From PCOS & Hypothyroidism to Long COVID
In this podcast episode, host McCall McPherson interviews Nicole Duran, co‑founder of PureForm health clinic and host of The Healthspan Collective. Nicole recounts her health journey that began at age 16 with a diagnosis of PCOS (now termed PMOS) and later hypothyroidism, describing the rapid weight gain, hormonal changes, severe fatigue, and brain fog she experienced. Conventional treatments such as birth control and metformin failed to improve her condition, leading her to explore functional and integrative medicine. She emphasizes the importance of long‑term doctor‑patient relationships and how her mother’s OB‑GYN helped her get a proper diagnosis. Nicole describes her shift to a whole‑foods, bio‑individuality approach after a health coach introduced her to eliminating processed foods, gluten, and dairy, and to mindfulness practices. She studied at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, which deepened her understanding of personalized nutrition. She later incorporated modern tools like GLP‑1 agonists (tirzepatide), various peptides (thymosin α‑1, lorazotide), and micro‑dosing strategies to manage inflammation and weight. The conversation moves to her fertility journey. After being warned that PCOS could make pregnancy difficult, she optimized her body with supplements (CoQ10, fish oil), strict diet, reduced alcohol, and limited travel. Within three months she conceived, noting that while lifestyle optimization helps, fertility also involves an element of luck. Nicole then details her experience with long COVID, which began after a highly stressful period surrounding her wedding. She suffered severe fatigue, histamine spikes, and was eventually diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). Treatment involved a multidisciplinary team, including RD Michelle Shapiro, and a regimen of GLP‑1 micro‑dosing, thymosin α‑1, and lorazotide to restore gut integrity and calm the immune system. A major focus is on the clinic’s proprietary therapies: Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation (EBO2) and Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, both blood‑filtration methods that remove inflammatory proteins, micro‑plastics, and toxins, followed by ozone‑enriched oxygen and red‑light therapy. Nicole explains the procedure, its benefits for conditions like Hashimoto’s, Lyme disease, and PCOS, and how it has become a quarterly maintenance treatment for her. Finally, Nicole shares the growth of PureForm and its partnership with Humanaut Health, describing the range of services offered—stem‑cell therapies (including Muse cells), advanced diagnostics (VO₂ max, DEXA, carotid ultrasound, grip strength), red‑light beds, infrared saunas, cryotherapy, and concierge medicine. She highlights the mission to empower women with personalized, integrative care and directs listeners to her Instagram, website, and podcast for more resources. Overall, the episode weaves personal narrative, clinical insights, and business development to illustrate how a combination of lifestyle fundamentals, cutting‑edge regenerative therapies, and individualized treatment can transform chronic hormonal and post‑viral conditions.
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On today's podcast episode, we are chatting with Nicole Duran. She is the co-founder of Pure Form, a comprehensive health optimization clinic, and a franchisee of Human Opt Health. She has a background in marketing, business, and holistic health coaching. Her work centers on root cause healing, metabolic and hormonal health, and post-viral recovery, blending integrative and regenerative medicine with a systems-based lifestyle approach. This all stems from her own health journey, which we'll go through in detail today, and I think it parallels the journey of so many people struggling with thyroid issues. She's also the host of the Healthspan Collective podcast. I was recently on— incredible experience— and she explores what it means to live well in every chapter of life. So let's dig in.
So I'm so excited to sit down and chat today with you, Nicole. I was recently on your podcast, The Healthspan Collective, and we had a nice little sit-down chat. So listeners, if you haven't tuned into that episode, you should. And her podcast is incredible. So go ahead and subscribe. But thank you so much for being here today and talking with us about your journey, because I think it's going to resonate with a lot of people.
Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunately not so uncommon, the journey I've had with my health. And no, thank you again for coming on my show. It was one of like, I had so many people reach out to me after listening to your episode, A, looking to work with you, and B, just really enlightened in a different way about thyroid health as a whole. So.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Well, thanks for helping us evolve the conversation. I know so many people get into health, the health world, because, you know, they're passionate. It's what they wanted to do and they're a kid, whatever. But I feel like you entered it because you were kind of left with no other choice, no other alternative, and you were stuck. Am I right?
Absolutely. So to kind of go back, I was diagnosed with PCOS, now PMOS, when I was just 16 years old. I had gone from being a totally healthy athlete, never really struggled with my health at all, to I had like a little bit of a stressful time in high school and with the volleyball season my sophomore year. And all of a sudden over the course of a couple months, which likely this stressful time coincided with, you know, kind of like second wave of puberty. I gained 30 pounds, started getting facial hair, period became abnormal. I just, I had no energy. Brain fog was at a 10 and just did not feel like myself at all. So I went to multiple pediatric endocrinologists. We went to allergists because I was having sinus symptoms. And it wasn't until my mom took me to her OB-GYN, who she had a really strong relationship with. Who said, let's test her hormones and her thyroid a little bit deeper. And that was when I got my original diagnosis of PCOS. And then a year or two later with hypothyroidism, cuz those two tend to go a little hand in hand, unfortunately. And, but even she said, okay, here's some birth control and some metformin. This should, this is all I can do for you. And it unfortunately didn't really do anything for me. I didn't lose any weight. My blood sugar regulated on paper, but it took a lot of trial and error and finding the world of functional and integrative medicine that ultimately changed my life.
Yeah. You know, and too, this kind of puts a pin in something I tell my patients so often who are like, oh, I don't have a primary care doctor. I just see you guys. And I'm like, look, like, I know that when I recognize when you go to your primary care doctor, they're not going to solve your thyroid problem, right? They're not going to solve your Your hormone problem. But when you show up to them year after year and they get to know you little by little, when you need them and you show up, they're more likely to believe you and hear you than like, hey, you've never met me before. I'm having all these issues. And, and it's sad women have to orchestrate this situation to be seen, heard, and believed. But that's the reality I feel like still in medicine to a large degree. And so. In my opinion, this is just another kind of pin of, hey, you should probably have someone that you go see annually so that when something happens, because inevitably something does happen, you have an ally. You have someone that, that is on your side.
That is such a great point that I, I think we don't talk about enough, especially in this space, because I think, you know, it's easy to say, oh, doctors don't listen to us, especially as women. And, but there's something to be said, and I give my mom a lot of credit for that. She taught me that in all facets of life is you have to build relationships. And it was because she had been going to this doctor for 20 years. She delivered my sister. She was like, they had a very close relationship. And so when she walked in with me and said, I've told you about my daughter her whole life. This is not her. This is not normal. She really believed her.
Yeah.
And, you know, even just knowing her genetics and I had been a carbon copy of my mom prior to that, and all of a sudden looked and felt completely different. It gave it a second look, which we were so grateful for. Right.
And I think that's probably not the case in most people with PCOS, PMOS. They're kind of shuffled around, not believed, not heard, certainly dismissed for quite a while. So again, it's advantageous to have those relationships. You're so spot on.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, tell me, so that's obviously the traditional approach. That's where most people start. Right. And most health problems, we start in the traditional approach, we try it, and it isn't really until it doesn't work or it isn't enough that we go looking elsewhere. I'm curious about that journey for you. When did you know, hey, this is not enough? What pushed you to look deeper?
Yeah, so trust me, I was happy. You know, it felt like the cool thing at 16 to be handed birth control and Sold, you need this for your health, right? I was like, I felt so cool. And even when she explained how metformin worked and how it can regulate your blood sugar, I was like, oh great, maybe this will be the magic pill to help me lose weight. And like I said, unfortunately it didn't. Those 2 things, you know, the birth control altered my hormones so that the facial hair stopped, which I was grateful for. And, you know, my boobs got huge, which I was also like excited about, but the weight didn't move at all. So thankfully my parents have always been really into health and wellness. So it was, there wasn't resources out there like there are now, but my mom was doing a lot of research and we were reading different books about trying things like an elimination diet, cut out gluten and dairy and see if that lowers your inflammation. Because we could see it wasn't just that I was overweight, it was that I was extremely inflamed. Like I had, I'm 6 months pregnant right now and like my You know, you're inflamed when you're pregnant, you're puffy, you're holding on.
You don't look inflamed, boo. You look amazing. Thank you.
I appreciate that. But it's funny seeing myself now because I feel like it's like I'm looking in the mirror at my younger self almost, because the inflammation I was carrying as a 16-year-old is similar to that I'm carrying as a 32-year-old, 6-month pregnant woman. And that's really saying something. And I would say my energy was around the same as well. I just could never get enough sleep. So it was with some trial and error on my own. And then finally, actually fast forwarding until I graduated college, I did my last semester abroad and I came back heavier than ever. And I think we actually talked about this on my podcast. Like we had similar experiences of all my friends were like losing weight because we were walking and whatnot. I wasn't, I gained an extra 20.
So I went from being like 60.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I went from being 30 pounds overweight to 50. And once again, I was about the weight that I am now at 6 months pregnant and I'm not a small pregnant person. So it was just, I kind of came home at my rock bottom. Right. And by the grace of God, my mom's best friend who I was very close with had started working or she had met this health coach and was like, Nicole, she has a very similar journey to you. I want you to meet her. And I started working with her. I did a 6-month program with her and she taught me how to just throw away the macros, the calories, and just focus on whole foods. My parameters were, we're eating whole foods and nothing out of a package. Just if it comes outta the ground and or is an animal, we're eating it. Right. And I felt that inflammation just leaving my body day by day. And so that was a huge light bulb moment for me. And she also taught me a lot about mindfulness and the role that my mental, emotional, and spiritual health were playing with my body every day as well. So working with her was a huge eye-opener for me, and I ended up following in her footsteps. I was like, by the end of my program, I was like, what program did you do to learn all of this? Because I want to do that. And I did it. I went to the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I find that it's a great starting point for a lot of people in our industry, cuz it kind of introduces you to this concept of bio-individuality. Nobody is exactly the same as another person. And it's really this, just, it can be beautiful if you look at it in a certain way that what works for my body is gonna be different than what works for your body, but we can still learn from each other. And still guide each other. So it was a really nice place to start and gave me an introduction into this functional medicine world.
And do you think the role of the concept of bio-individuality played a big part in your journey? And do you see that at y'all's practice?
I do. I do. I think when we get down to the nitty-gritty of most patient cases. I think especially nowadays, we have so many tools that we didn't have 10 years ago. So we have things like GLP-1s, peptides, even hormones for, you know, especially once you're getting a little bit older. So we have these tools that can be really helpful to just kind of get people feeling good. And then we can kind of get down into more of the details. And I always use the example of like, I, when live gluten-free. I have for the last 7 years and it's been life-changing for me. That's not the case for most people don't need to live gluten-free, right? And I'm so happy for them. That's just one thing that works for me. My best friend can intermittent fast and it works for her so well. And I'm so happy for her. That doesn't work for me. So it's finding the little things, the little tweaks in your lifestyle that I think that concept of bio-individuality really plays a big piece. But there are also huge foundational basics that I think apply to everybody. So I think most everybody should be eating a whole foods-based diet. They should be focused on balancing their blood sugar and they should be getting enough sleep.
Yeah, no, and that echoes like that just as so many people in the thyroid world's experience too, and clinicians as well as like, I get asked on social all the time, well, what's the best thyroid medication? Well, there isn't one, you know, like it depends on your unique needs and what your biochemistry is doing or not doing. And well, do I need to go gluten-free because I have a thyroid problem? Well, no. Like a lot of people, even with thyroid problems, don't need to go gluten-free. So we don't adhere to like this one-size-fits-all approach because you're so spot on. There isn't really much of anything except good sleep, whole foods nutrition, right? Maybe some sunlight, the basics that are beneficial for everyone. And from there, hey, we're all so unique. I'm curious too, on your journey. So we've got you with PCOS, PMOS, thyroid issues. You're pregnant now. Congratulations. I've already told you that, but congratulations nonetheless.
Thank you.
I would love for you to share a little bit about your journey into your fertility chapter and what that looks like for you. I know it doesn't look the same for everyone, but I am curious.
Yes. Yes. So this is a chapter. So just to set the scene, when I was first diagnosed by my original OB-GYN, whom I love, her, the first something she said to me before I walked out of that appointment when she gave me this diagnosis was, It's probably gonna be hard for you to get pregnant one day, but it's okay. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. And when I tell you, I stepped outta that office and started bawling in the parking lot with my mom because I knew even as a teenager that I wanted to be a mom one day. Right. And that was just such a scary message to receive. And I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know why this was going to affect my fertility and what we were going to do about it. What it being quote unquote harder.
Mm-hmm.
was going to mean or look like for me. What did that mean? I was gonna have to adopt one day. All that to say, over the years I learned a lot more, and thankfully there's a lot more research that's come out about fertility with PCOS. And so I went into it as educated as I could be, and I was on as many supplements, not as many supplements as I could be because that number is endless, but I made very educated decisions with my practitioners. To be on all the right supplements to really optimize my body, my egg quality. So things like CoQ10, fish oils, just to— my goal was to lower my inflammation as much as possible to put my body in the most hospitable state for a baby to want to grow in. Right. So that I cut out alcohol completely. I'm not a big drinker to begin with, but I felt like this was an important one for me. I lowered my sugar intake to as much as I could without feeling hyper-restricted. And I mentioned earlier, I'm always gluten-free. I also cut out dairy. So I just knew that these, over the years, these are all things that have made me feel better when I've implemented them. So that was important for me when I was really stepping in. It was at the beginning of this year that I said, you know, my goal for this year is to get pregnant and it's my number one priority. And in addition to all of those lifestyle changes, cutting down my travel as well, because I'm a little bit— I'm sure we have this in common where I like to go, go, go. And I'm, I'm at a really exciting point in my career and there's a lot of opportunities that pop up. And last year I probably did 20 trips last year, you know.
Oh boy.
But in Q1 of this year, I was like, no travel for me. I just want to be in my home. I want to be with my husband. I just want to feel Resting.
Yeah.
And all of those things I think really served me. It took about 3 months for me to get pregnant, which I was so grateful for. And I want to give the caveat that there's an element of luck in fertility, in my opinion. I think we can do all the things to optimize our bodies and they definitely move the needle and help, but there is just an element of fertility that's like a little bit of a mystery for some people as well.
Yeah. But it is so hopeful too for people who struggle with PCOS, PMOS, and they think, oh gosh, this is never gonna happen for me. And here you are that had it since a few years after you started your first period and were able to conceive. So that is incredibly, incredibly hopeful. And I think we're at a time now, it's parallel with thyroid in the fertility world where there is information, resources. Really clear support out there that probably didn't exist a few short years ago. So yeah, there's a ton of hope. The other kind of thing that we've talked about before, even, I don't know if it was on your podcast or before it went, like before we started recording.
Yeah.
Is your journey with long COVID. And I, you know, also had a journey with long COVID. I don't talk much about it, but I did, and it was absolutely devastating. I think of it as like the next chapter in your health story. Tell us a little bit about what that looked like for you, what that experience was, because I think the water's muddy for a lot of people that have to work for their health and it's hard to recognize, hey, what's doing what? And long COVID can be a little insidious in that way.
Absolutely. I had felt like come say 2023, it was around the time I started my business. I was honestly feeling healthier than ever. I wasn't even taking any supplements at the time. You know, when you're just like, I feel better than ever. And then I got COVID. It was the week of my wedding. I had definitely stressed myself out more than my usual between starting a business, having— I had a 250-person wedding. It was definitely, I was at a 10 out of 10 from a stress level. And then I got COVID that week and I felt like it was like I had peaked my mental stress and then my physical stress also just hit hit an all-time high.
Were you on your honeymoon when this happened?
No, I literally was like bedridden 2 days before my wedding. I had my—
Oh, before your wedding?
Before.
Not after. Oh my God.
Oh yeah. Like my body gave out before the wedding because I was doing all the things. I was not following my own advice in terms of like, I was in a pretty severe caloric restriction. Like I was really doing all the things and not sleeping enough and my body broke down. And yeah, I remember my wedding planner calling and being like, I need decisions on the plates for the rehearsal dinner. And I was like, just do it. Like, I trust you. Just do it. I, I literally can't even look at my phone screen right now. And so I had hit this like peak and I just did everything I could to get myself propped up for wedding day. Right. So I had my nurses coming to give me vitamin IVs every other day. And I was on antibiotics, which I typically would avoid. I was on Claritin D and DayQuil and NyQuil in addition to all of the vitamins, but it was like, I gotta just make sure I can survive this weekend. The supposed to be the best weekend of my life. Right. And I did. And I had the, it was the best time ever.
Wow.
And then I went on my honeymoon, but I'm still on all of these pharmaceuticals. And as I'm weaning off of them, I'm getting this like histamine response where every, I'm waking up in the morning sneezing like 30 to 60 times where my husband is like, what is going on with you? And it's exhausting to sneeze that much.
Right.
And this is like I mentioned earlier, early in my PCOS journey, I had had a histamine issue where I would wake up really congested in the morning and it was correlated with sugar intake. And I think it's just cuz the sugar, like my immune system just reacts to sugar and then gives me this histamine response, but it had gone down over the years, but it was just Right back up. And so this went on for months and I couldn't get a diagnosis. I went to a few different practitioners and I finally met with one who was like, he was like, do you sneeze when you get out of the shower? And I was like, yeah. He was like, I think you have a, you have a condition called mast cell activation syndrome. And that was brought on as it was correlated with long COVID. Like the COVID had kind of spiked my immune system in this way and released mast cells and they were just overreacting, overreacting. And part of this as well as my mast cells, like my, my body's just so inflamed. I'm starting to put on weight again and starting to feel that extreme brain fog and irritability, like new symptoms that are actually like I hadn't felt before where it was those like, I'm snapping at my husband and I'm like, in my own mind, I'm like, I'm not even that upset about this. Why am I like— I'm so irritable. This isn't me. And so all that to say, I worked with a practitioner named Michelle Shapiro, her practice, she's an RD and she specializes in MCAS. And then I also worked with some of my practitioners at my clinic, Pure Form, and started microdosing GLP-1s. Tirzepatide was the one that, like, that was my, the one, the sweet spot for me.
Mm-hmm.
And then used A peptide called thymosin alpha-1, which helps support the immune system, an oral peptide called lirazotide. And so between the peptides and the supplements that Michelle's team put me on, I was really able to calm the inflammation in my body and start feeling like myself again, right before I was trying to optimize for fertility. Wow.
Talk with me a little bit about— I've heard of lirazotide just recently from a friend of mine. I would love for you to expand on it a little bit and tell people what it is. Also, like the other one, the alpha, forget what it's called.
Thymosin alpha-1.
Yeah.
So thymosin alpha-1 is an immune, it helps enhance the immune system function because part of this whole reaction my body was having was, so my immune system was just kind of overreacting and I was feeling sick all the time. So the thymosin alpha-1 just really helped my immune system kind of regulate, which was really helpful. And then the lorazotide, I had never heard of it. I actually had someone on the podcast and he was telling me about it. His name, his name's Dr. Christian. I'll get his name for us to put in the notes. Yeah, do it. But he's really, really intelligent. And as I was walking him out, he's like, you need to try this peptide called lorazotide. And it's actually a gut health peptide and it helps reseal the gut lining because something I should have mentioned earlier is gut health is so intertwined with everything else I've dealt with in my health.
Yeah.
Like I've got through line of stress at every point in my health chapters. And I think a lot of that is when I'm stressed, your gut lining just starts to shed a little bit and you get that leaky gut and then it kind of bleeds into these other things. So the lorazotide was really helping heal my gut, like heal those, the tight junctures in your gut lining. And I believe that's why it was helping so much.
Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I've heard for celiac too, it can be so incredibly life-changing. So I'm definitely gonna look into that myself. Was it Dr. Christian Gonzalez?
No.
I'm so curious. You'll have to let me know. I wanna pick his, I wanna like Search him. Search him up. What I was gonna say, like my teenagers say that. Search him up.
He's actually, I believe he's from Ghana, but he practices in the U.S. now.
Oh my gosh!
I'll find his. I'll find his info. Okay.
And so you feel like peptides were a really big part of your recovery?
Absolutely. Sorry, it just came to me. Dr. Christian Asari, A S A R E.
Ooh, I like it. Okay.
Yeah, I'm sure you guys go to the same events and whatnot, so I'd be happy to connect you if you'd like, because he's phenomenal. Yeah, he's really—
I would so love that. How exciting. Look at this guy having 83 5-star Google reviews. He doesn't even know it, but we're promoting him right now during our podcast conversation. Okay, I want to touch on a couple other things. I know you and I have talked Personally about EBOO or EBO2, I would love for you to tell a little bit, and this is a service you all offer at your clinic, right?
We actually train clinics all over the world on how to do it. We have like a business. It's not a side business anymore. It's a very big business where we actually present at regenerative and integrative medicine conferences all over the world and train other clients. So clinics, I would say like yours, but yours is telemed. So Clinics like ours who are doing in-person treatments with patients. So things like stem cells or IVs, we do this protocol called EBO2. It stands for extracorporeal blood oxygenation and ozonation. And it literally filters the inflammatory proteins out of your blood. So I believe you've done it before, right?
It's what got rid of my long COVID single-handedly. Yeah.
Yeah. It's incredible. And we've actually seen a lot of patients, a lot of Hashimoto's patients who have really high antibodies, their antibodies come down after treatment as well, which is also—
Wow.
Yeah. It can be really life-changing for people. And a lot of Lyme is another condition. We see a ton of Lyme patients because that can just be such a kind of hopeless endeavor trying to get rid of Lyme. And so being able to really filter the blood can be very helpful. But so the process goes, you have an IV in each arm and you have blood being pulled out of one arm, being pulled through a pump and a filter. So it's actually a dialysis filter flipped upside down. And we are literally, it's being infused with ozone. The blood's being infused with ozone and oxygen, and then inflammatory proteins are being filtered out of the blood into a big canister. So when you're getting the treatment done, you get to see your canister at the end of all the gunk that came out of you. And we've tested this liquid before. Everyone has microplastics, mycotoxins, other toxins in their blood. It's so interesting to see what comes out of people. And then the clean blood is run through a full spectrum light device called a Hemalumen. So I call it like a, it'd be like a red, like your blood being under a red light lamp on crack. And then Put back in your other arm. I love it. Yeah. It's an incredible, incredible treatment. It's been a really big piece of my healing at different points along my journey, especially just with the PCOS I mentioned after shortly after starting my business. I was in the best health I had ever been. And I attribute a lot of that to getting, I get a quarterly EBO2 treatment when I'm not pregnant and it really helped. Keep my inflammation at bay. Yeah.
I really have to get back and do mine again. I'll, I'll share with you a little snippet. So I went, I tried everything for long COVID. I was kind of honestly pretty bedbound for the better part of the year, was working from bed every day unless I had to get up and go to my desk for a virtual appointment. I would try to do everyone by phone so no one would know. And I was just, had so much shame around it. So someone told me about EBO2 and I'm like, yeah, I'll try it. Went to A wellness center who you all probably trained a long, many years ago.
Yeah.
Went and the discarded material from your blood, the toxins that get cleaned out, they go into a bucket, like a kind of a full-sized bucket. And usually, you know, people fill up half the bucket, close to 3 quarters, whatever. I had to empty that bucket. The girl did that, did my EBO2. She would take it and she would swish it to try to get the foam into liquid. So she did that every 10 or 15 minutes. She had to empty it 6 times because it was going to overflow.
Oh my goodness. So just so you know, I mean, it's not common, but we see that with patients who are feeling, especially when they're, they're feeling really bad like you were. I think the most we've done is like 9 canisters for people.
Per person. Yeah.
And by the way, like NFL players, the day after a game, That they'll fill like 7 canisters like that, which just goes to show how much burden your body was under. Because like they say, an NFL game is like being in a car accident, you know? Like that's how much your body was under duress.
I love that these athletes are tuned in now to these alternative options and like biohacking. I'm like, this should be such a huge part of their journey. Really should. I would love for you to share a little bit about your journey, how you've gone from like a patient really struggling to a successful entrepreneur that now gets to help people who are also struggling thrive and kind of just give us a little insight, a little spark of hope for maybe other people who are just struggling to get up every day and put on pants and make life happen.
Right.
And I think it is such an inspiring story to see where you've been to where you are now. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, when I say like, it is a dream come true to be able to be sitting in the position that I'm in now, I couldn't have imagined it 10 years ago because I used to be somebody who truly worked so hard at my health. And I just felt like you couldn't tell. I was that person that spent 2 hours in the gym and looked like I had never worked out, you know, and We mentioned peptides earlier. I would be remiss not to mention, especially over the last few years, just the difference that especially microdosing tirzepatide made for me. It's, I joke about it a lot now being pregnant because I miss it a lot.
Yeah.
I bet.
Just because, and aside from the weight, just truly the inflammation. Like I know you talk a lot about just you yourself, you run inflamed and I, I relate to that so much and I'm sure a majority of your listeners can as well. But that is a tool, like if, if I had to give up all the other tools, that's the That's probably the one at the top of my list for me. EBO2 would be really close second for me. But yeah, I can't emphasize enough. I was really, really struggling for many years. I was living on 3 cold brew coffees a day and flopping into bed at night. And by the way, my health journey really led me down a binge eating cycle.
Hmm.
And I could do a whole nother podcast On just the correlation between, I think, a lot of women with PMOS and disordered eating, because it just, it feels like you're doing something wrong and you're trying your hardest. And I really try to spread the message that like, you're doing great, sweetie. Like everything is going to be okay. And you just need one practitioner to listen to you and give you the right tools to start stepping in the right direction. Because yeah, I was somebody who like, I was literally falling asleep in my high school classes. So to be able to run 3 businesses now and be growing all of them while 6 months pregnant and prepping for my new baby to enter this world, like it's really a dream and it's possible for anybody. I truly believe that.
I totally agree. I would love for you to tell listeners about your business, businesses, but I think tell us where they are, what they are like, give us the whole spiel because the reality is people are in search for this and it's incredibly difficult to find.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So I'm located in Palm Beach County in South Florida. So we have our main clinic is called PureForm. We're in Boca Raton and we're a pretty big facility led by Dr. Joseph Prita, who's an orthopedic surgeon. But a real pioneer in the world of stem cell therapy. So me and my husband and my dad, who are both my business partners, got into business with Dr. Pereda at the end of 2020 because we just really felt like he was this diamond in the rough. Like people, he was Boca's best kept secret and we really wanted more people to know about him. And just with my health, that there was a lot in common with the way he was treating people and helping them. And the journey I had been through. And I really just wanted to— I promised myself honestly at a young age that if I could ever really get to the root of what was going on with my health, I would do anything I could to spare some other women the tears that I had shed because there were a lot. And yeah, like working with Dr. Pereda has just been amazing. He's taught us all so much and we were able to each apply our business acumen to the business and expand it. So we offer everything from stem cell therapy for orthopedic conditions. We just launched Muse cells, which are the most advanced type of stem cell available in the world right now. So gone are the days of athletes having to travel places like Germany or Panama or Colombia to get the highest quality stem cells. You can get them in Florida right now with us at PureForm. And we also offer obviously EBO2, which we talked about. We offer a therapeutic plasma exchange, which is another blood filtration treatment that can be really helpful for people with the conditions we're talking about. We have a ton of IVs. Yeah, you should. Yeah. Come on down. I've got a bunch for you.
I love it. We'll make a day of it. Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, we've got a red light bed, infrared saunas, cold plunge, cryotherapy. We've got all the fun stuff here. And then we are also franchisees of Humanaut Health. So Humanaut is a newer health optimization brand and it bridges both telehealth and in-clinic services. So we have a clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, which is about 40 minutes north of Boca. And we offer stem cell therapy there as well and focus actually a little bit more on a full diagnostic protocol and higher-end concierge medicine. So when you come in as a patient, most patients are run through what's called our advanced health check. We're doing a VO2 max. A DEXA scan, an ultrasound of your carotid artery to look at plaque, full blood work, and a grip strength assessment. And then you work with the practitioner that's best suited for you on a membership that's best suited for what you're looking for with your health. But it's incredible, and we're really looking forward to expanding with Humanaut as well. And then more podcasts, the Healthspan Collective. So I send your episode. I like I feel like I'm. You know, fluffing your feathers, but I really do send your episode to more people than any other episode just because I think you do such a great job of breaking down the importance of thyroid health. And we talked a lot about GLP-1s, and I really appreciate the information that you spread because it's really important. I feel like every day I encounter more and more people that are clearly struggling with their thyroid and have no idea.
So I love it. Well, thank you. Thank you for spreading the word because people need it. You know, it is so incredibly complicated, and women are just led down a dead-end road so much of the time. Um, well, thank you for your work, for taking your journey and your struggle and creating a place and a way to inform, empower, and help heal so many people. I just have so much admiration for you. I love it every single time we connect. So let's do this again soon. Thank you.
I would love that. Thank you so much for having me.
Tell me too, before we go, of course, tell me where people can find more about you on social websites, all the things. I almost left that question out. You should have stopped me.
Yeah. So my Instagram is Nicole J. Doran. You can find both clinics and the podcast linked in my bio there just to make it easy. The website for Pure Form, which is our main clinic. is purrformhealth.com, spelled P-U-R-R-F-O-R-M Health. And the podcast is The Healthspan Collective. So just trying to continue to spread the word, sharing a lot of funnier content lately, especially about pregnancy, just because, you know, if we don't laugh, we'll cry and that's okay. It's honestly just a full new set of challenges and I'm sure postpartum is going to bring a lot of those as well. So I'm just trying to share because I feel like Earlier in my journey, I felt really alone. And the more I share, the more I realize we all need this.
We do. We do. Well, thank you. Talk soon.
Okay. Thank you so much.
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