The Stress-Gut Connection – How Hidden Emotions Could Be Blocking Your Healing with Sarah Nitterauer
In this episode of Hormones, Metabolism, and You, Dr. Cassie Smith is joined by Modern Endocrine’s Health Coach, Sarah Nitterauer, NBC-HWC, NASM, for a rich and empowering conversation on gut health and its role in healing chronic illness, supporting mental health, and managing weight.
Together, they explore how the Modern Endocrine team uses a holistic, root-cause approach—combining functional medicine, lifestyle changes, trauma-informed coaching, and personalized support—to help patients experience lasting wellness. Sarah opens up about her personal health journey and the power of practical, realistic tools for long-term transformation. This is a must-listen if you’re seeking clarity, compassion, and real solutions for your gut and beyond.
Cassie info and links:
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Guest info and links:
Sarah Nitterauer is a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with specialized training in Gut and Hormonal Health. She is also a NASM-Certified Personal Trainer, combining her passion for movement, nutrition, and behavior change to help individuals reclaim their health.
Her experience spans corporate wellness, physician practices, and individualized coaching, giving her a unique ability to bridge clinical recommendations with real-life application. Sarah thrives in medical settings where she partners closely with providers to help patients implement sustainable lifestyle changes aligned with their values and routines.
She’s especially passionate about understanding the emotional drivers behind habits, helping clients uncover the “why” that empowers lasting change. When she’s not coaching, you can find Sarah enjoying hot yoga, cooking, playing ultimate frisbee, lifting weights, or spending time with her family.
Blog/Transcription:
0:00 [Music]
0:05 Welcome back to this week’s episode of Hormones, Metabolism, and You. I’m your host, Dr. Cassie Smith. I’m a
0:10 boardcertified endocrinologist who’s now a functional medicine doctor based out of Oklahoma City. My passion has become
0:16 gut health. Recently, I have found that it is almost impossible to treat
0:22 anyone’s illness, whether it be thyroid, hormone, whatever you’re struggling with, weight, fatigue, brain fog, unless
0:28 you truly look at someone’s gut. I have had phenomenal results over the last year in a gut health program that myself
0:35 and my health coach Sarah have created. So, today I wanted to do something a little bit different on this podcast. I
0:41 do a gut health webinar live once a month where I talk about the all the ways that your gut affects simple
0:48 symptoms that you may be getting gas lit from other providers. So if you are somebody who’s struggling with brain
0:53 fog, fatigue, weight gain, just don’t feel like yourself, can’t make muscle,
0:59 uh are having problems sleeping, all of these things can actually tie back to your gut. So today I’m going to have my
1:07 health coach Sarah on the podcast with me. Sarah and I are going to chat just in general about how she came to Modern
1:13 Endocrine, what we do, all of the benefits that we see in treating people’s gut, and just kind of let you
1:20 guys in on a little bit about like what is gut health? What do we do that’s different at Modern Endocrine with your
1:26 gut health? Why do I think that Sarah is such an asset to our team as a health coach? Because when you hear the word
1:32 health coach, you think of lots of different things, but Sarah goes above and beyond what you would think of as a
1:37 typical health coach. So, she will meet you where you are. She’s going to help you figure out how to start moving forward in your health journey, whether
1:44 that means we’re talking about exercise, nutrition. She does a lot of mindfulness and stress work. And so, I just wanted
1:50 you guys to hear her perspective as to like what is modern endocrine, what does she do there, why does she enjoy it,
1:56 what does she see from patients that see her, what sort of success stories. And so we just kind of go back and forth and
2:02 we end up talking about our own health journeys and what we appreciate about each other because we try to be very
2:07 positive at modern endocrine as well. And I think it’s very important for healing which we talk about to be an
2:13 environment where you feel aligned and also just where you feel appreciated. So I wanted to bring her on so that you
2:18 guys know how much I do appreciate her and just can see some of the awesome things that we do with gut health at
2:24 Modern Endocrine and where we’re going with this is so exciting. My book is
2:30 coming out in the next month or so and that is just going to be a launching pad
2:36 for courses for patients and providers. And again, my goal is literally to make
2:41 gut health on the forefront of everyone’s mind because until you figure out what’s wrong with your gut, you will
2:46 not get better as a patient. And providers need to know this, too. If we want to change the trajectory of health
2:51 care, then we’ve got to start with the gut. So, I’m so excited for you to listen to this week’s episode.
2:59 Welcome back to this week’s episode of Hormones, Metabolism, and You. I’m your host, Dr. Cassie Smith. I have my health
3:06 coach, Sarah, with me today. So, I’m super excited to do this podcast. Her
3:12 and I are going to kind of talk today about well, first of all, how Sarah came into the practice and the amazing things
3:17 that we’re doing with gut health. But, I wanted to bring her on to to give you like a perspective of somebody else in the practice. Like, what is modern
3:23 endocrine? What do we do? Why does she love her job? She says she loves her job. I’m not paying her to say that, you
3:29 know, and just to give you guys some perspective as a patient. What is it like to be a patient with gut health
3:34 issues? So Sarah can kind of tell you some of her personal story, too. But it is very frustrating when you are a
3:41 patient and you’ve been seeing tons of different doctors, spend a ton of money, and don’t get anywhere. And so Sarah and
3:47 I both can relate to that. And so at Modern Endocrine, we really try to make sure when you come, no matter how many people you’ve seen, we try to get to the
3:54 root cause of what’s going on and make you better. And so we just wanted to talk today about that process, what that
3:59 looks like, kind of what we do, and then just help you guys get to know Sarah a little bit more. So I’m super excited to
4:05 do this episode. I think it’s going to be really fun. Yeah. So Sarah, tell everyone, I guess
4:13 obviously your name is Sarah. What do you do at Modern Endocrine? And maybe
4:19 describe. So first of all, what do you do at Modern Endocrine? And then describe to people what is Modern
4:25 Endocrine? like if you had just met them and they say, “Where do you work and what do you do there?” Like, how would you describe Modern Endocrine?
4:31 Uh, well, first of all, yes, my name is Sarah and I’m the health coach here at Modern Endocrine. And essentially what I
4:38 do is I come kind of come alongside Cassie and support all of our patients that come to us with all of the gut
4:46 related issues that they might be experiencing. And so essentially what that process looks like is they might
4:53 come in to have an initial consult with her. Maybe they have their labs done and
4:58 we can see some that they might need some support with some of their gut related stuff. They’ll come in, they’ll do a GI map and then she and I will sit
5:05 down together and we will kind of go over the test results together. we’ll come up with a plan and then I’m really
5:11 there to kind of help with facilitating the aspects of the plan that we need to do to help our patients to get better.
5:19 But whenever I am talking to people about what it is that I do, it’s funny because I hear myself saying often that
5:26 if people feel stuck in their health journey that we literally do everything and I tell people that, you know, if you
5:32 if you feel like you are stuck, we have so many options for what we can do to help people. And I have worked for a lot
5:39 of different providers in the past and I think that it is very unique that you know we have so many different
5:45 modalities that we can use to help support people whether it’s with their gut or with their hormones or with the
5:51 peptides the ozone things like that. And so that’s that that is how I would
5:57 typically describe what I what I do and also a little bit about what kind of a
6:02 response I give people when they they ask about who I work for. Yeah. So, I love that if you’re stuck in
6:09 your health journey, we really take it upon ourselves to try and help with
6:14 that. And that’s so interesting because I actually need to make a video right now. My social media team is really mad at me. They want me to make a video for
6:20 the website and they want me to just talk about like what is modern indocrine, you know? And so, I know exactly what it is. Like, I just haven’t
6:26 had time to make the video. But I feel like that we try to make this place where you can come to no matter where
6:31 you are in your health journey, whether it’s just beginning, whether you’ve seen a million doctors, like it doesn’t matter. I tried to make this sacred
6:38 place where you can come be heard, be validated, and then be helped. And I think what really helped me do it was
6:44 the fact that I spent 15 years really sick and nobody listened to me, even as a doctor. And so I think what I tried to
6:51 cultivate at Modern Endocrine is like where’s the place I wish I would have had when I was 20 years old and really sick that I could have gone to and just
6:58 got straightforward root cause answers as opposed to being shuffled around to 37 different doctors and still never
7:03 knowing what was going on. So that’s kind of what I see modern endocrine as and just you know I mean a really cool
7:11 place with a lot of people who are very interested in making your health and your wellness their top priority.
7:19 I can agree with that because you know part of this too for me is I have a very similar health journey as you and it is
7:26 really frustrating if you’re someone who has kind of gone through the stages of that healing process to you know to feel
7:31 like you’ve kind of been passed around from doctor to doctor and to finally come to a place where you feel like you
7:36 can get all of your answers in one place. I get that feedback all the time from patients where they are just so
7:43 grateful that we take a full body perspective whenever we’re looking at them and it gives them the peace of mind
7:50 and hope really that a lot of them have been searching for and that just to me is one of the most fulfilling aspects of
7:56 of what we do. The fact that we can actually meet patients where they are and give that to them. I I love that
8:01 because I know that was something for me that personally I felt like I was looking for for a really really long time. So and I eventually did get
8:08 better. I found that, you know, with each practitioner that I worked with over the, you know, two or three years that I was really investing in my health
8:14 and trying to get better, it was like I would work with a provider for a period of time and they might help me with one thing that kind of unlocked the key to
8:21 the next thing that I needed to get to, which helped me find another specialist and provider to unlock that and then get
8:26 to the next. And so eventually I did get there. But yeah, it is really helpful just to be able to come to one place and
8:32 know that you can get all of the support that you need from, you know, from the medical side, but then also, you know,
8:38 from from the lifestyle, the behavioral, the nutritional side of things, too. Because I think we all know that
8:44 everything we have to treat things holistically. You know, it’s usually never just one aspect of something that
8:50 we have to look at. And that’s really why I love what I get to do because we get the opportunity to explore that in a
8:56 lot of the follow-ups that we have um with our patients, which is pretty wild because a lot of times people will come
9:01 in, especially with the gut stuff, thinking that we’re going to fix one problem only for us to unturn another
9:07 rock. It might even be something like with stress or emotionally something that’s kind of going on or how they’re
9:13 perceiving a lot of what’s going on in their life. and getting the opportunity to kind of coach people through that
9:19 behavioral and almost like the mindset aspect of it. I really that’s one of the things that I really love. I I really
9:24 value building relationships with people and also like creating that safe space
9:30 uh where people can be seen, they can be heard, they can be validated. And I’ve been doing this a really long time and
9:35 it it’s like a superpower. It really is. Like I find a lot of times once people give themselves the or they feel like
9:42 they have that permission to kind of open up and share that’s I think that’s really where the breeding ground for
9:48 change truly begins. So I love that we you know by to be able to spend more
9:54 time with our patients we get the opportunity to create that environment for them. Yeah. And I think one of the things that
10:00 we really focus on too is education. So I think it’s really disheartening that we have this broken system right now
10:06 that we think is going to improve without educating people. So like it is fascinating how many people live in the
10:13 United States don’t even know what is fiber like what’s fiber they’re like what is that like vegetables like what you know and so it’s just like educating
10:20 people not only on everything that’s wrong with them like okay instead of just giving them diagnoses and writing a
10:25 prescription let’s talk about what caused these diagnoses what is the root cause of it let’s get down to the very
10:30 like what caused this and then let’s talk about how you actually heal your body and fix it as opposed to just
10:37 writing a prescription right and so I think that’s one of the things I really really wanted when I got sick too and
10:42 it’s like nobody gives you that and so that’s one of the things I think that is very special about us is like when I
10:48 look at a person and or when any provider at modern indocrine looks at a person because every provider there
10:53 works with me and so when Sarah like Sarah was talking about you know when you are working with people we’re not
11:01 just looking at like oh you have leaky gut and you have dispiosis and you have we’re looking at like okay you’re very
11:06 inflamed you also have PCOS and we’ve got insulin resistance and we have all these other issues with your gut. And
11:12 so, like you said, we’re really trying to figure out, we’re trying to turn over every single rock, every problem they have. Oh, they’re also not absorbing
11:18 their food. They’re so that we can literally start at ground zero, rock bottom, and start rebuilding. Because if
11:24 we just, you know, give you symptomatic treatment and throw little things at you to band-aid issues, then what happens is
11:31 you don’t get better. Like, you will continue to come and see us and not be well for a really long time. And that is
11:37 not what we want. And so what I want from patients is for you to get better and to come back once a year and we
11:44 check in and make sure nothing crazy has changed with your blood work and you go live your life and be as productive as
11:49 you can be. And like to your point, the education is so important with that because just slapping people with
11:54 diagnosis and saying take this doesn’t help them figure out how to one actually heal and get better, but two stay out of
12:01 doctor’s offices, right? And so I think the other thing Modern Endocrine is really good at is not only educating
12:06 people, but my goal for you is to stay out of doctor’s offices, right? Like if you have an emergency and you need to
12:12 see an emergency doctor, great. But our traditional health care system is not keeping you well like at all. And that’s
12:19 what we’re really trying to do. and and also with the education. And it’s nice to have you Sarah because you get to
12:26 spend all these time with people and you get to talk to them about their, you know, emotional issues or their, you
12:32 know, scarcity issues or whatever issues they have going on. I know that you love
12:38 stress, too. Like she loves people that are stressed. Like the more stressed you are, the more Sarah loves you because
12:43 she is going to teach you how that affects your gut and how to make that better. But it’s true because when you
12:48 help these people with simple things like sitting down and chewing your food 15 times, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m
12:53 so much better.” But in traditional medicine, nobody talks to you about how many times you chew your food, what are
12:59 you doing when you eat your food, what do you eat in general, how do you sleep, what does your poop look like? Like,
13:04 nobody talks about any of this. And it’s crazy to think you’re going to make people better if you don’t talk about
13:09 it. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And I think like to your point, like all of the little
13:15 things add up. I think what traditional medicine does is it kind of trains people to believe that I have to find the one thing that’s going to fix this
13:22 big problem when in reality it’s usually a combination of making all of these little changes over time that create the
13:30 results that you want in the long term. But uh I love what you said about empowering people through education.
13:36 That is something that like a philosophy that I live by. And even when we’re doing a GI map or I’m doing a review
13:42 with someone, that is actually one of the things that I tell them is, hey, like we’re going to talk about the plan
13:47 that Dr. Smith put together for you. But also part of what we’re going to talk about when we have this conversation is
13:52 how we got here. Because if we don’t walk ourselves backwards of what kind of drove us to get here to begin with,
13:59 there’s a good chance that a lot of this stuff can actually recur and come back. And that’s where again, you know, just the benefit of being able to talk about,
14:05 you know, the lifestyle and the habits, the behavioral stuff with our patients as we kind of walk them through the
14:12 treatment plan that we put together. That’s really where we can see a lot of a lot of the magic happen with our
14:18 patients, which is so fulfilling. It is so so fulfilling to, you know, especially once we get to, you know,
14:23 halfway 75% of the way through when patients really start to feel a lot better and then start to come off of a
14:29 lot of the things. I always love that like when patients were maybe I’m doing their second or their third follow-up with them and they’re like, I had a lab
14:36 review with my provider and they said that I could come, you know, come down on my thyroid medications. Like to start
14:41 to see all the things come together and get to witness them kind of have those light bulb moments. It was really really
14:47 exciting. It’s really cool. Yeah. So that was going to be my question to you is like tell people some
14:52 of the cool things that you’ve seen as far as like how do we help people? Like what are some examples? So, we’re recording this on a Friday, so you I’m
14:59 sure have a whole headful of things this week, but like what are some of the really cool powerful things that you see
15:05 that really like, you know, when you think about gut health, a lot of people are like, well, first of all, what is gut health? Which is really sad. And my
15:11 mission is to change that. And I think I’m going to like I’m making this book. We’re going to make a program and a
15:17 course. Like, people are going to understand what gut health is if it’s the last thing I do on this earth. But
15:23 what are some of the things that like you see that people are like, “Oh my gosh, I had no idea my gut was going to
15:29 make this better and then we fix their gut and they actually get better.” Uh, a big thing that I see with people is weight loss. Weight loss, especially
15:37 with a lot of our women who are like type A, they’re very goal oriented, very driven people. They’re not sleeping
15:44 typically. They’re like very other focused or they’re very career focused. So, weight loss is a really big thing
15:50 that I see with people, like benefits that we see when we start working on their gut, but also hormones, too. And
15:56 I’ve actually had people, some some of them even say too, that their sleep gets better. Like I had a patient this week
16:01 who said that they’re like, “I never thought that like me working through this would impact my sleep the way that it has, but I used to never sleep before
16:07 and now I’m sleeping so much better.” And I think a lot of that just ties back into just managing some of the
16:13 inflammation. Like a lot of these people, they have a lot of these overgrowths of bad bacteria in their gut and you know, they don’t understand how
16:19 systemically that can really start to impact the other things. You know, it can it can impact your cortisol. It can
16:24 impact your blood sugar and you know, that’s where we see a lot of the things with the weight and the sleep and all of
16:30 those other things. But I’d say those are some of the top top things that I see. but also just like more generally
16:37 like the bloating, consistencies in their bowel movements, especially within the first four weeks of treatment. Those
16:44 are usually like the first things that I see improve with a lot of our patients when they come to us. Like some people, they’re like, “I don’t poop. I haven’t
16:51 pooped in like 10 days.” Like, that’s a problem. We need to fix that. But then once we start really, you know, kind of
16:56 getting rid of some of the bad bacteria in their gut, focusing on adequate nutrition, making sure that they’re getting enough fiber and the right types
17:03 of fiber for them too, that’s really when we kind of start to see those things come back back online. And that
17:09 can kind of tie into the weight loss thing, too. Once we start to get those bowel movements regular and their inflammation starts to come down and
17:16 usually, I think mentally people will start to feel better, too, at that point. They might notice like a difference in their physical energy, but
17:21 I think mentally they just they feel that release because when you’re puffy and you’re inflamed all the time and
17:28 you’re not using the bathroom consistently, you don’t really clothes are tight. Yeah. Exactly. Or it’s like you’re
17:34 feeling like you’re having to change your pant size in the same day because like you may have a flat stomach in the
17:40 morning and then as you, you know, go throughout the day, you just progressively your bloating gets worse.
17:45 I mean, it it really can be life-changing for so many people. But I would say those are some of the biggest
17:51 the biggest patterns that I see with the majority of patients that that come in to work with us.
17:57 Yeah, I would agree. And I think, you know, the mental aspect of it is really cool, too. The weight loss, like
18:02 everyone wants to lose weight and everyone wants more energy, but the mental, like what it does to people mentally. I think some of the coolest
18:09 cases I see are the younger, well, it doesn’t matter, but anyone who comes to me and has what I call refractory
18:15 anxiety or depression. That means that you have significant anxiety and depression. You’ve seen multiple
18:21 doctors, you’ve been put on several different types of medications for anxiety or depression and it never helps
18:26 and it makes it worse. I personally have a a spot in my heart for you because I had debilitating anxiety right after I
18:34 got COVID that would not go like I thought I was going to have to quit practicing medicine. It was so bad. It
18:39 was awful. Panic attacks are the worst thing. Like I wouldn’t wish a panic attack on my worst enemy. Like they’re
18:46 awful and they’re debilitating. And there are people who have them and have had them for years and take all these medications and people are like, “Oh,
18:52 you know, sorry, have another medication.” Well, the crappy thing about that is 70 to 80% of the time you
18:59 can fix that by fixing somebody’s gut. But nobody talks to these people about what are they eating, what’s you know.
19:04 And so I think some of the most rewarding people for me are the people who come with anxiety, depression. We fix their gut and they’re better and
19:10 they’re just like some of them are mad and they should be, but they’re like I lived with this for so long and like
19:16 it’s better now. And it’s like, well, yeah, because you had this chemistry that was out of balance in your stomach,
19:21 which was part of my problem with my panic attacks, too. Like some of it was COVID, some of it was hormones, some of it was my gut, some of it was my
19:28 Hashimoto’s. Like it was a train wreck in my body. But when you fix your gut, like that starts to fix everything. So
19:35 it rebalances your hormones. It helps your graves, your Hashimoto’s, it helps your anxiety. And so to me those are
19:42 really powerful things too because you know there’s sort of this sig stigma I guess with like anxiety and depression
19:49 too which there shouldn’t be like mental health should be talked about so much more but like just not being able to
19:55 function or do the things that you want to do are so like again I know how debilitating it is literally like head
20:02 between my legs breathing into a brown bag in between seeing patients in my office before like never want to go
20:08 there again. And when I fixed my gut, it was like somebody just lifted this like weight off of me and I was like, “Wow,
20:14 this is amazing.” You know? So, I think some of those people are really fun to see too, right? And then your point,
20:20 like I saw somebody today who just finished a program with you, I think last month, and she’s losing weight now.
20:26 She’s like, “This is so easy. Like, I’m so mad. I tried everything to lose weight, and now she’s lost eight pounds.
20:31 She’s sleeping. She’s like, “I sleep so well. Like, I sleep amazing. I feel good.” You know, she was like in a great
20:36 mood. I’m going on a date with my husband, you know, just in this best mood. And she was like, it’s all from my
20:42 stomach. And I and in our defense, we told her this for a year and she kind of fought it. But then, you know, we did everything we
20:49 could with her hormones and her thyroid and everything. And just you drink the Kool-Aid.
20:55 They drink the Kool-Aid eventually. You have to fix the gut, you know? Like you do, you have to have to fix the gut.
21:01 And I say this like at some point modern indocrine is going to get to the point where like you can’t be a patient unless you do a gut study because I can’t fix
21:07 you unless I know what’s going on in your gut. And if you say, “Oh, Dr. Smith, there’s nothing wrong with my
21:13 gut.” There is a gut type. We call it the silent struggler. They think there’s nothing wrong with their gut. They think
21:18 they don’t have symptoms. They do. Like we see it all the time. If you are in a doctor’s office, unless it’s just like I
21:24 want to be well, you have symptoms and they probably started in your gut. But nobody tells you this because we don’t
21:30 talk about it in med school and we don’t talk about it enough in society because god forbid if we actually fixed you from
21:36 the root. I mean what would drug companies do? They might go out of business. Big hospitals might go out of business. For God’s sakes we wouldn’t
21:43 spend all this money on healthcare. That seems like a terrible issue. You know like no it’s not. So it’s frustrating
21:50 that you know nobody goes to the root cause. I say this to you all the time. Like Hypocrates 2400 years ago said,
21:57 “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Like he talked about the gut 2400 years ago. And then somehow we
22:02 lost that between there and now. Like obviously he was way smarter than we are. But you have to fix people’s guts,
22:09 right? And like and it’s not just medicine, which is why you’re so val or you’re so like important for our program
22:15 at Modern Endocrine. Like health coaches are so important for this because you’re so good at talk. you know, you
22:21 understand the stress component, you understand, you know, the weight component, you understand the energy,
22:27 like all of these things that the accountability part. I’m not great at some of that. Like, I’m really good at
22:33 like, oh, here here’s what’s going on in your body. Let’s fix it. But you’re really good at like meeting someone
22:39 where they are and figuring out, okay, how do we start implementing these things, right? So, I think this is why
22:45 we make a really good team because you’re like amazing at all of that. I appreciate that. That makes me feel so
22:51 good. But and I something that I was thinking about or you know just as you were talking about the gut studies and
22:56 some of the things that we see you know I tell everybody that I come in contact with like anybody can benefit from doing
23:02 a GI map. Like you know when people ask that question like well should I do this or should I not do this? I am so
23:07 passionate about everybody doing one and I tell everybody like after all of my gut stuff that I went through, I do one
23:14 every two to three years because the reality is that our nobody’s talking about the environment and how toxic our
23:20 environment is becoming. And to your point, even with the mental health stuff, but I see this with even just
23:26 younger people who are just getting sicker at a younger age just because of everything that we’re exposed to. I
23:32 think the technology, development of technology has a lot to do with it. It’s the low nutrient status of our food.
23:38 It’s the chemicals that are in a lot of the products that we’re using. It’s in the air that we’re breathing. It’s in
23:43 the water that we’re drinking. We can’t get away from that. And I always tell patients when we’re trying to work on
23:49 optimizing their systems and their environment and their home and things like that. Not to, you know, not to stress, but to just be mindful because
23:56 it is everywhere, you know. And I think that that’s one of the things that we really try to do in the program is to
24:01 again kind of educate patients on all the things that we can do to kind of take control of our environment. But
24:07 doing a GI map, I think that everybody, I don’t want to say everybody is at risk, but there’s just so much that we
24:12 are up against in our environment in this day and age that I think that it is a really good preventative tool just to,
24:19 you know, even when you’re doing your labs, you know, just to kind of make sure that you’re cleaned up and, you know, we can just keep everything
24:25 regular in there or regular in there. Yeah. And stress too. So you talk about the toxic environment. I talk about this
24:30 in my book. We do have a toxic environment because of all the things you said, but we also have a toxic environment because we put oursel in
24:36 that toxic environment. We expect more and more and more. And we don’t, you know, we’re always like, “Oh, we need to
24:42 do more. I need to do more. I need to do more.” And it’s just like go go go. And so that toxic, stressful environment is
24:48 really hard on your gut, too. And so I have this whole section in my book where I explain how stress affects your gut
24:54 and then what that does to your hormones and then how that cycle just feeds and your brain is just constantly like
25:00 stressed out. And so it is very important and I to your point like I do think like if you want people to really
25:07 be well then you should do a gut like insurance should be you should have a gut study every year like every year you
25:13 should have one just like women get mammogs just like we do colonoscopies. If you want to pres pre prevent somebody
25:18 from getting sick, then look at their gut, you know, I mean, it’s just it’s so so powerful and I think obvious so so
25:27 we’ve done hundreds of these and with our program, you know, we do the gut study and then Sarah and I come up with
25:32 this plan and Sarah goes over it with you and spends an hour going over it with you. Gives you all the like I mean
25:38 it’s almost overwhelming how much information you get and gives you this this very welllaid out thoughtful plan.
25:44 And it usually takes about 3 months to to fix your gut, although some people it takes longer. And you know, we work
25:51 through this with you. You touch base with Sarah every month. She coaches you and we have an app that teaches you. And
25:56 then this Facebook group, I mean, it’s just community is so powerful, too. But when people walk through this towards
26:02 the end and and they look back, it’s just so mindblowing how far they’ve come. Some people that aren’t even our
26:08 patients, some people that have just done this for gut health stuff, right? And like the difference in how they feel is just it’s astronomical, right? It’s
26:16 just crazy. Yeah. And that’s part of the reason why when people ask me what I do and I’m
26:21 like I I why I love what I do. I’m like this is why I love what I do because I have the opportunity I get the
26:28 opportunity to have that impact on people every single day and people are so grateful for it. And I think another
26:34 thing too is like being able to empathize. I think that’s something too that really sets us apart, like being able to empathize with some of these
26:40 people who are going through a similar struggle that maybe we have. People can feel that whenever you have
26:46 conversations with them. And I think that people really do value that support too as they’re going through it. And it
26:52 almost makes the changes that they make more meaningful because you were able to kind of hold their hand along the way.
26:58 So, you know, that’s also something that’s really exciting that, you know, a lot of our patients get whenever they go
27:04 go through the process as well as the support because it can be really isolating, especially if you’re somebody who has been struggling with a chronic
27:11 health issue for a long time or maybe you’ve been gas lit by all these doctors or even if you’re, you know, your family
27:17 or your spouse, if they have not walked in your shoes before, it’s not their
27:22 fault that they can’t relate to maybe what you’re going through. But I don’t think that people talk about that enough. is just like when you are
27:28 struggling and you’re in the thick of it and you’re working so hard to try and get better, how isolating it can be. So
27:34 really to be able to have that person or that team that really comes alongside you to support you as you go through it
27:39 and then you start getting better and you start making all this progress like it it is a pretty magical thing that we
27:45 get to that we get to do here. So yeah, that’s so true. That’s not talked about enough. I we see a lot of women
27:51 who are chronically ill, mostly women, and a lot of women with mold and things like that. And your spouse sometimes can
27:58 be one of the rate limiting factors in how quickly you get better 100%. So if
28:03 you have a chronic illness and you have a spouse that’s not supportive and is not willing to, you know, get on your
28:09 side and try to fix the things in the environment, get you out of the moldy house, support you, make sure you can eat healthy food, that’s a big problem
28:16 and you’re not going to get better because you’re only going to be as good as the toxicities in your environment.
28:21 And so that is a very good point. I see women all the time who are really sick from mold or from gut issues and their
28:28 husbands are like, “Well, you don’t need to spend all this time and all this money and all this,” you know, and it’s like, “Well, then they’re never going to
28:34 get better.” And like that’s just toxic. And so if that’s you, then you really
28:39 got to take a and my book talks about this too, like I and I point blank say it in the book like this this is going
28:44 to get me some hate, but like if you are in a toxic relationship, you are not going to get better, like 100%. So the
28:50 toxic relationship has to change. the spouse has to get on board or you have to find a different partner because it
28:57 is so important like when you’re sick you have to have people in your corner and it’s true I think that we try to do
29:02 a good job of that at Modern Endocrine we try to do that with our Facebook group and it is true I mean you’re if
29:08 you want to share some of your health journey you can but like I tell patients this all the time there’s not really a
29:14 diagnosis that we treat at Modern Endocrine that I probably haven’t had every hormone issue you can imagine I’ve
29:20 had both sides of the thyroid spectrum Lucky me. Gez. Um, I think God was just laughing at me on my journey to becoming
29:27 what I was going to so that I literally could be empathetic. I’ve been so hyper thyroid I thought I was going to die.
29:33 And I’ve been so hypothyroid I thought I was going to die. And I’ve been everything in the middle. Um, none of
29:38 it’s fun. And, you know, I’ve had gut issues, I’ve had PCOS, I’ve had insulin
29:43 issues, I’ve had every vitamin deficiency you can imagine. Like, I’ve had it all other than like pituitary
29:49 issues, I guess. But like my growth hormone’s been low. I guess I haven’t had adrenal insufficiency, thank God. Or
29:54 diabetes, so please don’t give me that. But I mean, I can relate to these people. Like it sucks. And so, and my
30:02 husband can tell you that, too. Like, yeah, she’s a little cray. She’s been cray, you know, but fixing things is
30:10 it’s so powerful, right? And and it is empathy is something I think that we
30:15 lost in medicine. I don’t know why. I don’t know where it went. Like I went into medicine to help people and part of
30:20 that is empathy. I do see that a lot of providers now just don’t have it. And I don’t know if it’s because they don’t
30:26 have the time. They just really aren’t empathe like I don’t know. But I feel
30:31 like medicine should be one of the most empathetic things that you do. Uh it can be emotionally draining as a provider. I
30:37 mean, you know that. But that’s like the whole point of it, right? So I don’t know. It’s
30:42 Yeah. Well, what I hear from because I have several friends that work in healthcare as well is they go into it because they
30:48 are an empathetic person, but because the way the system is set up, they get burnt out. And there’s a label for that.
30:54 It’s called compassion fatigue. And you get to a point where if you are somebody who is highly empathetic, you’re highly
30:59 sensitive. We actually have u a gut type for this, the nervous navigator. If you
31:05 are somebody who is super sensitive, you’re highly empathetic and you’re in, you know, and you’re not able to kind of
31:11 balance that side of the stress equation, there’s so much going out, there’s not enough coming back. I think that’s where the lack of empathy comes
31:17 from is it’s kind of like you know I don’t want to say it’s like a protection mechanism but you know if if you don’t
31:23 have anything else to give you are kind of in pres in self-preservation mode at that point you know where um and that’s
31:30 what’s really upsetting is you know our health care system just the way that it’s set up it’s not it doesn’t create
31:35 an environment for for for that right you know even with the nurse practitioner that we’re in the process
31:41 of teaching some of our gut health stuff to right now she is so excited to be able to have some of these longer
31:47 appointments as they start implementing more of the gut stuff in their clinic because that’s something that she’s brought up as well. It’s like you just
31:53 don’t have the time to be able to really, you know, sit with people and give people the care that they need or
31:59 hear them. You’re just kind of being shunted from one person to the next to the next to the next and it’s almost
32:04 like the volume is so high, you know, it’s it’s it can be a challenge to bring that into it. So, yeah.
32:11 Yeah. Compassion fatigue. I like that. Maybe that’s what we should call the name of our uh teams group. So, we have
32:18 a team chat, you guys. Sarah did this. So, this is one of the reasons I love Sarah, too. I have had a I would say
32:24 pretty rough last year. Just some of it’s my own fault, like writing a book. A lot of things that I should probably
32:30 learn to say the word no, but I’ve had a pretty rough last year. And there are
32:35 times when I’m like so tired and so just like and then Sarah will pop in there with like oh I saw this person and they
32:42 said this and you know their lives we have a wins chat but that all the team
32:48 like everyone on our team can see but Sarah pops in there all the time. It’s like somehow she knows she has this like
32:53 even though she lives in South Car North Carolina. South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina. Even though she lives in South Carolina and I
32:59 never get to see her, somehow she has this like radar on me or something. And right when I’m like about at my wit’s
33:06 end and like compassion fatigue, she’s throwing all these things in our wind chat about all these people that have
33:11 done all these amazing things. And I’m like, “Okay, damn it. I’m going to go home and keep working on what I was working on.” you know, like she has this
33:17 amazing ability to like keep our team moving in the direction that we do for
33:23 the reasons that we do it. And so, you know, and and I and that’s one of the things like you said, not being able to
33:29 spend enough time with people. That’s one of the reasons I really wanted to write this book, which I’m almost done with, and I really want to get this
33:34 course made for people because I I really want people to be able to spend the time that they need learning things.
33:40 And I do think that when you provide people with education, that helps a ton. And then when people are somewhat
33:46 educated and come to you, the time that they spend with you can be more valuable. And so I know you and I have talked about this, but we’re working on
33:52 some AI stuff at Modern Endocrine, too, where it’s going to maybe be like pick Dr. Cassy’s brain and Sarah’s brain and
33:58 the team’s brain about gut health stuff so that when you have these questions you can just ask it like what you know
34:05 and so that way you I want you to be able to spend time with us and it and it
34:11 be valuable time and personable but I also want you to be able to have something to fall back on to and get reliable answers not from Tik Tok or
34:18 Instagram you know or Google when you’re not with us too. So, there’s so many
34:23 cool things, which is why I’m always tired because I’m like, “This is so cool. I have to do this for people.” But
34:29 the compassion fatigue is, it’s funny because I swear to God, every time I’m like, I’m at my wit’s end, the wind’s
34:36 chat starts blowing up and it’s such it’s just like such amazing timing. So, it’s pretty
34:41 well, and it’s like you get them all in one day is what it feels like. And that’s what I’ve learned about being in healthcare is like, you know, you get
34:47 all it seems like you get all the things at at once. But yeah, like when when they come in, when all the positive
34:52 things come in, I really try and I really try and share them because I know that, you know, not every day is always
34:57 a good day in healthcare. And so, you know, depending on like the patients that you see and even where they’re at in their individual health journey. So,
35:04 it is always nice to be able to, you know, have that positive reinforcement. So, I I try to I feel sometimes I’m on
35:10 my I know that I’m a part of the team, but sometimes I feel like I’m on my own little island. And so, it’s nice to be
35:15 able to, you know, keep everybody plugged in with some of the things that I’m seeing, too, because I know that,
35:20 you know, every little bit helps and goes a long way. So, I’m just going to put this out there. Sarah lives in South Carolina.
35:26 She’s been invited to move to Oklahoma more than once. So, that her being on her own island is her issue. Now, in her
35:32 defense, she says that Oklahoma weather sucks, and it does. So, she likes to go outside, but she has been invited to
35:39 move to Oklahoma on several occasions. Um, and we I’m also not a fan of tornadoes. I’m not
35:44 a fan of tornadoes, but we we’re real nice here. Okay. So, the
35:50 niceness is out of this world here. Just Just putting that out there. You said
35:55 something that I wanted to talk about too and now I don’t remember what it was. Oh, you said that not every day in
36:00 healthcare is a good day. And so for providers listening to this, patients do, but more for providers. You know, we
36:06 were kind of talking to Elena about this yesterday, but like it’s so true. Healthcare, you’re not going to have a
36:11 good day. So if you’re somebody who needs to have a good day every day, do not go into healthcare. But the thing about healthcare, and it took me a long
36:17 time to figure this out. Took me at least 5 years. I used to take everything personally. Everything. It would ruin my
36:23 day. I would want to cry like if a patient was upset. Here’s the thing about healthcare and especially hormonal
36:28 women. You’re going to have bad days, right? I have bad days. You’ve had bad days. You cannot take that personally.
36:34 You have to just understand that the person in front of you is ill. They don’t feel well. And they came to you for a solution. And a lot of times when
36:40 they come to you, they’ve been to 20 other people and they’ve been gaslit or they’ve been and so you don’t take that personally. You empathize with them. You
36:46 listen to them. You don’t internalize it. You let it roll off of you. And then you figure out how you can make them
36:52 better. And I’ve done that hundreds of times, if not thousands by this point.
36:57 I’ve let people scream at me. I’ve let people cuss at me, probably let people do more than they should, but I always
37:03 give them one like out and then, you know, we talk about it, we get a plan, and then I usually get some sort of
37:09 apology, uh, which I don’t always need, but like it’s in healthcare, you just have to realize that like people come to
37:14 you at their worst. You can’t take it personally, and then you just do your job, which is to make them feel better.
37:20 And nine times out of 10, it’s all going to work out, but you have to not internalize it. So that’s like the the
37:25 big thing with healthcare. If you do, then you get really really burnt out and really really just depleted, right?
37:31 I know that I needed to hear that today and Elaine and I were talking about that yesterday, too. It’s like, man, she always knows like what you just said
37:37 about the winds chat. I feel like anytime I need to hear something, we have like a conversation and you tell me
37:43 exact like you don’t even know what I might be going through with what I’m dealing with with patients and you just you say something and I’m like, man,
37:49 like I really needed to hear that today. I needed to hear that today because I I’ll be honest sometimes I do still
37:54 struggle with that, you know, but it’s just because when you care so much, it’s hard to not internalize it, right?
38:01 Because you’re like, I just I care so much about making this person feel better. You know, you want to take
38:06 responsibility to help, you know, bring that person to to the other side of what
38:12 they’re going through. So, I totally get that. I care way too much about people. Every single patient I
38:18 have, I care a ton about. If I can’t figure out an answer for them, I literally wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. Like my husband
38:24 says that all the time. You care about other people way more than you care about me. It might be true because if
38:29 you are sick, I know what it’s like to be sick and I don’t want you like it kills me. I don’t want you to be sick. I
38:35 don’t want you to feel bad. So, I get that, too. But I will tell you that if you let everything bother you like that,
38:41 then you’re not going to be good for the next people. So, you just kind of got to let it roll off you. know they’ve had a
38:47 bad day and then that you’re your job is to make them better or to find answers to help them, you know, and it is hard
38:52 to do. Sometimes I get my buttons pushed. Not very often, but I’ll get them pushed. But it, you know, hopefully
38:58 nobody ever knows that because I think that I do a really good job of remaining calm. You do an amazing job. You do an amazing
39:06 job at that. I was shadowing. Well, when I was shadowing, as I was being trained and
39:13 you guys were amazing at letting me kind of listen in on all of the different types of appointments that you guys do,
39:19 I that was the first thing. Even just listening to you talk to the patients.
39:25 I’m like, I need to work on my dialect because it’s like it is like when you
39:30 just you slow everything down, you’re very intentional about the words that you’re using. It’s really hard to not
39:37 relax whenever you’re around somebody who is talking that way. So I that was,
39:43 you know, very inspiring for me because I am somebody who I am very energetic. I
39:50 can sometimes talk a little too fast because I get excited about things. And I think that works for some people
39:56 because they like they need that and they feed off of that. But that’s always been something about you that’s really
40:01 inspired me that I’ve tried to take and implement into how I show up for patients because it does really make a
40:08 huge a huge difference to be calm and to just be present and thank you. You know,
40:14 that’s funny. That’s very flattering. Thank you. So to my social media team, so Courtney, Caitlyn, Jill, uh Christy,
40:22 all my people, they’re always like, “Cassie, you got to talk faster. You got to talk faster on social media. You’re talking too slow.” like, well, that’s
40:28 just how I talk to people because if you talk slow, number one, it comes across as you know what you’re talking about.
40:34 And number two, people can understand it. So, I’m always like, you got to speed myself up. I can’t learn how to talk fast. Like, it just I don’t like
40:40 that. I feel like people that talk really fast, and this is just me, but if I’m like listening to somebody trying to
40:45 understand something and they’re talking really fast, I’m like, are they nervous? Do they not know what they’re talking about? And or are they just making stuff
40:51 up? You know, I don’t know. That’s just me, though. So, I appreciate that. I do try to talk slow. So, social media team,
40:57 you just got to speed me up because that’s just me. Unfiltered me, nice and
41:03 calm. But there are times, I will tell you, uh, in my head, I am not as calm, but I
41:09 do try to I take my progesterone every night. I’m well hormoned.
41:14 My estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone are wonderful. So, I can stay calm. Okay. So, what else? So, we
41:22 talked about what you love about your job. What are some of the things that you’ve learned? Have you learned stuff
41:28 by working at Modern Endocrine or were you just this amazing before you came? Like, have we taught you anything? I I feel like I’ve actually learned a
41:36 lot more like deeper on like the hormones. I know that like what I specialize in is a lot of the gut related stuff, but what I love the most
41:43 about what you as a leader have brought to me is the ability to dabble in
41:48 anything essentially that I want and to listen like if there’s anything that I want to learn more of, you’re like
41:55 opening up the doors for me to be able to to like have access to those things and to be able to just dive deeper and
42:01 enhance my knowledge because I want to and I am very growth oriented and that is something that’s very important to
42:07 me. So, like being able to, you know, even with Summer like learn more about like the Dutch testing, like I’ve done
42:14 some trainings on that, but to really be able to, you know, listen to her talk to patients and have them listen to her
42:20 kind of walk through, you know, what those protocols look like, that’s something that’s been really exciting
42:26 for me to get to learn more about. And then even the peptides, too. I’ve worked with some other providers who have used
42:32 some of the peptides, but we use a lot more than they do. And I’m always just
42:37 really interested to learn more about those things because they can they can support some of our patients that are
42:43 going through some of the gut related stuff. So it’s been really nice for me to, you know, if I see something, be able to make a recommendation or like
42:50 cross reference it with you before I recommend something. So that way, you know, if they, you know, somebody else
42:56 can if they can benefit from using something or adding something in, you know, that’s always that’s been good for
43:02 me to kind of enhance my confidence level there. Yeah. Yeah, I saw a patient today who was like, “Sarah told me to ask you
43:08 about, you know, this peptide.” And so I was like, “Oh, great.” But no, I I mean, I love I love people that want to learn,
43:15 so I love that you love learning as much as I do. I think that it’s silly to ever
43:20 try to like put a cap on what anyone learns. I try to like anyone that works at Modern Endocrine, anything they want
43:26 to learn, anything they want to do. Like I have somebody that works at the front desk right now and they’re like, “Maybe I want to learn how to be an MA.” I’m
43:32 like, “Great. Let’s send you to MA school.” you know, like I think it’s just like really cool when people want
43:38 to learn and learn more things, better themselves because it’s going to make you a better provider, right? And so
43:44 anything that you want to learn, I’m always game to for you to learn and, you know, help us figure out the best way to
43:50 take care of people. So I think that that’s part of the reason that you fit in well at Modern Endocrine because, you know, we have our our sayings and our um
43:57 core values and one of them is, you know, train daily, which means like continue to learn, serve others, right?
44:03 So, I think that if you want to learn more things to help you be a better health coach and help our patients be better, then I’m all for it. So, I’m
44:11 glad that you are learning new things and that you like working here. Tell everyone what is one interesting thing
44:18 about yourself. H interesting. That’s a
44:24 one interesting I can think of one. Okay. Tell me tell tell me something about myself about your bodybuilding
44:30 career. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, I used to those are like in my old the old days. I’m at
44:37 that age now where I’m I’m encroaching upon 30 and you know I think every five years you kind of go through a different
44:43 metamorphosis. So, it’s I’m getting to that point now where I can start looking back at different versions of myself and
44:49 being like, “Oh my god, that was me. I used to do that.” But yeah, I used to I used to be in competitor and so I used
44:55 to want to do or I was doing uh women’s bikini and women’s figure competitions. This was probably like four or five
45:02 years ago. And that’s a huge part of what ties into like my internal health journey because I worked with some
45:08 coaches at the time who didn’t really know I think now what they were doing and working with women’s bodies. So
45:14 unfortunately I’m I’m a byproduct of that and I had to kind of put you know bring myself back to life after wrecking
45:20 my hormones and wrecking my gut just from the stress of all of that. But
45:25 yeah, so I did used to compete and it was pretty hardcore. Like that’s that is really what I wanted to do in that
45:31 season of my life. I was so focused on I want to be I want to be an athlete. I want to get my pro card. I want to you
45:36 know I want to be sponsored by all these different supplement companies and like that’s like I was chasing after that
45:42 thing and I am so grateful in a sense that that did not happen and I there was
45:48 like harsh reality like all the stop signs like no like this is going to this is going to completely wreck your health
45:54 if you keep going in this direction. And so I had to even coming out of that process, I had to unlearn and relearn a
46:01 lot of different things just in like how I was showing up every single day, how I was training, how I was eating, how to
46:08 really support my hormones as a woman who is getting older and going through those hormonal changes. But I think that
46:15 that does help me to relate to a lot of the women that we work with because I tell them all the time, I’m like, I’m
46:20 not I haven’t gone through menopause, but at 23 my hormones were in the premenopausal range and I had all these
46:26 gut issues and I felt like absolute crap. So, and I actually had to take two years off entirely from weightlifting
46:32 because I was just so depleted. It was almost like my nervous system was so
46:40 stressed that when I would lift weights, I wouldn’t even feel better. And it was just it was such a paradigm shift for me
46:46 to be in the coaching space and to be helping people feel better and to be in a position where you’re doing all of the
46:52 right things, you know, like I’m lifting weights, I’m eating my pre I’m like doing all of the right things and things
46:57 that used to work for my body are no longer working anymore. Like I’m gaining weight and I feel worse after I exercise
47:04 and I just I don’t know. I was feeling overly anxious all of the time, very depressed, like all of these other
47:10 things that were tied into that. And then also too, like you know, my identity was completely wrapped up in
47:15 that. Like that was who I was. That was what I wanted. That is what I was going to do. And to have the rug completely
47:22 pulled out from underneath you in a sense where it’s like I couldn’t do any of those things like to support that
47:28 identity that I had created for myself like not being able to lift weights and not understanding why is this not
47:33 working for me in this season of my life right now was very terrifying. It’s very very terrifying. So now I’m a yogi. I’ve
47:40 kind of gone from that end of the spectrum all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum. I still lift weights, you know, now I’m a lot better. So, I
47:46 can handle that stress. So, I do I do still lift weights. And I believe that yes, it’s very beneficial to lift weights. We need to lift our weights. We
47:53 need to focus on our muscles. I’m more so focused on how I feel now more than
47:58 anything. I used to all be body image focused. And that’s why I think with a
48:03 lot of our women, I can really relate to what’s going on in their head. Uh I think a lot of us were victims of diet
48:08 culture. we hate ourselves. There’s a very strong correlation between our relationship with food and the
48:14 relationship that we have with ourselves, which is why I’m really big on trying to work on that with patients,
48:20 too, and help them to figure out like what does a balanced way of eating look like for me. Everybody is different, you
48:26 know, and based on where your health is at, like we might need to make some modifications, but how do we keep those things in check, too? Because, you know,
48:33 that’s, you know, that’s kind of where like that the whole mind body thing is really important for me. We can’t just be all focused on one and not the other.
48:40 We have to integrate and find that balance between both of them. But um so that’s
48:46 so that journey that you had where you were going to be a professional bodybuilder and the rug got ripped out
48:52 from under you and you had to do yoga for two years. That sister was your you
48:58 know uh that was God’s work. And so that’s why you are such a good provider because that was your you know my
49:04 struggle with thyroid disease is like you I think that you’re always best you’re always best serving the person
49:10 you used to be right and so that although it wasn’t great at the time was
49:16 like your calling and what needed to happen and I will tell you guys Sarah is a huge yogi because she came here and I
49:22 went to yoga with her and I was like dang I can’t even sort of start to do the things that you’re like what are is
49:29 Is that a principal move? Well, and what’s crazy is I always tell
49:34 people that, you know, I I I never thought that I was going to be the type
49:40 of person that would say that if you embrace the practice, the practice will change you. But this is why for women
49:45 who are over stimulated, they’re addicted to caffeine, they’re addicted to aderall, they’re like they’re trapped
49:52 in this cycle of like performance anxiety where they feel like I have to do in order to earn, in order to prove, and all these things. there. That’s an
50:00 addiction. Like it is an addiction. Like we talk about this in the program, but like Joe Despensza talks about this all
50:05 the time, how like you can become addicted to norepinephrine, epinephrine, cortisol. And so many of these women
50:11 that I talk to who are just busy and they’re not they don’t think that they’re stressed because it’s normal.
50:17 It’s like, well, that’s just because that’s your new baseline. Like you’ve created that for yourself because of all this perceived stress in your life. And
50:24 when you start to slow down, it is very challenging because your brain is almost goes through like a withdrawal in a
50:30 sense. And so there’s like this cognitive dissonance where your brain is like wanting the hit of like this stress
50:36 or to keep going or to keep doing, but your body is telling you something different, you know, and that’s really
50:42 where I think that again, you know, we talk about Vegas nerve stimulation and how important that is for like really
50:47 being able to learn how to actually balance your nervous system as an effective tool to help you with nature
50:53 stress, too. But, you know, that can really help with that. that. So if you’re feeling like you keep getting
50:58 caught in that shift of not like how do I establish this new balance and feel more grounded and feel more safe not
51:05 just you know in my body but like more present in my day-to-day life. The breath work is really powerful but I
51:11 couldn’t trust myself because I was one of those that was like if I just do a breathing exercise this box breathing
51:17 exercise like what is this going to do for me? like I was one of those and so I kept myself stuck for a while because I
51:23 just was one of those people is like this one little thing is not going to make a big difference. So that’s where I started taking the classes and you can
51:29 get this through Pilates too. Any breath workbased movement can be extremely helpful. But when you put yourself in
51:35 that environment, you know, I wasn’t going to be the person to walk out of the class, you know, I didn’t want to be the person to walk out of the room. So
51:41 it’s almost like, you know, you’re kind of retraining your brain like a dog to sit and stay. And it is it can be really
51:47 really uncomfortable when you first start doing it. But if you are consistent with it, kind of like the same way you’ll be with any exercise
51:53 regimen, the breath work will really start to change your brain. Like it it really will. And you’ll start to see
51:59 things differently. You’ll start to feel a lot different. I remember there was one day I was on a walk and it was just
52:06 like that random day where all of a sudden I just felt like I had access to my peripheral vision. And it was the
52:11 wildest thing because that’s when I realized like I had a problem before. Like I And that’s really when I was like
52:18 this stuff isn’t woowoo. Like I really think that there is something to like this this nervous system regulation
52:24 stuff. Yeah. And that’s why I’m so passionate about it too cuz part of it was physical but there was also in
52:30 coming out of you know that bodybuilding phase there was a lot of life chaos that was going on at the same time. So there
52:37 was a lot of physical stress but then you know I moved I bought a house and became a landlord at a very young age.
52:43 COVID happened. I ended up losing my job and then within three months it was like anything that could have gone wrong with
52:49 the house that I invested in did go wrong. I had a partnership that completely failed during that process.
52:54 So there was a lot of relationships that or there was a relationship that was lost in that process. So there was a
53:00 when I talk about the rug being ripped out from underneath me and complete just like nervous system dysregulation and
53:06 chaos like I yeah that’s it’s it’s it’s it was everything. So when people come
53:11 to me with some of their stories and like trying to learn like how do I actually manage this stress thing I am
53:17 that’s why I do feel like I am the person for them. I am the person for them because I I can completely relate
53:24 to that. Completely relate to what that feels like. Yeah. No, I would com I I completely
53:29 agree. The best I ever felt even when I was super stressed in 2023 was when I was doing yoga. Unfortunately, I don’t
53:36 do yoga like I should anymore. I’m going to commit to do that as soon as this book is done. But it’s true like that
53:42 breath work and that but what I do do and I think this is important too is I do take an exercise class about once a
53:49 week where a cell phone is not allowed. So there’s a place in Oklahoma City called the Sweat Society. I love it. So,
53:55 if you’re in Oklahoma City, you should check it out. They don’t allow cell phones. They have cycling, they have yoga, they have Pilates, they have all
54:02 sorts of different classes. So, whatever you want. I am the type of person where it’s really hard for me to set in yoga
54:08 still. I I used to do it. I’ve got to I’ve got to get the set dog training back, but but I can go to Pilates
54:15 classes. But I think it’s really powerful if you just disconnect yourself from something for an hour. So powerful.
54:22 And I really want to get back to doing that every day because it is very true. Like I remember when I realized too
54:28 like, oh, I have an issue and like now I’m so present and I’m so like in the
54:33 moment. And it was when I was doing a lot of yoga. So, and I actually was in really great shape. So, it is it’s it’s
54:40 interesting, but this culture that we’re in that like drives you to do more and more, it’s not good for your health. And
54:46 I write about it in my book. So, I’m gonna go back to doing yoga. Well, and it’s funny that you say that about, you
54:52 know, like the the boundary with phones, like when we’re talking about and
54:58 educating patients in the program all about your nervous system and what it is and what impacts it, over stimulation
55:05 can also be a perceived stress, right? So, how much time are we spending on social media? How much how much time are
55:11 we actually spending in front of these screens every single day? Like all these people in corporate, I mean sometimes
55:18 I’ll be talking to patients and their teams is like pink pink. I’m like, can you turn that off? Like how do you deal
55:24 with that all day long? Like those things we don’t like we’re kind of numb to it now because we’re just exposed to
55:30 it. But it’s like those little things they it still has an impact, right? So, it’s like how do we take control of
55:36 these little things that are causing our system to exist in overdrive to help us,
55:42 you know, to to be able to relax more often? And I see this a lot with women. You’re like, when I was doing more yoga,
55:48 I actually looked better. Like I did, too. And I felt like I remember I went through a period of time where I I had
55:54 like again, I had to stop everything. And that was in the midst of all of my gut issues. I was gaining weight no matter what. And I it wasn’t until I
56:02 started eating more. I completely stopped exercising minus my yoga and walking and I dropped like 15 pounds.
56:08 Yeah. And I was just like I never it was a paradigm shift for me. I was like wait so this is the least amount of effort
56:15 that I feel like I’ve ever put in to looking good. And now I somehow look better than I’ve ever looked even
56:21 whenever I was training super hard. So it kind of helped me to rewire this belief system in my brain that working
56:28 harder does not always mean better. It doesn’t or better results, right? So and especially as we get older as women, we
56:35 become less resilient to stress. So it becomes more important for us to find
56:40 more efficient ways. We just have to be efficient. That’s really what it is. Um so still do the things, but you don’t
56:45 have to be in the gym for like two hours a day. You don’t have to do all this cardio, right? You could go to the gym and lift weights for 30 minutes and then
56:51 walk 10,000 steps and that would be perfectly fine, you know, or like balance it out with some of your your yoga, your Pilates, things like that.
56:58 It’s about working smarter, not harder. And you would be surprised. And you can probably nine times out of 10 eat more
57:05 food while that process is happening. That’s also a really fun process to watch women experience, too, because they’re like, “I never thought.” Yeah.
57:12 It’s because diet culture has taught us that, you know, it’s always eat less, move more, eat less, move more. Um, so
57:18 yeah, and that’s where kind of like the food freedom I think kind of starts to tie into things too. I always tell people a healthy metabolism is one that
57:25 should be able to handle a robust amount of food. Like that is the end goal. Like if I can get you to that like how does
57:31 that sound? And people are like that sounds amazing. I’m like okay let’s do it. It might take us a year to get there, but if we follow this very
57:38 systematic process where we fix your gut, we fix your hormones, and then we
57:44 start looking at, you know, the energy expenditure equation with calories in, calories out, your body should respond
57:50 pretty quickly. Like, if you feel like you’re pushing a rock up a hill to try and lose weight and you’re doing all of
57:55 the right things, it’s usually because there’s something else that’s going on. It’s like, you’re not crazy, but there’s
58:01 just something else. I mean, you just need to take a look beneath the hood and see what else is kind of going on because it shouldn’t be that difficult.
58:07 So, yeah, I say this all the time, too. Like, your body will always win. You can push as hard as you want on your body,
58:13 but your body is always going to win. So, yeah. So, these are all the things that you get at Modern Endocrine. So, if
58:19 you come work with us, and some people are very like, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to work with a health coach.” Sarah is like a very special health coach. So,
58:26 I wanted to bring her on so you guys can hear like all these things and know, you know, why she is so important to to our
58:34 practice. And I will tell you guys, too, and I don’t know if Sarah knows this, I literally interviewed like 20 health
58:40 coaches before I picked Sarah. And actually, I I kind of thought I knew what I wanted, but I wasn’t really sure.
58:47 But what I knew I needed was somebody who had lived this life and could just be very empathetic with patients. and
58:53 Sarah has just like knocked it out of the park and she’s helped me create all these wonderful things. And so I want
58:58 you to be very, you know, open to working with her because she is a huge part of our team sometimes more than I
59:04 am. Some people need I tell patients this. I’m like, you need Sarah more than you need me. Trust me, go see Sarah and
59:10 then you can come back to me after Sarah fixes you and we can move forward. But until you see Sarah, like there I can
59:16 back up a truck and give you everything in the world and you are not going to be better. And so it is just really
59:21 important. We’re putting all these pieces together at Modern Endocrine and and it’s just a very very very important
59:27 part of your health. So I’m super glad that you’re on our team. I’m so glad to be here.
59:32 So to end, I want to do two things. One thing rapid fire, you just pick one or
59:38 the other because I think this is kind of fun. So we’re going to learn a little bit about Sarah. So salty or sweet? Sweet.
59:44 Okay. Early bird or night owl? Early bird 100%. Summer or winter?
59:50 Oh god. Summer. Rain or shine? Shine. Walk or run?
59:57 Walk. Oceans or mountains? Mountains. East coast or west coast?
1:00:03 East coast. Okay. I like it. I like it. Okay. And then I want to Well, there’s three
1:00:11 rounds of questions I have to ask you really quickly to that I ask every guest. So, let’s do that. And then I’m going to end with one thing. So, don’t
1:00:17 overthink this. Very simple, straightforward answers. Okay. So, what is one food that’s most beneficial and
1:00:24 why? Chia seeds. I love chia seeds. Fiber.
1:00:29 Good soluble fiber. Great for your gut. Great for constipation. That’s
1:00:34 Nobody said chia seeds, so that’s good. Okay. Great. What What is one thing that anyone can
1:00:39 do for their health that’s 100% free? Drink water. Drink water.
1:00:45 Perfect. No one said that either. Last thing. What is one thing you wish you would have known about your health?
1:00:51 We’re going to say you’re not that young or that old. You’re young. What’s one thing you wish you would have known about yourself? Your health 10 years ago
1:00:57 that you would have done differently. That’s a really good question.
1:01:04 Not push myself so hard in the gym. Not push myself so hard. Not, you know, pushing myself to have to do like these
1:01:10 six day a week 2hour gym sessions. Yeah. I think that that that’s something that
1:01:16 I would have done differently. I completely agree. Exercise diet culture, it’s terrible. Okay, so I want
1:01:22 to end by telling people two things. Number one, I want to end by telling people the most common compliment I hear
1:01:28 from patients about Sarah. So, this is really hard because I hear a lot of compliments from about Sarah. And I’m
1:01:34 not exaggerating. I hear them all the time, which makes me happy. I think the number one I hear the most though is
1:01:39 that she just really is so relatable. like no matter what I’m going through, she can relate and she figures out a way
1:01:46 to help me with this program because sometimes our programs can be very overwhelming. And so she has a way of
1:01:52 relating to you and just being able to to meet you where you are and then figure out how to get you moving because
1:01:58 if you don’t start moving then nothing happens. And so I think that’s one of Sarah’s superpowers is that she’s can
1:02:04 relate to people which is also why I like her and why I hired her because I think I’m the same way. Like you have to be able to relate to people no matter
1:02:11 what. No matter what education, no matter where they are on their health journey. And you have to figure out how to get them going. And so Sarah is
1:02:17 phenomenal about that. I have people who are like, “Oh, I don’t want to talk to a health coach. I’m scared to talk to a health coach. I’m scared to tell the
1:02:23 truth. I’m scared to.” It doesn’t matter. Like you can’t say anything to shock me or her. I promise. You can try.
1:02:28 You can’t. So I think that that’s one thing that I really hear a lot of compliments about is that you’re very
1:02:34 relatable. And the last thing I want to tell people is something that I personally appreciate about you the
1:02:40 most, which there’s a couple things. I think again like the fact that you’ve gone through something like this and are
1:02:45 just so empathetic. I truly appreciate that as a provider, also as a patient cuz Sarah’s helped me with my gut too.
1:02:52 So I think her empathy is one thing that I really appreciate, but also her attitude. I don’t know if you guys can
1:02:57 tell, but she’s just like the pep up go person. And sometimes we need that. Like we need that as a team. And so I
1:03:03 appreciate I have two things I appreciate about her. Her empathy and just her great great attitude. So I
1:03:10 wanted to end by telling you that. Well, thank you. It’s always so and I receive that just, you know, I receive
1:03:16 that and I receive it well. I always love I’m a I’m a words of affirmation type person. You just filled my cup and
1:03:23 I’m going to work 10 times harder tomorrow because because things like that are just what
1:03:28 get me going. So, but anyways, thank you and obviously thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of the
1:03:34 practice, be a part of the team. I have never I tell every patient this when they ask questions about the practice.
1:03:40 Like I have ne and I tell them I’m honest. I’ve worked with a lot of providers. I’ve worked with independent
1:03:46 coaches. I worked for I’ve worked for some corporate companies for a while like new I have never felt more aligned
1:03:52 than I do working for you. And that is just when you find that, when you really find that niche and you get to be so
1:04:00 excited about what you do every single day. I mean, I think even that in and of itself can impact your health. And I’ve
1:04:05 noticed impacts in my personal health since coming here and transitioning from my last job into this job. And it is
1:04:12 because of that alignment. So, I just want to say thank you to you for having the courage and the audacity to start
1:04:18 your company because I know that that is not easy. And I know that you’ve encountered a lot of challenges along the way, but just as someone who’s a
1:04:25 part of your team, I’m really grateful to be here. And I know that a lot of our patients are grateful that you decided to do what you did, too.
1:04:31 Well, thank you. And I think we have you guys mark our words. We’re working on some really cool stuff. Modern Endocrine
1:04:37 is going to change millions of lives. Millions with an M because Sarah and I are working on some really cool stuff.
1:04:43 Education stuff, provider education stuff. Like, we are going to make sure that the world knows that your gut is
1:04:49 important. And so I’m like super excited and passionate about that. So I’m just excited. I, you know, we don’t have
1:04:55 Sarah and I don’t have an exact road map. We have lots of things we throw against the wall and it sticks, but
1:05:00 we’re going to figure it out cuz I was like, “Hey, we’re going to make a gut health program.” And she came down one week and we figured like she’s like,
1:05:06 “This is what we’re doing.” And we figured it out. So we’re going to do it. So we’re I’m super excited. But we we’ve
1:05:11 already changed thousands of people’s lives. We’re going to change millions of people’s lives for sure. So I’m excited.
1:05:18 All right, have a good week. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode. It was a
1:05:24 little different, I know, but I found that it was very beneficial, I hope, for you, and it was very heartwarming and
1:05:30 beneficial for me. Uh, we didn’t really plan this. We just kind of talked. I had a few questions, but this was mostly
1:05:37 just kind of from our hearts, and we just went with it. We just wanted to tell you guys how passionate we are about gut health, how passionate we are
1:05:44 about being empathetic and making sure that you feel seen and heard and validated and then that you get better. That’s really our point. That’s our
1:05:50 goal. That’s why I do what I do at Modern Endocrine. Being a healthc care provider is really hard. And so if I
1:05:55 wanted an easier job that paid me more money, I definitely wouldn’t be in medicine, but I do it because I love it.
1:06:01 And I hope that you guys can see that Sarah loves it, too. And she’s a huge part of my team. So again, I hope that
1:06:08 you loved it. If you did, leave us a review and let me know. If you want me to do more things like this, if you want me to interview more people on the team,
1:06:14 some of my providers, or you want me to just do kind of these solo episodes where I talk about things, then I need to know. So, leave me a review and let
1:06:21 me know wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you’re following me on social media. I have some amazing content coming. Super exciting stuff. My gut
1:06:29 health webinar I do once a month now live. It is lifechanging. We have changed so many people’s lives. If you
1:06:35 are interested about your gut, you want to know about your about the different six gut health types, you want to know which one you are, then definitely
1:06:42 follow me so you can snag a spot at the next webinar. Also, my book is coming out very soon. And so, I’m super excited
1:06:50 to bring that to you. It’s going to be talking about your gut and your hormones and how they’re all interconnected and
1:06:55 related. And so, that will be awesome as well. So, make sure you’re following me on social media. If you want to be a
1:07:00 patient of Modern Endocrine, we now have a license in 44 states. So, most of the big states were pending California at
1:07:06 the time of this recording, but it should be very soon. You can check out more information on our website about
1:07:12 becoming a patient at Modern Endocrine. We would love to see you for any of your healthcare needs. If you want to do gut
1:07:17 health studies with us, we would also love to help you with your gut health. Have a wonderful week. Thank you so much
1:07:23 for joining me this week. [Music] The information presented, including any
1:07:28 materials discussed, referenced or linked within this podcast, are for general educational purposes only, not
1:07:36 the practice of medicine. No doctor patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing
1:07:42 any of the information provided. I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is
1:07:50 not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by
1:07:56 your doctor. If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any
1:08:03 respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor
1:08:10 whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still
1:08:15 consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician. I’m just here to
1:08:22 provide you basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with
1:08:28 your doctor. That’s why we call it back to the basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.
1:08:36 [Music]
Disclaimer:
The information presented including any materials discussed, referenced, or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not the practice of medicine.
No doctor-patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided.
I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by your doctor.
If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician.
I’m just here to provide you with basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor.
That’s why we call it Back to the Basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.