00:00:05:19 – 00:00:30:22
Synergee
Welcome, Synergee listeners. Today on the Synergee Podcast, we are thrilled to welcome Doctor Rita Marie Laska, also a functional medicine and nutritional expert who has dedicated her career to transforming our broken disease care system into one that truly restores health. Doctor Rita Marie specializes in balancing the endocrine system, the body’s master controller, with a focus on thyroid, adrenal, and insulin imbalances for integrative health in Ridgeland MS.
00:00:31:04 – 00:00:56:08
Synergee
She is the founder of the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology, where she trains health professionals around the world to use food, herbs and functional assessments to uncover the root cause of health challenges. A bestselling author, international speaker, and passionate teacher, Doctor Rita Marie, brings more than 25 years of clinical experience and a deep understanding of how lifestyle and biology intersect.
00:00:56:10 – 00:01:04:07
Synergee
She’s also a certified heart math provider, which fuels her passion for bridging stress, emotional health, and hormonal balance.
00:01:04:09 – 00:01:14:03
Synergee
Today, we’ll explore the fascinating connection between oxytocin, often called the love hormone, and insulin resistance. A driver of many modern health problems and hormone balancing in Ridgeland MS.
00:01:14:08 – 00:01:36:17
Synergee
We’ll dive into how relationships, connection, and stress management play just as important of a role in blood sugar as diet and exercise. And what this all means for reclaiming energy, vitality, and long term health. So sit back, relax, grab a cup of coffee or your favorite tea and join us as we get to have this amazing conversation.
00:01:36:19 – 00:01:42:22
Synergee
Dr. Rita Marie, thank you so much for being here. And I’m going to dig right into questions because we have a lot we want to cover today.
00:01:43:00 – 00:01:53:13
Synergee
This is kind of the intersection where Lori and I are. Talents kind of converge. You know, I’m all about hormones and sexual wellness and really digging into this whole topic of oxytocin.
00:01:53:19 – 00:02:04:16
Synergee
Lori is very much into cardiometabolic health. So I can’t wait to see where this conversation takes us. But for our audience, can you tell us what oxytocin is? What is the big deal on oxytocin?
00:02:04:18 – 00:02:28:20
Dr. Rita Marie
Oxytocin is one of my favorite hormones. We think about it as the love hormone and the bonding hormone. And it also it’s just such an amazing thing that helps people feel safe. And I think that in this world, the fear that people live day to day in the cortisol elevations that causes in the blood sugar imbalances it causes,is so important to take into consideration hormone balancing in Ridgeland MS.
00:02:31:18 – 00:02:58:05
Dr. Rita Marie
So we have a way to help people feel safe. It’s generating oxytocin. And the thing about oxytocin is it’s so easy to generate. We just have to slow down and we can just start loving ourselves and getting hugs from other people and just being in community. So it’s such an important hormone.
00:02:58:08 – 00:02:58:14
Synergee
So you’re saying a few things right now that most people are like, slow down in this fast paced world and get hugs from each other? We just went through a time period in which we just didn’t do that. Right. So, you know, those are both in opposition of what we need to do. And so how do you, how did you first of all, fall in love with this area of, of hormones? Because there’s so many you could have chosen from and probably do get into those.
00:03:19:23 – 00:03:35:22
Dr. Rita Marie
Oh, I get into all of them.
00:03:35:22 – 00:03:36:11
Synergee
Right. Yeah. So how did you settle most recently? Because you told us you were doing so much work in the area of oxytocin right now. Like, how did that one become so, important and something you’re talking a lot about right now? Yeah.
00:03:36:15 – 00:04:05:04
Dr. Rita Marie
It’s not that I settled on it. My biggest, my biggest, love has been metabolic health. And insulin has been my hormone of choice that I’m really involved in. And then what’s the insulin? And cortisol connection and how does that connect to thyroid and adrenals, and how does that connect to sex hormones and sex drive. And you know, when we’re living in a life of fear and we’re disconnected and we’re stressed out, we’re what goes first, the sex drive, the sex hormones, infertility is at an all time high.
00:04:05:06 – 00:04:24:06
Dr. Rita Marie
People in their 30s are saying they have a low sex drive. Like, come on. I mean, you know, it shouldn’t even go low in your 70s, let alone in your 30s, right? What is the cause? Right. And that causes so much disconnection and fear. And like you said, we went through this pandemic period where we weren’t allowed to hug each other.
00:04:24:06 – 00:04:38:18
Synergee
Right? I remember my kid coming over and he’s like, no, no, no, he can’t hug, you know? And we just didn’t hug for months. Right. And like this is ridiculous. And we’re getting more and more disconnected. Depression rates went up. And it wasn’t just financial and it wasn’t it was lack of connection. Yeah, we thrive on that.
00:04:41:13 – 00:05:08:18
Dr. Rita Marie
So I got, you know, the reason I’ve been talking a lot about oxytocin lately is I talk about all the hormones. And I say the one overlooked hormone is oxytocin. We think of it as milk let down and in labor. And, you know, then we think of love hormones. But all those little things that we can do on a day to day basis to help oxytocin, which then helps lower the fear and increase that feeling of belonging and increase the feeling of safety, which is what we all need.
00:05:15:07 – 00:05:38:16
Dr. Rita Marie
We need to feel safe in order to be healthy in order for all of our hormones to be balanced. And so that has an effect on blood sugar. So when oxytocin goes up, we can regulate blood sugar better, right? It lowers the level of cortisol. When oxytocin is low cortisol is high in cortisol and raises blood sugar. So that’s all you know in a nutshell the connection that I see.
00:05:38:18 – 00:05:51:09
Synergee
But I’m fascinated with all the hormone balancing in Ridgeland MS. But how they connect and the one that’s really gotten me over the last ten, 12 years has been insulin, because I think it’s so overlooked. And it’s such
00:05:51:14 – 00:06:02:00
Synergee
It’s such a contributor to all of our major diseases. So yes, it is. And we’re so glad that you bring that up, because I do think that as in traditional medicine,there’s that ideology or that that practice, the way of practicing, of just putting blindfolds on and treating, you know, thyroid as an independent entity or, you know, each of those hormones as independent entities.
00:06:14:22 – 00:06:27:09
Dr. Rita Marie
And, and what you’re saying right now is that they all are there’s crosstalk, they all affect each other. And what I actually hear you saying right now is insulin is a primary driver of most of them. Have most of them.
00:06:30:01 – 00:06:42:06
Synergee
Yeah. I would so agree with that. You know, we use a lot of continuous glucose monitors in the office. And you know, it’s so just eye opening for patients to see point in time. What’s going on with their stress response?
00:06:42:06 – 00:07:03:18
Synergee
Because historically we’ve done a lot of cortisol testing. Right. We do a lot of blood sugar, insulin, hemoglobin I wouldn’t say testing, but for them to be able to see point in time what’s driving the dysregulation, it’s like this light bulb starts to go off. And so I’m super interested now to go back to my patients wearing continuous glucose monitors and say slow down, get a hug
and let’s see what happens to your numbers.
00:07:07:09 – 00:07:20:20
Synergee
I haven’t done that one before. I’ve told them to slow down, take some deep breaths, monitor their stress, all the things. But I have not talked about touch and hugging and, you know, intimacy.
00:07:21:20 – 00:07:24:17
Dr. Rita Marie
But, you know, sometimes you’re alone, right? And you’re sitting at the desk
00:07:24:19 – 00:07:34:03
Dr. Rita Marie
I mean, I just do this and I get goosebumps, and I feel it just feels so good, and I can slow down, I can breathe and I can take a breath. Yeah. And it’s easy.
00:07:34:08 – 00:07:36:03
Synergee
Right. And so great. Right.
00:07:36:03 – 00:07:49:02
Synergee
People love on their pets. That’s an amazing stress and it’s an amazing oxytocin boost as well. You know another thing that you said that’s definitely resonating a lot in the conversations we’re having with practitioners that truly have a passion to change lives, is that word connection important? Connection is. And I wanted to go back to that because I think that we underestimate how powerful connections and relationships are.
00:08:06:14 – 00:08:17:11
Synergee
And so can you speak to, you know, was there that point for you that there was that epiphany for you that how important connection and community is?
00:08:17:17 – 00:08:36:23
Dr. Rita Marie
That’s a really good question. And when I think back, I think that’s always been right. I think that’s always been important to me. I grew up in a family as the oldest of nine children. Oh, wow. We had our first connection. I had first connections, but we were close to our cousins. So each of my parents siblings, had multiple kids, like one had seven and one had eight, one had four.
00:08:42:02 – 00:09:06:12
Dr. Rita Marie
And we lived in a two family home with my grandparents. And every Sunday, all of them came over and we were like best friends with our cousins. And that was a connection. That was a community. I didn’t know anything else. Right. It’s like, this is what this is what we do. And as I, you know, went on to school in college and, you know, eventually grew my practice and worked and I worked in corporate for a while.
00:09:06:12 – 00:09:10:20
Dr. Rita Marie
And, you know, you lose some of that connection when you do that. But I feel like, that connection has always been important to me. And really, during the pandemic, I was. It didn’t change much for me in terms of my work because I had been online already and we were doing that. But I told people that my extra, my introvert was kind of okay with staying home and not seeing people very much, but my extrovert needed that.
00:09:34:06 – 00:09:52:03
Dr. Rita Marie
And so these kinds of connections, like I feel connected with people just through this and we do seminars and we do like three day events and we do challenges. And I, I love, you know, getting people to be on screen. I don’t want them to just be a voice behind a picture. And I feel like I’m with them.
00:09:52:05 – 00:09:56:23
Dr. Rita Marie
We’ve done a lot of in-person live events and it’s a lot. It’s a hug fest and it’s
00:09:57:01 – 00:10:13:01
Dr. Rita Marie
It’s so great to be with people, and I think that’s part of the connection. And I’ll say one more thing, I have group programs for, for people, health seekers, we call them, who are like wanting to get their health back and they fall in love with each other.
00:10:13:03 – 00:10:24:22
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah. And they maintain the connection and they come back year after year and continue to be part of the community to stay connected to these people who they’ve, they’ve loved. Yeah.
00:10:25:08 – 00:10:34:20
Synergee
I think you have developed a really important skill, and that is connecting virtually because that’s not easy to do. You know, Covid forced us into virtual, you know,interfacing with patients. I still prefer face to face.
00:10:37:20 – 00:10:50:23
Synergee
I’m just a face to face person. And I just love that I can tell a lot more about their energy. And I’ve worked on that skill of connecting virtually. I had to work on that. That didn’t come naturally for me. So I just appreciate that. That’s powerful.
00:10:51:02 – 00:11:01:17
Dr. Rita Marie
yeah. And we know and you look at blue zones and you look at some of, you know, the places that have the highest amount of or the best health and, and longevity, if you will.
00:11:01:19 – 00:11:10:08
Dr. Rita Marie
That is one of the things that is near and dear, you know, to, to them as well, is the connection that started as a part of the family taking care of each other, nurturing each other, growing older together. I do feel like in this age in which we are inundated with AI and digital digital technology, that we are going to have to be very, very intentional about this piece.
00:11:23:19 – 00:11:30:04
Dr. Rita Marie
That is such a very it’s a strong proponent or it’s a strong indicator, of, of health, of health. Right. And we used to do it. I love parties, I love to invite people. That’s what I said. Connection has always been there. And for like, I don’t know, up until Covid it was probably 13 years straight.
00:11:42:02 – 00:11:48:11
Dr. Rita Marie
We would every month, every, you know, Saturday, the last Saturday of the month, we would have these potlucks.
00:11:48:13 – 00:12:08:21
Dr. Rita Marie
And they were just people we knew. We put it out to a meet up and said, hey, come, this is healthy food. We’re all going to eat. You’re going to connect on health. On the topic of health. And we’ve sometimes had 75 people come into my living room. It was pretty crowded, but there we made connections and I became friends with so many of these people over time.
00:12:08:21 – 00:12:20:13
Dr. Rita Marie
And some of them can’t. We came on to be clients. Some of them came on to be practitioners who joined my practitioner training because we had that connection, right. We had that bond and I missed it when Covid hit. Right. I missed having those. I bet you there was a lot of oxytocin in that room. Oh, there’s so much oxytocin in that room.
00:12:29:23 – 00:12:31:05
Synergee
Back to oxytocin.
00:12:31:05 – 00:12:41:18
Synergee
So help us connect the dots between insulin resistance and oxytocin. Like how do those interface, like what is the mechanism for oxytocin helping with insulin resistance?
00:12:41:18 – 00:12:44:07
Dr. Rita Marie
I think there’s a couple of mechanisms.
00:12:44:07 – 00:12:51:07
Dr. Rita Marie
One of them that I think is the connection with cortisol. Right. When we don’t have that oxytocin, we’re in a cortisol state.
00:12:51:07 – 00:13:02:01
Dr. Rita Marie
We’re like, you know, fear and stress and all that. And that does not lower the oxytocin. But when we’re in that cortisol state, it triggers the release of stored glucose from various parts of the body, from the liver, from the muscles as glycogen. And that causes the insulin to go up, of course. And then we develop insulin resistance. And some people develop insulin resistance even with fairly clean diets.
00:13:17:21 – 00:13:42:18
Synergee
Right. Because of the continuous stress hormone. Right. And oxytocin actually has been shown in some studies to improve the sensitivity of the cells to insulin. Right? So it helps to reduce insulin resistance. Right. I think 93% of the population has it in some form or another, according to studies at the University of North Carolina.
00:13:42:23 – 00:13:49:11
Dr. Rita Marie
So we need to have that oxytocin to help maintain appropriate insulin sensitivity.
00:13:49:11 – 00:13:57:23
Synergee
Right. So that’s really important. It’s powerful in keeping the blood sugar regulated and metabolic health overall
00:13:58:01 – 00:14:09:18
Synergee
I love it. So I would just hear a recipe guys for keeping your insulin under control. So after dinner we used to tell patients to go for a ten minute walk after dinner at a minimum. I’m going to say hug it out after dinner now.
00:14:10:07 – 00:14:14:05
Synergee
You know, I like to go on a lot and then go on walks.
00:14:14:07 – 00:14:24:15
Synergee
But let’s see what hugging it out can do. Because I do think there’s power in that, right? There’s power in touch. There’s power in driving oxytocin up. You will feel better. Your mood will be better.
00:14:24:19 – 00:14:31:19
Synergee
Absolutely. I gotta go out after dinner with someone you love and hold hands or, you know, arms laced around each other.
00:14:31:23 – 00:14:42:04
Dr. Rita Marie
That’s going to be stimulating the oxytocin and getting the oxygenation issues and all the other benefits of walking and burning off the glucose you just put into your system.
00:14:42:06 – 00:15:00:08
Synergee
Is there a certain age to which oxytocin begins to decline? Naturally? You alluded to see, you know, sexual interest decreasing now earlier and earlier and earlier. Do there are any definitive studies as to when oxytocin begins to decline?
00:15:00:11 – 00:15:04:07
Dr. Rita Marie
That’s a good question. And I don’t know for sure if there are studies.
00:15:04:11 – 00:15:24:21
Dr. Rita Marie
I know that that lack of sexual drive in their 30s is usually related to cortisol. Right. And there’s a whole effect and a cascade effect of elevations in cortisol. Because if there’s a tiger chasing you, what is the body? Instinct is to preserve your life, not to go to the bedroom and have fun and have sex.
00:15:24:23 – 00:15:39:06
Dr. Rita Marie
Right. It’s like just barely trying to stay alive. And there’s actually, if you look at the chemical structures, that precursor to pregnancy alone goes down to the cortisol. Instead of going over to the sex hormones and, you know, the androgens and the estrogens, right? So that’s the piece I think is happening earlier and earlier, sometimes even in the 20s, like cancer, that usually that’s the peak of sexual disorder.
00:15:50:01 – 00:16:07:15
Dr. Rita Marie
But it’s because the body’s in survival mode. Yeah. You know, sex is not the most important thing when you’re in survival mode. Right? And I would imagine that in our day and age of, teenagers, not to, not to, to help them too much, you know, those of us that parents have raised teenagers, right, that staying in their room or on games, like, I’m just thinking that, you know, a lot of that isolation is leading to and contributing to younger and younger type two diabetes.
00:16:22:18 – 00:16:43:13
Synergee
That’s a great observation. And then as you said that that isolation leads to lower oxytocin. Right. Because you don’t get that by sitting and pounding on me. My youngest son is 27 now. But when he was a little kid and even into teenage years, he loved, loved, loved hugging.
00:16:43:13 – 00:17:09:08
Synergee
He loved, loved, loved climbing in bed with us. And it was like, he’s 12, he’s 14. And still sometimes in the middle of the night, climb into bed, you go, you need a bigger bed. I’m like, okay, but yeah. And then I was like, he’s got oxytocin. He needs oxytocin. This is what he thrives on. And then once he had girlfriends, he didn’t need to climb into bed with us anymore because he had the girlfriends to get the oxygen fix from.
00:17:09:11 – 00:17:14:10
Synergee
Yeah. So, you know, I just wonder about that, you know, with them sitting alone in their rooms and on devices all the time that can be contributing to lower oxytocin. It certainly is stressful because we know that the high, you know, dopamine rush all the time from games and stuff is going to contribute to all the imbalances in all the hormones and the neurotransmitters.
00:17:33:13 – 00:17:44:01
Dr. Rita Marie
So, I mean, that could be very well. I don’t know of any studies, but I’ll go research on some of them. I don’t know if there are studies on that. And if there’s a natural decline, I know it’s certainly going to be higher during our reproductive chances. Right. Because it’s, it’s involved in milk.
00:17:49:03 – 00:18:13:06
Dr. Rita Marie
It’s involved in, you know, the stimulation of the uterus to expel the baby when it’s time, you know, but I don’t know if it naturally goes down and but I think there’s so many things, even just being in a circle, like, I’ve always had a women’s group that needs to meet once a week, even. And then we got to once a month, in person and then even during Covid online.
00:18:13:08 – 00:18:21:14
Dr. Rita Marie
And there’s just such an oxytocin fix to meeting with a community of people where you’re you’re sharing, even though you’re not touching,
00:18:21:15 – 00:18:36:19
Synergee
You’re sharing and caring. And that oxytocin is palpable. I know, I wish there was a meter, like a glucose meter for all of our hormones. Like we could watch what’s happening to cortisol, what’s happening to oxytocin, what’s, you know, it’d be really interesting.
00:18:36:19 – 00:18:55:18
Dr. Rita Marie
I don’t know of any home test kits for oxytocin. Yeah, I haven’t heard of any either. But we teasingly say right now, if there was a device for it all, we would probably have it. You know, weeks like that, we. Yeah. You know, our spouses are like one more thing, really more than one more gadget. We got the ring.
00:18:55:19 – 00:19:06:09
Dr. Rita Marie
You got the band, you got the right. Yeah. Yeah, all of this stuff. But I think personally, I think people can get overwhelmed with that and can get too much into the tech.
00:19:06:14 – 00:19:15:05
Synergee
But what I think I see is what you said right at the beginning is things that empower people to take action. Right? I was terrible at sleeping.
00:19:15:09 – 00:19:38:07
Synergee
I thought, I don’t need sleep, I eat well, I exercise, you know, I don’t need sleep. And then I realized when I got my first KG, well, I didn’t get my first CGM. It was when I started to test my blood sugar more regularly about 15 years ago. And I’m like, oh, what’s going on here? Why? I have insulin resistance or signs of insulin resistance given how good my lifestyle is.
00:19:38:07 – 00:19:57:13
Synerge
And I went, oh, that 3 or 4 hour a night sleep habit, you really do need it. And then I started to do it. And so when I got my oura ring about 7 or 8 years ago, I started to really focus on sleep because part of it is the competitive stuff. It’s like I got to be better than myself, not competitive with other people, but right up to better myself.
00:19:57:17 – 00:20:09:09
Synergee
And it’s like, oh, I got to get that score higher. Oh, but now I’m committed to 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night, and sometimes more than eight hours of sleep. And it’s made all the difference in the world, right?
00:20:09:11 – 00:20:23:10
Dr. Rita Marie
Absolutely. Sleep is so important. It’s our super power for recovery repair. You know, I feel like we’re not winning. We’re not winning by giving those hours of sleep. You know, we used to think we could get away with that, but it’s just not the case.
00:20:23:12 – 00:20:27:21
Synergee
We’re sacrificing years when we do that. Yeah, I agree sleep is so important.
00:20:28:01 – 00:20:37:18
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah, absolutely. And the thing I didn’t realize most people don’t realize is even one night of bad sleep in an otherwise healthy person creates insulin resistance.
00:20:37:20 – 00:20:52:12
Dr. Rita Marie
It’s temporary if you go back to your normal, but that next day. So I always tell people if you have to, you were up late with a kid, you have an emergency, you don’t get enough sleep. Then be careful with what you eat the next day, right? Because the body won’t handle carbs at all.
00:20:52:14 – 00:20:55:01
Synergee
And that’s one of the nuances that we teach regularly.
00:20:55:01 – 00:21:11:02
Dr. Rita Marie
I’m glad you brought that up, because they’re like,I ate the same thing I did yesterday. I ate the same thing I did, you know, last week it didn’t have the same effect. Why doesn’t that or eat why? Why was that? Why did that happen? Well, look at the other circumstances. How long did you sleep? How well did you sleep?
00:21:11:02 – 00:21:11:12
Synergee
Right.
00:21:11:17 – 00:21:28:07
Dr. Rita Marie
Do so. That’s a really, really good point for people to hear because I think sometimes they just think it’s all about. And I will always teasingly say it’s about the Snickers bars or, you know, whatever else you ate. And the reality is, I think we all know those things when we’re trying to better our blood sugar.
00:21:28:07 – 00:21:32:04
Dr. Rita Marie
But what we don’t know is these other nuances.
00:21:32:06 – 00:21:45:02
Synergee
Exactly. Sleep, stress, timing of meals, activity level and acute infections. Those are the things that will get us beyond food, right in the world of glucose management. So so important.
00:21:45:04 – 00:21:48:21
Synergee
So Lori and I both have a food first approach to our clinic.
00:21:49:02 – 00:22:01:19
Synergee
So anytime we’re working with patients, we want to make sure that we’re addressing what they’re putting in their mouth, the quality of the food that they’re eating. Are there foods that are nutrients specifically to help drive oxytocin?
00:22:02:01 – 00:22:18:22
Synergee
Yeah. I think if you think about that, you have to think about other things. So if you look at, if you look at the foods that affect cortisol levels and insulin levels, that’s going to make a big difference, right? So what ones would they be?
00:22:18:22 – 00:22:44:07
Dr. Rita Marie
Well, certain foods like omega threes for example. Right. That keeps the balance. The omega threes keep the cells more sensitive to insulin. Magnesium right. Things like magnesium and lots of leafy greens. Right. They’re loaded with leafy greens and chocolates. One of my favorites. Because it’s high in magnesium, my body needs more magnesium, right? So those are things that are important.
00:22:44:08 – 00:23:01:04
Dr. Rita Marie
I think that, any of the things that affect blood sugar and any of the things that affect cortisol levels. So your B vitamins are super important, especially like B5 and B6, because that’s important for adrenal health and for keeping my cortisol levels balanced. So I think about all of those things.
00:23:01:06 – 00:23:15:06
Synergee
So I think what I hear you saying is more of the indirect effects of them too, because I would imagine that, like that the caffeine’s or the things that tend to hype up a person would negatively impact, again, that’s just, I think, common sense approach.
00:23:16:15 – 00:23:31:06
Synergee
Maybe there’s not any literature to support that, but I would imagine. Right. I would imagine those things. And then the flip side to that would be things that are foods that do calm, blood and things that calm would be beneficial for oxytocin.
00:23:31:08 – 00:23:44:20
Dr. Rita Marie
Absolutely. No. Maybe aphrodisiacs, things that make us wonder that. I was wondering either exact list, and I don’t remember it off the top of my head, but I did a blog article on some of the aphrodisiacs.
00:23:44:20 – 00:23:45:06
Synergee
Right.
00:23:45:09 – 00:24:02:05
Dr. Rita Marie
And that’s important. I think it was a Valentine’s Day article a few years back, but it’s like things that make us seek out more loving relationships. And, like you said, common things that make us feel good and calm, are good ones for that, I think.
00:24:02:08 – 00:24:08:02
Synergee
And February is the month of cardiovascular health and love, so this is a perfect topic.
00:24:08:02 – 00:24:10:10
Dr. Rita Marie
Great for that. Good for your heart or your soul. Good for your fill in the likely exactly. And you know, things that affect our heart. I mean, we know metaphorically the heart is the seat of love, but finding more and more that it’s more than metaphoric price. And so anything that inflames our endothelial lining is going to be negative, that has a negative effect on our emotions.
00:24:31:06 – 00:24:48:13
Dr. Rita Marie
Right. It’s going to keep us in a fire emotion versus a a calm emotion. So any of those and and maybe looking at it from a Chinese medicine perspective, some of the foods that are more water element or calming earth element and add versus fire element type foods. Yeah.
00:24:48:15 – 00:25:06:13
Synergee
So that endothelial lining that you’re speaking of, we know the direct insults of insulin resistance on the entity being and, you know, some of our guests probably understand, and heard us talk about the, you know, the resistance, if you will, and the like.
00:25:09:01 – 00:25:21:15
Synergee
But, what are some of the besides oxytocin? Are there specific things that you have seen in your practice that improve the endothelial lining, because circulation and heart and blood flow are all really, really important.
00:25:30:10 – 00:25:34:01
Dr. Rita Marie
Really important. Yes. So yes. So anything that’s anti-inflammatory, so foods that are into inflammatory theomega three certainly are anti-inflammatory and calming.
00:25:34:01 – 00:25:56:06
Dr. Rita Marie
Their entire spasmodic system is spasmodic as well. Magnesium is super important. I would say things like ginger and turmeric and Boswell and other anti-inflammatories. And again, you have to choose the right herb for the person. There’s not like one size fits all like this or does this. No, it’s whatever’s going to balance what’s out of balance in that particular person.
00:25:56:06 – 00:26:05:13
Dr. Rita Marie
Right. But things like, I think just things that are high in phytonutrients, for example. Right. Like the greens and, you know, the colorful vegetables, eating the rainbow, all of that stuff protects the endothelial lining. And we just need to have a smooth and, you know, nice endothelial lining that doesn’t have the nicks and the crannies that those lipoproteins can get embedded in and start to create plaque and unstable plaques.
00:26:23:20 – 00:26:48:11
Dr. Rita Marie
So that’s important stuff. And we need to avoid those things that are damaging. Right. The oxidized fats, trans fats, foods that are processed in chemical eyes and all that stuff, toxins can affect the lining. So, you know, keeping the toxic load, not eating all the foods that have pesticides and herbicides and other kinds of preservatives and, certainly important.
00:26:48:13 – 00:26:52:12
Synergee
And I think about the relationship back to, even for men and specific is erectile dysfunction. When the endothelial lining is, you know, is damaged. And they have a narrowing. We know that the penile arteries are the smallest arteries in the entire body. Right. And so I’m just thinking about its relationship back to what we were just saying is, you know, you have a reduction in oxytocin, right?
00:27:14:13 – 00:27:20:21
Dr. Rita Marie
Not really wanting to have and maybe some hormones, sex hormones that are depleted at the same time isn’t ethereal.
00:27:20:23 – 00:27:35:04
Synergee
It’s yeah, it’s not right. And nitric oxide, that’s what side is what protects the endothelial lining and is also what, you know, dilates those vessels and dilates the vessels in the body, you know, and lowering the blood pressure and all that. So all of those things are super important.
00:27:37:12 – 00:27:44:14
Synergee
So as you mentioned earlier your greens help support nitric oxide production. You know, not using mouthwash.
00:27:44:16 – 00:28:05:07
Dr. Rita Marie
You know, mouthwash use has been associated with decreased nitric oxide production because of the way it damages your good healthy microbiome. Right. And so you’re not making enough nitric oxide. And then even supplementation with nitric oxide we have a nitric oxide support supplement near 40 that we just love for that purpose because it is a loss injury.
00:28:05:09 – 00:28:23:08
Dr. Rita Marie
And so it stimulates that whole nitric oxide pathway in a good way. But to Lori’s point, it’s kind of the perfect storm for men, right? As they see oxytocin go down, insulin resistance, endothelial lining changes, erectile dysfunction. And for females, it shows up as vaginal dryness.
00:28:23:10 – 00:28:26:08
Synergee
Right? Lack of libido, vaginal dryness. We always think of estrogen.
00:28:26:08 – 00:28:34:11
Synergee
And as important, really, really important is that these other hormones are playing a part in that too. And so it’s not just about estrogen.
00:28:34:13 – 00:28:41:06
Dr. Rita Marie
No no no not at all. Yeah DHEA is super important to even women. Don’t you really play it.But DHEA and vaginal dryness is it. Absolutely.
00:28:45:11 – 00:28:47:04
Synergee
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:28:47:09 – 00:28:50:21
Synergee
So what about how the thyroid plays into oxytocin?
00:28:51:01 – 00:28:56:20
Synergee
Is there a relationship between thyroid dysregulation and oxytocin challenges?
00:28:56:23 – 00:29:10:12
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah. So so I mean direct you know we see for 23 and I think that there’s such a connection between thyroid and adrenal function that we need to be really aware that when,
00:29:10:14 – 00:29:24:12
Dr. Rita Marie
When we have adrenal dysfunction, when we have overstress, when we’re in that fear mode all the time, we’re producing lots of cortisol or we’re needing to produce a lot of cortisol, but we can’t because we’ve drained the swamp, so to speak, to drain the system.
00:29:24:14 – 00:29:51:23
Dr. Rita Marie
Then we have this imbalance in the thyroid, right? The thyroid, like the thyroid receptors, get inflamed when we have excess cortisol, when or we have not enough cortisol, but they get inflamed. The conversion from T4 to T3 gets impeded when we have excessive cortisol production. And so that and that cortisol gets by dominates over the oxytocin.
00:29:51:23 – 00:30:11:17
Dr. Rita Marie
When we don’t have enough oxytocin. So that’s one thing people don’t recognize is that when you get the body in this safe place, there’s this interplay between all the hormones and thyroid is such an epidemic these days. Yeah, but they’re not looking at it in my opinion. They’re not looking at it the right way. They’re like, you’re not producing enough T4.
00:30:11:18 – 00:30:18:21
Dr. Rita Marie
Let’s just give you synthroid. That’s not where most thyroid dysfunction comes from. Most of it is either autoimmune or receptor resistance or conversion problems.
00:30:25:05 – 00:30:36:11
Synergee
definitely preach what we practice. And we’re loving it right now because this is what we teach every day to our patients. And oftentimes we do see people coming into the clinic that they’ve already been prescribed our hormone.
00:30:36:11 – 00:30:44:12
Synergee
And it’s driving down their adrenals. And, you know, they feel tired and tired and they’re just not getting better because they really haven’t fixed the foundation.
00:30:44:14 – 00:30:46:21
Dr. Rita Marie
Right? They haven’t fixed the foundation.
00:30:46:23 – 00:30:58:20
Synergee
Exactly. They haven’t addressed the real root causes. That’s right. They’re just like putting that on. Yeah. And it is caused. There’s usually not one root cause. Right. Usually not right. And so we need to address that.
00:31:00:16 – 00:31:23:21
Dr. Rita Marie
We need to look at how we balance. Right I think conventional medicine is taught in a what’s the symptom. How do we get those symptoms to go down? Go away. Whether it be just by a medication that suppresses the symptoms, which is the worst possible, or by looking at, oh let’s cut this out, let’s add some hormone like this.
00:31:23:23 – 00:31:44:18
Dr. Rita Marie
And it’s not really addressing why does or what’s the imbalance. That’s not a word that’s usually taught in conventional Western medicine, like what is the imbalance and what do we have to do to restore balance. And so much of that goes back to foundations and back to the lifestyle and back to is this person just not having fun?
00:31:44:20 – 00:32:07:09
Synergee
They need to add some fun and pleasure into their life. Are they stressed out to the max? Can we add some mindfulness practices and some meditation? They’re in an attitude not of gratitude, but an attitude of fear and blame. Like victimization. And that’s a huge piece of it. And of course, the environment. We have to look at their environment and what are the toxins in the environment.
00:32:07:10 – 00:32:33:10
Dr. Rita Marie
And of course, what are they eating? And I’m a food first believer as well. But the other things need to be addressed in addition. Right. The food is something we do three times a day for most people. Sometimes 5 or 6 times a day for other people. And every, every bit of food that we put in is a message to the body that either puts it out of balance or in balance, and we want to move towards in balance.
00:32:33:11 – 00:32:46:00
Synergee
And that’s what I just heard you say a little bit earlier too, about harmony. You know, it’s hormonal harmony. Yep, yep. In most cases it’s getting the body back to our bodies that have this amazing ability to heal.
00:32:46:04 – 00:33:04:21
Dr. Rita Marie
Yes. And repair and oftentimes we are not giving it that care what it needs. And then additional medicine then sprinkles in a little bit of this and a little bit of that, you know, one pill for every problem versus or a surgery for the solution rather than looking for that root cause.
00:33:04:21 – 00:33:21:05
Dr. Rita Marie
And so we do have, you know, it is you’ve been in it for a long time. You’ve been doing this for a long time. And we have been to. Right. And so collectively it’s there’s some tiring years, tiring hard months, tiring weeks, tiring years doing this long time. But it honestly, would you say that it is. You know, it adds value to your life.
00:33:27:19 – 00:33:49:16
Dr. Rita Marie
Being able to truly see change in people. Yeah. Oh my God. I mean, I don’t find it tiring. First of all, yes, there’s a lot. But yeah, it’s like it’s inner being and yoga. Right. Yeah. And I live for that. That’s what, you know when people say, oh I did this. And now finally and sometimes it’s just a tiny little thing that they were missing.
00:33:49:21 – 00:34:27:09
Dr. Rita Marie
But by listening. And that’s part of the oxytocin connection to making people feel important and really, truly listening to them and then just saying, start with this, start with that, and they get amazing results. And that’s why I’m so passionate about not just working with clients to do that, but teaching practitioners to have those skills. It’s not just about having good bedside manner, it’s not just about having all the good clinical skills and knowing what labs to run and all this, but it’s a matter about really connecting the dots for people and empowering them to access that inner healer and then allow it to be free.
00:34:29:00 – 00:34:50:08
Dr. Rita Marie
And there’s so many obstacles that we put in the way of that healing. And some of them are, quite frankly, well intentioned, but poorly directed, coming from medicine, coming from the doctors who are just giving them this pill or telling them that it’s not their fault. And I’m not saying it’s anybody’s fault, but that they don’t have any power over it, but they only need to look externally.
00:34:50:08 – 00:34:53:23
Dr. Rita Marie
And really we need to empower that in our inner healing.
00:34:54:01 – 00:35:01:22
Synergee
I think as a provider, one of the fun things we get to do is sit with patients in that space and really connect with them.
00:35:02:00 – 00:35:09:09
Synergee
And I feel like if there can be an element of trust when you’re mapping out their treatment plan, they get excited about it too, right?
00:35:09:09 – 00:35:27:03
Synergee
They’re excited about making the changes and seeing the results that they’re going to see. On the other end. I think the challenge sometimes is that they know that our practice is a food first practice. We put that everywhere so that they’re not surprised when we come in and we’re monkeying with their food right. And they kind of expect that.
00:35:27:03 – 00:35:52:16
Synergee
I think what they don’t expect sometimes is let’s talk about the little things. You know, how they start their morning, how much they’re sleeping. The things that, you know, they’re scrolling time that they’re spending on social media that’s keeping that nervous system just hyper activated and really stealing their joy. And sometimes those are the harder conversations to have where I think in the early days, the food conversation was the harder conversation to have.
00:35:52:18 – 00:36:01:01
Synergee
And so how do you approach that? How do you get them to really lean into the small changes over time that equal the biggest result?
00:36:01:03 – 00:36:10:02
Dr. Rita Marie
I think it’s by educating them and connecting with them, but talking to them, not just saying, here’s what I need you to do, but here’s why, and here’s how this body works.
00:36:10:03 – 00:36:40:22
Dr. Rita Marie
I mean, they understand how their body responds to different inputs and outputs. They get it. And they say to me, wow, I finally understand why I need to do this. That helps me to do it. The other piece I use is I look at, to motivate them. I look at genetics and so there are certain genes that when I see them and I explain to them what the gene is doing and that they have a variant in that gene that makes them have to be more careful in this particular area.
00:36:41:00 – 00:37:03:15
Dr. Rita Marie
They’re like, oh, I guess I better do that. Right? So it’s those things. And there are, you know, I can always tell in advance before I even look at their genes, not always, but almost 100%. Which of the neurotransmitter related genes are going to be affected with this person, those hyper vigilant people who are like, yeah, I can tell what their pathways might be.
00:37:03:15 – 00:37:13:11
Dr. Rita Marie
And when I explain that to them and how much more important it is for them to take the time for self-care outside of the food
00:37:13:13 – 00:37:25:09
Dr. Rita Marie
And the food too, they get it, I get it, I call it the motivation through genetics. So it’s really helpful for that because it gets them to see why I was just talking about that today.
00:37:25:09 – 00:37:50:21
Synergee
I feel like there’s a time and a place to utilize different diagnostic tools and tests. And I have found Kelly has too, in the longer term maintenance, you’ve spent the time really helping them change the foundation. We know that that’s an ongoing work. It shifts with them. But they’ve done the work on the foundation and they’re working with you periodically to refine their wellness plan.
00:37:50:23 – 00:38:13:14
Synergee
I find genetics to be incredibly helpful as well. We do a few at the very beginning because those are some key ones, obviously, that affect hormonal balance and, and, you know, nutritional utilization. But, I do agree with you that I think that adding and sprinkling in more knowledge of those genes elevates the conversation.
00:38:13:16 – 00:38:34:02
Synergee
Yeah. And makes them more willing to make change, because those are things if we impress upon them. And I hear you saying this, that it’s not predisposing you or it’s not predestined in you, sorry to, you know, the, the, the problem, it’s predisposing not predestined. You so nobody other names they can change it. Right. It’s powerful.
00:38:34:04 – 00:38:37:19
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah. And the genes are maybe 5% in most cases.
00:38:37:19 – 00:38:58:22
Dr. Rita Marie
So the 95% is the epigenetics that they have control over with every choice they make. Yes. We day all day. So it’s really it’s I find it empowering. Do they have to do it? No. Can I tell you no from talking to them? But it’s when they see it, whether it’s a lab or whether it’s a gene, they see it for their own, with their own eyes.
00:38:58:22 – 00:39:05:00
Synergee
They go, oh, it’s not just you guessing at what I should be doing. This is what’s in my body.
00:39:05:02 – 00:39:16:07
Synerge
So I want to go back to what you said earlier about food being a message to the body, you know, and today, genetics, because it’s actually a message to your epigenetics.
00:39:16:07 – 00:39:36:08
Synergee
You know, it’s changing the way that your genes are being expressed. Right. And to your point about not sleeping, you know, the nights you don’t sleep the next day, what messages you need to send to your DNA to really help support you. Right. And oftentimes we haven’t slept the night before. We’re craving those carbs the next day. You know, we’re not really wanting the broccoli so much.
00:39:36:08 – 00:39:45:05
Synergee
And so if you understand that, though, it’s easier to make those choices and see the results on the back end of that. So I love that you said that. Yeah
00:39:45:05 – 00:40:09:00
Synergee
Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So I hear you say, the things that help your clients make those steps are relationship explanation, education, diagnostics. I heard that, yeah. And for whatever reason, I’m sitting over here thinking about it, I don’t remember Kelly. It was one of our previous podcasts. I talked about hugging, hugging prior to a visit.
00:40:09:02 – 00:40:10:23
Synergee
You know, that opens up, it opens up. Yeah, we were talking about that because I do. I’m a touchy feely person, right? I love physical touch. And I do think making that either that handshake or that hug, whatever they will allow, does help kind of bring them down and make them realize they were there for them.
00:40:27:06 – 00:40:34:21
Synergee
We care about them. We want to support, we want to listen, and we want to empower them to make the best changes moving forward.
00:40:34:23 – 00:40:48:19
Synergee
So I want to speak to our listener that maybe it is naive to use functional medicine. Maybe they’ve never seen a functional medicine provider ever. And they’re stuck in a stress response. They’re stuck in fight or flight.
00:40:48:19 – 00:41:08:16
Synergee
They’re stuck in wear and tear. They don’t feel well. They’re not sleeping well. They’re choosing poorly with their food. What would you say to that person? What would be some first things that they can do to start improving their oxytocin? Right. Right away that helps motivate them to make other changes.
00:41:08:18 – 00:41:13:03
Synergee
It’s always hard when people ask me, what’s the most important or what’s the first, right?
00:41:13:09 – 00:41:32:08
Synergee
Because it varies from person to person. And I’m intuitively tuning in to what they need. For some of them, it’s just if I’m watching them and I’m watching them, you know, breathe like that, it’s like, let’s just take a moment and let’s breathe, you know, put your hand on your heart, one on your belly, and let’s just breathe.
00:41:32:10 – 00:41:50:12
Dr. Rita Marie
And teaching them how to just notice when they’re in that stress mode and take a breath. Yeah. Or 2 or 3 or five, you know. But to get them because some of them will do that, some of them will do that and they’ll go, okay, okay. And now I’m like, you didn’t tell me. You just did part of the breath.
00:41:50:12 – 00:42:01:19
Dr. Rita Marie
So let’s do a full breath right? I don’t have to talk until it’s fully out, but breathing is super important.
00:42:01:21 – 00:42:16:05
Synergee
I’m so glad you said that. I’ve had the same experience in the clinic. Right? Trying to get someone to breathe. You wouldn’t think breathing would be that hard. I mean, we do it all day long, right? But we are not breathing well. We are not breathing well.
00:42:16:07 – 00:42:33:03
Dr. Rita Marie
We’re not expanding our diaphragm. Right? We’re not in coherence with our heart, and our breathing. And it takes a toll. It sends a stress response continuously throughout the day. And so I think, yeah, breathing is a great place to start with someone like that.
00:42:33:05 – 00:42:57:02
Synergee
And you know what the thing about it is, and you reminded me when you said about the coherence is that the outbreath is when we can jump, we can settle into parasympathetic. The in-breath is sympathetic and we’re trying to get them to be more parasympathetic. So if they want to get which, you know, I explained to them what parasympathetic and sympathetic is and how important parasympathetic is for their healing.
00:42:57:04 – 00:42:59:07
Synergee
Can you go into that now?
00:42:59:09 – 00:43:00:15
Dr. Rita Marie
Can I go into that? Sure. Yeah.
00:43:00:21 – 00:43:03:09
ynergee
I think that would be good for our listeners that are naive.
00:43:03:09 – 00:43:03:18
Synergee
Right.
00:43:03:22 – 00:43:12:09
Dr. Rita Marie
Like, okay. Yes, absolutely. So the autonomic nervous system, that’s not the part that we control. It’s just controlled for us.
00:43:12:11 – 00:43:22:20
Dr. Rita Marie
That is two branches. The sympathetic and the parasympathetic sympathetic is what most people live in 24 seven practically is fight, fight.
00:43:22:22 – 00:43:41:05
Dr. Rita Marie
That stress response that got to get the work deadline met the kids are you know, this and that. I got to go get them at school or I got to feed them or the finances. That’s the fight flight and the olden days. It used to be true, stress. Two fearful things. Right? I got an animal chasing you, but now it’s all.
00:43:41:07 – 00:44:08:02
Dr. Rita Marie
It’s all kind of made up, really. And we just have to learn how to shift. So that’s sympathetic. Well, parasympathetic is, is, some of that fight flight parasympathetic is rest, digest, heal. We processed all of that stuff and reproduced. It’s all part of being parasympathetic. Right. So when we can drop into parasympathetic we’re not meant to be 100% parasympathetic.
00:44:08:02 – 00:44:41:22
Dr. Rita Marie
That’s not going to be useful. We need to get into our sympathetic. And it’s all controlled by the vagus nerve. And so when we can have techniques to help us drop into parasympathetic to notice when we’re jn sympathetic like I can feel it here, I can feel myself getting excited. Oh, to breathe, do some heart mapped techniques, which is an amazing process of dropping into gratitude, which is what I was going to say next, is being aware that when you drop into gratitude, just find three things that you appreciate.
00:44:41:22 – 00:44:55:00
Dr. Rita Marie
Find one thing that you appreciate and truly feel into. It drops you into parasympathetic. And the more often you do that throughout the day, the more you’re going to drop there, the more you’re going to activate your healing process.
00:44:55:02 – 00:45:01:21
Dr. Rita Marie
So that’s a place where I start with so many people because it’s so easy. It is easy in theory anyway.
00:45:02:01 – 00:45:21:13
Synergee
Yes. And I heard you say you utilize heart math for that. Well, you go into a little bit of why you recommend heart math specifically for that. Yeah. So the heart at the Institute of Heart Methods has done studies for I don’t know how long, long, long, long, long time. I took their practitioner course probably 15 years ago. I don’t remember exactly, but it was a long time ago.
00:45:21:13 – 00:45:27:18
Dr. Rita Marie
And it’s basically a technique where you’re utilizing the power of breath and the power of gratitude.
00:45:27:20 – 00:45:50:02
Dr. Rita Marie
And they’ve done studies where when you can use the power of breath and gratitude, things change. Your hormones change, the enzymes, your immune system, your blood pressure, your heart, everything gets activated, you know, in a positive way, right? So basically, it’s a combination of breathing and an appreciation and it’s quick.
00:45:50:04 – 00:46:03:04
Dr. Rita Marie
The reason I like it is because you can slide it in throughout the day. As soon as you notice that you’re going into stress mode or just set an alarm that, you know, at first it just every hour you try it and you just go into heart breathing.
00:46:03:06 – 00:46:21:02
Dr. Rita Marie
Heart feeling what? What gratitude. I teach people that I remember a situation that brings back joy or go to a place like, for me, it’s a beach. I love to be on the beach. You do? I got to teach you too. Yeah, it’s where I go when I’m doing that. Recentering. I’m on the beach, I go to the beach and I just.
00:46:21:07 – 00:46:42:06
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah, I feel it all. And I just have gratitude that I have that escape, that I can do that. And, you know, it’s funny because if somebody says to me, how is your day? If they know me, I’ll say, oh, that’s a good day. I went to the beach a lot and I know, okay, it was a stressful day and she did a lot of going to the beach to get out of that.
00:46:42:08 – 00:46:45:01
Synergee
Yeah, I’m going to start doing that.
00:46:45:03 – 00:46:58:15
Dr. Rita Marie
That’s the beauty of our mind, right? We can’t tell the difference. And I tell people, when you relive your stressful situations and you retell them over and over, your body’s re-experiencing all the negative things that happen in stressful moments.
00:46:58:16 – 00:47:17:17
Dr. Rita Marie
Why not relive positive moments, power moments that bring you joy and appreciation, and then your body doesn’t know the difference to whether you’re there or whether you’re just thinking about it. Right. And I always post one story, I tell a lot. I tell you about, say you’re driving to work one day and somebody cuts you off and you slam on the brakes and you don’t hit them.
00:47:20:18 – 00:47:43:14
Dr. Rita Marie
You miss them. You can. And that moment says, I hope they make it to I hope I make it to where they’re going in one piece. I hope that whatever stressful situation makes them distracted is okay. And when you get to work and somebody says, how was how you are doing today? Oh, most people will say, oh God, this idiot cut me off on the road.
00:47:43:14 – 00:48:02:00
Dr. Rita Marie
And, and and you get all worked up and I can feel that just is just mimicking that. I can feel it in my body instead of going, wow, it’s going to be a great day. I was on the way in the sky, cut me off. I slammed on the brakes, I missed, I missed him and I hope he got safely to wherever he was going.
00:48:02:02 – 00:48:20:13
Dr. Rita Marie
What did n’t change in how it affects your body, how you digest your food after that? How you think because you know, stress turns off the high level, the prefrontal cortex. So it makes you more intelligent, more empathic, and, you know, just much more.
00:48:20:15 – 00:48:33:06
Synergee
You connect connected, more connected, more happy, more joyful right after and heart math. Do they still have the the devices that you can utilize to train as well?
00:48:33:14 – 00:48:49:11
Dr. Rita Marie
Yeah they do, I have them, I don’t use them anymore, but they have a little can you can hook on to your ear, you can hook it into your phone and they have a little app called an inner insight or an inner balance or something like that. Yeah. Yes. And you can look at it. I have a funny story about that.
00:48:49:11 – 00:48:59:09
Dr. Rita Marie
When I was first, they first came out with the single, the device that was separate and you can put the thing in, and I was on an airplane with my son, who must have been 6 or 7 at the time,
and he said, mom, what is that? So I told them, I explained to him what it was and he said, oh, can I try?
00:49:04:16 – 00:49:23:09
Dr. Rita Marie
He said, sure, he took it. I read a book and he comes by 15 minutes later. Mommy, mommy, I, I figured it all out. I know how to run this thing. I’m like, okay, tell me more. So he sat there with it and he went, watch this. Anyway, where I look like he was all tensed up and stressed out and the whole thing went right.
00:49:23:09 – 00:49:33:10
Dr. Rita Marie
Everything went right. And he goes, now watch this. He sat there and the whole thing went green. I figured it out. Yes. You know, at that age and he intuitively figured it out, I love it. He figured it out. And from there, you know, there were times when, you know, when you have kids and they get, you know, a little stressful.
00:49:43:10 – 00:49:52:15
Dr. Rita Marie
And my husband was traveling and I had two little kids and something happened with his older brother. And I came storming down the stairs. He goes, mom, stop, sit down.
00:49:52:17 – 00:50:03:04
Dr. Rita Marie
And I said, okay, so yes, okay, take a breath. So I said he was taking another breath. I take another brassicas. Mom, you ‘re going to be here for a while because we’re going to have you do ten breaths.
00:50:03:06 – 00:50:31:07
Dr. Rita Marie
Oh my God. Okay. You know, he got it. He got it. That he could use a little breath and he was teaching me. I do love it. And I feel like there are a lot of adults who feel like that’s that’s useless, that breath thing. Right. And when you have a tool or a device that can show them that feedback, yes you can at that point you are exactly right.
00:50:31:07 – 00:50:48:23
Synergee
Seeing is believing. So I’m glad to hear that they still have that, because I know some listeners that may find that tool very useful to be in the retraining process. Absolutely, absolutely worth doing to your heart. Right? Look at what it’s doing to your heart rate variability. Remember, at some point Rita Marie, this has been an amazingly loving, inspiring conversation.
00:50:54:16 – 00:51:06:10
Synergee
We love to get to know you. But for our listeners, how can they connect with you? Like what do you have going on? I know you have a lot going on, so let us know how we can connect after this podcast.
00:51:06:12 – 00:51:14:07
Dr. Rita Marie
Oh, I always have so much going on. My website is doctor reading RCom and I’m on Instagram and Facebook.
00:51:14:09 – 00:51:37:13
Dr. Rita Marie
We have come up in just a few months in May, a couple months. Right. This is February. Yeah. So a couple of months. We have something called the Wellness Reset Weekend. That is a three day weekend online where we get people together and we really teach them these strategies for creating a wellness map for themselves of the activities and things that they need to do.
00:51:37:13 – 00:52:03:07
Dr. Rita Marie
So that’s coming up. And I have a podcast, Reinvent Health Care for practitioners. But we get a lot of people listening for their own health. And I have another website called Iron method.com, and that’s for health practitioners who really want to learn to do root cause health care, learn how to do the genetics, and do the lab testing and really utilize nutrition and a food first approach to help people get well.
00:52:03:07 – 00:52:04:23
Dr. Rita Marie
So that’s how you can connect with me on my YouTube. I have a YouTube called Metabolic Health Solutions.
00:52:36:01 – 00:52:50:12
Synergee
Okay, that’s wonderful. Thank you so much also for investing in health practitioners and really raising the bar and and and committing yourself to educating them because as we spoke prior to jumping on today, how many of of those practitioners out there who I think are well intentioned to see a desire to really do medicine differently and they just don’t know where to go and they are seeking out places that or following, you know, people that are, you know, sharing things with them that are, are not really aligned with really holding the bar up and taking this
approach. So I just want to thank you for committing yourself to them.
00:52:50:15 – 00:53:00:01
Dr. Rita Marie
Thank you. It’s my mission. It’s what my calling is. So I’m committed to it. I want to see the world. I want to leave the world a way better place for my kids and grandkids. I mean, my kids are all grown up now, and I want them to be able to raise their kids in a world where health care is truly health care, not disease management.
00:53:15:02 – 00:53:32:06
Synergee
The Synergy Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice. And no doctor patient relationship is formed. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment but instead to mirror integrative health in Ridgeland MS.
00:53:32:06 – 00:53:41:06
Synergee
Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Integrative health in Ridgeland MS.
