[00:00:25] Speaker A: Welcome to the New Health. As people are getting sicker at younger ages, we are bringing thought leaders who are revolutionizing healthcare in their areas to come speak with you about how they're changing the world. I'm your host, Jessica Preston. Back with us today is Josh Rimini, pharmacist turned functional medicine provider, also training other pharmacists so they can help you on your path to wellness and healing. Josh, thank you so much for joining us again today.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Oh, thanks for having me back. This is awesome. So fun.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: So we've talked a lot about how you've gotten where you are, a lot of the in depth pieces of the work you're doing. But your program I'd like to really talk about today, which is called Rx to Wellness. And I really want to speak a little bit about your mission of deprescribing 1 million medications. Is this right? Do I have this?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yes. So my thought process, my mission, I'm a pharmacist turned healer. Okay. So I'm moving people through this journey because people come to pharmacies because they're sick, but why can't they come to pharmacies to be well?
So I'm on a mission to deprescribe, unprescribe 1 million medications, unnecessary medications. So not all medications are bad. Let's be clear. I'm not trying to debunk that medications can't be helpful. But what I want to make sure we talked about a little bit with like Ambien and sedative hypnotics and antidepressants. Like, it's not that people have a problem and it needs to be fixed, but what if we can make them unnecessary, which is where it starts. So having the body heal itself literally means I don't need it. My success stories are the patients, they, with their doctor's approval, go, well, you don't need that medication anymore. So let's get like, what if we could change your blood pressure on its own or what if we could change diabetes and reverse that? It's completely possible.
So I decided, well, I decided my mission is there and it's clear. How do I get a million medications deprescribed? Only people that are benefiting from medication use is pharma.
It's not the patient that's benefiting. They think they are. But if we can get people to move through lifestyle and diet and the right supplements and some of the targeted labs we've been talking about, and how can we get them to do it in a simplified manner that's affordable and accessible was the big problem and the big solution that I'm trying to solve here.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: So, and I want to make clear we're not. I don't believe Josh is not saying stop taking your medications.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: No, no, no, no.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: He's not saying that. He's saying there are maybe ways for you to help yourself and empower you for your healing journey where you may no longer need them.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Think of it this way. How many people are satisfied by taking a medication every day to keep themselves less sick or in balance if they will. Right.
But there's many medications out there that a lot of people would say, I'm sick of taking this, I don't want to take it anymore. What if I could get off of it? So I'm not saying get off of it without doing anything with guidance, with provider care, alongside of you doing the diet and lifestyle. I've seen people get off medications. I do this. This is what I love to do. This is why I say de prescribe, get them some cycled off or lessen. Right. Maybe we could take the dose down a little bit through diet, through lifestyle. So you got to do that part first and then move it through the process to getting off. But if I could get people off all of sleep medications and anti anxiety medications and unnecessary antidepressants and unnecessary statins and proton pump inhibitors, we could talk about this all day long. There's plenty of. We all know that we're over prescribers in this country, right? Because we think that's the only tool.
So that is not the only tool. And this is the birth and the genesis of the RX2 wellness program.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Well, let's dive in. Tell us about the RX2 wellness program.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Well, we talked a lot about the essence of all of this, what's in it.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: So how would people. What does it look like? If I wanted to join the Rx to wellness program, I would go on.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: To rxtowellness.com so imagine getting a kit at your house that gets you started.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Great.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: We talked about the three essential supplements like vitamin D, omega 3 and magnesium. All highly professional grade, highly absorbable. So you get the three supplements, you get the three labs, you do a finger stick, you send it off and the goods are vitamin D, omega 3 indexing, which we talked about, the massive peel for that and then the hemoglobin A1C so your three month marker for your blood sugar regulation.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: So without doing complicated things, we can do a whole lot of optimization. Just within there. We talked about wellness made simple. I've Created an online program that's simple and easy to go through, that's included in the process.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: And in that is the diet and.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: The lifestyle is the daily dozen. It's teaching you about food is medicine. It's looking at all those deep dives of why. Because the whole thing here is if you understand why you're doing it and what you're doing, the how becomes a lot easier.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: But if I just taught you how to do it, nobody would do it. So it's really rooted around getting people to understand and how they can do it easy. And it's also to join the tribe. Right. This tribe approach for me, I love the word tribe, is like you're also going through this with other people. We're creating online programming, but we're also really just getting people to where they can empower themselves but also move through the journey with other people. So this is just the beginning, it's not the end. This is how do you get started in this. Optimize three labs, three supplements, learn a little lifestyle, learn some food is medicine principles, which is the clean 14, 14 days to clean up your diet and getting people in a better place. So imagine all of that in a short period of time. Simple. There's not a lot there that we're talking complicated. And then getting a little bit of accountability, getting some check ins, things that can really help the patient or the person move from just taking prescriptions, thinking that that's fixing them to another space.
Now it does take radical responsibility.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Like this is not going to fix you if you just take the supplements. We need to make sure that the diet, the lifestyle, everything's just kicking in and it's a journey.
It's the get started. What's the first step of losing 100 pounds? Putting on your gym shoes. So this is putting on your gym shoes.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, that's great. So if I were to go on.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Your website, which is rx2wellness.com and then you will have a bar where you can click get started.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Which will get you to be able to get that kit sent to your house. We finally, like I've been doing this in my pharmacy in brick and Mortar Charlotte for a while.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: And getting good results. But the reach is bigger. I'm training the army of pharmacists.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: You need to get more out there.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but how can I make this accessible to everyone? So we finally got all the pieces together to make sure that we can actually send this nationwide.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Great.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Which is so, so much, so much more impact now.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: So Much. And it's so exciting. So tell me a little bit about some of the success stories that you've had.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Well, just you think about it like all the things that people come to the pharmacy for chronic conditions like stress, anxiety, sleep, blood pressure, inflammation, pain, these are the major drivers. If you looked at the grand scope of why people come to a pharmacy, this little kit box will start helping those, so you can start making those medicines less necessary and then making informed decisions with your physician, with your pharmacist, whoever your healthcare practitioner team is. This might spark an interest in health coaching or getting moving in a different direction. Right. So a lot of what we do is like if you optimize that omega 3, and we only can optimize it because we're looking at the value. We're not just taking a supplement and hoping it's okay. We're giving an optimal dose which is included in the membership. Those three supplements, you get whatever dose you want after the labs come through to figure out what's best for you. So it's a little bit of a hyper personalization.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: But I know if I get your levels up to 8 to 12%, we'll give you a video lab that shows you the results and shows you why you need it. Now you see it, you see it improve, we retest and then you see where you're at all along that way. Imagine in three months, your pain goes down, your foggy brain gets better, your sleep patterns are getting better.
There's no quick fix here, but over time I just like say, give me four to six weeks, go on the journey with me and watch biochemistry do itself well.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Four to six weeks is not long and we tell our patients all the time you, it didn't take you a week to get into this position. It's going to take you longer than a week to get, you know, it's not only gonna take a week.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Lifestyle, right? Lifestyle is a choice.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: So let's move those choices, but let's get the ball rolling because once we start getting you feeling better, it becomes infective. Clean eating is infective. It is healthy living is infective. It's a good infection.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: You feel good and you don't realize you're going to be feeling good. People don't realize how badly they feel until they start changing their diet or the new norm.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Right. Anxiety affected me a very long time of my life, but it becomes the norm, becomes the new norm. And it's not something, it's a perception, but it's not like you wake up one day and go, I'm just so, I have too much anxiety. It's like it becomes this, like you said, slowly come. So we're slowly bringing that back.
And it's life is a journey because what if, what if we change that around and all of a sudden you didn't need as many medications and you felt better and you just inside you just felt more like who you are. That's what this essence is. Can we unlock a little bit of that for people?
[00:11:12] Speaker A: I love that. Unlock that for people. Well, thank you so much for being back with us again, Josh. Thank you for sharing your RX story, wellness and just if you could share with everybody how they can find you, which I think we've said a few times.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Well, I'm definitely on LinkedIn. If you're a pharmacist listening to this, I'd love to train you and help you in this space. I'm in Facebook. I've got all those spaces. RxTowellness.com is kind of a landing page where you can find me. We do 20 minute free health strategy sessions with people through the pharmacy. You can see the
[email protected] to see we're real. We do what we do. You know, I'm a big fan of being a product of your product. So I'm living proof of what I do and I'm pretty transparent. So these are the things you can do to find me.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Great. Thank you again for joining us.
Thank you for joining us as well. Stay tuned after these messages for our next guest.
Welcome back. Back with us today is Dr. Reagan Tilly, Functional family physician who runs a direct primary care office in Kansas. Welcome back. Dr. Tilley.
[00:12:40] Speaker D: Thanks for coming back, Jessica.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: So we've talked a lot about trauma and how that is impactful on our health, how if we have and trauma can be defined as something big, like a car accident or the death of a loved one or something smaller like a loved one who's kind of nitpicky on us and a whole bunch of stuff in between how that can be impactful on our health and well being, such as autoimmune or blood sugar or other symptoms like fatigue and all. And so I'd love to talk with you about how is that that trauma is actually manifesting in our body and what can we do about that?
[00:13:16] Speaker D: Sure. So when we think about trauma, oftentimes it's accompanied by a lot of emotion. And what we find, people who process emotions well versus people who kind of get Stuck in the experience of the emotion. That's kind of the difference between who's resilient and who struggles to overcome or get through hard things. And in functional medicine, they teach us that everything starts in the gut. Okay. So when we go down that path, I have spent years with functional medicine, and I started to ask, well, if it all starts in the gut, why is it in the gut? What is the deal? What goes wrong in the gut? It's not just our microbiome. It is our microbiome, but not just that.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:58] Speaker D: It's the emotions. When you get scared, when you have a sense of foreboding, where you feel it, you feel it deep in your gut. Like, you get sick to your stomach, you get queasy, you get butterflies, right?
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:11] Speaker D: This stuff starts to act up, and that's our neurotransmitters, the things that create emotion, activating our body. And we have 300 times the neurotransmitters in our gut than we do in our brain. So that led me to the question of how do we heal the emotion? So the emotions are the impact that led to the susceptibility in the gut to allow illness to then ensue. That's where it made me very curious about emotions. And, you know, we've had wonderful teachers through the years that help us identify how to cope with emotions. Some of you may be familiar with Bessel van der Kolk's book, the Body Keeps Score.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:50] Speaker D: And it, you know, follows the journeys of several wounded people.
And predominantly, his book is founded on psychology.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:59] Speaker D: And the study is the folks who are struggling with mental disturbances like depression, anxiety, ptsd, and things like that. And what physical manifestations are they having? And so that is one of the books that I've investigated. Then there's another book that's a little bit more on the. I don't want to say woo side, but more on that spiritual side called the Emotion Code. And it's how stuck emotions can create pathology in the body. And that doctor's approach to healing emotions is much different. It's not drugs. It's not psychotherapy. It's not, you know, go exercise, eat this, drink that. You know, that kind of thing. It's more of an experience of we're releasing the emotion. And he describes a technique that he teaches his practitioners to use to allow the body to release the emotion through the meridians of the body.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Okay. So the meridians are the. From Chinese, traditional Chinese medicine. And that's where energy is flowing and everything. So can you Teach us this technique. Understand that you should do this. You should speak with your provider before taking on anything this can be. I would like you to tell us about how this technique is performed. More than teaching. You need to be under the care of somebody who is educated in this space. Because I'm sure when we're releasing emotion from the body, we can sometimes be surprised with the size of the emotion we can release.
[00:16:27] Speaker D: Yes. So the actual technique is very simple. And so people use muscle testing. You might see people dragging their finger through a circled ring, or they might have somebody hold out their arm and press on it. And that is something that's, that's maybe misunderstood or not well understood by the mainstream medicine. But there's a lot of research in it and a lot of study in energy. And this is not, it's not the same technique, but we will be getting to that soon.
But the technique that we're using to clear this emotion happens to be running magnets or your finger from your forehead to your tailbone, down your prime meridian, which is very different. It's unusual, but it releases that emotion quickly.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Well, we are, I mean, we are electrical beings.
[00:17:15] Speaker E: Exactly.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: So it makes sense.
[00:17:16] Speaker D: So it's basically a rebalance of that thing. So just a short little anecdote of this healing. This was in a little bitty person. So I use a pendulum for my intuiting the problem.
And what we found is that there was a emotion that needed cleared and it was inadequacy. And then I had this feeling in this little tiny body. How does this little 2 year old feel Inadequate? And we determined it was a maternal inadequacy. The mother had inadequacy and it was projected onto this little one. So we released this technique. And at the end of this technique, this little two year old did this, like released it through this deep sigh and she was happy as a lark. And so it was a very interesting observation that your body will release. You don't have to experience it, you don't have to feel it. You don't even have to know what the emotion is in this technique to clear it. So this is a great way to work with folks who don't know what the emotion is. The same technique that was brought up on the screen just a moment ago is something that we do to address emotions that are big. The emotions that we know, the ones that just keep driving us.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Okay, maybe we can get that back up on the screen. Yes.
[00:18:29] Speaker D: And so the SANE model is a way to handle those big emotions. So you're gonna Stop. You're gonna acknowledge this emotion is there. Okay, you're gonna identify, oh, I'm feeling angry or I'm jealous or I am lonely. It can be any emotion, but it's the big emotions that seem to stop us in our tracks and keep us from moving forward. Okay, we're gonna allow it. So we're gonna be like, okay, I'm angry and I'm gonna let my body feel all of the anger. I'm just gonna be angry in this moment.
And then you're going to investigate how is it showing up in your body? Are you clenching your fists? Are you grinding your teeth? Are you like talking through a tight, little, tight lipped mouth, feeling as your heart pumping? Yes. Where? So, I mean, I know you go through somatics with your clients as well. So what are some things you've had patients notice when you're going through, like feeling the emotions in their body? What do they tell you?
[00:19:17] Speaker A: So I'm really good at somatics. I'm noticing where things are in my body. And it's been years of work, so don't expect this to happen immediately for you. But like, if I'm feeling a certain kind of way, like upset or angry, if I can, I can tell you right away, like, I'm feeling it right here in my chest or I can feel it in my stomach, or I can feel it like between my shoulder blades or like right in the middle, like at the bra strap area. That's frequently where I can feel different emotions. And so I explain to people what that can be like, you know, this is like, this is how I'm feeling and this is where it is. And then I notice it, I pay attention to it. So I localize to it it. And then I take something called the observer lens. So I basically try to not be in that emotional state of feeling emotion. I look at myself from the outside. Like, just if you were to look at that discomfort, like right in the core of your belly or something and just pay attention to it and notice that it's present there. And then just breathe deeply in and out and then watch it slowly dissipate. And I don't associate it with this person. Made me mad for whatever reason. I don't. I simply then go that direction. And that's the process that I walk our clients through.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: Right. And so the eye that investigate is exactly where is it?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Where is it?
[00:20:32] Speaker D: What is it doing in your body? You know, are you getting reflux? Are you getting gas? Are you like feeling like your mouth is dry? So this is that investigation and then we have this non identification. Okay, Just like you said, you're not attributing it to any one thing because as soon as you do that, what does it do? It gives that power to that external force. So what you want to do is you really want to be more like the movie director and instead of the play actor in it. So what you want to do is kind of see what it's doing, maybe redirect it, like you know what, we're going to do this from a different angle. Maybe anger's the not, it's not the right approach. Maybe you're feeling inadequate. Maybe your anger is the thing that your brain and body turns on first because it's the thing you're most familiar with. And that's the other thing about emotions is our brains like to do things the easy way. Our brains are actually really lazy 2 year old toddlers that like to throw tantrums. So that's really what your brain is. We have this front, our forebrain gives us that higher executive power. But we typically live in that toddler tantrum two year old stage. And what happens is the brain doesn't want to work hard so it's going to do what it knows best. And so if you live in a space of anger, something you're very familiar with, or depression or inadequacy, that's the loop that your brain says this is easy, we know this path, so we're going to go down this path again. Whether it's the right way to go or not. It takes a lot more energy for the brain to create new pathways. So when we go through this technique and we do this healing process of observation, non identification and just really allowing ourselves to feel it but not become it. Yeah, we're starting to break that loop that is going on in our brain so that we can reprogram the actual emotions that are warranted. Because sometimes anger is not the right response, but it's the easiest response. And so if we can go in and really think about what we need to do next and how we want to respond, we can start creating those new pathways before we get stuck, stuck in that, that emotion we don't want to be in anymore.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: And you do this over and over and over and over, teaching people how to do it so that they can stop like feeling a certain way, stop and recognize it, find out where it is and then investigate and then kind of do that observer.
[00:22:45] Speaker D: And I like people to play act it a little bit. I want you to do it when it's not happening. Because it's a lot harder to respond in the moment, in the heat than it is to kind of play, act it and like, oh, wait, I don't want to be angry. This is a time where I want to feel vindicated or justified. And those are a little bit more positive emotions or positive feelings versus anger.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: There's nothing wrong with feeling emotions. It's just that we're trying to help people find a way to express themselves better and then. And then be able to collect themselves into their thoughtful space of working things out.
[00:23:18] Speaker E: Right.
[00:23:18] Speaker D: And sometimes it is finding that new emotion, the one that does serve you better.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:22] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. That's wonderful. I love the work that you're doing.
[00:23:26] Speaker D: We could go on for hours.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: I know we could. And I know you'll be back next week. Will you please let everyone know what you're working on and how they can find you?
[00:23:32] Speaker D: Sure. Yes. So I own a direct primary care family practice, but we come at it from a functional mindset. So you can find
[email protected] I also run an online group program to bring you into your highest self to release mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical weight. And that's the quantummetabolicreset.com thank you again for coming.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: I'll see you next week. All right, thank you for watching, and please return after these messages for our next guest.
And we're back with Dr. Latasha Hicks, family physician for over 10 years now, working in optimization for men and women's hormones. We've talked a lot about different topics, hormones and how that relates to mood and fatigue as well as weight loss. And we had talked a little bit last week about GLP1. So those weight loss medications and. And a lot of people aren't aware that GLP1s. They think they're new and they're not. And they also aren't aware that they are actually something called peptide therapy. So I'd love to talk about peptide therapy, since I know you do some work in that area, and it's very new. A lot of people aren't doing that work.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Yes. So peptides are actually just little small pieces of proteins that we use to trigger certain responses in your body or for your body to respond in the way that we want them to. And it's very. A lot of very healthy benefits to some of the peptides that are out there for skin, for hair, for intimate health, just so many things.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Well, since you do work with men and women, let's talk about the intimate health peptides, can you give us a few examples or what they actually do for us?
[00:25:35] Speaker C: Yes. So there is one in particular that I want to talk about. It's called PT.
So the PT141 is a peptide that your body uses to actually activate arousal centers in the brain. So a lot of times when there is a man who may be having erectile dysfunction or having an issue with being able to maintain an erection, they may take Viagra or Cialis or things like that that you may have heard of. And some people's bodies don't respond to those anymore. So this particular peptide, what I love about it is in about 80% of men who do not respond to the other types of medications will respond and be able to achieve an erection with the PT141. So that is something that a lot of people have never heard of.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: I've never heard of that. I've never heard of that peptide. I'm familiar with peptide therapy. I've learned a little bit about it. And then one thing that is very challenging when it comes to peptides is it always has, like initials and numbers like GLP1, and they actually stand for something. But I think when you have something that has just letters and numbers combined, it's a little more confusing. And I think in the beginning, peptide therapy wasn't well received as much until we really understood that the peptide therapy like Dr. Hicks is doing is the same as a peptide therapy with GLP1s, just with a different outcome. So when you're saying that this one, what is this one called again?
[00:27:05] Speaker C: PT141.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: PT141. So when people are using this in an injection.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: Yes, it's an injectable one. It works best if you inject it. I do also offer it in a sublingual troche, which is a dissolvable small something like a cough drop that you put under your tongue. I also offer it in that form as well, but it works better as an injectable.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Okay. So do people tend to try Cialis first or Viagra first, and then they say, this isn't working.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: And then they can come to you and find that this actually can be helpful.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: Right. So a lot of times people are already trying Cialis and Viagra, and they may be getting effects, and sometimes the effects are not exactly what they were looking for, or it's not the full effect of what they were looking for. So PT141 can be used instead of or in adjunct to. So basically, you can take Cialis and this medication concurrently, and it should not give you any ill effects. So that's one of the good things about it. They work on two different areas. The other medications kind of help with the actual blood flow down to the erectile tissue. Whereas the PT141 works inside of the brain at the centers that control arousal and works from a different place.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Okay, so it's more of an arousal peptide. It helps you with arousal. So that's why both men and women, this is helpful for women.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: Both men and women can use this peptide.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: So and then when it's the mindset of arousal, then it can. Then it leads to more. So it's not actually a physiologic erectile dysfunction substance.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Right, Right. So it's not dealing with it physiologically. That's right.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: So amazingly, people don't realize how much the brain has to do with intimate health. When there's a lack of connection, when the two people are having a little bit of a discord, it can cause problems. I've had so many men to say that when their wife is giving them a hard time or the wife is being naggy or, you know, something like that, that they're just turned off, you know, so but sometimes the husband is completely into the wife and he loves his wife and he wants, you know, he wants to be able to. To perform in the way he wants to be able to perform, but he's having a hard time. And a lot of times men have issues with it. They feel ashamed. And sometimes they will even shy away from intimacy, leading to the wife or the female partner feeling like that they are unwanted or that the person doesn't love them anymore. And then it just causes just a continued disconnect and then sometimes eventually leads to the relationship ending. And so I really, really pride myself on helping people, people with this because I try to help with strong and healthy relationships. I even have a special program called Dr. Canoodle to help people to. To regain that. That fun aspect of the relationships and to learn each other again and to have fun again so that everything doesn't have to feel so much pressure. Because when a man is having this issue, it can feel like a lot of pressure. You know, sexual activity and all of this can feel like a lot of pressure when he's already having these issues and he doesn't want to talk about it.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's wonderful. So do you ever have a scenario where you're using peptides and testosterone where they're using. Tell me a little bit about that.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: Yes. So the testosterone is basically restoring your physiologic activity of your hormones, Right? So you're balancing that out. And then once you start balancing that out, actually, men will find that erectile function improves morning erections. So that's very important. Men, if you are not experiencing your morning erections, that is a. Is not a good sign. So if you wake up in the morning and you don't have the morning erection, that is, you need to let me know, come in so that we can do something about that. That is your body's way of telling you that your testosterone is not peaking out the way it should in the morning time. And it's an indication that there's issues. It can be caused by a lot of things, testosterone. It can also be caused by damage of your small blood vessels from hypertension, from diabetes. All of these things lead to erectile dysfunction. So you have to be really, really careful. But you don't want to wait so long because the longer you wait, the longer it takes for it to restore. So if you come in sooner, we can restore it a whole lot sooner. So that's one of the things that I really love.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: That's wonderful. Men, I presume, as you said, there can be a little shame spiral there. So it can be a challenge to get them to come in the door. So wives can frequently send them or drag them in kicking and screaming so that they'll come in and see you. How long after starting the peptide therapy do they find that they can experience an increase in that arousal?
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Usually it works within an hour or two, the PT141. So it's pretty quick.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: And how often are people using the.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: Injections, the PT141, you can use them daily, but I wouldn't recommend using it every day. You know, I think that, you know, a few times a week would be safe.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Okay. Is it something that people use when they want to experience arousal? Like if they. Okay, so it can be as needed. Kind of like when people use Viagra or Cialis. I know you can use Cialis daily, also lower dose. But if you're using it just to achieve an erection. So if it's not just if they need that arousal feeling as well, and I know the arousal cycle is different for men than women, but if they want to feel that arousal, is it that they would do the injection, feel the arousal, see if. And then add the Viagra in and go from there?
[00:32:34] Speaker C: Yes, because if you're trying the PT141 for the first time, you want to see how Your body's going to react to it. So definitely you can try the PT141 by itself. See if everything works the way that you want it to work. If not, then you can add something else in. But a lot of times the men have already tried the Cialis and have already tried the Viagra, and they are not achieving, you know, the strong erections that they want. So that creates a problem. And I try my best to create the safest space for men to be able to discuss these things, because I know it can be really hard to discuss in general, but also even harder because I'm a female doctor. And so sometimes men can have a hard time discussing it with a woman. But I want to say this is a safe space. In my office. I actually have very personalized visits, so you don't have to worry about a lot of people being around. You come in, you have your own visit and your own time with me to connect and to talk about things in ultimate privacy.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: That's wonderful. So I know we talked about. We only have a few minutes left, but we talked about weight loss peptides. We talked about arousal and sexual health and wellness peptides. And you had mentioned skin. So for clearing up skin, for healthy skin or for youthful skin?
[00:33:46] Speaker C: Youthful skin.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: Youthful skin. All right, let's hear it.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: There's another peptide called GHK Copper. Some people will see it as GHK Cu. That CU is actually for copper. And so basically, it is a peptide that stimulates your stem cells in your body to activate. So if you use it in a cream for your skin, it's. It will stimulate the stem cells that are in your skin to activate, to produce more collagen and to create a more youthful look. If you use the GHK Copper in a patch or a topical patch, which I also offer, it goes more systemically and activates your stem cells based on what's needed in your body. So whatever it is that needs healing, those stem cells will be the ones that will be activated first and eventually as everything gets healed. And all of it will be just working out perfectly, but it will kind of help your body to heal from the inside out.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: So it sounds like that one's not just for skin, but all areas of youthfulness and longevity.
[00:34:41] Speaker C: Yes, all areas of youthfulness and longevity. So some of the people who have tried the patches that I offer, they say that they feel so much more energetic. They may have been having aches and pains even. I tried it on my grandmother, who is 85 years old, and she was having a little bit of knee pain. And so we put a patch on there and that knee pain was improved significantly. And so she loved those patches.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: That's really incredible. That's something else. Well, thank you so much for sharing Peptides with us today. We don't talk about that that much, so thank you again. You'll join us next week?
[00:35:13] Speaker C: Yes, I would love to come back next week.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: That's wonderful. And please let everyone know how they can reach you.
[00:35:18] Speaker C: Yes. So if you would like to reach me, Dr. Hicks, you just call the office, 713-659-9309. Again, that's 713-659-9309. Or you can go on the web at www. Exceptionalcareelite.com. again, it's www. Exceptionalcareelite.Com. or you can find us on Instagram @xcare elite, which is ex, that's short for Exceptional Care, C A R E Elite, E L I T E. And that's on Instagram. So X Care Elite, thank you again.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: So much for being with us.
[00:35:54] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Thank you for watching. And please come back after these messages for our next guest.
Foreign we're back and back again. Today we want to talk about the endemic issue of infertility, where one in five couples struggles to conceive after trying for a full year. We're seeing this at younger and younger ages. With me today, I have health coach, functional medicine health and wellness coach Kelly Curtin Aidas. Kelly, thank you so much for being here with us.
[00:36:47] Speaker E: Hi, Jessica. I'm very happy to be here today.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: So I'd love to jump right in and have you describe to people what does a functional medicine health and wellness coach do?
[00:36:57] Speaker E: Yes. So great question, right? You hear so many things about coaching these days. So functional medicine coaching pretty much addresses whatever the client's bringing to us. So typically it stems from some maybe some type of health crisis.
Some, something is going on with their stress levels. Whatever the case may be, they're reaching out for some support. So as a functional medicine health coach, I spend a little bit of time educating on whatever the needs may be and a lot of time supporting and applying those transitions to real life. Like, how can, how can we make this an application that's going to actually be effective for you? So a lot of time it's what are your barriers? How does your life prevent these things from happening successfully and really working together to formulate a plan led by the client for success?
[00:37:51] Speaker A: And that's great. So what would some of those health issues or barriers be Give us even one or two.
[00:37:57] Speaker E: Yes. So generally sometimes it's a lot late, like a weight issue, and maybe they don't want to do any type of injections and things like that. So they're coming with just some advice on how to change their lifestyle, some of their practices, some of their nutrition.
That's a realistic change for them that they can, you know, that's actually attainable. And, and we kind of take little baby steps towards achieving those, those goals.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: No, that's wonderful. So you are, we're, you are working with fertility patients. So tell me what got you into that area, Working with fertility?
[00:38:35] Speaker E: Yeah, so I had my own personal struggle with fertility and it was nearly a decade long. So I, I can relate to that longing, that pain and this feeling that, you know something is wrong with me or, or you feel a bit broken.
So, yeah, I was very motivated to help people realize that, you know, they are not broken and they really do have all the tools they need in themselves. It's just a little tweaking of, of what you think you might already know.
And to speak more specific to that, like, I met you in your clinical practice and you had introduced me to functional medicine during, I think I was about five years into my struggle at that point.
So that opened the door to the realization that I had more control over my health than I realized. And there were things that I could do to optimize my fertility, little things that I honestly had never considered. So nutrition being a big obvious factor. Right. But I think what was new to me was the nervous system factor and kind of what lies beneath the surface of what we think we know and don't even realize that we're impacted by. So incorporating all of those changes made a huge difference for me and my journey and to be able to share that with anybody is the greatest gift and it just, yeah, it just warms my heart. It's, it's a purpose driven mission now.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: So thank you so much for sharing your story. I wasn't going to out you, but.
[00:40:14] Speaker E: With you outing, I can't think, possibly explain, explain it without that full transparency because it's, it's exactly why.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, so we know what I'd love to dive into at this point in time. I would love for us to talk a little bit about ivf because we have, I have a bunch of people, I work with IVF providers and I know that they're utilizing a lot of the tools. They're utilizing us at De Novo Fertility and how that can help be impactful and I know There's a lot going on in politics right now when it comes to ivf, the possibility of. Of more being available. There are. Is a great increase in IVF clinics that's happening because of the demand. I would love to hear your insights on that.
[00:40:57] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, I think it's wonderful to have the access to have more affordability towards these treatments because, yes, there are some issues that can't be overcome necessarily without it, or it will take less time, you know, going that avenue. So I can understand there is some urgency for some couples and that changes what your needs are. So I personally have experience, again, with the IVF and using the functional medicine practices as an adjunct, and I can tell you firsthand, the way that it supports is basically when you go through the IVF process, it's very.
There's a protocol, and not that they're not kind and whatnot, but there's a protocol in your following this protocol. Right. But it doesn't really address nutrition. It doesn't really address your level of stress. It doesn't address a lot of factors that impact, you know, your outcome and the quality of your eggs and the quality of the sperm you're using, all of those things.
So I think it's a beautiful relationship when you marry the two. So you're able to feel that autonomy to make decisions for yourself, to give yourself the best shot. We know it's a huge investment right now, and I don't know that will change. Right. But you want, obviously, you don't want to put your body through this over and over again. You want to get it right the first time. So if there's anything to increase the odds, which is exactly what I experienced. Just to take a couple steps back, I had done a round of IVF prior to meeting you and didn't even make it to the transfer. Just no success at all.
So then after implementing a lot of things that you had told me, and this was not even in a program, this was just, you know, our relationship.
Yeah, I had an amazing outcome and success on the first. On the first transfer. So it was such a night and day experience for me in terms of what I felt like I had control over. And obviously the. The mind, body connection, the belief, you know, that you're healing and you're doing things right, it was super beneficial. So, yeah, I think it's.
I. I would never. It's kind of like giving birth without a doula, which I know some people. I. I compare it to that. It's something that I wish I would have Done.
And a friend of mine, we. We always describe it like this. You know, without that level of support, you think like, oh, I can do it. I mean, I can do. I can breathe, I can breathe, I can push. I can do all this. You don't realize until you're going through it. The depth of some of the pain, the depth of some of the side effects that come in. And you need this support. You need the support for a good outcome.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: I love that so much, and thank you for sharing. If we were to talk about IVF for protocols, what is the length of time that it takes for an IVF protocol? From the beginning, when you go in, from your consult, if you were to go straight through and then end up trying to do a transfer for that first cycle?
[00:44:03] Speaker E: Yeah. So there's so many variables involved. You start your cycle, you know, they'll start your cycle for you. Basically, you wait till your last period, then you'll start your meds the next month. And then really, it depends. It depends. Do you need more meds for your cycle? Do you need to dial down? There's a lot of variability in that. And then me personally, I didn't have the option to use to do a fresh cycle, so I had to freeze mine for health reasons. I had to wait.
So it's all over the map, really, when it comes to the length of time. It just depends on how you're progressing. And sadly, if you're not, then they cut the cycle and then you have to wait and start all over again with new meds, new money for those meds, all new testing. It's like. It's really a process.
[00:44:54] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: Thank you for sharing. I know that we know that IVF success rates are less than 30% for first cycle, and the functional medicine success rates are exceeding 80% in a cycle. And when you put both of those things together, we are finding that first cycle of IVF is successful. Greater number of egg retrieval, greater number of high quality embryos, greater success rates in first transfer.
[00:45:26] Speaker E: Yes. The difference was incredible. From my first to second cycle, it looked like a completely different person. The same things didn't show up that showed up before. And then obviously, like, my outcome was so great, I was shocked. I was ready for a little disappointment, you know, like, just, oh, what if it doesn't happen again? And I remember going in for that ultrasound of, you know, to look at the follicles, and it was like, oh, my gosh, I couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe it.
So, yeah, it's. I mean, it's such. It takes such a toll emotionally. And by the time you're even at this point point, you've already been through it, Right? So to me, the coaching aspect is just really a layer to keep that nervous system in check, to keep you feeling like you're on the right path, you're doing the right things. It connects all the dots, all the systems. You really start to believe in the interconnectedness of your whole body, how it works, how it can be productive and successful. And then you see success in one area and it keeps just kind of trickling down and. And there's no substitute for that.
Going it alone the first time. I just remember being in a gown in a cold room, like, oh, geez, I really need to decompress all these things that are happening, but really didn't have an outlet for it. You know, I don't want to tell anyone because what if it's not successful? I don't want to, you know, put that out there and jinx myself. There's so many things, so many factors, but I just feel like the coaching, you know, you were my coach, my unofficial coach through it. So that was a real game changer in every way.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Kelly, for sharing your story. You are a true asset to the De Novo Fertility team and for all of the couples that you're helping to get pregnant now and in the future. I would love for you to share with everyone how they can find you and work with you.
[00:47:27] Speaker E: Yes. So I can I do individual coaching or, you know, the coach, the group coaching through Genova fertility.com so you can find me on that website.
I love doing both. I love the group coaching and I also love the individual. So it's just really what. What your needs are and where you're at in your journey.
Yeah, they're great options either way. So come find me.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Kelly, for joining us today and thank you to our audience for showing up in your fullness and listening to all of our health and wellness stories on this journey. We would love to have you back with us next week on the next episode of the New Health.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: This has been a NOW Media Network's feature presentation.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: All rights reserved.
