All right, what's up, everyone? Doctor Zach here.
Check it out. So today's podcast is going to
be focused on vitamins, minerals and supplements that are going
to be on your boards. But I'm joined by a good friend
of mine, long old school friend of mine.
All right, so Doctor Romina just got certified as a.
Functional medicine physician. All right.
And where'd you get it at, by the way?
Institute of Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
There you go. So we're not talking any jokes
here. We're talking about some real
knowledge that we're going to drop on you.
Not only for the boards, but we're going to drop all types of
real life uses for the things that we're going to talk about
today because it's great to have them for the boards.
But people are going to are going to ask you, well, what do
I need this for? What is it good for?
How is it going to benefit my lifestyle?
And then we're going to also talk about how the boards are
going to ask these questions. So with that, a little bit of
background, Doctor Romina, what made you go into functional
medicine? I mean, traditional medicine,
you and I kind of did. And then I went off into
education. You went off into functional
medicine. So we had a bigger purpose.
What drove you into that? Well, I saw the way that people
were getting treated in conventional medicine.
It's standard vantage approach to everything and people aren't
necessarily getting better. And so the reason why I went to
medicine, which we all normally do, is because we really want to
help people, right? And yes, it's good in the acute
setting, but to get to root cause and to truly treat
patients as a whole instead of just a body of organs and
illnesses, considering the mind, body and spirit and lifestyle
components, which of me drove me into functional medicine?
Absolutely. And I think there's a bigger
passion, a bigger project here with myself and Doctor Mina,
where we actually have found in my space of education, Doctor
Romina with you. And I'm gonna say this for both
of us, a lot of misinformation out there.
Yeah, absolutely. A lot.
So when it comes to any type of supplements and any type of
vitamins and minerals or even things that are taught about the
boards, many of my students will know that I'm like, wait a
minute, what you may have learned may be slightly
incorrect and we double and triple check everything.
You obviously went on and did your fellowship in in functional
medicine just so we are providing the correct
information because so much stuff out there is actually
wrong. Yeah, you have to be careful
what your source is, but the data shows and and see what fits
for people. Constantly evolving as your
field does and as education does.
I mean, if those of you that are taking the boards or have taken
the boards, you know how much the boards are constantly
evolving as is functional medicine.
All the data that we're gathering as well too.
So for the boards before we get to real life, I'm going to talk
about the B vitamins and we're going to go one by one about the
ones that are high yield. And then Dr. Mina is going to
add in anything that she wants that will be real life for any
of these B vitamins. So we're going to start with B1.
So B1 obviously is known as thiamine, synonymous, right.
Like they're not, they're people may think, well B1 or thiamine,
yeah, I mean a lot of it's interchangeable.
It is interchangeable, right. So yeah, B1 is timing.
But in the hospital setting, we kind of see this a lot with I
mean you've been I see who ER we kind of pump people with this,
right, especially when they have alcohol.
Related Alcohol withdrawal or malnourished.
Malnourished. Refeeding syndrome, Yeah, we
talk about stuff like that in GI.
Yeah, I totally didn't even think about that.
Yeah. So refeeding syndrome, we talk
about it with alcohol withdrawals, alcoholism, all of
these different things that deplete our our actual levels of
thymine or vitamin B1. So a couple of things that we're
going to look at with vitamin B1 is Wernicke's.
So we learned that way back when and now here we are teaching and
talking about it. So do you have any functional
uses for Thymine, just like a day-to-day type of a situation,
or is it just kind of a good thing to just have in your body,
period? Yeah, I think along with the
rest of the the B vitamins, if you can't get it from food or if
your body is off balance and not able to absorb it, absolutely
throw it in there. So and then we'll kind of get
into as we get into more of the BS because Doctor Romina has
helped me with my vitamin regimen as well too.
And we talk about B complex. So once we get through all the
BS, we'll kind of get into the whole idea of AB complex, right.
So with that mean we talk about Wernicke's.
So for the boards, let's focus on that specifically.
So we've got Wernicke's encephalopathy.
So if we break down the words, Wernicke's is obviously the
person who discovered it. But encephalopathy is going to
be encephalo, which is brain and then pathy, which is pathology.
But what happens is that you develop a receptive and
expressive aphasia. So what does that mean?
Sounds like fancy words, but how many times have we been around
people that were completely intoxicated?
Probably more times than we'd like.
Academically and not academically.
Exactly. It doesn't matter where it was
in that school or not in that school, we won't say.
But nonetheless that receptive is the ability of that patient
or that client or that individual to understand what is
being said to them, that expressive aphasia or the
ability to speak clearly or for anybody to understand them is
that expressive. So think about somebody who's
completely intoxicated and you're like, look, we need to
get home. You are belligerent, right?
I mean, let's go home. They're not receptive.
They're not receiving what we're saying to them.
That's our receptive aphasia. But at the same time, when you
try to hear them talk, they're kind of belligerent.
They're like, go, I want to eat like, you're like, dude, what
are you saying? I don't understand what you're
saying. So their expressive ability is
also decreased as well, too. So Thymine is kind of one of the
big board questions. Vitamins are kind of easy
because for the sake of the boards, they're going to be
freebie questions, right? I mean, even on our boards when
they popped up, they weren't really hard questions.
It was kind of like you knew it and you didn't like there wasn't
really a lot of depth to vitamins.
Maybe the Wernickes kind of tying it in, but that's about
it. But for the sake of the NCLEX
for sure, know what that mean. So the next one is B3 and B3 is
nice and So what is your take on B3 as far as like over the
counter as far as what the benefits of it?
Could be. Oh yeah, it leads into so many
cofactors in the pathways. So if you think about energy,
you probably have gone through Krebs cycle.
All. Those biochemical pathways,
yeah, But how it ties into real life, it affects your energy
level. So you could do that and also
detox pathways. So it's very useful and there's
different ways to to get it these days.
You could get it by now, but you also see it at IV infusion
clinics, right? It's like big.
Yeah, I think all the B vitamins are kind of kind of making their
way into into the IV scene as well too for the sake of the
boards. I think the real big take away
for Nice and is it is over the counter.
All these ones that we're talking about are over the
counter. So why do the boards like it for
that simple fact because well, as we know you can walk into any
pharmacy, any type of grocery store and there's a whole
section now that's just dedicated to vitamins, mineral
supplements with niacin. It is very much so for the
boards. They like it because of
cholesterol and because of the fact that it can help lower
lower cholesterol because the fact it's used for energy and
there's a side effect to it that the boards love and it's called
a nice and flush. So the thing about nice and
flush and nice and in general that I would take away for the
boards for our students is absolutely know that it's over
the counter energy cholesterol. So now people are going to be
using it overconsumption. Is that an issue that you deal
with, with your patients where like they just kind of grab,
grab, grab, grab, grab and they take, take, take, take, take?
I think that's spread across. If you're just overly consuming
all vitamins, you can be too healthy, right?
Too much of a good thing could be a little bit much a. 100%,
The big thing is balance. And with niacin, if you over
consume it or there's overconsumption, we're worried
about that niacin flush and how the boards like to get you is
they try to get you as if this is an anaphylactic reaction.
And the fact is it's not, it's just a transcutaneous flushing,
so that's treated with an onset, Give them some aspirin, they'll
be fine. So that is V3B6 kind of boring,
but we need to know it. So B6 is pyridoxine really.
Do you have any? Aside from adding in the B
complex, you really haven't had the use for it because.
You know, I'm kind of thinking back like.
That's exactly what the boards I.
Would say that's probably the. The yeah, because we want to, we
want to make sure for TB, so tuberculosis, we utilize B6 in
in conjunction with isoniazid. And we use that still present
day in practice. Yeah, absolutely.
Part of that ripe regimen that we talk about, right.
So remember rifampin isoniazid which is the I pierzanamide and
at them butyl. But with isoniazide it is very
bad or toxic. So remember your liver is in
danger but also it causes that peripheral neuropathy and as we
said in real life you're still utilizing it till today
conjunction with isoniazide, isoniazide B6 to prevent that
peripheral neuropathy. Great board question again,
freebie questions move on to B9. So folate folic acid very
important. So Doctor Amina, not only is a
physician not only is certified in Functional Medicine, but is
also a vet from the Air Force. OK, I forgot to preface this
whole podcast with that. A vet from the Air Force.
A mother of two. Two.
Crazy little boys. My little nephews right there.
Yeah, so we've got mom vet. I mean you're super into health
and Wellness obviously, but not just the nutritional aspect, but
also into the the like yoga and hit and all these things.
Fitness. Yoga.
Yeah. So how do you balance all that?
I mean, just kind of doing a little bit of a a tangent right
now, but how do you balance all that doing?
I mean literally mom, wife, doctor, functional Dr. So you
took on a whole another scope. How do you to say less do it
all? Well, definitely needs a lot of
support. Family support is huge.
It takes a village, so I couldn't do it without all the
support, both like family and then husband, right?
Like it takes a team to do it. So with that and my biggest I
firmly believe if you don't make time for your Wellness and your
health now, you're going to pay for it in your last second of
life because it's very common these days, especially here.
Aging is frowned upon because people are decrepit, right?
But that's not the way people live.
Like, you look at the Blue Zones and people that take care of
themselves, they're living into their hundreds and they're
independent. So you can do that if you put it
in now. So even if it's a little bit
while, I'm maybe stepping outside, getting a fresh a
breath of fresh air, taking in breath, work, mindfulness, going
for a walk, getting yoga. And I have to squeeze it in
maybe first thing in the morning because maybe the day is packed,
there's always something and hit do 15 minutes.
That's all I need, right? Yeah, get the heart rate up.
I tell people all the time, look what we do in.
It's on the podcast as well, too, right?
I do the breathing exercise as well too.
We do it in our life course. We do it at the end of sessions
just to get a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of stress
release. It's surprising how much a
little bit of breathwork can take you so, so far as far as
your your mental health, right? Just going to give you a little
Peace of Mind. But you did talk about one thing
and because we're talking about real life and boards here, we
kind of want to make this a little bit more interesting
than, oh, here you go board stuff.
You talk about Blue Zones. OK, So to my audience, do you
mind explaining what a Blue Zone is?
Because there's a documentary on Netflix talking about these
areas in the world. But if you would be so kind as
to explain to us what a Blue Zone is.
Of course, yeah. It's the way that certain areas
of the world, they're located. There's only one in in the
United States, Loma Linda, CA. But the rest of them, if you
think about Japan, we also have like Greece and a couple other
places. But generally what you've
noticed as that the main factors, of course you could do
lifestyle, do the right things, eat right, mental health, all
that, but the biggest commonalities was a sense of
community, a sense of purpose and relationships, and that's
what kept people going. Really.
So it wasn't just diet. There was a lot more than.
Yes, and that tells us why it's so important to get a holistic,
A holistic approach to our health.
OK, so I want you to name those three things again.
I'm going to show you all as students, how as, as, maybe as
practicing nurses, as students, as those of you that have
graduated. Those three things that you talk
about Blue zones have. They have.
What were those three things? Community.
Community and collects high yield.
Is that all right? Yeah, you have that support
system, OK, right. Like loneliness is a bad factor
against you community. Exactly.
So community, yeah. What else is there?
Relationships. Relationships so supportive.
Relationships. Supportive relationships.
So what do we do? I say this all the time, every
time we're on a podcast, every time we're on a free weekly
zoom. I always talk about our
community and how everyone is so supportive.
When you jump into the course, the first thing I say is I don't
want any negativity in here because, well, we're not going
to allow it, period, Whether it be from our end or from
students, and we don't allow it. And what's the last one?
Sense of purpose? And a purpose.
And what I always say, our whole staff says this.
Remember your purpose. As a matter of fact, I believe
it is in our coloring book. You know, I love that because
art is therapeutic. There's so many ways to have
stress relief and especially while people are gearing up to
study, kind of take care of your health.
You know, in many ways it's so funny because we actually
created this. Our team was very adamant about
doing stuff for mental because obviously we talk about it so
much and it says right there, remember why you started.
So look at that. Remember why you started.
The best is yet to come, just little coloring doodles.
You call out the nursing doodles.
And it's so encouraging, yeah. But like, it's not just for kids
people. People like.
They don't realize that art can be coloring, colored pencils,
markers, or actually painting or whatever there.
Is so much out there, people do art therapy.
Oh yeah. Yeah, and art is not limited to
what you see, It can be what you hear too.
Because as you know, I love making music.
So I remember those days, right? But yeah, so now I totally went
on to change it because we start talking about B90.
That kind of prompted the whole mother thing because we use
folate and folic acid and you clearly prescribe or not
prescribe, but obviously, yeah, prescribe it, yeah as well too.
So main purposes that you use it for real life.
Yeah. I mean, of course you go back to
alcoholism. That's also one of the vitamins
you throw in there. And the big banana bags, right,
when you're acutely in the hospital, yeah.
The yellow bags, Yeah, the yellow banana bags.
So that's the one. And then also, especially if you
have like bariatric surgery, also, again, if you're
malnourished, but again within the Wellness, Wellness realm to
optimize your health, it's one of those vitamins.
The B vitamins folate is one of them.
Absolutely. And then because it sparked the
whole bomb thing, we use it. So for the sake of the boards,
obviously alcohol for sure. We use it as one of the main B
vitamins that gets depleted in that, but the boards love it for
prenatals. Why is that?
Because as a further teaching for the intervention type of a
question, somebody's going to come and say, well I don't
really, I'm not pregnant right now so I don't need to take it.
But in actuality, we start them when they start to think of
conceal. Exactly.
You want to. You want to build up the the
amount in your body. Yeah.
And and the main reason is, is that and this is kind of what
you know the unfortunately a lot of the world that we, yeah we
all maybe those of you that are listening and those that are in
the medical field or that have pursued the medical field, we
kind of understand a lot more than the normal person does.
And in that aspect a lot of people are, they're not Privy to
or do not have any type of healthcare, let alone prenatal
care. So they don't know that things
that they were doing may lead to neural tube defects and that's
one of the biggest reasons why the boards love it.
This is one that they may ask you the dose and the reason why
they may ask you to dose is because if you're going to start
somebody on prenatal vitamins, you want their folic acid to be
at 400 to 800 micrograms. But now let's take it to farm
and let's take it to mental health because we could use or
neuro, we could take phenotoen, which is going to deplete our B9
levels. And in that situation, we're
going to double the amount of folic acid.
We're going to go up from 800 to 1600 micrograms.
So a board question right there for the teaching for the
intervention or straight freebie or to tie it to a diagnosis of
neuro 2 defects. So a lot of great questions that
come out of folic acid and the last B vitamin that we talked
about is probably the one that is the most common people that
majority people know about and it is cobalamin.
We can't even say it without laughing at this point.
So yeah, there is definitely a Cobalamin, but when we look at
our vitamins, unfortunately a lot of our vitamins that we take
over the counter, multivitamins, they're in what form do you
typically see? Oh yeah, it's not the well
absorbed form form. It's not the well absorbed form.
Yeah, so it's typically going to be written out as
cyanocobalamin. Myself, Doctor Mina, we kind of
say, like, if you look at cyanocobalamin in your vitamins
and you're taking it orally, probably the whole thing is no
good. Yeah, I mean and.
Because it's not methylated. Yeah, it's so funny because this
is our nerdy side coming out because in biochemistry they say
in order to activate you must methylate.
So yeah, we are to the right. Crowd I'm.
Just saying, we're total nerds and we own it.
OK, it's all good. So yeah, it's not methylated.
So the one that you're looking for is you definitely want
methyl cobalamin. But for Cobalamin, there's a lot
of things that we we see it either we're you know patients
are deficient in or and or need it.
So what are some common ones that you see in real life?
Oh yeah. Anemia.
Yeah, pernicious anemia, right or yeah, where we're losing our
intrinsic factor. So like gastric bypass
surgeries, you know when they cut out a portion of the stomach
that produces intrinsic factor and I'm a slow down here.
So you understand intrinsic factor produced by the stomach
helps us with B12 absorption like we need it to actually
absorb that B12. What other situations have you
seen maybe in your actual real life patients where like you
need B12? Yeah, I mean of course in the
hospital if you're deficient, but if you're looking at the
Wellness and the optimal to thrive people, I mean you see
it, it's everywhere. It's one of the ones you want
the injections, you want to have the energy.
It does build into multiple pathways in the body.
It goes back to all the the. The biochemical pathways, that's
key to it. So if you're not getting it from
food, if you're vegetarian. There you go.
Or vegan. Or vegan, Yes.
Not saying that it's impossible. You'll have to find the right
supplements, right? So those are real life issues
when you're deficient. Yeah, absolutely.
And a lot of people, you know, more so than I've seen ever in
the past. A lot of people are tending to
trend towards that. Do you see a lot of vegan diets
now? A lot of vegetarian diets now,
more so than you've ever seen in the past?
Or is that just something that I'm noticing as well too?
I. Think you know, it's.
I think before it was more cultural beliefs, but I'm seeing
it more because there's so many factors, right?
There's some people that don't want to eat meat or maybe it's
just a preference. But yeah, I'm seeing more and
more veer away from animal. Yeah, yeah.
But I think it goes back to also clarifying misinformation,
right? Animal meat is so good for you
if it's the right type. Like if you want to get organic
grass fed, it's good quality, it's well absorbed, B12,
multiple other minerals and vitamins, It's the best way to
get Red meat is OK in of course moderation and the right type.
Yeah, absolutely. And again, that's not to say
that any type of veganism or vegetarian diet is not, you
know, it's not a good diet. It's just said that there are
other ways or decent ways to be able to do it.
But again, if you're an animal rights activist or if you're, of
course you know, cultural or religious or this and that, then
there are ways to get that B12 as well.
Protein powders. Protein powders.
There you go. Pea proteins.
That's like one of the good ones, too.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Pea protein, yeah, all these
things. They have a lot of good B12
because again, the way the boards are going to ask this is
I do like now because we're starting to see a lot of that.
What's it called? We, we see a lot of gastric
bypass and gastric sleeves now we're seeing a lot of those
surgeries being being done, a lot of those procedures being
done. So with that, we definitely want
to educate them on that intrinsic factor not being made
and the B12 maybe having to be taken.
So again, if you're taking an IM or intramuscular, the
cyanocobalamine is just fine. However, if you're going to take
it orally, we want methyl cobalamine.
And again, in those people that have had gastric bypass, gastric
sleeves, vegan diets, vegetarian diets as well too.
So those are your B twelves. But again, that comes out to be
complex. So now, Doctor Amina, when you
talk to your patients because you do everything individually,
right now, what's the benefit of doing it individually?
That's like I tell my students as well too.
Like, I got to answer your question to you, not as a whole.
So what is the benefit of seeing each individual patient?
It's like each student, right? Everyone learns differently.
Each person is made differently. So it's not going to be a
standard approach. Yes, you may have like a common
disease, like diabetes, right? But everyone in mainstream in
conventional medicine gets the standard approach.
But what's your root cause, right?
So a common one. Everyone's tired, everyone's
anxious. But what's your root cause,
right? You don't want to just throw a
medicine. You don't want to throw like
Benzos and SSRI. You want to figure out what's
the trigger, what's the root cause and it could be anything.
Is it lifestyle? Is it?
Are you not sleeping enough? Is there like anxiety that's
building up, You're not relieving maybe past traumas
that build up, Maybe you're just not getting enough movement,
maybe you're not eating right, maybe deficient environment.
I mean, there's so many very causes that if you try to get to
it, it pulls you a long way. It helps you thrive and have a
longer, more fulfilling life. Absolutely, absolutely.
And so we talked about like the whole mental aspect of it.
And it's kind of, it's kind of funny because we actually got
this right in front of us. We started taking this little
elixir and it's definitely something that for us, for us
people that are constantly on the go, go, go, go, go that are,
you know, studying hard, that have jobs, families, whatever it
is that we've got going on in our life and still trying to
build. It's important to have that,
that nootropic. And you talk about, you know,
all the different things that that you get, all the different
benefits from this. And we talk about that
Ashwagandha. OK, so now you need to school me
in on Astrogandha and my students on Astrogandha because
it is in this nootropic called magic mind that we take.
I mean, we're about to take one right now.
It's so funny because this thing is amazing.
And I'm introducing Dr. Romina to this, but Doctor Mina read it
was like Ashwagandha, right? So talk to me about that because
it's a nootropic and ashwagandha.
What about it? Yeah, it's like so much out
there, right? But I was also looking at the
other ingredients, right, Ashwagandha, it's one of those,
you can call it a nootropic, can call it Adaptogen because
there's many uses. It's one of the I would say if
you want to do like a one hit for everything, that's the one.
Right. Because it gets you everything.
Right, it does. It gets you.
Hormones. It gets your hormones helps like
it's it's the one hit. But what's really interesting is
you combine it with all these other ones, right?
And so I think that's just so cool because you if you have
like caffeine, but you don't want to like be jittery
especially too much, it kind of takes the edge off, but you want
the focus. And so you have not only Dash
Waganda because yes, it helps with it.
I mean, you have to take it every day.
It's not going to hit right away.
It's one of. Those you have to, you have to.
Consistently. Yeah, we've got to do it because
that's, I mean that's why we do this on a consistent basis,
which I mean, look, Magic Mind was kind to offer our students
before we get into more of it. They were actually really kind
to offer our students and nurses and anybody that's listening to
the podcast and discount. So in January, this coming
January, they're going to help crush 2024 with your New Year's
resolution. So you're going to get one month
free when you're subscribing for three months.
And that is amazing. And all you got to do is go to
magicline.com/J ANNCLEX, so Jan and then Nclex.
And you can use that with my code and it's an extra 20% off
right now, which gets you a total of 75% off.
So enjoy it because at the end of the day, that astrogando with
the stress and anxiety and everything like that helps me.
And nootropics, we're big on period.
Adaptogens, we're big on period. So the one thing about this is I
want you to tell me honestly what you think about the taste.
Let's do this. Yo, let's do it all.
Right, here we go. Cheers.
All right.
So the one thing I always get scared of, because I've been
already, I've taken this so many times.
I take it so consistently. I always get scared of taste.
I'm very sensitive to taste, so I don't like too sweet, I don't
like bitter, I like that happy medium.
What was your honest opinion right now?
You know, the after taste is kind of fruity.
It is but not too sweet. No, exactly.
I don't like too sweet. Like I don't like that
artificial sweet taste where it kind of sticks in your mouth
like. I don't think this is really
good for me, but this not. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
I. Do like it.
And The thing is, I really like how you have many good
ingredients to balance out, including national granddad.
But looking at it closer, there's other nootropics that
you use like there's rhodiola, there's and so those you can
also use for mood balancing depending on and we can maybe
like talk about that later when you get into hormones and like
adrenals and stress and stuff. Oh yeah, we have a whole
endocrine section section on that, yeah.
There's certain things that targets that too.
And then you got like lion's mane, which helps with focus
Mushrooms, right? The good mushrooms?
Good. Glad you got turmeric
anti-inflammatory. Absolutely.
Then you got like phosphatoodal serine and L theanine, which if
you, if you think about green tea, L theanine, to even get a
good amount you have to like drink so much throughout the
day, right? I mean, to have it mixed in
here, that's brilliant. Oh yeah, absolutely.
We love it. We're huge fans of Magic Mind
and which leads us to a couple of other things that we should
have in our body as well to board.
Related going back to that as well too is iron and vitamin C
Now both of them work synergistically iron.
So real life what? Where do we get iron from?
Where do we see deficiency? What are the problems without
having iron in real life? Yeah, you can get iron from lots
of food. Spinach, like there's certain
fruits, other vegetables. Of course.
If you eat meat, you can get meat.
And of course you need it. You need it to hold on to
hemoglobin. Hold on to that.
Hemoglobin. Yeah, need our red blood cells
to function properly. Energy, right?
Then you've got energy, if you're like.
Oxygen levels, everything, everything.
So people that become anemic, you see the first sign or
symptom and we're talking about boards now where people that are
going to be anemic, the first thing they may complain about is
actually fatigue. You know, you you might they
might start feeling lightheaded or if you get a little bit more
severe, they get pale. You know, again, they're not
holding on to that hemoglobin. So the thing about iron is for
the sake of the boards and you having to little boys is it's
not found in milk And and that's a big deal because a lot of
people they're, you know, globally their primary source of
nutrition is actually milk because it's successful, it's
filling, right, Especially in poverty stricken you know areas
as well too where milk kind of gets you through.
That's just kind of how it was growing up.
That's kind of how it is in other areas of the world.
But that leads to in the long term that anemia.
So remember with iron you're not going to find it in any type of
milk unless it's a cereal or fortified.
So we want to look for that word fortified and then also if we're
going to give iron, give it with vitamin C Vitamin C and iron
absorption go hand in hand. So for the sake of the boards,
remember that which leads us into our subsequent topic which
is Calcium. So calcium and vitamin D So I
know for a fact that there is a whole plethora of real life
applications to calcium and vitamin D So please enlighten
us. Oh my gosh.
Yes, of course. So there's so much data out
there on vitamin D, Yeah, we actually dropped a whole bunch
of information on my Instagram. Too, Yeah, Yeah, which will drop
in the bio, by the way. We're gonna put it in our
podcast, and we'll put the link to Doctor Romina Actual,
Instagram and Podcasts and all that good stuff as well, too, so
you can start following Doctor Romina.
Yeah, So what about the vitamin D?
And calcium helps with, you know preventing osteoporosis of the
virus but then also goes deeper, it plays into mood especially.
I mean, you know, you call it the sunshine vitamin, but
there's so many factors that affect that right absorption
whether if your skin can absorb it, if you're getting seasonal
affective disorders from the. Mental health, right there.
Yeah. Right.
If you're in a place that or winter, winter, right, you're
not going to get much sunlight. So you need it because it'll
affect your bones, affects your mood, it affects your gut.
I mean it. It's so tied into everything.
Vitamin D especially. I kind of feel like nowadays, I
mean, you know, throughout what it's been a while since I
graduated medical school. And you know, when nowadays I
kind of noticed that even when we get blood work done, people
are ordering vitamin D levels and vitamin B12 levels because
of the importance of it. And like we found that there is
a deficiency in a huge population.
There's a big percentage especially like I would say,
especially in the United States, because I would say overseas
other countries, they're more open, have a better, I would say
quality of ingredients, OK, Like the developed countries, right.
Whereas in the States it's very common to be deficient.
Do you think that that deficiency is increased post
COVID since now people are working at home?
I think so. So I'm curious to see what the
data shows on that because I do feel that a lot of people that
are working from home and how about us that were studying for
boards or are studying for boards.
Do you think that we're getting that proper amount of sunlight
that we really need to convert that vitamin D into you know the
beneficial active form of it And I don't think that we maybe we
maybe kind of cooped up a little bit too much there.
So for the sake of the boards, what do we need to know?
I think calcium being a big deal with osteoporosis, so know the
reasons why osteoporosis occurs. So one of the main ones that I
want to talk about is a common drug over the counter which is a
proton pump inhibitor. So a lot of people suffer from
GERD. How often do you see people with
GERD that kind of pop these pills over the counter, but yet
you could help them, yeah, decrease just consuming
chemicals with their natural way.
So what are some of your pieces of advice for people that suffer
from that acid reflux or that GERD?
Yeah, and absolutely do everything conventionally.
If you need to get a scope upper and lower or whatnot, make sure
there's nothing serious going on right?
But then after that PP is or the proton pump inhibitors are not
the long term goal to keep on that right.
Again, it has so many side effects.
So yeah, you want to get down to root cause.
What are you eating? What time are you eating?
Are you sleeping right? After, right, Yeah, the smoking.
Drinking. Exactly.
Yeah. A lot of these things hereditary
like family history things of that nature again signs and
symptoms risk factors that all your select all that applied
questions right there. So again with proton pump
inhibitors, you know that it decreases calcium absorption,
which in the long term as Doctor Romina I just pointed out is not
something we want to be on long term.
We want to kind of get under the root cause.
We want to do things the the correct way as well too.
So those are our main ones for the boards.
I mean I thank you so much for joining us.
Any words, last words to my students on just study tips on
how to keep their anxiety down, how about that?
Yes. Even if you feel like you don't
have time, you do because you're going to come back, clear your
mind, find something that makes you happy, and reset something
small. Yeah, And it, like we said,
little baby steps, do something a little bit for yourself.
There's nothing wrong with that. There's no guilt in that.
And I think a lot of people feel that, oh, I'm taking my time
away from studying to go on the treadmill for 10 minutes or go
for a walk outdoors or do something for my own say.
Just reset start small. Reset.
I love it. Doctor Mina, thank you again for
joining us and we will see you on the next step, so take care.