Well with Arielle Lorre - 379: Stop Drinking Caffeine On An Empty Stomach! And Other Tips to Lower Inflammation, Balance Hormones, and Feel Your Best

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Ariana Medizade, best known as @wellnes.pharm on social media, is a Pharmacist with a background in Neuroscience, Public Health, and Functional Nutrition. She completed her studies at the University of California, Irvine, where her research was published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease. She joins the show to discuss how to use herbs, adaptogens and supplements to combat issues like insomnia, anxiety, weight gain, inflammation, hormone imbalances, histamine intolerance and cortisol spikes. We also talk how to naturally increase GLP-1 through specific foods, why we should absolutely not drink caffeine on an empty stomach in the morning and actionable tips to feel your best naturally.This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Go to tryarmra.com/WELL for 15% off your first order.Go to puori.com/BLONDE for 20% off. Visit supp.co/BLONDE for 100% FREE access.Go to www.YNAB.com/well for an exclusive three-month free trial with no credit card required.Go to drinklmnt.com/WELL to get a free sample pack. Visit helloned.com/BLONDE for 15% off.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The The following podcast is a Dear Media Production In a world of ever-changing wellness trends and information, what does it mean to truly be well? I'm Ariel Lori and I'm going to explore this with you. I am bringing you candid conversations that will

equip you with everything you need to live your best life and look good doing it. Think of well as your go-to resource for all of the latest in wellness and me as your internet bestie. Well, let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I have to say this episode, changed my life and I'm going to tell you why. So I recorded with Ariana, my guest, Ariana Medizade. She is known on Instagram and TikTok as Wellness Farm, but I'll get into that in a minute. Anyway, we recorded a couple months ago and we were talking about caffeine on an empty stomach in the morning as it relates to hormone health and cortisol. And you guys probably know this has always been a struggle of mine because I wake up and I love to have my matcha first thing. There

have been periods where I've eaten before, but it's always a struggle, and I'm always just going back to having matcha first thing. So Ariana was talking about it, and she said that she realized that she was kind of abusing her body by doing this, by doing coffee specifically on an empty stomach. And she talked about all of the ways that that impacts our body. And that really stuck with me. And I'm proud to say that ever since I have been hydrating. I do water with electrolytes. I do celery juice. And then I eat breakfast and then I have matcha at like 930 or 10 which is unheard of for me and it's made a massive impact not only on my mornings but my energy all day and even my histamine issues so just wanted to put that out there because this episode is full of amazing actionable really simple tips that are

really really effective so like I said I'm talking to ariana metazade she is a pharmacist with a background in neuroscience public health and functional nutrition nutrition. She completed her studies at UC Irvine and her research there was published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular disease. And she is on the show today talking about how to use herbs, adaptogens, and supplements to help issues like insomnia, anxiety, weight gain, inflammation, hormonal imbalances. We do talk about histamine intolerance. We talk cortisol spikes. And we also get into things like how to naturally increase GLP1 through specific foods. Like I said, why we should not drink caffeine on an empty stomach in the morning and just really, really easy tips to help you

feel your best naturally. So please enjoy Ariana Medazade. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you. I feel like I've learned so much from your page. And when I went on your page last night, when I was prepping for this interview, you're just such a well. wealth of knowledge. Thank you. And you make a lot of this information so digestible. So everybody should go after they listen to this episode and follow you if they're not already because it's so clear. It's like whatever you're looking for, anxiety, insomnia, all of the things that we're going to be talking about today. There's videos with breakdowns of what we can be doing. So maybe to start, you can tell us just a little bit about yourself and how you came to be into all of this.

Definitely. My name is Ariana. I'm a pharmacist. And I never thought I would be this deep into wellness and like the wellness community. And it's so funny because when I was actually in pharmacy school, I was dead set on working for a pharmaceutical company and doing like medical science liaison work where you go and you educate other doctors about how a medication or a drug works. Right. And background, I always dealt with really bad anxiety. And it wasn't until pharmacy school where it got really, really awful. And I remember going to the doctor and I was just like, I have really bad anxiety. Like what can I do? Is there anything that I can do differently to just feel like myself again? And I love doctors in general. But this doctor in particular just was very dismissing of my concerns. And she was like, well, you can take Lexa Pro. And if you take an SSRI, you're going to probably feel better and you're going to be able to like handle school better and handle life. better, but I personally just did not, it didn't sit well with me. You know, when you have a gut, kind of like a gut feeling or an intuition that there's something missing. And so I was doing a lot of research on different supplements and foods and like ways to just feel better naturally before I try the medication route. And that's what really just sparked my love for supplements and natural herbal remedies and functional nutrition and educating people on how you can use those things in conjunction with medication or you can use it first before trying medication.

And so I started posting about just that and how you can supplement safely and what are the different benefits of supplements. And I think my page got a lot of attention just because I was able to break it down in a really user-friendly way. And a lot of other websites and accounts just like weren't doing that at the time. Yeah, I mean, supplements is such a big market. There's so many out there. And I think it's so hard for like the laymen to navigate because they all help with so many different things.

So I know for myself, sometimes I'll listen to a podcast where somebody's talking about supplements. And I'm like, well, I just need to take everything. Yeah. So it's hard to know where to start. But something that I really appreciate is that you're not dogmatic about it, like you're saying. Like you share how you can either use only supplements. or how you can use supplements in conjunction with other modalities, whether that is medication or, you know, whatever anybody chooses.

But I think that it's such a kind of tricky area because people do tend to be really dogmatic about it. A lot of Western medicine people, doctors, which I also like revere doctors. My dad's a doctor. I always say that, like nothing against Western medicine. But a lot of them say like supplements don't work and it's expensive urine, things like that. You hear these kind of cliches. Yeah.

But at the end of the day, isn't the money behind supplements for studies, right? That there is behind big pharma. So you're just never going to get those double-blind placebo studies where then doctors can be like, look, this is the evidence. Totally. And I talk about that all the time because people always say, how can you be so passionate about supplements? And how can you say it's made such a huge difference in your life

when there aren't a lot of clinical studies to back these things up? But a lot of the clinical studies that are done on different medications, they are funded by other organizations or pharmaceutical companies that have the money to back it up. Because when they are researching these medications, their whole goal with it is to produce a pharmaceutical that they can then have doctors prescribed for other people to use. And they're going to get their money back on that. But they can't, you know, make a saffron supplement prescription only. or they can't make L-thienine prescription only, right?

And so there isn't really a lot of motivation to do these types of studies. There are some studies done, some really great studies on rodeola, which is an adaptogen. I absolutely love, saffron for depression for anxiety. So there are some studies out there, but you're not going to find the same amount compared to pharmaceutical medications because the motivation to make money just isn't there. Yeah, yeah. And I think that that's something that people need to remember and consider. It's like it's not in big pharma or like Western medicine.

Like it's not in their best interest for people to be taking supplements at the end of the day. Some of them maybe like I know that vitamin D is a popular thing because a lot of people are deficient vitamin D. Magnesium, you know, things like that. But when you get into the more niche ones, there tends to just be this attitude that like, no, they don't work. and I personally have benefited from them so much. And I think sometimes like anecdotal evidence is evidence, you know, like there are a lot of things that I've experienced in my life where there's no studies to support what happened. But it's like, well, it happened to me. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. Yeah, totally. And I think it's just important to remember that you can use supplements

and you can experiment with supplements, but there are different things that you want to like look out for when it comes to using supplements. So how can you supplement? safely. Number one, you shouldn't be using supplements that can interact negatively with your medications. So one of the best examples for this is St. John's Wart. St. John's Wart is a supplement that I typically never recommend anyone to use because it's a SIP 3A4 inducer. So what that means is Sip 3A4 is a liver enzyme and it helps metabolize almost 50% of all medications, all prescription medications out there, even more probably. And so when you're using St. John's It induces the metabolism of other medications.

So say you're taking oral hormonal birth control, that can actually induce the metabolism of it. So it renders it ineffective in your system. And that can cause really negative effects. It can cause unwanted pregnancy or even blood pressure medications. You know, if you take St. John's Wort with a blood pressure medication, your blood pressure medication won't work as well. And so that can lead to really negative consequences.

So just because something is natural, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a hundred percent safe to use. You should always do your research, but once you've done your research on it and you think that this is something that you do need to use, then I am a huge proponent of using supplements when necessary. Do you think that there are any universal things that people should be taking? Oh my gosh. Yes. I was actually just speaking about this earlier, but I am a huge fan of omega-3. Omega-3 is one of the strongest anti-inflammatories out there alongside with black seed oil. But omega-3 is really great for your heart. It reduces inflammation in your brain and your body.

And so when people, especially people who have issues with focus or issues with ADHD, when they supplement with higher doses of omega-3, they find to have more brain clarity, more ability to function because of its strong anti-inflammatory nature. So that's one. The second one that I love, of course, is magnesium glycenae. And I think in the wellness community, that has been such a huge topic and trend, especially in the last two years, magnesium is your relaxation. mineral, over 50% of the US population is deficient in magnesium and that can lead to issues

like depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia. So sometimes you'll be feeling really awful and you don't know why until you start supplementing with magnesium. And then I think that the third one would definitely be a B complex. So B vitamins are necessary for your brain to produce more serotonin, for you to have more energy, for digestion, for converting your food into cellular energy. And so B vitamins, I don't think we get enough of it from food sources these days. So I'm a huge fan, B complex. I just started taking one of those after I did some testing. Yeah.

And magnesium. I feel like that was one of the one things that I've taken that I noticed an immediate benefit. And I think that that's something with supplements that is probably kind of tricky for people. Like we want instant gratification, right? And sometimes it takes a long time for something to produce. in effect that you're actually going to feel. Whereas something like magnesium for me, it was like instantaneously. It was kind of like a missing puzzle piece. I was like, whoa, I feel so much better. What was the other one? Oh, Elthianine too. I mean, if I take like,

I don't know how many, maybe 300 milligrams, like two capsules of Althenian, instant. You're locked in. Yeah. Locked in. So how do you recommend people go about like deciding where to start? So you have these supplements that you recommend everybody. can benefit from. But do you think that people should get like specific testing and look for deficiencies to figure out like really how to get niche with them? Or are there kind of places that we can all start? I think that everyone can start with using the omega-3 and using magnesium because chances are you will really benefit from it. The only scenario where you can't use an omega-3 is if you're on blood thinners just because it can thin out your blood more if you're on

something like warfarin. But for the average individual, it's completely fine. And and then that's like a good base. So I kind of think about it like a pyramid. So you have your base and then you have the supplements that you take due to deficiencies. So you want to get a full blood panel at least like once a year. So you can go to a functional doctor to do this. You can do micronutrient testing even as a really great place to start. And so then you want to address your deficiencies.

And then at the very top of the pyramid are supplements that just help you feel better. So this can be supplements for focus. If you want to perform a little bit better, supplements for anxiety. If you just want to calm down your nerves, then you would take something like rodeola or Elthianine, like you said. It's rodeola like instantly also? Rodeola is an energizing adaptogen. So adaptogens, they help your body adapt to stress better.

And I have found that adaptogens like Ashwaganda or rodeola, they do work very quickly in the body similar to altheonine. Ashwaganda is a sedating adaptogen. So I recommend that at nighttime just to kind of chill and get some good sleep. And then rodeoalas energizing. So it actually uplifts your body. It reduces those feelings of fatigue that you might get if you are ever really stressed out and like depleted. So I do love a diet.

I need that. You need rodeola. Since we're talking about supplements and specifically magnesium in this episode, you may have heard me talk about my favorite, which is mellow from. Ned. So Ariana is talking about how so many Americans are deficient in magnesium. I believe she said around 50%, but I think it's closer to about 75%. And magnesium is a mineral that's essential to hundreds of functions in the body. So that means that there's a three out of four chance that you are deficient. And magnesium deficiency is actually a root cause of a whole host of

modern ailments from things like anxiety and depression to insomnia and stress. So if this sounds like you, it might be time to add magnesium to your routine. So why I love mellow is because it's a powerful daily super blend. It contains the three most bioavailable and nutrient-dense forms of chelated magnesium on earth. It has the two most stress busting aminos, which are gabba and altheonine, which you hear us talk about in this episode as well. And over 70 trace minerals. So Mello is truly in a league of its own. It offers over 300 health benefits for better sleep and optimal health and wellness. It was a game changer for me. I absolutely love it. I drink it before bed. I got my boyfriend on it drinking it before bed because he would always get muscle cramps at night and he does not get those anymore.

And it's also really delicious. So they have lemon, they have lavender berry, pomegranate. They also have naked, which is a stripped down flavor-free version. That's great for adding to your smoothies or your protein shakes if you don't want to just mix it in water, but they're all really delicious. So become the best version of yourself and get 15% off Ned products with the code blonde. Go to hello ned.com slash blonde or enter the code blonde at checkout. That's H-E-L-L-O-N-E-D.com slash blonde to get 15% off. By now you guys probably know that I am always on the lookout.

for micro habits that affect a lot of different aspects of my health and my wellness. And I'm also always on the lookout for ways to strengthen immunity and gut health, improve my fitness and metabolism, and enhance my skin and hair radiance. I mean, who isn't? This is why I love Armara Cholostrum. So Armour Cholostrum is a proprietary premium bovine colostrum concentrate. It leverages proprietary cold chain biopotent pasteurization technology to preserve colostrum. over 400 bioactive nutrients in their purest, most bioavailable form, and ensures a composition

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and recovery. I love it for its gut health properties. So Armra naturally fortifies your entire gut wall system, optimizing your microbiome, and it strengthens the gut wall architecture. So this guards against irritants that can trigger symptoms like bloating, constipation. I've been using it for my histamine issues, and I really, really love it. So I have a special offer for my audience. You can receive 15% off your first order. When you go to tryarmor.com, slash well or enter well to get 15% off your first order. That's t r-r-m-r-m-r-a-com slash well. In this episode, you'll hear Ariana talking about her morning routine, specifically how she wakes up and hydrates with electrolytes first thing. She actually got me doing this

since we recorded the episode and it is so important. So there is a misconception that hydration is just about drinking water, but actually being optimally hydrated is about optimizing your body's fluid ratios. So this fluid balance depends on many factors, including the intake and excretion of electrolytes. So this is really important if you're eating a low sodium diet, if you're working out a lot, if you had a few glasses of wine the night before. But also, if you think about it when you're sleeping, you wake up, you have not been drinking anything for at least probably around eight hours. So your body is in a state of dehydration. So it's really important to replenish those lost electrolytes. So electrolytes are charged minerals that conduct electricity to power

your nervous system. So people don't make that association when they think of hydration. They also regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of your cells. So I love element. I've been using it for years. And it contains a science-backed electrolyte ratio, which is a million milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium. They have the best flavors. I like all of the citrus ones. I love citrus in particular. I also love the orange flavor. I love grapefruit, but they have so many to try. And right now, Element is offering a free sample pack with any purchase. So that's eight single serving packets free with any element order. This is a great way to try all eight flavors or share Element with a friend. So get yours at Drink Element

com slash well. This deal is only available through my link, so you must go to D-R-I-N-K-L-M-N-T dot com slash well. Welcome to Barely Filtered, hosted by me, Aurora Culpo, where my mess is my message, and I'm here to share it all with you. Let's optimize our lives together, and I'll make the mistakes so you don't have to. Join me as I share TMI personal stories about navigating relationships, dating, and mental health, all while breaking stigmas around topics like ADHD, anxiety, and depression. From messy mistakes to moments of growth, I'm here to support you on your journey towards healing and self-discovery. Tune in every Wednesday for a mix of humor, vulnerability, and raw honesty as I explore the ups and downs

of living in this meat suit. Follow barely filtered wherever you listen to podcasts. I want to talk about the different kinds of magnesium because I think that that also gets confusing for people. And I know that you had a post about this as well. So again, it's like your page is such a good guide if people want to learn more after listening to this episode or while you're listening or whatever. But you talked about glycinate. There's also three and eight. Yes. That's a good one for your brain, right? Yeah. So we have glycinate, which is great for so many different issues, whether it's going to the bathroom or anxiety or sleep or muscle fatigue and muscle cramps. And then we have magnesium citrate. So a really great way I like to remember this is citrate starts

of the C, constipation starts at the C. So magnesium citrate is great for constipation, although it shouldn't be used long term, unless directed by a doctor just because your body can get a little used to it. And then we have magnesium malate, which is so great for your muscle health. And then magnesium torrate, great for your heart health. We have magnesium chloride, which is a topical magnesium that you can spray on your skin. Magnesium L3Ate, great for your brain function, for cognition, for cognition, for memory. Those are the most, the most, like, popular ones. And typically, you'll see magnesium

complexes being sold. And they typically will have magnesium citrate with magnesium malate and glycinate, although there's so many different types out there. But sometimes it's nice to have a blend of magnesiums all in one capsule because then you can address different types of issues. Yeah, that's what I take. I mean, sometimes I take the symbiotica L3 and 8. Oh, yeah. Because it's like dessert. It tastes good. It's like liposomal. You've probably had it, right? It has that, like, vanilla, coconut nectar. And I think I've shared about this before. Like I would take it at night instead of having something sweet.

Like it would satisfy that sweet tooth for me and I would take it before bed. And then I also take the Ned Mellow, which is three forms of chelated magnesium. So what's the difference between chelated and non? So non-keelated won't absorb as well. Kelated. They just basically tweak it a little bit in the formula so that your body can absorb it better and utilize it properly. Got it.

What really helped you with your anxiety? Because I know that's something that everybody struggles with. Yeah. I mean, anxiety is so common in every single person. And I feel like maybe other people aren't as vocal about it. But there are ways that you can improve your anxiety and improve your stress. And so the three things that help me so, so much are exactly the ingredients I actually put in chill pills, which is one of my supplements I formulated.

So rodeola, which is an end. energizing adaptogen because when I had really bad anxiety, I was drained. I was fatigued. I was just not feeling like myself. And so I needed something to literally like bring my body back from just feeling drained and awful. So rodeola was a really great adaptogen for me. Althenine, like you said, because it really calmed down racing thoughts I had. And then magnesium glycinate because I would wake up with really bad heart palpitations in the morning. And that's just like the worst way to get out of bed. So magnesium glycinate should typically be used at nighttime, but I would use actually half of a dose of magnesium during the day to just kind of regulate my heartbeat. So those really help me.

Yeah. I think that everybody experiences anxiety differently. So I'm always curious, like, what did anxiety feel like for you? Because I know what it feels like for me, but it's kind of this blanket term, you know, and like everybody has different symptoms, although I'm sure that they kind of line in some areas. Yeah, I think that anxiety for me really manifested as just feeling fatigued, racing heartbeat. I had a lot of physical manifestations of anxiety and just constant negative thoughts to the point where I was hesitant to take action throughout the day. And I think that's when I knew I really needed to reach out and get help is when I found my anxiety preventing me from functioning as I usually would be or kind of interfering with my daily tasks.

So it was a lot of ruminating thoughts, a lot of just feeling drained, a lot of heart palpitations that I couldn't really seem to shake off. And it just kind of like prevented me from being me. Yeah. Yeah, I relate to that. I've been talking a lot about a recent health thing that I've been dealing with, which is mast cell activation syndrome. And I'm shocked at how many people. are experiencing it as well, whether it's on the mass cell activation spectrum or on the other end of the spectrum where it's, you know, histamine intolerance, which is a little bit less severe. But it's shocking to me. So I know that this is kind of like a niche question, but are there supplements? I know that quercetin can be really helpful. I mean, I'm on so many medications

and H1 blockers and H2 blockers and mass cell stabilizers and supplements trying to like navigate it. but we know about quercetin. We know about like DAO, which is an enzyme that helps to break down histamine. Is there anything else that people can benefit from? When it comes to histamine intolerance, one of the first things that comes to my mind is anti-inflammatories and gut support. When you have a healthy gut, you're less likely to experience those flares, although there are different foods and things that can trigger it, but keeping a really

healthy gut is so important and also just something to help drastically reduce the inflammation that's lingering in your system. So like I said, Omega 3, one of the best anti-inflammatories. Another one I really love is black seed oil, although I do recommend if you're getting it from the store to get it from a glass bottle instead of a plastic one. Black seed oil has been used for thousands and thousands of years. It's literally cited in religious texts because it's such a strong anti-inflammatory. And it's really great for inflammatory conditions of the skin of the body.

It's really great for eyesight as well. helps will lubricate the eyes. And so I think those two would be my number one recommendation. And then also just be kind to your gut, you know, eat foods that you know you tolerate well. Sometimes different strains of probiotics like lactopacillus is really great for just keeping your gut lining healthy and solidified. But besides that, nothing else comes to mind only because with histamine intolerance and MCAS, everyone responds to supplements. so differently. So it's very hard to just tell a bunch of people who have MCAS what to take because everyone tolerates it differently. But I will say anti-inflammatories are very important.

Yeah, I love that you touched on that and that you touched on the gut piece as well because I think there is a big connection, especially between like SIBO and histamine intolerance. And yeah, the inflammation is what drives the symptoms like anxiety. I mean, that's my prominent symptom of the histamine intolerance. I know when I'm in a fuller. flare. It's like debilitating anxiety, dizziness. It's all these like inflammatory things, obviously skin issues. But to your point, and I'm also hesitant to like talk about what are the exact things that I'm taking. Yeah. Because everybody reacts differently. And like there are supplements that are supposed to be really helpful that I've taken that I've reacted to. And even like

the capsules and things like that. So it's definitely something that people should do with the help of a professional, whether it's a doctor or a dietitian who can help with the diet and guidance. with supplementation, all of that. Yeah, I will say, though, when it comes to any inflammatory condition or really any condition at all, you want to look at what are in your supplements. And I'm not talking about the active ingredient. I'm talking about inactive ingredients. Inactive ingredients can cause so much inflammation.

It can cause so much nutrient deficiencies, believe it or not, because of the way that they act in the body. So you're taking supplements every day, right? maybe sometimes for two to three years straight. And if your supplements contain things like magnesium stearate, magnesium stearate is such a common and active ingredient. It's a filler ingredient that they put in capsules, but you want to be careful because that can actually interfere with nutrient absorption in your body over time.

Or even titanium dioxide, that is a whitener that they usually put in. It causes high levels of inflammation in the body. Or silicone dioxide, which I believe the FDA has come out in. said that it is completely safe to use long term, but I would have to disagree with that. There's no reason for you to be voluntarily putting silicone dioxide in your body. And what's unfortunate is so many popular supplement brands, they do contain these inactive ingredients when they don't have to because they're filler ingredients. They're just filling in empty space in the capsules.

And I think that's a really great way for supplement brands to save money on, you know, filling up their capsules. but it does produce some negative consequences as you keep using those supplements, especially when you're someone like me or someone like you who love supplements and swears by them because you're taking it for what two to three years or even more than that? Multiple times a day. Yeah. Multiple pills a day.

Definitely. Yeah. I had Kat Schneider, the founder of ritual on my podcast like maybe two years ago at this point. It was shocking to hear about what actually goes in to the capsules and where they derive some of their ingredients from and everything. And there's such an emphasis on like the quality of the actual active ingredients to your point. And then people just don't realize what's going into the capsule. And it was pretty gross. Like there's a lot of information. If people are interested, they can go back and listen to that episode. It's very like revealing. Just about the industry. Because at the

end of the day, maybe you can speak to this more than me, obviously. But like there aren't that many regulations, right, with supplements? There aren't many regulations at all, actually, because supplements aren't FDA approved. Only medications are FDA approved. And so you can put literally baby powder in a capsule and put beautiful branding on it and get the best people to speak about it. And consumers are going to purchase it and they're going to take it, you know? And so you want to make sure you're buying supplements from a brand that is made in a GMP certified facility. So that just means that they like test all of the ingredients for purity before they put it in the capsules. Third-party testing is really great. Some supplement brands actually will do clinical trials on their supplements. So I think

that costs around like anywhere from like seven to 20 grand to do that. But it's such a great way to like show your consumer that your supplements actually make a difference. And so that's why when I started IRA supplements, I was really, really adamant on not putting any filler ingredients in there. And it took me a long time to find a manufacturer that would listen to me because they always want to white label like proprietary blends or put filler ingredients or anti-caking agents. And I just didn't want that. And so I think it's very important to be transparent as like a supplement brand and to just say true to like your values when you're formulating your supplements. And there's also USP verification, right? Yes. And that's basically saying that like what you say is in

the supplement is actually in the supplement. Yes, exactly. So there's different ways you can go about verifying what's in your supplement. But I really do encourage consumers to look for third party testing, look for GMP verification and ask questions. You can ask your supplement brands, your favorite supplement brands, questions about testing and like purity because you're putting that in your body. I swear to you guys, the question that I probably get asked most frequently is what protein powder do I use? This is probably because I'm always posting my yogurt or my oat bowl for breakfast. And it can be tricky to find a good one. In a recent 2024, 2025 protein category study by the Clean Label Project, where over 160 products from over 70 brands representing 83%

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So the first one, obviously are gLP one medications. And now there are a lot of supplements that are saying that they're akin to gLP ones. And I know that like berberine was having a moment. Is anything comparable? and how can people actually increase GLP in their own bodies? So no supplement is going to be comparable to OZMPIC or any GLP-1 medication. Berberine does work very similar to metformin. So berberine, it does really help with your insulin sensitivity.

It reduces cravings. And it doesn't give you those side effects like metformin does when it comes to your GI, GI side effects. Of course, it's not on the same scale as metformin. and no supplement will ever be comparable to a medication, right? But it works very, very similar. Not so much ozempic, but it is very similar to metformin. I love the flurberine because it contains like berberine, green tea, cinnamon,

a bunch of ingredients that really helps stabilize your blood sugar. When it comes to all of these supplement brands saying they're like the next ozempic, I think it's a brilliant marketing tactic. And I think that they do sometimes put ingredients in there that helps with insoment. insulin sensitivity and maybe decreasing cravings, but it's just not the same at all. And some brands don't even have testing. So it's like, what are you really putting in those capsules? But a huge misconception is that GLP1, you can really only activate it from Ozmpic.

And that is the furthest thing from the truth. RL cells in our gut actually produces JLP1. And it produces JLP1 more. It secretes it more in response to certain foods and certain things. stimuli, one of them being acetic acids. So any type of food that is tangy has like vinegar in it, like pickle juice. I'm sure you saw a post I made on that. Pickle juice is a really great way to stimulate GLP1, apple cider vinegar and a different mechanism, but that's also a really great way. And even a high protein meal. GLP is secreted in your gut in response to protein. And so I really

encourage people start your day off with a high protein meal because that's going to to help you feel fuller longer and it's going to prevent you from those carb heavy cravings. And that's exactly what OZMPIC does. People, they see so much success from OZMPIC because it prevents them from eating, friends them from snacking, and they feel full or longer and they get thin faster. And so a really great way to just keep your body in check and your cravings in check is to double up on your protein intake throughout the day. And also, probiotics is really great just because your GLP 1 is secreted from the cells in your gut. So you want to maintain a healthy gut microbiome. Okay. Let's talk about our mornings because our mornings are really important, right? And I think so many

of us wake up. We drink the coffee or the matcha on an empty stomach first thing. And then we're eating or whatever. Like a lot of us struggle with our morning routine. So what is the ideal morning? Oh my gosh. Well, I feel like I perfected the ideal morning routine. You have. You've posted your time-stamped morning Virginia the other day. And I was like, wow, that's good. Thank you. That means a lot your approval.

So I really encourage people first thing, no matter what, before you drink coffee, please eat something. Because I know that coffee on an empty stomach is oddly satisfying. It's just really fun to just drink that first thing in the morning. It really does. But coffee first thing in the morning, it really spikes your cortisol. And you actually have higher cortisol. levels when you first wake up because it helps you wake up. It helps you basically just be awake,

be less sleepy, but you don't want to increase that even further with caffeine. So when you wake up, do what you need to do, but at least have a small snack before you have your coffee. Like for example, in my morning routine video that I posted, I had a tiny piece of banana because I'm not super hungry first thing in the morning, but I just know I need to get something in my system for me to work out, move my body. That's like my number one thing. Have something, even if it's something small before you drink your coffee just because you want to prevent that huge cortisol spike. I am a huge fan of lymphatic drainage first thing in the morning as well. So when I first wake up, I always ice my face to reduce any puffiness to really wake me up. And a really cool hack I like

to do is to put ice on the back of my neck because that actually activates your vagus nerve. And it really helps calm you down, just kind of sets the mood for the day. And then I, go ahead and do guasha. So it doesn't have to be like this elaborate guasha routine, but for me it's only like five, eight minutes long and it just really feels so good to move that excess stagnant fluid down and just kind of drain it out. I really encourage individuals to do at least five minutes of fresh air exposure and sunlight exposure, if available, but definitely fresh air exposure because that increases serotonin. your brain. It puts you in a better mood in the morning and it really helps wake you up.

So I think that would be like my top four is icing, guasha, eat something, something before coffee and then morning sunlight and fresh air exposure. Yeah, the difference that I felt having something to eat before my matcha, night and day. I was working with a nutritionist that I worked with off and on for years. He's more of like a functional practitioner. Like they'll do blood work once a year and kind of look at where I can, you know, change things. And like my fasting glucose was kind of high. So he's like, you got to wake up and have protein and have something to like help balance your blood sugar and then wait and then have your matcha. And that made a huge difference for me. But it's hard because I don't want to eat protein right when I wake up. I'm like most of us, I think, where we're just kind

of conditioned to like want that caffeine hit right away. But if you can wait it out, it's kind of uncomfortable in the beginning. But if you can wait it out, like, it does make such a huge difference. And I feel like I don't get that anxiety that I get with caffeine as well. Because when I do it on an empty stomach, I'm like, yeah, I love the macha. I love the caffeine, but it's like anxious kind of alertness. Whereas like if I wait, I do the breakfast, get some sunlight, do my meditation, even, things like that. And then have the macha. It's like the restful alertness, like that kind of feeling that you really want from it. But it's hard. It is hard. I will say when my anxiety was at its worst, I switched completely over to matcha. And

macha is really cool because it contains caffeine and L-theney naturally. So like that's why you feel in such a great flow state. People actually drink matcha before they meditate because it helps them focus more. So you're alert. You don't fall asleep during the meditation, but you're also like very like I said, dialed in. Right. But if you want more energy or more of a boost, I would say, and focus, I love to pair althenin with coffee. So my little thing that I do in the mornings is if I am having a coffee morning, I will take two of my chill pills with it just to get a good amount of elthenin with it. So I'm not having like racing heart palpitations and feel like I'm dying, you know. Yeah. When it comes time for that second match, I usually I only do one, but sometimes

in the afternoon, I'm like, God, I would really like a little boost of energy, but it's just going to make me anxious. Like, I'm just going to be tired and anxious. It's not going to achieve what I want it to achieve. Usually I'm just, like, dehydrated. Like, I'll drink water and then I'm like fine. Yeah. Okay. But after watching your video, I was like, does she not drink coffee till after the workout? I don't drink coffee until after the workout. I mean, it also depends on if it's a weekday or a weekend. Sometimes if it's a weekend, I'll be like a little naughty and I'll have my coffee before. But for me, it's like I just can't eat a big meal first thing in the morning. I'm not hungry. I'm not hungry. It doesn't feel good for me. So I'll have like a tiny piece of toast with cottage cheese or I'll

have like half a banana. I'll go do my workout. And then when I come back after I have breakfast, I will drink my coffee. And I used to not always be this way. I used to wake up, have coffee on an empty stomach. I would fast until like 12 or 1. I swear it was so bad. I'm so embarrassed to even say this. And then I would finally have my first meal of the day. And then I would have like dinner and it a day, but I recently had dealt with some pretty, like, troubling hormonal health issues. And so I'm so much more cognizant of when I'm drinking coffee, how I'm nourishing my body. That's why in the video I posted, like, first thing, Electrolights with water. I have, like, that small little snack.

I wait until after my workout because doing these things consecutively, like having coffee on an empty stomach and all of those things for months on end, it really does. affect your hormone health. And I never really realized it until it happened to me. And just after getting off of birth control and being on it for 10 years and then dealing with the cascade of problems that I've been dealing with, I just kind of realized like, wow, I'm kind of abusing my body. Like I just went 10 hours sleeping, not having anything to drink, anything to eat. And now I'm just like overloading my system with coffee, and that takes a toll on your thyroid health, on your estrogen, on everything. And so I really look at my morning routines as like, how can I nourish myself and then set

myself up for success long term? And so at first, it was really hard to like not drink coffee, especially before Solid Core because they train me for the army in there. I know. That's why I was shocked. I was like, surely she had coffee before that. It's so insane. But, you know, I kind of just look at it from that angle. Like I'm doing something good for my body and I'm just used to it now. It is kind of like it's something that you can make a habit out of. Yeah. And with any habit, like in the beginning, there's friction. But then it starts to feel good. And now you're probably like, God, I don't want to have that cortisol, blood sugar spike first thing in the morning. And I think so many of us struggle with hormonal issues and gut issues and all of these things.

And, you know, if you're doing that first thing in the morning or like I'm guilty of this too, sometimes I wake up, I get on my phone, I'm in my email, I'm drinking my matcha before I've done anything else in the day, and your cortisol is going, like your reproductive hormones are going offline. Yeah. I never really paid much attention to how bad stress can be for your body until I ended up with so many different, you know, like I said, hormone problems. I ended up having really high levels of prolactin on my labs.

And then my doctor was like, yeah, we're going to have to refer. you out to endocrinology and you're going to have to get an MRI. I literally got my MRI like two to three weeks ago. And that was so scary because, you know, sometimes like doctors can kind of like scare you a little bit more than you need to get scared. So the doctor was just, you know, saying you need to get an MRI and like it might, you might have a benign tumor just like secreting more prolactin in a very rare case as it's malignant.

And that scared me so bad to the point where I completely changed. how I live my life. And luckily, my MRI didn't have anything awful on it, but it just kind of like shocks your system to the point where you, you just change how you live and you're happy to nourish your body. And there's certain things that I would kind of like tear myself up about regarding my body or, you know, how I'm functioning or how much work I'm getting done. And I would like track everything, like my steps, my sleep. And from this whole journey, I've kind of realized, the best way to take care of yourself is to just take it easy on yourself and like lower stress as much as possible and like celebrate your body more than punishing it.

Yeah. And I think that a lot of us do the opposite. You know, it's like this rigid kind of approach to wellness and health. And it's really having the opposite effect to your point. And I think that a lot of issues that we deal with today, whether it's gut issues, whether it's these issues that stem from stress or hormonal issues, we lifestyle our way into them, oftentimes with good intentions too, which is like difficult, but then you can lifestyle your way out of them. And that's something that I learned also the hard way years ago when I was like

doing BBG, which is high intensity, pliometric workouts. I was doing it like six, seven days a week. I was counting macros, like not eating enough calories. I was waking up and going right into that after having my coffee or macha, not eating same as you, till 11 o'clock in the morning. And I ran myself into the ground. And I had to learn how to slow down and like have a much softer approach. Yes. But usually the desire to change comes from desperation. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. Like I always say like rock bottom is a good place to start because then you're willing to make changes, especially when they're uncomfortable changes. Like a lot of this stuff is uncomfortable, especially in the beginning.

And that's why I think people are resistant to doing it. Like it's much easier to wake up and just get on your phone and just go down half asleep and have the coffee or the matcha to wake you up. And then you're back in your email and then you're off to the races. Like I get it. But it's so important to like be able to check in and slow down and do these things because it really makes such a huge difference. Yeah, and I will say I looked more inflamed and bloated and worse when I was doing high intensity

workouts and high intensity cardio. Like every day of the week, I looked worse when I've actually been doing less. Like I do Pilates maybe like three times a week. I do a lot of walking. I do like, you know, light strength training from my Peloton app. And I look better. Yeah. I look better doing less.

It's actually insane. Yeah. When I was doing that, I was always bloated. I was always just puffy, like water retention. and puffy. And I haven't really been able to work out in the past year and a half because of the MCAS stuff. And I just, I have like major exercise intolerance. And I never made the connection until the last few months. I was like, why is it that every time I work out for the next five days, I'm like dead. And then I switched some medications and I talked about this on my solo this week.

But last week, I was like, I finally feel like myself again. I can work out. So I was doing just like 30 to 40 minute Pilates every day, though. It's like I'm zero to 100. Same thing happened. After like a week, I was puffy as like, what is happening? So sometimes less is more. Everybody's different. Some people really like thrive off of working out six days a week. Not me. Yeah, not me either. My body likes less. I want to go over some wellness trends. We can just do kind of like a rapid fire here. Yes, let's do it. Let's see. So you kind of mentioned intermittent fasting. Let's get into that one quickly. So intermittent fasting is really great because it provides a lot of benefits, right? But with women, it's so different because women's cycles makes us feel differently every couple of days.

So we go through our menstrual cycle. We have different phases of the menstrual cycle. And depending on what phase you're in, you can either tolerate fasting or you can't. If you are fasting doing 16-hour fast or 14-hour-plus fast every single day, it's going to have a really negative effect on your thyroid function, on your cortisol, and even worsen the way that you look and feel on a daily basis. And so it's really important to line up your fasting with your cycle if you want to fast. I'm not a big fan of intermittent fasting for women. I'm a huge fan of circadian fasting. And that just basically means you stop eating three hours before bedtime. And

you basically fast for about 10 to 12 hours and then you eat in the morning when you first wake up. I think that is the best way for women to fast because it's more hormone-friendly. And you're not depleting your body of essential nutrients and support that it may need during different phases of your cycle. Yeah. So if you're eating dinner at like 630 or 7 or you go to bed at 10, say, then you eat at 7 and then you fast until what 7 the next day? Yeah, 7 or 8 the next day, 10 to 12 hours max.

During the follicular phase, sometimes women can typically fast a little bit longer. But I think circadian fasting is way better. Men, on the other hand, men go through like 24-hour cycles. Like every day they wake up feeling like they're on top of the world. Women, it really changes, you know, throughout the month. And so men can fast. My boyfriend used to do these crazy fast. And we would actually do them together.

And I was just like, wow, I feel like I'm literally about to die. I feel awful. And he would be on top of the world, you know? And so women's bodies are just so. different. We really need to nurture our hormones and take it a little bit slower in terms of health compared to men. Yeah. My boyfriend, we've been together a little over a year. Every single day, he wakes up at a 10. He doesn't drink any caffeine ever. He just raw dogs the day, wakes up, is like ready to go. Energy is amazing. We'll go for his hike. Like feels amazing,

happy. I'm just like, whoa. I'm a different person every week of the month. And Like, yeah, every day, but like every week of my month is like a little bit different, energy wise, mood wise, everything. Like, he's just the most consistent. I'm like, that's crazy. They just don't have the fluctuations that we have. It's insane to watch. Yeah. They're like a different breed. Yeah, they really are. I mean, and so much of the research has been done on men. And then, you know, even on medications. Like, wasn't Ambien. It was never tested on women. And so the recommendations were what was recommended for men. And then obviously it's such a strong. drug to begin with. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. Okay, infrared sauna. I love infrared sauna. And Fred sauna is just so great for your skin, for your energy. Infraud sauna in particular is really useful because it actually stimulates ATP production in your cells. And ATP is the primary energy source of your body. And so if you do infred sauna in the mornings three to four times a week,

you're going to have better energy levels. You're going to feel better. And it really helps calm your nervous system as well. So I'm a huge fan of sauna in general. I don't have an infrared sauna, unfortunately, in my building, but I do have a regular sauna and I try to go in it at least three times a week. The infrared component just makes it so much better. It really amplifies the benefits. You got to get a sauna blanket. I need to get a sauna blanket. I know. Maybe they'll send you one if they sponsor this particular episode. Maybe. Yeah, it's the best. I love it so much. What about ingestable skincare? Skin care starts. from your food. So you want to make sure you're eating gelatin, you're eating high protein,

because you can put all of the potions and lather all the moisturizers on your skin. But if you are not consuming foods and nutrients that are going to contribute towards, you know, collagen production, towards natural oil production, lowering inflammation in the body, you're going to have a huge problem with how your skin looks. And I think the best example of this is acne. A lot of people who have acne, they tend to suffer from really poor gut health. And so gut health is really important because you basically have bacteria in there that's beneficial for you. And those really contribute to how your skin looks. It's an accurate reflection. So if you're not eating probiotic rich foods, you're not eating yogurt or prebiotic rich foods,

you are going to notice you will feel more inflamed or more prone to breakouts. Are there any supplements that do help? Like, how effective is something like collagen at actually helping the collagen in our skin? To be honest, I'm a huge fan of collagen. I know this is a really touchy subject in the wellness community. But collagen does break down into amino acids and your body will use that for whatever it sees fit, whether it's to fortify your gut lining or for nail growth or skin health or hair growth. I think that collagen is really, really useful.

I know that there's so many people out there who say it doesn't do anything for you and your body just kind of like flushes it out. I would have to disagree because you're you're breaking it down, you know, the collagen peptides and your body is using it for whatever it really needs the amino acids for. Yeah. Same with me when I was really consistent with collagen. My nails and my hair, I could not stop them from growing. I mean, it was crazy. Yeah. I can't take it now because of the MCAS thing, but I'm like, oh, one day. I literally turned to claws. Yeah.

It's so cool because I don't know. I've never really seen a huge difference when it comes to my hair, skin and nails from so many supplements. But the one thing that I did notice a little bit of a difference from is collagen. Yeah. All right. Well, I could keep going for so many parts, part one, two, and three. But thank you so much for coming on. That was such a fun episode.

Tell everybody where they can find you. Definitely. So I am at wellness. Dot P-H-A-R-M farm, like pharmacist, on Instagram. And then I'm at The Wellness Farm on TikTok. And my supplement brand is Iris Supplements. So you can find us on Instagram at Iris Supplements. And you have a podcast?

Yes, my podcast is The Wellness Farm on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode, and if you learned, the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod. You can also follow my

personal Instagram at Ariel Lurie. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes, and we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.