#278. When The Body Says No: Genetics, Implants, And True Recovery

And if you don't believe that you can heal or get well, you just actually will not heal and get well. That is the truth of it. Your mind will win every time. If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabatha, triple board-certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. This isn't about another diet or quick fix. This is about restoring your energy, your confidence, and your faith through fasting, functional medicine, and biblical truth. Welcome to Fast to Faith, where you don't just lose weight and feel great, you step into who God created you to be. So let's get into it.

Welcome back to the Fast to Faith Podcast, where we talk about healing the body by honoring the whole person— body, mind, and spirit. Hello, Dr. Tabatha. How are you today?

I'm pretty awesome. It's actually my birthday, so happy birthday to me.

I know. Well, happy birthday.

Everybody sang to me before.

Yeah. When everyone sees this, it won't be your birthday anymore, but people will be talking about her birthday. I see what she did there. I love it.

Well, I'm actually excited for today's conversation because I lived in shame around this topic for many years. And so I believe it's an important conversation. And then we were just talking to our guest before we got recording, and he was saying how he is getting shadow banned on YouTube because of this topic. And I'm not okay with that. Like, there is a real agenda going on. And the— what, what it comes down to is women need to know their bodies and understand the truth of what's happening to them. And so Stick around for this conversation. Whether you have had breast implants yourself, you know a woman who has, or maybe you don't even have somebody in your life. But the fact is that things get done to us by the medical system. Of course, we sign up for it, we ask for it, but there is not full informed consent going on. There is not a full understanding of long-term sequelae when you have procedures done and different things. And so this conversation is essential Just for us as consumers of the medical system, right? So let me sing Dr. Whitfield's praises really quickly before we bring him on. So Dr. Robert Whitfield is a board-certified plastic surgeon. He's widely recognized as the leading expert in breast implant illness and explant surgery in the United States. He has dedicated his practice to helping women navigate breast implant illness and now what's being referred to as systemic. Symptoms associated with breast implants, or SSBI. And this is really important, you guys, because sometimes just taking them out isn't the solution. If you've been watching this podcast for a few years, you know root cause resolution takes some digging, and everything's connected. So if you want to hear about breast implant illness, go back to episode 241. Dr. Robert was a guest, and we talked about. That, you know, what is breast implant illness and how is it addressed surgically. But today he is back because he is going to talk about this sequelae that continues on, and he has created the SHARP Method. It is a structured framework that actually looks at the biological and psychological factors that influence long-term healing. This is so pivotal, you guys, because we're talking about this recovery process that doesn't necessarily happen afterward. And we've had the honor and pleasure of helping some of his patients navigate after their surgery with hormone replacement therapy. And so we get to see all the good work that his method has done for women, and it's absolutely inspiring. And I'm so grateful for you. So welcome, Dr. Whitfield. Let's get into it.

Well, thank you for having me. So fun to be back. Happy birthday.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I know it's not necessarily the best conversation for birthday talk, but that's okay.

It's a needed conversation. And I'm excited about this conversation because even though I've heard of breastplant illness, I don't know that I would think of it being possible, a possible issue, if someone already had her implants removed. And so I would assume explant surgery is the finish line. If that's not the case, and then is it true that the studies show 1 in for women continue to struggle long-term?

Yeah, so let's— I'll go back a little bit from the episode, I believe she says 241. I talked a little bit about breast implant illness. So I'll just quickly define that and what is referred to as systemic symptoms. So if someone has a device, medical device placed, it could be a hip, knee, breast, dental implant, cardiac implant, whatever it is, your body reacts to it when it's placed, causes acute inflammation, and then over time you would Traditionally form what's called a, like a foreign body reaction. Giant cells form around it, makes a little collagen sac. That's the scar. And your body just walls it off. And so we thought it was just kind of ignored. Um, over time, uh, we've learned more about that. And as I've explanted patients, we published a paper in September of 2024 that showed that in 694 consecutive cases of explants that I did, 29% had bacterial contamination on PCR testing. So, that's the most sensitive and specific method to determine whether or not something is there or not there. It doesn't, beyond that, give you a sensitivity pattern to determine an antibiotic therapy or anything. It's not for that. It's to show that something was there. And many, many papers now have shown that bacterial contamination, especially bacteria that produce biofilm, Uh-huh. Biofilm's like plaque on your teeth. It can interact with the fatty acid in the breast tissue called oleic acid. It causes an oxidative reaction. And everybody who's listening, so oxidation, a lot of oxidation is what, after exercise, buildup of lactic acid and everything, makes us sore. So the more you build up oxidative stress, the more your body has to detoxify that and break it down. So this is an ongoing signal to the body, and we we believe strongly that that represents why more and more patients have symptoms because this oxidative reaction is happening. Now the byproduct byproduct of it is called in this instance oxy lipin tenhome. So it's a lipin. The the oleic acid is the lipin, the lipid, and it's been oxidized. Now there's families of those, but let's just focus on that one. That one was shown to be elevated in patients with more symptoms of breast implant illness or systemic symptoms, whatever we're going to refer to it as. So now you have more of a cause and effect relationship. So you have bacterial contamination, you have this oxidative type reaction, you have a biomarker you can check, and it's elevated in patients with more symptoms. I don't know that we need more Substantial evidence than that to understand that that's a problem. I've always explained to patients, anybody, cancer or cosmetic, getting a device placed for reconstructive purposes, that it can get infected. So I think we would all agree that that's a problem. That's a real, you know, problem. So the reason then that I do capsulectomy in every case is for that reason, right? If I didn't do a capsulectomy, then I would just basically, in 1 out of 3 patients, be leaving a problem. So the other issue is, say, a capsular contracture or a rupture or something where the shell is breaking down. So those are very specific instances where the body can react to it. And interrupt me if there's something you want to ask about any of those situations. But the way I think about it is you put the device in, the device has a shell, within the shell are host of chemicals and heavy metals and things like that in the development of that shell. Over time, those can come off and that debris can stick into the patient's scar capsule. So each of us is born with a set of receptors called T-cell receptors, and they determine our tissue from foreign tissue. And that's how you get an immune response. So it's not really a big stretch of the imagination to then think, oh, Your body recognizes that as foreign. So as those little particles come off, your body recognizes that and can react to it. So if there's a rupture, if it's breaking down, it's called gel bleed. All these different kind of things can happen. I had a patient, Lauren Bostic, who was using a barrel sauna at 200 degrees Fahrenheit routinely, and she was basically causing chemical leaching out of the implant into her system. So think of leaching. The probably easiest way to think about it is the water in a plastic water bottle. If it's overheated, the plasticizer, the phthalate, can then leach into the water and you drink it, and then you elevate a phthalate level in yourself, which causes endocrine disruption. So there's all sorts of ways to get these things in our bodies through exposures, through what we eat, drink, breathe, apply to our skin, or have implanted, if you want to think of it that way.

So, well, you just blew my mind, Robert, because Everybody thinks sauna is so healthy and so essential, and you know we get a lot of women who have autoimmune conditions, and they think like, "Let me just go in the sauna more." So wow, I've never thought about that before. Would you recommend women with implants don't even do sauna?

Yeah.

So I got accused of an ethics violation over this because Lauren Bostic, my patient, and I said, you know, she was melting her implants when in fact she was not melting them, but she was causing leak. Leaching out of the implant—that's the proper scientific term. So leaching, right? Just as we described with the water bottle. So I tell everybody the same thing: if you are feeling bad after a sauna session, then I think Dr. Barber and I would agree you're probably having a Herxheimer-type reaction, and you should not participate in that and get that you know further checked out. So I just tell people to be cautious and listen to themselves. Like usually they're far more in tune with what's going on than. than I could ever be. So I have everybody just exercise caution with that. And if somebody wants to have surgery with us, I just have them stop doing sauna. And then after they're done with a period of work with my team with detox, then we will reintroduce that depending on what type of surgery they had and how they're doing.

Wow. Okay. Well, you just changed everything for me because I did, a light therapy session that was like, the setting was deep tissue repair, like getting as deep and heavy as possible. And I was so wiped out for 3 days after that. And I have implants. So this is like completely registering in my brain and making sense because I couldn't make sense of why I was struggling when I just went through this healing situation or so-called situation. So, wow, thank you for that gift today. Yeah, that's a great gift. But it makes absolute sense because I tell people, about leeching all the time. We really need to uplevel how we're taking care of our temple. I used to treat mine like a garbage can. I will just be honest. And I'm not okay with that anymore. So this is one of the most important things to me is that I'm taking high-quality supplements that are actually doing what they say they're doing. And I'm getting my money's worth and I'm not making my body worse By putting the wrong stuff in it. So let's talk about Hormone Tame Essential Multivitamin, because even though it gives you all the vitamins and minerals you need, there's extra goodness in there, isn't there? I think you have a bottle sitting next to you.

I do.

Tell us about Hormone Tame.

Hormone Tame is 5 products in, in one. If you listen to the, the other episode, one of the things that we talked about is oftentimes, you know, women are— people were taking a lot of supplements And the nice thing about a lot of the supplements that we have here at Fasted Faith is that they're just so consolidated where you could take this and you are basically taking 5 products. So yes, this is going to be a multivitamin, but there is so much more. We actually kind of refer to it as a multivitamin on steroids. One of the key things that this is going to be helping is your mitochondria. All you need to know is that they are responsible for so many systems and processes in your body. The reason that we need supplements is because we're just supplementing areas that we just can't really kind of get with our food. So we're filling in those gaps. And so Hormone Tame is inviting the body to just fill in all of those gaps. So you got to fill those gaps, and Hormone Tame, it will help to do that.

So what do you think is the biggest thing that women are coming to you that they're not understanding or that you wish they knew?

I think many times I get patients and they come in different stages of life with different either problems or work they've tried to do to overcome. Maybe they don't feel well and they don't quite understand that. And they've— now, Dr. Barber, there's a lot of folks seeking functional care, holistic care, and they're dissatisfied with traditional explanations or lack of explanations about problems.

Yeah.

So I get a lot of fragmented care. So they may have seen a nutritionist, they may have seen a chiropractor, they may have seen an acupuncturist, they may have seen all these different types of folks. And I actually had a lady argue with me about How her her naturopath was was taking very good care of her, and she wanted to continue with her but have surgery with us. And I said, "Okay, then I would just ask the naturopath how many times they've taken care of a patient after surgery for breast implant illness and problems like you're describing, because I would guarantee they haven't taken care of many of them." And this is basically all I do.

Right.

So the patients are coming kind of from an informational standpoint, it's very fragmented. And partly because of what's happening on platforms where I've been almost deplatformed on certain stages that used to be very good to help educate patients. Because all the videos I've ever made for anybody are really just about education to help people better understand a problem. So the way to think about it, a third of the patients will say that third that was infected, if I just explanted them or removed the devices with the scar tissue and everything went well, they would probably do pretty well, not need a ton of extra care if in fact the caveat is genetically they could detoxify well, like they picked their parents right.

Right.

They eat right. They have an environment that's less toxic. And I know this triggers a bunch of people. I don't give a shit. So basically, what you put in your body and what you put on your skin dictates a lot of what I see. And the more garbage you use, the more you don't think about what you put in your body, the worse you're going to feel. So you need to be super critical about everything that goes in and on your body. And then in that second group of patients who I do the removal and all the things, maybe it takes them 6, 9 months and they're still not feeling quite right. And then there's a group, the last group, the group that used to drive me absolutely batty because I couldn't understand it. A year later, they'd come in and they'd be like, I still feel bad.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh my God, what is going on? I have no idea what's happening. So basically, You know, I've always been curious about genetics. The long story short is there's a very specific genetic archetype for this problem. You have to have really poor detox pathways genetically.

Well, I'm that person, so I understand. Like, once my inflammation starts, I can't turn it off. I can't detox through the liver. I don't glucuronidate, I don't methylate, I don't sulfate. So it's like, I can really get into this spiral and end up in the pit Just trying to work out and exercise and do basic things. So I relate to this woman so much. And I want to hear some hope from you today that there is hope for this 1/3.

Well, that's why— so the thing with that group is, and we submitted another IRB to write a paper just about the genetics and compare it to a study done by Eric Topol out in California at Scripps Clinic on what he called the welderly population, people who lived, I believe, into their 7th, 8th, and 9th decade. with no chronic disease. So you'd have to think that those people have really good detox pathways.

Right.

And they live in, you know, community and they stay active and all those other things that are important, obviously. But if you have poor detox pathways, I don't care how great your community is or how well you eat, it's still gonna be a challenge, as you know.

Amen.

So that in itself is a huge, you know, factor. So if you don't have a good glucuronidation pathway, like you mentioned, you have a problem with GSST and GSTP1. If you have a poor antioxidant pathway, which means your SOD2 enzyme is going to be low-level functioning, your methylation pathway, which 36% of the population doesn't methylate well— I don't, you don't, it's fine. And then finally, you know, vitamin D metabolism is Critical to immune health. And basically, 83% of our patients on audit have SNPs or mutations in each of those pathways.

Mm-hmm.

So there is the genetic archetype of the problem. And all you do is combine that with where you grew up, what food you ate growing up, what work you did, you know, That gives you basically how you feel. And then when you get in the sauna and you are at a high temp, like you said, for a period of time, you can't control what's coming out.

Mm-hmm. Wow.

Your body can't— it's not efficient enough to deal with that problem. So for you specifically, you would be the person who'd better take a very strong binder before you get into something like that.

Okay.

And you shouldn't do long runs. And if you feel bad, I think my clients, just like you, they're very motivated, very driven, and they will torture themselves in the hope that they feel better.

Right? I know. And that's what we preach on Fast to Faith is you got to stop hustling and grinding your way into health. Like, that's not how you feel better. It just like digs the hole deeper. So I, I hope that every woman on here understands the importance of it, but that it's not everything, that environment plays a huge part. But I would love you to talk about the, the bacteria you were talking about. This concept is, you know, really interesting. There's a biofilm that can be, you know, building up around these implants, and it's a bacterial infestation that's happening. Is there any relation to our gut microbiome or our skin microbiome or anything like that? Like, how do we tackle these biofilms?

Yeah, so there's, when you look at the studies, there's 2 bacteria predominantly involved, Staph epidermidis and Cutibacterium acnes, which are skin bacteria. And, you know, people want to know how this got on their implant. And so the 3 ways, the most common ways things happen are if someone were to hand a surgeon in the operating room an implant and that staff member had opened the package and somehow contaminated it. The next would be the surgeon somehow contaminates it on placement, either by a break in technique or touching the skin or whatever. There's all sorts of precautions that make those first 2 almost nil.

Right.

Right? Everything's double packaged. Everybody changes gloves. There's all these protective ways to put a device in to limit skin contact, because you don't want to touch it.

Right. We used to say in the OR, we do it the same way every time. Like, we'd all say it as a group because you want to keep those procedures intact. Absolutely.

Yeah. And the orthopedic surgeons are probably by far the best at this. I mean, they wear spacesuits and the draping and all this stuff because they're putting in joints, and that's to save you, you know, to keep you so that you're mobile, right? Losing the ability to walk is a terrible consequence. So they probably are the most careful. Most extreme example of that in my history of working with surgeons. So those are 2 really low— that's such a low percentage. Low probability. Yeah. So the 3rd, and this is the one that's probably a little confusing, so we'll just explain it. So bacteria gets in the bloodstream. So you get what we call Bacteremic. And so how did the bacteria get in there? Well, a urinary tract infection is a very common way to get bacteria. A cut on the skin that gets inflamed, not necessarily infected, is a way to get bacteria in your bloodstream. Acne that you pick.

Oh yeah. Chewing your fingernails.

So you got your respiratory tract, mucosal surfaces, skin, your GI tract. I mean, it's no surprise that people get problems. And Dr. Barber, I think that the biggest issue is if you showed up to my office with a big red swollen breast, everybody would know what was wrong. But because this gets in the bloodstream and then attaches to a device in an occult manner, it's not an obvious problem.

Right.

But once those bacteria build up— and so biofilms are just colonies or like little villages of bacteria, and they can produce a little coating that makes it hard for your body to deal with them. And then once they're interacting with your tissues— so I think there's this misconception about the scar tissue your body builds. Your scar tissue doesn't build an It's a very— it's a collagen sac. And if you looked at it, it would be like something that was knitted, and you stretch it apart and you can see right through it.

Right.

So, there's signaling between the bacteria and that fatty acid in the breast tissue, like we talked about. So, that creates the oxidative reaction we talked about that leads to that biomarker, oxylipentinome. Which downstream causes all sorts of things that leads to symptoms. So the buildup of those 2 bacteria by those mechanisms we talked about, that all makes sense.

Yeah.

I don't think any of that's that hard to figure out. Now, there is our paper that set the incidence at 29%. There's a paper that came out from Denmark last summer That I saw, uh, and it talks about how I think about it. And so I guess follow along here. So your body recognizes something as foreign if it's not genetically identical, right?

Right.

So if you had a genetically identical twin, Dr. Barber, any organ could be transposed between the two of you and not need any drugs. Right, because I'm not going to reject it. You would be genetically identical. And then if you were a non-identical twin, you would need drugs. And if it was a cadaver kidney from your partner, you would need drugs. The Denmark study showed that implants are being rejected like a cadaver organ. So that means it's not just a T-cell response that leads to a breast implant-associated lymphoma or aggravated immune response. It is actually acting like you put a cadaver kidney there instead of a breast implant. And so it's building up plasma cells and B cells in addition. So you're having a rejection response, if that makes more sense.

Yes.

So it's not just a foreign body response. So it's more of a rejection response. And I say that because it's always been thought it's just foreign bodies. But in patients who remain symptomatic because their capsules were left in, it makes much more sense to me that that is part of the problem. Because any of the debris that your T-cell receptors sensed and saw and reacted to is still there. Any gel that was left in from a ruptured device that was taken out in the office under local, which I've been told is being done. In the United States, which seems farcical. That's another way to have an ongoing immune response. So I've had people fly in from other places in the country who had capsule remaining, and one of them in particular had ruptured devices taken out under local in the office.

I hope that women— I mean, some of this is going to go over their head because it's really heavy in the medical stuff, but It needs to be talked about, and women need to understand that it's not just you feel bad and we think it might be happening. Like you're doing research on this. The science is clear, like what's happening at a cellular process level. And I hope that women are feeling seen and understood today by hearing this because I know a lot of women get dismissed. So I'm excited to talk about your sharp method because we need to figure out. How to help that third of the patients that just can't have explant surgery and feel better. So tell us what that looks like when they come to you and work with you. You're their surgeon. You have a whole team that helps them, right?

Yeah. So it was really for that third because, I mean, you've known me a fair amount of time, so I'm always very curious about and want to solve whatever the problem is. So the problem became, Not such a difficult surgical problem, but more of a recovery problem. So the Sharp Method, the book I wrote, is really about preparation to enhance recovery. So instead of getting someone out a year who still doesn't feel well, is not responding properly, we want to do all the upfront prep evaluation. And so currently we do genetic testing to look at the detox pathways like we mentioned, as well as evaluate other metabolic issues. We look at a total toxicity test that's a urine test, so it's a very non-invasive test. You know, genetics is saliva. Toxicity tests, we use Vibrant Wellness for total toxicity burden testing and try to see after a glutathione challenge what everybody has in there. you know, system that could be contributing to problems. I'm sure you're not going to be surprised about this. I find a lot of people have a lot of trouble with mold.

Yeah.

And a lot of trouble with glyphosates. Um, if you're from certain regions of the country, you've been exposed to more and more herbicides and pesticides. I don't want to indict a specific state, but there's plenty of that to go around. Uh, where I grew up, the groundwater was bad. And that's a common problem. So there's a lot of arsenic in people's systems. And then there's all sorts of random things I can't explain that they're like, how did I get that solvent or that chemical in my system? Like, I don't know. But when someone doesn't feel well, and I think it's really important that we leverage all the available resources, not just what we were taught, but what's really available. So genetic testing is by far to me the most underutilized thing, you know, probably outside of the tox test that, you know, I expect everybody who comes to see me not to be anemic, not have renal disease, not have hepatic problems, not have, you know, uh, a cardiac issue, because you can't otherwise— you better have had all that looked at before you ever show up to see me.

Yeah, I like that you said that. You're not trying to like, just, you know, get patients for a quick grab. This is like, we need to rule out everything else and realize that this is the actual problem. So I love that you said that.

Well, then we combine it with a gut test. Everybody knows about gut testing at this point. It's been talked about the microbiome, you know, all those things, Dr. Barber, just snapshots, right? I've done like, I don't know, 10 microbiome tests myself just to try to determine which, you know, seems like the best for us to use. And we've, you know, settled on using a GutZermer currently, which seems to help us get enough information. And we combine that with some other food sensitivity testing. People are really unaware of what stimulates them in their diets. So you have to educate them that way. And then if someone were to come to us for a fat transfer, and that's a whole separate topic, but I look at DEXA scans now because in the advent of GLP-1 agonists and the lack of understanding around body composition, it's really important that people understand, especially women, their bone density, lean muscle mass, and their body fat, not to create a I, um, I, I'm trying to get people to understand where they are. Like, I'm not Harry— I'm not Harry Potter, right? I'm not a magician. So I need to know as much about you specifically so I can explain what you should be either aware of or not aware of. Like, you'll, you'll hear that fat transfers don't work, right? This will, this will be talked about a lot. Right.

Okay. And this is to replace the implant that you've removed to give some volume back to the breast in case people don't realize.

We'll give 2 scenarios. So one is a fat transfer can be used in different areas of the body just to augment or enhance that volume, right? So everybody's probably heard of the Brazilian butt lift, right? So a bigger butt. Yeah. I've never had anybody come on and say, hey, Dr. Whitfield, I have a lopsided ass. Can you fix my butt? Right? Because you put fat in someone's butt, a lot of it, and it works. If you put a little bit of fat in someone's face in the right place, deep, not superficial, it typically heals because the blood supply in the face is really rich, the lymphatic drainage really great. But somehow, Dr. Barber, the breast is an enigma. We can't figure out how to do the breasts. But it's really not that complex. We'll just break it down very simply. For your butt, you need a half liter per butt cheek, 500 cc's.

Wow.

To make a difference. For the chest, not the breast, because we don't put fat in the breast because that'll make a cyst or a mammogram problem or an ultrasound problem or, or MRI problem. We put it beneath the skin and above the breast. We don't put it in the pocket where I take an implant out of if I'm doing that. So all this is to be said, like, why do you think there's a difference, right? The fat in the face is the place where you put the least amount. The breast, the next compartment, you know, if you want to think of the chest breast area, that would be the next available space, but it's smaller, it's limited. And then you have the butt, which is by far the biggest volumetric space you could put fat into.

Yeah.

So I don't want anybody to be unrealistic, but I also don't want you to live in fear of something not working or something going away. Here's what you need to know. If you get a DEXA scan and know what your BMI really is, and you maintain your BMI after a fat transfer, or you bump it up a point, not to become unhealthy or anything like that, maybe you're lifting weights, maybe you're adding lean muscle mass, whatever, What you don't want to do is overtrain and create a caloric deficit because that will affect your fat transfer. If you drop your BMI, you will lose more of your fat transfer. That's what the data shows.

That makes total sense. You're going to burn off that fat. Those cells are going to shrink. Okay.

So, everybody has their window into how this works, right?

Yeah.

I know how to do the case. I've done several thousand of them. I'm not the problem. I take fat from one place to another. I use the best available tools, plenty of experience. The thing that keeps changing is the patient. So the patients that I want to unders— I just want the patient to understand, like, you have to be accountable for what you want, right? If you want a fat transfer, you can't take a GLP-1. You can't do HIIT, HYROX, cycle, marathon running. Those sound stupid if you want a fat transfer. Just so everybody's listening, you can walk, you can lift weights, you can do Pilates and yoga, all sorts of things you can do. But if you want to do high-intensity interval training, you should not get a fat transfer, not one by me. That's a waste of time. I won't do it.

Well, I would think that women would understand that because I hear that all the time. Like when women are trying to lose weight, they always say, oh, I lost it in my breasts, but not where I want to lose it from. And it's like, that's always the first place to go. So that makes total sense to me.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's not hard when you just like take a step back and think about it. Like nothing I say is cryptic. It's all very straightforward.

Well, I think it's also really important to tie in the emotional piece of this and maybe even the spiritual piece, because this is Fast to Faith, because a lot of women made decisions to get implants maybe 20 years ago, Or more, and they feel a lot of guilt, a lot of shame around this, and then they go to doctors who can't really help them, and they make them feel worse. So I appreciate your no-nonsense attitude and the fact that you're like, "We can help you." But do you see women have issues going through this emotional transition of acceptance during this process? And do you guys address that or have resources for that?

Yeah, it's the hardest part.

Yeah.

Sarah, I talk to patients a lot about self-work, and we've worked with different providers to try to get a better handle on resources for them. Everybody's very different, Dr. Barbara. They need different help. And I've actually turned it back to them and said, you— I don't know which thing works best for you, if it's EDMR, if it's Talking to a psychologist. I don't know what's going to be the best for that individual, but I tell them all they need to do. We all need to do self-work, but this is something that you definitely have to concentrate on. You have to have a supportive loved one, family, spouse as well. And then I think you know I try to offer, like I said, the simultaneous fat transfer. I'm one of the few people in the country that will do that because I feel extremely comfortable. Running the short method pre-op and really defining and setting up a patient for success. I don't think it has to be such a puzzle to figure out, right? If you think about what we discussed, all right, does the patient actually have enough body fat to do this? Like, the DEXA scan is pretty objective. It's the most objective thing I could use. I don't want an InBody. I want a DEXA because I want you to know your bone density. I want you to know your lean muscle mass and body fat. That just helps you right there, especially in the GLP-1 days. We need to know that. And then it becomes a much easier conversation.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that—

Then I can say, all right. Yeah, go ahead.

No, I just think that's really helpful. And I hope for any woman listening, like, we can absolutely help you with the spiritual piece and the emotional distress that comes from that. And I just want to encourage anybody listening, like, we're all messy Christians. We're all just messy humans. And we need to know that nothing that we have done declares death over us. Like, there's always help. There's always a possibility for renewal and restoration. And I want women to understand that, yes, you probably need someone like Dr. Whitfield who is going to help you with these medical pieces, and that is Okay, but we also do need to not be afraid to just say you know what maybe I made a decision that wasn't the best for my body, but I didn't know at the time. I made the decision under like different circumstances, and that's okay, and we can make new decisions now. So I'm just appreciative that you are addressing this because it is a huge problem, and so many women don't get it taken care of because. Because they feel shame or they've been told, this is just how it's going to be. You made this poor decision, now you have to live with it. And I'm here to say, no, you don't. That's not okay. You deserve to feel amazing and let's figure out how to get you there. So is there anything else that you really want to share with the listeners today, Dr. Whitfield?

There is. I think there's a lot of folks that feel, like you said, shame or regret about that. And then folks that For whatever reason afterwards don't feel well. Like, I want everybody to understand, like, that should not be the case.

Yes.

Everything we're discussing today should be able to be taken care of with programming and understanding of the problem at a much higher level.

Yeah.

And surgery alone does not solve this problem. I'm just going to say that again. Surgery alone does not solve this problem.

Yeah, it solves a big part of the problem, which I appreciate. But yes, thank you for saying that, because we are a body, mind, and spirit, and we have to address all three. And if you don't believe that you can heal or get well, you just actually will not heal and get well. That is the truth of it. Your mind will win every time. So as you're working on recovering and restoration physically, we need to start to renew our mind Mentally and get help with that. So where can people find you? I know that you've been banned on YouTube. That is a whole nother discussion. It's super frustrating because your videos are so educational and helpful. But you have a podcast, right? I know that you are educating women in that way.

Yeah, so I'll announce this first. I've started our own community on Circles. You can go to my domain drrobertwhitfield.com or my My store, D-R-O-B-S-S-O-L-U-T-I-O-N-S, Dr. Rob Solutions. Each of those will have ways to either see the videos I've done or join that community privately where I will not be censored for telling the truth.

Awesome. We will have those in the show notes for sure. That will be super helpful. Oh my goodness.

Oh yeah. Is there anywhere that they can go specifically for the SHARP method?

Yeah, on either of those domains, there are opportunities to participate in the SHARP Method. Thank you for bringing that up. So before, the only way you could participate and get that programming was to be my patient and have surgery with me. What we've done is opened it up to a group, and I have 2 functional practitioners running programming for patients all over the United States.

Oh, I love that. Yeah, that's so good. Thank you for making that available.

That's so awesome. Okay, I want to speak to the woman listening. You are like, oh my gosh, this is speaking to me right now. I want you to understand that there is hope, there is support, there is wisdom. Give yourself some grace and remember Mark 9:23, all things are possible who believe. So you are not just supposed to be here and struggle and get through life. Like, you are actually supposed to heal. That is how your body Was created to function, to heal, and to thrive. So believe bigger for yourself, ladies, and just know that God is doing incredible work through Dr. Whitfield, and there are people out there that can help you. You don't have to stay stuck. That's the whole point of this podcast. So go out, be Christ's hands to serve this week, but don't give up hope. Keep looking for answers. We got you. Thank you, Dr. Whitfield.

Thank you for having me on.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.