Energy Crashes & Stubborn Belly Fat After 40 (and what to do about it)

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25 milligrams of CBD and 25 milligrams CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. Think that your fasting and your low-carb lifestyle are helping to decrease that belly fat? You might think again after you listen to this episode.

I'm Debra Atkinson, and you're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you know to ask them. The goal: to help accelerate your results with the science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman.

It's not just you, but it's the 3 generations that you influence.

My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert and international speaker to founder of the first and the only exclusively made for menopause and beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy you you want, need, and deserve.

Are you dealing with stubborn belly fat after 40? It's a reality for many women. It may happen in your 40s, might happen in your 50s, or even not until your 60s or 70s. And no one, not even an 87-year-old, likes it. We're revisiting this all-important topic of blood sugar in a brand new episode, talking about blood sugar your insulin resistance. And as my guest reminded me in this episode, there is no pre, as in pre-diabetes, there is only diabetes. Let that settle. So it's your wake-up call. We can control aging to some effect, or at least the way we do it. We can over-control carbs to the point that blood sugar levels spike. You heard that right. And we can fast so long that blood sugar levels spike, not decrease. Learn more surprising insight in this episode. Stay to the end for an invite to a free summit coming up regarding blood sugar levels too. And if you're listening into the future, this is all still very relevant and there will be something for you to find more information with even if the summit is no longer My guest today is first-time guest Dr. Nana Kwanza. She's a root cause care practitioner, pharmacist, and blood sugar optimization expert dedicated to helping high achievers reclaim their energy, focus, and health. As the founder of Ditch Diabetes Academy, she empowers individuals to stabilize blood sugar and put type 2 diabetes in remission without restrictive diets or overwhelm through her international online online programs. With a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and experience spanning Fortune 500 healthcare companies, hospitals, and personalized coaching, Dr. Nana bridges the gap between conventional medicine and root cause healing. She's been featured on global podcasts and international TV, sharing insights on reversing blood sugar imbalances naturally. Her mission: to help ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs optimize their health so that they can perform perform at their best, feel incredible, and enjoy food without guilt or fear. Amen. Are you ready? Buckle your seatbelt. I think that even if you feel like you've got a handle on blood sugar, on insulin resistance, what it is and how it is, that a woman in midlife is still always in fluctuation based on her stress levels, based on how hormones may fluctuate in response to those stress levels, even if you feel you've got your nutrition dialed in. Dr. Amma, thank you so much for being here today.

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

You know, we, we have talked about this problem before. We have talked around this problem. We've gotten right in there and gotten dirty and mucky in this problem. But it is an evergreen issue that women are facing and Hands up, I'm not gonna lie. I can tell all of you listeners, and I know you're not seeing me necessarily unless you're watching on YouTube, but I'm struggling with it. So as we go through periods of not just perimenopause, right in transition, or postmenopause, but you also go through periods of higher stress in your life, you're probably going to experience your habits differently than you would if everything was going smooth sailing for you. So I'm dealing with this right now, but I would love for you to break this down because this is really kind of your nuance, your niche. Let's talk about blood sugar levels, why they matter, even, even if you're not a quote-unquote diabetic. Why does every woman in midlife need to pay attention?

Oh yeah, that's such a great question, Debra. So I love this question because a lot of women think that just because they don't have diabetes, means that they don't necessarily have to think about blood sugar. But blood sugar is actually— it affects everything. It affects every person in every single day. So let me explain further. So what blood sugar is, think of it as the fuel, the main fuel for us. Okay? So this is basically what your brain needs to think clearly. This is what your muscles need to actually move. Right? And even our heart, we need it to beat. Right? So it's not just something that we can ignore. It's actually very fundamental. So I love talking about it because all the time when I speak on social media, I hear people say, oh, I don't have diabetes. Right? But blood sugar is super, super important. And it's also important because every time that we eat, right, we have all this blood sugar that goes up. I know we're going to get into the details later, but there's something called a blood sugar spike, right? And that's basically when you eat, especially if you're eating like the refined sugars and the starches and things like that, our blood sugar naturally increases whether you have diabetes or not. And then there is a hormone called insulin that basically— think of it, I always think of it as a, as a party bus, right? So it sees the party, it sees the guests, which is the blood sugar in the body, and it picks it up. Shuttle. So it shuttles it to the cells, which is where the party is going on. Everybody is dancing. Everybody has energy. It's really fun over there, right? But what happens sometimes is the insulin, which is the party bus, picks a lot of guests, which is the high blood sugar, right? And then when they get to the cells, the cells are like, okay, now I'm not allowing anybody to enter because we are full over here. So you cannot enter. So when that—

what's that called?

That's the bouncer, right?

Exactly, you got it, you got it. Yeah, so we basically need blood sugar for energy, gets to the cells, we are energized. That's where you partying and all that good stuff. So without blood sugar, we really cannot do a lot of things.

So I'm going to play devil's advocate for somebody who's listening and says, oh, I don't eat sweets. So this isn't me. What do you say to that?

So it's not necessarily about sugar, blood sugar, whatever that we eat obviously affect our blood sugar, right? But there are some imbalances that are actually driving the blood sugar as well. Blood sugar being high. Remember when I said that when they get to the cells and then the cells are like, I'm not going to let you enter. They are resisting. Resistant to insulin. We just don't wake up with a problem like that, right? Something is going on. So the cells are probably clogged up. Something is going on. So now we got to figure out what is causing the cells to clog up. So there are imbalances that are driving these blood sugar issues as well. So blood sugar is quite important. It causes cravings. It causes the mood swings that we have. A lot of people think it's a personality thing, but no. It could be a blood sugar issue, right? It could be. Yeah, the brain fog that we have, just so many. It just affects a lot of things. And I know we talk about it.

What if, what if a woman maybe goes and she gets her, you know, her annual blood panel done and her, her blood glucose levels are not bad and she's told, okay, that's normal, and she feels like she doesn't have it because she's just looking at that. What are hidden signs that a woman might have blood sugar issues she's actually not, or unknowingly, living with?

Oh, that's a good question. So we've actually talked about a few, but I'm going to elaborate more on that. So whenever blood sugar spikes, right, it also— when the insulin does the job, right, it's going to bring it down. And usually you have that burst of energy, but gradually, obviously, you hit a crash. When that crash happens, that activates your craving center. So that can also cause cravings because your, your, your, your, your brain needs a constant fuel, right? So when you're, when you're, uh, when the energy, when the, when it dips, your energy is not really getting the fuel anymore, right? So now there's inconsistent, uh, fuel. The neurons are not even communicating with itself. So then you can also get brain fog. So if you're there and you're like at night, remembering things a lot, that's brain fog. That is caused by blood sugar spikes. Cravings is caused by blood sugar spikes. Poor sleep. If you're having blood sugar imbalances, it messes with your hormones, right? So now you're thinking about your cortisol, your melatonin. So it messes up, it causes that sleep disturbances. And when that happens, obviously you have difficulty even sleeping or even staying asleep. So there's a lot of hidden signs that is associated with blood sugar imbalances. We can talk about even fertility, right? Fertility messes with ovulation and things like that. So it can also— for people that have PCOS, that's a blood sugar issue. So when we talk about blood sugar, it's not necessarily about whether you have diabetes or not, it affects a lot of things. Like even for menopausal women, the menopausal symptoms that, uh, you know, we have, these are all blood sugar imbalances as well. So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of hidden signs and symptoms right there. And these are whispers. I always say that these are whispers. They telling you, hey, Nana, there's something going on with your body that I need you fix. I don't want you to wait till like years down the line and then something happens. You gotta partner with your body and, and work with them and know that, okay, these are things that are coming up that are not normal. And we often always think that these are normal, but they are absolutely not normal. And if we don't take, uh, if we don't pay attention to that, that's what leads to that insulin resistance. And insulin resistance is a doorway to diabetes. So it's something that we have to definitely pay attention to.

What are some— because I know this happens— what are some quote-unquote healthy habits or things that we've grown up maybe thinking are healthy, learning are healthy, that might actually be unknowingly spiking blood sugar?

Oh, this is a good question, Debra, and I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers here. Okay.

Right.

Yeah. So the first one I can think of is skipping meals. Okay, so I know a lot of people are into intermittent fasting. It's definitely a trend now. People love it, and it has proven to have obviously really good success, right? But it's not for everybody. And the reason, especially for women that are in their midlife, these are things that can affect, right? Whenever you wake up in the morning, your cortisol is already up, right? So if you're not eating, your cortisol being up can mess up your blood sugar levels, which obviously is actually throwing it off already in the morning. So that alone causes a problem right there. You do not want that. And if you're not eating, well, guess what will happen, Debra? Because later on you'll be overeating. You'll be eating any and everything because you're super hungry, right? So it's not that fasting is not good. It might not be good— it might not be right for the person, or it might not be the right time. And oftentimes I that a lot of people are using fasting as a tool, as a maintenance strategy, instead of probably addressing the underlying problems that they already have. So if a woman having hormonal imbalances, that's not the right time to do fasting. We want to address the issue that you have already before later on, once that is figured out, before we can actually have you do intermittent fasting, because your body can support support that, um, that state, right? Your body is not going to be producing a lot of cortisol because it's in a stress mode. So yeah, that's one of it. Another one I can— do you have any comments on that one?

No. You know, I, I often get into this, and I was going to ask you, um, so I have used the tool called the Lumen. Um, I don't— I'm not in love with it myself, but what I did find is when I was looking at Lumen to tell me what was I burning, right? It'll tell you, are you in fat burning now? Are you in carb burning? When I fasted longer, I would shift into carb burning. I was burning sugar, which to me was a signal I was actually putting myself in a stress mode. And by going longer, I wasn't burning more fat. By staying there, it was, it was more damaging than it was positive. So, you know, that was like, wow, this is really telling. And I can very easily find, okay, I do fine 12 or 13 hours, but when I try to go 14 to 15, my body just starts burning sugar, telling me, nope, guess what, you just spiked your cortisol from depriving yourself of fuel. So that's out of my sweet spot.

Yeah.

The unfortunate thing is so many of our listeners don't have access to a tool like that, you know. And, and what are they doing? They're following programs or thinking they're being more virtuous by going longer and, and sustaining it. So what would you say to a woman who's trying to go long and maybe is simply not working? In order to, to test, potentially you're going too long, it's causing a spike in your blood sugar, and so it's backfiring on you. Is there a way for her to test without expensive tool.

I will say that I, I don't necessarily always even go to test first. I think that it's very important to be in tune with your body, right? Because if we pay, if we are really in tune with our body, our body would tell us if something is off. Our body has the perfect way of telling you if something is not working for you. So with that person who doesn't, you know, know what to go, a test to go even, you know, do to figure out whether they are going through that. I will say be in tune with your body. That is exactly what I would tell that person or advise that person to do. Are you having some, you know, symptoms? What symptoms are coming up for you when you don't eat in the morning? What is going on with you? And I think that's a better way to address or assess things even before you even get into the testing and things like that.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So what does it mean to you if you say to somebody, be in tune with your body? Somebody who's listening who doesn't, doesn't know what that means, what, what would they be looking for?

So you're basically just calming down, listening to your body. Are you having some cravings? Are you having things coming up for you? Brain fog? Are you having like frequent headaches? What is coming up for you that is not the usual? That is basically what I mean when I say be in tune with your body. You have to listen to how your body is operating, right? Because everyone is different. Not all symptoms are the same for everybody. So when someone says be in tune with your body, it means pay attention to what is coming up for you. Are you having frequent headaches, especially if you don't eat and then go, you know, go, go exercise? What is coming up for you? Are you feeling that you're about to faint, right? So you gotta make sure that you're thinking about these things before you follow diet or trends or whatever that is out there, right? And another mistake or habit that a lot of people, um, tend to do is also drinking coffee on an empty stomach. Right, that's another big one that I've, I've, I've seen, and that's a big one. That's things something because we all love our coffee, right? But the thing that it does, it's like you— like we had already mentioned, you are not having anything as a buffer. It will increase your cortisol levels, which definitely will also mess up your blood sugar as well. So I always advise my clients, even if you're not feeling hungry, right? Because there are so many of us, we don't get up hungry, but at least have something, um, even, even if it's like a protein-rich breakfast that will support you with your energy levels during the day. Because if you end up drinking just the coffee, you're gonna— yeah, it's gonna give you that burst of energy, but you're definitely also going to have a crash, and then you end up getting more caffeine and, you know, energy drinks later on. So that protein will help you with cravings, it will help you help with your steady energy as well.

Yeah, that was so great. All right, thank you. So let me ask you this, and, and you can say no, but, um, so if someone is not eating before their coffee, if they put like a cream in their coffee or they put collagen in their coffee, because this is so very popular right now, is that actually helping to buffer the impact of cortisol or not?

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So I would say that if you're like a coffee drinker, right, I would rather put like a protein powder or something like that in your coffee, and that will help you. That would definitely not let you go into that stress mode because there's something that acting as a buffer. So definitely that will be an ideal one if you're a person that still drinks coffee. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yes, yes, you people who drink coffee, right?

Okay, that's a big one. And it stinks. Yeah, no one has to say it.

Yeah, it's, it's so true. All right, so you know, what is going on under the surface? Do we need to go deeper with functional testing if, if things go on too long? And if a woman is experiencing these telltale signs, like she can't find her words, she's like mid-thought and she's just not getting there, or, or she's crashing, you know, and it's frowned upon for you to nap in the middle of the afternoon at work, right? You know, and even if you work for yourself, there's, there's that. But when is it appropriate to get testing? And let me ask you this, Mm-hmm. So I would say, correct me if I'm wrong, the actions or the solutions are most likely going to be the same whether you told the woman to do them before testing or you had to do the testing so she could see it maybe in black and white in order to comply. They're probably not different. What is it about us, if we are patients for you and/or clients, that makes us all need to see that evidence before we will take action?

That is a great question, and I could not agree with you more. The same things that you have to do before you take a test are the same things that you have to do after the test. The only difference is the test is actually showing you more imbalances in your, in your system, right? So let's say for an example, you do— so before I even get there, let's talk about the blood sugar, because blood sugar is just a symptom. So now we got to get to the imbalances that is aggravating this symptom that is happening, right? So that's the reason why even in the traditional care, a lot of people just take the medications to treat the symptom. It's not getting to the underlying problem that is causing it, right? And the basic test that the doctors do, are basically designed to catch diseases, not the imbalances, right? So you see that you hear a lot of people say, oh, my doctor said my, my labs are good, but those basic labs, they just catch diseases. They do not tell you if there is any imbalances that is going on. So I wanted to bring that or talk about that first before we even get into the 10 testing. So what the functional testing and things, what they do, it actually tells you if there's any imbalances and connects the dots between your symptoms for you. So take glucose, for example, right? If your glucose is normal, right, your basic lab is just gonna say normal on paper, but then it does not— the basic test that is done, it does not tell you anything about insulin. It tell you anything about whether you're having post-meal spikes. It doesn't tell you anything about the dysfunction that is going on, whether you're actually in a stressful state. It does not tell you none of that. But what the test or functional test does is actually telling you imbalances, right? So the example that I was going to share with you, let's say you do a functional test, you're eating all the healthy foods, all the healthy all the fat, all the proteins, all the, you know, fiber-rich carbs. If you do, let's say, a gut test or whatever, it can tell you whether you are actually breaking down the fat. It can tell you whether you have a good digestive— your digestion is actually being— your food is being digested properly. It can give you more insight into something like that versus if you didn't do then you would just be eating the healthy fat, the avocados and all that stuff, thinking you are breaking it down, but you might not be breaking it down even though you are eating healthy, quote unquote, right? So that's the only difference. But like you mentioned, the things that you, you have to do in terms of stress management, the food, the lifestyle changes are basically the same. But what the test does is shows deeper. It tells you really good stuff about what's going on. It gives you insights. I'll put it that way. It gives you more insights. Yeah, I hope that helps.

That, that certainly helps. And while you were talking there, you really made me— got my wheels turning. So I'm going to ask you a question, and I'm afraid I'm not going to articulate it really well, so I'm going to kind of vomit out my, my thoughts. And I find this so interesting. And I think the immediate response for, for someone who's sitting on the other side of the, the patient table, in your case, or the client table for me, is that if they fear or they hear their blood sugar may be spiking, immediately they go to sugar or foods that rapidly turn to sugar and often think decreasing carbs is the answer, that if they go low carb, that will solve other problems. But then I think over here we've got this pool where what they're also doing is cutting out their sources of fiber, and that can be actually a cause of stress. We know that stress itself raises blood sugar just if nothing else changes. So talk about that bit of a conundrum for a woman who's dealing with this. It would be hard for her, I think, to sometimes sort through— wait, which— what do I need to be doing here? Yeah, talk us, talk us through that.

I love that question. It's actually one of the healthy habits that people— that, that backfires, right? A lot of people tell most people eat low carb, you know. But yeah, you could, you could do that if it's just temporal, but that's not something that you want to do for too long. Absolutely, you want to get rid of refined sugars. Absolutely, you want to get rid of sugar and things of that nature. But when it carbs. Fiber-rich carbs are actually your secret weapon. They are the ones that you have to use. I always call it your secret weapon if you really want to control your blood sugar levels, right? So these are— these are in foods, these are in nuts, these are in your veggies as well. They really like chia seeds, things of that nature. These have fiber, these have proteins and stuff in it, so they act as a buffer. So instead of you eating the refined sugar for it to pass through your bloodstream the fiber acts as a buffer in your, in your digestive system, and it prevents or delays your sugar from spiking. It delays that absorption. So if you're trying to eat something, you're confused, the first thing you want to think about is to go to fiber-rich carbs, not lower your carbs like you had mentioned. That can increase your cortisol levels. And obviously, it's not just food that affects your blood sugar Because a lot of people— and that's one of the things, a lot of people just focus on food, but no, your stress, a whole infection, even if you're not feeling well, it can spike your sugar. So it's not just about the food that you eat. So that's why it's a very— I would say not too complicated, but it's something that is— it can be complicated. So it's definitely a trial and error, and not one solution works for everybody. Body, right?

Yeah, I think that was potentially a mic drop right there. I think for a lot of women who are, you know, dealing with belly fat and then feeling that, okay, going low carb is actually what I need to be doing and creating my caloric deficit by eating tons and tons of protein, and yet ignoring that, and then also I think causing issues with gut You know, so you're not getting the fiber, you're not getting the good healthy gut diversity because you're just limiting down to this narrow little scope of foods you will let yourself eat. You know, all of that, I think, makes things worse.

It makes your insulin resistance super worse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, and I'm so glad that we're saying it out loud, and I think women probably in midlife, we have to hear this more than once because you've heard the other diet recommendations more than once. If we're— if we hope to counter that, everybody, you may not have heard, or you may have heard this many times before. It's not the first time you've heard it, and we know that. So all respectfully, we're just trying to offset some of what you've got coming in from the other side, suggesting to you that, that the very thing that isn't working for you, that more of that would be good, right? So we tend to push on the accelerator when something isn't working. We tend to do more of what's not working as opposed to back out of that and go down a road that right away might work a little bit better. Because this is such a big issue still today, and it's not the first time we're ever talking about it, you're actually hosting an event and a summit, and I would love to talk about that if we can tease just a little bit of that. Without you, without you having to give away the store. You're, you know, going through interviews with so many experts. What— and you've been doing what you're doing as an expert in this niche for so long, but what were some aha moments for you in interviewing the experts that just tease a little information?

So the summit is called Redefining Diabetes Summit. And I know from the name a lot of people will be like, okay, it's just for people that have diabetes. But as we have explained, this is not just for people that are dealing with type 2 diabetes or diabetes, you know, in overall. It's for anyone that has blood sugar imbalances. And these are the signs that we've talked about. So I've brought together more than a dozen top experts in the field of blood sugar gut health, toxins, mold. So we are talking about the root issues that are aggravating the symptom. Because like I mentioned, blood sugar is just a symptom. The high blood sugar is just a symptom. So we are really uncovering the root causes, things that are actually making blood sugar worse. Because we are definitely not going to be like just not talking about just food, like eat this or don't eat that. We are going underneath, talking about underlying problems that are aggravating the symptoms. So we even have Debra that is one of the featured speakers there. We talked about— I'm not gonna tell them, but we talked about a very good, a very, very engaging topic. We have people talking about mold. I know a lot of people don't hear much about that, but mold can actually— if you do have mold, it can aggravate your blood sugar issues, if you have toxins, right? We have people talking about chronic fatigue, we have people talking about gut health, how to detox properly, because it's not just about picking cleansers off Amazon, no, because these things can actually make things worse for you. How to improve your detox pathways so when you're removing toxins from your body, it can be effective. So we're talking about all the things that usually the traditional, the conventional therapy doesn't talk about, because when the conventional therapy talks about blood sugar, they only focus on it as a symptom. And that is why diabetes is actually epidemic right now, is spreading like wildfire, because we've oversimplified diabetes as a blood sugar issue. But it is not a blood sugar issue. It is a very complicated issue that is dealing with so many imbalances. And until you get to the underlying problem of what is causing your type 2 diabetes, unfortunately, you will not be able to overcome it or even put it in remission. So that's the focus of the, of the summer. We talk about the blood sugar, how to really balance our blood sugar, and also how to get to the underlying issue of type 2 diabetes so we can eventually thrive and be our best selves. Yeah, so that's what the summit is about.

I so love that, and I am so glad you called attention to the fact that, that often you hear the word diabetes and that just feels like, well, I'm not in that, I'm not swimming in that pool, I don't belong in there, you know. But the truth is, with insulin resistance, it is almost a fact that you punch your ticket as a woman in midlife and your blood sugar levels went up by 5 points for a response to anything else that you were doing in the past. You know, compared— you, you have an argument, you, you have coffee on an empty stomach, and you thought you were fine with that all along. You're probably not fine so long anymore. And there's so many things that change. And, and although it's not necessarily called diabetes yet, some, some women will go in and be told pre-diabetes please realize that if you, if you learn about it now, it doesn't become a problem. And you most likely are within 5 women of somebody who has it, and it could go the wrong direction without them getting the help. So not only come share this with a friend, you have the opportunity— and Dr. Nana, tell me if I'm wrong, but this is free to attend.

Oh yes, absolutely. And you brought up a really good thing because a lot of people think prediabetes is just pre of something, but there's no pre anything. It's diabetes, unfortunately. High blood pressure is a blood sugar problem. Cholesterol, all these metabolic health issues are all blood sugar problems. I don't want people to just isolate, you know, that's something that we were— we are all indoctrinated to believe that It's a blood sugar issue. So if I'm not having diabetes, I don't have to worry about all these things. But this is something that affects all of us. They affect our mood. Even how me and Debra are energized right now, blood sugar is talking. It's actually working for us right now.

So good. Okay, so everybody, if you have a mind like a steel trap, I'm going to blurt it out right here, but you can go to this link if you want to join. It's Ditch Diabetes Academy. The words are all strung together, no spaces. DitchDiabetesAcademy.com/Flipping50, Flipping 50. And that'll be in the show notes. So if you just want to come to Flipping 50, the website, you'll find the link for— click the podcast and you'll see Dr. Amma and her pretty face on the interview. So you can click directly to show notes to get there. Coincidentally, this happens to be going on at the time we're doing a blood sugar challenge with continuous blood glucose monitors. For our community. So for those of you who we know are curious, for those of you who didn't get in on time to do this one with us or who just didn't want to invest, you know, and, and there is some investment in doing that, you can get the information for free and you can put much of this to work right away for you. You're going to get some really practical tools. Dr. Alma, thank you so much for your time.

Yes, thank you for having me here. Thank you. I appreciate your time.

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