Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, welcome to It's a Kinetic thing with Karen Kay. I'm Karen Kay and today we're just going to do a question and answer session.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: What's the one thing you notice when, what can you pick up from a patient coming in?
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Usually I can tell just overall how they feel, their fatigue level, their mental health, how well they're sleeping. You know, we sometimes say, oh well, they're an eeyore because you can just tell they're kind of dragging through the day. So always look at that and know we can probably change that.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: And can you tell some someone's low hormone or deficient in vitamins at all or is it just really, that's harder.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: To tell just by looking. But sometimes you can, you know, people that are deficient, especially in testosterone, tend to and low in estrogen. For ladies, put on more belly fat, more soft in the middle, starting to lose muscle mass earlier than they should. So you can see some of that as well.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: What treatment combo is what you recommend 9 times out of 10? I know it probably varies by person, but just say your average woman, middle aged woman walks in.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, your average, I'd say perimenopausal, postmenopausal women, hormone therapy, almost all. Very seldom will I find a middle aged female that's thyroid is functioning optimally. So those are two things that almost always go hand in hand.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: What are three things you wish every woman over 35 would do for herself?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: One, invest in a good skincare line. I see women spending a lot of money on expensive cosmetic grade skin care that really is full of junk and filler and you have to use a lot of it to get little results. And if you would really put a little investment in, in a good pharmaceutical grade skincare, it may cost you more upfront, but it's going to last you longer. You're going to use less of it each time and it's going to give you better results.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: I'll never forget the first time I started using medical grade.
The results come so quickly. You're like, oh, why didn't I start that earlier? I wish I would have started in my 30s. I was in my 40s, almost 50 when I. No, it's probably mid-40s, I guess. I wish I would have done it earlier. Okay, so you're not just a nurse practitioner but you're also a patient of your own wellness.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: So tell us a little bit about your wellness journey to get to where you are today.
I feel like you're healthy and thriving.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: I am. I do feel like, you know, few things that I've done that that I think have really improved my health overall. And my skin is one again. Got started on medical grade skincare 20 years ago and when I look at pictures of myself back then, even though I'm about to turn 60, my skin looks so much better now.
Of course, being a child of the 60s, you know, we were that group that put betadine and baby oil and fried our skin constantly.
So just wearing sunscreen every day where you're indoors or outdoors, because even under fluorescent light indoors, you get those rays that damage your skin. So always important for good sunscreen.
I think getting my hormones optimized has changed my body composition. I burned fat. I don't carry belly fat like I used to definitely have. Maintaining muscle mass, I think more than my average 60 year old friend. My libido compared to what I hear from my friends is, you know, know night, day better. And you know, my husband and I really enjoy a good active sex life. And I hate to hear women my age that act like they just dread it and they want to kill their husband if they come near. And I'm like, how sad.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: And that's so common.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: It is so common. And I hate that I still had sleep issues. That typical kind of menopausal woman where you might go to sleep but you wake up or you lay there all night with a million things running through your head that you can't do anything about at 1 in the morning. Starting taking progesterone at night and then adding the NAD plus has been incredible for my sleep. Also, I've had a fracture and herniated disc at or a ruptured disc on C6 C7. And so I used to have to take a lot of muscle relaxers because I had a lot of muscle pain in my neck.
I rarely do that anymore. It just doesn't bother me anymore. So that's been amazing. I'm pretty strict about watching my vitamin D level. I'm religious on taking a thousand milligrams of vitamin C twice a day and then keeping my hormones optimized. So Covid hit back in 2020. At that time I was traveling as a trainer for some laser and aesthetic device companies in the height of COVID you know, I earned an executive platinum with American Airlines. Over 150,000 miles, was flying all the time in and out of nursing homes, rounding one day a week minimum. And I have yet to ever catch COVID And I really believe in studies kind of have bearing out, you know, vit, vitamin D Levels that are optimal. Taking your vitamin C does keep your immune system healthy. Having your hormones optimized help. And so I've gone five years plus now, never had Covid.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: That's awesome. I think you're proof that just doing all the things that you should do. When we talk about that a lot, where women are just told that that's part of aging, well, I think you're proof that it's not part of aging and you don't have to live that way. And there's actually better ways and there's ways to make you feel like a human again.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, you know, interesting. This week my daughter moved and I helped her. And you know, I'm lifting king size bed frames and you know, the ones that the head raises and lowers, king size mattresses and couches. And my daughter looked at me and said, mom, I don't know many 60 year olds that are carrying furniture like this. And again, six years ago, I would have had to go home and take a muscle relaxer and go to bedtime. It was done. I was hungry, but I didn' I wasn't hurting.
It didn't put me out for a day or so.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: That's so great because I would have been the one at home on pain meds after the end of the day. If you could rewrite the wellness industry, what would you, what would be your first step? Well, you make people understand differently about wellness.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: I think we just need to change our the hot the entire paradigm on what we do for wellness in this country. All we want to do is chase behind an disease and throw some drugs at it, and then we have a side effect from that drug or that medication, Then we throw another one at it, and then we throw another one at it. And why do we not do things that help a body's patient's person's body stay healthy, stay in homeostasis, stay young forever, maintain muscle mass, burn fat efficiently. And a lot of that is healthy weight, good sleep habits, a healthy lifestyle, but getting your hormones optimized. So why aren't we doing that? And there's study after study after study that has proven the health benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement. And the couple of small studies that are negative were really done on synthetic hormones, conjugated equine estrogen and medroxyprogesterone or premarin and Provera. And they gave hormones a bad name same, but it was those particular synthetic versions and not the bioidentical other countries.
It's not only part of the Healthcare system. It's almost expected, if not mandated, because they know the benefits of it.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Today I was with my hairdresser and she asked the question, well, because I was telling her about we all should be on hormone replacement. And I was telling the whole oncology story, and she said, but why? Like, what's it going to do for us?
And I just was like, wow, that. I think that's a lot of it is women. I think we're just told for so long that it's part of aging.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: That we don't know, well, what's the benefit of taking it? And I was like, remember what you felt like in your 30s?
That's why you need to take hormones. Because all that's gone away now that you're, you know, you're in menopause.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Well, you know, some of the leading causes of death in older women are hip fractures and mobility, which leads to pneumonias and bed sores and all types of decline in immune system. With healthy estrogen, testosterone levels, you're much less likely to fracture a bone because your bones are stronger. The other thing, estradiol, again, helps stave off belly fat and insulin resistance. We know the more belly fat and the more obese you are, the more likely you're going to have heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, down the road. So if we can stave those off. And then another thing that often ends up causing issues with older females especially is genitourinary symptoms. So urinary tract infections, vaginal infections, which can lead, you know, to sepsis or just infection in the blood.
And we know that. Well, estrogenized women do not have the UTIs that the regular population has.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Say one more thing about that and then we'll move on to the next question. But I saw a TV news program, Elizabeth Vargas, I think she was abc, speaking to the head of the fda, who said they are close to removing the black label off of hormone replacement therapy because they know it does not cause cancer.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that should be happening hopefully before the end of the year.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Really.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: David presented the research, they've petitioned, and they are agreeing that all of those black box label warnings came from the Women's Health Initiative, which we now know was a false study, a flawed study, and again was on synthetic hormones. And since then, we've had multiple studies. They've relooked at the data from the Women's Health Initiative, realized that a false statement was made.
At the time, most people knew it was false, but the journal, I believe it was the Journal of American Medicine, refused to Redact the article because they had made such a splash and so much news anyway. But we now know it's false. Those black box labels are about to come. Warning labels are about to come off. So it's not just me saying it.
The FDA is now realizing it as well.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: That's huge news.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Huge.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Think about the poor women that have suffered for so long.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and you know, we've got to get. The next thing we've got to do is to get our insurance carriers on board. You know, testosterone is widely covered for men in the US if their testosterone level is low. But women are told that's just normal part of aging and just deal with it.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Makes no sense.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And we're better about covering estrogen if you can prove hot flashes, some of the insurance. But they're really not very good about testosterone and even progesterone for women. And we need to fix that because we know people need it and they feel better and they're healthier.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: That's so crazy.
Well, that's good news. I was pretty excited to, to see that news program.
That's gigantic. I'm going to show it to my oncologist.
What is one piece of health advice that you give patients that surprises them often?
[00:11:49] Speaker A: I will tell them they're not undereating and especially under eating protein. So, you know, we've had this myth in this country that we need a low fat diet. A low protein diet. Red meat is horrib.
Just eat salads and, you know, vegetables if you want to lose weight.
But we want to lose fat. We want to maintain muscle. And we've got to give your body at least your basal metabolic rate, how many calories you burn if you rest.
And so often some of my ladies especially are way under eating. You know, their basal metabolic rate is 1400 calories a day, and they're eating a thousand calories a day and very little of that protein. So they're surprised when I tell them. So you're under eating, I bet.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't hear that often in life. Usually it's the other way around.
Oh, and I know this answer already, but I just. We kind of just talked about it, but I want to hear you say it. What's the wellness heel you'll die on?
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Oh, hormones, hormones, hormones.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: You. That's what you say. You'll go to your grave taking hormones.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I'll go to grave with pellets in my rear end. You bet I will.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: I love that. What's the most underrated treatment that you offer at Kinetic Clinic.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: You know, one thing I think that's gotten a bad rap recently, then I hate, is radiofrequency microneedling. It is an exceptional tool. In the right skilled hands, it can be a dangerous tool and cause skin discoloration and skin texture irregularities and even burns and facial fat loss in the wrong hands. But if you got a skilled operator, it's great technology.
It does some amazing things. Whether it's just overall improving skin tone and texture, reducing fine lines and wrinkles, we really can use it. If you have little areas of focal fat, like a double chin, or you've got these little saddlebag areas and the rest of your body is good, I mean, those are great uses for Morpheus.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. What are you watching for when you see a new patient come in? I know you run blood work, so obviously there's probably lots of things you're looking at.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we do a full blood panel, but also always send them. I have them fill out a questionnaire of symptoms that commonly go along with hormone deficiency, that they may not have correlated with hormone deficiency. So, you know, stress, urinary incontinence, painful intercourse, unable to reach a climax, just tired all the time, poor sleep, anxiety, depression. So we always have them fill out a questionnaire and rate their symptoms on that. And then when we do their lab, we can correlate the symptoms having with the lab values that we see. So estradiol specifically has been found to stabilize any plaque buildup in your arteries and blood vessels. And so we know that when that plaque fractures off and travels, it could travel to your heart and cause a heart attack, it could travel to your lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism, travel to your brain and cause a stroke. And so estradiol in studies has been shown to not only stabilize the plaque so that it doesn't fracture off and cause those issues, issues, but over time is the only agent out there that reverses that plaque buildup. And so now more and more, we're not only making sure women have healthy estradiol levels, but we're also putting men, especially high risk men, high risk for cardiovascular disease, on estradiol, too. And, you know, usually when I broach the subject with my men, they look at me like, you know, am I going to grow breasts?
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: And am I going to, you know, my side effects, voice is going to get high and I'm going to start crying at kitten kitty cat commercials. Answer is no. We want you at a healthy estradiol level. At the same time, we're going to keep you at a healthy young men testosterone level, it will stay in balance. You're not going to have those problems. You know, when we first years ago started doing hormone replacement in men, we would prescribe estrogen blockers to them. And we now know that's the worst thing we can do. And I still get men who have consulted some Internet tick tocker that swears they need an estrogen blocker. And I'm like, no, you don't. All of that testosterone, the estrogen conversion is doing healthy things in your body. And the last thing we want to do is, is stop it, stop that. And we just keep your testosterone level healthy so that you're in balance.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: I love that about giving that to men instead of what's the one thing that everybody puts them on?
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Statins.
Yeah. Lipitor, Crestor, they all have horrible side effects. And you know, I will say, you know, don't tell your doc, but we're going to take you off of this and do this and that. And I've done it. My own husband, his, you know, young, fairly young, had a small stroke. He has some disease in the small vessels of his heart. And of course they had him on max dose of statins and he's like, I can't walk a block, my muscles are giving out. I feel horrible, all these things. And so I tell you my opinion on estrogen, estradiol. We haven't told his primary care.
She just did his lipid panels, cholesterol and triglycerides. And she's like, these are so good. Our meds are doing so good.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Oh gosh, isn't that funny?
[00:17:09] Speaker A: We just let her think it's hard.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: I would too.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: You know, we've got to change, we've got to change how we educate our new health care providers. Because if they're not interested in naturopathic, holistic, functional medicine, they're still doing the old things. And they're unfortunately telling patients that people like me are crazy and we don't know what we're doing and that we're, what we're doing is wrong. When in fact they haven't kept up with the research. They don't know what the studies show and they're the ones doing harm to the patient. And we have to play this cloak and dagger of I'm going to do this, but don't tell your primary care.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: I think about the message that my oncologist left me that you listened to saying, well, the nurse said that you're going to a functional medicine doctor. You could tell that was like the negative spin on it.
It's so crazy to me that they think that. What are you most proud of as a nurse practitioner? Probably have a lot of things.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Oh, I think, gosh, I think just being able to help people feel better to have. I guess the thing that makes me most proud is when I get a word of mouth referral, which is honestly probably 95% of my business is, you know, so and so told me they wouldn't trust anybody else. And when I asked, where do I go? They said, go there.
That makes me very proud.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: Sure, I bet. Yeah. You definitely have changed a lot of lives. So kind of leading into that, what do you do differently at Kinetic Clinic that maybe some of the other weight loss or hormone clinics don't do? I think you have a lot.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I try to, you know, obviously we're not trying to be your primary care general practice provider, but we also can't practice in a silo. So I'm not going to just give you the new weight loss shot and tell you to go home and take your shots and eat less. This, I'm going to help you come up with a diet plan. I'm going to monitor. Are you losing fat or are you losing muscle? And if you're losing muscle and not fat, what are we doing wrong? I'm going to make sure you know what your basal metabolic rate is, meaning this. This is the amount of calories you need to eat or less to be in a deficit so that you do lose weight, but this is how much protein you have to have. I'm also going to look at your thyroid and I'm going to look at a full thyroid panel. I'm not just going to look at a TSH and say, oh, you know, your thyroid specific hormone is normal, therefore your thyroid is normal. I'm going to look at, do you have thyroid antibodies? Are you making enough T3, are you making enough T4?
And even though your levels might be in the, quote, normal range, they're not optimal, they're not at the top of that normal range or even slightly higher. I don't have a problem taking them higher. If you feel better and you have no cell side effects, so that would be different. And, you know, and if I see that thyroid issue, I'm going to treat it. I'm not going to tell you, go back to your primary care. If I see your vitamin D is deficient, I'm going to treat that. If I see something that I feel like is beyond the scope of practice at our clinic, Then obviously I'm going to take you, I'm going to have you go back to like, I found Anemia and a Gentleman the other day. He thought his testosterone level was low and he came in for me to check it. Well, his levels were gray, but his hemoglobin was low, his MCH was low. All, all of his other blood labs pointed he had anemia. And I'm like, we need to find out where that's coming from.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: So that's a little beyond the scope of my clinic. But I am going to advise you what to do and where to go to get that take.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Okay, so you mentioned earlier that part of your wellness journey was nad.
So let's talk about peptide therapy, what it is and what, what all it does.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: So peptide therapy has been around quite a while. People don't really recognize. Sometimes they think it's the new greatest thing. But peptides are just short chains of naturally occurring amino acids. And so the peptide that we first discovered and were able to replicate is insulin. And so most people think of insulin as a drug for diabetics, but it's actually a naturally occurring peptide that healthy people's liver makes or pancreas makes and pumps out insulin and helps control our blood sugar, which helps control our metabolism and weight. Well, now we're starting to identify more and more of these change of amino acids and what they do in our body and are able to replicate them now and recognize signs and symptoms of being low in those.
So some of them are human growth hormone stimulators, some of them are just almost immunomodulators, which they help your immune system. There's some out there that might help with libido. There's one out there that helps you tan easier, you know, but that's what they are, is they're just by definition, chains of amino acids. 20 or less amino acids in a chain, naturally occurring, that have a specific function in our body.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: And there's so many.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: There's so many. It's so exciting what we're doing, how we're now able to replicate those and how we can help patients. I've been doing a lot of, as you said, I've been doing NAD myself. I've seen a big difference in my skin, my sleep, just overall, joint aches and pains, energy level. I love it.
Another one that's really popular right now is BPC157. BPC stands for body protection compound. And so people with musculoskeletal injuries, soft tissue injuries, even fractures of the bone Excuse me. Injecting BPC makes a world of difference in their pain level, how quickly they recover from an injury or an accident. When it's taken orally, it's amazing for what it does for people with IBS and different intestinal disorders. And then just like I've got a lady with some pretty severe fibromyalgia that becomes almost crippling and she's like, I've been on this for four days and my body doesn't ache anymore. I don't feel like I have to take a 12 hour nap every day. So there's just, just amazing in what they can do.
A lot of my gentlemen and ladies too that are, you know, gym fanatics and work out hard and they love like cjc 1295 with ipamorellin because it does help stimulate that human growth hormone. It helps them recover from their workouts so they're not stiff and sore for a day afterwards. So it's pretty amazing what all is out there and that we're now able to replicate and the good that it's doing.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Well, I'm on a lot of them and it is changed me. The BPC has completely helped a knee that probably needs to be replaced. I've never heard that officially from a doctor, but just based on the way it's going and the pain and it is changing that knee just in how you know, normally I couldn't stand for any length of time. By the time I stood for a while it was just stinging and I had to just go sit down. I can stand now for hours and it doesn't even sting at all. It's just crazy to me that within like, I think I've been on it a month, it's made that big of a change within a.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Well. And tell me, tell the audience. You told me you just were at your hairdresser.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah. So I, I'm on several. So I'm on Mot C, I'm on BPC157 and I'm on CJC1295 and NAD, I was just there today and she's like, okay, what have you done different? Because your hair is so much stronger and so much thicker. So you're doing something different. What is it? Well, that's the only thing I've changed is started taking those so. And I have noticed it myself, you know, just even running my hands through my hair.
Obviously you worry about after losing hair that it's never going to be as thick and it comes back in crazy and. But it also goes Back to pre cancer. And my pre cancer hair was very fine. I had a lot of. It was very fine. I've noticed lately that it just feels so thick, like I have so much more hair. But I didn't want to believe it because I. And I didn't really think about what it could be. But her saying that today, when I looked at her in the mirror and I thought I said, said, well, I'm on a lot of peptides. And she goes, okay, what is that? Tell me about that. Because she said, it's made a significant difference. So I do think it does just change so much of our bodies. And it's quick. It's not even something that you have to be on for a long time. I noticed the BPC on the pain level the very day that evening. I could tell a big difference. So it happened so rapidly. That's the craziest part of it.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: It is.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: I won't ever go without them.
I can't imagine not. You know, I'll follow the directions, the guidance of it, but I can't imagine not having some of them in my life forever.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Once you get started and hormone replacement, too, it's just so hard to go back because you don't want to go back to that. When you were in Eeyore and you were just dragging through the day and depressed and barely making it.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: And I do feel like I, you know, coming through chemo, I survived. I'm eight years, but it did. It destroyed a lot of part of my body. I'm nowhere near the person I was before. And I will honestly, honestly say I feel like I'm getting back to that person. And I know I. It's the.
It's totally the peptides.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: I'm really starting to feel like myself again. I said that the other day to somebody. I'm like. And I never thought I'd feel that again because it's just been brutal what you go through after that. So I. I'm a huge believer in the peptides. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you some rapid questions on this one. Can I drink on semi glutide if I'm taking semi glutide?
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Yes, you can.
Less likely to want to because it helps with the cravings. And you won't be able to drink as much because you just won't have room for it.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: And then is hormone therapy safe? We already talked about that. Will peptides make me bulky?
[00:26:53] Speaker A: No, not in them of themselves, no.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: Am I too young for hormone testing?
[00:26:58] Speaker A: No. I would say not, you know, there I see a lot of 20 year old young men, unfortunately with low testosterone, which I have think is is completely credited to our horrible American diet and the additives we put in our food. I would say, you know, there's caution when you're younger that could affect your fertility down the road, how quickly or easily you could make a baby. So, you know, you definitely want a provider that's going to talk you through the pros and cons.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: I've also seen a lot lately of like 30 something year old women that have gone to the doctor and gotten blood work and their hormones and their testosterone is really low.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you will see it, see it in women too. Younger women like that. We typically will replace testosterone if they're still ovulating normal, their FSH LH estradiol levels are normal. We usually won't do that. Some young women really benefit from lower dose progesterone just for sleep or for control of symptoms like pcos, things like that.
So definitely see younger and younger people needing hormone replacement or help or optimization.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: That's it. On our rapid fire and that's it. We're out of time.
