Recovery Capacity: The Missing Link in Longevity, Hormones and Performance | Dr. Jennifer Knight, MD

In this episode of the Vibrant Wellness Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Jennifer Knight, MD. A board-certified physician specializing in integrative medicine, longevity and women’s health.

We dive into:

• Why the nervous system is the foundation of health
• The truth about hormones in perimenopause and menopause
• Chronic stress and its impact on metabolism and sleep
• Why doing MORE can actually make you worse
• Practical tools to regulate your nervous system

🔗 Dr. Alex Carrasco, MD

https://nourishmedicine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dralexcarrasco/

🔗Dr. Jennifer Knight, MD

 https://novawellnessnj.com/dr-jennifer-knight/

https://www.instagram.com/jennknightmd/

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Transcript

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if you've been under chronic stress and yes, keep doing this and doing that and pushing through there and then it just says you've expended all the resources comes out for everybody. Yeah. Everybody will reach a point where their body will say no. Hopefully we get to that before it reaches that point. Sometimes that shows up as disease. Right. And and so I try to, you know, use the clues that I can get. Let's deal with this before the body really says now you know. Yeah. You know it does become more to the surface Welcome to the vibrant. Well in this podcast today we are thrilled to welcome Doctor Jennifer Knight to the show. Doctor Knight is a board certified physician in internal and integrative medicine. She specializes in whole health, wellness and longevity, with a particular focus on helping women navigate midlife and beyond. A graduate of the Andrew While Center for Integrative Medicine and a certified menopause practitioner, Doctor Knight brings deep expertise in caring for women through perimenopause and menopause. We are so happy to have you on the show today. Thank you for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Oh, well, I can't wait to learn more about what you do and kind of your story. So can we start out just by kind of learning more about your journey and how you got to practice the way that you're practicing now? Oh, sure. You know, I think, it actually kind of informs what. So, it's it's an interesting journey. I, I, I started with heart rate variability. No way. So I, I had just had my third child. It was back in 2019 and I bought this watch this actual watch. Is it a Garmin. Okay. And then I still still kick it. So it lasted as last. Yeah. But I bought it just purely to track my runs outside of home. That's why I bought it. Okay. And I kept seeing, this number. I was like, really low. I mean, single digits. And I had no idea what that was at the time. And so, you know, you don't know what something is or just. Yeah. So I ignored it for a while and eventually I was like I should really, you know, read about this and I read about heart rate variability. I learned that, you know, it's it's been increased the lower the lower your heart rate variability. Yeah. Cause mortality. Right. So when do I say nervous system and all this. And I started to wonder, you know, sort of think about some of the reasons why my might be so low. And in the same time, I started my inspiring medicine fellowship. The first module, is appropriately entitled clinician Well-Being. So it's all about right. You know, that you have to hear yourself so you can take your patients, I mean. Right. So sort of all this happened at the same time and I went on my own sort of healing journey, learning about the nervous system more. I was having a lot harder And throughout that journey, I just started taking steps towards what, you know, felt more, in line with, like, my purpose and meaning. And anyways, long story short, my life looks very different now than ever since I completed the fellowship. I changed my job. Yeah. All of my relationships are different. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. It's, I think it's really beautiful how in integrative medicine just really does kind of look at the wholeness of a person. And I, you know, did functional medicine training and certification, but I started in integrative medicine and I did the Andrew Moyle program. And that really was like that really just beautiful, nourishing, piece of my education that I just, I don't know, it changed the way that like, I also looked at my life and also how I looked at my patients and how could we help bring people to wholeness Yeah. And I think, you know, I totally agree. I can say that, first of all, going on your own journey is really, you can help guide others on that journey. And it really just starts with simple things. It ends up you end up somewhere totally different. But it's really easy to get started. one of the things I love about integrative medicine which is relevance. It is just the idea of recovery. Yes. The body really has an innate ability. Yes. Given the right tools. And that's exactly right. You know thinking about that as a clinician is just so. Yeah. I think a lot of times our patients come to us and even in medicine we're not really taught about kind of how we can restore homeostasis. And I think we do have a lot more, many more levers that we can pull than, you know, most people really agree or think about. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. when you see a patient, are you focusing first on nervous system or like where does someone come in the door, you know, with like fatigue and brain fog and weight loss resistance and then you're able to kind of like figure out that, you know, at the genesis of many things, it's nervous system. Are you saying that? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Usually. Okay. Typically. Yeah. Like, I would like to regulate. Yeah. Or you know, it's usually, not what I need, but. Yeah. Some basic questions. You know, how do you feel about stress or stress. Are you talking about you, your child that they may not in the initial consultation. Kind of we need to introduce a lot of that into a established relationship. Yeah. Working on things. What I found is like this work really comes into play. A little bit further on, I think when you, when you start any sort of a plan, when a patient, whether they need nutrition, fitness, supplements, they're going to feel better. Yeah. This is what you really have to work on? Yes. Yeah. Really? Look at, like, the nervous system and, you know, chronic stress. That, Which is affecting your sleep. Right. All this stuff. So I, I usually will layer in a little bit. Yeah. Almost like do the low hanging fruit first because those get your big wins quickly and the established trust they're feeling better. But then yeah when they start because inevitably I think that does happen. Yeah. And then you know then they're ready to, to, to take the next step. And also I think, I've, I used to like very early on I would leave a bed and I would get like, like outright resistance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doing that. So I learned sort of like, okay, I need to wait on this. Not the wonderful right away. Yeah. So initially you know if you're dealing with micronutrients or are you doing hormone work as well. Or are you seeing a lot of because you're an empty practitioner. Yeah. So right now I'm sort of I'm a I'm a certified practitioner. I you know, I think that a lot of women come to me specifically for a hormone treatment. Yeah. Which is great. I mean hormones are having. Yeah. They're very very hot and very trendy and important. I'm so I'm so I'm it's long. Right. 100% about this for at least 20 years. Yeah. And so I'm so glad that the conversations are. Yeah. They're on social media. You know, like you were talking about. Yeah. That's all very positive. Yes. It gets people through the door. Right. And I and and so. And hormones are incredibly important. Yeah. For longevity and for for just just for feeling. Well. Yeah. But I found that what happens is my patients think hormones are the solution. Yeah. So the pain that's out there. Yeah. That can be sort of disappointing for them to find out. Like. Yes. And you also have to do something. I going to take you. All right. But at least what I'm, I'm just so grateful that it brings people to the door. Yeah. From there. Take the train. Yeah. I think that the hormone piece is really important and it's like a yes and peace. Because, like you said, just, you know, replacing progesterone, estrogen, testosterone that can help. But like. Yes. And you still have to do all the foundational work. And yes, you still have to work on nervous system and then you always have to iterate. Right. And I found like even in, particularly in an earlier panel and and early. Ones don't get you the results. Yeah. Or a minute later and you take us through. Right. And you know the brain right. I found that in early perimenopause oftentimes governments give you a little, reprieve. But you know, the the reality is that that's there's a lot of other factors at play. Yeah. And so if you're which a lot of people are, I would say most of my patients are living in an early stage, like chronic stress and nervous. Yeah, totally. They're living this way. Because their environment and they have children they have a career. They're in the sandwich. Yeah. They have all of these things and, and and maybe they've been living in chronic stress since they were, they were much younger. And the, the nervous system learned to to to be okay. Yeah. Okay. And then the hormones start to fluctuate. And then all of a sudden, you know, your resilience to stress is not the same as it was right now. All of that stuff has to be worked through. Yeah. Is it just this is the time where it just has. Yeah. Some people are not coming through the doors. Like. I mean, we're through all this, you know? Yeah. It's. Well, I almost think, like, maybe it's just a, like, cultural misconception. Just because of what's on social. But it's like, yeah, you're still going to have to. You're going to have to work. You're going to have to work. You know, you're going to have to work for it. Like in your 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s, like, it's not as easy as it was in your 20s and 30s. Yeah. And it's different too. Like, I, you know, I tell my patients all the time that you know what works in your 20s and 30s. It's not the same. No different with the with the hormone fluctuations in the nervous and everything, you know, and, and and the responsibilities, the responsibilities. You know, I think like there are, there is some element of, of work that has to be done. You know, I think about The body will say no. Yeah. The body says no. And I think the whole idea is like you reach a point where you allow, like if you've been under chronic stress and yes, keep doing this and doing that and pushing through there and then it just says you've expended all the resources and your body's like, no comes out for everybody. Yeah. Everybody will reach a point where their body will say no. Hopefully we get to that before it reaches that point. Sometimes that shows up as disease. Right. And and so I try to, you know, use the clues that I can get. Let's deal with this before the body really says now you know. Yeah. You know it does become more to the surface you know. I'd love to know like what kind of tools or data tracking you're using to support nervous system regulation. Yeah, that's a great question. So I think, well, first, when I talk about data, that's what really gets me to get patients to. Oh yeah. Same. So I love that. It's super helpful. So that's the tool. That's how I will that's how I will get the conversation started. Yeah. Especially for my hundred high achievers. And they're like oh take my heart. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So, so, you know, look at wearable data is super helpful if patients have it and I encourage them to do it and separately so we can get some data in. Do you like your Garmin versus oura do you have a favorite. I like how you like it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I have. Yeah. If I were to choose, I'd probably choose it like. Yeah, yeah. Want that readiness score really high. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know and wearables aren't for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. You have to be careful with that. But I think I love you know resting heart rate. Yeah. But also CGM is a real love CGM. So I love looking at it. Yep. And even if I don't have any of that I can still find something to. Oh yeah. Totally. Find it. Yes. Like this or insulin. Yes. We can start the conversation about stress and have system work through that. Usually it's a combination of that. The patient engaged. So where do you see the the intersection of like you know insulin resistance metabolic syndrome and nervous system kind of dysfunction. Well I mean I think it shows up in your ability to do all the things that like this far as insulin. Yeah. Pillars of insulin. Right. Do strength training. Yeah. Nutrition of course. But you still get sleep. Sleep? Yeah. Have an activity within the system. Doesn't know how to deactivate because it's been of activated and that's you know if you think about it if you've been under chronic stress and haven't given your nervous system or you're buying something at rest. Right. Nervous system is adapted to that. That's true. Actually, you know, adaptive in a survival thing. But, you're not going to sleep well. Yeah. So that affects your, you know, resistance. And so I think that that's sort of how I use it. Yeah. I think that's interesting because I think also probably a lot of the, you know, women that we take care of in their 40s, you know they might have had kids like in their mid 30s or late 30s. And so then you also in or maybe even in their 40s. Right. Especially if we're talking about high achieving women. And then, you know, you've got like a 43 year old with a four year old that still wakes up, you know, several times through the night and they're going through perimenopause. It's just hard. Yeah I'm like Me. Yeah. No it's hard. Yeah. Figuring out how to navigate with those. You know I think that's what's so incredible about stress. You know your body is it's designed to handle stress. Right. Not designed to have no stress and no more ideas. And how you how do you balance. Yeah. Homeostasis. Think about I think about that in terms like homeostasis is you have to have there's a certain like guardrails. You have to have your temperatures. Yeah. To do that. Right. Yeah. There's ALS which is like your body's ability to adapt. Yes. Your blood pressure is allowed to grow. When you're about to. Right. But the whole idea. Yeah. Right. To go back down. Now you have this Allostatic load.. Yes. It's you know leads to lots of problems. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And okay so when you're working with patients and you're doing nervous system work is part of that work. But it sounds like part of that work is helping them to sleep better. And so how do you approach that to you. I mean probably with some women you might give them progesterone because that often helps. But then is it like exercises before bed like diaphragmatic breathing or are you doing vagus nerve stuff or maybe like supporting Gaba pathways. There's just a lot of there's a lot of different tricks and levers, but I'm always trying to collect more pearls from my own purse. So tell me all the things. What do you do? Different things. I think that sleep is so great. Yeah. One of the most foundational, helpful, tools. First they have to buy in and sense. Right. Know that you have to. Yeah. Right. Things that you can control that. You know I love magnesium. I love glycine. Yeah. And, Yeah. Definitely like a nighttime science. It sounds so simple. Right. Like animals. Like it's not gonna help but it will. Yeah. It really does. Like if you do all the things. Yeah. And I think that's where I think some of the mindfulness comes in. You know you have to have time for like like I think fun. Yeah. I love that you make time during the day if even if that's at night instead of what we all do, we all say we don't have time at all. Yeah. I think I think, yeah, it's that vegetative kind of like just, you know, just not thinking about anything hard. But yeah I like that white space. That's a really good way to say it. Yeah. And just like make time for it. And then at the end of the day just instead of you know I'll talk about things sometimes it's like well I saw all the stuff I my to do. Kind of like a parking lot. Yeah. You know these are like kind of let your brain. Yeah. Tell your brain like okay I recognize that I didn't finish. I have to do this. I'm going to put the right down and then I'm going to. Yeah. And then I'm going to either you know think about three things I'm grateful for. Yeah. And I could you know spend more time with my children. Yeah. More meaningful. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think like that. Along with some supplements. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've had a lot of success with, glycine and magnesium, like you said. And, I don't know, I really like a product by Simonton called. Relax, Max. Yeah. It has, like, a little bit of Gaba and a little l-theanine and, a couple of other great things. I think it has a nice Tulsa. It's a nice little. It's a nice, nice little cocktail. But yeah, I think that solving sleep issues is one of the biggest things for patients. And it's tricky. I mean, I I've had patients also sometimes use PMF mats that can help just make them feel really relaxed before bed. But it's just it's so below individual. And then of course, like circadian rhythm. And so if they can, you know it's right. And so if you don't I mean most people will have a hard time getting up and going outside. Honestly, looking at the sun, I know that we say like go outside and get ten minutes of sunlight, but it's like when you've got three kids, you got to get to school on time. You got to make them breakfast and you got to work on time. It's really hard to make time for those ten minutes. Like, how do you do that? So I don't know, maybe the I think that there's some lux lights that you can get. Some people will do. I have one of those. I you know I'm pretty consistent with it. Does it help to use it like while you get ready in the morning or how do you do it. So you have to be. Yeah. It's really close to it's you can't. Yeah. So, you know, it's it's a bit hard. Yeah. It's not going to happen. But, you know, for night when I can do the ten minutes or so. Yeah. And I live in new Jersey. Yeah. It's winter. It's a long winter. Yeah. Can be. So, so I try to use it as much as possible, but, yeah, it's a little challenging to operationalize. But if you do get up and, you know, are you are checking your emails, you can actually do it at the same time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's cool. I think I saw something recently that's like these little glasses that you can wear even. Have you seen those? I feel like is it a gimmick or should I get it? I don't know, maybe I should get it. Try it. Yeah. do you use vagal nerve stimulators at all? So. Right. So. Tell me about all the tools. Yeah. I mean so yes because I think breathing obviously diaphragmatic breathing is going to be the best tool that you can use. But a lot of people don't have the patience for that. And it's like I will not sit for ten minutes and do deep belly breathing. I can't focus and I get that. So then what do you do? So I mean this is where it really is. For someone to just even like explore. Yeah it feels nice based on there. Yeah. Wonderful. A wonderful option that patients love. Yeah. But I do try to still, I still think the breathing is important. Yeah. And so, you know, it's hard to. It's hard. It's hard for me to accept that, like, you can't do it. Yeah. It's, like, really hard for me, but, And I try to tell people, just start with a little thing. Habits. I love habit stacking. Yeah. Work smarter, not harder. Yeah. Like an A for me. We have a joke in my family sometimes it's a dinner table. I'm oftentimes just like relax. But but you know we're now going to like relax. Yeah. Enjoy like our time together right. Yeah. So so for me that's like and and so like and sometimes when I'm doing things I just have to do. Anyways, I'm driving to work. Yeah. So whenever I'll do the breathing. Yeah. I love that. I could be washing my dishes with everything clenched and. Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, so I tell people there's times that you don't have to necessarily like carve out 20 minutes and sit on a cushion in the corner. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I love that that's been I think I've been able to get through. And then it's really interesting when you start doing those sorts of things throughout the day. You develop this sort of connection to it. Like I'm around in the plane yesterday and I was like I'm like I need to. Yeah. Just kind of like get this far. Yeah. It promotes. You're doing it more and more. Yeah. So I just try to give massages. That's good. I love that. Yeah. Yeah I think even three minutes. Yeah. And, you know, back in the day, whilst I still use it a lot. But before there were all these other tools, I would always recommend the heart math and or balance product for patients, as I would be like you can. It's three minute cycles. You can literally go to the bathroom and do that for three minutes. You know, if you're having a hard day at work or whatever, you know, if you're feeling anxious or if you need to just clear your mind that it's been a while since I used to. Yeah it does. It's biofeedback. So it's telling you like you are in coherent three or not which can be a little stressful if you're not and you're like a high achiever. I'm like I'm failing. You know that I think the biofeedback makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I think just having, you know, for me, I think part of my journey, which I alluded to earlier, was like the idea of, of, of taking just steps and I try to get people to connect with their values. Yeah. Because it often starts with like something like for me as a doctor, I always felt like as a mom and a doctor, I was being pulled. I almost I had to say it like self parenting is like a stressor. Yeah. Like I, you know and I, you know you don't get a teaching award or accolades for like being a cheerleader. Yeah. I was always like, where should I be? Right. I wasn't actually, like, aware that I. I wasn't putting my energy in. Right. Right. And so hard in one direction. Yeah. It was almost like you're being, like, pulled with a current. And I had, like, put my feet on the ground. And I was like, you know, but being a parent, whatever it is that's really important. Yeah. That you're living that life. And so there's an exercise that you can do I think it's more in the back. But no, no it's not the back. It's like imagine your perfect day. You know about this. Yeah. Tell me about it. Yeah. Yeah. To to walk us through it. Yeah. But you do you do you obviously you got yourself to like and you do the same visualization as you could have a perfect day. Would you do from wake up to. Yeah. It look like. Yeah. It's it's incredibly grounding because it's like when I, you know. Right. Like it doesn't matter how I spend. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It's not. Then how do you take at least a baby step towards that? Yeah. You know, is it me saying no? Right. Right. I don't know how is. You know, I have to do that. Right. And then. And then now you learn how to set boundaries, and then what's the next? Right. Yeah. And that's why I said when I went on years and I. As a parent, like, But it starts right. It takes that first step. Yeah. And then that will, you know, lead you to the next step and to the next and. Yeah. And then I feel like the path kind of reveals itself. It does. Yeah. It really does. And I think you know, it's it's hard to say like I would have never said I'm going to do this. And then that leaving my. Yeah. Yeah. Your traditional career. Yeah. Like that. Just start. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Stick it out. Yeah. Make the space to bring it out. Yeah. Yeah. I I think that's where it gets tricky because a lot of times people are willing sometimes to change for health. But then like infrastructure of life and like these bigger questions that can be uncomfortable. Yeah. And scary. Yeah. Especially if you're patterned and doing something a very particular way. Then, you know, you have to relearn. But, you know, we're our brains are plastic, so we can. Yeah. Yeah. You know, maybe you learned early on, you know, in life or later in life that, you know, you know, learn to stress. Yeah. Stress for whatever reason. Just because it's been like that for for you 15 years. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad of that. I think that something that I probably have learned in my 40s, even though I knew it, but I really kind of have more. I've learned it more, and I'm really owning it. Is that the body is adaptable. You know, like, I think it's easy to think that our bodies are broken. I think that we live in a very adaptable organism. Right. And so that gives people a lot of hope. It gives me a lot of hope. So, you know, maybe I can teach my body to do something in a different way. Absolutely. And oftentimes we see things that like are broken. Maybe that is your body adapting, you know. Right. Right, right. Have the nervous system in that when you're younger if you're going to you know. The traumas are incredible. Right. And this one is you know. Yeah. You know so so but your body adapted your system adaptive in a way that helps you survive. Right. And so you know we have to honor that. Also recognize that maybe you know it doesn't have to stay that way for us. Yeah. So your body did the best it could with the resources it had. I think a lot of times that's what's happening. You have what's left and this and that. But you know like yeah I kind of going haywire. That's your body adapting to its environment. what do you say for, like, the women who come in and are doing all the things like you've probably seen, like the memes on social where, like, a woman's wearing a red light mask and she's standing on a vibrating plate and she's got, like, her clean water bottle and she's got her weighted vest on and she's doing all the things. Yeah. And like, she's doing all the things. And she's so exhausted and tired. Yeah. Usually that's what it is. Yeah. Right. And I think especially, such a good idea that I just need to work hard. Yeah. And push hard. I need to add more. Yeah. Yeah. I see this a lot in my living. You know, the room? They're they're trying to push harder. Yeah. It's it's it's it's hard to, it's hard to grasp but they actually. Yeah. You know and they're, it's sometimes something to keep more. Yes. Yes. And it's, it's like it's, it's a, it's a hard concept. Yeah. To get through. When you read that. Yeah. Because I think if you're used to just like, you know white knuckling it and just like doing it and doing the hard work, like why wouldn't it work now. Yeah. And as I'm doing harder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's. Yeah. All the time. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so yeah, oftentimes it's a conversation as this is a time to actually like take care of your body. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. And that's the body. So yeah that's typically what I, what I find. And then the results actually happen. Yeah. You know not necessarily you, you know sometimes it takes a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Start feeling right. Right. Right. The results will happen. Yeah. It's definitely a relearning. Yes. Yeah. I mean, if I could prescribe sabbaticals to my patients, I would. I try when I can. Yeah. Yeah. Like some sometimes. Yeah. I'll write it and say like, because, you know, sometimes people will be in between jobs. They'll be like, they can take some time off, like do it. Take a month off, take three months off, do it. Well and that's uncomfortable. Because I think you know we live in a society is very productive. Yeah. Yeah. Or Right. And the idea and if you've been living in this kind of sympathetic state. For years and years and years it feels uncomfortable. Yeah. Against your identity. Yes. That's a good point. Because your identity is it's, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. Productive person. Yeah. Right. And so it's like it threatens your identity and also like your nervous system is like, it's like, this is not where I feel comfortable. I'm supposed to be stressed. Yeah. Right. What am I doing? Yeah. So that's awesome. So what has been the results? Amazing. Yeah. They all get better. I think about, like, you know, do you remember, like, reading in, like, old classics, like when I was, you know, when we were kids, like, people would prescribe their patients to go get Mountain air or Sierra or whatever. They were sick, like. Do you remember that, like, in Haiti or, and like some of those books, like you would just tell someone to go, they would just tell you to go to the seaside for like a summer or go up to the mountains for a summer, and then they all get better. I know, and I think when you look at even just like there. Yeah. Like the therapy has been amazing. Yeah. Like. Yeah. Spanish flu. Isn't that what they, they put everyone outside in the sun. Right. And you know, we we totally. Then we totally lost sight of, of the value that we have. Yeah. Like that every, you know, an awesome. So, yeah, we kind of lost track of some of those. Yeah. Yeah. So you know a lot of our audience are clinicians and you know summer season clinicians in the space of integrative and functional medicine longevity medicine. But some are just learning. So what would you tell someone who is, you know, really wanting to maybe break out of their, you know, normal clinic schedule where they're seeing 30, 35 patients a day and they are just having this yearning to do something different. But it feels scary. And overwhelming, and they don't even know how to take the first step. What would you say? I would say just start taking the steps. Right. So I think, you know, whatever that might look like. Right. So for me, it was, you know, I just started doing my own training while I was doing my while. Yeah. You know, and and it just gradually, like, it just was like one, just one decision in ten months. Yeah. Would be my best advice. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's a right answer, but I think, like. Yeah, maybe just take a course or, you know, even find a mentor or talk to someone that's doing it, you know, because I think that most of us in the space, like, I'm always happy to tell people like, yeah, like, think about it or this is how I did it. You know, don't be, you know, reluctant to, like, ask for help or ask someone that's done it also. And there's lots of different ways. Yeah, there's so many ways. You know, you could start a. Yeah. Like, yeah, you could do locums and start something. You could add it. Yeah. You could just add it to your traditional start working on things with your patients and then, you know, you're going to reap the fruit of that. And then after that maybe you'll have more confidence to like then change your practice a little bit. If you have the capacity to do that. Or maybe then it's the time to like step out on your own and then yeah, it's very interesting. He has the model, right? Yeah. Yeah. He, he started off doing just you know. Yeah. And then he added integrated components and he charges, you know, a C I think per year. Yeah. Just be able to spend the time. It's you know it's it's a very reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. An added layer and I think that's amazing. Yeah. Eventually maybe he was like you want to do fully integrated or whatever. But they're always looking at you. Yeah. Yeah. But the first step is yeah being curious and learning and and I would say most importantly, definitely like look at yourself. Right. Because I found that like if I don't, if I, if I don't know how to do any of this stuff or I'm not doing the things right. Yeah. Can you ask someone else to do it? It's just it's not going to, man. Yeah, I agree with that for sure. Do you have any, like, exciting outlooks for things coming down the pipeline in medicine, or do you just feel like we already have most of what we need and we just need to implement that? Like what excites you? And then also what what do you think you kind of need to cling to as well? I'm from the old, and using AI. Yeah. To really use this data that we have in patients in a way that's more. Efficient is the word. But just want to agree. Yeah. You better. You know, I sit down at some of these. Yeah. And tasty has been for hours. Yeah. Human brain does the best that my human brain can do. But, you know, there's. I think there's power. Yeah, absolutely. I, I am excited about peptides. Yeah. We've had some very exciting stuff. Do you have any favorite ones right now? Yeah. Like everything else. Peptides. Yeah. I like to think of peptides as a way that we, help get the wins. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's any chance. Yeah. Yeah. So we do we do like, we do I mean we have lots of different ones. Yeah. We do the typical ones. Yeah. Those are your favorite needle movers. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. But we, we use a lot of them. Yeah. Really exciting. Yeah. That's great. So that's exciting. that mean I. All this stuff I think is, like, on the horizon? Yeah. You know, medicine to change. I'm also excited about psychedelics. Oh, yeah. You know, there's, you know, sometimes we might shift. Yeah. I think we should. And and love that some seeds are already in. Yeah. I hope I see the follow up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like in my, in new Jersey, I don't know. The state wasn't planning to know. Which can be very very transformative. Yeah. Yeah. But be great. Yeah. Yeah. Well and there's powerful studies coming out of like Duke and big some big institutions. Yeah. No I mean the results. Yeah. Yeah. And in military too I think. Yeah. Yeah. You know. How powerful experiences can be with existential dread. Yeah. Of, of of that is I think very kind of beautiful. You know I hope it's about this month. Yeah. Wow. And not had not learned about that. That's amazing. Yeah. Like the whole idea of having that sort of spiritual experience like transitioning. You know how incredible. Wow. And there's studies like there's clinical trials going on right now looking at that in the, in hospice okay. That's interesting. It's very varied. Yeah. Wow. That's cool. Yeah. I think I'm also really excited about. I, I like I love the convergence of being able to put data in, ask questions, pull up every study from like, the whole world and then, you know, just have that information at my fingertips. I feel like that's been really useful. I appreciate that so much. It's like having a PhD assistant, you know, at my beck and call that's been nice. I'm excited about peptides, too. I'm excited that, like, the FDA is going to allow more peptides to be used again. I think that just happened this weekend. So, and I'm, I'm really excited to see what we can do to really help optimize, longevity. But I am also kind of such an old school kind of gal that sometimes I wonder if don't we don't we not already have some of these answers, you know, like I totally agree, and I think that the idea of longevity being about preventing illness. Is such a long missed opportunity and longevity is about like. Yeah. Right. And you know that's not the absence of. Right. That's having joy. Yeah. Living a life full. Right. Value is not always easy. Right. And so I think like we get lost in the. Yes I wonder. Yeah. You all these things and those things do matter. Yeah. Don't get too caught up in optimizing. Just living. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think for me as if my thing is about life. Yeah. Yeah. enjoy your life, you better enjoy your life and maybe not do the healthiest thing than to, like, live this super duper healthy life and then, like, be all sour and sad about everything, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Think about your health. Yeah. But I think that I think that that is appealing to a lot of people right now. Yeah. And I think that's I, I really do believe it's, it's not an it's not an either. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think both are true. Yeah. Yeah. You have to balance it. Yeah. Right. For you. Yeah. Yeah. I think the world is just so weird because, you know, we're 24 over seven connected and we're always getting notifications, and then we're always, you know, hearing about all the bad news everywhere and not really any good news. And so everything seems like looking like a true threat. Right. So how do you not live in sympathetic dominant mode? It's so true. And I think yeah I mean your body doesn't know the difference between yeah, what you're watching on the news and reality like like it could be a predator in your home. Yeah. So that is it is really important and I think and we and and I'm sure it's been like this you know. Yeah. That's true. You know so but it's so, so it's kind of like the idea that stress is always there, but it certainly feels heightened. It is for me but I think when our parents were, you know, our age, they had newspapers and they had like news broadcasts like once a day. And we were just getting, like, all of it shoved down our throats all day long. Yeah. Well, and I think that's our choice. That's true. Like I, I tell patients all the time. Yeah, you have to eat. Of course you want to be informed. Yeah. And then there's there's a limit. Yeah. You know. Yeah, I, I, I recently just started using the brick on my phone. Do you ever use that or have you heard of it? It's like this little device. I don't know how it works, but you download the app and then you swipe it with your phone, and you can block everything that you want to block, like you can choose. So you can you can block social, you can block specific websites. Like if you're always checking the news. So it kind of helps you read pattern. Like even if you go to check it, you can't do it so you don't get that dope. I mean, it is probably a good thing. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I know, I told my son today, I was like, I'm going to break your phone. Yeah. Yeah, probably. yeah I think you're right. I think we often forget that we have a choice. I think and that was me for so long. Yeah. I was like this is just my life. It's like no. Yeah. Right. Of course there are things that you know to. Yeah. There's some things that you absolutely can't, you don't have a choice about, but you can choose how many times you check the news, you can choose the news, how many times you go on social. Like those are things that you can choose. Yeah. Like the social circles of control. Right. And so, you know, there's many things you can control, but there are some things you can control. And if you can control your piece, I think it does make a difference. Yeah. I have a long time ago it was. Cool. I mean. Oh, cool. One of the things you do is just really like analyze your time and like how much time do I spending on things that dream instead of having that you know, make me feel good. Yeah. And like, you kind of do like a real assessment of, like, how much of this is. Absolutely. Yeah. How much of my time I wasted on things, you know. That's so interesting. That whole, exercise. Because I think if you just. Did, you get caught in that. Yeah. Like, you don't have a lot of fun, right? Because there are things that you. Yeah, you do that you have to. Totally. I had that conversation with my son this morning. Like, there are a lot of things that you're just going to have to do, even though it's not fun. But there are a lot of things that you can choose, and that's where you focus your right. Focus your energy all day. You know, you get to choose what you spend your energy on. So if you want to spend your energy, set of things that you have to do that you can control and you can do that, right, or you know, you can try to focus on the time that you do have and like making that as valuable as possible. And I think that's where the. Yeah. Yeah. The, the situation that right. Oh my goodness. Well, this was such a wonderful conversation. And I am so glad that you came on the show today. You have lots of awesome pearls and a lot of wisdom. So, Can you let us know where we can find you? Where patients can or, you know, clinicians or patients? Anyone watching can find you on social media, can find your practice, can learn more about you and your work. Yeah, sure. So, our practice is called Know Wellness. We're in, new Jersey and so on. Website is number one. And so you know, that has social media, and also my personal social media is brand is jam I love it. Okay. Awesome. Well thanks so much. Thank you. Yeah. 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