During this Q&A, the PBTH doctors discuss:
-Differences between functional and lifestyle medicine
-Pros and cons of melatonin supplements
-Ways to deal with muscle soreness
-How to be plant-based in a family of meat-eaters
-Things to look out for in Thyroid disease and much more!
Questions Answered
- (00:03) – But what is one of your favorite patient stories using Plant Based TeleHealth?
- (04:27) – Do you serve as primary care doctors, or primary care still needed in addition to you?
- (04:27) – Is there difference between lifestyle medicine and functional medicine?
- (07:01) – If I live near one of you, can I see you in-person?
- (07:25) – How do you feel about melatonin and tips to sleep or supplements?
- (08:37) – Kim, can you explain to anyone who may not know what cognitive behavior therapy is?
- (13:08) – I fall asleep easily but wake up in pain from gym weight training. Any Advice?
- (18:21) – What can I do to help my family eat more plant based foods?
- (22:54) – What are some lab tests for thyroid evaluation? Can thyroid nodules be reversed?
- (26:01) – 10 years ago went plant-based, thyroid improved, my TSH dropped to zero. What's going on?
- (29:38) – I went whole food plant-based three years ago, lost 35 pounds, but my skin got creepy saggy, could it be just age or hydration issue, the weight loss itself?
- (37:03) – I seem to get low iron stores from time to time, which foods should I eat?
Complete Transcript
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(00:03)
I'm going to ask this question because I think it's nice to see that. But what is one of your favorite patient stories docs using Plant Based TeleHealth
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(00:18)
I love helping my patients get off of medicines with Plant Based TeleHealth. But my favorite things are how it affects the family members, too. I had a great story just recently where I was seeing this gentleman for a couple of months, and he was losing lots of weight, almost 70 pounds. Then his wife started seeing me but she was stuck with the weight loss.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(00:43)
The last time I saw him, it turns out that he's getting close to her weight. Now they're competing to lose more weight. She will not let him lose more weight than him … or be less weight than she is. They're working together. It's just so much fun. That makes me really happy when people and families work together to make each other healthier.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:05)
It's fantastic. Dr. Miller, Dr. Davis?
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:10)
Are you looking for a specific case, or just …
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:13)
Case, whatever you like to say. Yeah. Just so people can get a feel of what we're doing over here in this actual world.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:19)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love that we can see people at home and that they can just contact us so that we're able to see them more often, I feel like, than if they came to my office. I have a patient that I'm seeing in Oklahoma actually right now who has pretty bad rheumatoid arthritis. She had been struggling with doing some of the different protocols. She came to see us at Plant Based TeleHealth.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:41)
She saw me. We did make some changes in her diet and her supplements and her exercise regimen. We've been working together and she is gradually … she was unable to close all her fingers. Now she can close them. She did never required medication. It's been a victory. I just saw her this week. She did this for me for right when I saw her. We high-fived virtually. It's super fun getting to work with people even from a distance who are getting these amazing results.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(02:13)
Right, Dr. Davis?
Dr. Niki Davis
(02:15)
Yeah. I've got a few patients right now that I'm having a lot of fun with. It's people who are transitioning to a plant-based, a whole food plant-based diet, whether it's starting from the standard American diet, or even just maybe a more junk food comfort vegan diet to fully whole food plant-based. Like Dr. Miller was saying, it's so nice because doing the TeleHealth, you can't see people more regularly.
Dr. Niki Davis
(02:43)
They're not having to get off work necessarily as much if they work from home. They aren't having to drive long distances, wait in the waiting rooms, and wait in the doctor's office. It's a 30 minute time frame that you know that your doctor is going to be there. You can really focus on that. I'll have some patients who I see pretty regularly every couple of weeks.
Dr. Niki Davis
(03:05)
It's really fun, because I get to see the transition and the benefits that are happening. I get to see not only the weight loss, but the blood pressure improving. If it's somebody who has diabetes, or pre-diabetes thing, their blood glucose improving, and it's just this transition over time that I get to follow. That's something that I really love, because you get to see where someone's starting out.
Dr. Niki Davis
(03:29)
Then you get to see how they progress by the week, by the two weeks, and then ultimately after a few months and seeing these major changes. Then I'll add. The other exciting thing is when I have a patient who's made these changes, and it's starting to become obvious to other people, their family members, people at work, and they're saying … It's really exciting. I've got four people now who've come up to me saying, “What are you doing, I want to do it.”
Dr. Niki Davis
(03:55)
I even have a patient who's working on putting together a plant-based program for her work. They're very excited about that. Not only am I getting to see this patient change their life, but seeing them helping to change other people's lives. It's really, really a lot of fun. I just love it.
Dr. Chris Miller
(04:12)
That's awesome.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(04:13)
That's perfect. Now we're getting into some questions.
Dr. Chris Miller
(04:19)
Can I just say … Mozambique right now. So awesome.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(04:23)
That's way cool.
Dr. Chris Miller
(04:24)
Yeah. That's cool. Anyway, I want to [inaudible 00:04:27].
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(04:27)
Awesome, guys. Well, thank you for joining us from Africa. Wow. Okay. That's humbling. That's really cool. Amy asked the questions, do you serve as primary care doctors, or primary care still needed in addition to you? I'll just go ahead and answer that question real quick. Then Amy also asked, is there difference between lifestyle medicine and functional medicine? I'll let one of you guys do that.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(04:51)
Basically, yes, we do consider ourselves specialists. We're here to help the primary care doctor do their job even better, and let them get all the credit, because Medicare measures their metrics, insurance companies. We don't have that concern. We want them … You guys to get better. It only helps your primary care doctor. Sometimes there's some things that primary doctors are doing, and we work with them.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(05:17)
But it's alongside because we do feel you need to have that availability of in-person in case when we listen to your lungs and do other things, because we're not primary care. We are the specialist. We do a lot of primary care activities, but we're not … shouldn't be considered your primary care doctor. Yeah. That's it. Anyone else want to talk about functional medicine versus lifestyle medicine?
Dr. Chris Miller
(05:41)
I can address that. A lot of it is just linguistics. It's what we call it. That's first of all. Someone can train in one and function exactly like the other person. But in general, what they mean is a lifestyle medicine person like us, we are more apt to do diet, or a plant-based diet here, obviously, plant-based diets, stress reduction, movement, sleep, community work, socialization.
Dr. Chris Miller
(06:12)
We focus on those pillars of health that we call them. That's our main focus. Functional medicine, because I trained in that also before I found lifestyle medicine. Functional medicine is often more about getting to the root cause and looking at a whole lot of labs your organic, metabolites, and how you break it down and looking at a cellular level. Then they do a whole lot of supplements fixing those abnormalities that they find.
Dr. Chris Miller
(06:38)
A lot of them recommend more paleo or keto. Not all, there are some that do recommend plant-based diets. I don't want to group it like it has to be that way. Because it doesn't, it's up to each practitioner. You'll find all sorts of things. But we definitely practice differently here at Plant Based TeleHealth where we're much more about those pillars of lifestyle and diet than a functional medicine type practice.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(07:01)
Functional medicine to be very supplement heavy and expensive. That's the disadvantage there, I feel. Amy also asked if I live near one of you, can I see you in-person? Some of us have an in-person practice. Most of us do not. Just really depends on where you're living and which doctor you're referring to. But yes, absolutely, if you want to.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(07:25)
Here's a question. Getting to sleep, which came up earlier in a conversation I had, too, which is interesting. How do you feel about melatonin and tips to sleep or supplements? I already and have a great sleep evening routine, but I'm not sleeping, help. What do we do?
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(07:42)
I personally love behavioral therapy for helping people to sleep. There is some online cognitive behavioral therapy options that are free, which really helps. Sometimes some supplements help, making sure you have enough magnesium, making sure … it depends on what you're … Are you doing shift work? Why are you not sleeping? Are you eating late and eating heavy late?
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(08:06)
We want to change some of your dietary efforts. We want to change some of the meds that you may be on if you're taking at certain times can keep you awake, adjusting that. We need to see you to get a really good idea. Any one of us at Plant Based TeleHealth can help you. Find out who has licenses in your state. We'd love to help you. We do deal a lot with sleep issues. Even with lifestyle medicine, I do see so many people sleeping well for the first time.
Dr. Chris Miller
(08:37)
Kim, can you explain to anyone who may not know what cognitive behavior therapy is?
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(08:44)
That's a kind of therapy that deals with how you think about a situation. It can change how you think about a situation. If you're ruminating like “I can't sleep. I can't sleep. This is so bad.” But changing how your thoughts about that. That's one of the aspects of it. I suggest the cognitive behavioral therapy program that's online that works not only on sleep hygiene, which is very, very important, making sure you're in a dark cold area that you don't sit on your computer for a while beforehand.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(09:18)
You may want to have a worry diary that you write over an hour before you go to sleep so that you take everything out of your head and put it on paper. Then you don't even have to worry about it when you're going to sleep. There's a lot of little techniques. There are people who are much smarter than I am on how to adjust how you're thinking about, “Ah, I'm so worried that I will not going to sleep.” That's where cognitive behavioral therapy can help, too.
Dr. Chris Miller
(09:49)
I would just add to what Kim said. That was awesome. That is a powerful form of medicine, the cognitive behavioral therapy and the sleep hygiene. Yeah. I like to ask a questionnaire as far as what type of sleep problems people are having falling asleep, staying asleep, and knowing what things you do during the day? Are you having caffeine? Some people are sensitive to caffeine even in the morning because it has a long half life when it's metabolized.
Dr. Chris Miller
(10:15)
How much exercise outdoor time are you getting? All those types of factors play a role. Then are you falling asleep? Are you not staying asleep? Are you on medication? There's a whole comprehensive program that goes with helping people sleep? We work on that with you. As far as … What was I going to say about that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(10:38)
Well, there was also a question about melatonin. As far as that, the data from melatonin shows in the short run, for people who are especially shift-workers, or traveling, that it has been shown to be beneficial, and it's been shown to be safe. For people who work shift-work or are traveling and they go across time zones, that's a time that you may want to try a little melatonin. What it does, we have our own melatonin, and it usually starts secreting around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. at night.
Dr. Chris Miller
(11:10)
Then it rises throughout the night, and then it falls in the morning. It helps you fall into a restful sleep. Melatonin is amazing. It's this master hormone that suppresses all your other hormones and it helps prevent breast cancer, it actually reduces your insulin sensitivity, become more insulin resistant when melatonin secretes itself. It's just a powerful hormone that helps … it actually helps repair that gut.
Dr. Chris Miller
(11:35)
You want to be sleeping. You want to not be eating or you want to be in a fasted state. Your melatonin helps repair that gut. It has all these amazing functions on your body naturally. Does this hormone do all that? No. I don't believe it's been proven to prevent breast cancer or do anything like that. You really want to work on your own sleep so your own melatonin kicks in and does all these wonderful things that melatonin does.
Dr. Chris Miller
(12:01)
However, in the short run for those certain situations, it has been proven beneficial, and I have used it with people on my previous shift-work or myself and not getting sleep is very detrimental. It cannot be helpful. It's been proven to be safe. That's what my recommendation is on it.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(12:20)
Dr. Niki, any other suggestions, thoughts?
Dr. Niki Davis
(12:25)
Oh, I agree. I would say using it for those special situations. But if you're someone who is trying to use it every single day, forever, it's probably not the best option and looking at what lifestyle changes you can make to get better sleep. You're not depending on something like that is a better idea.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(12:45)
Absolutely. Someone else [inaudible 00:12:48] around the sleep category. By the way, there's an app I would recommend it's called a Reverie on your Apple or Android that you might find in Yoga Nidra. It's a self-meditation. It's really good. It's like, “Focus on your toe. Focus on your ankle. Focus on your knee.” Then I'm out.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(13:08)
But sometimes that middle the night awakening that something like that will be helpful before the brain starts racing is helpful as I feel that middle of the night waking seems to be a really common occurrence. But just in that. But someone mentioned, Vicki mentioned, “I get to sleep but wake up in pain from gym weight training. I practice good sleep hygiene. Unfortunately, getting a shape is not a comfortable thing and 40 hours later, I'm sore, but the results are great.”
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(13:37)
You guys have any thoughts about exercise soreness, interference with movements, sleep, ratchet down maybe so you don't get what we call DOMS, delayed-onset muscle symptom. Any thoughts of that at all?
Dr. Chris Miller
(13:51)
I mean, this isn't really a thought. I don't know anything about you. But doing a lot more stretching maybe or a Theragun to help you … or it's a ball or something to roll on your muscles to help you a little bit if you're really sore and make sure you're stretching, make sure you're well hydrated, eating all your antioxidants, not working out too late at night.
Dr. Chris Miller
(14:13)
But you said I think this occurs 48 hours later that you're still sore. I think yeah, like what they just said, you might be pushing it a little bit early. Maybe tone it down just a little bit. You want to be sore, because when you break down muscle and it rebuilds that you build muscle, but there is a point where it's over sore, and it's too much. Maybe you're getting strong too fast. We got to slow you down a little bit.
Dr. Niki Davis
(14:36)
Keeping track so you can write down what time did you work out? What kinds of things did you do? Then what time did you wake up? You can see what timeframe you have to work with and then move your workout so that it doesn't interrupt your sleep so that that soreness comes on during the day, maybe the next day. Just being aware of that.
Dr. Niki Davis
(14:56)
I always love having people just write things down because it really gives you an insight into what's happening and help you make better decisions about how to go forward.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(15:08)
I think the hydration is really, really important. That makes a huge difference on pain. But I agree with everything that everybody said.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(15:16)
Yeah. I think the simple rule is don't do more than what you can recover from today. We want to be able and not be discouraged with activity. Take it easy. If you're still can barely sit down after 48 hours, it might be that you need to ratchet back a little bit. What's going to be nice about that is that you can go harder with your next … you'll find that you gain that strength because you're able to do more and not restrictive from the sense of discomfort.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(15:41)
Just some things to think about. As we get older, it's not the same. You're just going to have to own it, and then love it, because it's just a new stage of life. There's other things that can occur. But yeah. I'm just going to repeat, someone asked about the sleep app name. It's called a Reverie, R-E-V-E-R-I-E. It's a self-hypnosis type thing. It's not out there. Woo, woo. It's from Stanford. The researchers put it out. It's pretty cool.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(16:11)
Another great resource is Huberman Lab podcast. Their second episode from Andrew Huberman, it was an amazing episode. He also has on his website, a toolkit for sleep. You might just Google Huberman Lab Podcast Toolkit for Sleep. He's got some amazing … It's 14 points that are really good. Just check that out. Calm app for sleep. Have any of you used the Calm app for sleep? Do you like that? Is it good? Okay.
Dr. Niki Davis
(16:42)
Yeah. Another one, Headspace. It's a meditation app. But they have a lot of really great sleep meditations. Some of them are stories, but a lot of them are for instance, a person walking through a forest and describing what they're seeing in a nice, calm, soft voice. I mean, it puts you out immediately. Works really well.
Dr. Chris Miller
(17:04)
I like that I'm already …
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(17:07)
I know. [crosstalk 00:17:07]
Dr. Niki Davis
(17:10)
Maybe I need to be one of those voices.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(17:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely have a nice voice for it. Some people have radio voices. I think you'd be one of them. Nelson does ask us. Do you have a website for people to visit and read on plant-based lifestyle medicine topics? Yes. I'm so glad you asked. We have plantbasedtelehealth.com. That's where you can make your appointment. Up on top, it'll say “Free resources.” We have a question of our videos. We have our YouTube channel.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(17:37)
They're categorized according to a topic or questions. Also Instagram, we tend to answer a lot of those short questions. We haven't put those into written material yet. But you may find those helpful. On the YouTube, we actually have those transcribed as far as when you're reading so you don't have to play the sound necessarily. There is that?
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(18:01)
Then someone asked if there's a directory for plant-based lifestyle medicine physicians in the US. Look no further, we have someone licensed in every single state here at Plant Based TeleHealth. We'd be happy to help you there. Just going through here. Few different questions. Oh, lots of Dr. Miller fans here this morning, or this afternoon.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(18:21)
[Catia 00:18:21] does asked … Yeah. Maybe some people. Maybe we can ask this the social question, which does come up often. Let's say someone starts a plant-based diet, but they're having some friction with the family. Any suggestions or thoughts with the folks who share the same address as you? Anybody?
Dr. Niki Davis
(18:50)
I mean, I can talk about … Yeah. I mean, when I first started going plant-based, no one around me was. Honestly, it was more just that I did it. I would make food and people would eat it. Ultimately, if you do it long enough, it becomes second nature. For instance, when I first met my husband, he was eating a standard American diet.
Dr. Niki Davis
(19:15)
Just being exposed to eating plant-based over and over and over again, ultimately, he was like, “Yeah, I love this way of eating. I'm going to go ahead and go plant-based.” For him, it was just a matter of just being exposed to it over time. I think that ultimately, you've got to have some support somewhere. Because we are in a place where we don't eat like everyone else. That does make you stand out and it is difficult for social situations.
Dr. Niki Davis
(19:47)
Finding that community, finding that support wherever you can, whether it's a neighbor, a friend, someone at work or even someone online joining Facebook groups, there are lots of other places like the Plant-Based Nutrition Support Group. Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute does a jumpstart program and they've got a huge community of people that stay in touch after that.
Dr. Niki Davis
(20:08)
There's lots of ways to join the community and feel a part of something. I feel like that's such an important part of transitioning this way, even if you're the only one at home, you've still got to find that support elsewhere. I will say that as you're doing it, even if you're not talking to other people about it, they're going to start seeing how well you're doing. That's going to help them to then ask you about it, and possibly even make changes themselves without you having to really force them into it.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(20:38)
Yeah. I think being the role model makes a difference. I mean, just doing what you're doing, your body is going to change, your energy is going to change, your look is going to change, everything's going to change, and you're going to feel better. They'll notice that and want to ask about that. In my household, too, I'm doing this for me for my health. My house is clean.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(20:59)
When we go out, you can have whatever you want. But in my house, it's got to be clean. Because I have food addiction problems. If there's chocolate in the house, it's in my mouth. That was helpful for me, especially because I could start with you just … I need to be able to do this for me, not for you, this has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with me. With time, they notice a change.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(21:22)
Then now when we go out my partner, he doesn't order the stuff he did before. He's lost 60 pounds watching me do this. It really helps to be … to try not to preach too much. But sometimes, for example, I've watched some movies and say, “Hey, you want to watch this movie with me? Come watch the Game Changers with me.” Just to be with me, you don't have to. But if you want to I want to watch this movie together. That helps.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(21:54)
Just surrounding yourself with the positive. Getting the community you need outside like Niki said, makes a huge difference. Know that you're doing this for yourself, for your own health. That's really important.
Dr. Niki Davis
(22:10)
Letting those people around you understand how important it is to your health. If you were someone who was trying to quit drinking or quit smoking, you would ask your family members, “Please don't do that around me. Don't bring it in the house, because it's a real trigger for me, and I'm trying to get healthy.”
Dr. Niki Davis
(22:27)
Put it out as a serious matter that you really do need that support. Even if they're not someone who wants to follow that same type of lifestyle, that same type of diet, that at least to have the respect to help you through what you want to do for your own health.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(22:42)
The other thing I suggest to a lot of my patients is it's doctor's orders. My doctor told me I need to do this for my health. That helps for a couple of people that I know.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(22:51)
Absolutely. Blame it on the doctor.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(22:53)
Yeah.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(22:54)
Love it. Cool. We're kind of getting … There some acute thyroid questions. I'll let you guys into this one. First of all, let's just talk about what are some lab tests for thyroid evaluation? Then someone asks about thyroid nodules. Can they be reversed? Who would like to answer that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(23:16)
I can start with the thyroid labs. When we're looking at thyroid disease, we're going to look at a general panel … or more comprehensive panel, I guess, I should say. We're going to look at the TSH, the thyroid stimulating hormone, the T4 which is the type of thyroid hormone that's secreted from the thyroid into the body, the T3 which is the active form of thyroid hormone, which it goes from T4 to T3, mostly at the cell level. We're going to check the thyroid antibodies.
Dr. Chris Miller
(23:48)
The ones I typically start with are the antithyroglobulin antibody and TPO, anti-TPO, thyro peroxidase type, something like that on anti-TPO. I typically start with those. If someone is hyperthyroid, those are more for hypothyroid. If they're hyperthyroid, I would do a little bit different antibodies. I might do anti-TSI, I think, thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin is one. Maybe it's anti-TSH. Have found one positive person for that actually as well.
Dr. Chris Miller
(24:21)
There's a couple. There's different types of antibodies that you could do depending on what you're looking for. But the hypothyroid ones are way more common. Those are the ones. You can follow them because what's really cool is that they actually improve over time. As people have gone plant-based and cleaned up their diets, and we've made sure their nutrient status is okay, we're seeing antibodies go from being high to very low and even zero.
Dr. Chris Miller
(24:47)
I've had patients go where it's not even detectable anymore. It's amazing what can happen. Then in addition to those though, we also look at nutrition status because some nutrients are really important to the thyroid, like iodine. We're seeing people who are SOS free, salt, oil, sugar-free, not eating any salt. If they're not taking or paying attention to their iodine levels, it'll be really low.
Dr. Chris Miller
(25:12)
Or people who are eating seaweed, regular sea vegetables, you know a little bit of nori here, a little bit of kelp here, and then their levels are crazy high. Both of those levels can lead to thyroid disease. If we catch it early on, it's reversible. It's important to check for that. You can check selenium, which is an antioxidant that the thyroid uses when it makes its thyroid hormone. It helps IT function better. You can check that.
Dr. Chris Miller
(25:37)
You can check zinc levels. Zinc is very important to the thyroid as well. Some people in plant-based world don't absorb zinc as well. They need a little extra zinc. What am I forgetting? Iron is important as well. Those are some nutrients that affect the thyroid. That's what I check.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(26:01)
Yes. Excellent. I agree with all that. I've had Hashimotos for, I guess, it'll be 26 years this year, because it started with that number two child and you'll be 26 next two months. 10 years ago went plant-based, thyroid improved, my TSH dropped to zero. I was like, “What's going on? Change my diet. Good.” I had to drop medications. Again this year, I had to do the same.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(26:24)
It's probably because I'm older now. I don't know probably what it is. But anyway, something's happening. It's only been improving. That's what decades and decades of having this condition which typically you just don't see. It's just unusual. I will just say it's never too late to try and optimize your health at any point. I do want to answer this one. [Jim Rau 00:26:47], I hope, I don't know if this is good for him or this question.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(26:50)
But he says … But here it goes. He is a 65, whole planted-based for the last five years, but a relatively minor stroke last January in the medulla area. Initial symptoms are limited right facial areas without loss of motor function since transitioning to the plant-based diet. I've lost 70 pounds, got off my blood pressure meds, cholesterol, GERD meds, and now optimal cholesterol and blood pressure numbers.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(27:11)
My view is that it may be more related to my side diet from my first 60 years. Does that make sense? Yes, 100%. Even going five years … First of all, congratulations on to putting in the hard work and seeing such dramatic reversal of your disease processes that were occurring, but there still was damage occurred. Yes, absolutely. That variable could have been the case.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(27:36)
Yeah. It's very less likely if someone's born and eating this way their entire life that they're going to have any of the current diseases and risk factors for heart disease, strokes, even decreases for cancers. You name it, diabetes, autoimmune disease. Yeah. Jim, I would assume the same thing. I'm glad it was small one, and it sounds like you had full recovery. That's great.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(28:01)
But what a testimony. It could have been much worse. That's how I also look at it if you hadn't made this transition and had optimal health. It might have got you. I would be thankful for that as well. If anything, it's a reminder to stay on this path. Any other thoughts guys on that one?
Dr. Niki Davis
(28:19)
Well, just like people who quit smoking, you start getting benefit the day that you quit. It's the same thing with going plant-based. Your body starts healing. Those five years you have been healing, and you're seeing the benefits of that. Although you are going to have some disease from a prior life, your prior life of eating the standard American diet, you're going to continue to heal every single day. It's going to continue to get better.
Dr. Niki Davis
(28:46)
For some people, it just takes some time. Of course, we can't reverse everything. Because if you've lived that way most of your life, it's nearly impossible to completely reverse all disease processes. But you can get pretty dang close if you stick with a really healthy diet. You've already seen benefits of that. You're doing great.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(29:08)
I think it's great that you've done that and not only have you improved your risk factors for future issues with strokes, but also everything else, diabetes with, obesity. I mean, it's just wonderful. Keep up the great work. Do not think that you should turn around and go back to the old ways. Stay with what you're doing. It's great. Congratulations for doing that. Well done.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(29:33)
You guys good for two more questions?
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(29:37)
Yeah.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(29:38)
Sue asked, I'm 63, I went whole food plant-based three years ago, lost 35 pounds. Congratulations. Had good results, but my skin got creepy saggy, could it be just age or hydration issue, the weight loss itself? It's common question. Anybody want to address that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(29:57)
I'll start with it and then you guys can jump in. I would say yes, it could be some of those things. Definitely hydration status plays a role. If you lost a lot of weight, too, that can play a role. You might have extra skin there. That's possible. Exercising it sometimes can help that part. In addition to look at your omega-3 status. Some people if you're doing very low amount of nuts, or seeds or oils, I mean, any fats at all, you may have a little bit of dry skin. Excuse me.
Dr. Chris Miller
(30:30)
Getting some omega-3s in you can be helpful. Flax seeds, chia seeds, leafy greens. On that note, I would also say eating more leafy greens can really help with skin health, and it has all the antioxidants phytonutrients. It has a lot of carotenoids. It's been shown that drinking a green smoothie, eight ounces of a green smoothie daily increase people's carotenoids by over 50%, just by having a green smoothie.
Dr. Chris Miller
(30:58)
Carotenoids are so important for the skin. Really optimizing your diet can be helpful as well. Some of this is blood tests that we can look at it a little bit. We can check your omega-3 status to make sure you are getting enough. It could be age a little bit. We do lose elastin and collagen. That happens as well. I just started a new anti aging cream for … That's totally natural. We'll see if it helps. If it does, I'll get back to you guys.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(31:29)
Anybody else?
Dr. Niki Davis
(31:29)
Yeah. I agree hydration, leafy greens. Of course, if you're going to have some weight loss later in life, you are going to have some sagging skin. It just the way that it goes. But of course, one of the important things about losing weight is making sure that you're not losing it too fast. One to two pounds a week is usually good. If you're losing really, really fast, sometimes you can have a little bit more sagging skin.
Dr. Niki Davis
(31:53)
Your body just takes more time to deal with that weight loss. If you give it some time, then you seem to have less of that loose skin.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(32:04)
I have two comments. One is, Chris, you don't need it. Two is hydration means hydration inside and outside. Make sure that you drink plenty of water and get hydrated both inside and outside and keep your skin hydrated.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(32:23)
Yes. Next question. Also over time, by the ways, if you have that rapid weight loss, which you can't sometimes control, it will continue to refine in and trim back and it just takes time. But sometimes if you have dramatic weight loss I [inaudible 00:32:39] patient who lost 350 pounds on a plant-based diet, she's going to have to have surgically removed, but she looks incredible.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(32:47)
I mean, when we started, she was 509 pounds and 350 pounds later you can imagine on someone who's 5'7″, 5'6,” there's only so much your skin can bounce back. But yes, there will be a point that surgical removal might be an option that you might want to consider because it can be uncomfortable and get yeast infections in the folds and different things and just cosmetically people feel more confident.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(33:14)
That's okay, too. There's no right or wrong answer. Just see where you need to go. But had this question here because it's recurring on occasion theme with certain patients. How much does it set a person back to eat a very clean whole food plant-based diet, non-processed during the week and then have one to two vegan treats on the weekend? Please address ladies, because I know what I would say. But I want to hear what you would say.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(33:43)
I would say for me, bad idea because I'm a food addict. That just gets me back into eating and having more cravings for bad things. Even if it's a healthy choice, a healthy whole food plant-based choice, if I have chocolate, I just crave chocolate. It depends on you. But it's like what Niki said earlier. Do you tell your smokers, “Hey, don't smoke during the week. But then smoke on the weekend.”
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(34:12)
That just doesn't make sense to me of being unhealthy for two days then your body has to repair from that and catch up again. That's my personal opinion. Let's see what everybody else says.
Dr. Chris Miller
(34:27)
I agree totally with Dr. Scheuer. That there's different types of people and we're not all made the same. Certain people can have a little bit of a whole food plant-based dessert made with dates and sweets and stuff and feel fine and someone else might eat the whole container of it and then it's going to set them back. You would have to know yourself whether can you really get away with just having one, or is that going to set you back two weeks now and ruin everything that you've just been doing for the previous two weeks.
Dr. Chris Miller
(34:54)
If you're like that, then it's not worth it, as Kim was saying. My second thought on that is if you are someone working with one of us and you're doing a reversal plan, then you probably don't want to do that. If you're reversing heart disease that's very serious disease that can actually reverse and improve, but not if you're having cheat days. If you're reversing an autoimmune disease, like myself, it really screws with me.
Dr. Chris Miller
(35:16)
I know I've tried it, and it's a bad idea. It depends on what your goals are and what you're doing. If you're super healthy, and you're aging well, and you can get away with just having one little something, it may actually not set you back that much. You can get on with it. Because we truthfully, we are all different, we have different things going on. But yeah, certain people have of us, like Kim and like myself, it's probably not a good idea.
Dr. Niki Davis
(35:42)
Yep. I completely agree with what you guys are saying. I think everyone's different. You just have to know yourself. If you're the person that is going to either be … if you're not completely 100% perfect, then you're going to fall off the wagon completely, then you might have to stay that way. But for other people, they can go out to eat once a month, and then the rest of the time they're eating completely clean whole food plant-based, and have no problem.
Dr. Niki Davis
(36:11)
If you're one of those people, then congratulations. If you can continue to keep your health in a good place, then that can work for some people. Some people they need to have that. Some people need to have that outlet or knowing, “Okay. I can have this at the end of the month, because I've been really good.” That's what keeps them going. Whereas that might also help … have another person fall off the wagon.
Dr. Niki Davis
(36:35)
You really just have to understand yourself what's going to help you maintain the best diet, best way of living that you can for your entire life. For some people, you need to have a little bit of brown sugar on your oatmeal, or you need to have that little treat every so often. Others if you do that, it's over and you go back to your standard way of eating. It really is dependent on person to person.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(37:03)
Someone asked this question twice, and I just feel it's a pretty easy one. Mary says I'm 76 and I've been plant-based for about five years. I seem to get low iron stores from time to time, which foods should I add? Iron is an interesting one. Plants, we typically don't absorb as much as you would of the heme iron from animal products. You don't need that. It's actually better for you to do the non-heme iron.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(37:28)
You need about eight milligrams if you're over 51 per day. If you're a menstruating female that's even more, young growing. But for someone who's your age … Things like your beans, tofu is great, certain oats, even … I'm just looking at our handout here that I put together for iron. The morel mushrooms are eight milligrams per cup.
Dr. Niki Davis
(37:50)
Wow.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(37:50)
You got uncooked oats at 7.4 milligrams per cup, cooked amaranth 5.2 milligrams per cup, boiled edamame 8.8 milligrams per cup. I could eat a cup of edamame. Firm tofu 6.7 milligrams per cup. I would focus really on those grains and the beans and certain dark green leafy veggies. Do you guys have any other thoughts on any of that as far as the iron absorption and things?
Dr. Niki Davis
(38:24)
Yeah. Then just … Oh, I was going to …
Dr. Chris Miller
(38:25)
No. Go ahead.
Dr. Niki Davis
(38:26)
Yeah. Then just making sure if you have a nice big leafy green salad, a little citrus, some vitamin C will help the iron absorb better. Just thinking of that, too, vitamin C with iron.
Dr. Chris Miller
(38:39)
Along those same lines as absorption we're thinking like Niki, if you eat your vitamin C rich foods with tea, tea inhibits iron absorption. You want to have your … if you're having tea every morning and then you're eating your oatmeal, you want to separate those so that you get full absorption.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(38:59)
Exactly. Okay. Very good. All right, guys. Thank you for being here again. Again, we are from Plant Based TeleHealth. Thank you, Dr. Kim, Dr. Chris, Dr. Nikki for joining us today. If you want to see one of our amazing doctors, we have nine doctors, a few more probably joining us soon. We're increasing our capacity, especially in certain tight states.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(39:19)
Check us out. We're at plantbasedtelehealth.com. We're in all 50 states, in DC. We have ability to see international patients as well. More of a consultations type of thing. But please, we are eager to help. That's why we're doing all of this. That's why we stepped into the world of telehealth because we understand it's important to have access for these incredible physicians.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(39:42)
Honestly, I don't think you'll find a more compassionate and hardworking group of docs than what we have here. Thank you, everyone. Any final words from my lovely lady docs here today?
Dr. Chris Miller
(39:54)
Thanks to everyone who's here. It's so fun to have you all here as part of the community. I look forward to seeing you all when we come to these webinars.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(40:03)
Wonderful.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(40:03)
We are so lucky to work with each other and with you. Thank you.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(40:05)
All right.
Dr. Niki Davis
(40:09)
Thanks everyone. Thank you for coming.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(40:10)
Yeah. Thanks everyone. We appreciate you and have a great weekend. Be safe. Okay. Take care.