Dr. Cordovez: Bunnie's Dr. on Sleep, Obesity, & Medicine

Summary

Dumb Blonde Podcast
Episode: Dr. Cordovez: Bunnie’s Dr. on Sleep, Obesity, & Medicine
Release Date: May 28, 2026
Host: Bunnie XO
Guest: Dr. Leah Cordovez (Dr. C)

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Episode Overview

This episode features Bunnie XO in conversation with Dr. Leah Cordovez (“Dr. C”)—Bunnie’s personal doctor and friend—diving into taboo questions about women’s health, sleep, obesity, and the intersection of Western and integrative medicine. The tone is warm, candid, and sometimes hilariously unfiltered, with insights on lifestyle-driven health changes, a passionate defense of patient advocacy, and a wealth of practical health advice.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Introducing Dr. C and Her Background

• [03:39] Bunnie introduces Dr. Leah Cordovez (“Dr. C”), calling her a “gift from God” and praising her calming presence during medical panics.
• Dr. C shares her journey from Panama, her dream of being a doctor from childhood, and her nontraditional path to medical school.
  • “I’ve always known that I was going to be a doctor… I was going to practice on a mountain and get paid in mangoes.” (Dr. Cordovez, 07:57, 14:41)
• Dr. C emphasizes that her approach stems from both science and natural approaches (integrative medicine).

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2. Navigating Medical Ailments & Dr. C’s Calming Approach

• [05:12] Bunnie discusses experiencing concerning symptoms (pain with orgasm, pooping, or peeing) and spiraling into Google self-diagnosis.
  • Dr. C distinguishes between transient and serious symptoms with practical wisdom:
    • “The bad, bad things come and stay.” (Dr. Cordovez, 06:05)
    • “Diverticulitis doesn’t let you go… So if it’s really bad, it’s gonna come and stay.” (Dr. Cordovez, 06:13)

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3. Dr. C’s Medical Education & Philosophy

• [07:53, 12:32] Dr. C describes the challenges and rigor of medical school in Panama.
• Immense competition: 2,500 apply, 130 accepted, 30 graduate.
  • “Nothing could take [medicine] from me...it was just etched in my soul.” (Dr. Cordovez, 13:40)
• [16:32] Cultural contrast: In Panama, patients seek care late due to lack of access, so conditions are advanced and require more intensive diagnostics.
  • “By the time a patient comes to the doctor in Panama, it is super far gone.” (Dr. Cordovez, 15:50)
• Bringing clinical sharpness to the U.S.: “That was really cool to bring with me. Before we could order an X-ray, you had to know how high up the fluid was in what lung.” (Dr. Cordovez, 17:43)

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4. Building Her Own Practice—Beyond the Assembly Line

• [23:30] Dr. C left a prestigious hospital to spend meaningful time with patients.
  • “I cannot practice medicine unless we have established that I love you, I respect you, I’m going to take care of you, and you’re safe.” (Dr. Cordovez, 24:28)
• Transitioned into private integrative medicine during COVID, connecting deeply with patients and focusing on healing relationships.

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5. Patient Advocacy and Integrative Health

• [28:35] Dr. C details her integrative approach: “Things that are caused by lifestyle can be solved by lifestyle. Every once in a while you need medicine. But most of the time, if you can fix it with changing your life, change your life.” (Dr. Cordovez, paraphrasing Danny, 28:35)
• Bunnie highlights her own advocacy, especially questioning prescriptions and researching side effects. Dr. C champions patients speaking up: “Everyone should advocate for themselves.” (Dr. Cordovez, 29:29)

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6. Obesity Medicine: Moving Beyond Blame

• [30:48] Dr. C discusses her specialization in obesity medicine, debunking the “calories in, calories out” myth.
  • “Start with loving where you are, what you’ve got, because if you hate it, you’re not going to take care of it.” (Dr. Cordovez, 31:08)
• [35:16] Individualized protocols for patients, emphasizing muscle mass, hormonal shifts, gentle exercise, and careful macro tracking—especially for perimenopausal women.
  • “The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just sleeping.” (Dr. Cordovez, 37:24)
  • “You don’t have to suffer to make changes that make you healthier and leaner… Strong is beautiful.” (Dr. Cordovez, 32:33)

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7. Listener Q&A: Practical Medical Guidance

Bunnie sources questions from her Patreon community for Dr. C’s expertise, offering real-world, non-judgmental advice.

a. Endometriosis & Inflammation [38:15]

• Endo pain comes from inflammation of hormone-responsive tissue. Reduce sugar, gluten, and alcohol to lessen inflammation.
  • “Sugar is the devil… It doesn’t serve us well when it increases inflammation.” (Dr. Cordovez, 39:47)

b. The Sleep Myth & Aging [41:13]

• Sleep needs change with age, and middle-of-the-night awakenings can be normal.
  • “As we get older, you just don’t need as much sleep... The magic number is five [hours], because you can go into enough REM cycles to reset your brain.” (Dr. Cordovez, 42:46)

c. H. pylori Remedies [44:10]

• Verify current infection with a stool or breath test, not a blood test; antibodies linger after infection is gone.
  • “Before you do any home remedies, make sure that what you’re seeing is not just the antibodies.” (Dr. Cordovez, 45:31)

d. Perimenopause and Itching [46:19]

• Fluctuating estrogen causes itchiness, especially vaginal—support with lifestyle and possibly hormonal therapies.
  • “You don’t really know you’re perimenopausal until you felt crazy for two years.” (Dr. Cordovez, 47:39)
  • “If you’re itching and anything else is happening, be on the lookout for perimenopause symptoms.” (Dr. Cordovez, 47:44)

e. Constipation Despite Fruits & Veggies [49:23]

• Most fruits don’t have enough fiber. Target 30–40g/day, increase gradually, drink water, add psyllium, magnesium can help.
  • “You’d be surprised at how much fiber fruit doesn’t have.” (Dr. Cordovez, 49:44)
  • “If glycinate doesn’t work, citrate or oxide will make you go.” (Dr. Cordovez, 51:13)

f. Stem Cell Therapy [52:19]

• U.S. stem cell therapies are limited to older “self-derived” cells. Younger, ‘baby’ stem cells from cord blood only available abroad (e.g., Panama, Mexico).
  • “Baby stem cells can do anything… But the stem cells that we’re… that are legal right now in the United States are stem cells that are drawn from our body. And my STEM cells are 56 years old, so they already know what they want to be.” (Dr. Cordovez, 53:22)

g. Lowering Blood Pressure Without Medication [54:39]

• Cut salt, boost magnesium, improve sleep, meditate, exercise. “There’s a lot you can do to decrease blood pressure, but you have to want to do it.” (Dr. Cordovez, 55:53)

h. Blood in Urine After Hysterectomy [57:35]

• Blood likely unrelated to hysterectomy/ovary; may be minor urethral irritation or cystitis; don’t over-hydrate before urinalysis.

i. Mammograms & Radiation Worries [59:11]

• Mammograms are still worth it—imaging technology is improved, and the slight radiation is, in Dr. C’s view, a worthy tradeoff for early cancer detection.
  • “If you’re going to squish your breasts for 15 seconds, let it be for something useful.” (Dr. Cordovez, 60:47)
  • “A transatlantic flight gives you radiation too… I just kind of leave it to God that I’m going to give myself a little bit of radiation so that I can be here for my daughters and their kids.” (Dr. Cordovez, 61:01)

j. Nightmares After Shingles [61:33]

• Suggests a post-traumatic stress response; sleep is when trauma can resurface. EMDR or trauma therapy could help process lingering fear and anxiety.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Things that are caused by lifestyle can be solved by lifestyle.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, quoting Danny, [28:35]
• “If you hate [your body], you’re not going to take care of it.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, [31:08]
• “You don’t really know you’re perimenopausal until you felt crazy for two years.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, [47:39]
• “Everyone should advocate for themselves.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, [29:29]
• “If you could give yourself the gift of sleep, give it to yourself on the front end.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, [43:52]
• “The bond is so therapeutic.”
  — Dr. Cordovez, [24:28]

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Resource & Contact

• Dr. Cordovez’s clinic: Be Well Integrative Health (Franklin, TN)
• Website: bewellihp.com ([63:15])
  • “If my model isn’t right for you, let us help get you to the right person. You deserve to be cared for by someone who cares about you.” — Dr. Cordovez

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Final Words

This episode is rich in real-talk wisdom, peppered with humor and vulnerability. Dr. Cordovez demystifies women’s health concerns, advocates for lifestyle medicine and self-advocacy, and answers pressing listener questions with science and compassion.
If you’re seeking practical medical insights with heart—and a few laughs—this conversation is a must-listen.

Transcript

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[Host]

Is this thing on?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

We can totally keep our relationship private.

[Bunny]

No. Do you want to or. No?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, no, I'm fine.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I don't want to, like, out you two.

[Bunny]

No, I wanted to brag to everybody. What? Are you kidding? You put up with my all the time. Like, what?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, there's no.

[Bunny]

I literally have a crisis every week.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, my God.

[Bunny]

Every week I have this woman. I'm like, what is happening? I have a new one. No, I have a new one I haven't even texted you about. I freaking have, like, this pain in my left side that. This is going to get graphic. I'm sorry, but.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Ky, are you recording? Yep.

[Bunny]

Oh, are you okay? Okay, we can do it on. No, we can do it on the podcast because I have no shame. All right, so I was just about to tell you guys my ailment, but let me welcome my favorite human in the world, Dr. Leah Cordes. But I call her Dr. C. And this woman, I'm telling you, is just a gift from God. And I. Once you guys hear her story and actually get to, like, hear her speak today on the podcast, you guys are going to fall in love with her just as much as I am. Dr. C, thank you for being here.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Thank you for having me. It's so cool, dude.

[Bunny]

I'm happy to have you here. You just have always had the best energy.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Thank you.

[Bunny]

It's. It's amazing. So I was just going into why I love you so much, too, is because I literally call you every week with a crisis.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You're.

[Bunny]

You're like my personal doctor. So anytime I have an ailment, which is every day, I literally text this woman freaking out. I'm like, do I need a CAT scan? Do I need to do this? What's happened? Like, Last week, my eye. That was a crazy thing that was going on with my eye, and she healed it. It was fine. And she always is so calm. You're so calm. Like, when I call you freaking out, you're just like, no, this is how you gotta do it. Let's do this. Don't freak out. Everything's fine. So.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, well, calm, it doesn't come easy, but it comes with time. And all of the things that you send me are super easy. It's so much better to just call me. Don't. Don't even worry about freaking out. I've seen everything at least 10 times. Yeah. So it makes it easy. Yeah.

[Bunny]

So I was just telling you about my new ailment. So while you're here, let's talk about it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

What you got?

[Bunny]

I keep having this pain on my left hand side when I orgasm, when I poop, and sometimes when I pee it. Like. And I. I've googled it, and they said it's diverticulitis.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Okay.

[Bunny]

And I'm, like, freaking out now because you know how I am. I try to fix things.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So just at rest, it doesn't hurt.

[Bunny]

No, at rest, it doesn't hurt. But if I'm pushing out or if my muscles are spasming, it hurts.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So that means that something moving in there has to. Has to move to. So something has to move in there to irritate it, which means it's probably something that's inflamed. A ligament, a muscle. It might be a little bit of an ovarian cyst, but something is irritated in there. When it's high, it could be, wow, your hip flexor can be up that high. But if it's something that comes and goes, and I tell everybody this, the bad, bad things come and stay. Oh, yeah. They're not gonna come, say, hi, I'll be back next week. If it's really bad, it's gonna come and stay. Diverticulitis doesn't let you go.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Until you do something about it. So.

[Bunny]

See what I'm saying? She always calms me down, I would say.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. I would say it's something inflamed. And if it persists a long, long time or it gets worse or it starts happening at rest, then that's when I. I'd want to see you and maybe think about an ultrasound or a scan.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

But nothing is as good as somebody who knows you.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And I think that helps it be calm. I know you. I know how healthy you are. And it's easy for me To. No, it's not that. And. But it's not that particular. It ain't. I love.

[Bunny]

She looks at my blood work, too. This woman knows the road map to my soul, so.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, it's easy to work with Danny, right?

[Bunny]

Yeah. And you. So you. How do you and Danny know each other? Because all of you guys know Danny who comes on the podcast. You guys absolutely love her. She is friends with Danny also. How do you guys know each other?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, we're colleagues. So she's a. An integrative nurse practitioner, and I am a. A doctor who did internal medicine. So I trained in the Western internal medicine system and I did a two year fellowship in integrative medicine.

[Bunny]

Wow.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So what that means is I can. I can bring the science and the nature into whatever needs to be done to make you better. So Danny does a lot of integrative, and I do a mixture of both.

[Bunny]

Yes.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So we're similar, but just a little different.

[Bunny]

I love that. It's like. Yeah, it's like your own little flare on it. Yeah, I dig it so much. So my husband was telling me that you have a really cool story, and I told him I wanted to be wowed on the podcast, so he gave me, like, little bits and pieces of it. But I want to hear your story. Like, where did you come from? Why did you get into medicine? All that jazz.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. So I. I'm from Panama.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And I don't think I've ever known anything else. It's always been. I've always known that I was going to be a doctor. But life in Panama was not easy. There was. There was not a lot of opportunities, so I had to keep taking turns and changing directions to do what I needed to do. We ended up in. We moved from Panama to a little town called Mount Pleasant, which is about 30 or 40 miles from here. And then I went to Vanderbilt for school. After that, I decided I'm going to go back home and practice. Anybody who knows me knows I've said this a million times. I was going to practice on a mountain and get paid in mangoes. But then I got married and I ended up here in Nashville. It just has always felt like the thing that I had to do. It was never easy, but whatever direction life took me, I went with it until I could get back on track. And so I ended up working at St Thomas for a lot of years. And it just. I just couldn't figure out what was missing from my practice. And it ends up that it's the time and the relationship with Your patient. It's not possible for someone to call you and say, hey, my right side or my left side hurts, and then be able to think through what it could be, unless you know that patient. So then I decided to leave the practice of medicine at St. Thomas, and I opened up a little practice where I can spend as much time as I need to to get to know my patient, and that is that practicing medicine calmly is so cool.

[Bunny]

I love that. So let's circle back because you breeze over so much. So you grew up in Panama, and you. Even as a child, you just knew that you wanted to help people.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Always. Always. While all the other little girls were playing with Barbies. Yeah, I had a little box of band Aids, and I would. I would go to watch the boys play soccer, just waiting for one of them to fall, and then I'd. I'd put bandaids and hydrogen peroxide, and that was my thing. Always, always, always.

[Bunny]

So, like a nurturer from the start. Was there anything that happened to you in your childhood that maybe pushed you in that direction? Or do you think maybe it was, like, from a past life that you were, like, a medicine woman or something?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You know, I want to believe in. In a past life, I. I had some sort of magic.

[Bunny]

I believe you did, for sure. I'm. I'm so into that. And listen, I just did. You can do your past lives. I don't know if you guys know this, but you can do your past lives and your soul contracts on chat GPT now.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Are you kidding?

[Bunny]

Yes. We need to do yours. And I would love to see it, because I was. I was a healer in a lot of my past lives. I was also a hooker in one. I was also, like, a military person. Like, it's crazy, but when you go back in your past lives, you start seeing this, and you're just like. This makes so much sense as to why I have been the way I've been my entire life. So I would be curious to see if maybe you were, like, a medicine woman and maybe one of your past lives.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I hope so. Yeah.

[Bunny]

I hope so. You're like a medicine woman now.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It feels so natural. It feels so natural. Yeah. I love it.

[Bunny]

I love it. So how do you get. How do you go to school? Medical school in Panama. How does that happen?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, it wasn't easy.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It wasn't easy. I remember I was a little bit lost, so there was a big event that happened my senior year in college and just didn't have the money to re enroll, and I was Kind of rolling around. What am I going to do? I'm never going to get this done. This is going to be horrible. I did that for a while, just trying to find my way. I audited classes while I took the MCATs, and I just kept spinning my wheels. But somebody I met in Miami when I was 21 years old, which, by the way, is a whole nother story.

[Bunny]

Oh, yeah. Miami, back in the days, was lit.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Dude. Oh, my God, it was so good. Somebody in Miami said, why don't you just go to medical school in Panama? And I said, what? Okay. So I found the number, I called, and I said, how much does it cost to go to medical school? And they said, $19. Oh, what? 19 a semester? Seriously? Can I, like, can it. Where do I apply? Sign me up.

[Bunny]

So is it the same type of medical school that you would have in the US it's a little bit harder.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Wow. Yes. So it's six years instead of four years.

[Bunny]

Wow.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And. And 2, 500 people at least. The year that I applied, 2, 500 people took the psychological aptitude test. And if you pass that, then you could take the. The entrance exam. So 2,500 people applied, 130 people got in, and 30 of us graduated. So it's no freaking joke. But I applied, I applied, I got in, I moved to Panama, and I live with a friend. And of course, everybody said, it's not going to work. You're not going to be able to do it. It's. It's. You're wasting your time going there. But I knew that that's what I had to do. And nothing. Nothing. Things distracted me for sure, but nothing could take that. It wasn't okay to do anything else.

[Bunny]

Yeah. It was just etched in your soul.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Etched in my soul. So I lived wherever I had to live.

[Bunny]

Yes. Survival mode.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Survival mode for six years. And

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[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And. And. And. Finished. Wow. Yeah.

[Bunny]

So all six years, just trying to make it grueling, and then you finally graduate.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

What happens after you graduate? Do you just instantly get into a practice? Because I heard you say that you were gonna get paid by mangoes.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That's what I wanted.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Mangoes and chickens. Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So.

[Bunny]

So I love that you're like, I'm a doctor, just pay me a mangoes and chicken.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Bring me some mangoes.

[Bunny]

I love that.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Not the green ones. The. The space between my first and second semester of the last year of medical school. I came to visit my mother here, and I met the man who would be my husband.

[Bunny]

And so is your family from Panama and then your mom moved here? Yes. Okay, gotcha.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes. My father is still there. I have siblings there, aunts and uncles. I have a brother and sister here. But it was love. And he tried living there, didn't work. We moved back. And that lasted 11 years. Yeah. No, it's great.

[Bunny]

No, I love that. 11 years is a good run, man.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host]

Good run.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

So was he a doctor too?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No. No.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No.

[Bunny]

So you moved to the U.S. what was it like doing medicine in Panama and then coming here to do medicine? Was it kind of like a culture shock? A little bit.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It was a little bit of a culture shock. I was amazed at how much sooner things get taken care of here. So by the time a patient comes to the doctor in Panama, it is super far gone. So, yeah, breast cancers were super advanced. It's just not a culture where self care is a priority. Maybe because there's just not the availability, not the money. I worked at the public hospital, so it was pretty rough. So when I came here, I thought, girl, that's nothing.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I've seen it so many times. Yeah, but. But we also had stuff that. That you don't see here. Right. So pancreatitis here is usually from alcohol use, and pancreatitis there is from a scorpion bite.

[Bunny]

So.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, So I was always just a little off on my. On my diagnostic skills, and we couldn't.

[Bunny]

You're like, you've been bit by a scorpion right out here.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Exactly. And, yeah, I was off for about six months until I. Until I caught on that we had changed latitudes. Yeah. The tropical diseases that didn't exist here, that was a switch. And parasites are so, so common there, not so common here. Just big differences like that. But in a third world country, in a system where medicine is taught clinically, you have to put your hands on the patient, listen, feel percuss. You have to figure out what's going on before you order any imaging. So that was incredibly valuable. That was really cool to bring with me. Wow. Yeah. Before we could order an X ray, you had to know how high up the fluid was in what lung.

[Bunny]

Wow.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bunny]

So that just made you, like, precision sharp whenever you got here.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah. Because you just know what to look for.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, that helps a lot.

[Bunny]

So, yeah, take me on this journey of starting your own practice. Because you said that you worked at St. Thomas, which is actually a great hospital. Anytime I had like heart problems or anything like that, I would always go to St. Thomas. And they always did such a great. When I. They misdiagnosed me with a frickin brain aneurysm last year.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah, it was wild. St. Thomas is actually. Aren't they the ones who. The, the, the. What is it called? Vascular surgeon there was like, you do not have a brain aneurysm. And then I got a second opinion too. And he was like, you do not have a brain aneurysm. And I was just like, oh, my God, thank you. But, yeah, St. Thomas is like a prestigious hospital. And what did you do there? So were you like emergency medicine?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So I. When I came from Panama. So even if you've done a residency in another country, you have to do another one here.

[Bunny]

Yikes.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So when I came from Panama, I applied to several residencies and the one at Baptist, it used to be Baptist. St. Thomas was the best fit for me. So I did a residency there. And residencies are generally July 1 through June 30. At the end of my residency year, I didn't feel like I knew enough, so I did a chief residency year. And. And by the time that year was over on June 30th was my last day as Chief. July 1st at 9 o', clock, I was in the office ready to see a patient.

[Bunny]

So during a residency, you can't have patients or you. Or you're under somebody.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You're under somebody. So it's the residency, the clinic at the. With the residents. But once you go from being a resident to being an attending, you get paid three or four times more.

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Yeah.

[Bunny]

And not mango and chicken.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

All you. Right?

[Bunny]

That's right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That's a lot of freaking mangoes. Yeah, that's a lot. You get a lot more mangoes. But it's all you. It's all. You can't turn around and go, what do you think this is? Yeah, it's all you. And I could not wait. So. Yeah.

[Bunny]

I love the tenacity that you have.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Yeah. It always had to happen, Bunny. Like it. It always had to happen. There was no. There was no compromising. It just had to happen.

[Bunny]

I love that.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

So when you finally get to see your first patient, what's the diagnosis? What. What happened?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Listen, I still, like. I feel like if I Could look that chart up and apologize to him. No, this is a horrible story. I don't think I should say it.

[Bunny]

We can always cut it if you want. Okay, listen, because you got to tell it now.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Okay, I got to tell it. Okay. So internist. So internal medicine is everything you can't cut out. Right. So blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid. Anything you can't cut out is what I take care of. So most of my patients are either high blood pressure or diabetes or thyroid. On the first day of my. Of my first gig, I was seeing other doctors. Patients that were being put on my schedule just overflow while I built up my clinic. Notoriously, internists are horrible at rashes. Oh, yeah. Horrible at rashes. So the very first patient, bless his sweet soul, was a rash, and where's the rash? Right. My very first patients with his sweet wife.

[Bunny]

Oh, no.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Came for help with a raj on his. On his glance, and I remember. His what?

[Host]

His glands.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It's the. You know, his penis.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

His penis.

[Bunny]

Okay, gotcha. I didn't know. I thought it was butthole. I instantly went for. I instantly went for butthole.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, I wish it was the butthole. It would have felt better, like, with him facing the other way.

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Right.

[Bunny]

You know why, buddy?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I know that he could see. See it in my face when I went, ah. Ah. Yeah. And today I have the maturity to say, eh, I don't know. But that day, I just.

[Bunny]

Did we ever figure out what the rash was?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, I gave him a little cream.

[Bunny]

Oh, I love cream.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And it got better.

[Bunny]

Oh, good.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So I can't. I cannot say that I knew exactly what that was. Yeah. But it was the most. It was the hardest.

[Bunny]

God's got a sense of humor, right?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes. Yes, it was. It was the one thing I probably could never have solved on the first day of my first job.

[Bunny]

Why was it was I. Can. Can I ask. Was it like herpes? Or was it like a heat rash? Or was it like you just. It was, like, fell under an umbrella of just. It was.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It was.

[Bunny]

It was.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Listen, I would not have. Even if I had. That is somewhere on my body, I would probably not have gone to the doctor. Oh, it was such a subtle, tiny little rash.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That. I mean, I. I cannot imagine what my face was like when I was like.

[Bunny]

His wife probably made him go. She's probably like, you're around. We're going to the doctor. You know what I'm saying? That's why she was there with them.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. You know, maybe they. They both seemed super sweet. They were A super sweet couple, but it. I don't know. Yeah, I still don't know. I've never seen anything like it again. And. And it got better. Yeah. I love that.

[Bunny]

She's like, I gave them cream. It cleared up.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Cleared up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bunny]

So take me on the journey of leaving St. Thomas and opening your own practice is. That's gotta be a scary jump.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It was. Well, I did not know. I didn't know how hard it was gonna be or else I wouldn't have done it. Oh, shit. It was so, so complicated. So it started because every patient became really important to me, and. And I find myself. I found myself. No, hold on. You're too complicated. You get the spot right before lunch or you're too complicated, you get the spot. The last one of the day. And I ended up working through lunch, staying an extra hour. So my difficult patients, I would take time away from myself or my kids to take care of. And so it started rumbling in my mind, how can I. How can I deliver this differently? Because what I need to do is form that bond. I think the bond is so therapeutic. I cannot practice medicine unless we have established that I love you, I respect you, I'm going to take care of you, and you're safe. It was hard. It was really hard to do. And so that. It's another point in my life where I couldn't not do it right.

[Bunny]

It was just something inside of you was like, you have to do.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You have to do it. You have to do it. So I don't remember. It took a lot of years to finally be okay with saying to the ton of patients that I was taking care of that I had to go.

[Bunny]

It.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It kept me a long time.

[Bunny]

And did some of them follow you?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes.

[Bunny]

Good.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes. It's wonderful that. That some of them could. And the ones that didn't, I still truly love. And I. And I recently realized that I don't think that they know how important they are to me, because when somebody says, hey, you remember me?

[Carvana Ad]

Of course.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Like, of course I remember. How's your mom? How's your grandma? What happened to your son? So, of course, it was just too much. So we went into private practice the year that Covid hit.

[Bunny]

Oh, goodness.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And thank goodness that we were able to see Covid athletes, because that kind of carried us for a while there. Every athlete that had Covid had to be. Had to have a cardiac clearance.

[Bunny]

Right?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So that kept us alive for. Yeah, for a while.

[Bunny]

But it's because you're following your heart and you're leading with love. That God always takes care of you. Every jump that you take.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

100%. 100%. Even on the days that are so dark and scary. I know that something good will come with the dawn. I know that something good will come. Yeah, I know it, I feel it. I know that my days are just trying to spread that love and, and, and create those bonds that we're supposed to have. I think that this time on earth is for us to be able to touch each other, smell each other, taste really good food, drink really good drinks and, and have fun in a physical way. But fundamentally we are here to love one another. So why people would waste any time being.

[Bunny]

Yeah, I don't understand.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, I don't understand that.

[Bunny]

I literally was just lecturing one of my friends the other day, cuz she just, every time she texts me, it's about some drama and I'm like, stop polluting your life. You have this life to live and not forever. Like just, yeah, have fun, spread joy. Yeah, be happy. Like it's, it's not that hard to choose happiness every day.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

So tell me what your practice does now because you said that you take, you know, modern medicine and mix it with integrative medicine. So for the listeners at home, what exactly does that entail?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes. So really, you cannot practice medicine, or at least my type of medicine, without truly knowing the patient. So we sit down and we talk about how are you sleeping, what are you eating, how do you feel? And we get beyond just the basic lab. So I have a wonderful, wonderful new patient that he was having trouble controlling his cholesterol. He had been everywhere on every medicine, was getting energy treatments for it, and cholesterol and triglycerides were still super high. Well, we talked, we talked about his family history. We did some investigating. I put a glucose monitor on him. He's got insulin resistance, which was drop, which was driving high cholesterol fixing that fix the cholesterol. So I've heard Danny say, and everyone has heard Danny say, things that are caused by lifestyle can be solved by lifestyle. Every once in a while you need medicine. But most of the time, if you can fix it with changing your life, change your life.

[Bunny]

Yes. Yeah, I fully 100 believe in that.

[GoFundMe User]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Any ailment I've ever had has been from a food I was eating or not working out enough or not sleeping. So you know me, I'm like, I will not take medicine unless I have to. She prescribed me some eyedrops the other day and I frickin found some Reddit group that like was dedicated. It's called the Floxies. It was dedicated to frickin this type of. And I was like, I love you. I'm not putting this in my eye. And she's like, it's fine, don't do it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, no problem. That's the other thing that I, without a relationship, a two way relationship, you would not have been able to tell me, hey, let's do erythromycin instead of Cipro because it doesn't bother me. We could have used either one. But for you to say, let's do that, fine. It's not me, it's you. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Bunny]

One thing I'm gonna do is advocate.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. And you should. Everyone, everybody, everyone should.

[Bunny]

But I preach that on the. From the mountaintops on this podcast is anything, doesn't matter if it's medical lifestyle, anything. Always advocate for yourself. Always speak up.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Always, always.

[Bunny]

You're gonna find your people, you'll find your tribe and they'll listen to you.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes, that's right. That's right. So, so once you get down to what, what is going on with this person, somebody whose asthma I couldn't get her into control, I would not have known. She's exposed to car fumes because in the mornings she worked at the, at the daycare greeting the children. So she was out there under the carport. Wow. So fixing that fixed her asthma and so much, so much easier. So that's integrative medicine is not just jumping to the medicine. Although you did need a little bit of a.

[Bunny]

Something was really wrong with your eye.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

But fixing what's causing it is, is just as important as giving a medicine.

[Bunny]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. So that's. My flavor is mixing. What can we do with what can I give you or what other supplements can we use? And, and that works. But I now have obesity medicine.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That I love.

[Bunny]

Which is, Is it like a peptide or what is it?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, it's medicine for, for obesity.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So being fat is not fun. Right.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And it's not easy to change your weight or your metabolic set point that unlocking that is key. If I could, if I could shout something from the mountaintops, it's start with loving where you are, what you've got, because if you hate it, you're not going to take care of it.

[Bunny]

Well, and that, and you also feed your mind negative. You know, what your mind feels, the body will follow. And I truly am a huge believer in that.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

100%. 100%.

[Bunny]

So what is this obesity medicine called so.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So I wish I could do more of it, but it is basically, people come in and say, I'm having trouble losing weight.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So then we sit down and we talk. What's going on? How are you eating? How are you sleeping? How are you moving? And I really enjoyed doing. Studying for the. For obesity medicine because there were so many things that I did not know were caused by just how much adipose tissue, just how much fat is around. So things like exchanging oxygen in your lungs is a little bit more complicated when there's, when there's more fat than lean muscle. Capillaries don't get good blood flow when there's more fat than muscle. So I remember telling my trainers, man, I feel like I'm going to pass out. And. And my trainers would say, keep on going.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

But it is 20, 25, and it's time for people to know that you don't have to suffer to make changes that will make you healthier and leaner.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Because strong is beautiful.

[Bunny]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It's not thin. It's not a size of pants. It is strength, emotional strength and physical strength. And that. That's what I want to create more of before I leave this world. Yes.

[Bunny]

So the obesity thing that you have, is it just like food counseling or does it. And then you figure out for each patient it's different. Like one patient you would give, like, triazepatide. Another patient, what's something else? Like, what's a protocol that you would give three different patients?

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[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, that's such a great question. I don't think we have a protocol because everybody gets their own right their own thing, but there's something for everybody.

[Bunny]

Okay, what about like a, like a 45 year old perimenopausal woman who can't lose the last 5 pounds.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh my God.

[Bunny]

She's been trying to lose.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

First of all, the practicing obesity medicine in 2025, I said before, is unlike anything we have ever seen. So these injections, whatever your thoughts are about them, they are potent in the gut, in the brain, and in those areas that control hunger, cravings and satiety. We have never had a medicine that shuts off those messages. Like, like, like these do. Yeah, there's a lot of genetics and a lot of hormones involved in, in what you crave and how much you eat and how much calories you burn, it is not calories in, calories out. So a 45 year old and even from 40 to 50 that perimenopause, your brain starts getting messages that your ovaries, the hormones that your ovaries produce, your brain starts getting messages about storing adipose tissue in your midsection. So as our estrogen sputters, we tend to create a little bit more fat deposits in the midsection. Have you noticed? Yeah. So with that, with that type of person, we would probably track macros, keep the estrogen testosterone as stable as possible, not over exercise. Because what we want to do is tell your body that it's safe to release those fat stores so your body will protect you by. By hanging on to them, but it's safe to release. So kind, gentle exercise. And don't poke the insulin bare with carbs.

[Bunny]

How do you feel about weightlifting?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Because I feel amazing.

[Bunny]

Yeah, because doesn't weightlifting spike insulin also, though, too?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So weightlifting, it can do different things to different people. But the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just sleeping. Yeah. So. And the more muscle you have, the more muscle you will have as you get older. So by the time you're 50, you start losing 2% of muscle mass a year, unless you're doing something about it. So I feel amazing about weightlifting. Right. And if there's an excuse why you're not doing it, get over it.

[Bunny]

Yeah, yeah, do it. No, I love it. I weightlift. I weightlift five times a week now. Like, I'm on it. So I have a Patreon community that is obs obsessed with all things medical. Lay down, son. And we're gonna go over there and take some questions from them, if that's okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Let's do it. Let's go.

[Bunny]

Let's do it. All right, so the first question that we have for you is from Shannon, and she said, I struggle so much with my stage four endometriosis to where I'm worried I'll not be able to continue working. Do you have any advice at this point? Would be great. As many of us women struggle with endo, and it seems no one is talking about it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, this is. This is. Endometriosis is an inflammatory. What's causing pain is inflammation of these little tiny deposits. So every time a woman menstruate has a period, the ovules should go into the fallopian tube and drop through the vagina as part of your period. In people that have endometriosis, the ovule has fallen outside so that there's little pieces of tissue that are hormone receptive, just either stuck to your colon or to your bladder somewhere. They've landed in your pelvis. Every single month. When they get the trigger from the estrogen and progesterone surges, they start swelling up and getting inflamed. So the pain from endometriosis comes from inflammation. Anything you can do, there's medicines, there's surgery, and I'm not a gyn, but anything you can do to decrease the inflammation will help with the pain. Calcium and magnesium before Pierre's help with the inflammation of the endometriosis. And sugar is no Good.

[Bunny]

Yes.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Sugar is the devil. So it goes. I love it. I love that devil. But it doesn't serve us well when it increases inflammation. So gluten is super inflammatory. Sugar is super inflammatory. Alcohol, because it's mostly. Sugars are super inflammatory. So if you wanted to try to mitigate that pain just for shits and giggles, see what happens when you decrease your sugar just maybe the two weeks before your period.

[Bunny]

I haven't had sugar in two and a half years. And it's been a game changer, Right. For my body. Game changer for my body and for my mental health.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yep.

[Bunny]

My anxiety used to be at a 22. My anxiety is at a 2 now. If I start having a panic attack, I can control it like it's. It's been a godsend. I don't think people realize how bad sugar just wreaks havoc on your body for sure.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Because when you don't have. When you, when you have it a lot and you don't have it, you go into withdrawal, Withdrawals. And it feels horrible.

[Bunny]

It's like a drug addiction.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Horrible, awful. But once you get through those first three days and you become a. I really don't eat sugar. How long has it been since I've eaten? So I'm not at a year yet. But I decided, okay, sugar is just not my friend. And you're totally right. My mood is a lot more steady. Things don't hurt like they used to. I can sleep so much better. Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And sugar. Everything has sugar.

[Bunny]

Let's talk about sleep for a second.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, yeah.

[Bunny]

So I know a lot of people, like love to sleep. And I mean, as a teenager, you can sleep like the dead. As you get older, that sleep pattern changes. Why does that sleep pattern change? Why are some women waking up at 4 o' clock in the morning not being able to go back to bed until 6am, 7am again, having that broken sleep. And how can we fix that?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, we were designed to be to sleep kind of in two stages, so. So as teenagers, we would wake up a little bit and then go right back to sleep. And then as we get older, we wake up and we start thinking, that plant, plant in the front, man, she's getting too much sun. And then you start going through the Rolodex. Of all the things to worry about, that's number one, is get a hold of that train that wants to take you to worrying about stuff in the middle of the night that you can't do anything about. Right. Number one. Number two, it's a lot A lot of it's related to hormones. And then as we age, you just don't need as much sleep. And it's related to how many cycles of rem. But.

[Bunny]

So you don't need as much sleep.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You don't need as much sleep. Correct.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That's why your grandma gets up at four.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. But she's asleep by six, right? Yeah, yeah.

[Bunny]

But is Grandma still getting eight hours and though.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, no, her body simply doesn't need eight hours.

[Bunny]

So as we get older, how much sleep do you think we need?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

About five. I like, I think the magic. And this, this is individual.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

But the magic number is five, because you can go into enough REM cycles to reset your brain, and it's only during sleep that you can erase everything from the day before. Wow. Otherwise, if you're. If you're not sleeping and you're not resting, your brain remembers the car that almost hit you at the Kroger parking lot. And things that have no. No business in today are still in there. So rest especially. Especially really good, deep sleep, clears your brain, prepares you for learning, and that's when you heal wounds.

[Bunny]

Yeah. That's amazing way to look at it. I'm, like, absorbing it, because that's so real.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Because I get probably about six hours of sleep a night, and I've. There's some days that I wake up at five hours and I'm like, ready to rock and roll.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Great.

[Bunny]

But then I tell myself, I'm like, should I get three more hours? You know, because everybody says you need to get eight to ten hours of sleep. And I'm like, who has. First of all, who has the time? Secondly, like, yeah, sometimes I don't want to sleep eight to ten hours.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. And if you could give yourself a gift, it's. If you. If you could give yourself the gift of sleep, give it to yourself on the front end. So go to sleep early. Yeah. Rather than staying asleep longer. Because the quality. Quality stuff that heals you is at the beginning of the night.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Wow. Okay.

[Bunny]

I didn't know that. And I have been trying to make myself go to sleep early, and I. I just can't do it. But. Okay, so here's another question from Gina. She said, do you have any home remedies for H. Pylori when antibiotics don't work?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

What a great question. So I do not. I do not. That's. That's the short answer, but H. Pylori is a bacteria, and there's a little bit of. Of controversy about this, whether it's a. A bacteria that's always in your gut that doesn't cause any problems, and it lives happily with the others. But the. The general consensus in medicine is H. Pylori can cause ulcers, and those ulcers can cause gastric cancer. So in general, we want to get rid of H. Pylori. The gold standard for diagnosing H. Pylori is either a stool antigen or a breath test. If you are diagnosing H. Pylori in blood, then you're getting a false positive. Because once you've had it and you treat it, you will always have the antibodies. So if you took the medicine for H. Pylori, you eradicated it, but you're checking your blood to see if it's still there, then you're always going to be positive, but the H. Pylori is not actually there. So before you do any. Any home remedies, make sure that what you're seeing is not just the antibodies. Because just like anybody who's ever had mono, you're going to see mono antibodies and not necessarily the mono infection.

[Bunny]

So they would need to take a stool sample.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yes. A stool sample or a breath test.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And advocate for yourself. Yes. Tell your doctor, hey, I really want to know whether it's just the antibody or whether I have a reinfection.

[Bunny]

I'm telling you, there's nothing more humbling than pooping in a lunch cart.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Correct. I'm in the hot dog.

[Bunny]

The hot dog container. You never just feel so humbled to just stand in a bathroom holding a log.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah. It's crazy.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

There's few things.

[Bunny]

Yeah. A few things. I don't. And everybody always wants to do those. And I'm like, can we not?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

I just don't. But you know what? They're necessary. So you guys, please do it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Brandy wants to know, how do you stop perimenopause itching. I've heard this so much from women that say that. Yeah, they get, like, the worst itching.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

You mean vaginal?

[Bunny]

I'm not sure. I've heard people say that. It's on their skin and their ears, like. But does it happen in the vagina, too?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That's where I mostly. That's where. That's where most of the itching occurs.

[Bunny]

New fear unlocked.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Holy.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

But I'm here for you.

[Bunny]

Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

No, I'm gonna be dragging my hoot nanny on carpet like a dog.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. So. So it's gonna be wrong. During perimenopause, there's so many estrogen and progesterone surges, it can. There's receptors for estrogen everywhere. Your skin, your brain, your. Your organs and your vagina. So when your levels are sputtering, things change. So in that case, I would. And there's not a real easy way to diagnose perimenopause except to look at the constellation of symptoms, and they're super, super quiet. So you don't really know your perimenopausal until you felt crazy for two years.

[Bunny]

Wow.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Yeah. Or one of your kids says, mom. Yeah. Yeah. Or a Keith Sweat song doesn't hit like it used to, you know? Right. You lose. You lose. You lose patience, you lose libido, you lose motivation, and you don't really know that this is happening. So if you're itching and. And anything else is happening, then be on the lookout for perimenopause symptoms that you can control and go talk to somebody about it. You could do things like black cohosh, you could do. You could try plant sterols that could. That could mimic. Or you could just get on a hormone.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Which we know are safe.

[Bunny]

Yeah. Do you suggest HRT for women who are perimenopausal and menopausal?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

If that's right for you.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

If that's right for the patient, then I don't. I don't have a single solitary problem. And when I go, I want a little bit of gel. Yeah. Make sure I have some on. Yeah. It just. There's just so many receptors that estrogen is so important for.

[Bunny]

I love estrogen.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I love estrogen. Yeah.

[Bunny]

Yeah. When I was going through my IVF stems, my body was loving the estrogen hate of the progesterone. Loved the estrogen, though. Like, my estrogen levels were, like, over, like, 1500, I think. And I was. I felt great.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

I was thriving.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. No itching. No itching.

[Host]

No itching.

[Bunny]

I don't ever have any itching. I haven't had itching yet. Thank God. But, you know, listen, I've heard. I sympathize with these women who have to go through all of that.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

So another one of our Patreon members wants to know pooping. How to poop. I eat fruits and veggies all the time, and I still cannot poop.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I'm.

[Bunny]

Is it because I don't eat meat? Help constipated from Missouri.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

No, it is not because you don't eat meat.

[Bunny]

Yeah. Meat clogs some people up.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Yeah. Meat can slow transit. You Would be surprised at how much fiber fruit doesn't have.

[Bunny]

Right, Right. A lot of sugar, right?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Exactly. And you think, oh, my God, this apple. I'm eating fiber. It's got 3 grams of fiber. You need about 35 to 40 and

[Bunny]

30 grams of carbs, Right, Exactly.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Delicious. But it's. Yeah, exactly. But it's. So I would say maybe do. Maybe do an audit of how much fiber you're actually getting and see if you can work up to 35 grams. Slowly, slowly. Because if you do it all at once, it's going to cause horrible bloating and cramping. But I bet you're not getting as much as you think you are, number one. Number two, make sure you're drinking plenty of water, because all of that stuff has to be. Has to be liquid. Your colon will continue to draw water from whatever is in it if you are in an under hydrated state. So if you're not well hydrated, you're going to be constipated and add. You can add stuff like psyllium husk to your salad. Add extra fiber when you can. I would do a lot of things. Exercise helps.

[Bunny]

Magnesium.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Magnesium.

[Bunny]

Magnesium glycinate, man. If you ever have an issue with it, just pile that stuff on as much as you can. Take it, I think.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you. And if glycinate doesn't work, citrate or oxide will make you go.

[Bunny]

Really?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

For sure. Yeah.

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[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Pickup fees may apply. Okay. And if you take it at night. Yeah. It helps your brain relax. And in the morning, the first thing you do is go to the bathroom. Yeah. Yeah.

[Bunny]

I love that.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I love it.

[Bunny]

Hey, we're all going to be pooping, ladies and gentlemen.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Although my pooping has gotten so much better. But I've also prioritized fiber. I'm getting like 10 to 20 grams of fiber a meal.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It keeps you full.

[Bunny]

Oh, yeah. It keeps you full. And the bloating is real. Like there wasn't the other day. I was like, I can't eat another one of my meals because I just feel like a freaking hot air balloon. Like, your tummy just gets so freaking swollen. I hate it. What are your thoughts on stem cells and stem cell therapy?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Okay. I love. Yeah, I love.

[Bunny]

My husband does it. I'm scared.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. You know me.

[Bunny]

I'm scared to put anything in my body.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, again, it's got to be the right person for the right reason. So there's things that stem cells are amazing at. So stem cells are baby cells that don't know what they want to be when they grow up. Right. And when you get them from umbilical core cord, they really have no idea what they want to be. So if you put those cells into a spinal cord or if you put those cells into a place where the other cells around and say, hey, let's be muscle cells, or, hey, let's be. Turn into this kind of cell, or why don't you turn into one of the cells that makes fluid for this joint? Yeah. Baby stem cells can do anything. But the stem cells that we're. That are legal right now in the United States are stem cells that are drawn from. From our body. And my STEM cells are 56 years old, so they already know what they want to be. It doesn't matter what you want me to be. You know, it's harder for. It's harder for older or. Or my own stem cells to want to turn into what we want them to be. So I love stem cells, but I really love stem cells from umbilical cord.

[Bunny]

Right. Is that like andrena. Is that like adrenochrome? What is adrenochrome?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I don't know.

[Bunny]

Is that baby blood that everybody talks about taking is like the fountain of youth?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, I don't know. Is that the placenta stuff that they.

[Bunny]

I'm not sure. I don't know. I hear people talk about it all the time. So how do you get all these baby stem cells? So are all stem cells baby, or are they a mixture?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So the stem cells here in the States are. I think they're harvested from your. From your own. But in order to get the umbilical cord stem cells, you have to go out of the country. So places like Panama, Mexico.

[Bunny]

I feel like all the good shit is not allowed in the U.S. yes, for a while. Yeah. It's like they don't want us to be our best versions of ourselves, and

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

they don't make it affordable.

[Bunny]

Yeah, and then. Yeah, exactly. And then if it does come, it's freaking astronomical. Jen wants to know, is there a way to lower your blood pressure without prescription medicine?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, my gosh, yes. Yes. There's a million ways to lower your blood pressure. First of all, look at what's going on in your life. Smoking, alcohol, bad sleep, horrible diet. So please remember that Frito Lay has a neuroscientist that helps come up with these recipes. These things are meant to be addicting. That's why you can't eat just one chip. A. A can of Lipton soup has your day's supply of sodium. Sodium will raise your blood pressure. So if you have a tendency towards hypertension or family history, especially African American and Latinos were super salt sensitive. So cutting out the salt is number one. Secondly, magnesium. Magnesium lowers blood pressure like a champ. So a little bit of magnesium at night, you'll go to the bathroom in the morning. Yes.

[Bunny]

It's a win win.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It is. It is a super win. Magnesium also decreases stress. So holding, like, holding intention all day long.

[Bunny]

Yeah. That'll raise your blood pressure.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Absolutely.

[Bunny]

It's even like having a stress on your mind.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Absolutely. Blood pressure beats decrease blood pressure. Exercise decreases blood pressure. And meditating, even if it's five minutes at a time, decreases blood pressure. There's a lot you can do to decrease blood pressure, but you have to want to do do it. It's not something that anybody else is going to want for you.

[Bunny]

I would. I would just say, first and foremost, diet change, because nine times out of 10, it's something you're eating that's triggering it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bunny]

Because there was a time where I went through where my blood pressure was skyrocketing and then it would tank and it was from eating rice. Rice would send me into, like, these. I still can't eat rice to this day because it does that to me. Freaking insane, right? Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That's so great that you found that.

[Bunny]

I know. And nobody else could find it.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Not even Danny. And I literally had to just sit there and be like, what is happening? Mimi had to drive me to the hospital so many fudgeing times because we didn't know what was happening. Like, my fingers would turn blue. Like, it was crazy. And it was all from fucking rice. Jasmine rice. Like, who would have thought.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

I would not have thought that.

[Bunny]

Tiffany says thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. I had a hysterectomy nine years ago, but kept one ovary because I didn't want to go on hormones. Recently, I had a little blood after urinating, but there wasn't any pain at all. It was fresh blood. So I called and went to the doctor. She did a urine test. It was positive for trace. I just went back today and another urine test. What can cause small amounts of blood in the urine without any infection or pain after a hysterectomy?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

The hysterectomy was nine years ago.

[Bunny]

Yes.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

And there's one ovary. Do we know how old?

[Bunny]

No, it's okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

It's okay. So your uterus and your ovary are unrelated to your bladder, it sounds like. So the urinary tract and the parts that make the baby are not connected at all. So this would be completely. Completely unrelated to your hysterectomy. Unless. Unless your ovary has stopped producing hormones and now you're in a perimenopausal state and you've got vaginal dryness. And that can bleed a little bit just because it becomes so delicate and friable. But it's. If I had to guess, I think she had a little bit of cystitis or a little bit of inflammation of that. Of the. That little sphincter where the urine comes out. And that could cause it just a little irritation of the urethra or a little bit of cystitis. And if you drink too much water before a urine, before a urinalysis, it's going to look like it's clean.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Because you're going to dilute that.

[Bunny]

Wow. So maybe next time she gets tested, don't drink a ton of water.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That's right.

[Bunny]

Just to be sure. That's right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Perfect.

[Bunny]

Can we talk about mammograms? Yes. Because I got my first mammogram about two years ago, But I have been reading all of these horror stories about mammograms and what they do to you and what they do to the breast tissue. Do. What are your thoughts on mammograms?

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

So generally good? Yes, generally good. I, you know, it's recommended that we have mammograms three to five years. And the reason why they recommended that is because by the time you find a breast cancer, even if it's this size, we can still take care of it. And you have the same. The mortality rate is about the same. But I want to find it when it's micro small. So my personal preference is 12 to 18 months. The technology that we're using for mammograms is so much better. You don't have to do the squeeze. You know, it used to be like, put your breast in the door. Yeah, put your breast in the door and squeeze it right yeah. Now the squeeze is not as bad. Yeah. Because the. Because the images are so much better.

[Bunny]

But I've seen the lay down ones too.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

That you can do the ones where you lay down and.

[Bunny]

Yeah, I'm gonna find one of those out here.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Those. Are you talking about an mri?

[Bunny]

No, it's a mammogram, so.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Cool. I haven't done that yet.

[Bunny]

Yeah, I'll have to send it to

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

you, but I would say, say, unless you have a super compelling reason not to, and I can't think of one.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Do it, if not for yourself, for the people that you love. Because breast cancer is something people shouldn't die of.

[Bunny]

Right.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

We can find it so easy. So if you. If you're going to squish your breasts and there's other times in your lives when your breasts get squished. Right. If you're going to squish your breasts for 15 seconds.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Let it be for something useful for sure.

[Bunny]

I think that. I think a lot of people are saying that the radiation is what's bad.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

The jury is out on that, too. I. I'm okay with taking my chances about the radiation. It's not that much long transatlantic flights get some radiation too, and you don't see people not doing those. So in this case, I just kind of leave it to. To God that I'm gonna give myself a little bit of radiation so that I can be here for my daughters and their kids.

[Bunny]

All right, fine. I'll go get my mammogram next. Do it. Okay.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

I've been putting it off and I try to have every excuse, but I'll do it for sure. All right, let's do one more question.

[Host]

Let's see.

[Bunny]

Elizabeth said I had shingles really bad almost two years ago. I've had high anxiety, dreams, and nightmares every single night staying since. Seriously, every night. Cortisol levels have been tested and we're fine.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Help. Wow, that is. That is super interesting. If the shingles were bad enough that you had a PTSD reaction to. To the shingles, then that's something. That is that. And listen, we're getting out there. But that's why my practice is fun, right? Because I can incorporate this.

[Bunny]

But it's so real, because I was going to say the same thing. Maybe it was just traumatizing for you 100%.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

If that pain took you to a place that you had never been before, then perhaps it keeps trying to get out. And it's during sleep that you. That you take things that you experienced and put them in the spot where you. You. You just remember them. So that's why EMDR is so good for soldiers, because it takes reliving an experience, and it tosses it over to the side of the brain where you just remember it. I would be super curious to hear more about that shingles experience and see if that's something that we can. That we can help process. I can't help wondering that her body doesn't feel safe.

[Bunny]

Right? Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Because shingles is no joke.

[Bunny]

Yeah.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Bunny]

I believe that.

[The RealReal Ad]

100.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah.

[Bunny]

Dr. C, thank you so much for coming. Why don't you tell everybody where your practice is and what your website is, and if they want to book with you, you and come and meet you and, you know, just join your practice, like I have. I literally am never letting you go. Tell them where to go.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Well, I'm in Franklin. I'm right on the corner of Brentwood and Franklin. It's called Be well Integrative Health, and our website is bewellihp.com. okay. And if I am not the right fit, if my model of practice isn't the right thing for you, drop me a line. Let us help you get you to the right person, because you deserve to be cared for by someone who cares about you. Yes.

[Bunny]

I just love your spirit.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, I'm so.

[Bunny]

You're just literally, you're like my husband. You guys are just earth angels.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Oh, thank you.

[Bunny]

We're lucky to have you.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Bunny]

I appreciate you. And thank you so much for coming.

[Dr. Leah Cordes]

Yeah, thanks. Thank you so much. Yay.

[Bunny]

Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Dumb Blonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.