← The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
573. Stop Meditating! Calm Your Nervous System in 2 Minutes and Reset Your Hormones with Dr. Melissa Sonners
01:00:36
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- [00:01]
A
All you gotta do here, all you gotta do to win is just become aware of what you're doing as you're doing it. This is not about perfection. This is not about going into your life and changing everything and judging and shaming yourself when it doesn't work and when you don't do it perfectly. This is about practice. Because the nervous system, again, works through consistency.
- [00:22]
B
Welcome to the Thyroid Fixer podcast, where we dive deep into the world of thyroid and hormones, especially for you ladies navigating perimenopause and menopause. And really for anyone struggling with hypothyroidism. I'm your host, Dr. Amy, thyroid and hormone specialist and CEO of a global telemedicine practice where we prescribe the right thyroid treatment and bioidentical hormones to all 50 states and most of Canada, helping you become that badass human that you're meant to be. So if you're battling weight gain and hair loss, you can't lose weight. No matter what you do. Your energy levels are plummeting and your libido left town. Then you're in the right place and you have found your tribe. Remember, I want you to embrace every inch of that badass woman that you truly are. So if you're ready to dive in and fix things, let's get started. Did you know there's a reason why boosting NAD can actually make us feel years younger? This vital NAD molecule powers cellular energy, it supports our DNA health, it aids in detoxification, and it helps your body remain youthful. But by the age of 50, which I'm there now, NAD levels drop to half of what they were at 20. So, yeah, we need to replace them because I want to feel and look like I'm 20. All right, maybe 30. So luckily there is Qualia NAD Plus, a clinically proven cutting edge supplement that can boost your NAD levels by 67%. So no shots, just a pill works amazingly, contains powerful precursors like niacin, niacinamide and niagen. And the top NAD boosters known to science, along with 11 other key ingredients to support the body's entire NAD production process. It's vegan, non GMO, gluten free, so no worries there. And it's a clinically proven formula that has become my go to for maximizing my NAD levels because I want to anti age age. So if you want to age well, too high, NAD levels are a must. So you're going to visit qualia life.com I'm going to spell that for you. Q-U A L I A L I F E.com forward/thyroid to try qualia nad backed by a 100 day money back guarantee. What? Yeah, they back their products. It's going to work, people. So you're going to use the promo code thyroid for 15% off. So that's qualiolife.com forward/thyroid with the promo code thyroid for 15% off. You have questions about your thyroid, about your labs, what they mean. What about your hormones? What about insulin? Why are you gaining weight? Why are you so tired? Why are you losing your hair? Why won't my doctor listen to me? Why won't my doctor test these things, all of these questions that you have running around in your brain and you know that if you just had the answers that that could push you over the edge into optimal health, that you could be that badass human that you are meant to be. Well, I got you covered there because I am going live every single week in the just fix your thyroid Facebook group. That is my Facebook group. A beautiful community just filled with amazing people where I am in there, my nurse practitioners are in there, my health coaches are in there. There are patients in there that have been with me for so long, they're experts in their own right and they answered just the way that I would. So we have you completely covered in this group. So not only can you post your question every single day, every single hour, if you want, you can mark your calendars for our weekly live Q and A sessions where you get to ask your question to me and I'm going to answer it live on air. And not only that, we are doing product giveaways, we're doing working with our team giveaways. You're going to want to be in there and actually be live on that call. If you're at work, go into the closet, just shut the door. Take minutes for yourself, take a half an hour for yourself, take an hour for yourself so that you can get the information that you need to bring yourself into optimization land where you're not looking sideways at a brownie and gaining weight at the same time, where you can feel amazing every single day. Because that's my goal for you. You know that I love, love, love to answer your questions and this is the place where you can get them answered. Live in the world that we're in right now, being a woman, being stressed out, maxing ourselves out with every task under the sun day to day, never really getting through our to do list, taking care of everybody else, sometimes second to ourselves. I can't Believe that we haven't talked about the nervous system and its role in our bodies and how it affects our health. I can't believe it. So now we finally are on the Thyroid Fixer podcast talking about it, because my guest today is Dr. Melissa Saunders, and this is her jam. And, yeah, we're going to get into how she made it her jam. But the most important thing for you right now listening, is that you stay tuned and keep playing, because this is a piece. You know, sometimes when we're unpacking our health, when we're thinking, okay, why isn't my thyroid getting balanced? Why are my hormones all over the place? I'm doing the BHRT thing. I'm doing the thyroid hormone thing. I'm doing the detox thing. I'm working on my sleep, but there's just something not clicking. Something is still off. I still feel this anxiety. I still have the brain fog. I still feel like I'm wired and tired. I'm cleaning my house at midnight. What's happening? Oh, and that weight is just not coming off my belly. What's happening with my body? This could be the key if you're doing all of those things, and if you're not doing all of those things, this is still a key that you need to listen to, that you might need to insert and unlock the door to. That will give you a much deeper understanding of how your body is working, and it will give you a tool, because, yes, of course, Dr. Melissa is going to give you some tips. It's going to give you a tool to literally take your health to the next level. Dr. Melissa Honors, thank you so much for joining us on the Thyroid Picture podcast today to talk about all the things that I just laid out for us.
- [07:07]
A
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited for this conversation. You know, everything you just said is so true, and this is such an important conversation. My goal is for your listeners to walk away with simple, easy tips that they can incorporate in 2 minutes or less that cost very little to nothing. You know, the reality is, is we're living in chronic stress and we're doing all the things. And this is really going to be a conversation about doing less and being more and living in alignment with the rhythm and the cycles that we are wired to live in as women and getting out of our head and into our hearts in milliseconds that we actually have access to. And this has the ability, like you mentioned, to not only impact your thyroid, but your metabolism, your ability to heal your sleep, every system of your body, because this is a conversation on the nervous system, which, as you know, is the master controller of our entire body. So I'm so excited. Thank you so much for having me.
- [08:05]
B
My gosh, my pleasure. And I think, you know, when you say that, the first thing that popped into my mind, it kind of kept circulating as you were talking is denial. And the reason why I'm saying that is because even I say I'm not stressed. I'm not that stressed. I'm doing okay, I'm not that stressed. But a few months ago, and I've been open about this, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. And it's like, maybe stress didn't play a role. Maybe I do need to step back and look at my schedule and look at how hard I push myself and look at how my nervous system is functioning. And I think I'll actually pose this as a question to you. Do you believe that as women we tend to deny that we're stressed and really literally push deep down in any kind of nervous system dysregulation that might be occurring?
- [08:57]
A
Yeah, I definitely think some of us do. And I think a lot of that is because we have to. Right? Or at least that's what we've told ourselves. Like, what else are we going to do? This is the life that we have and this is the schedule that we have to juggle. And so I want to be really clear. I'm approaching this as a real woman. I'm approaching this as a high performing woman. I'm approaching this as a woman who loves to check things off my to do list and get it all done. This is not going to be a conversation asking you to like, stop everything and sit in the woods and meditate for an hour a day. This is not going to be incorporating one hour of gratitude and sun gazing in the first part of the day. It's not realistic. And so I think. Thank you. I think there's two. Two parts of the answer to that question is one, y we do because we have to a lot of the time. And two, I think, you know, we all are under chronic stress. It's the nature of our environment. We're mammals. We're meant to have a stressful input, respond quickly to figure out, are we supposed to run for our lives? Are we supposed to flee the scene? Do we need to freeze to avoid a predator? And the second that we read the environment and make that switch, the stress is supposed to go away. That's how we're hardwired. That's how it's not how we're hardwired, it's how we're designed to be hardwired. We're still wired the same way as back when we were cave women. However, our environment has massively changed. And so what happens now is if you have a job, if you have a family, if you have relationships, if you have all these beautiful things in your life, you do experience stress. There are things called eustress and distress. And distress is, you know, what you've so vulnerably beautifully shared with your audience. Distress is the massive stressful events that we had no prediction of that came up, right? The massive, potentially life altering health challenges and things like that. Eustress is the healthy stress that we experience every day. But what has happened is instead of, you know, reading our environment, perceiving what we need to do and then dropping it, we as humans, especially as women, tend to perseverate. And we either think future tripping or past rather than being in the present. And so we create an environment of chronic stress. And that's in the conversation that we have as it relates to nervous system. That's where I want to focus because we don't want to change the EU stress in our lives. Again, this is a result of having beautiful relationships. Passion, purpose, busy schedules, those are all good things. But what we can change is the way that our nervous system perceives the environment. Our nervous system is our hardwiring and we have basically trained it to live in this state of chronic do. And so when we have these moments where we could actually catch our breath, where we could actually regulate either we don't know how to use them. And so we jump into further to dos, right? Scroll your phone, check your emails, ask ourselves questions like, what else can I get done real quick so at the end of the day then I can relax? Well, we're hardwiring our nervous system all day to do. And so when we finally get to the end of the day or the end of the week, the reality is a lot of us don't know how to relax. We don't know how to sit and be by ourselves without feeling guilty about it, without that voice creeping up, what am I doing? There's laundry to be done, there's emails to be done, right? How many women have sat and tried to do nothing, right? Like they heard on the podcast or they read in the book and all of a sudden that voice is like, what the hell am I trying to do? This is horrible. And so you get up. This is about rewiring And I will give action steps for those moments so that women can help bridge the gap from this chronic doing into the being. That was a really long answer to your question, but no, I love it.
- [12:58]
B
You nailed it. And like I said, thank you. Because that is the last thing that we need to hear is to, yeah, go out in the sunlight and look at the sun and stargate and ground and do this for an hour. And women are like, it's 45 degrees. I need to get my kids to school, and then I got to go to work.
- [13:16]
A
Nervous system hacks for the real busy woman. Because that's who we are and that's who this conversation is really for, as well as maybe the women listening, who's on the other end of the spectrum, who has been in chronic stress for so long that now she's struggling to get off the couch or now she's struggling to stop that doom scroll? I mean, that is a result of chronic stress. There's an aspect of our nervous system called the vagus nerve we can get into, but it's not your fault. And there's these beautiful, like, two minute switches and hacks that are so effective. So I'm really excited to dive in.
- [13:49]
B
Well, so am I, because I'm also thinking that there's extra stress put on us when we feel like we have to do the de stressing. Totally like that. Add stress. Yes.
- [14:03]
A
I mean, we are living in the age of information, right? And so everywhere you turn around, you know, I'm. I've been in the holistic health arena for the last 20 years. I'm a chiropractor. And now all this is mainstream, right? Like, there is no short of a shortage of podcasts that you could listen to to learn about your hormones or amazing, you know, your thyroid. You do such an incredible job of boiling down the information for people. What you're doing is so important. And then, you know, we can listen to podcasts on our morning routine. And now I'm going to come in here sliding in and talking about nervous system regulation. But, you know, what's really important is in this age of information and knowledge, is to get back to what we as women are innately born with. And that's our wisdom and that's our intuition. And so in a time when we've learned to outsource our power and we've learned to ask everyone else on the outside of us, what should I be doing? How long, how much? Right. You look at, like the cold plunge conversation, for instance. I don't know. I feel like, anytime it pops up on my socials or anywhere, it's like, do it this way, don't do it this way. If you're a women, do it like this. If you're a male, do it like this. What about just tapping into, like, having the ability to listen to what works for you and maybe pairing that with some of the knowledge and data. But ultimately, you know, what we've learned as far as like cycle syncing and cold plunging, it probably very much matches what a woman would innately be feeling called to or not called to, as far as when in the month to cold plunge and when not to. And so my goal is always to get women back to a place of yes, listen to the information out there because it's so important. We now know so much about natural ways to boost and impact our health. And let's start to believe a little bit more in our own inner wisdom and our gut and our intuition. And let's use some of these nervous system tools to help get that voice louder so that next time when you have that gut feeling and maybe, you know, previously you didn't listen and you regretted it, perhaps in the future that gut feeling will get louder and more clear so that you can start to feel more confident that you too know the best way for you.
- [16:22]
B
Okay, so I have to ask, did you get into this work through your own kind of pain to purpose story? Because this is a very unique kind of niche and it has to be because you went through some kind of shit show that threw your body off, right?
- [16:38]
A
So how did you get here? Yeah, total shit show. So as I said, a chiropractor. We've got three children. I was working full time in the clinic doing all the things that we, as rushing women do. I was actually homeschooling our three kids at the time. Really our two kids, because our daughter was really little. So homeschooling our two boys and just quote, unquote, doing all the right things, eating right, fasting, working out, going to CrossFit, lifting weights, not knowing where to fit everything. So just getting up earlier, pounding caffeine so that I could do it, hearing these little whispers, the whispers, I don't know if anyone's listening. Have you heard those whispers where your body's like, I just need a little bit more sleep. Or at the end of the day when maybe it's saying things like, I just need a break. And my answers to those voices were, too bad, don't have time, too bad, you're tired. I'll give you a really strong coffee. You're going to go flip some tires under the fluorescent lights at CrossFit, even though it's 5am Been there.
- [17:41]
B
Oh, God, you're speaking my language.
- [17:42]
A
Or evening. You know, I would come home from a full day at work, not only seeing my patients, but managing our staff and cooking for our family. And the voice is telling me I need a break. I deserve to sit down. And in my head, I didn't have the option. Right. Who else is going to cook? I can't sit down. I got to cook dinner. So I'd have a glass of wine. You know, the amount I was drinking wasn't a problem. But the reason I was drinking, in hindsight now, was it was my way to quiet that voice. And honestly, it was my way to feel like I was doing something for me, because I didn't feel that I had another option. And I think, you know, even to this day, me as a mom, this is why us moms love drinks. And I'm not just talking about alcoholic drinks, but, you know, I'm driving my kids to school. I'm like, what fun drink can I have? It's our way to take care of ourselves while we're serving everybody else. It's like this passive little sippy cup that we get.
- [18:36]
B
Yeah, it is, right? Yeah, it's like. It's the adult female sippy cup.
- [18:40]
A
Totally. I mean, they've done studies. I read this in a book a long time ago that cars with more cup holders will sell to women and cars with less cup holders won't. Okay. Anyway, total digression. But, you know, I didn't feel that I had the tools to actually be able to listen to what I needed. And so as every whisper does, it turns into a scream. And I ended up getting really sick. I started having really bad headaches. My energy was just plummeting. I was breastfeeding my daughter at the time. I had two other kids that were young and just figured it was a result of that. And then things just kept getting worse and worse, and I was starting to forget people's names that I see all the time. I got lost on my way to the office, which was two miles from our home. Like, very, very scary things started to happen. And so my scream came in the form of a neurological insult, and it was meningitis and encephalitis. It was exacerbated by mold toxicity and a tick bite.
- [19:44]
B
Wow. And you'll have to explain, I know how detrimental that combo is, but explain to the listener, I mean, that can Be life threatening. And that can steal motor function, it can steal neurological function. I mean, that could have been a bad deal.
- [20:01]
A
Yeah, it was really scary. You know, I had a one year old, a four year old and a six year old. And before we figured out what was wrong, it felt like I had Alzheimer's or dementia. You know, it felt like I had cobwebs in my brain. And so it got really scary really fast. You know, I think we've all had that feeling where we walk out of a room and we forget why we left the room. It was like that, but to the nth degree. And so, you know, sitting here knowing that I've got to take care of my practice, I've got to take care of my patients, of course, such a, such a female brain way to think. I've got to take care of my children and now my husband's got to take all that on and taking care of me. It was bad. I got on a vitamin regimen real quick. My husband is a functional medicine practitioner, also a chiropractor. But literally, I mean it was checklists and writing notes to me everywhere. I couldn't remember simple things, I couldn't write an email. I mean it, it was really, really hard. I got social anxiety because I would be out in certain social situations and I literally couldn't figure out how I knew someone or how they knew me. It was very awkward. I had some very uncomfortable interactions with people I had known for a long time and, and I'm a very social person. I'm very happy, I'm very energetic. I retain a lot of information very quickly normally. So it was devastating. It was devastating. And you know, thank God I had the access to some of the greatest equipment to help me get better. I mean, we have hyperbaric oxygen chambers in our clinic and in our home. I've got my husband who guided me through supplements. Like I was able to start noticing remarkable differences in a couple of weeks. But what I started to really realize is that once I got better, I was just going to put myself in the same situation to get some sort of dis ease or illness again. If I kept going the way that I was going, which is probably how most women are going. It was an over scheduled routine that I, it wasn't sustainable. And when I wasn't able to do it, I wasn't necessarily looking at what I was trying to get done. I was looking at myself as a failure. I was looking at myself and wondering, why can't I do this all? What is wrong with Me, other women are out there doing it. You know, we live in an age of social media where we all know and I know you talk about these things, I'm sure, like we're seeing everyone's highlight reel and we're comparing ourselves. And so I knew that I had to start to ask different questions. I knew that these mantras that were handed it as women, you know, put your oxygen mask on before serving others. Like I thought I was answering that question by getting up early and hitting the gym. And I think ultimately that is something that's really healthy and important for us. But there were times when my body was begging for a break and I didn't know how and when to listen and lean in. Yeah. And so I needed to figure out ways to take care of myself in the micro moments that would actually give me a lot of benefit. As if I had gone to the massage or as if I had gone to the self care appointment that I didn't have time for. Either I was choosing to duck out of work early or spend time away from my family and loved ones and all those things just weren't really accessible. So it set me on this curious trajectory. And I've done about eight to 10 years of just digging in the neuroscience and the research. And what's really cool is there's a lot out there and it's nervous system regulation. And this happens in seconds and minutes, not ours. And this is how we get the benefit of all those things. And both are important, the macro and the micro. But rather than just looking at, you know, in my case I was looking at self care as being this macro thing, this appointment, this one hour. If it's not a one hour workout, it's not effective. If it's not one hour on the massage table, I don't get a chance to relax. No, it's the microdosing and I don't mean plant medicine. Here there's a time and a place, but this is microdosing connection with ourselves and this is microdosing nervous system regulation. Because last thing I'll say on that. Our hard wiring is the way that we react and respond to our environment and it learns through consistency. We are consistently teaching our nervous system and our hard wiring to live in high paced, what's called beta brainwaves. It's the get shit done brainwave. And it's meant to go, but it's meant to run from about nine to five and the second we are exposed to our screens or blue light or white light from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, we are in beta and so we are over frying the system and so we can start to talk about, you know, we need to spend time in first and second gear. Beta brainwaves are our third gear. And we can talk about the water breaks that I like to explain that we all need to take during the day. Beta is our marathoner. She's our nine to five. She's our work girl. Right. But she needs water breaks. And so how can we take these two minute micro moment connections and microdosing nervous system regulation in the midst of our day, in between our zoom calls, in between our podcasting, in between the emails, and create massive change and massive regulation in our nervous system? Because that's how we win as women. And that's how we actually start to get it all done, by finally focusing on not just what we do, but who we be as we do it.
- [25:36]
B
Teach me. Teach me, Obi Wan. Okay, this is amazing. You just literally took a huge weight off of women's shoulders. Off of my shoulders. I felt it as you were talking because I admittedly am in that mindset of it. Well, it's all or nothing. I mean, come on, why would I? What's two minutes gonna do? I need that hour of meditation and laying on my PMF mat. Right. So. So please now, teach. What can I do? What can I do in a short amount of time that is actually going to make a difference?
- [26:10]
A
Yeah. I will tell you just one thing I want to say. I've got. I mean, I'm sitting here, I'm in a very fortunate situation. I have a penf mat behind me. I've got a sauna over there. I have a hyperbaric chamber right there. I've got a photon red light. I use all these things. I will tell you, the microdosing is what I use 90% of the time. I use these tools for the macro. I had a red eye flight that went horrible. I got stuck in Dallas, Right. A couple days ago. So I drop in and I use the heavy hitters. But on the daily, you know, if I'm using the tools, I'm microdosing them, I'm sitting on them for two to five minutes. But the other ones, the ones that we'll talk about right now, are the majority of my tools. I am healthier now than I've ever been. I run multiple companies. I've got three kids. I'm not saying this to, to show off or, you know, highlight that I'm this go getter, but I'M saying all that to say I still get everything done. But what has massively changed is that at the end of the day, I feel good about how the day went. At first, it was this really weird feeling because when you're not used to having calm and contentment and space, it feels really, really weird. Especially for someone who's created busyness and movement. You know, a high performer, a type A, the kind of woman who everyone can rely on to get it done because you won't drop the balls. Like, that is me. I think that is probably a lot of your listeners. What started to happen is I get to the end of the day and I'm like, what did I miss? What did I miss? Like something. I must have dropped the ball somewhere because today felt so easy and it was just. No, it felt calm and regulated. And at the beginning, it feels weird because we're not used to it. And so as I'm going into talking about these tools, one of the most important things that I cannot stress enough is that our nervous system craves what is familiar. What is familiar is marked as safe to our nervous system.
- [28:14]
B
Wait, I'm going to pause you right there real quick because I want to throw this in. Does this also include when people think that familiar. Like, that is familiar. Like, they even start, you know, like, oh, this destructive behavior, let's say, having five glasses of wine a night, which probably would be too much, that that's familiar and that's comforting at the same time. So this goes bad and good.
- [28:37]
A
Yeah. For a lot of us, we have created familiar environments that aren't serving us. And so our nervous system will crave a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven every time. Yeah, yeah. And so this is one of the most important things for the audience to grasp because you will get in your own way as far as moving forward with new healthy habits. And all you gotta do here, all you gotta do to win, is just become aware of what you're doing as you're doing it. It. This is not about perfection. This is not about going into your life and changing everything and judging and shaming yourself when it doesn't work and when you don't do it perfectly. This is about practice because the nervous system, again, works through consistency. And so if all you do is you start to notice that five glasses of wine. Right. I get to. Let's take a dramatic situation that could be very real for someone. You get to the end of the night, you're feeling all sorts of things, and you go to your familiar anchor of the Five glasses of wine and you're like, shit, this is not healthy for me. I should not be doing this. Ultimately, of course, the goal is to change that habit. It's not serving anyone, we know that. But if you just simply start with pausing, creating an awareness of it. Wow, look at me pulling to this. Because it's familiar and I think it's safe, even though it's self destructive. And I'm going to make a choice and I'm going to do it. That is a win. Because in the pause is choice and choice is power. And so this starts to get you to a point where you are rewiring your nervous system and you're no longer simply just living off an old script. You are starting to create a new pathway, a new choice. And every time you create an awareness, you give yourself an opportunity to create a new choice. And every time, even if you're just slowly paving that pathway, it becomes easier and easier. So at first, maybe it's just an awareness and a thought, and then next maybe it becomes, how about I have one glass and then I'll have a glass of water and then I'll have the other four. Great. Then maybe it comes, I'll have one glass, I'll have a glass of water, I'll have a seltzer, and then I'm gonna go for a walk. I'm gonna create connection with myself or with a loved one. You see? So it's just about starting to repave new pathways.
- [31:06]
B
Okay, that can be done.
- [31:08]
A
All right, super important, because. And I'm so glad you brought that up because that is going to happen in any one of these scenarios. If I'm going to talk about using this two minutes in between emails or phone calls or podcast interviews or whatever that probably a lot of us grab our phones without even really thinking about it. We grab it without having an intention. It's a habit. Right. And so where we start to make the switch is pausing. Ask a question. What am I doing here? Why am I doing this? What am I looking for? And then doing it. That is a win. That is how we.
- [31:45]
B
Okay, so like before we grab our phone and like, would you say doom scroll, which we all do, actually pause and say, what am I grabbing this for? Am I expecting a call? Do I need to text my daughter? You know, like what? Or am I just gonna mindlessly scroll for the next 10 minutes? Like literally put it in your mind and make a decision?
- [32:06]
A
Yes, and all of it is great. There is no judgment. And you are doing great by just practicing that Flex and asking yourself those questions. But I want to go into now I want to go into actual, like tangible things to start to do because as we're making these changes and we can talk about brainwaves too, because that's some really good takeaway information for your audience. And we'll get there. But first, we want to start to hardwire our nervous system to crave calm and regulation and like empty space instead of all of our to dos as familiar. And so we've got to start to microdose these moments of calm and regulation. So I want to give people some action steps because I think as regular to doers, whenever I'm talking about this in my communities or online or to women, they're like, okay, tell me what to do. It's like, no, the whole point is just be. But I get it. We need the to do. We need the anchor. Tell me how to spend this time. So I want to give you a few things to do in two minutes that will start to hardwire your nervous system and regulate you to start to be able to find and feel safe in the calm. Number one, go outside. Ideally, if temperatures aren't great, you don't have to, but you want to for five minutes, ideally, look at something over five feet away from you. And you want to aim to do this three to five times a day. And I'll tell you why, But I'm going to say that again, just so everyone gets it for five minutes, up to five times a day, look at something over five feet away from you.
- [33:41]
B
Okay?
- [33:42]
A
So when we're looking at anything nearby, which you think about, if you really think about this, we're doing it all the time. If you're looking at your computer, if you're looking at your phone, if you're looking at your screen, we hardwire our nervous system. We are living in a state of fight or flight or survival. It puts us into our sympathetic nervous system. It's very near vision, it's focused. It's our. We're basically scanning for threats is what our brain thinks. So we live in our brain instead of our hearts. We live in our head instead of our hearts. If we want to kind of simplify the languaging. Like we're either in sympathetics, which is fight or flight, which is our head, or we're in parasympathetics, which is the place we need to be to heal the thyroid, our metabolism, our hormones, everything. And that could be our hearts. So when we simply expand our gaze, we instantly switch from a state of Fight or flight in our head, and we get in our hearts. So we can do this a couple ways. I recommend we can do this, you know, just to start to train our nervous system on those couple minute breaks that we have during the day. We can start to access this. We can set a timer on our phones. This is what I do between emails, zoom calls, podcasts. I literally. I posted all the time on my stories. I go look at the lizards down the road. I walk around my neighborhood. It takes me two minutes. I look at the lizards, they all run, and I come back. You can also use this when you get into a moment. You know, we all have them. It's like you're having a great day, and then boom, someone cuts you off in traffic, or you get that email or that text or that phone call and stuff doesn't feel so great. You can use this in the moment to literally, like, hack into the nervous system and get you from your head into your heart. It can instantly get you back into parasympathetics.
- [35:35]
B
Okay, I'm digging this. I'm literally, like, I'm closing my eyes for those who are just listening, and I'm picturing myself walking outside looking 5ft in front of me. You're absolutely right, Melissa. As soon as you do that, even me picturing doing that, it's like I just came down a couple of notches.
- [35:53]
A
And these things are so subtle. And, you know, for so long, I think we've all heard, you know, journaling, practice and gratitude and sun gazing and all these things. And I did, too. And I'm like, I didn't do them because I didn't feel that anything this short could really move the needle. And I just felt like I need something harder to do because that's how things actually work, was my mindset. And so I just want to say that in case anyone listening is perhaps thinking the same thing, I will tell you this absolutely is one of the fastest ways to change and rewire our nervous system, not just in the moment, but chronically. This is one of the most effective ways to go from living in a state of just chronic anxiety or inability to heal, or constantly having hormonal fluctuations or maybe thyroid challenges that aren't healing. This is how we do it, and the science behind it is super powerful. So that's one of my favorite ones. Sounds so subtle, but try it. Try it for a week and see how you start to feel. I love that I want to go into the brain waves because I think you've got a really educated audience. And I really want them to walk away with some powerful info here. So is that okay to do?
- [37:05]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Let's do it.
- [37:06]
A
Okay. And we've got some great resources we can link below for anyone whose interest is piqued by this. But basically, you know, we, as women, I think we know that we're cyclical, we're rhythmic, right? So we've got a monthly rhythm either according to our menstrual cycles or for women who no longer bleed, according to the moon. Well, what a lot of people don't realize is women are also, we have a very highly attuned daily rhythm. And so for, you know, many women, if we, you know, hit the ground running in the morning, we are living completely out of alignment with that rhythm. And so I want to talk now about some little tiny tweaks that we can make, because if all you do is simply start to understand the gear that you're supposed to be in in a certain time of day and we lean into that, this leads to peak productivity. This leads to nervous system regulation, this leads to getting it all done, but liking how you feel. This leads to less snapping at your loved ones and then regretting it later and then losing sleep over it. It just leads to everything happening more in a state of flow and less in a state of force.
- [38:16]
B
Have you heard about the incredible health benefits of fasting? Of course you have. But do you struggle to go without food like I do? Or maybe you're a season faster and you're just looking for that next level edge. Let me introduce you to Mimeo, the first fasting memetic supplement designed from human biology to mimic the cellular effects of a 36 hour fast without skipping meals. This is amazing. We know that fasting turns on powerful longevity pathways. It promotes cellular repair, it boosts metabolic flexibility, supports cognitive health, and even help slow the aging process. But let's face it, fasting for 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours, it's not easy, it's not always practical, and it's not easy. That's where Mimeo health comes in. After over seven years of clinical fasting research, the team at Mimeo has developed a daily supplement that replicates those same cellular benefits without forcing your body into a true fast. Mimeo has been clinically validated in three human studies, and the results are stunning. In just eight weeks, users experienced a reduction in biological age by over 2.5 years. That means better metabolic and cardiovascular health, sharper thinking, more autophagy and cellular regeneration. That's the kind of resilience and longevity we're all looking for. As someone who understands both the science and the real life challenges of fasting, I can honestly say mimeo is a game changer for me. I personally have tried mimeo and I was blown away by the energy, mental clarity and just how much easier it is to put it into my wellness routine without being miserable fasting for 36 hours. So whether you're new or you just want to deepen the results, Mimeo's biomimetic cell care gives you the fast without the fast. And right now you can try it risk free. Risk free. Mimeo's happiness guarantee and special offer just for my listeners. Oh, it's so good. You're gonna head to mimeohealth.com M I M I O H E A L T H.com use the code Dr. AmY-R-A M I E and get 20 off your first order. But there's no product that can add more years to your life than this one. Mimeo Health. You can add more life to your years as well. So mimeohealth.com code Dr. Amy for 20% off.
- [40:37]
A
Okay, so this is one of my favorite things to talk about with women and one of my favorite resources that people love. So there are, I'm going to talk about four main brain waves that we oscillate through in our days and basically how to get in each one, how we subconsciously pull ourselves out of each one, and then, you know, kind of like the purpose of each one of them. So our first brainwave is called theta and theta is a dreamlike state. It's what we're all in when we start to wake up in the morning. So this is, you know, before our eyes even open. And you know, if you're really paying attention and checking in, this is usually when you'll start to ask yourself subconscious questions, perhaps like, how am I going to get it all done? I know those were the things that I used to ask before I woke up. And still I catch myself asking. I just rewire in the moment or, you know, replaying scenarios from yesterday. Usually we don't always have like the best thoughts when we first wake up and data but a really important time to start to tune in and listen. Theta is the gateway to our subconscious. Theta is where we can rewire our nervous system in half the time because of that fast track to our subconscious. Anything that we do in theta is really programming our nervous system. So it's a really important time to be super protective of what you're Listening to.
- [42:03]
B
Because theta is essentially what hypnosis is. You're in that theta state to be very suggestible.
- [42:11]
A
100%. And so my parents. Oh, my dad still wakes up and gets right on his news. He calls it my news. And it is one of the worst times, morning and night that you could do that. Because the gateway to subconscious is open. And so super important time. The action step for Theta is to listen. But to listen to you. If you've ever heard anyone say, I get my best ideas in the shower. I don't know if you've ever said that to yourself or heard someone say that. That is because you're in Theta.
- [42:42]
B
And so I get my best ideas in the morning. So this makes sense. My, my assistant hates it that I text her at 6:30am you're channeling.
- [42:50]
A
Yes. Yeah. If you're a creator, I don't know if you do enneagram. If you know your enneagram.
- [42:56]
B
I don't. I haven't done that.
- [42:57]
A
Okay. So for big ideas people, usually for serial entrepreneurs, the morning is a big time where women like us are flooded with information. This is. You have a fast track to source. So whether you know someone is someone who believes in God or source or universe or your intuition, this is the time. And so even if it's just for five minutes, this is where I had to throw out everyone's morning routine that I was seeing online. The one hour gratitude practice, whatever. I thought that if I couldn't do that, I couldn't have an effective morning. But when I realized all this stuff, it completely changed the game. And so you want to spend some time in Theta, even if it's five minutes. And so the action step is to listen to you, not anyone else. This is not the time for the podcast. Just wait a little bit later. This is not the time for the news. This is not the time for scrolling Instagram. It's okay, just wait a little bit. This is the time to listen to you. And the way that we accidentally pull ourselves out of Theta is with our lighting and our screens. So this is where circadian rhythm lighting is super important. This is where, you know, putting some red lights in your house is really effective. I'm sure everyone here knows about therapeutic red light. You can also, just when I first began, I literally got red light bulbs on Amazon and I just put them in our lamps lamps. There's a book light that I got on Amazon. It's an amber clip on book light. So if you're someone who likes to read or you just Need a bit of a flashlight. That's circadian friendly. You can grab those two. I think they're about $10. So, Theta, listen, protect your peace and your space and monitor your light. Then. So that's like gear one. Then we go into what's called Alpha. And Alpha is a flow state. Alpha is present time consciousness. Alpha is our heart opener and connector. And so again, every time that we spend time in these states, remember, we are wiring our nervous system so that we can find these again, easier later in the day. So just going back to Theta for a minute. She is our daydreamer. And you remember back in the day, before phones were everywhere, how much we daydreamed, how much we had an expansive gaze going back to that nervous system hack where you just look up over five feet away from you. We did that naturally. It's ingrained in us to crave that the phones have messed that up. Yeah. And so by spending a few minutes in Theta in the morning, what you'll start to see will become easier, is, you know, perhaps when you're in the line at the grocery store, instead of having putting our phones in our face, maybe you'll take a moment to catch your breath and just look around. Right. Or maybe if you're a passenger in a car, like, staring out the window. I know those things sound kind of silly, but it's also where we not only clear the slate which our brain needs, but we get that channel open for those ideas, like you said.
- [45:59]
B
Yep.
- [45:59]
A
We are missing so much beautiful information, intuition, and wisdom because we're clogged all the time with information. Okay, so then we go into Alpha. Love me some Alpha. So studies show spending just a few minutes in Alpha in the morning will lead to peak productivity later in the day. So for anyone who's got the hard wiring, who's, you know, maybe hesitating in these moments, like, I have so much to do. I can't waste this five minutes here. You can, I promise. And it'll actually help you get more done later in the day. So for Alpha, this is, like I said, the connection. So I like to use the action step is connect. This is where you connect with yourself, connect with your body. You can connect with your voice. So what I mean by that, this can be like some light movements, maybe some yoga, stretching, mobilization. This can be journaling. This is a really good spot for journaling, where maybe you're taking what you heard in Theta and you're writing it down. And every time we do that, we are helping our voice, our Wisdom, our intuition, our channeling God, whatever it is that speaks to you, get louder. And so in those moments throughout our day where we're making 30,000 decisions, we can start to have the ability to simply go inward instead of outsourcing our power to everyone else and their beliefs and ask, what is it that I need? What is it that I want? What is it about this moment or these people or this situation that doesn't feel good and what do I need? You think about how powerful that is. How many circles, social situations do we go into? And we stuff that voice.
- [47:39]
B
Yes. And we feel it. Women more than men. Again, this is what we do as women.
- [47:44]
A
And we feel it in our nervous system. Our nervous system is our intuition. Our nervous system is our intuition. And she speaks in symptoms and signals. So when you are feeling things in your body start to check in. We create the ability to hear that voice when we create these moments of quiet and connection with ourself.
- [48:07]
B
So I have to share something with you. Maybe you can unpack it for me. There are times where I didn't even know I had this intuition until it's happened, like at least five to six times in my life over the last two years. Really. I will get this anxious feeling out of the blue. I can be sitting here with you and then just all of a sudden go, oh. And something will happen later in the day. It's like my intuition is so strong regarding. And it's not like a predictive thing. It's just that intuition, I. E. My nervous system. I felt it as anxiety that something then occurred that was, you know, threw me off bat, whatever. During the day.
- [48:53]
A
Yeah, I think. I think it's really interesting. I think that we all come here as highly intuitive beings. And we have the opportunity for those hits of insight and connection and gut feelings. And I think we. A lot of women have stopped having the ability or capability to listen to them because I think we've created so much anxiety and turmoil and noise that we don't know what's ours and what something else's. And so I think for women who are very connected and regulated and tapped in 100%, I relate to that. I get that. And I think it's really important to listen. We've got antenna out. And then for women who are maybe listening that feel anxious a lot of the time, you know, perhaps start to use some of these tools to get regulated so you can start to differentiate between what's, you know, anxiety because I'm in an environment or I'm around people that aren't serving me or I'm making choices that aren't healthy for me. This is my nervous system saying no more, this is too much versus this is my gut feeling saying this isn't right. And listening and, you know, making changes based on that. That's so important. I'm so glad you brought that up. Yeah.
- [49:59]
B
Well, now, thank you for. Because I've always thought like this is some kind of just nervous system signal that my body is giving me that I need to listen to.
- [50:08]
A
Yeah. And I think the more, you know, again, the more we can create these habits of regulation, the more we can start to really listen to that. The idea of this whole conversation, of this whole tactic is not to not get stressed. It's not to not have moments or instances of dysregulation because that is life, that is reality. But the goal is to be able to regulate quickly because again, going back to what we talked about at the beginning, as mammals, we're intended to do so stressful event cortisol, all the things. Right. To get us into safety and then regulation.
- [50:45]
B
And so what is that brain wave we're in when we're in fight or flight? When, when we need that fight or flight to run from the danger?
- [50:53]
A
Yeah, that would usually be beta. Beta is our most, you know, aware, focused, targeted brainwave. That's where we spend a lot of our time. There's also, you know, a lot of stress chemicals that are released that also add to that. But it's beta and she's, you know, we're spending a lot of time there. Every time you're looking at a screen, even if you don't feel it, we are in beta. And so just a quick side note, you think about, I mean, I still catch myself doing this, but I catch it and it's a choice. Gosh, it's been such a long day. Let me just get a brain break. Let me just scroll my phone. I just need passive for a minute. It feels good and I sometimes do it. Right. But knowing full well it is the total opposite of a brain break because you're, you're staying in beta. So a brain break is the two minute, five, you know, five foot, expansive gaze. Like work in both. Right. It's not. Our life is on our screens and that is our reality. And I love social media and I love scrolling and I love watching Netflix. I love all the things. It's not either or, it's both and. Right, do both. But just maybe be aware that grabbing your phone is not a brain break. So Go do the walk first. Go look at the lizards or whatever it is that you have outside, the flowers, the trees, daydream for a moment and then go to your phone because it's going to be very different when you hop on there.
- [52:19]
B
You're speaking such truth. I mean, if the listeners aren't feeling this at the depth that I'm feeling it, well then, okay, shame on you for not feeling. Because you're all here, come on, then. You're not. You're lying to yourself like you are. Melissa, you are literally speaking to me and every single one of my listeners. I'm sorry, like it. That's just reality. We are all guilty.
- [52:43]
A
We are all.
- [52:43]
B
I'm even sitting here thinking, like, you know what I lie to myself about? I go, if I can just, if I can just answer these five emails and get them off my plate, I will feel calm. Well, no, no, that's just me entering data for another 10 minutes as I answer those damn emails. Yeah, like I just lied to myself.
- [53:02]
A
Well, it's so important to talk about that because, you know, I don't even want to say we're guilty because I think we guilt and shame ourselves enough, but we all do it. And I think the reality is once you have this information and understand what gear you need to be in a certain time, or that your body has been in beta and she's begging for a break and instead this is one of the most powerful switches you can make. Instead of saying, I'll do these five minutes, five emails, and then I'll feel calm, go do the calm first. Right, because your emails will feel completely different. That is the biggest switch. Let's make sure everyone really takes that home. Because in the old world, before this information, we used to all think that in order to access the calm, we needed an hour. You now know that you don't. You can get those five emails done and you can simply take a two minute break before you do it. Expand your gaze. I'll talk about Alpha in a second because there's an Alpha hijack here that works really well. But this is how we change the game. This is how everything becomes easier and we live in flow instead of force. Because we have all done that. Let me just do these so that tomorrow is easier. Let me just finish this off so that. Fill in the blank. Okay, Alpha. Alpha is our heart, space and our connector. Alpha is anything that gets you into Alpha gets you into present time. One of the best ways to get into Alpha, which, by the way, expert meditators train for years to access Alpha, and we wake up in it just after theta. So as long as you don't pull yourself out with light. Light, it's the same thing as theta. Just be very conscious of your light and your input. You will be an Alpha. If you are someone who has a busy brain and is struggling with this quiet downtime because you've trained your nervous system, like many of us, to go, you can look at a flickering flame, you can light a candle. You can't see it in my frame here, but I have one literally right here because I often need it in the morning. There are mirror neurons in our brain, which I think a lot of us know what those are. But in case anyone doesn't, mirror neurons are what gives us the ability to read someone's face and kind of match what they're doing, right? So if you've ever looked at a baby and you've smiled big and the baby smiles big, reacting to, that's the baby's mirror neurons. And so our mirror neurons, when we look at a flickering flame, match the frequency of that flickering flame, which is the brainwave frequency of Alpha. So if you are too much in your head and you, for whatever reason, can't use movement or a nature walk or your expansive gaze, like, if it's just not doing it, you can look at a flickering flame and that will get you into your heart. Alpha is huge for accessing when you're going to connect with a loved one or really anyone in your life, because it's gonna slow you down. So as a mom, I'm in beta, right? I'm in work mode. I will leave here and go pick up my kids in the car. I will get into alpha so that when they get in the car, I'm not living in such a heightened state that, like, one thing goes wrong and I'm thrown off. I think we've all been there as moms. It's like you're just at that tip. So I used to spend those moments, you know, checking emails, getting that last thing done. And now the question I ask is, how can I get into my heart before I'm with my children? Because it's a completely different experience. And not just in connecting with them, but how it feels, you know, if you're in beta and then you get your kids, like, I'm just gonna say this, no judgment. It's. It can be really hard. It can be really hard. Like, what am I missing? I gotta be getting stuff done now. They need me. And it's just. It's it doesn't mix well. And so it's. Instead of cramming them in so that you can get to that place, get to that place first. Get to that heart space. It's really interesting too. I'm always looking at this. You know, romantic restaurants have the flickering flame, candle on the table.
- [56:54]
B
Yes, yes, you're right.
- [56:56]
A
If you're with someone and you can't connect at the flame and then you'll get right there.
- [57:01]
B
Beautiful. Yeah, no, that's a great point. Because it's meant to bring people into that calmer state, that connection state.
- [57:10]
A
Yeah.
- [57:10]
B
And then you probably order more wine and eat a dessert. Right. Restaurant makes more money and then.
- [57:16]
A
Okay, so beta is our go getter. I just want to be conscious of the time. I'm not sure how much time we have, but I want to talk about evening wind down because that's really important and I think that's another time that we as women skip. So after Theta, Alpha is beta. And I don't think a lot of us need help getting into Beta. She's the workforce. So for most women who are get her done women, if anything, we spend too much time in beta. Right. So just a couple things I want to say about that before we move on to the last one. The evening wind down beta, like I said, she is intended to work from 9 to 5. And so as much as we can in the age of emails and texts and slack. I know it's not super realistic that anyone's workday anymore is 9 to 5, but just be conscious of that. And what's really important during beta is to add in these micro doses of theta and alpha which you now all have a good idea of how to access through those little two minute breaks. Okay, I wanna pivot now to Delta. This is our healing wind down. We've all heard, you know, evening routine is super important, take your bath, do the thing, blah, blah, blah. All the things that, you know, a lot of women don't always have access to or we're cramming in those emails to get it done before the day is over. This is a really important end cap to your day. So my hope with having this little bit of information is to put a stop on cramming in those last minute emails and such and saving them for the next day for your beta time. We're not going to be super effective at this time. We're going to be overriding and burning out Beta when our body and nervous system is just desperately needing that break week. If we've been working all day, Delta is our healer. This is where our hormones regulate. This is where our lymphatic system shines. This is where the glymphatics or lymphs of our brain clear out. This is really one of the most important times for our nervous system, our master healer, to get to regulate, heal, regenerate, repair every system in our body. It happens at night. And for any woman who perhaps struggles with sleep or puts the head on the pillow and all the thoughts start coming up about what did or didn't go so well during the day, this is a really important end cap. So ideally it's 20 minutes, but even if it's five, you just basically want to reverse and go into alpha and then theta and then go to bed. So, you know, this is. I love books. Books. Regulate your nervous system. Literally reading the words across a page will activate a part of your brain called your corpus callosum, which will get you instantly out of your head and into your heart and body. So if you need an action step, if you need a to do item, literally reading like two pages before you go to bed is huge. That's where that clip on light is one of my favorite things because it's circadian and you can be doing that and get into alpha and theta right before you wind down. Really important to just shut the laptops, turn off your phones. I mean, I'm sure you've talked about this, we all know this. Put it on, do not disturb. But hopefully knowing that this time of night is really for Delta and if we miss this, we miss the opportunity to heal, repair, regulate, regenerate, all the things. And so it's super detrimental and it's not worth it. I would just bump everything you can to your time slot tomorrow. You'll be so much more effective and productive.
- [60:34]
B
Okay, so we can still watch a little bit of Netflix with some blue light blocking, glasses on, then shut it off and read, let's say a real book, not a Kindle, because that totally goes against everything because it's an electronic screen. So we can then read a real book even for five minutes before shutting out the light and going to bed.
- [60:58]
A
Yes, all of that. You know, one of my favorite things to do as a family together, we watch a little something for like 15, 20 minutes almost every night. And it's super cuddly and super nurturing. And so again, this isn't either or. This isn't like, ditch your screens, ditch everything or be healthy. It's both. And so just like Dr. Amy said, you know, put on Some blue light blockers or at least dim the lights, make it super cozy and then make sure to work in that time where there aren't screens. You're looking at something like a book and really doing some full on light maintenance and regulation before bed.
- [61:29]
B
I love that. And it's totally doable. Everything that you laid out for us today is completely, completely and totally doable. And it doesn't add any stress to the plate. It really doesn't.
- [61:41]
A
It really doesn't. I mean, you know, if everyone just took maybe one of these things and start to incorporate it for a week, I would love to hear. I mean they can comment, they can email me, they can reach out. We'll give them all that at the end of the podcast. But just pick one thing. You know, I think so often we as women assume that things have to be hard or difficult or big in order to make changes. And it's really like I said at the beginning of the show, I've got access to some of the best tools and it's these subtleties and these microdosing connection and regulation that have completely changed my life and my health.
- [62:11]
B
Well, and you're changing the life and health of so many with what you do with your platform, with working with people and with your new book coming out, the connection code. So based on all of that, I know we're going to have all of this in the show. Notes for where people can buy the book. But can you tell people where they can find you, where they can work with you, your team, find more resources and get the book?
- [62:37]
A
Yeah, absolutely. So my website, drmelissasoners.com is a great resource. We'll have everything on there. I've got some freebies under the resources tab where people can go in depth with some of the concepts we shared here. We'll have links to my book below as well. And then I've got some courses, masterclasses and things like that they can find on the website too to take this information further.
- [62:58]
B
Well, you have a five day challenge of being self with is how you put it. So tell people about that because I want to put that link in there. I think that's great.
- [63:07]
A
Yeah. So I wanted to flip the word from selfish to self with. You know, I think we think taking this me time can be selfish, but it's one of the most important things we do. It's taking care of ourselves is how we take care of others. And what I wanted to do in this five day challenge is really simplify it. And so each day there's literally one thing to change and add in that takes, takes minutes. It's probably one of the easiest things you'll ever do and it's one of my highest loved resources. So it's, you know, I think it's really a testament to doing less and being more is really what we're looking for and what we need these days as women.
- [63:44]
B
I love it. And we do. And we do need that.
- [63:47]
A
So.
- [63:47]
B
Dr. Melissa oh my gosh, this has been amazing. This is incredible. And you spoke to me on such a deep level throughout this entire podcast. Whether I like it or not. So whether I want to face it or not, it's needed. It's needed. It's needed by my entire audience. So I thank you so much for the work that you do and thank you for coming on and just having this really open, honest discussion with myself and my audience. I greatly appreciate you.
- [64:14]
A
You're so welcome. Thank you for having me. Anyone. If you have any questions, reach out. This is my favorite topic and happy to support you.
- [64:20]
B
Amazing. So we'll put all the links down in the show notes, go check them out and thank you for listening. We'll see you next time. The information shared on the Thyroid Fixer Podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified healthc care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements, or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient, or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussing or promoting certain products or services. Any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the host or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.