tried the 1 0 2 and I could see the advantage of using it on a coast run where you're blistering down wind and tall chop. You want to be able to clear the wave tops, but still keep your foil under water and going to Winward. I could really lean over, but going just a little bit longer, there was loo tiny bit of wobble in it compared to the 96. And and it, with the total box, it just is really tight. So I think this is the right length mass for me on it is. It is a little bit long for low tide. It cannot low tide is off limits. Medium, medium tide is okay. And you know you learn where the spots are, where you can go and where you can't. But the medium size is perfect for me. And the leading edge, she slosh and trailing edge is all one piece, which I think is one reason why it's so stiff and so tight. So the only place that comes apart is like great, right at the the joint between the mass and the fuselage. And then this is all one. This is all one piece construction, all one piece construction. There's two parts. There's the mask and the rest of it. And that you can adjust the pitch and the stabilizer. He has a system pretty clever. You put a spacer. I used a little nylon while. And you put that spacer in there. And then as you screw the three bolts down tight to the mast, it flexes the fuselage just ever. So a little bit, and that changes the pitch in the back, Wayne. A bigger spacer flexes more and gives it less pitch where it melts stabilizers more pitch. Interesting. No. So to get us set up like that, like how did you have to like special order and how long does it take and about how much does it cost? If somebody wanted to order one on it? When I originally placed my order on, it was a 12 week wait and they took my order with no deposit. And they said when it was ready, they would send for the check. And I told them that I was planning on racing in the store. And if I could get it, a week beforehand on that'd be great and we'll, they expedited it, they got it out to me early enough that I could train on it. And but I believe it's a 12 week waiting list, but I also know that they can, you can wait longer on, it was about $3,500 for the whole setup. That is the foil. I believe that included shipping. And at this point I'm putting it away until I do more testing with Ken and racing with Ken, trying to keep up with Ken winter is pretty tough. He also has a mic slab 800. And that's really why I got this 600 was so that I could keep up with him trying to test the wins. And of course it's a great race swing, but when I'm pre-writing and teaching I'm using the Gulf war. So I you guys obviously don't want to scrape over the reflux that on low tide or whatever. So like you said, it's Tragile and you don't want to scratch it and ruin the performance. So it makes sense. But would you say that was one of the, your secret ingredients to winning the race part of it? Yes, for sure. The foil, but also the board. I actually had some great wings to the D labs. And so actually something I wanted to mention too, like for the boards cause, cause it's such a thin profile and I'm assuming that it takes a as a pretty high takeoff speed. Like you can't like some of the big thick foils you can pop up at pretty low speeds, but this one looks like it would take a little bit higher speeds to pop up on foil. Surprisingly it, it pops right up. Now some of it's, some of it's my experience, but it it was later. During the regatta. And there are a couple of times when I, during the weekend that I had to pump pretty hard, flapping the wing and pumping the board to get up. But the majority of the time, I it's basically sheet in and go combination of the foil. There's so little drag. It reaches take-off speed very quickly. And that's the total box. And what about the star speed? Does it like, do you do you ever have a problem, like stalling with it stalling the foil or not really? Not really. That last video that I posted on gliding on foil, pretty much everything I'm riding this foil. It has a very nice glide to it. Sure. Surprisingly and I was thinking. On the windiest days that I might be able to do a set foil run with this setup. That there's almost enough volume. There is enough volume to float me, to stand still whether or not I could paddle it fast enough with a paddle to get up on foil on. And I've been out outside the reef in the rollers, luffing the wing and gliding for quite a ways on a couple hundred yards and thinking I could do this with a paddle, but once it does slow down, it's pretty tough to get the speed back up again, pumping it with your legs, but I'm pretty certain that 800 would work on a coaster. So yeah, the dominant paddling is something else I wanted to ask you about too, but let's finish the equipment thing here. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about the wings, the important importance of the wings. We talked a little bit about the board the foot straps, the foil. Obviously the wing is other thing that's really important having the right size wing and then the, and the right profile and shape and all that kind of stuff for upwind downwind. And talk a little bit about that. Like what you found that is works best for you. With the D labs are pretty tough to beat on, you probably know, or maybe for the people that don't know Ken winner lives across the street, the designer for duotone, he's one of the designers here. There's a team in Europe that, that works with them as well, but he's the main guy. And I'll go out and race with him. And every now and then I'll throw out my ideas about, what to do. And he quickly shoots them down. So he's really, he does everything on, I'm just a benchmark out there racing with him, but he wants to raise up wind and then turn around and race down land. And then we swap wings and do it again. And there's another guy that runs with us regularly. Peter slate. He is he's national slalom champion in wind surfing. So he's got some experience in racing and he's the three of us go out there and beat up on each other. But Ken really puts a lot of emphasis on the speed of the wing up wind. And really when you think about it, if you have a wing that goes fast and is stable, both upwind and downwind, it's going to work on, in every aspect. Being able to get the speed to jump, being able to get on foil quickly on. So he's got all these different parameters and it's amazing to me we'll go out and do a number of runs and he'll decide right away. Oh, this one needs more, it needs more of this or that. So what determines the up wind speed of a wing, I guess the drag, the depth, the approach as a cider profile, or or more attention, or what are the things that make it work better on up, going up when the stiffness of the frame on the canopy tension, the draft position on the amount of twists or leech tension, all those things on, that's really his wheelhouse. I don't really try to design or pretend to be a. I think the draft position is really important because if it travels backwards, then it ruins the upwind performance rate. If the draft flexes too much or moves back too much, then that'll ruin the forward propulsion, right? Yes. Yes. And when we get, he'll get a new wing and it looks really good and we'll go out and test it. And sometimes it's amazing. And then there's a clear, cut difference that it's better or worse. Other times they're very similar, but he seems to know exactly what changes to make. And the, again yeah, I've been trying to get Ken to come on this show for for over a year. And he's always too busy designing new wings and kites. But he said maybe check back with him and at the end of July. So I'm going to keep trying, I'm going to keep trying to get him on the show. He's a little bit, he doesn't want to be in the limelight either, so it's very interesting. Definitely trying to get him on the show and then, they just for those who haven't watched, the first interview that we did I just want to do a little recap that you basically grew up in Kailua. Like I think ki peak Cabrina was one of your neighbors. You learned to win wind surf at a young age and then moved to Mali, started your lesson business. Now, and our teaching, the whinging but w the way he got into wing foiling was basically you were doing downwind, foil, standup, foil, downwinders with mark, Robert Horace and Ken winner. And then Ken was kinda having a hard time getting up on the foil. So he basically designed this wing to try and you were kinda making fun of him for about it, but then you saw at some point he saw it and you said, it looked like poetry in motion, and you have to try it as well. Yeah. Yes, that, that image of him coming down, the swells is burned into my brain. That was the turning point. It's okay, I got to try this. And because up until that point, we were set foiling down the coast and we were waiting for Ken to catch up. And in this case, we were sitting there waiting for him to catch up and he came down the swell. It was just a beautiful thing. So that was when I made the decision to try it. And at that point I think flash Boston had made his own way out of spars. And he went out and did a run on the sup board out and back, got some video and then the wing fell apart. And so the story goes and he never put it back together. It was a novelty thing, but, and Ken saw that and he said, okay, I'm going to make a wing and try it. So slash Austin was the pioneer, but then can actually develop the first inflatable wing kind of thing. The homework. Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn't so much that I was making fun of him. It was more of my scratching, my head, what is he doing? But yeah, he's, I think he can be now there's one other guy, Tony Legos that I believe did an inflatable wing. And I think there might be some video of him out there on foil, but he was ahead of his time. It didn't catch on. Okay. Okay. So basically what I wanted to ask you is I, lately I've been listening because that's how I got into wing filing twos. Like we were doing downwind standup foiling, and like you're on a wall with the wind is not that good usually. So we were struggling with that, trying to like mediocre conditions is so hard to get up on flow and stay up on foil. So when the wings came out, that was just like, oh, this is so much easier, and more fun because you're always flailing. You don't have to struggle to get back up. And once you come off the foil, but Lately I've been listening to the James Casey podcast. He has like a really good podcast. Now about downwind. Foiling is really enthusiastic about it, trying to get people into downwind foiling. And I talked to mark Rapa horse in the interview and he said, that's still his biggest passion, even though he doesn't get to do it as much anymore. But I wanted to ask you, do you still do downwind, standup foiling, or did you give up on that since you started winging? I gave up on it since I started winging and not, I did a run with mark wrap horse and we did it late in the evening. It was really rough and he got ahead of me and I tried really hard to stay with him. And the next morning I, my back hurt so bad. I couldn't walk. So I laid off from it. But now there's some new boards that are coming out. Dave Kalama he's calls it the Barracuda. That's quite a bit narrower and longer. And it looks like it's relatively easy to get up on foil. And since I laid off the down winning the foils have improved quite a bit and I think they're easier and faster. So I'm thinking, yes. I want to try it again on, but at the moment I'm still wrapped up in winging. So yeah. Now I'm exactly the same way I got, I stopped doing it once I got into winging, but now I'm going to getting curious and hearing about the new equipment that makes it a little bit easier, like to compare it to what we're using. Early on, I think might be worth another try on a good day though. I wouldn't want to go out in mediocre conditions if it's the waves or the wind smells nice and clean and easy to get up on them. I definitely going to try it again, but kinda got out of it too, but yeah. Okay. Just a few more things. It's been our gosh, it's almost two hours already, but we didn't want to ask you, like in one of your videos, you mentioned rotator cuff pain that you had, like in your shoulders, and that's why you liked to practice the movements before you do it on the water to avoid hurting yourself and so on, which I think makes a lot of sense. And I can relate to that, to add some rotator cuff issues, mostly from Santa paddling doing like the molcajete race and training a lot and stuff like that kind of insane, like my shoulder. So I had to do, I was actually had really bad pain for two years and I had to do physical therapy and stuff like that. And I found some good exercise that worked really well. So whenever I have a flare up, I do more of those exercises and that really helps. But but yeah, I just kinda wanted to hear your side of it. Like what kind of pain you have and how you deal with it and what you do. Fortunately my shoulders have healed up and I don't have the shoulder pain that I was having. I, I was just using Advil and ice on and that would tend to bother me at night in my sleep. And so I seen it in Advil and then once I was stronger, I did some, simple exercises with dumbbells, these and that seemed to, to help lightweight dumbbells on. So fortunately I have not had any trouble lately, but winging is something that, that it might restrict people that have shoulder problems, that it might be a problem to do that. But the new wings are so much lighter and stiffer. They don't muscle you around like the older ones. So maybe that's an impressive. Yeah, but yeah, I think it's definitely a good idea to practice the movements on the beach first, just to make sure that you don't get yanked around by the wind when you know, like no unexpected motion or throwing you back, like pulling them shoulder backwards or whatever, lift up, pulling. Those are the things that bothered my shoulder. And I found there's a little exercise I do on the beach where I bring the wing up overhead and then back down, up overhead. And even behind me and back down. And I found that has really improved my tax. Just doing that little warm up on the beach. When I go out in the water, I feel more confident doing the tax. Yeah. And I think too I was watching on your patron child that when about tacking 2 0 1, I think you called it, but just like when you bring your wing over your head, just to give the clue little push. It kind of ticks over and lands in the right place to accelerate out of the attack. That's a super important thing to, to learn how to do before, before you try to do those tasks, especially on your heel side, right? Yeah. But I'm also, just regarding aging well and staying healthy and so on. Do you have any good tips? I'm almost 55 now, so I'm not that far behind you. And I find, as I get older it's easy, obviously get injured, easier nutritionist super important so do you have any kind of tips or things you do that, that help you avoid inflammation or like nutrition, anything like that? I try to stay hydrate. I do every now and then maybe once or twice a month, I'll take Advil or Motrin, if I've had a long day on, but I think just staying active, I started water sports when I was 12 years old and I told my wife that I'd been practicing for this sport since I was 12. And really I've my whole life. I've been fortunate enough to spend in and around the water surfing, wind, surfing, sailing, kite, surfing, paddling, I did them all Chi to Oahu a number of times with a teammate then set foiling and now wing foiling. Now it just and I probably put in four days a week wing foiling Fortunate here on Maui that we have wind virtually every day. And you can go just about any time you want, but just getting out on the water and staying active. And I'm a little older, so I am cautious to avoid things that I might get injured like jumping. And I try not to overdo it on my sessions, and an hour or two, I use a harness so I can stay out longer on. And with the harness, I'm not putting the load on my shoulders going to Winward on, but yeah, just trying to stay active, I'm winging. Foiling has kept me young. It's gotten me back in the water. I was kinda over, I was over wind surfing. I was over kite surfing on the prone paddling or the sub paddling was hurting my lower back. That, that motion. I was just grinding my spine and I but wing foiling, it's an other than the initial stages of climbing on the board, fallen off, climbing on the board. Once you get past that point, there's very little pressure in your hands. And because the foil is above the chop or the board is above the chop, it's like powder snow. So there's not a whole lot of pressure. And there's people out there that say, oh, you don't need a harness. There's no pressure. And that's true, unless you're racing Ken winter up, when, you need that power to, to drive up wind. But it's just really forgiving easy on the body. And I hope that I know I have a number of patrons and students that are over 70 that are foiling and being 60. They're an inspiration to me that I think I can keep doing this for another 10 years. Barring any injuries. I think it's, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a fountain of youth and it's great to see so many different age groups doing it too. And like you said, the initial learning curve is a little bit can be a little bit dangerous, especially for older people, you have to be really careful not to injure yourself in the beginning, I think. But once you get it down, it's really yeah, like you said, very low impact and not really that hard on your body. So it's something I think I can keep doing for quite a while. I'm hoping. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Excellent. Anything else that you wanted to talk about? Let me see here. So many, actually we never can you show us your new camera amount? I did. I did want to get back around to that. So you have this camera Mount that months on your plate. Underneath the plate Mont of the foil. And then it sticks out behind the back of the board. So this, I made this plate, actually. I had a local machine shop welded up in town on and displayed sandwiches between the foil and the board on the track mounts with the Tuttle box, I had to cut this groove to get it to fit the Tuttle. And so it hangs off the back of the board. And then at the other end, I have a GoPro Mount on it with a little floaty, just in case it comes off. I also have the gro GoPro floaty on there. So if I lose the camera and I've lost a few that's one Mount. So that's how you get that follow cam look like. It looks like there's a camera falling, like a drone coming in right behind you kind of thing. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's this action right here. This clip here on and I can aim the camera up to get the hand work. I can Mount it taller on. So it is, and you said you tried the go at the GoPro max. Like the GoPro max 360. That's the one I've been using a lot. It's like the as I get 360 lens, but then it takes a lot of work to edit it afterwards. And you said you don't really like using this one that much. So you use just a regular GoPro eight or nine? Yeah. This was the max and I found that it is difficult to use the 360. And I've found that generally trying to capture things that the regular hero amount or just using one side seems to work. The level horizon is really cool. It keeps the horizon level as the board banks right on. I also have a solo shot camera and this is. You wear this satellite tracker on your body and then the camera will track you Zuni and zoom out. And when this works, it's exceptional, I can shoot 120 frames a second. So it gets slow motion, but so often it thinks I'm over there and it's looking the wrong way. It misses the shot. Yeah. And I had a love, hate relationship with that thing. Cause yeah, like half the time it would work great. In the other half of the time, it was like nothing. All it, the whole session I would get was just like walk water without me in it. Like where I'm just out of the frame or something like that. I got lots of that. I've got lots of that footage, but when it does work, it's exceptional that I have irregular Sony 4k. I just got this recently, but I need someone to film and my wife has been doing that. I also have the drone. It's a Maverick too. Yeah, this is really good, but because so many of the sailing spots are near the airport. I can't fly this. Oh yeah. And then yeah, that's kinda my camera gear. But you said mostly you use a, this irregular GoPro like a GoPro hero and eight or nine with the horizon leveling and yes, I also have the nine with the hydrophobic lens, which is really good. So many of my shots are ruined because the hydrophobic lens or the non hydrophobic lens, particularly that the max, when water gets on it, it ruins the shot. So interesting. So that's a good one on the camera gear. So how often do you come out with the new video? Do you try to do it on a regular schedule or is there like a like a certain I try to put one out once a month and I'm gonna pull my patrons to see what they'd like to see next. I have a few ideas, but I try and get ideas from them. And then when I'm out teaching, when I see a particular pattern where a number of people are having trouble with a certain issue, then I'll try and capture that and try and solve that problem. Okay. Okay. So as the fastest person on Maui, what are some tips for going fast on a wing for aboard board? I'm not the fastest, I'm just joking, but as the winner of the race anyway first one on last one off first one on the wall. Last one off the water. You got to put your time in, you're not going to get good thinking about it, sitting on the beach. So that's the biggest tip is just spending a lot of time practicing it for sure. Time out there, you can buy speed, you can buy speed. You can buy the foil, you can buy the board, you can buy the wing, all of that, but you also have to know how to use it. So it just takes some time. Yeah. And that part is the, I think the more important part than the equipment, I the equipment is super important, especially at the very high level. I think where a little bit can make a difference. But I think for the average person, that's just about yeah. The technique and practicing it and to get faster, yeah. I think that's where you make them. That makes a big

Dr. Davies shares his valuable insights about post-operative opioid studies, disproves some myths about NSAIDs, and explains his pre-operative and post-operative pain management regimen. --- CHECK OUT OUR SPONSOR Laurel Road for Doctors https://www.laurelroad.com/healthcare-banking/ --- EARN CME Reflect on how this Podcast applies to your day-to-day and earn AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs: https://earnc.me/XyDsiw --- SHOW NOTES In this episode of BackTable Urology, Dr. Aditya Bagrodia and Dr. Ben Davies, Director of Urologic Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discuss non-opioid approaches for post-operative patients. First, Dr. Davies discusses diversion as an indirect problem with prescribing too many opioids because many urologists forget that patients with opioid prescriptions can have family members and close contacts who have access to these pills as well. According to Dr. Davies, data shows that post-operative urologic surgery patients have a rate of addiction of 1-2% when prescribed opioids. In his opinion, most patients who undergo urologic procedures, such as cystectomies, TURPs, and partial nephrectomies, do not need narcotics for post-operative pain management. Prospective studies done in the general surgery and urological surgery field prove that there is no difference in satisfaction between patients who manage their pain via non-opioid and opioid approaches. Furthermore, opioids may cause idiosyncratic results in post-operative patients, such as anxiety and GI problems. Next, Dr. Davies disproves some myths about NSAIDs. He does not agree with the practice of holding off NSAIDs for a week post-operatively, Also, he sees no problem with giving oral Tylenol to NPO patients. He strongly believes that bleeding risk and kidney damage as a result of toradol is minimal, and explains that creatinine levels always rise a bit post-operatively. He encourages urologists to walk their patients through the post-op pain regimen before surgery and to have pamphlets ready for distribution. Dr. Davies explains that for the most part, patients understand that opioid-related mortality deaths are rising and that 90% fentanyl and heroin users start with opioids. He also discourages doctors from prescribing extra opioid pills to patients. Then, Dr. Davies explains his pre-operative and post-operative pain management regimen. Pre-operatively, he uses Tylenol, gabapentin, and celebrex. Intraoperatively, he uses IV ketamine, propofol, and precedex. As patients are waking up from surgery, he will give toradol. Post-operatively, he will prescribe Tylenol and Motrin. Finally, he emphasizes the need for buy-in from the hospital administration for a non-opioid approach. He discusses the importance of meeting with hospital administration and nurses to change the pain management culture of an institution. In his personal experience, he made a quality improvement project out of his non-opioid approach and figured out his personal strategy towards pain management before presenting it to his department. --- RESOURCES Pekala KR, Jacobs BL, Davies BJ. The Shrinking Grey Zone of Postoperative Narcotics in the Midst of the Opioid Crisis: The No-opioid Urologist. Eur Urol Focus. 2020 Nov 15;6(6):1168-1169. doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2019.08.014. Epub 2019 Sep 26. PMID: 31563546. Yu M, Davies BJ. Opium Wars to the Opioid Epidemic: The Same Narcotics Cause Addiction and Kill. Eur Urol. 2020 Jan;77(1):76-77. doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2019.10.006. Epub 2019 Nov 8. PMID: 31711720. “Dreamland” by Sam Quinones https://samquinones.com/dreamland “The Least of Us” by Sam Quinones https://samquinones.com/theleastofus

Moana's first birth left her feeling traumatized, confused, and like a failure. With her next pregnancy, she was determined to find redemption. She became educated on all of the risks and benefits surrounding VBAC, hired a highly supportive birth team, and affirmed to herself that she could do this.Thanks to her preparation, Moana was able to adapt and utilize the birth tools she needed to achieve the beautiful VBAC she desired. We talk about how to build your own “birth toolbox” and why it's important to allow yourself to use those tools as you need them. And as always, we fully support you in whatever tools you choose to use to have your positive birth experience!Additional linksThe Swiss Army Knife of LaborThe VBAC Link Blog: Natural Birth versus EpiduralFind a VBAC DoulaHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull transcriptNote: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar, false starts, and filler words. Meagan: Hello, hello everybody. It's Meagan and Julie. We are back with you today for episode number two of our return and episode number 183. We have Moana today and we cannot wait to get into her story. A little funny thing— I'm totally going to admit what just happened. We went through everything, and we were getting into the story, and guess what? We forgot to push “Record”. So darn it!Julie: My bad.Meagan: We are restarting, but that's okay. We are excited. We have Moana with you today. She is from Hawai'i and she is one amazing mama. You guys, she had a 72 hour labor. I'm just going to say that. How stinking amazing! She is a military wife. She is in the Reserves. They have two kiddos. They love being in the sun, and surfing, and living life up in Hawai'i. We can't wait to hear her stories in just a second. Review of the Week Meagan: We're going to hurry and turn over the time to Julie because as usual, we are going to have that Review of the Week. We really love your reviews and now that we're kicking the podcast off again, we're going to need some more. So feel free to drop us a review on Google or send us a review, whatever it may be. We would love, love, love to read your review on the podcast. Alright, Julie.Julie: Oh my gosh. I am such a nerd. I cannot believe it. I am going to have to put a sticky note in the middle of the computer again and be like, “Push ‘Record'!” so I don't forget.Second of all, Meagan, you say Hawai'i like, “Ha-WHY. She's from Ha-WHY.”Meagan: Ha-waii. I don't say, “Hawai'i.”Julie: Oh, so funny.Meagan: I know. I don't say it correctly. I don't even know.Julie: It's funny. Okay. Oh my gosh. I need to stop talking, so I'll just read this review and then we can have Moana start her story again. Oh my gosh. So, so sorry. Alright.Okay, so this review is from hnp1213 on Apple Podcasts and she says “So thankful. As I prepare for my HBAC this coming September, this podcast has helped me heal so much from my previous C-section. I've laughed, I've cried, and I've celebrated with so many of their stories. Thank you for creating an uplifting and empowering podcast for those of us looking for our redemption birth.”No thank you, hnp1213, and thank you, Meagan and Moana, for being patient with me while we have to restart this over. Alright.Moana's storyMeagan: Okay, Moana. We want to dive back into your story because it's a great one.Moana: Alright. So my husband and I got married in 2016. I was 22 and he was 23. We waited about three years to have a baby and I didn't realize I was pregnant for a while. I was just kind of feeling sick at work and this guy actually told me, “Hey, I think you're pregnant.” I was like, “No, no. There's no way.” So I went and took a test and sure enough, two lines came up right away. It was super dark and I was like, “Oh, wow. I must not be early.”So I scheduled an appointment with my provider and sure enough, I was eight weeks along already. That was pretty exciting. My husband actually wasn't even home at the time. I had to video call him. He was in the Middle East. I was like, “Hey, are you ready to be a dad?” And he was like, “Yeah, I guess.” I'm like, “No, I mean right now.” I showed him my test and he was like, “What?” Yeah.Meagan: “No, I mean right now!” That is awesome. “No, I mean you're gonna be a dad so let me rephrase that.”Moana: Right, yep.Meagan: I love it. That's awesome.Moana: Yeah. So yeah. He was super excited. I was just chugging along, had to keep going to work and I was super sick– puking all of the time, day and night. I was like, “Oh, I guess I know the baby is okay because my hormones are strong.”Meagan: Yeah.Moana: Up until the first and second trimester. Finally in the third trimester, I had just started to feel better, but then I just started to feel big, so one traded off for the other.Meagan: Mhmm.Moana: Yep. I made it all the way to 40 weeks and my provider was like, “Hey, I want to do an induction today.” I was like, “No. I don't think I want to do that,” and she was pretty pushy about it. I told her, “Hey, the baby is fine and it's just an estimated due date, you know? Maybe they didn't even get it right.” She wasn't too happy about that, so she said she was going to schedule an induction for 41 weeks. I told her, “Okay, but I am probably not going to go to the hospital and do it that day either.” So 41 weeks came and yeah. I told her, “No. I really don't want to induce,” and she wasn't too happy about it, but I just went home anyway. About three days later, I finally went into labor.I went to work that day. I just had contractions on and off. I tried to walk around a lot. I went home that night and they started getting stronger, but then they stayed about five minutes apart for a few hours. So I called my doctor and told her, “Hey. My progression doesn't feel normal. What do you think?” She told me to go into the hospital. We got there at about 11:00 p.m. and I was only a centimeter and a half dilated, but she said she didn't want me to leave because I was so far along in my pregnancy, which I didn't really understand because I know from most people that if you are not about 5-6 centimeters, they usually turn you away.So we just labored, my husband and I, together in the hospital and no one really helped us out, or gave us any tips, or anything. We had no idea what we were doing. We were just like, “Oh, you know, everyone has babies. It just happens. Whatever.” Meagan: That's kind of how I approached my birth too. I was like, “Well, I don't know. People have babies every day, so I'm just going to go have a baby, right?”Moana: Right. Exactly. So yeah. We just kind of walked around prayed. We tried to use the birth ball. It is a teaching hospital too, so they were like, “Oh, can students come in?” And I was like, “Sure, I guess. I don't know if they just want to see me in pain or whatever.” And so I kept laboring until the next day. I only got to about 5 centimeters and my contractions had gotten a little bit closer together, but I was just really in a lot of pain and it was really getting hard for me to cope. I would come to find out later it was because he was turning from sunny-side up back over and apparently, that's pretty painful– almost like transition type level of pain when you are going through that.But at the time, I had no idea. I was just like, “Oh man. This is getting crazy.” I got an epidural and then about an hour later, it failed. My baby's heart rate was crashing every time I had a contraction– really, really low and then it would come back up, but they were getting really worried. They called my doctor on the phone and she was like, “Okay. I am going to come in. We are going to do a C-section.” I was like, “No, no. I don't want that if I don't need it.” I really didn't understand what was going on. They didn't really explain if it was really dangerous for the baby or for me or anything like that. About thirty minutes to an hour went by and then his heart rate just crashed completely, so they just ripped us out of the room. They rushed us to the OR. I had no idea what was going on. I was looking at my husband who was just kind of standing there because they didn't tell him to come or anything. They were just moving super fast. I think from the time his heart crashed to them getting him out was about 12 minutes.It was just so shocking. I could feel the hands inside of me. I remember I kept asking, “Is my baby okay? Is my baby okay?” and they wouldn't answer me. I was crying and it was just this huge mess. I was just in so much shock. Thankfully, I heard him cry when they took him out and they had let my husband come in. I remember looking at him and looking at the baby. I was happy in my heart, but outwardly, I was in so much pain, and shock, and all of this stuff, that all I could do was just kind of moan and cry, and then I ended up passing out for a little bit.My husband got to help cut the rest of his cord off since they had to cut it right there at the table. I woke up a few hours later and I was just so upset that I didn't get to hold my baby right away, and feed him, and do all of the stuff. I was so out of it still that I couldn't really speak for a while, but I was able to hold him. So they handed him to me and I didn't actually know he was a boy. We waited to find out, so that was a nice surprise after all this trauma went down.Julie: Oh, how fun.Moana: Yeah. And he was really good. He nursed right away and our postpartum was really great. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. He was super calm and he nursed really well. We were just so happy. He was finally here.My doctor, though, was telling me, “Oh, do you guys want to leave today? You are taking a room for other patients,” but when we had walked around the wing, there were plenty of other open rooms. I don't know why she was really pushy to get me out of the hospital, but I told her, I was like, “Oh, no. I don't feel all that ready. I am still in a lot of pain. I can barely walk.” She was like, “Well, why don't you just take the narcotics?” I told her, “No. I don't want to do that. I will take Tylenol and Motrin, but I really don't want to take anything stronger because of the way I reacted to the anesthesia.” So I told her, I was like, “Hey, just give us another day.” And so actually, the baby‘s pediatrician wrote up something on his chart so that we had a reason to stay one more day. But yeah, my doctor was fairly pushy and she made us feel bad. She was like, “Are you scared to go home or something like that?” That made my husband pretty mad too.Julie: Interesting.Moana: We were like, “No. I'm just not physically recovered enough yet,” because it was pretty violent when they had to pull him out. He had already descended a bit, so they actually had to pull him back out first and then get him up and out. So yeah. But anyway, so that was our first birth. Like I said, thankfully, postpartum was really great, but I knew I never, ever wanted to have a C-section again after that. So I was like, “Okay. I am going to get informed this time. I am going to read all of this stuff.” I found your guys' podcast and it was really awesome listening to everyone's birth stories, and just really getting educated on your options, and body, and all this stuff. I actually hired a midwife to go over my chart with me because I needed closure on my first birth because I really still didn't understand what happened and why I had a C-section, so she went over everything with me. She actually told me, “Hey. You had a placental abruption.” My doctor never even talked to me about that or said that that had happened. I always thought I did something wrong and that was why it happened. But she said, “Oh, no. You can't really prevent these or predict it and you were hemorrhaging, so the crash C-section had to happen.” So that gave me a lot of closure on that and she said, “You know, you are a really good candidate for a VBAC.”That really made me super excited. I just was like, “Okay. I want to do this.” I ended up getting pregnant again at 14 months postpartum which was great because I knew right away. I was so excited, like, “Okay. I am going to really get prepared for my VBAC this time.” I was sick again for the first two trimesters, but then in the third trimester, I felt really good and I was working out all the time. I hired a doula from Best Birth Hawaii and she was really great. She just gave me so much comfort and extra knowledge, and it was just so nice to feel like I had someone on my side who could speak up for me. I also had changed providers at this time too and he had done hundreds of VBACs before, so I just went into this birth super confident. I just knew, “Hey, I am going to do this and I know I can do it.”I went into labor at 39 weeks and 3 days and I was super excited for that too because I was like, “Man, I really don't want to go past 40 weeks. I hope this baby can come early.” So yeah. It was a Wednesday and I started early labor. It was kind of slow at first, so I just tried to take the time to relax and maybe get a nap in. It really became hard to sleep that night though, and so I just kept trying to do what I could– walking around, kept moving and resting on Thursday. Then Friday, my doula finally came to the house and she helped me through a lot of active labor. At about 3:00 p.m. that Friday, we were like, “Okay. I think it's time to go to the hospital.” So we were super excited. My husband and I made it to the hospital. We labored some more, but eventually, I was in so much pain and I hadn't slept, so I just needed to get some rest. I said, “Okay. Let's try an epidural.” I got it and then it was really weird. I felt a click in my back and I got really scared that they did something wrong because my leg twitched too and it didn't really work. It took the edge off, but I could still move. They were like, “Oh, what happened?” I was like, “Oh, I am not really sure,” but I finally got a nap in. I kept moving around and I was like, “Oh, I think it failed,” and then all the pain came back. I labored a few more hours like that and then we tried a second one. Now I was about 8 centimeters dilated. That one only worked for about an hour and it failed too. We were pressing the button and I'm like, “I don't know why it's not working.”Julie: Oh my gosh.Moana: Yeah. So that was pretty crazy. I was really confused and I was so tired. I was like, “Man, I am so jealous of women who have two-hour labors or even eight-hour labors,” You know? I was like, “Oh.” My doula was like, “Don't think about that.” And I'm like, “Okay. I guess I am getting the natural delivery that I wanted,” because, in my heart, I was like, “Man. I just want to be able to do it without interventions and without pain relief,” so I guess that ended up happening in the end. So I started having them help me move around a little bit, lay on my side with the peanut ball, and then I got the squat bar, and we were just doing all the things that we could with the limitation from having the epidural even though it wasn't working anymore. By the time it came to push, I was like, “Man, I am in so much pain. I am just going to get this baby out.” In less than seven minutes of pushing, he came out. Again, we didn't know it was a boy, actually. So that was another nice surprise.I pushed, pushed, and pushed as hard as I could, and then I got him out. I just felt so much relief and excitement. I was bawling and I cried so hard. My husband was like, “It's a boy! It's a boy!”  I reached down to grab him up and he made a few little cries and nursed right away, and we had the skin-to-skin contact. It was just so redeeming and beautiful. Oh, I just want to cry thinking about it. But yeah. I was just so amazed that I was able to do it and now I know that my body can do it. And yeah. I couldn't believe that it actually happened. And so now, I'm about 11 months postpartum and still breastfeeding. Actually, my first baby never stopped breastfeeding, so I'm trying to wean him right now because he's almost three. I plan to wean the second one by no later than two years old. But we are hoping to have more kids so I'm just excited to be able to hopefully have another VBAC and just continue our journey, and keep being informed, and telling other people too like my friends who are having babies now and stuff like, “You can do it. You don't have to be afraid of anything.” There's so much information out there. I think even the medical world is changing too. VBACs are becoming more okay. They're not turning away from it. More people are saying now, “Hey. This is good. It's less risk for a mom in most cases.” So that's just our crazy, traumatic story followed by a long, long labor and thankfully, we ended with a successful VBAC. Julie: Yeah. I love that. Oh my gosh. Such a great story. I love how patient you were in not finding out the gender of your babies! Oh my gosh. Like, I tried. I tried. Or I guess I didn't really try at all. I am a sucker and I'm impatient. And so I'm not very good at waiting to know. I wanted to wait for my last, but I could not hold out. I didn't even make it to 20 weeks before I had to run and make it to my gender scan. Let's be honest. But I think that is so, so fun.To Epidural or Not to Epidural?I want to talk a little bit about epidurals and why I think sometimes it's really easy for people to think– especially when you're going in and planning for a VBAC, and you want to do everything you can in order to set yourself up for success, and everybody's telling you, “Oh my gosh. Hire a doula. Have an unmedicated birth. Make sure you don't go to the hospital until you're pushing. Make sure you don't get induced. Make sure you don't do this. Don't do that. Don't do this. Don't do that. And this.” Right?There are so many things telling you what not to do. It's really important to remember that nothing is inherently good or inherently bad. All interventions have an appropriate time and place and even having no interventions can turn out to not be a good thing. And so I want to talk a little bit about epidurals. I think, oh my gosh. I don't even know how long ago, but it was a while ago in our Facebook group. I did a video or a Facebook Live in our Facebook group about– I called it, “The Swiss Army Knife of Birth.” Maybe you can go to our Facebook group. It's called The VBAC Link Community and you could do a search for it. I think it's maybe just referred to as “The Swiss Army Knife of Birth” or something like that. “Coping Tools for Labor”, I'm not sure exactly. Maybe I'll link it in the show notes. I'm probably going to have to link it in the show notes as I've been talking about it. But it talks about having a little tool kit of just a bunch of different random things that you might need to have available for you when you're in labor. An epidural might be one of the things you want to have available for you in your toolkit for coping with the discomforts of labor and it's neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Being able to have something available for you to make a decision like the acronym, “B.R.A.I.N.”-- so using the Benefits, the Risks, Alternatives, your Intuition, and what happens if you do Nothing– to go through at the time to make a decision.Meagan: Hey, can you help me clean up your room? Sorry, guys. Sorry. Sorry.Julie: Meagan! You are not on mute! Meagan: I'm sorry! No, I'm not. I didn't know. I was like, “Hey. Clean up your room!” I'm even whispering. Okay, sorry. Julie: Mute yourself, girl. Meagan: I'm muted. Well, now I am. Julie: No, you're not. Now you are. Okay. Oh my gosh, what was I saying? So epidural has risks and benefits like every other coping tool in labor. Benefits of an epidural– I'm sure Meagan has seen the same as me. Sometimes, we see epidurals relax mom enough to where she progresses, and is able to dilate further, and push her baby out relatively quickly. Sometimes, not quickly. Sometimes, it takes a little while longer.Meagan: Yeah. Julie: But it's exactly what the laboring person needs in order for the body to progress further because let's be honest. If you've been laboring for a really long time, your body's completely exhausted. It's not going to labor effectively. Meagan: Well, and something else, too, I was going to mention, Julie. Sorry to cut you off–Julie: Yeah. No, go ahead. Megan: Not only physically, but sometimes when we get an epidural, it's also so our mind can emotionally be present because sometimes when we're laboring, especially for a long time, it's like, “I don't know how much longer I can do this. If this is hard now, is it going to get harder?” Our minds keep going to the future and things like that. It's so great to get that epidural sometimes and just let your mind shut off and be present, and then your body can just do its job. Julie: Yeah, that's a really good point. That's a very good point. I've seen that before as well myself. We've also seen epidurals really limit how much a parent is able to move while they're in labor and also how much, sometimes, hospital staff is willing to be able to let the parent move. Sometimes, it can change the entire mood of the room at that point. Also, I've seen it affect the mind negatively. If a parent is really, really set on having an unmedicated birth without an epidural, it can give them the feeling of, “Oh no. I gave up. I didn't achieve this goal that I had in mind.” And so being able to go into birth instead of with a specific set of things you want to accomplish, but having it be a little more fluid and flexible, and being willing to adjust your goals as necessary, I think, is really important as well. One little thing that might not go to your expectations has the possibility to shift your entire mindset and mood. It is so important to be able to keep your hormones balanced and everything to go well as well. So I don't know. Meagan, what would you add about epidurals? Meagan: I feel like there's so much shame in epidural and also like, “Oh, if I get an epidural, I'm giving up. I'm failing.” There's just so much and I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I think that epidurals have a bad rap and yes, are there some serious pros to going unmedicated? Yeah, there are. There are some great pros. But there are also some serious pros of having an epidural, and enjoying the experience, and getting the rest, and also letting your body progress the way it may not be able to at that moment unmedicated. So I hope that if you are preparing for a VBAC or for birth in general, try not to put so much negative–Julie: PressureMeagan: Negative pressure, yeah, when it comes to an epidural because it is okay. It is okay to have an epidural. Like we said, it can be the magic tool in your toolbox. We have lots of tools in our toolbox. Whether we use them or not, they're there and it's okay to use them.There's never been a time where I've tried to use a screwdriver when I need an Allen wrench on my bike, right? I need to raise my seat up and I need an Allen wrench. I don't need a screwdriver. There are different tools for different situations and for birth, an epidural is a great tool that is in the toolbox and it's okay to use it. Julie: Absolutely. Absolutely, yep. And of course, we have a blog all about natural birth and epidural, and comparing both of those things. Like Moana said, her epidural had a hard time getting it to work and that is one of the risks that can come along with an epidural. Sometimes, it doesn't work all the way or right off the bat. You might need to have an anesthesiologist come and make some adjustments, so you might need to be careful with that. But let me tell you, when I first started out as a doula, I was kind of like, really gungho, 100%, unmedicated birth all the way, that's the only way to do this, but man, life has a way of teaching you lessons. And every once in a while, I'll have a client look at me in the eyes and look at me and be like, “I think I need an epidural. I feel, like–” Oh my gosh. They almost feel like they need permission to get one. Does that make sense? Meagan, do you know what I'm talking about?Meagan: Totally. Totally. Yes, it does. They ask. Julie: Like, letting me down if they get one?Meagan: Yeah. There was actually a birth that I was at and the epidural came into my mind. It kind of went from–Julie: But you don't also want to be the first one to bring it up either, right?Meagan: I know, but I did. I did. It was suffering. It went to suffering. She was suffering and one of the biggest things she said when we talked about her goals was to have a positive experience. And when you are past that point, you're not going to have a positive experience. You're just not. Julie: Yeah. It could lead to more birth trauma and that could introduce that. Meagan: Totally. Totally. So I just said, “Hey. Why don't we talk about some options right now?” And we went over it and I did say epidural. She said, “I've been wanting someone to say that for the last four hours.” She said, “I didn't feel I could. I didn't feel I could.” And the fact that you just said that makes me think, “Okay. It's okay.” And I'm like, “No. It's totally okay.” You know? It's totally okay, but she didn't feel that that was okay because her goal was to not. Julie: Mhmm. Meagan: It was to not, but it's okay. Julie: It's okay to change plans. Meagan: It's okay to change plans. It's okay to adapt. Julie: And it's okay to just go into your birth wanting an epidural from the start. It is okay to do that too. Meagan: Yes. Yeah. So, I love Moana's story. I can't say enough about, “Hey. It's okay. Don't let it get you down if you get an epidural and you didn't want one.”Julie: But it's also okay to want a completely unmedicated birth and it's also okay to have one. I mean, both Meagan and I have had unmedicated VBACs, but we've also seen the beauty in all types of birth stories no matter how they unfold and no matter what the outcome is. We support you in however you want to birth. Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Moana. Thank you so much. Moana: Yeah. Thank you, guys. I appreciate the opportunity to tell my story. Thanks for all you guys do. I mean, if I didn't find this podcast, I don't know if I would have been as confident going in. And like you guys said, knowing that it's okay to want an epidural because I really did feel like that during my first birth. Even my husband kind of made me feel guilty about it and some of our family, and I really felt like I failed at that point. And just knowing that it was okay going into my second birth, I'm like, “Okay. If it gets to that point, I'm not going to feel bad about that. I'm just going to do it.” That just took one element of stress away from the birthing process. Meagan. Yeah. Yeah. Moana's VBAC Prep TipJulie: Yeah. I love that. Moana, you know we can't let you leave without us asking you one question. What is your best tip for somebody as they are preparing to birth after a Cesarean?Moana: I would say definitely get educated and hire a doula if you can because she just instilled so much confidence in me. Even though maybe I didn't need her there or maybe I did, just emotionally for me, it was so necessary. I told her right afterward when I had my second one that, “I could not have done this without you. You just gave me something that I would have never been able to do myself.” Especially because of my trauma from my first birth, even though I had coped with it, I still just didn't have the confidence that I had when she was there with me. Julie: I love that. Get educated and hire a doula, and wouldn't you know? We have opportunities to do both on our website, thevbaclink.com. We have a VBAC preparation course that is designed to help you gain the full confidence that you need in order to have all of the tools in your toolkit on your birthing day. We also have a directory of VBAC doulas that we have educated on all of the things that you never nuded?Meagan: –that you'd never know you'd need.Julie: We have a directory of VBAC doulas fully trained and educated to perfectly support you on your birthing day. You can find our VBAC doulas at thevbaclink.com/findadoula. Everything you need you can find right on our website, thevbaclink.com. We'll see you there. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience on thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Julie and Meagan's bios, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Jetlag, Nausea, and Diarrhea are Largely Optional, published by Thomas Kwa on March 21, 2022 on LessWrong. Many people I know are aware of drugs for basic ailments, but don't bother using them because they're too much trouble to carry around. But using a pill organizer basically eliminates this overhead. For me, having a pill organizer has dramatically reduced the negative effects of insomnia, jetlag, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, etc., and significantly increased my operational capacity. In total, it has probably increased my productivity by over 3% over the last few months, and also increased my quality of life substantially. (But note that I think most people won't get such a large benefit). Just using the alertness adjustment drugs to curb jetlag saves me about 3 hours of productive time each way on critical trips. Here are the exact steps I followed, which take less than an hour and cost about $30: Get a 10-slot pill organizer (4 for $10 on Amazon). Not the same as a weekly pill organizer. Get a few basic pills from your local drugstore, supermarket, Amazon, whatever. I suggest the following: ibuprofen 200mg (Motrin, Advil) for pain, fever, etc. [1] caffeine 100mg, optionally with l-theanine loperamide/simethicone 2mg (anti-diarrhea) dimenhydrinate (Dramamine, anti-nausea) [2] melatonin 0.3mg (mild sleep aid) doxylamine 25mg (Unisom, sleep aid to be used sparingly) [3] This gives you 4 slots left for whatever other drugs you benefit from or are prescribed, maybe things like aspirin 81mg (in case of heart attack, also another option for pain) modafinil 200mg or armodafinil 150mg (suppresses sleep drive). Note that this dosage is way too much if you don't have narcolepsy. stimulants e.g. amphetamines, nicotine anti-anxiety meds [4] allergy meds (if these are antihistamines they could double as other things) electrolyte pills: sodium, potassium, magnesium Put the pills in the medication organizer, and label each compartment with the medication and dosage, using a permanent marker. You can erase the labels with alcohol wipes if needed. Carry it around in your backpack or purse. If those particular drugs don't work for you, try others that do the same thing. Our civilization has invented these multiple times and there's a good chance at least one works for your particular body. In December, I lost my pill organizer. In the few days it took me to order a new one, the following things happened: I had to stay up late to finish work, which threw my sleep schedule off. Without melatonin my sleep was out of phase for a few days, losing me about 10 hours of work. I had mild food poisoning and had diarrhea for much longer than necessary, which was very unpleasant and lost me ~3 hours of work. Someone asked if I had ibuprofen. They probably had a headache or period cramps or something for hours, or had to walk to a store. Either way, they suffered for at least an hour. All six of the basic substances listed are over the counter, have fairly low abuse potential, and have few harmful interactions (other than, say, caffeine increases wakefulness and doxylamine decreases wakefulness). However, I highly recommend doing basic research into the substances you're using (e.g. reading the wikipedia page), especially if you're customizing. Notes [1]: One could also add acetaminophen (Tylenol); ibuprofen has an anti-inflammatory effect which acetaminophen does not have but taking it too often can cause GI bleeding or kidney damage. [2]: A doctor I know suggests replacing this with ondansetron (Zofran, anti-nausea/vomiting) which requires a prescription but has almost no side effects, and is probably safe during pregnancy too. [3]: Hypnotics (sleep drugs like Unisom) are not recommended as an intervention to improve sleep in the long term compared to other interventions like melatonin, CBT...

This week on the show, There's an Emmett Till opera coming out. Deadass. Also — Snoop Dogg's NFT label, Jussie's jailing, favorite medicines, sea monster concerns, fart stories, and much more.  Keep up with the show across socials @hvopod and follow the fellas individually. 

If you could take 40 Motrin tablets without the toxic response would you do it? Today we are talking about ways to get increased oxygenation, decreased swelling, decreased inflammation all in one treatment. Welcome to Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy (HBOT) ! It's not just for scuba injuries or wound care. There is evidence for improvement in brain injury, joint issues, autoimmune disease to numerous general health issues. LED and light therapies are also used in dermatology, orthopedics, rehab and alternative/wellbeing therapies. We are exploring some alternative therapies for optimal health, healing and medical conditions with our guest Matt McCarl. He is the managing owner of New Leaf Hyperbarics & Wellness in Eugene, OR. He gives us a great explanation on alternative therapies in HBOT and light therapies as well. You're gonna be “illuminated” by this episode! LINKS: New Leaf Hyperbarics & Wellness: https://www.newleafeugene.com/ LS Pro Systems Intelligent Light Therapy:: https://lsprosystems.com/product-category/ls-flexi-pads/  How Infrared Works and links to Studies: https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-Does-Infrared-Therapy-Work.aspx An Overview of Hyperbaric Therapy : https://www.verywellhealth.com/hyperbaric-chamber-treatment-4582432 Sponsor: Thanks to our sponsor MR Insurance! Please reach out to Michael Relvas' team, where their goal is to assist physicians in obtaining the most comprehensive coverage available to fit their unique situation. Click here! www.mr-disability-insurance.com/bsfreemd Our Advice! Everything in this podcast is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute the practice of medicine and we are not providing medical advice. No Physician-patient relationship is formed and anything discussed in this podcast does not represent the views of our employers. The Fine Print! All opinions expressed by the hosts or guests in this episode are solely their opinion and are not to be used as specific medical advice. The hosts, May and Tim Hindmarsh MD, BS Free MD LLC, or any affiliates thereof are not under any obligation to update or correct any information provided in this episode. The guest's statements and opinions are subject to change without notice. Thanks for joining us! You are the reason we are here. If you have questions, reach out to us at doc@bsfreemd.com or find Tim and I on Facebook and IG. Please check out our every growing website as well at bsfreemd.com (no www) GET SOCIAL WITH US! Instagram:: https://www.instagram.com/bsfreemd/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bsfree 

Tyrone Hewitt retired from the US Navy after a career that was primarily focused in aviation maintenance. He knew when he left the Navy, he wanted to change directions. He started planning, researching, doing informational interviews and job shadowing early in his planning process. He soon found out that elementary education was not the right path for him.He recommends taking time to do in-depth research on your career field BEFORE you pursue education, so you don't waste your time and education resources to get a degree in an area where you don't want to work. He decided to work in the transition space, supporting and educating through the Transition Assistance Program. He discovered first-hand just how stressful the transition process and there are so many more facets of a transition out of the military than many realize. It is much more than just landing a job and getting the paycheck. Starting early, having a plan, taking advantage of your resources and opening lines of communication with your family are all important parts of smoothing the transition process.He is a big advocate for engaging your spouse in all aspects of the transition. Invite them to the transition classes, ensure they get a chance to ask their questions and offer their input. It is important that expectations of everyone are understood so that you don't add to the stress of the transition process. Tyrone addresses some common transition questions he receives such as “what is networking?” and “who should I network with?” He simplifies networking as just a conversation and discusses how you can network with anyone anywhere while doing anything. You must branch out of your current network if you want to expand your knowledge and opportunities. We also discuss WHEN you should start the networking and application process. We also talk about the value of networking to expand how far out you can actively compete for positions. Tyrone talks a lot about the VA disability process on LinkedIn and he gives us some insider information on this process. He addresses the fact that veterans tend to normalize their disabilities and ignore issues that they should have addressed and get compensated for. He thought it was normal to live on Motrin and coffee and deal with daily pain. Instead of just living with these issues as a veteran, consider taking advantage of the resources and benefits that are available to you through the VA. If you raised your hand and said the oath of service to your country, this is something that you are entitled to. The VA health care process is long term, and you should look at the future of taking care of yourself.Tyrone calls himself the TransitionNerd because he is dedicated to researching and gaining knowledge so he is available to answer questions and provide support to all veterans on all issues. Come back next week for Part 2 with Tyrone Hewitt!You can connect with Tyrone Hewitt on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyrone-hewitt-mhs/SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A FIVE-STAR REVIEW and share this to other veterans who might need help as they transition from the military!Connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn! Or check out our website at www.llforvets.com and listen to the previous episodes here!

Here is an excerpt from a class I recently led on cataracts. We dig into the different drugs that can lead to cataracts and tips on how to prolong your sight and prevent cataracts. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com. SUMMARY KEYWORDS cataracts, lens, drugs, light, glycation, process, eye, proteins, blue, blue blockers, zeaxanthin, pictures, anti-inflammatory agent, acid xanthine, cortical, create, part, protein molecule, oxidative stress, lutein Hello, everyone, it's Dr. Sam, I'd like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode. Alright, causes of cataracts drugs. So I did a video blog you can go to that article, but I'm going to give you the bullet points. So these are the drugs that can cause cataracts, steroids, primarily used as an anti-inflammatory agent for things like asthma, arthritis, lupus, we include in the family glucocorticoids corticosteroids, prednisone, a lot of people have been on prednisone, hydrocortisone, cortisone. These are other top drugs, top photosynthesizing, birth controls, antihistamines. sulfa, drugs, tranquilizers, antidepressant depressants, oral and anti-diabetic drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, things like Advil, ibuprofen, Motrin. These can contribute to the oxidative stress we find in cataracts. Okay, let's take a question here. Do those blue light glasses and apps work for using digital devices? Yes, they do. I think it's a three-prong process. I think it's the blue light blue filter glasses, the ones that I sell. I've researched the blue light industry. And what I decided was putting a blue-blocking filter on the backside of the lens, so it's closest to your eyeball will cut out the most amount of blue light. Now in terms of apps, I am working with a company right now, where I'm going to be probably putting it up on my web store. That is a shield that you can put over your computer or your phone that can add an additional effect of blue blockers. So stay tuned, it's probably going to happen fairly soon. I've been talking with a company for a while. That's going to make it for me. And number three, the supplements lutein, zeaxanthin, and Xanten are very important for macular health and help block the damaging blue light they deflect it, also the ultraviolet light. So my vitamin has those. Again, lutein, zeaxanthin, and astaxanthine are also important for your lens health. So yes, you should start taking those. Another question is Lyme disease with Bell's Palsy can that cause cataracts? I would say secondarily, but there's usually something going on in the metabolism of your nutrients in the lens in the eye and I'll go into that mechanism in a few minutes. That's creating oxidative stress. And it's the oxidative stress that is creating all these cataract situations. Alright, let's come back here. We've talked about these kinds of drugs. Alright, so the mechanism of cataracts, let's go into this. As I showed you the lens is a transparent tissue. It helps the light pass through the lens to the retina. And the lens is comprised of water, a mix of proteins, and collagen. And cataracts start forming partly because the proteins begin to clump together. And as the proteins consolidate, it causes the lens to go from a white color to a yellow color, and eventually a brown. Now another mechanism with cataracts has to do with something called the glycation process of the lens. This is where a sugar molecule binds to the protein molecule in the lens of the eye and the protein molecules are altered. And there's a clumping together which creates a cataract on the outer edge of the lens and I'll show you what it looks like.

In today's episode, I'm answering a great question from a listener. She has an eye issue that she's been managing since April, She's been diagnosed with a condition called Episcleritis and has iritis corneal abrasion and she wants to know what to do. So we're gonna jump into that. Enjoy the show! If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com. SUMMARY KEYWORDS eye, cornea, eyelids, health, eyedrops, sclera, inflammatory disease, autoimmune, part, disease, moisturize, reducing, MSM, massage, connective tissue, compresses, improve, talk, called, refrigerator Hello, everyone, it's Dr. Sam, I'd like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode. Hey everybody, it's Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to an AI clarity podcast. Yes, we are taking questions and I have a great question today. This is from Heather. And she writes, I've had an eye issue since April. I've been to several AI specialists. I finally got a diagnosis this week from an ophthalmologist. He said I have a large abrasion on my cornea. But I also have a condition called epi sclerosis. And also I write us. I did some googling, and they say it's an inflammatory disorder. There are also perhaps some autoimmune influences. Can you give me some help? So the sclera is the part of the eye it's the white part of the eye that is made up of mostly connective tissue, amino acids, proteins, and water, and it's the protective part of the eye, you can look into the mirror, and you can see the white part of the eye that's called the sclera. It's a very strong connective tissue, it's got a lot of blood vessels running through it. And if you are suffering from an inflammation of the sclera Yes, there could be some secondary inflammatory disease going on in the body, and also possibly some autoimmune issues. The second thing you have is called eye righteous. And now the iris is the part of the eye that's the color part, you know, where you look into the mirror and you go in my eyes blue or they Brown. It's the muscle part of the eye that regulates the pupil, the pupils, the gatekeeper, which allows the light in and out of the eye. And when you have a rightist, it's a very serious inflammatory disease, it can be painful, blurry vision, also that with Episcleritis it can be painful. And if you then have a corneal abrasion, you need to be careful that you're not exposed to either bacterial viral infections, so that's a good thing to check out. You know, the cornea is the clear window of the eye needs a lot of hydration. When you scratch your cornea, you are irritating. The nerve endings love the nerve endings on the cornea. So when you blink, because like you've got gritty, Sandy in your eyes, and basically what you're doing is every time the lid rubs on the cornea, you're irritating the nerve endings. Now, some of the systemic reasons why you might develop either sclerites epi sclerosis or I write us would be suffering conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn's disease. And the classic way of treating these eye inflammatory diseases would be corticosteroid eyedrops, artificial eyedrops nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, Advil, or Motrin, and then maybe doing some things in the autoimmune area, whether you take medications, again, you know, in the conventional model, there isn't a whole lot they can help, you're more really managing symptoms. So I want to give you first of all some things that you can do to maybe get out of this situation from an integrative holistic perspective. And then maybe talk briefly about what you can think about from an immune system and inflammatory situation that may be going on in your body.

Hosts Becky Lynn and Ta'Vi return from a week away to answer some more listener questions about friendship, love, and work! But first (and fucking foremost), they have some things to get off their chests. It has been a week (or two), y'all. From California fires to the vaccine "debate" to terrible customer service everywhere, shit's wild out there. So wild that they actually use this podcast's name in the midst of this episode! It's Crazy You're In My Business is comedians Ta'Vi and Becky Lynn. Follow Ta'Vi on IG, Twitter & TikTok @tavitalkstrash Follow Becky Lynn on IG, Twitter, and Venmo @ohthatsbecky or check out her website, ohthatsbecky.com DM us your questions and we might answer them in a future episode! Email questions to itscrazyyoureinmybusiness@gmail.com or submit anonymously at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSCoPN6-KKZgOcKhaNG2anS-0Cn16ymYF3eEuiyLuUzffjRA/viewform?usp=sf_link Thanks for listening! Tell your friends. Production and (B)engineering by Ben Rice (@barleyandmepod)