The Bossticks - Hormonal Health Uncovered Ft. Brianna Bitton & Dr. Jessica Shepherd On Acne, PMS, PCOS, & Reproductive Wellness

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

#790: Join us as we sit down with Brianna Bitton & Dr. Jessica Shepherd – the co-founder & founding founding medical advisor of O Positiv. Supported by a team of board-certified doctors, O Positiv Health is dedicated to empowering women through every stage of life, from their first period to post-menopause. In this episode, Brianna & Dr. Shepherd discusses the realities of the female reproductive system, shed light on the lack of resources, share personal insights into women's health, uncover hidden truths about birth control, & recommend how to take control of your hormones & reproductive health!   To connect with O Positiv click HERE   To connect with Brianna Bitton click HERE   To connect with Dr. Jessica Shepherd click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697)   This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential   Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn's favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes.   This episode is sponsored by O Positiv   Visit OPositiv.com and use code SKINNY for 25% off all O Positiv products.    Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

A lot of the Western diet and just what we're exposed to from like pesticides and how we prepare foods really has wreaked havoc on our body internally and inflammation, but all our insulin and glucose. And that's kind of the halt of PCOS. PCOS is not an ovarian disease. PCOS is really at the core insulin glucose issue and a metabolic issue. We're finally talking about it. I think that maybe it has been going on forever, right? And women's health has just been so historically overlooked that we're finally getting to a place where we're comfortable to talk about these things. We have a duo on the show today. Brianna Bitten, she's the co-founder of O Positive Health,

and she is joined by Dr. Jessica Shepard, who is a founding member of O Positive Health, and she's also a board-certified OBGYN. This episode is really honest, and it's breaking taboos when it comes to the vagina. You're going to learn everything you need to know about the vagina in this episode. I think Michael's eyeballs were popping out of his head.

There's a lot to learn. And I feel like women's sexual health is being talked about more and more. And this is a great conversation because we get the doctor perspective. And then we also get the founder of O Positive Health, who has a personal experience. And she'll tell you her story, which is really great. I hope you all love this very candid and open conversation. Dr. Jessica and Brianna, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential.

Him and her. One of my favorite things about this show is I get to indirectly manipulate my husband and have him to learn about all the things that he would never listen to me on. You know what we had? And you're stuck in here too. Stuck. You can't leave. I feel like this is surprisingly enough not going to be the craziest conversation I've had on this podcast with women.

We'll see though. Give us the verdict at the end. Yeah. And we'll see. We'll check the barometer at the end. Let's introduce you guys to the audience so we can get some context. Why don't we start with you? So my name is Brianna Bitten.

I'm the co-founder of O Positive. And we're a women's health company. We specialize in vitamins and supplements for women through their first period, all the way through menopause and beyond. Yeah, I founded this company with my brother about six years ago. And we're so happy to be here. Hi, I'm Dr. Jessica Shepherd. I'm a board-certified gynecologist and here with the O-Positive team on the medical advisory board. And one of the things that I think O Positive really brings to light is the stories.

The stories of women and how to use that as the momentum to have the formulations and coming up with a wide array of different products that meet women at every stage of their life. Why did you decide to be a gynecologist? That is such an interesting question. The reason I actually decided to be an OBGYN was because of babies. They're so cute. But then I loved gynecology. So obstetrics is the practice that we're. do during pregnancy, but gynecology is like anything outside of pregnancy. And I think I loved

being able to talk to women from adolescence and puberty all the way up to older age and like really capturing all of their experiences. Was there a lot of men in your class or was it all women? There were actually more women than men. But now I remember when I was in residency, we finally cross the threshold for females to go over 49% of all OBGYN residents. no offense to men I would rather I've always been since I was 16

I would rather have a female and to each its own I just always wanted a female gynecologist Have you ever been to a male gynaecologist? I haven't Oh interesting I feel like it's just a sisterhood

like you're going to a doctor who gets it like you could talk about your symptoms and most likely they've had them too so it just makes you feel more comfortable I have a question would you go to a female urologist probably

you would yeah they're qualified what if they were like if they were like the best one and I had a real issue going on and then there was like a guy and he maybe wasn't like yeah I think if it comes to medical stuff I'm like I need to figure out who really knows their shit that's where I'm going I just prefer a female I feel like if I'm going to be a neurologist there's probably something going on I'm like I need somebody that's qualified here Brianna what is your aha moment with this like why did you decide to get into this arena.

So I was struggling with period cramps like crazy. I was calling out of work. I was working as Walt Disney Imagineer. I was designing the theme parks. And it was so fun. But that's the background I come from. I was a normal girl working in corporate America and having just debilitating cramps, mood swings.

I was a disaster to be around, like a raging bitch, if you will. And it was affecting my life. And my brother and I were talking about. we were actually living together at the time in an apartment. And so he was like witness to all of this craziness. And he's super involved in wellness. And we're talking about starting a company and supplements and wellness because we're so passionate about that. And I was like, is there anything that women can do to proactively help with their period? So instead of taking like an ibuprofen or go on birth control, like is there anything we can do to help this from the inside out? So we started looking into it and realized that there were very amazing, clinically tried ingredients that were proven to help PMS. So that was our first product, the first ever PMS gummy vitamin flow. And that's what we created. That was our first baby.

What's like an ingredient that's random that we wouldn't even think of? So there's Chasbury, there's donquay. There are all these ingredients that have been vitamin B6 been around for centuries, right? Like, we've, they've been used in, like, medicine and Eastern medicine forever. I mean, this is a compliment. The Disney background's making sense. You're very animated. Oh, my gosh.

Thank you. I am. I talk with my hands a lot. I cannot imagine seeing her PMSing when you're like, I was such a bitch. I'm like, I can't see it. Oh my gosh. You're too kind. I mean, I'm fine right now.

Yeah, ask my family. It's funny because, like, I didn't even realize I was PMSing, but the entire family was like, oh, God, watch out. Did you find out? She's a monster. She's a monster. She's a monster. The root cause of the severity of your cramps was, or was it just normal cramps?

So, actually, through the research, too, we discovered that, like, cramps and PMS isn't necessarily normal. Like, you shouldn't really, and Dr. Shepard can speak to this as well, but you shouldn't really be experiencing PMS. It's a hormonal imbalance. So for me, as well, I have the copper IUD because I can't do the birth control pill. It just doesn't work with my body. and makes me, again, like really crazy and hormonal. But so the copper IUD makes your periods really gnarly. That's what I heard.

I heard that the, and you can maybe speak to this Dr. Shepard, I heard that the IUD intensifies cramps. Well, I would say the copper one. I think the copper one, you know, just kind of for all the patients that I've seen, that usually is the one where we'll see a little bit more cramps. And the reason actually behind that is there's two reasons. So of all IUDs, there's ones that have hormones and then there's ones that dome, which is the copper. And so the copper one, just like by slight measurements a little bit

bigger than the other ones. And so sometimes that can be kind of the cause of having more cramps. But the other thing is the hormones, the one with the hormones, is there and it kind of calms and quiets the uterus because of the hormones. So if you don't have hormones, then you're more likely to have pain with your period because there's nothing there to kind of create this kind of environment where the progesterone is kind of calming the uterus down. And so the one without hormones is just not giving you any hormones. And it's a touch bit bigger. But yeah, that is something, a feature that most people will say is that I might feel a little bit more cramps. But the beauty of it is that it's a birth control option that doesn't have hormones. Yeah. What do you think about all the stuff

that's coming out about birth control now? I, after talking to a lot of scientists and doctors like yourself, I've just like learned so much about the birth control pill that I almost feel bad for the 16 year old me who went to Planned Parenthood knowing nothing about it, getting on this pill for 10 years. I just, I didn't, I didn't have the tools. What is your opinion? I like to take a full approach to it. You know, being a scientist and knowing what we see in a general population of women, when I say general, I'm in like global population of women is I do have appreciation for it because when you think about when it was made back in the 40s, this was when there was nothing. Like, women really had nothing for pregnancy prevention. It was just prophylactics for men. Right.

That's what it was. And so that to me was the beginning, I would say, at least, of women being able to say, this is the choice I would like to make with my body. And this might be the thing that I have to take in order to make that choice. So kind of put that in a bucket of like, yes, women are being able to make a choice and decide what they would like to do with their body when it comes to pregnancy. Now, fast forward, we've done so many different things with the kinds of hormones that we put in actual birth control pills. It's, it's, it's, that used to be so much estrogen that it was like causing blood clots. We've really, really changed that. What I will say is that I think that we need to kind of be more innovative in how we're creating the hormones that go in the birth control. So the, the, the good

thing is that, you know, in the science field, we do a lot of research and data that looks at. What are the outcomes that we've seen in the last 20, 30 years of use of these things. And is it causing harm? Is it something that we should maybe change? Is it something that we shouldn't use? I think that we can do a lot more work in looking at what we can actually do to be more innovative and what goes into it so that we can advise patients on a better, you know, example of what they can take for themselves. So I think that there's a lot that can be said in this whole arena. Like we could take a whole hour and talk just about birth control. I think our body is where they are today. We have a lot more environmental factors, endocrine disruptors that actually are causing a lot of the changes that birth control might be having

an interaction with. So I think it's something that we actually need to open the book again and say, let's take a refresher look at this and see what we have on the market and see how we can refine it and actually make it better. It's annoying because now that I have a daughter, I don't, I wouldn't want her to go on birth control. But at the same time, it's like, to your point, what do you do? I really think that they should do something for guys. Like, can the guys do something for fucking once? Did you know?

The easiest shit I've ever seen in my life. We'll be back on another episode. He's like, it's absurd. It's like, why doesn't the girl just take on everything? I know. And it's,

I saw something that like they put, you can like heat up their like balls or something. Like you can tell me more. Okay, I saw it on the internet. I'm chronically online. So like, who knows the validity. validity of this? But I did see there was like,

like a ball jacuzzi where you like heat up the balls and it makes it not temporarily well because this is true but they say like if you go those balls in a jacuzzi Michael Bostic they say if you're trying to procreate like I've heard I've had my friends like if you want to prograde as a man like you don't maybe don't want to do a bunch of hot saunas like it's actually good to go into cold first because it makes it closer to the body I don't know that's true I don't know it's very true actually what we have one product for males okay so practice is our pregnancy sector kind of. I thought you were going to say you had a ball jacuzzi for me.

No, but it boosts sperm production in males to help with conception. That's amazing. Yeah. So our conception support, we have like, it's a counter product. So we have a prego for women that has KU10 and all these great ingredients to help make your eggs as healthy as possible. And then there's a male counterpart for your partner to help this firm production and the mobility.

And because it sounds silly to say this. But when we were researching this, obviously, 50% of infertility is the male's responsibility. And it's so crazy that it gets projected onto the woman because the guy's insecure. Just kidding. We've done all these. I've been a big proponent. I've said that a lot of times there's even like the cap test where it shows like the male sperm, even if it swims well, it can't penetrate the egg. And it's a male problem.

I think a lot of, we've been vocal. We're not going to put Michael on your product, though, because he does not need any more sperm. I've got enough sperm. We're taking a place. I just got salmon semen on my face. I'm semened up to my head. Can I ask you one more question as it relates to birth control? We don't have to stay on it for too long.

But say for the parents out there listening whose daughters are coming in and they're starting at a young age, is there a direction you kind of point them in to say like, you know, is it an IUD? Is it a pill? Is there a... That's what I love that we've done differently over the last, I guess you could say 40 decades, is we've given more breath. to what's available. So that's really the conversation on what it should be because most times you only think of a birth control pill. But there are actually so many different ways that we can provide contraceptives that I think if you walked into, you know, for people who are listening, if you walk into a doctor's office and you're wanting to get some feedback on contraceptives, if your only option

walking out is the pill, then that's not a good visit. There should be much more discussion around what this means and what your choices should be. And is there something that you kind of like push people towards or do you kind of... No, I actually like to hear their story first, see where they are, what their lifestyles like, are they good at remembering to take something every day versus not? And then also asking, what is the outcome you're looking for? Because some of these birth control options can really help with cramps or they can decrease bleeding or there's so many different features. So it really should be like the storytelling and then kind of like giving the menu so you can kind of pick and choose. I would like take a birth control on a Monday and then it'd be like Friday and it'd be

like, fuck. You forgot. Yeah. Double up. And then I was like, take 10 and it's like, let's up. This doesn't do anything. Oh, my gosh. One more question and this may be an ignorant question. No, ask your ignorant questions. We can't wait. We're on the edge of our seat. I've heard

people say they stay on this because of like acne. If they're not having to preclude from procreating, like do you recommend that or do you say, hey, do something different? Yeah, we actually work a lot with dermatologists when they have patients who are like in the reproductive age or like younger and they'll send them actually to the OBGYN to kind of give them what birth control should

we put them on because it actually really works really well for acne. What is it doing? Yeah, it's fascinating science behind it. So what it does birth control is it actually decreases the receptor that bind to testosterone. And so if you have less testosterone around, then you're going to have the decrease oily skin, the decrease acne and all the things that come with. Just, you know, a subtle shift in your testosterone. But really helping that testosterone level go down is really what's going to impact the skin. And then also estrogen is like, oh my God, estrogen for the skin is great because it increases like blood flow and like, because think about when you're pregnant, right? Most people will be like my skin was flawless during pregnancy because estrogen goes up. So yeah.

But that's also kind of why we founded flow was to give women an alternative to taking birth control to help with their hormonal acne, help with their cramps, help with all of those things. because that was, at least from my experience, as a 16-year-old going into the doctor, that was kind of the only option for me at the time. I wasn't using it even at that age as a contraceptive. It was like a nerdy little high schooler. But, you know, the cramps and the acne and giving women another option and a way to balance their hormones if maybe acne is the concern and they don't need a contraceptive at the time.

So we wanted to provide women with something natural. And I think that's really smart because I remember when I was getting off birth control, and I've told the story before on the podcast, but I was going to just get prescribed to spirulina lactane, which is like the thing in it that helps supposedly. I don't know if that's true. But that's cool that you guys have given people a more natural option to switch off more gracefully and seamlessly without feeling like they have to just go on something else. Yeah.

And I think that's important too, is to just to make sure that there should be no shame on either side of it. Exactly. Is that if you decide to take one versus not, that it's okay. But that's the beauty in having these products is that you still have an option outside of taking all these other things. Why are we seeing such a surge in PCOS? Like what is going on? I have PCOS. Yeah. Why is? I want to know why I've never seen so many women talk about this. I know. It feels like it's everywhere. I had an ovarian cyst rupture a year ago. And it's so funny. of this entire brand all revolves around things that have happened to me. Like, I'm a complete

disaster. Like, I'm such a mess. So, had an ovarian cyst ruptured, discovered that I had PCOS. And when they went in there to, like, do the surgery and fix me, they discovered I had endometriosis, too. So do you think perhaps the reason that you had such bad cramps was because of the endometriosis? Potentially. And I never knew about it. it. And with endo, there's really no way to know if you have it unless you go in, right? For sure. Yeah, that's the diagnostic tools. You have to go in surgically. If someone's listening, what are the things that they should be looking for. Endometriosis is typically what we'll see very, like, painful cramps. So cramps are, the uterus is contracting during your period.

So that's usually why people feel cramps is because it's contracting and we sense that is pain. So when they're elevated and like really increased, like people are in the fetal position or can't go to school, can't go to work and it's really debilitating, that is a clue for a practitioner or a doctor to being like, hmm, I wonder if this patient has endometriosis. Then the other thing is that we tend to find the longer that people have endometriosis and it's not diagnosed, we'll start to have like pain in between their periods. So it's not dependent on the cycle. It starts to be in between the periods and that's because of the endometriosis in the pelvis is responding, whether it's your period or not. And that is a good telltale sign as well.

In both of your opinions, I'd love to hear both. Why do you think people are having women so much of a hard time getting pregnant? Is it because we're saturated with more content so we're seeing it more? Or is it because there's something going on with cleaning supplies or endocrine disrupt? Like what is going on? Because I see it everywhere about infertility. and we've had a lot of experts come on the podcast. What are you guys have been around this world?

What are your opinions on that? I mean, from a social perspective and from being involved in this company perspective, I think number one, it's that we're finally talking about it. I think that maybe it has been going on forever, right? And women's health has just been so historically overlooked that we're finally getting to a place where we're comfortable to talk about these things. I think that, but also the birth rates have been going down. Like if you look at France, it's like the last, since like the World War II, it's the lowest live birth that there's been since then.

And I think. Yeah. I also think maybe, I mean, I'm 32 and single and thinking about freezing my eggs, I also think people are having babies later in life. And that's a contributing factor. And Dr. Shepard. Yeah. There's multiple reasons why we start to see this. One, because of our environment, I think a lot of it has to do with food, kind of like the environment, toxins.

And that really disrupts internally our body and the ability for a body to function the way that it does consistently all the time. The other thing is age. Age is just one of those things that we can't say that we're not aging when we are. So if we wait longer, which is fine. But with that comes just biologically for a female, we are born with all the eggs we'll ever have. And so as we start to age and they kind of decline and their quality declines, that's just something that we can't fight. And then the last thing that I would say is that we really, when I'm going to go back to food and diet, is a lot of the Western diet and just what we're exposed to from like pesticides and how we prepare our foods really has wreaked havoc on our body internally and inflammation, but all our insulin and glucose. And that's kind of the, the halt of PCOS. PCOS is not an ovarian disease. PCOS is really at the core insulin glucose issue and a metabolic issue. That is so weird that you say that because I just talked to a doctor on air who told me that people who are going on OZMPIC are getting pregnant left and right.

And OZMPIC and I'm not a scientist, but it does something with your insulin. Is that correlated? It's completely true. So a GLP basically is a drug that we've used for years before it was a weight loss drug specifically for diabetics. Because we were controlling the rate at which insulin is absorbing glucose and correcting that whole. relationship. So once that's corrected, your hormones actually can respond better, like all over your body, your thyroid, your reproductive hormones. And so when we started to see that people were now taking it for weight loss, one, they're losing weight, which is going to help with increasing

pregnancy rates, but two, they were correcting their insulin glucose ratio and boom, getting pregnant. So as a doctor, if someone comes into your practice and they're overweight, would you use GLP-1s as a tactic to get pregnant? It's kind of like indirectly. So if they're like, I want to get pregnant, we would do the same thing we would do with anyone else. Look at like, what are the reasons why? I'm looking at everything. But we do know that obesity has, for as long as we've known, been one of those things that's going to decrease your actual pregnancy or ability to get pregnant. So I do suspect that we may start to use it as that. But right now I can see people using it indirectly, saying, hey, let's look at you and let's try to use a GLP and see if we

can get your weight decreased all the while. Let's see if we can get you pregnant too. So Dr. Shepard, if women or couples come to you and say, hey, we're trying to procreate and what, do you give them a couple of things that they should maybe start thinking about doing before they start trying? Yeah, absolutely, because that is at the core of figuring out because infertility, when we look at one in eight couples or single people have infertility issues. There are so many reasons why, but a category of infertility is unexplained, which is the worst diagnosis because we'll work up everything. And then at the end, we're like, God dang it, we didn't get in one of these little compartments that could have caused it. Now it's unexplained.

You've been around all different kinds of women because of what you're doing, Brianna. What are some things that have shocked you about this space that you didn't know? Oh, my gosh. So much. I would say, I would say that how many women are struggling silently would be the biggest surprise. I, when I started this, I thought I was kind of like going out on a limb. I was not the one to be talking about my period in public. That was not my MO. But then when I started to talk about it and I started to ask my friends and have these little focus groups, everybody was going through something. So I would say that noticing that PCOS was wreaking havoc, noticing that so many of my friends were calling out safe. And

because of their periods and really just having these experiences that we didn't feel comfortable enough talking about openly in public. It wasn't truly until when we launched Flow about like five, six years ago, our ads were some of the first to say period or PMS on Instagram. Like there were not people posting about their period on the internet. It's so interesting to me. I remember being in class with you. And in getting my period and not thinking it was a big deal and didn't understand. And people are, this is when I'm like 13. People were so weird about it.

Yeah. And we were also 13-year-old kids, so everyone's weird about everything. Of course. But you'd like slip your tampon up your sleeve and like sneak or bring your entire bag to the bathroom with you or whatever. You know? I will say they didn't have pretty wrapping back then when I was. So it was like very obvious. Now they're like, well, make it a pink or yellow with flowers on him.

I never had a tampon. I only had a pad. I have a really weird theory. Are you guys ready for this? Yes, tell us everything. The doctor might, you might have to plug your ears. I believe this is my own deductions. I think that there's endocrine disruptors in the applicators and the tampons and toilet paper from the stuff that I've looked into.

And I think it's fucking crazy that girls once a month take a plastic microplastic thing, shove it in their vagina and then let it sit up there. Sorry, Michael, but I don't understand that. And then I also don't understand if you really deep dive of what's in like drugstore toilet paper, how we're wiping down there with all of these toxins. And we're expecting some great result. I think that that's part of the problem. I think that the industry actually has shown that too. You weren't shocked. No, I hear that all the time. I think that that's why you. do start to see a lot of these other companies who are coming out with more organic forms, like, you know, there's coral and then there's honeypot. And so you'll start to see a lot of this

shifting towards exactly what you said. So people who are sitting there and saying, I think that this may be a cause. So I'm going to create a product that actually does the thing that I want it to do. It would make sense, though, because it's a habit that so many women are doing. We're all doing the same habit. And a lot of us are getting a bad result. You guys should do. tampons next. I know. And in this, like, branding would be so cute. I know.

We've... Look at this. Ideas here. Sorry. I like it. Ideas here. Growing ideas. Stay tuned, maybe.

But, uh, make them, like, really aesthetically pleasing that because we don't... Cute cases. A case. Uh-huh. Maybe a, um, like a little, like, wallpaper situation on the package. Yes. Organic, non-toxic. We need you on the branding team, Lauren.

You're hired. I mean, I just think that, like, That is a huge problem. And I've always felt weird about that ever since I was little. So I've always worn pads. And all my friends make fun of me. They think it's like, but then I start to think, well, what's in the pad? Well, I was just going to say, one of the, one of the, up there.

90 other things with the, the cups and different disruptors. I think in general, there's a large amount of people that are starting. Oh, yeah, Michael, weigh in on tampons. Go ahead. That are just starting to agree that a lot of the things we eat and consume and drink and materials we use. like that needs to be maybe looked at again. Well, that's why we created the flow endocrine superfood. So our newest product is to support the endocrine system as a whole.

And that's really why we created it. So all of our products so far have been very hyper-focused on specific women's issues. So number one, vaginal probiotic at target, right? Like, it's always like we wanted to figure out the vaginal probiotic. We wanted to figure out menopause. We really wanted to focus on these issues that women deal with. But then when we were thinking about it, the background of all of these imbalances, everything, all of the discourse we're hearing about cortisol and insulin, all of these things.

It all is the undercurrent system. So it all roots back to this system that's behind the scenes controlling a majority of how we feel. No, it definitely means our weight. It's maybe like, I feel like it's going to be like the gut. Exactly. Yeah. It is. and no one's really addressing it holistically.

So, and the gut plays a huge part. Like, I'm forgetting the exact number. But all of our hormones, like excess hormones, are absorbed by the gut microbiome. So it's so crazy how we have this system that all works together to really make us feel our best, but is, like, kind of ignored. And then we're dealing with all of these disruptors, right?

Like our water has plastic. Everything has plastic. Our tampon applicators. Like, Michael, not to talk. I'm literally everything I direct toward Michael is about balls. I'm so sorry. Well, I can understand. I mean, it's too.

You know, underwear. Yeah, there's, I can't with the underwear. There's microplastics and guys' balls. I found non-toxic kids underwear. I have to link it in the show notes. No, you do. I learned that our daughters are wearing underwear that's filled with indocrine disruptors. Well, I did this.

I was talking about this the other day and like, I won't get into political stuff. But I was just saying, like, you know, a bipartisan issue is that I think there's general consensus that, like, it takes a lot of work just to find healthy alternatives and to live in a healthy way. It shouldn't be this hard to figure out what to use, what to eat, what to, like, what to wear. It's a real exercise. And I think, like, you know, Lord and I are fortunate. We have resources as we've gone. And, like, it's hard for us. So I can imagine people that struggle and don't have as many resources.

Like, how the hell are you supposed to know? Exactly. And I think about this for, like, for our kids and their kids. It's like, it's, you know, I talk to my parents about this. They're older. And like, they're like, they don't remember having to deal with all of this kind of stuff when they were younger. And these, a lot of these issues, and I'm sure, doctor, you've seen them, like, a lot of this stuff is, you know, we're living longer and we have a lot, we have a lot more at our disposal now. But it takes a real effort to just be health, just baseline healthy. Yeah, I mean, seven out of ten chronic diseases in the U.S. are avoidable. And that means it can be avoided through, like, diet. and or exercise or you know. Give us an example of a couple of what you mean by that. Oh, so for example, diabetes, hypertension, COPD, which is like chronic obstructive pulmonary

disease. How do you, is that exercise? So that would be like a lot of what we inhale, right? So exercise is going to decrease that, but also diet. A lot of it really has to do with diet because just like you were saying before, the body is really all connected. And so if the gut microbiome, which really connects with the brain, right? And so a lot of disruptors that you may ingest or not being excreted from the body, a lot of that blood is then shunted to the brain, right?

And so you have to think of what we're putting in our bodies is fueling our bodies. And so if they're all interconnected and we're not fueling it in the best way or we're in environments that kind of breed these things that are not great for our bodies, then that's when we start to have all of these issues. So we are living longer, but we're not living longer healthier. What are the tall-tail signs of an imbalance? And what do you both recommend to someone who thinks that they might be imbalanced? So what I've noticed is fatigue is a huge one, right? Like if you're feeling lethargic and tired, there's most likely something going on.

And chronic stress, right? Like, we are all chronically stressed as Americans. We're buzzed up and, like, always crazy. And just we have so many different, especially when, We're looking at the female hormones, right? Like something like PCOS, you're bloated all the time. You can even have facial hair. Like there's so many little signs that are very telling in a hormonal imbalance.

I think that a lot of it is everyone knows their body best. And when your body starts to not function in the way that it should be or used to in the past, I think that should be the kind of like that light bulb that goes off in your head is that something's off. And what in my lifestyle could I do to change that or get it back to the regulation that it used to be? And a lot of times it can be something as simple as like your daily activities that you're either not implementing something or you've taken something out that was extremely helpful for you. And again, I'll go back to like diet and exercise and the food that we take. And whether it's getting sunlight in the morning or grounding or making sure that we meditate to decrease our cortisol levels. I think those are things that everyone can take part in.

But I think as a whole, we all can take part as a community. And I think that was such a critical point that you brought up is that we need to make sure that we're watching all of these things that we're putting in our foods and in our and in our plastics. And so that really is now impacting everybody in a way that's like over time. Like what you've seen like you're saying. Yeah, we're seeing it over time that this is impacting everyone in a way where they're not showing up more healthy. Yeah, I mean, like we're vocal because we do this show and talk to people like yourself all the time that have an expertise. And, you know, sometimes we catch a lot of shit because what you're doing is you're telling people in some kind of time that like, hey, maybe you're not living the way you should be and that it feels like a personal attack. And it's not. It's just a lot of people are just unaware of the fact that they have different options or healthier options or maybe the things that they think are healthy are really not healthy. I mean, we were talking early about just cleaning supplies, like looking and seeing like, what are you actually cleaning with? Is it necessary all the time? I had a follow-up question for you. As a doctor, what do you find most challenging or frustrating for yourself when it comes to treating your patients? Yeah, I think, you know, even in the medical community,

we haven't done the best job in allowing people to have ownership of their own kind of journey in the things, again, that they do every day. So what we've, I think we've constructed this kind of relationship where we wait till we're sick and then we go to the doctor and we give you something, right? And so it becomes this transactional kind of relationship until you're only going because you don't feel well. But what we should be teaching is before you get to me and don't feel well, what are the things that I can teach you to stay well? And we've moved away from that. And I think, you know, when we looked decades before is what was a doctor really? They were kind of like the community like guy who would go around and like meet with families and talk to them.

And but their transaction used to be like food, right? Like I'm going to give you these groceries if you kind of help out if, you know, we have a cough. And because we've just come up, yeah, medications are not a bad thing. So I don't want to put shame on medications. But I think maybe we have used them too much as a crutch instead of focusing on the things that could really be done every day. And when we look at the, you know, the ingredients and like flow in looking at the endocrine system and something that you can add every day. That can help with your system. That makes you feel better. That's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I remember when I was a kid you'd go for like a checkup and then the doctor would be like, okay, go do these few things or eat this kind of, like I don't really do that anymore. Something that has helped me balance my hormones and this is so weird is weightlifting. Oh, interesting. It naturally helped me too. I can tell you weight lift. I can tell. It does, don't you feel like it balances your insulin or something?

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know why? Yes, there is a reason why. Your muscle is the biggest absorber of glucose. Yes. So if you're like taking that glucose in because you're lifting weights, then you're doing. decreasing the glucose is just sitting around doing nothing. And that's what you don't want

glucose to do. You don't want it to sit around, do nothing. And that's the insulin resistance that we hear. It's when the insulin isn't being absorbed by your muscles, right? Let's all compare our biceps. Let's all compare our biceps. I've been slacking on my Pilates arms. You're not busy building a company. I want to get to that. I think it's very impressive that you and your brother have created this out of nothing. I always find it super interesting when. You're a very interesting when there's someone that sees a need, they want to disrupt a space, they want to stop with the taboo, and I feel like you guys have nailed that and you've also done beautiful packaging. What has been the nitty-gritty entrepreneur behind the scenes of this?

Because I know it's not easy. Oh, no. So I would say really the beginning was the most nitty-gritty. When we came up with the idea, right, we're like, oh, great, this is a great idea. And then we got down to business and it took us two and a half. years of R&D to make this happen when we thought it would kind of be maybe a plug in play. And we learned really quickly that that was not going to happen. And we had to employ the best doctors, nutraceutical scientists, manufacturers, because

again, like, I'm just a girl who was struggling. Like, I didn't know the first thing about creating a supplement. I just knew that I needed it. And so we had to employ all of these people, get a dream team together and make this happen. And so I would say that would be like a huge hurdle that we had to overcome. And then when we launched and we launched first with flow, I think the second hurdle was figuring out how to expand. Right. We're like, okay, we have this hero product. And we learned really quickly that like we had a great response from our community. And we had all of these women telling us their experiences. It's so funny. Like our social ads and our social posts almost became little like message boards. We created this community and these women would be talking to each other, be like, oh, this really helped me. You're like, I've been trying this. That's so smart. It's like a community where people feel comfortable to talk about things

they can't talk about. Yeah. And because we were kind of like putting this platform up and being like, hey, we're just going to call it how it is. We're just going to talk about these things in the open. It really inspired people to just start kind of spilling their stories. So we got a lot of feedback. We got a lot of great things that our customers wanted. So that's when we started expanding into more products like addressing menopause. And my mom really helped us develop that product too because she went through it. And what did she say about menopause and how have you developed a product around menopause? If someone who's listening wants support with that. Yeah. So she actually, she's totally fine, but we discovered she had uterine cancer. So she had a

hysterectomy and like, thank God we caught it like super early. It was the best possible scenario in the case. So she had it hysterectomy and was forced into. immediate menopause. So it hit her really hard. And because she had the cancer, it was a little bit more risky for her to do any bioidentical hormones and stuff like that. So she was instrumental in creating meno, our menopause product, which is an all natural, proactive approach, kind of how we approach everything, with actually a lot of similar herbs and vitamins that are in flow, our PMS supplement, that naturally balance women's hormones and give them the support that they need and really help balance those hormones as they're fading out.

So maca root is like the female. I've heard that. Yeah. It's amazing, right? Yeah. Incredible. What besides herbs, would you tell people about menopause? What are the things that you would prepare them for, Dr. Shepard?

I would say we've kind of constructed this idea that menopause is like horrible. And so people are already fearing it. And 40% of a woman's life is spent in the menopausal stage, right? Because once you pass menopause, you're menopausal until you die. I could use a break from my period and pads and tampons. Like look at the silver lining. Then like we can do what we need to do without protection. Menopause is, I'm kind of.

You were like in the minority, I would say. I'm good with that. Good. I'm glad you are. You just share the word. Pull this clip or later. Save it for me for a while. But no, I think that because women might dread it or the symptoms that may come with it,

that we need to actually start these conversations earlier. And once we start the conversations earlier, then people have a fundamental idea of what's going to go on, what they can take, what would be good for them, and then also beefing up their weightlifting, because that's also important too. And so I think if we can enter this stage more with the readiness of this is going to be a transition that I have to go through, like 100% of women are going through menopause. Like there's not 96 or 92, it's 100%. So what can I do in understanding it so that I can make this journey the best version of myself and enjoy this 40% of my life than I'm going to spend in the postmenopausal phase? Why I wanted to have you guys on the podcast is what I like about this is I feel like you're rebranding things that society has put such a fear around. Periods, PCOS, menopause. These are things that we've been taught like you said that we need to fear.

And it shouldn't be like that. and the energy around that is probably making it worse when it comes. 100%. Oh, even the pregnancy thing. Listen, again, I'm not an expert, but I believe if you're thinking in your head all the time, oh my God, I can't get pregnant. Oh, my God. What's my temperature?

Do I need to be checking my cycle? What's my? That chaoticness around the pregnancy, I believe, creates a barrier for you to not get pregnant. you're not in a flow state. And when you're getting pregnant, you should be in a flow state because things are flowing towards you. It's life. And so, you know, again, this is my own experience with my kids.

I was like, I'm going to get pregnant. That's all I did. I said, I'm going to get pregnant. And I constantly thought in my head, a pregnancy is flowing towards me. Listen, this may sound woo-woo. I just think if you're constantly stressed about the menopause, stressed about the pregnancy. You're not you're not getting a flow towards you. No, I think it's important for each of those categories. Pregnancy, puberty and periods and menopause is exactly what you said. I think the mindset is

very important with that, but leaning into the experience rather than trying to push it away. Because then you're just creating this like, you know, relationship where it's not flowing, like exactly like you said. So the more that we lean into it because we have an understanding of it, but we have a mindset that this is something that I can do, like I can do hard things. I can do things that might be a little bit difficult, but I'm going to flow with it. That is going to create much more of a pathway. And I've heard so many stories like that, like women will be so stressed and it's like the center of their universe and they're like trying to get pregnant. And then the second they kind of give up, but they're like, you know what, I'm just going to go with the flow. They get pregnant. Well, it's

very similar to getting married in my opinion or or dating someone. Like if you're constantly like, I need a guy, I need a guy. Where's a guy? Where's a guy? A guy doesn't like me. That is not attracting what you want. If you're like, you know what, fuck it. What happens, happens. If someone finds me, they're lucky to be in my presence. Like, I'm, I'm so great. You're going to attract a certain kind of person. Because you think you're great. I think it's with everything, though. I think this is with career, with money, with dating, with everything. I think if you're putting out like a certain kind of energy, it's a bit of a repellent in some ways. Totally. And like, if you're like, you're applying for a job, I need the

And it's just like, whoa, you know? That energy, what you radiate, you know, comes internally. So you're pushing that out without even realizing it. And the atmosphere can read it. So I totally agree with that. And I actually tell that to my patients. I'm like, hey, let's work up here a little bit so that we can kind of control some of the things that are going on here. I call it the ruminator.

And what I really like about the way that you are as a doctor is you've mentioned so many different tools that don't have anything to do. with the medical community. And like you said, medicines needed when it's needed, but there should be a plethora in your toolbox. I think what you guys talked about with maca root. Like that's such an amazing tool. Grounding meditation. Yeah, it's like, it's not just like a one size fits all.

What are some really all-star ingredients? I see that there's all different kind of adaptogens. What are the ingredients that you like have handpicked that you're really proud of besides the maca? So in the flow endocrine, superfood powder, there's four buckets we're kind of trying to tackle. So it's the brain, the thyroid, the ovaries and liver and kind of the reproductive section of your body and the gut. So, and they all work together, you know. So Elthianine and Royale are the ingredients that help the

brain. So altheonine is that calming ingredient that is in macha. And it gives you kind of that calming effect. You'll take this or you'll have it in the morning with your smoothie or with some lemon and water and you'll feel calming effects within the hour. It really keeps you at that homeostasis and stops that cortisol spike. So it really, really helps with that. That's incredible. I struggle with another thing, hypothyroidism. So I have a thyroid imbalance. So iodine and selenium are used to balance your thyroid and produce T3 and T4. So selenium is actually in, have you heard of people like eating two Brazil nuts a day. So we do it.

Yeah, do you? So that's what Celadians in there. I have not seen you eat two Brazil nuts for like two months. You eat your two Brazil nuts? No, I haven't in my office there. I can't. I'm going to see. I'm going to take a video.

He was very enthusiastic about that too. He was like, yes. You know, it's amazing that I can even live without you watching me. Oh, and then for your ovaries and your sexual health, we have dim, which is a super ingredient for. ovaries and estrogen. Talk about this. I've heard a lot about this ingredient. Yes. So it is, and also artichoke extract. So what it does is it just helps you produce the good estrogen. So there's actually good estrogen and bad estrogen, kind of like cholesterol. And so you want to

produce as much good estrogen as you can. So Dim really produces the good estrogen. It really helps with PCOS. It helps balance those hormones and make sure that you're at the optimal level of estrogen. If our audience is listening and you both had to recommend one product to start with, what is the product? Say someone, they have mild periods, maybe a little severe, but not crazy. What would you guys both recommend? If it's mild periods, I would really start with the endocrine superfood powder. That's what I thought you were going to say. Because it's such a holistic approach. And it's weight management. It's managing your stress. It's managing your fatigue. All really realistically. If you're struggling with something more focused, like hyper-focused, then we have

an ovarian product that I take every day to help manage my PCOS. And we have our vaginal probiotic. It's our bestseller. It's like, it is, it's changed my life. Like, it's absolutely insane. Like, and it's funny. Like, even, I was like, not to get too graphic, but this is what I do. Like, it's so funny because it's still ingrained in me as a woman to like. Get graphic. Michael's It's not going, trust me. But it just like, it makes everything as like fresh as a daisy, if you will. My favorite product, probably because I'm older is Meno. So I'm of the age where I am liking the Meno product.

Your skin is so beautiful. You do not look older to me. Oh, I'm almost 50. You look great. Weightlifting. Yeah, weightlifting is like, that's killer right there. You look great. Weightlifting is a game changer.

Yeah, you need to start. Weightlifting? Yeah. And doing the Pilates thing. Pilates is great. Okay. I started doing the Pilates thing. Okay.

I moved over from, I do the weightlifting, but then I do the corporate the Pilates. Weightlifting 100%. I think everyone in the world should waitlift, though. That's a whole other episode. You know, I just think it's so important. Change my life. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where if you start doing it young, you'll carry it forever. If you start doing it older, it's harder, but it's arguably needed when you're older,

much more than when you're younger. I lost 60 pounds. Wow. And from and like primarily weightlifting. I had a baby. I was 60 pounds heavier than I was before. And I implemented weightlifting and protein and it changed my hormones and my life and my confidence. And I waitlift now four days a week, sometimes five. I love it. You're my BFF already. It shrinks the body composition. You know. So like jeans that I wore in high school I can wear now, even. even if I'm the same weight as I was before and couldn't wear them. Yes. It's weird.

Yeah. The muscle weighs more than that. You would love it because of all the stuff that you're into with hormones. And I mean, you're so into all these things. I feel like weightlifting's right up your alley. Okay, I got to do it. But I feel like I'm kind of like a horror when I talk about it. Like I'm kind of not like a horror poor weightlifting.

Like I like love it so much that it's almost like, I don't know. I feel like you may have listened to me before because that's all I talk about. You do. Weightlifting. Yeah. Have you always done it? You can tell by looking at your body. Yeah, I did it, but I've increased.

So I've always done it, but I've increased in my 40s weightlifting because it's a game changer. And I know what it does internally. What's your whole thing? What's your whole schedule? So I would say I'm the quick and dirty weightlifter where I can do it like in a good 35 to 40 minutes. That's like all you need. But I know that if I do higher weights, lower reps, then I can kind of get that in. It can work for me for the rest of the day.

But it's really that glucose because as you start to get older, your glucose is just kind of like, I'm going to sit around. And I'm like, I don't want you to. And I'm not like, you have to explain this, how it makes your metabolism go all day. Yeah. So it makes your metabolism go all day because myokines, which is just a fancy word for the cells that the muscle makes, is for immune system. It's for decreasing our fat, right? Increasing our muscle.

And it also helps with cognition as well. So muscle really is, I call it like the organ of longevity. It really is there to sustain so much of your body. And then it also helps support your bones, which you know when you get older, your bones get. week. Yeah, not to pick on my dad if your dad, if you're listening to this, but as he's gotten older, he like kind of stopped doing that and I was like, hey, this, you know, he starts to like get a little bit more, now he's, now he's jacked and he's like 80 years old. He started again. He started again. He's just doing it for five years. It doesn't, I think a lot of women are

scared you're going to bulk up. Yeah. It doesn't bulk you up. It shrinks, like shrink wraps you. It kind of, I feel like it would like tighten me up a little bit. Like, you look amazing. Oh gosh. I mean, you look amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But I just think like with everything that you guys have with your products. It's very synergistic to what you guys are doing. Yeah. You know, it's so funny. Our dad started weightlifting now. He's like freaked out. He's like, I have to start weightlifting, blah, blah, blah. And he is the biggest fan of the mouth tape. He wears it every single night. The pink mouth tape. The pink mouth tape, our 60-year-old father wears it his little lips every single night. He changed his life, him and my mom. But if he keeps doing it.

That is the cutest thing. You have to email that to me. Lauren at the skinny confidential.com. You have to email that to me. That is so cute. They love it. Your dad, what's his name? Eddie. Eddie, if you're listening and you keep doing this for the next, like, you know, I got my dad back into it.

He will add years to his life. Excuse me. So will mouth taping. No, no, of course. But I'm saying just weightlifting alone. It's so good for people. And he's building a son at the house. He's like, and he's going on full steam.

And excuse me, so will flow. Absolutely. Get yourself some flow super food powder in your smoothie. Strawberry Lemonade is. the flavor. Hormone balance, energy and stress, gut microbiome.

You can also check out the menopause one if you're going through that. I think the vaginal probiotic is absolutely genius. I love that you mentioned because we have not talked about this on this episode

or on this podcast vaginal odor. Yeah. Michael, plug your ears. I've hung in here pretty good on this episode. I got in a minute.

I don't know. You're such a chip. When you come back, you can bring the ball jacuzzi. And I will, I will, When you come back, you have to bring the organic non-microplastic tampons.

Do we have a code and can we do a giveaway? Yes. Yes and yes. You guys follow at O Positive. Positive without the E on Instagram. And you tell us your favorite part of this episode on My Latest Post. We'll send you like a goodie bag of all the favorite products. Yes.

Okay. Full goodie bag. Full gift basket. One winner. And then what is the code for everyone who wants to go shop? It's skinny. and it's 25% off. You guys, check out O Positive Health

and Target Nationwide in the intimate care aisle and online at Amazon and at O Positive.com. Definitely enter the giveaway. Go follow at O Positive without the E on Instagram and go shop.

Use code skinny. Definitely, I'm telling you, get the superfood powder. It's strawberry lemonade, like I said. I'm going to be taking that vaginal probiotics. So things smell fresh as a daisy, Michael Bostic.

Thank you guys for coming on. Where can everyone find both of you, Pimp yourself out. I'm just at Brianna Bitten. First and last name. I'm at Jessica Shepard M.D. H-E-P-H-E-R-D-M-D. Come follow me. And if people want to ask you questions

about intimate care or vaginas or butt holes or whatever questions that they have about gynaecologist's questions, can they drop in your DMs? Oh, please. Hit me up. Talk about it all day long, baby. And drop it in the O-P-P-D-Ms as well as mine.

I love it. Thank you guys both for coming on the show. Thank you.