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

Originally aired: June 9, 2025 This week, Bunnie brings on her personal doctor and friend, Dr. Leah Cordovez - a calm, no-BS physician who blends science and nature to actually know her patients. They talk about Dr. C’s wild journey from Panama to private practice, what it’s like treating Bunnie’s weekly “emergencies,” and why the bond between doctor and patient matters more than we think. Dr. C also answers your questions about sleep, endometriosis, weight, poop (yes, really), and how to actually feel better without shame, shortcuts, or guesswork. Dr. Cordovez: Be Well https://bewellihp.com/who-we-are/ Watch Full Episodes & More: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Dumbblondepod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Bunnie XO?

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• 0:42Bunnie XO?

  Head to chime.com/bunny. That's chime.com/b-u-n-n-i-e. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com/disclosures for details.

• 1:01Bunnie XO?

  Y'all know I love being comfortable, especially when it gets cold. That's why I'm loving Bombas this time of year. They make the absolute best socks, slippers, and winter footwear to keep you warm and cozy all season long. I love their plush gripper socks and cushy sundae slippers for lounging around the house. And when I'm running errands, their water-resistant suede booties are just as comfortable. Bombas also makes buttery breathable underwear and perfectly fitted t-shirts that make the ultimate comfiest first layer. Plus, they have incredible gifts for everyone on your list. From ultra-warm merino wool socks to high-performance sports socks for runners and skiers. Best of all, for every item you purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone facing housing insecurity.

• 1:43Bunnie XO?

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• 2:09Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on?

• 2:10Speaker 02

  Um, we can totally keep our relationship private.

• 2:13Bunnie XO?

  No, do you want to or no?

• 2:15Speaker 02

  No, no, I'm fine.

• 2:16Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 2:16Speaker 02

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

• 2:18Bunnie XO?

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

• 2:24Speaker 02

  What shit? No, there's no shit.

• 2:26Bunnie XO?

  I literally have a crisis every fucking week.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 2:30Bunnie XO?

  Every week I'm texting this woman. I'm like, what is happening? I have a new one. 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 gonna be graphic, I'm sorry, but.

• 2:44Speaker 02

  Are you recording?

• 2:45Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 2:45Bunnie XO?

  Oh, are you? Okay.

• 2:46Speaker 02

  No, no, do it.

• 2:47Bunnie XO?

  Okay. We can do it on, no, we can do it on the podcast. Cause 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 Cordovez. 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 gonna fall in love with her just as much as I am. Dr. C, thank you for being here.

• 3:14Speaker 02

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

• 3:16Bunnie XO?

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

• 3:19Speaker 02

  Ah, thank you.

• 3:20Bunnie XO?

  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. You're, 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, yeah.

• 3:59Speaker 02

  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. So it makes it easy.

• 4:13Bunnie XO?

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

• 4:17Speaker 02

  What you got?

• 4:18Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 4:30Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 4:31Bunnie XO?

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

• 4:36Speaker 02

  So just at rest, it doesn't hurt?

• 4:38Bunnie XO?

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

• 4:44Speaker 02

  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.

• 5:00Bunnie XO?

  Up here this high?

• 5:01Speaker 02

  It could be.

• 5:02Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 5:02Speaker 02

  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.

• 5:12Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 5:13Speaker 02

  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.

• 5:21Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 5:21Speaker 02

  Until you do something about it. So.

• 5:23Bunnie XO?

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

• 5:25Speaker 02

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

• 5:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  But nothing is as good as somebody who knows you.

• 5:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  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. But it's not diverticulitis. It ain't.

• 5:52Bunnie XO?

  I love it. She looks at my blood work too. This woman knows the roadmap to my soul. So.

• 5:57Speaker 02

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

• 5:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And you, so you, how do you and Danny know each other? Cause 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?

• 6:10Speaker 02

  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. 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.

• 6:38Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 6:38Speaker 02

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

• 6:40Bunnie XO?

  I love that. It's like, yeah, it's like your own little flair on it. 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 wanna hear your story. Like, where did you come from? Why did you get into medicine? All that jazz.

• 6:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I, I'm from Panama.

• 7:02Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  And I don't think I've ever known anything else. It's always been, I've always known that I was gonna be a doctor. But life in Panama was not easy.

• 7:15Speaker 02

  There was, there was not a lot of opportunities. So I had to keep taking turns and, and changing directions to do what I needed to do. We ended up in, uh, we moved from Panama to a little town called Mount Pleasant, which is about 30 or 40 miles from here. And, um, and then I went to Vanderbilt for school. After that, I decided I'm gonna go back home and, and practice. Anybody who knows me knows, I've said this a million times, I was gonna 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.

• 7:58Speaker 02

  But whatever direction life took me, I, I went with it until I could get back on track.

• 8:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Um, and so I ended up working at St. Thomas for a lot of years. And it just, 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, um, and then be able to think through what it could be unless you know that patient. So then I, um, I decided to leave, uh, the practice of medicine at St. Thomas. And I opened up my 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.

• 8:48Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 8:57Speaker 02

  Always, always. While all the other little girls were playing with Barbies.

• 9:03Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 9:03Speaker 02

  Um, 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, uh, I'd put Band-Aids and hydrogen peroxide. And, uh, that was my thing. Always, always, always.

• 9:22Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 9:32Speaker 02

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

• 9:39Bunnie XO?

  Um, 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 ChatGPT now.

• 9:51Speaker 02

  Are you kidding?

• 9:52Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:12Bunnie XO?

  So I would be curious to see if maybe you were like a medicine woman in maybe one of your past lives.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  I hope so.

• 10:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  I hope so.

• 10:19Bunnie XO?

  Cause you're like a medicine woman now.

• 10:20Speaker 02

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

• 10:26Bunnie XO?

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

• 10:33Speaker 02

  Well, it wasn't easy.

• 10:34Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  It wasn't easy. Um, I remember I was a little bit lost. So, so it was, there was a, a big event, uh, that happened my senior year in college. And I just didn't have the money to, to re-enroll. And I was kind of rolling around, what am I gonna do? I'm never gonna get this done. This is gonna be horrible. I did that, uh, for a while, just trying to find my way. I audited classes while I took the MCATs and I just kept spinning my wheels. Um.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  But somebody I met in Miami when I was 21 years old, which by the way is a whole nother story.

• 11:13Bunnie XO?

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

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Oh my God, it was lit. 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. So.

• 11:39Bunnie XO?

  Is it the same type of medical school that you would have in the US?

• 11:43Speaker 02

  It's a little bit harder.

• 11:44Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 11:45Speaker 02

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

• 11:48Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 11:49Speaker 02

  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 frickin joke. But I, I applied, I applied, I got in, I moved to Panama and I lived 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.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  And nothing, nothing, this distracted me for sure, but nothing could take that. It wasn't okay to do anything else.

• 12:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. It was just etched in your soul.

• 12:46Speaker 02

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

• 12:52Bunnie XO?

  Yes. Survival mode.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  Survival mode for six years and, and, and, and finished.

• 13:01Bunnie XO?

  Wow. So all six years, just.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Trying to make it.

• 13:06Bunnie XO?

  Grueling. And then you finally graduate.

• 13:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:09Bunnie XO?

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

• 13:15Speaker 02

  That's what I wanted. That's what mangoes and chickens. Yeah.

• 13:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  So.

• 13:20Bunnie XO?

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

• 13:23Speaker 02

  Pay me some mangoes.

• 13:24Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 13:24Speaker 02

  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. And.

• 13:42Bunnie XO?

  So is your family from Panama? And then your mom moved here?

• 13:46Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:46Bunnie XO?

  Okay, gotcha.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  Yes. My father is still there. I have siblings there, aunts and uncles. I have a brother and sister here, but.

• 13:56Bunnie XO?

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• 14:41Bunnie XO?

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• 15:03Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Dr. Mary Claire Haver, board certified OB-GYN and menopause specialist. My podcast, UnPaused, is the place for bold, unfiltered conversations about what it really takes for women to thrive in the second half of life. Every week I sit down with medical experts and leading voices to talk about the health issues that matter most because UnPaused isn't just about the years you live, but how well you live them. Listen and follow UnPaused with me, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 15:33Bunnie XO?

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Y'all know how easy it is to get stuck in your own head. Sometimes you're overthinking things that happened years ago, stressing over stuff you can't control or just carrying around way too much mental baggage. And listen, we all have our stuff. That's why I think therapy can be so beneficial. Sometimes just talking things through with someone can help you process your emotions, understand yourself better and see things from a different perspective. Talking through what's taking up space in your head with a professional can help you clear out the clutter and gain real perspective. BetterHelp makes finding that support seamless by handling the matching process for you. You just complete a brief questionnaire about your goals and preferences and their system works to pair you with a licensed experienced professional,

• 16:18Bunnie XO?

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• 16:53Speaker 02

  It was, it was love. And he tried living there, didn't work. We moved back and that lasted 11 years.

• 17:05Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 17:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. No, it's great.

• 17:07Bunnie XO?

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

• 17:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 17:10Bunnie XO?

  It's a good run. So was he a doctor too?

• 17:13Speaker 02

  No.

• 17:14Bunnie XO?

  No, okay. So you moved to the US. 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?

• 17:22Speaker 02

  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.

• 17:37Bunnie XO?

  Oh no.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  Yeah. Breast cancers were, yeah, were super advanced. It's, it's just not a culture where, where self-care.

• 17:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 17:48Speaker 02

  Is a priority, maybe because there's just not that, not the, not the availability, not the money. I worked at the, at the public hospital, so it was, it was pretty rough. So when I came here, I thought, girl, that's nothing.

• 18:03Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  I've seen so many towns where. Yeah. So, 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. So, yeah, so I was always just a little off on my, on my diagnostic skills and we couldn't.

• 18:24Bunnie XO?

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

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Right. Exactly. Exactly. And yeah, I was off for about six months until I, until I caught on that we had changed latitudes. That, yeah, the, the tropical diseases that didn't exist here, that was a, that was a switch. And parasites are, are so, so common there, not so common here. Just big differences like that. But in a third world country, in a, in a, 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.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  So that was incredibly valuable. That was really cool to bring with me.

• 19:16Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 19:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. Before we could order an x-ray, you had to know how high up the fluid was in what lung.

• 19:22Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 19:23Bunnie XO?

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

• 19:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Cause you just know what to look for.

• 19:29Speaker 02

  Yeah. That helps a lot.

• 19:30Bunnie XO?

  So, um, 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.

• 19:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:49Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 20:10Speaker 02

  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.

• 20:18Bunnie XO?

  Yikes.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  So when I came from Panama, I applied to several residencies and, and, and the one at Baptist, it used to be Baptist St. Thomas, was the, was the best fit for me. So I did a residency there and residencies are generally July 1st through June 30th. 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 nine o'clock, I was in the office, ready to see a patient.

• 20:57Bunnie XO?

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

• 21:02Speaker 02

  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.

• 21:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  And

• 21:15Bunnie XO?

  Not mangoes and chicken.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  All you. That's right. 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? So it's all you. And I could not wait. So yeah.

• 21:32Bunnie XO?

  I love the tenacity that you have.

• 21:34Speaker 02

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

• 21:42Speaker 02

  there was no compromising. It just had to happen.

• 21:45Bunnie XO?

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

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Listen, I still, like, I feel like if I could look that chart up and apologize to him.

• 21:58Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  This is a horrible story. I don't think I should say it.

• 22:02Bunnie XO?

  We can always cut it if you want.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Okay, listen.

• 22:04Bunnie XO?

  Because you gotta tell it now.

• 22:05Speaker 02

  Okay, I gotta 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, diabetes, or thyroid.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  On the first day of my, of my first gig,

• 22:31Speaker 02

  I was seeing other doctors' patients that were being put on my schedule just overflow.

• 22:36Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  While I built up my clinic. Notoriously, internists are horrible at rashes.

• 22:43Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 22:44Speaker 02

  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 patient with his sweet wife.

• 23:00Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  Came for help with a rash on his, on his glands.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  And I remember thinking.

• 23:10Bunnie XO?

  His glands?

• 23:11Speaker 02

  It's the, you know, the, his penis. The tip of his penis.

• 23:14Bunnie XO?

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

• 23:20Speaker 02

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

• 23:25Bunnie XO?

  I don't gotta look you in the eye, buddy.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  I know that he could see it in my face when I went,

• 23:33Speaker 02

  yeah. And today I have the maturity to say, eh, I don't know. But that day, I just,

• 23:48Bunnie XO?

  Did we ever figure out what the rash was?

• 23:50Speaker 02

  Well, I gave him a little cream.

• 23:52Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love cream.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  And it got better. So I can't, I cannot say that I knew exactly what that was.

• 23:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  But it was the most, it was the hardest.

• 24:04Bunnie XO?

  God's got a sense of humor, right?

• 24:05Speaker 02

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

• 24:11Bunnie XO?

  Why was it? Was it, 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 rash?

• 24:19Speaker 02

  It was, it was, it was, listen, I would not have even, if I had that somewhere on my body, I would probably not have gone to the doctor.

• 24:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay.

• 24:30Speaker 02

  Such a subtle, tiny little rash.

• 24:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 02

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

• 24:38Bunnie XO?

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

• 24:45Speaker 02

  Maybe they, they, they both seemed super sweet. They were a super sweet couple, but it, I don't know.

• 24:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 24:52Speaker 02

  I still don't know. I've never seen anything like it again. And, and it got better. Yeah.

• 24:57Bunnie XO?

  I love that. She's like, I gave him cream, it cleared up.

• 25:00Speaker 02

  Cleared up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:02Bunnie XO?

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

• 25:10Speaker 02

  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.

• 25:14Bunnie XO?

  Oh, shit.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  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.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  I cannot practice medicine unless we have established that I love you, I respect you, I'm gonna take care of you and you're safe.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  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.

• 26:17Bunnie XO?

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

• 26:21Speaker 02

  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. It, it kept me a long time.

• 26:38Bunnie XO?

  And did some of them follow you?

• 26:40Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 26:40Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 26:41Bunnie XO?

  Good.

• 26:42Speaker 02

  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? Of course, like, of course I remember you. 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.

• 27:13Bunnie XO?

  Oh, goodness.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  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.

• 27:27Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 27:28Speaker 02

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

• 27:32Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 27:38Speaker 02

  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, 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.

• 28:21Speaker 02

  But fundamentally, we are here to love one another. So why people would waste any time being assholes?

• 28:28Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I don't understand.

• 28:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't understand that.

• 28:30Bunnie XO?

  I literally was just lecturing one of my friends the other day, because 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, fucking have fun, spread joy.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:45Bunnie XO?

  Be fucking happy. Like, it's, it's not that hard to choose happiness every day. 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?

• 29:04Speaker 02

  Yeah. 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 labs. 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, we talked, we talked about his family history, we did some investigating.

• 29:43Speaker 02

  I put a glucose monitor on him. He's got insulin resistance, which was, 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 change in your life, change your life.

• 30:08Bunnie XO?

  Yes. I fully 100%. percent believe in that.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 30:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, any ailment I've ever had has been from a food I was eating or not working out enough or not sleeping. So I, you know me, I'm like, I will not take medicine unless I have to. She prescribed me some eye drops the other day and I fricking found some Reddit group that like was dedicated, it's called the Flocksies. It was dedicated to fricking 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.

• 30:37Speaker 02

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

• 30:56Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  It's not me, it's you.

• 30:58Bunnie XO?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:59Bunnie XO?

  One thing I'm gonna do is advocate.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yes, yes. And you should, everyone should.

• 31:05Bunnie XO?

  Everybody should.

• 31:05Speaker 02

  Everyone should, but.

• 31:07Bunnie XO?

  I preach that so 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.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  Always, always, always.

• 31:19Bunnie XO?

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

• 31:21Speaker 02

  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.

• 31:42Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  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.

• 31:55Bunnie XO?

  I did, something was really wrong with my damn eye.

• 31:57Speaker 02

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

• 32:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:06Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  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.

• 32:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 32:19Speaker 02

  That I love.

• 32:21Bunnie XO?

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

• 32:23Speaker 02

  No, it's medicine for, for obesity.

• 32:26Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 32:27Speaker 02

  So being fat is not fun, right?

• 32:30Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 32:30Speaker 02

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

• 32:52Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  Percent, one hundred percent, one hundred percent.

• 33:02Bunnie XO?

  So what is this obesity medicine called?

• 33:05Speaker 02

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

• 33:11Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 33:11Speaker 02

  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, 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 gonna pass out.

• 33:50Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 33:50Speaker 02

  And, and my trainers would say, keep on going.

• 33:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  Uh, but it is 2025 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.

• 34:05Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 34:05Speaker 02

  Because strong is fucking beautiful.

• 34:08Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 34:09Speaker 02

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

• 34:22Bunnie XO?

  Yes. 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 trisepotide, another patient, what's something else? Like what's a protocol that you would give three different patients?

• 34:38Speaker 02

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

• 34:49Bunnie XO?

  Okay, what about like a, like a 45 year old peri-menopausal woman who can't lose the last five pounds?

• 34:56Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 34:57Bunnie XO?

  She's been trying to lose.

• 34:59Speaker 02

  First of all, the, um, 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, 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.

• 35:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 35:31Speaker 02

  Um, there's a lot of genetics and a lot of hormones involved in, 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 peri-menopause, your brain starts getting messages that your ovaries, that 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?

• 36:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 36:13Speaker 02

  Yes. Um, so with that, uh, with that type of person, we would probably track macros, keep the, um, the estrogen, testosterone as, as stable as possible, um, 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 bear with carbs.

• 36:47Bunnie XO?

  How do you feel about weightlifting?

• 36:50Speaker 02

  Cause I feel amazing.

• 36:51Bunnie XO?

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

• 36:56Speaker 02

  So weightlifting, it can do different things to different people, but the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just sleeping.

• 37:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  So, and the more muscle you have, the more muscle you will have as you get older. So, um, 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.

• 37:22Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  And if there's an excuse why you're not doing it, get over it.

• 37:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:28Bunnie XO?

  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 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 with you.

• 37:47Speaker 02

  Let's do it.

• 37:48Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 38:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is, this is, endometriosis is an inflammatory, uh, that what's causing pain is inflammation of these little tiny deposits. So every time a woman menstrua, has a period, the ovule 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. Um, every single month, when they get the trigger

• 38:50Speaker 02

  from the estrogen and progesterone, um, 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 periods help with the inflammation of the endometriosis. And sugar is no good.

• 39:19Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  Sugar is the devil. So it goes, I love it. I love that devil. Uh, but it, it doesn't serve us well when it increases inflammation. So gluten is super inflammatory, sugar is super inflammatory, alcohol, because it's mostly, um, 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.

• 39:47Bunnie XO?

  I haven't had sugar in two and a half years and it's been a game changer.

• 39:53Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:53Bunnie XO?

  For my body.

• 39:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:54Bunnie XO?

  Game changer for my body and for my mental health.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 39:56Bunnie XO?

  My anxiety used to be at a 22, my anxiety's at a two 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.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  For sure. Because when you don't have, when you, when you have it a lot and you don't have it, you go into withdrawals and it feels horrible.

• 40:17Bunnie XO?

  It's like a drug addiction.

• 40:18Speaker 02

  Horrible, awful. But once you get through those first three days and you become a, I really don't eat sugar. Um, how long has it been since I've eaten? So I'm, I'm not at a year yet.

• 40:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:30Speaker 02

  But I decided, okay, sugar is, 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.

• 40:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:44Speaker 02

  And sugar, everything has sugar.

• 40:45Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about sleep for a second.

• 40:47Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:47Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 41:00Bunnie XO?

  Why does that sleep pattern change? Why are some women waking up at four o'clock in the morning, not being able to go back to bed at until 6:00 AM, 7:00 AM again? Having that broken sleep? And how can we fix that?

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Well, we were designed to be to sleep kind of in two stages. So, um, 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.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  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.

• 41:44Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  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, um.

• 41:58Bunnie XO?

  So you don't need as much sleep.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  You don't need as much sleep, correct.

• 42:01Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  That's why your grandma gets up at four.

• 42:04Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 42:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. But she's asleep by six.

• 42:07Bunnie XO?

  Right. But is grandma still getting eight hours in though?

• 42:12Speaker 02

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

• 42:15Bunnie XO?

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

• 42:18Speaker 02

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

• 42:25Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 42:25Speaker 02

  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.

• 42:37Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  Otherwise, if you're, if you're not sleeping and you're not resting, your brain remembers, uh, 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.

• 43:03Bunnie XO?

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

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:08Bunnie XO?

  Cause there, 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.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  Great.

• 43:15Bunnie XO?

  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 10 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 10 hours.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  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.

• 43:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 43:34Speaker 02

  Uh, rather than staying asleep longer.

• 43:37Bunnie XO?

  Later.

• 43:37Speaker 02

  Because the quality, quality stuff that heals you is at the beginning of the night.

• 43:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Wow. Okay. I didn't know that. And I have been trying to make myself go to sleep early and I just, 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?

• 43:57Speaker 02

  Hmm. 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 then there's a little bit of, um, 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're diagnosing H. pylori in blood, then you're getting a false positive. Because once you've had it

• 44:43Speaker 02

  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.

• 44:58Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  So before you do any, any home remedies, make sure that what you're, 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.

• 45:13Bunnie XO?

  So they would need to take a stool sample?

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Yes, a stool sample or a breath test.

• 45:17Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  And advocate for yourself.

• 45:19Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 45:19Speaker 02

  Tell your doctor, hey, I really want to know whether it's just the antibody or, uh, whether I have a reinfection.

• 45:27Bunnie XO?

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

• 45:31Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 45:32Bunnie XO?

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

• 45:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 45:42Speaker 02

  There's few things.

• 45:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, few things. I don't, and everybody always wants to do those. And I'm like, can we not? But you know what? They're necessary. So you guys, please do it.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:51Bunnie XO?

  Um, Brandy wants to know, how do you stop perimenopause itching? 12 celebrities, one Don. And cold, hard cash from the producers of Traitors comes The Mob, a new Hulu original series now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ and this unique new reality competition show hosted by the iconic Parker Posey. What up, girl? 12 celebrity contestants are about to become members of a powerful family for two weeks in a lavish Italian villa. They'll shake down and hustle to win a share of up to $250,000. And every good mob needs a Don. Whoever they choose to lead them will have absolute power deciding who stays and who gets taken out, who makes money and who walks away with nothing.

• 46:36Bunnie XO?

  In a game of power where loyalty and trust are the currency, will the most powerful reality contestant in TV history be able to keep the family happy? And if they're overthrown by the mob, who's going to step up and become the new Don? Let the games begin. Watch The Mob, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. For bundle subscribers, terms apply. I'll be tuning in.

• 46:56Speaker 02

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• 47:29Speaker 05

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• 48:10Speaker 05

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• 48:52Speaker 05

  Take the employer eligibility quiz and register at retirepathva.com.

• 48:58Bunnie XO?

  I've heard this so much from women that say that.

• 49:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:02Bunnie XO?

  They get like the worst itching.

• 49:04Speaker 02

  You mean vaginal itching?

• 49:06Bunnie XO?

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

• 49:13Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh, yeah, that's where I mostly, that's where, that's where most of the itching occurs.

• 49:19Bunnie XO?

  New fear unlocked.

• 49:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:21Bunnie XO?

  Holy fucking shitballs.

• 49:22Speaker 02

  I'm here for you.

• 49:23Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 49:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, no.

• 49:24Bunnie XO?

  I'm going to be dragging my hootenanny on the fucking carpet like a dog.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. So.

• 49:29Bunnie XO?

  It's going to be rough.

• 49:31Speaker 02

  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've felt crazy for two years.

• 50:11Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Or, uh, one of your kids says, mom.

• 50:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. Or a Keith Sweat song didn't hit like it used to.

• 50:19Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 50:21Speaker 02

  You lose, you lose, uh, you lose patience, you lose libido, you lose, um, 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 menopause symptoms that you can control. And go talk to somebody about it. You could do things like Lacto-Hosh. You could do, um, you could try, um, plant, uh, sterols that could, that could mimic. Um, or you could just get on a hormone.

• 50:55Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:56Speaker 02

  Which we know are safe.

• 50:57Bunnie XO?

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

• 51:04Speaker 02

  If that's right for you.

• 51:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  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 Jill.

• 51:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 51:18Speaker 02

  Make sure I have some on. It just, there's just so many receptors that estrogen is so important for.

• 51:25Bunnie XO?

  I love estrogen.

• 51:26Speaker 02

  I love estrogen.

• 51:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 51:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:27Bunnie XO?

  When I was going through my IVF stems, my body was loving the estrogen. Hated the progesterone, loved the estrogen though.

• 51:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:35Bunnie XO?

  I, my estrogen levels were like over like 1500, I think. And I was, I felt great.

• 51:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:41Bunnie XO?

  I was fucking thriving.

• 51:42Speaker 02

  Yeah. No itching?

• 51:43Bunnie XO?

  No itching.

• 51:43Speaker 02

  No itching.

• 51:44Bunnie XO?

  No itching. I don't ever have any itching. I haven't had itching yet, thank God. Uh, but you know, listen, I've heard, I sympathize with these women who have to go through all of that.

• 51:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:53Bunnie XO?

  Um, 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. I'm, is it because I don't eat meat? Help, constipated for. Missouri.

• 52:12Speaker 02

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

• 52:15Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, meat clogs some people up.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, meat can slow transit. You would be surprised at how much fiber fruit doesn't have.

• 52:24Bunnie XO?

  Right, right. A lot of sugar.

• 52:25Speaker 02

  Right, exactly. And you think, oh my God, this apple, I'm eating fiber. It's got three grams of fiber. You need about thirty five to forty.

• 52:32Bunnie XO?

  And thirty grams of carbs.

• 52:34Speaker 02

  Right, exactly. Fucking delicious. 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 thirty five 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 underhydrated state. So if you're not well hydrated, you're going to be constipated.

• 53:18Speaker 02

  And 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.

• 53:31Bunnie XO?

  Magnesium.

• 53:32Speaker 02

  Magnesium.

• 53:33Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 53:39Speaker 02

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

• 53:46Bunnie XO?

  Really?

• 53:47Speaker 02

  For sure. Yeah. And if you take it at night, it helps your brain relax. And in the morning, the first thing you do is go to the bathroom.

• 53:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I love that.

• 53:55Speaker 02

  I love it.

• 53:55Bunnie XO?

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

• 53:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:57Bunnie XO?

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

• 54:05Speaker 02

  It keeps you full.

• 54:06Bunnie XO?

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

• 54:22Speaker 02

  Okay, I love.

• 54:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah?

• 54:24Speaker 02

  I love.

• 54:25Bunnie XO?

  My husband does it. I'm scared. You know me, I'm scared to put anything in my body.

• 54:28Speaker 02

  Well, again, it's, it's gotta 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. So, and when you get them from umbilical 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 it 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?

• 55:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  Baby stem cells can do anything. But the stem cells that were, that are legal right now in the United States are stem cells that are drawn from, from our body. And my stem cells are fifty six 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.

• 55:41Bunnie XO?

  Right. Is that like adrenochrome? What is adrenochrome?

• 55:46Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 55:47Bunnie XO?

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

• 55:51Speaker 02

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

• 55:54Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 56:05Speaker 02

  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.

• 56:20Bunnie XO?

  I feel like all the good shit is not allowed in the US.

• 56:23Speaker 02

  For, yes, for a while.

• 56:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's like they don't want us to be our best versions of ourselves.

• 56:30Speaker 02

  And they, and they don't make it affordable.

• 56:32Bunnie XO?

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

• 56:42Speaker 02

  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.

• 57:12Speaker 02

  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. We're 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.

• 57:40Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 57:41Speaker 02

  And your.

• 57:41Bunnie XO?

  It's a win-win.

• 57:43Speaker 02

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

• 57:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  Is bound to.

• 57:54Bunnie XO?

  Raise your blood pressure.

• 57:55Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 57:56Bunnie XO?

  Just even like having a stress on your mind can raise your blood pressure.

• 58:00Speaker 02

  Beats decrease blood pressure.

• 58:05Speaker 02

  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 it. It's not something that anybody else is gonna want for you.

• 58:20Bunnie XO?

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

• 58:27Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 58:28Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. 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 fucking rice. Rice would send me into like these, I still can't eat rice to this day because it does that to me. Friggin' insane, right?

• 58:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's so great that you found that.

• 58:45Bunnie XO?

  I know. And nobody else could find it. 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 fucking 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?

• 59:02Speaker 02

  I would not have thought that.

• 59:04Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 59:35Speaker 02

  The hysterectomy was nine years ago.

• 59:37Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 59:38Speaker 02

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

• 59:44Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  It's okay. It's okay. So your uterus and your ovary are unrelated to your bladder. It sounds like, so the urinary tract and the, and the, and the parts that make the baby are not connected at all. So this would be 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,

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  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 urin, before a urinalysis, it's gonna look like it's clean.

• 1:00:46Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:00:47Speaker 02

  Because you're gonna dilute that.

• 1:00:48Bunnie XO?

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

• 1:00:51Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:00:52Bunnie XO?

  Just to be sure.

• 1:00:53Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:00:54Bunnie XO?

  Perfect. Can we talk about mammograms?

• 1:00:56Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:00:57Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 1:01:13Speaker 02

  So generally good.

• 1:01:16Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 1:01:18Speaker 02

  Generally good. I, you know, it's recommended that we have mammograms three to five years. And the reason why they recommend 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 super small. So my personal preference is twelve to eighteen 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.

• 1:02:02Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  Because the, because the images are so much better. But.

• 1:02:07Bunnie XO?

  I've seen the lay down ones too that you can do.

• 1:02:09Speaker 02

  The ones where you.

• 1:02:10Bunnie XO?

  Lay down and you're like, yeah, I want to find one of those out here.

• 1:02:13Speaker 02

  Those are, are you talking about an MRI?

• 1:02:15Bunnie XO?

  No, it's a mammogram.

• 1:02:17Speaker 02

  Oh, so cool. I haven't done that yet.

• 1:02:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I'll have to send it to you.

• 1:02:20Speaker 02

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

• 1:02:27Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

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

• 1:02:38Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:02:38Speaker 02

  We can find it so easy. So if you, if you're gonna squish your breasts, and there's other times in your lives when your breasts get squished, if you're gonna squish your breasts for fifteen seconds, let it be for something useful.

• 1:02:52Bunnie XO?

  For sure. I think that, I think a lot of people are saying that the. Radiation is what's bad.

• 1:02:57Speaker 02

  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 going to give myself a little bit of radiation so that I can be here for my daughters and their kids.

• 1:03:24Bunnie XO?

  All right, fine. I'll go get my mammogram next week.

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

  Do it.

• 1:03:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, 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. Um, let's see. Elizabeth said, I had shingles really bad almost two years ago. I've had high anxiety, dreams and nightmares every single night since. Seriously, every night cortisol levels have been tested and we're fine. Help.

• 1:03:49Speaker 02

  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.

• 1:04:09Bunnie XO?

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

• 1:04:13Speaker 02

  100% 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.

• 1:04:56Bunnie XO?

  Right? Yeah.

• 1:04:58Speaker 02

  Because shingles is no joke.

• 1:05:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I believe that 100%.

• 1:05:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:03Bunnie XO?

  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 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.

• 1:05:18Speaker 02

  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.

• 1:05:29Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:05:30Speaker 02

  And if I am not the right fit, if if my model of practice isn't the right thing to 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.

• 1:05:47Bunnie XO?

  I just love your spirit.

• 1:05:48Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm grateful. Thank you.

• 1:05:50Bunnie XO?

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

• 1:05:52Speaker 02

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:05:53Bunnie XO?

  No, we're so we're lucky to have you.

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  Thank you. Thank you.

• 1:05:56Bunnie XO?

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

• 1:05:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks. Thank you so much.

• 1:06:00Bunnie XO?

  Thank you, guys, for tuning into another episode of Don't Blonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.

• 1:06:07Bunnie XO?

  We use Shopify for our storefront at bunnyxo.com. And one thing I've learned from running an online store is that you definitely don't have to be an e-commerce expert to get started. I think a lot of people get intimidated by the website side of starting a business, but Shopify makes that part so much easier. One of my favorite things is having everything in one place when you're running a business. You already have a million things going on, so the last thing you want is for managing your storefront to be one more thing to stress about. Shopify makes it easy to get your store launched, manage it and actually focus on selling. They also have pre-built themes and an AI site builder that can help you create a professional looking storefront without having to build a website from scratch. And if a friend asks me about starting a store before the holidays, I tell them, don't wait until Black Friday.

• 1:06:52Bunnie XO?

  Get it launched, learn what works for you and have everything ready before that holiday traffic starts coming in. If you're ready to launch your business before Black Friday, go to Shopify.com/bunny to start your free trial. That's Shopify.com/B U N N I E. Go to Shopify.com/bunny today to hear your first.