116: Redefining Breast Cancer and Metabolic Health with Dr. Jenn Simmons

So I just finished a webinar for my community, and it was so well received. And I never really script any of these things because I think that when I speak from a script, I tend to stumble and, and lament about what I should have said or meant to say and didn't say. And when I just speak authentically about the things that I think that all of us should be concerned about, not just the breast cancer population, but literally what everyone should be thinking about. And our society is so misdirected in terms of health, how to be healthy, what it means to be healthy, because we're just. We're just not taught. And it's impossible to be something when you don't know how to be it. And so if you don't know where you're going, how on earth do you get there? So, so I gave a webinar to my community, and it was so well received that afterwards my team said, hey, why aren't we putting this on the podcast? So guess what? We're putting it on the podcast. So sit tight, get comfortable, because if you are someone on a breast cancer journey and you want to know how to put the. That diagnosis behind you, or you're looking to prevent going on a breast cancer journey, which I'm certain most all of you are, then this podcast is going to be super valuable to you. So stay tuned, because here it comes. What we're going to talk about today is something that I think is of the utmost importance in people who are either at risk for breast cancer, have breast cancer, were treated for breast cancer, and are wondering now what or are living with metastatic disease, because either way, this is something that we all need to be concerned about. Now, when women come to me with a breast cancer diagnosis, the first thing I hear out of most people, not all, there's always going to be exceptions, but the first thing I hear from most people is, I'm healthy, but I have breast cancer. Does anyone relate to that statement? Can I get a me in the chat for anyone who relates to that statement? Yeah, there's a. There's a lot of me's there. This is, this is a huge issue. And it's not that you, you are somehow disillusioned, because that's not what's happening. What's happening is that we are literally never taught in anywhere along the line what being healthy means and what being healthy is. And in America, and I can really only speak to the statistics in America, but as the rest of the world starts to mirror our behavior, they are suffering from the same thing and the same diseases. So in America, less than 10% of Americans are metabolically healthy. And metabolic health is basically an indication as to whether or not your system is operating correctly. So when I say metabolic health, can I get a yes or a no as to what? Do you know what I'm talking about when I say metabolic health? Can I get a yes if you know and no if you don't? Okay, so. Oh, we had a lot of guesses and then we had no's. And listen, if you said yes, I think that's amazing. If you said no, you are in good company. Because even as a physician, as a breast cancer expert, as a breast cancer doctor, I didn't know. I didn't know. And I was never taught to think outside of my box. Right? My box was meet someone with something that is suspicious for breast cancer, do a biopsy. That biopsy is positive. Tell them that they need surgery, chemo, radiation, anti hormonals. Is that the experience? How many people had that experience as their breast cancer experience? Had something abnormal, met a surgeon, had a biopsy, was told that they need some surgery, drugs, radiation, Like almost everyone, this is their experience. Now I want to ask you, how many of you who had that experience, had anyone say to you, how is your metabolic health? Did anyone say, how is your metabolic health? No. Zero. No one. Did anyone? Did anyone have markers of metabolic health measured anywhere along the way? No. This is the problem, and this is why I am here with you today. Because you need to know, and we all need to know, because breast cancer is a metabolic disease. There are lots of metabolic diseases, right? Breast cancer is just one of them. But the same things that plague someone with heart disease and with diabetes and with Alzheimer's and dementia and osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, it's the same thing that leads to breast cancer. And it's this common element that's never talked about for anyone. And no one knows how to recapture this elusive metabolic health. In fact, most people don't even know that they're not metabolically healthy because no one's asking the question and no one's helping them. And if you don't know how to be healthy, then what are you going to be? You're going to be sick. And that's why, you know, the only time that we come into contact, that we have interaction with the medical system is when we failed. Because our medical system is not built to make you healthy. It's not geared to make you healthy. It doesn't know how to make you healthy. The only thing our medical system is designed and built to do is to manage your symptoms when you're no longer healthy when you failed. Yes, Rebecca, we have a sick care system. We do not have a health care system. We have a sick care system. And I was having this really interesting conversation yesterday with someone about insurance companies and they were asking me why insurance companies are so quick to pay for mammograms but they won't pay for a cue T scan and don't they know that, that in the long run it will lead to less diagnoses. And they also wanted to know why certain health promoting things like QT but other health promoting things are denied and not approved because won't they lead to better health and less cost down the road? And what we all have to remember is the insurance company doesn't care about down the road because the likelihood that you're going to be their customer down the road is pretty low. People change insurances all the time. So the only thing the insurance companies care about is right now. And how can I reduce my costs right now? What is the cheapest thing for me to do right now? What is the least expensive thing for me to do right now? Because what happens to that person in five years is someone else's problem. So I'm just going to kick the can down the road. I'm going to give them the least expensive thing that can manage their symptom right now and let, let the next insurance company pay for it. When they get sicker and need more and more and more. They, they, they do not care about you. I know that sounds so harsh, but they don't, they don't care about you. They are in the business of making money. They're going to spend the least and they don't care what happens to you next year because you might not be theirs. They don't care. And so this is true of every health driving thing because that's not their concern. And our medical system is also not built for that. It's just not, it's not what our medical system is about. Our medical system is about crisis management and that is it. And in a true crisis, like an immediate emergent thing, our system really works. If you fall and break your hip, our system works. If you have a ruptured appendix, our system works. Even if you have a heart attack and need an angioplasty, our system works. What it doesn't work for is chronic disease because you can't just suppress the symptoms of chronic disease because it just gets worse and worse and worse. And so the way that we treat breast cancer in this country and around the world is wrong because no one is asking the right questions, and we're not getting to the root cause. And that's why we have so many people and thinking, I'm healthy, but I have breast cancer. Because they don't know their numbers. They don't know that they're healthy, because no one ever teaches them how to be healthy. And breast cancer is the first time they're actually faced with a manifestation of this dis. Of the dysfunction. Because, yes, you're right, it's not just in the US it's all over the world, but it is worse in the US and it's getting worse in the rest of the world as they. As they westernize. So breast cancer is a normal response to an abnormal environment. And what's happening is that as our environment shifts, as we become more unbalanced, the. The environment that the breast cells are living in becomes compromised. And what happens if you're in a threatening environment? You go into survival mode. That is literally what is happening on a cellular level in the breast. So as we, as we approach that woman with the breast cancer, I mean, does she need a surgery? Maybe? Right. Does she need chemotherapy? Maybe? But what we cannot forget about is why did this happen? Because if we don't change, how can we expect change? If we don't change that environment, how can we expect a different outcome? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. And yet that is what's happening day in and day out in the conventional medical system in the world of breast cancer, is that we are getting these women, we're giving them a diagnosis, we are giving them a surgery, giving them medical treatment, giving them radiation. No one is ever getting healthier in the course of that. No one gets healthier in the course of breast cancer treatment. If that's all you do, no one is ever healthier. No one is ever examining their why. No one is ever making any changes brought on by the conventional medical establishment. Because even when you ask. Let me ask you something. Did anyone ask their providers, does it matter what I eat? Let me know if you ever asked your medical oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist, does it matter what you eat? And did who of those people that asked, who got told that no, it doesn't matter what you eat? Show me a yes if. If you were told no, it doesn't matter what you eat? Astounding. And yet the key to our metabolic health is what we put in our mouth. 80% of our exposure to the outside world. 80%. Because we think of our gastrointestinal tract as internal. It's not internal. We are like an open tube from top to bottom, right? This is all exposed to the outside world. And 80% of our exposure to the outside world is through what we eat and what we drink. 80%. So how could it not matter? How could it not matter? Tracy said that she had her oncologist say to limit alcohol. I mean, we know that alcohol is the number one modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. The number one. And we're just told to limit it. Now, listen, I know that I'm Debbie Downer when I tell people that they should not be drinking alcohol, especially when you're actively cancering. But, I mean, this should be like, the first thing that. That doctors say. Carla, you are blowing my mind that your doctor said alcohol is not a factor. I mean, this is like. It's not even disputable that alcohol is a huge factor, a huge factor in breast cancer. I remember I had this one patient who. I mean, to look at her, she literally looked like the picture of health. And you can understand, I'm sure all of you can understand, if you are not overweight, if you look healthy, if you're working out all the time, if you have the energy to do the. All the things that you want to do, it's understandable how you would think that you're healthy. And she came to me with her breast cancer diagnosis, and I'm talking to her, and we're trying to get to her why, because it's really important, as you know, to get to your why. And it comes up that every single day, every single day, as she was cooking dinner for. For her family, she would open a bottle of wine while she was cooking, and in the course of cooking dinner and then sitting down for dinner with her family, she would finish that bottle of wine. And she had teenagers, and she did this since they were little. So we're talking about 15 years of drinking a bottle of wine every single day. And yet she was of the mindset that wine is healthy, right? Because we were told for many years that red wine is good for your heart and protective, and it did not affect her in the ways that we expect to see. And she really thought that she was healthy and didn't understand where this breast cancer diagnosis could have come from. And we are lulled into this false sense of security very, very intentionally, very intentionally so. I do have a little presentation for you guys today because I want you all to be thinking about this. It's so important for you to be thinking about how. How is your health and to be aware of your health and to focus on building your health. Because when we build health, disease goes away. Today we are talking about the one thing that I think everyone with breast cancer needs. And hopefully by having started the way that I started, you guys can even answer this question by yourself. I always want to start by saying that I think that at any age, at any stage, health can happen, right? And we are very conditioned to outsource our health. We are from the very start. You know, even as. As children, we. We kind of put the power of wellness in. And health and recovery in the medical system. But, you know, for decades, your grandmother knew what to do when you got a sore throat or I mean, like, of course mine made chicken soup. But everyone has their thing and their family remedies, and we, we knew how to intuitively restore health. And it's when we started to farm our health out to the medical system and kind of relinquish control that we really became unhealthy. Because the truth is that we have so much more control than we think. We have so much more control than we are being told and being given credit for. And so many of the people that I have worked with over the years have truly become experts in a way that their providers are really not. And so much of the wisdom in healing is dialing into yourself and being intuitive. And when you do that and when you own your health and take control of your health.

And.

And I know that there are many people that this is not for in that there are many people that do not want to own their health, do not want to take control of their health, do not want to gamble with it. Let's say in that. I remember I was giving a talk on sleep to a group of women with metastatic disease. And I always talk about everything. I mean, yes, the, the title of the talk was sleep, but sleep is layered onto a whole bunch of other things that, that drive wellness. And at the end of my talk, she put her hand up and she said, you know, I don't know if what you're saying is true or not, but I do know that, that for me, I would rather blame the drug for not working rather than me failing at being able to restore my health. And I know that there are plenty of people that that is true for. I mean, I actually recollect this story all the Time of after I did all my functional medicine training and I was already kind of a foot out the door in conventional medical world just because I was so disappointed in the outcomes. And I had this woman come into my office. She was 19 years old and she was wheeled into the office by her mother. And the reason she was in a wheelchair is because she had such progressive Ms. That she couldn't walk the 30ft from the elevator to my office. And what she, what she was coming in for was a breast mass. Now, I had just met Terry Wahls, who is a Midwest physician who had Ms. And reversed it by herself using diet and lifestyle and wrote this whole, wrote a book called the Walls Protocol and has reversed Ms. In thousands and thousands and thousands of people. So I was so excited when I saw this woman because I thought, you know, I can really give her hope. I can really change the trajectory of the rest of her life. And so I'm speaking to her and her mother about all that she can do to reverse this and make her, make her life completely different, extend her life, enrich her life, all of these things. And after about two minutes, she kind of put her hand up in my face to say, stop. And she said, are you going to do my biopsy or not? And that was really the, the, the straw that broke the camel's back for me in realizing that not everyone wants to help themselves. And that's fine. But what I want you to know is if you want to help yourself, you can.

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Back to our show. So I talk about lots of things that you can do to change your environment, but breast cancer is a normal response to an abnormal environment. And if you want to change that environment, you need to change that environment. If you want to end that cycle of disease, then you need to change that environment. Because again, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. And changing your environment will change that cellular response. And those cells that have transitioned into survival mode can then look around them and know that homeostasis is restored and they can reverse. I don't know if any of you have heard me talk about breast cancer and its growth and its behavior, but breast cancer growth is neither linear nor predictable. And it is not an obligate progressive disease in that it doesn't start as atypia, that turns into dcis, that turns into invasive cancer, that turns into node positive cancer, that turns into metastatic disease. So it has no obligation to go to the next step or the next phase. It can also skip phases. It can also regress. And all of that is based upon where it is in, in its evolution and how much and how quickly you can change that environment to affect the behavior, to affect the cells, to affect what's going on. So the, the most important thing that everyone needs to do is know what's happening in their environment and what they need to change. And some people need to change a little, and some people need to change a lot. People ask me all the time what I did for me. What I did for me is what I had to do for me. And it was a lot, right? Like, I had to change my diet, I had to change our water supply, I had to clean out the mold in my house. I had to deal with my dental issues. Like, what I had to do was a lot. You may, you may have those things, you may have other things. You may need a little. You may need a lot. I don't know. You need to know. But one thing that everyone needs to do is think about their environment and what needs to change. So what is going to be the most beneficial to someone with breast cancer? So what we talked about before is that 80% of our exposure to the outside world and 80% of what is going to affect our internal environment is through what we eat and what we drink. And so absolutely everyone who is going through a breast cancer diagnosis needs to think about this, needs to think about that mode of exposure and what you eat and what you drink and what you are exposing yourself to because you think about how many times a day do you eat, how many times a day do you drink? This is near constant exposure. So changing your diet is of the utmost importance. Now there are so many people that eat clean, so many people that eat clean, but maybe you're eating too frequently, maybe you're eating in the wrong way, maybe you're eating the wrong things for you. Until I did my nutrigenomic testing, which is what we do inside of my breast program, I didn't know that I was eating in a way that was actually making me sick. Literally making me sick. And had I not tested, I would have never known. I would have never known. And so this information is of the utmost importance to you because you want to know that you are eating the right things, right? So I think everyone knows not to eat sugar and everyone knows that processed foods are bad, but maybe you don't know that you don't tolerate saturated fat or you're not really supposed to be a vegan. So there's so much, there is nuances, there are nuances that you need to know about yourself in order to shape that environment to optimize your health. And unless you test, unless you know, you don't know about that. I do want to say a little more about diet. Not necessarily the diet of what you're eating, but what else are you feeding yourself? What else is coming in, what is coming in through your air, what is coming in through your messaging, what is coming in through your friendships, through your relationships, through social media, through, you know, our diet, what we're feasting on has, it is sometimes food, but sometimes it's the other things and they all affect that environment. So just briefly talking about the diet that's best for someone with breast cancer. I know that there are a lot of different dietary schools of thought and I'm not going to say any of them are right or wrong in that I think we're all bio individual. So what I need may not be what you need, may not be what someone else needs, but there are, there are some common threads that, that I believe and that I have seen to be beneficial to everyone with a breast cancer diagnosis. And so what I talk about is a whole food plant based but not plant exclusive Right. Because I said before, not everyone is meant to be a vegan. So a whole food, plant based, grain free, low glycemic diet, this is a very wholesome, very nourishing, very fiber rich, healthy, health promoting diet for everyone. And this is the diet that I have seen everyone be successful on. Are there individual nuances? Absolutely. But this is the diet that I have seen everyone be successful on. And it's the diet that I promote. And diet alone is not it. Right. So we know that being healthy is more than just what you eat. It's how you sleep, it's how you move, it's how you manage stress, it's how you manage toxins, it's whether or not you're living in a connected way and a purpose driven way. So we need to be thinking about all of this as we develop our health and promote our health. And the one thing that everyone with breast cancer needs is a health plan. Right? And your health plan is what your body needs to be healthy. And the thing is that everyone with a breast cancer diagnosis gets a treatment plan. Everyone. You all told me that's exactly what you got from your doctor. You got told that you need surgery, chemo, radiation, anti hormonal treatment, everyone gets that. But the thing that everyone needs is a health plan. And without a health plan, you're not changing your environment. Without a health plan, you're not getting to your why. Without a health plan, you're not addressing your metabolic status. Without a health plan, without you are not dealing with why that breast cancer happened. And unless we deal with the why breast cancer happened, we can't put our diagnoses behind us. And that's what everyone wants, right? Everyone wants to be able to put that diagnosis in the rear view mirror and go on to live as long as possible, as well as possible. So are you ready to get your personalized health plan? Because I would think that if you are someone who is being intellectually honest, you know that what the conventional medical system is offering is not enough. You know that your breast cancer didn't happen for nothing, right? It's not an accident. This is not about blame or shame. This is not about anything you did. Most people have no idea why they got breast cancer and for sure it is not intentional. So unless you know why, how can you get past it? How can you truly recover? And even if you do recover from breast cancer, when we look at the statistics of what happens to women who are treated with conventional treatment only, not with the addition of what I'm talking about, but with Conventional treatment only. You are. You have like, upwards of a 65% chance of dying prematurely of cardiovascular disease. Because unless you get to your. Why, unless you deal with what happened that led to a breast cancer diagnosis and correct that imbalance, correct that environmental shift, it's just going to manifest as the next disease. And, and all of the treatments for breast cancer, not the surgery, although that is traumatic, but the radiation, chemotherapy, the drugs, all accelerate heart disease, brain disease, bone disease. Unless you do something to interrupt this cycle of inflammation, this cycle of metabolic dysfunction, it's just going to manifest as the next thing. And yes, the surgery and chemo and radiation and medicines, they may delay the progression of the breast cancer, but they're not going to change whether or not it's going to recur or they're certainly not going to change whether or not you develop all of the diseases that go along with treatment. And so that's why it's so important to focus on your health even as you go through breast cancer treatment, or if you are in that, in that phase afterwards, like the, the quiet storm when you finished breast cancer treatment and, and you're being told that you should feel, be grateful to, to be alive, but you are left in this place where it's just this deafening quiet. Whereas you used to have all these appointments before, and it felt like you were participating in, in getting better, in your recovery, and now all of a sudden, you're not actively doing anything, and you're just left there wondering what, what to do. Well, this is the time to step in, step into your power, own your health, and do. And get on a personalized health plan to restore your health, to recapture your health, and to ensure your health for the future. So I just want to share some of the feedback that we've gotten from women in the program. Dr. Jen's program was one of the most valuable things I've done during my healing journey. I'm healing from metastatic breast cancer. And not only did Dr. Jen give me so much hope, she backed that hope up with a plan grounded in science. I learned so much during this program and connected with other women on a similar journey. I wish I found this program sooner. And I promise, if you're trying to learn all the things, this program will ground you in the most critical things for your healing journey. It's one of the few programs that is live, interactive, and fluid so that you can not only learn, but you can also ask questions. I highly recommend this program. That was a beautiful endorsement from Connie. Lisa says, I highly recommend Dr. Jen's program to anyone that wants to positively make changes to their health. I felt very overwhelmed when I was diagnosed with my breast cancer. I began with Dr. Jen's book. Then I began following her on social media. This led me to the offering of her classes and I immediately signed up. The classes took all my research and confusion to a real understanding to why this happened to me and what I can do to better my health and a sense of camaraderie. And then Becky says Dr. Jen's program helped me see my breast cancer journey in a different light. The live sessions with Dr. Jen and her teachings were invaluable. The one on one sessions with my coach were enjoyable and impactful. I felt understood and heard the test gave me an understanding of myself, my habits and the things I needed to change for a more healthful journey. I feel very confident about my new journey and with the help of Dr. Jen and her staff, I am very grateful to Dr. Jen and her team for this new learning. These are so nice. I hadn't read these before today. Willie says thank you so much. Your work has opened my eyes and helped my whole family. I can never thank you enough for getting on this journey. Continue please to help women. You are doing so much good. At first I didn't know about sharing personal things about my journey. I didn't want to sound whiny or silly or weak or any of those other belittling feelings bestowed upon me by my other professionals. And Dr. Jen didn't judge at any level. She is very compassionate when delivering her opinions and suggestions. You can trust her with your journey. Cindy. Wow. That was so sweet. I'm like reading these for the first time. Working with Dr. Jen has given me absolute hope when I didn't have any. She takes the time to answer all my questions and does and and she does it in a way so that you understand every part of the point she is discussing and really gives you the opportunity to understand what is going on and what all options you have. Truly grateful to have found her and her team. And that's from Jacqueline. Dr. Jen's program helped me to see my breast cancer journey in a different light. The live sessions with Dr. Jen and her teachings were invaluable. The one on one sessions with my coach were enjoyable and impactful. I felt understood and heard. I'm correcting some of these typos in my head. I am very grateful that I have found Dr. Jen in my quest to find alternative methods to support my breast cancer healing journey. I love that she is an experienced breast cancer surgeon who has had the courage to question the establishment and provide so much relative research based evidence. So I want to thank all of you for being here as long as you have. This is amazing and I am so grateful and for the fact that you stayed this long at the very end because you don't have much more. I'm going to take some questions.

I.

And we're also going to gift one of these ARIA kits. Now, I don't know if you guys have heard about the ARIA kit. So this is a test that uses your tears. Don't worry, you don't have to poke yourself in the eye. Uses your tears to screen for breast cancer. So it is a real time, it's not a genetic, it is a real time biologic risk assessment for breast cancer. And what it does is it's measuring two proteins in your tears, the S100A8 and S100A9 proteins. And these proteins, when elevated at critical levels, are very predictive of the early stages of breast cancer. Now, it is not yet approved to be used for recurrence. So this is only for primary screening. So if you already have a breast cancer diagnosis that is not remote, like you know, if it was five years ago or 10 years ago, you can, you can use it. But if it, but if you've had a recent breast cancer diagnosis, this is not used for recurrence. However, you can gift it to whoever you want. So you can give it to your daughter or your best friend or your mother or whoever you want to. Or if you haven't had a breast cancer diagnosis yet, if you're here for your daughter or mother or friend and you want to use this for screening, you can, we're going to, we're going to gift this to one of the, one of the attendees and at the end, and otherwise, if you're looking to order it because you want it for your friend or your mother or your daughter or your neighbor, you can order it at Aria Care and use my code. Dr. Jen 20 but this is what I am primarily using for breast cancer screening. So if any of you have any more questions or are ready to join the program, that QR code leads to a call with someone on my team who can take you through everything and help you decide if this is the right way for you to get to your why, to understand what you need to make your health plan and put your diagnosis behind you and make a plan for your health, for your life, so that you can live as long as possible as well as possible. Because I don't think that the way that we leave most women after a breast cancer diagnosis is right. We leave them in a really, really compromised state without giving them the opportunity or the tools that they need to be healthy. And as I started off saying, I believe that health can be achieved at any age or at any stage.

Hello, my beautiful listeners. I'm taking a quick break here to share something truly transformative with you today. If you're ready to take control of your breast health journey, then you need to get your hands on a copy of my book, the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer. I wrote this book to make a massive impact in the world of breast cancer, empowering women everywhere to make informed choices and educated decisions. You have so much more power and control over your health than you might think. And this book, this is a roadmap to harnessing that power. Inside, you'll uncover the truth about conventional treatments. They're often overestimated benefits and underestimated, under explained and under disclosed long term side effects. But more importantly, you'll discover the true drivers of health and how the choices you make at home every day can lead you to the best health, the.

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So I would love to take some questions now. Steph, can you go ahead. We're going to put the link for you to sign up for a call in the chat and then I'm happy to take some questions. I just, I, I, I have, I'm, I'm limited to the hour so because I do have a patient right after this. But Steph, do you want, I, I know you've been following along. I haven't seen the chat in a while and I'm, I don't even want to tell you how many, I think it says, like how many messages there are waiting for me. But who, I just by a show of hands, like who found this helpful today? Or just give me a yes in, just give me a yes in the, in the chat if you found this helpful today. Yeah, I'm so glad because this is something that it's just not talked about and we need to be having this conversation all the time. And the truth is that the only thing person that can make you healthy is you. But if you don't know how to do that, how are you going to do that? I mean, it's so distressing, and it's overwhelming how many people have been overwhelmed in that you just. You want to be healthy, but you don't know what to do. Can I get a yes in the chat? If. If you're just overwhelmed and you just want someone to tell you what to do, how do I do this? So I, I want all of you to know that you can be healthy. And there is a way to break all of this down into small, digestible bites. I mean, that's what I have done. And, and there is a way for, for you to have a health plan for you that will get you to where you want to go so that you can be all that you can be. Isn't that the army slogan?

I think it is. And we definitely will not have time to get to all of the questions, but I do have a few that I pulled out of the chat. Okay, so first one, how do you adapt your plan based on your treatment, whether it's chemo, hormone replacement, And I think this person is asking, I think she's looking for some information on a health plan. So how do you adapt it based on that?

So we basically meet you where you are, and at this point, I have a library that extends through, you know, starts, like what you should do if you are first diagnosed, what you should do if you are in treatment right now. Because during the different phases, you need to be thinking about different things, right? So when you're first diagnosed, well, the first thing I will say to you is if you are first diagnosed, the first thing you need to do is take a breath, right? You. No one should be rushing into treatment with very few exceptions. And the, the exceptions, I'll just say them quickly, are if you have inflammatory breast cancer, if you have metastatic disease that caused a bone fracture, or if you have metastatic disease that's in your brain, those are the only emergencies. And everyone else should take a breath, take a pause, and take the time to learn, educate yourself, and decide what is best for you. Because once you get started on treatment, like, you can't take it back. And you, you will, you will say to yourself, a year later, two years later, five years later, I wish I hadn't rushed into it. I wish I had thought about it more. I wish that I had thought about how to do it better, do it differently, make it right for me. So what your health plan is depends on where you are and what you're doing. So your health plan when you just start, your health plan while you're in treatment, your health plan when you've completed treatment, your health plan when you're five years out, they're all going to change. So we're meeting you where you are and giving you what you need right now. And you know, next year it may be something else. And we have something for that too. So I can give you. The typical course is we help people get through the early start phase of their diagnosis. We help people get through treatment, we help people to get through, through that period of time when they're recovering from treatment and restoring their health. We help people build their health for the long term. And what that looks like for a lot of women is longevity medicine like everyone else is doing, like everyone else is getting. And that includes bioidentical hormone replacement, even in the ERPR positive breast cancer population. So I am a huge believer that your body should get what it needs. And for some women, what it needs is a, is hormone replacement. But hormone replacement is the bow on top of the box and the box is filled with all those other foundational things that build your health. Okay, Steph, next question.

Okay, I know we don't have much time, so.

I know we don't have much time. I apologize.

I did want to say Jennifer's here and she just wrote in the chat, which you probably didn't see Dr. Jen. I'm currently taking Dr. Jen's class and it is invaluable to me. I'm so thankful to have been able to glean from all her knowledge. She has helped me immensely and have calm so many of my fears. Totally worth the time and expense. I began this journey by reading her book. It is a must read. So thank you for that, Jennifer.

That makes us very happy. Jennifer, thank you so much for saying that and being here and taking the time because you get, you get me every week. So I'm so impressed that you, you spent an extra hour with me this, this week. That was so kind.

And Suzanne from our group said similar. I there are so many messages in the chat I now can't find hers. But we wanted to give her a little shout out too, so.

Oh, Suzanne said, I agree the program is an investment for better health and finding the why. And she put in quotes what I say all the time, which is breast health is health and the same things that are going to give you healthy breasts are going to give you a healthy brain, a healthy heart, healthy bones, healthy joints, healthy gut, healthy Skin, healthy vagina, healthy bladder, all of it. Right? And so as we started to talk about in the very beginning, this is really about building your health, building your metabolic health, building your environmental health. And if you don't know how to do that, you're not going to be able to do it. And that is what we are giving you inside of this program. And at the same time, you get access to me every week. So as things come up for you, we help you through them. And as things change for you, we help you through them. And so you. You've heard from the people that are in my group who have come on this call today. You've heard what this has meant for them and. And for all of you that are struggling with what to do next. This is what to do next. This is what your body needs. Your body needs a health plan, and your body needs the health plan that's right for you right now. Steph, I don't know if you want to just pop the link again to the call with the team. And, um, so on that call, you can talk through all of your concerns and just make sure that this is right for you, that this. This is going to be your solution and how you're going to get your health plan so that you're going to be able to move forward and. And get the answers that you're looking for, get the plan that you need and reclaim and recapture your health for the future and continue to evolve with that. Because again, as time goes on, your needs are going to change. And we're here to support you where you are then. We're here to support you now, and we'll be there to support you then. Steph, do you want to announce the winner of the Aria test?

Yes. I'm actually going to email that person. They will get an email from me with letting them know they're the winner later today. I have someone in mind, so.

Okay.

Yeah. All right, Very exciting.

All right, Steph, let's just do.

Let's.

Let's do three more questions, and then I gotta go get ready for my patient.

Okay, so one quick, easy question. Is it okay to ever have sugar? And this person said, if I recall, they like to do a little bit of honey, natural honey. So this is the question we get. So.

So here's. Here's my answer. And it's gonna sound pretty vague, but it depends, right? If you are someone who has great metabolic health, right, and you have a little bit of sugar every now and again, and it doesn't spike your blood sugar, Right. It's not affecting you adversely, then the answer is yes, it's fine. Right? But if you're someone like me that walks on a tightrope, it's not fine. It's not fine. The second I have any sugar, I'm having a hot flash. That is my body saying to me, this is not working for you. And do you want to. Do you really want to be sick? Do you really want to go back to that place that you were six years ago where you weren't going to. You weren't sure if you were going to be able to raise your kids, Right? So it depends. And listen, I am not saying that you're never going to have another piece of birthday cake again, right? But birthday cake is for your birthday and not for everyone's birthday, right? It's not for your friend at the office's birthday, your neighbor's birthday, someone at the church's birthday. Like that's not what it is that it should be. Seldom. There is never any benefit to sugar. Never. And in fact, when we look at what sugar does, it actually is immunosuppressive. So besides what's just happening on a metabolic level and the hot flashes and the blood sugar spikes and the insulin spikes and all of that, it is actually suppressing your immune cells and so you're far more likely to get sick as a result. And our immune system is what should be protecting us from cancer, which is why people who don't make dietary changes ha. Are more likely to have poor metabolic health and to have cancer progression and to have worse outcomes. So I don't want to oversimplify it, but I also want to say that there is never any benefit to it and only detriment. But Manuka honey is very good for wounds. It has good antibacterial properties. So stop eating it. You can put it on your boo boos.

There we go. I love it.

Okay.

Sort of a question that's come up in the chat a few is about where to get nutrition genome and I did let everyone know, it is a pretty lengthy report. So you really do need someone to help put that into a health plan for you and make it actionable. If you want to just maybe inform everyone a little bit about that. Yeah.

So the nutrition genome is one of the tests that I use in order to determine what diet is best for you, what movement is best for you, how, what, what toxins do you personally need to worry about? What, what support do you need? What supplements do you need? How many people out there have a Supplement graveyard. Can I, can I get a yes to those that have a supplement graveyard? I'm, like, embarrassed to show you mine. I'm going to tell you that mine is mostly old because I am now very, very informed and selective about what I take, because I'm taking what my body needs in the forms that it needs. So the Nutrition genome, the DNA360, these are tests that test for actionable genes. Not do you have a Broca gene or do you have the gene for Huntington's disease or like, these are. These are not genes that are actionable. The genes that we are testing for on the nutrition genome or on the DNA 360. These are actionable genes. And what we're doing is we're helping you to interpret this information and helping you to apply it to your life. What diet should you be on? What supplements do you need? How much sleep do you need? What should your timing of sleep be? What should your fasting routine look like? What kind of toxins are you especially susceptible to? And how do you need to support your detoxification system? What support specifically do you need for your detoxification system? What does your estrogen detoxification look like? And if you are to go on hormone replacement, what support do you need on hormone replacement to keep you safe and well? So this is really valuable information that, you know, technically anyone could go and have this test done, but the report is 82 pages long.

Between 80 and 85 pages somewhere right around there. Comprehend.

Yeah.

But we are helping you to distill that information down to what is important for you. And we have a genetics expert coming on to our meetings every month that's going through and breaking this down for you and helping you to understand it. And she's taking all your questions and helping you to understand what it means for you. And sometimes the reports have information that seems to be conflicting. So she's helping you to create a hierarchy and to prioritize. Well, this is much more important than this. So, yeah, you listen. Everything that I tell you, you could find yourself, it would take you a really long time and it would be really hard to do. But we've, we've put it all in one place for you. So to make it easy, we've put all the resources in one place for you. We've created a library for you so that, you know, if I, I saw in here, someone was asking about Tamoxifen. Well, listen, if you want to know about Tamoxifen, I talk about it for hours and hours and hours. You can just go to the library and pick the talk about tamoxifen that you want to listen to. Right. So it's all there for you. And if you had to gather this information yourself, it would take you years. Right. The whole reason that I started doing what I'm doing is because it took me years and so many failures. So many failures. I got so much worse before I got better. And I don't want that for you. So you can go far alone, but if you want to go fast, you go together. What's the next one?

That is actually the majority of the questions I pulled from the chat.

Good.

Yeah, we were going to talk a little bit about hrt, but we did. You covered that a bit.

So, yeah, I mean, listen, I think that everyone should be entitled to have the hormone replacement question. Everyone, I think they should. Everyone should be having the conversation at some point. And it is a very, very relevant conversation in the breast cancer population. Because if, even if you're premenopausal, when you get diagnosed with breast cancer, you're almost guaranteed to be put into menopause. Because if you have triple negative breast cancer in a pre menopausal woman, you're going to be given chemotherapy. And if you have hormone positive breast cancer in a pre menopausal woman, you're going to be given estrogen deprivation therapy. So either way, you're going to be put in menopause. And if you're postmenopausal, you're already in menopause. And we know that estrogen is the hormone of life. Estrogen is not mutagenic, it does not cause breast cancer. So there's nothing curative about depriving women of estrogen, certainly not long term. And in the long term, it has a lot of negative consequences. A lot. So if you're going to talk about being healthy and you're going to talk about longevity, hormones have to be part of that conversation. When you're ready for the hormones, that's the nuance. Right. And if you haven't dealt with your metabolic health yet, you're not ready for hormones. Now, you may not be able to optimize it because hormones are required for the optimization of metabolic health. But you should be having the question, you should be asking the question and you should be having the conversation. And you should know that maybe, maybe hormones are your North Star, but you're going to get there. Here's the steps to get there. Here's what you need to focus on first. And they should be part of everyone's long term plan because they are the key that unlocks your health and longevity. So why would we not include them? And there's still a lot of pervasive ignorance out there and I am determined to change that for the breast cancer population. Well, I want to thank everyone for joining me today and thank you, Stephanie, for being there and being my support through this. Thank you, Melissa, for showing me love. I'm so grateful for that. Being a guide to the breast cancer community is truly my honor, my purpose. I very much believe that I was put on this earth by God with that purpose to, to forever change how we diagnose, how we treat and how we screen for breast cancer. And it's only through you that I get to fulfill my purpose. So I thank you so much for being here today, for listening and I hope to see you all inside of the Breast Health blueprint and to help you on your journey towards health and longevity. Because it's, it's all of our goal to live as long as possible as well as possible. And that's all I want for you. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Well, I hope you enjoyed that podcast. It really brought up a lot of things for people because we again, are not taught how to be healthy and we don't know how to be healthy. And there are, there is so much focus on treatment and not enough focus on prevention and what we all need to be thinking about our health, our environment, our metabolic health and the markers of metabolic health in particular. So I hope that this was enlightening for you, that it puts you on a quest to be healthier and to look for the answers to your questions and what might be interfering with your health. And if you want to learn more or want to learn how to work with me, you, you can go to realhealthmd.com and sign up for a call. Or if you are looking at this on YouTube or listening on your device and you go to the show notes, the link to how to sign up for a call with my team is there. So thank you so much for joining me and know that I will be back next week, same time, same place. It's Dr. Jen, bye for now.