Join us on Cold Pressed Conversations for an enlightening discussion with the esteemed Dr. Amy Duffy, a leader in integrative medicine hailing from South Carolina. With humor and expertise, Dr. Duffy navigates the intricate world of menopause, playfully referencing Suzanne Somers' whimsical "seven dwarves of menopause" to explore the diverse symptoms women face during this transition. We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of how hormones, nutrition, and body systems are intricately connected, guided by insights from Dr. Duffy's book, "Normal Doesn't Have Side Effects."
In an inspiring chapter of our conversation, we tackle the courage required to make transformative life changes. Sharing personal stories, including the journey of leaving an unhealthy marriage, we highlight the power of stepping out of comfort zones to live authentically. This theme resonates within the medical field as well, where Dr. Duffy advocates for breaking away from conventional hormone replacement therapy, championing natural hormone balancing as a path to improved patient outcomes. Through the lens of mentorship and continuous learning, we explore how these elements can lead to impactful changes in both personal and professional spheres.
Our dialogue with Dr. Duffy further highlights the importance of collaborative communication in healthcare. We dissect the frustrations many feel with standard medical tests that leave them feeling dismissed and explore how functional medicine can unearth the root causes of health imbalances. Dr. Duffy passionately shares her belief that achieving health should be a journey free of side effects, supported by community and connection. Don't miss out on this episode filled with gratitude and wisdom, and be sure to join us for future episodes as we continue to explore these vital health topics.
Contact Information for Dr. Amiee Duffy, MD
https://carolinaintegrativemedicine.com/
https://www.aimeeduffymd.com/
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*Disclaimer: While our discussions aim to inform and educate, it's important to remember that the content provided here is for educational purposes only. We strongly advise consulting your healthcare professional before implementing any advice or recommendations from our guests.
Speaker 1: there was a person whom was in your space and it
00:00:04
was called the seven dwarves of menopause.
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Yes, you got itchy.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the itchy, the sweaty, you know.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, sleepy, sweaty, bloated, forgetful and all
00:00:21
dried up.
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I thought that was just pivotal .
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Right there, your guest the person to whom you were in
00:00:30
referencing from you stated that Suzanne Somers said that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, she said that when I met her for an interview.
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She wrote it in one of her menopause books.
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But it was an interview and it was just classic.
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Just like you said, it puts all the words into perspective of
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what women are feeling in this menopausal, perimenopausal
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timeframe.
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It's just like it's not just one thing.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Cold Press Conversations with Dr
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Jewel White-Williams, a lover of numbers, lists and a good
00:00:59
glass of cold press juice, who is sharing episodes each week to
00:01:03
help you explore the back end of healthcare and health
00:01:07
sciences, where a lot of that grit is done.
00:01:10
We'll dive into topics covering research, education and
00:01:14
clinical practices, as well as guest shows with other leaders
00:01:18
in the field.
00:01:19
Pull up a seat and let's dive into these amazing and
00:01:24
game-changing conversations.
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Hello, hello.
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This is Dr Jewel and I welcome to Cold Press Conversations.
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I am thrilled, elated and excited that I have a wonderful
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guest with me, dr Amy Duffy, and she is coming to us from South
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Carolina.
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I love my South Sorry, y'all Got to give it to you and I am
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just elated because she has such a wealth of knowledge that I
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would like to share with you.
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I know that this particular fall, that I'm focusing on
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health literacy and making sure that people understand how to be
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more informed about the care and what's happening, but she's
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going to take us to such a pivotal point of not just from a
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physician's side, but also from a personal side.
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I think that's one thing that I think that many of us are going
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to be so elated to have.
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But before I go any further, I just need to let you know that
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Dr Amy Duffy is the founder and medical director of Carolina
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Integrative Medicine and she specializes in functional
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integrative medicine, helping medical providers improve
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patient health.
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She uses real patient stories and clear explanations to reveal
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and treat the hidden interactions between hormones,
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body systems and food, helping patients achieve a better
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quality of life.
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She is the number one international bestselling author
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of Normal Doesn't have Side Effects an assault after speaker
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, having spoken at the Harvard Club of Boston, nasdaq and New
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York City Bar Association and the CNN Center.
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She's also a frequent guest on ABC, nbc, cbs and Fox Network TV
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shows.
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Her books Normal Doesn't have Side Effects and why Can't you
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See Me, which is co-authored with her daughter the last one,
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she shares personal insights, personal experiences as a
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physician, mother and a mother aiming to improve health
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literacy.
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Her work in integrative and functional medicine continues to
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positively impact her patients and the medical community,
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promoting a healthier, more balanced life.
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Dr Duffy, welcome aboard.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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It's so great to be here.
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Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent.
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You know, as I stated earlier, I'm a person who I did my
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strength finder in 2.0 and I found out I am a learner,
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amongst many other things.
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This time I think I learned from you, dr Duffy.
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Speaker 2: Well, good, that's a huge part of one of my passions,
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I mean, obviously, is being in medicine, but the more I can
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share my experiences like you said, not just the medical
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knowledge that I have, but the personal ability to have more
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platforms like this, because we can't just get into every
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newspaper or magazine anymore Sharing this message and letting
00:04:11
people know that these stories are out there and there's
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different ways to do things.
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You don't have to stop in the world that you feel like you're
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in, and there's always more to learn, for sure.
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Speaker 1: And I think that's one thing.
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I want to let the guests know that I did not finish the second
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book and I'm kind of glad because I think what we're going
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to have to do, fam, we're going to have to bring back Dr Duffy
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and her daughter.
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I think it will be important that we bring that back because
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there's a message, a huge message, and we're just going to
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touch a touch on that today, but there's a huge message that
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goes along with this.
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But I do want to let you know that I did have an opportunity
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to read.
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Normal Doesn't have Side Effects.
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Just to give heads up to everybody, I don't have the
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physical book, but it's ordered.
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Okay, it's ordered.
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But I do have my Kindle notes, which are right here, with not
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only the highlights, the notes, all the above We'll be talking
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about the different chapters and all that but also include some
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of the pivotal points about medicine and how she is helping
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in creating a change, for women especially.
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I do have sometimes opportunities to discuss women
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when we start that perimenopausal, premenopausal,
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postmenopausal, all that fun stuff and we're dealing with
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hormones and we're dealing with emotions, but there is so much
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that goes on.
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I know I gave just a little background about who you are,
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but is there something else in this journey that you would like
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to share with them that is in alignment with your current
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practice?
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Speaker 2: Everybody always says how'd you get into medicine?
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You know, how did you get to the place that you're in?
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And this is certainly chapter number one in my book is babies,
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right?
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So I just absolutely adored babies when I was little.
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I had all the Cabbage Patch kids, the bald ones with the big
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chubby cheeks, and my friend's mom was a seamstress and so we
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used to sew all their clothes.
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I just had suitcases full of Cabbage Patch clothes and all
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the accessories.
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I just loved babies, and anytime I got to hold a baby, a real
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baby, it was just absolutely thrilling for me, and so I knew
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that I was on some path.
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You know, I didn't know I was going to be a teacher or a
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pediatrician, or you know what was going to happen.
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And when I was in high school, the family that I babysat for
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was having another baby and they invited me to be in the
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delivery room with them and that was just, you know, the most
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amazing experience.
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Most people go Ooh, gross, but I was all you know.
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Yes, I want to be there, and I was a head end.
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You know, I was not at the business end, but I mean, I
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remember, you know, the moment that baby Josh was born and I
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just thought this is the coolest thing and this is what I want
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to do and I want to deliver babies.
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I want this experience to bring life into the world.
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So you know, I went to college, I went to medical school
00:06:41
residency, delivered over 1000 babies in my career and you know
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that was fantastic.
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Had I not had babies of my own, I probably still would be
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delivering babies, because you know they don't come at.
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You know, between eight to five on a Tuesday.
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So you have to kind of adjust life a little bit.
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But what happened is that when you get involved in taking care
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of babies, when you're not delivering babies, you're doing,
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you know, women's health, gyn kind of stuff and traditional
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medicine Well I should say it's just kind of blown over.
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I mean, there's not a whole lot of education about women's
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health in traditional medicine.
00:07:14
You know, it's cardiology, it's gastroenterology, it's this,
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it's that, it's dermatology, but there's, you know, the GYN part
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is just kind of surgical or delivering babies, and the whole
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physiology of what's going on with women just sort of gets
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glossed over.
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And so you know, basically your treatment choices are birth
00:07:32
control pills or antidepressants .
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You know which one are we going to choose?
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Like now I'm being a little facetious, but that's really
00:07:39
where we are Right and I was very unhappy with that role that
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I was playing in women's health .
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So I really started digging deeper and reading a lot more
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and learning more and going to conferences and happened upon
00:07:52
this whole world of bioidentical hormones and this then world of
00:07:55
functional and integrative medicine, where you start kind
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of putting the big picture together and how hormones
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interact with each other and it's not just about your
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estrogen or progesterone.
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But then you've got thyroid hormone and you've got your
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adrenal hormones and then you know insulin is a hormone and we
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start getting into, you know, weight issues and that sort of
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thing, and so it just opened up this huge world that I didn't
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even know existed as a physician and you know the more I get
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into it, the more we get to change lives by really looking
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at the root causes.
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You know, and there's multiple layers to what's going on.
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But, you know, rather than someone saying I think
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something's wrong with my hormones and then getting told
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nothing's wrong with your hormones or oh well, let's just
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put you on birth control, that'll kind of, you know, reset
00:08:37
your hormones or take care of it, there's so much more that we
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can do to help impact the quality of life that people are
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experiencing and that's just so rewarding for me.
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So, you know, that's really where I started in the baby
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world and now I don't deliver babies, but I feel like I kind
00:08:52
of rebirth.
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You know, we get to bring life back to people who really felt
00:08:55
like their life is just not what they want it to be.
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Speaker 1: I told you, I got my little quotes.
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Yeah, you put in your book and going backwards, all right,
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because, ladies and gentlemen, she has five pillars.
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Ok, she talks about the five pillars of health.
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She talks about pillar one, detoxifying your body.
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Pillar two, balancing your hormones.
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Pillar three, managing stress.
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Pillar four, fitness.
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And pillar five have a mentor, and I think what was kind of
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interesting is that I probably won't be able to say one of the
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words, but let me tell you, you'll understand from between
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the lines.
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There was a person whom was in your space and it was called the
00:09:31
seven dwarves of menopause.
00:09:32
Yes, you got itchy.
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Speaker 2: Yeah the itchy the sweaty, you know.
00:09:40
Yeah, itchy, the itchy the sweaty, you know.
00:09:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, sleepy, sweaty, bloated, forgetful and all
00:09:51
dried up.
00:09:51
I thought that was just pivotal .
00:09:53
Right there, your guest the person to whom you were in
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referencing from you stated that Suzanne Summers said that.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, she said that when I met her for an interview.
00:10:02
She wrote it in one of her menopause books.
00:10:04
But yeah, it was an interview and it was just classic, just
00:10:07
like you said, it puts all the words into perspective of what
00:10:09
women are feeling.
00:10:10
You know, in this menopausal, perimenopausal timeframe is just
00:10:15
like it's not just one thing, it's not just a hot flash.
00:10:18
You know that you can manage to adjust your temperature or
00:10:21
whatever, but it's just, you know, I mean people just don't
00:10:24
feel good.
00:10:24
You know they're not sleeping well, they've lost their drive,
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they're not motivated, they're exhausted, they're overweight,
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they're, you know, itchy, their skin's not right, their hair's
00:10:35
falling out.
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You know, mentally, they just don't feel good.
00:10:38
I hear this all the time.
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This is not who I am.
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You know I'm a happy person generally and I'm not happy
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right now.
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I just don't feel like me anymore.
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You know their relationships have changed because you know,
00:10:48
unfortunately the way life is, we tend to take our loved ones
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for granted, for lack of a better word.
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You know, hopefully they're not going anywhere until they get
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really sick of it.
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But you know, we get nice to our strangers but we're not so
00:11:00
nice, you know, to the people we share our homes with.
00:11:02
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I thought that was pretty
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interesting because that was a segue into how you ended it.
00:11:07
It was in your chapter 10, talking about you need a mentor,
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and it was one quote.
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You said life begins where your comfort zone ends and you said
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your mentor stated that look at you, I see that hits you, that
00:11:22
belief system, and I think that's where we're going to take
00:11:25
it, that your intention is to make sure that we, as women, are
00:11:30
at a point where our life can still be and begin when we're in
00:11:36
our comfort zone, and I love that.
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That was just powerful, right there alone.
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Speaker 2: It stretches you, it's recognizing.
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That's recognizing that you know a lot of people get
00:11:47
complacent.
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You know this is the way life is, this is the way it has to be
00:11:50
.
00:11:50
I don't know any other way.
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It takes some courage, it takes some bravery to step out of
00:11:56
whatever that is.
00:11:57
And you know some pretty big intentions and sometimes that's
00:12:01
psychological, sometimes that's, you know, big for people
00:12:03
whether they have to get out of a stressful situation.
00:12:06
So in my story I talk about having to get out of a marriage
00:12:10
that was really unhealthy and I fought it for a long time
00:12:14
because I thought here I am, I'm a doctor, I have four kids,
00:12:17
you're supposed to stay married, you're supposed to stay happy.
00:12:20
You don't do that and religious, whatever your belief system is,
00:12:24
until I realized this was not only holding affecting me being
00:12:30
the best mom that I could be, because I was so unhappy in that
00:12:33
relationship that I was not present for my kids and that led
00:12:37
to some other dysfunction for them for sure.
00:12:40
That took a huge, you know, a huge step of bravery, if you
00:12:44
want to call it, and I think unfortunately I didn't have a
00:12:47
mentor about that because I didn't share it with anybody.
00:12:50
You know, I didn't want to tell people that I was in an unhappy
00:12:53
marriage and that we weren't perfect, you know, because you
00:12:55
want to be the perfect family and everything's just fine and
00:12:58
we don't want to talk about those things.
00:12:59
And so being able to fast forward, you know, now, six,
00:13:03
eight years later, and talk about it, to help other people
00:13:07
to realize that you're not alone and you don't have to do this
00:13:10
by yourself and you don't have to stay, whether it's a marriage
00:13:13
, whether it's a job, whether it's a, you know wherever your
00:13:16
situation is.
00:13:17
If this is not where you want to be, you may not know what the
00:13:20
next door looks like.
00:13:22
You know, but you've got to open that door and you've got to
00:13:25
get out of what feels comfortable because it's not
00:13:28
taking you anywhere.
00:13:30
Speaker 1: So I like research, I love education, and that's what
00:13:33
brought you where you were today you really and truly to
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identify and get to your five pillars of health.
00:13:43
You stated that you attended a conference which piqued your
00:13:45
interest into bioidentical hormone replacement or natural
00:13:47
hormone balancing, and that is what gave you that trajectory to
00:13:52
where you are today, is it not?
00:13:54
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:13:55
I mean I always say that that's like the Alice in Wonderland
00:13:57
when she went through that tiny little door into this world of
00:14:01
rainforest and beauty, whatever you want to call it.
00:14:03
I mean I wasn't miserable in the medical field that I was in.
00:14:07
I didn't know any different, right.
00:14:08
I mean that was just a place.
00:14:09
What I knew is that I didn't like the conversations that I
00:14:15
was having to have with my female patients about hormones.
00:14:17
They're having the symptoms.
00:14:18
We know that the medications that we were offering were not
00:14:21
good, based on our latest research with the Women's Health
00:14:24
Initiative, and really the statement that we were getting
00:14:27
from the powers that be was give the patient the lowest dose
00:14:31
possible for the shortest period of time to get their symptoms
00:14:34
under control and then they had to go off of it.
00:14:36
That doesn't feel good.
00:14:37
I mean, when you're sitting here saying, okay, I can give
00:14:39
you something that may cause you harm, but it's just going to be
00:14:42
for a little while, there was zero confidence, zero control
00:14:46
over whether this was going to cause this patient harm or not.
00:14:49
How could I determine that that was okay for that patient if
00:14:52
they were asking questions or they were on it and they felt
00:14:55
amazing and I'm over here like you need to come off of that now
00:14:57
because you can't be on it forever.
00:14:59
I mean, it was just so uncomfortable and so just not
00:15:02
innately like I know what's going on here and I know what
00:15:06
advice to give this person, so it really was not good.
00:15:09
And that was really that first step.
00:15:12
To say this is not meant to bash the medical system, but you
00:15:15
know, because I'm in the medical system, but it's definitely
00:15:18
uncomfortable, you know, and I think there's probably a lot out
00:15:20
there that's happening and it's just unfortunate the way the
00:15:23
system is set up right now.
00:15:25
But there's so much more awareness and knowledge out
00:15:28
there for given the opportunities to learn more.
00:15:30
I started, you know, this whole process by going to a hormone
00:15:33
conference and now I speak at hormone conferences and I teach
00:15:36
this to other people because you know again, the more that I can
00:15:40
share, the more that they're gonna, you know, take it to
00:15:43
their hundreds of patients and that's just that many more lives
00:15:45
that we can touch and affect by learning a little bit more and
00:15:48
again going out of that.
00:15:49
If you want to call the medical system the comfort zone, but
00:15:53
you know it's a box that a lot of people are stuck in and it
00:15:55
takes some effort to get out of that zone.
00:15:57
You know we're not doing anything crazy and malpractice
00:15:59
by any means.
00:16:00
We're just doing it differently .
00:16:02
You know better.
00:16:03
Oh, I love that.
00:16:03
I love that.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: One thing that I gathered when I was reading your
00:16:07
book.
00:16:07
You knew that it was time for a change.
00:16:10
It was time for a change.
00:16:14
You did the integrative medicine.
00:16:15
You started learning more speaking about hormones.
00:16:16
Covid came Then we're looking at having to make a difference
00:16:20
and, unfortunately, the one mentor who was there.
00:16:22
We just need to give tribute and say thank you because he's
00:16:26
no longer with us.
00:16:26
But he made such a huge change in not just meeting the needs
00:16:32
and allowing these five pillars become innate in your life, but
00:16:38
how you're developing into your patients' lives Because you
00:16:42
start having mentors take you to that direction.
00:16:45
Speaker 2: I think back to that.
00:16:46
We can always get more knowledge by any means, but I
00:16:49
had a good foundation for the medical knowledge.
00:16:51
But you know, what we're not taught at all in medical school
00:16:55
or anything is the world of business, you know, and to
00:16:58
manage a business and sales, you know.
00:17:00
I mean, like doctors aren't to talk about money and you know
00:17:04
how much things cost and it's just, how are we going to take
00:17:06
care of you?
00:17:07
And so I really struggled with that.
00:17:09
And when COVID hit, you know already financially it was a
00:17:13
struggle because I was trying to do this within the traditional
00:17:15
medical system and billing insurance.
00:17:17
But what I found is that I had to spend so much time with my
00:17:20
patients that I couldn't see enough patients in the day.
00:17:23
You know to make ends meet.
00:17:25
And you see, in the traditional medical system, I mean, you get
00:17:27
what?
00:17:27
Seven to 10 minutes maybe with your doctor, and that's why
00:17:30
because they're not getting paid hardly anything and you know.
00:17:33
So they have to see so many patients a day.
00:17:35
That's all the time they have.
00:17:36
Well, I couldn't effectively do what I wanted to do with my
00:17:39
patients without spending more time with them.
00:17:41
So I got stuck, you know, financially, and I was really in
00:17:45
a dark place.
00:17:46
I mean, I had already gone through this divorce and I knew
00:17:49
that.
00:17:50
You know what's interesting is through this whole thing and I'm
00:17:52
just going to fast forward for a second I never once had the
00:17:55
premonition or thought that I wasn't going to be able to do
00:17:57
what I was trying to do.
00:17:58
You know, I never once thought, good, I'm going to have to shut
00:18:01
my practice down.
00:18:02
You know, I just knew it wasn't working the way I was doing it
00:18:06
and I knew that there was a different way.
00:18:08
But I didn't quite know what that was.
00:18:10
And so I started searching in the story.
00:18:12
I knew Michael Simmons from our speaking career and coaching
00:18:15
and things like that as well.
00:18:16
But when I got called to go to this you know conference in the
00:18:20
middle of COVID in August, and you know, nobody was traveling,
00:18:23
no one was doing anything, and this was again like out of your
00:18:25
comfort zone, is like hey, we're going to bring these medical
00:18:28
leaders together to you know sort of gather and just be
00:18:32
together in this state of fear.
00:18:33
And it was in Atlanta after all, the riots were happening and
00:18:36
all this kind of stuff.
00:18:37
So it was just kind of crazy.
00:18:38
I mean the fact that we got, you know, 200 people in this
00:18:40
hotel lobby and we were all sitting, you know, we had our
00:18:44
masks on and we were doing what we were supposed to do.
00:18:46
You know, michael just looked at me that day at lunchtime and
00:18:49
I almost didn't go.
00:18:49
All I had to drive there, you know, to Atlanta I could have
00:18:53
just driven back and forth every day.
00:18:54
I mean, it's a two hour drive for me.
00:18:56
You know, I was in that mental place where I didn't know that
00:18:58
that was really what I needed or what I wanted.
00:19:01
I thought I just got to focus on my patients and my, you know,
00:19:03
my business and whatever the powers that be, you know, made
00:19:07
me just show up.
00:19:08
And you know it's like just so up, you never know what's going
00:19:11
to happen.
00:19:12
And so we sat at lunchtime and he just looked over at me and he
00:19:14
said are you okay?
00:19:15
And I just busted out in tears, I said no, I'm not okay.
00:19:18
And all of this had happened when COVID was in March, this
00:19:22
was August.
00:19:22
So six months of this isolation from our friends, from our
00:19:26
people, from our support systems , that we normally would have
00:19:29
been involved and engaged with a lot more.
00:19:31
And so I just didn't even realize until I sat down with
00:19:35
him in the lobby and we just started having a conversation
00:19:38
and he just said I got your back , these are your friends, we're
00:19:40
your people and we're going to help you out.
00:19:42
And he didn't charge me anything.
00:19:44
You know, he was the doctor's coach, you know.
00:19:46
And so normally you know doctors are paying him to, you
00:19:50
know, to be coached and learn how to do this stuff and paying
00:19:52
him to you know to be coached and learn how to do this stuff.
00:19:54
And he met with me every Friday for weeks to just sit down and
00:19:55
say, okay, what are we doing this week, you know, and what'd
00:19:58
you do last week and what's your plan for next week.
00:20:00
And I mean it was just pivotal in getting that transition you
00:20:05
know back to really be able to do what I needed to do for my
00:20:08
patients.
00:20:08
So that was huge.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: No, that was I'm telling you.
00:20:12
When it's your time, it happens , and you were in the right
00:20:16
place at the right time, it seemed.
00:20:17
I called the health mentor.
00:20:18
That's what you really really did.
00:20:20
Yeah, I wanted to let the audience know where you came
00:20:23
from your research to how you have built your pillars and are
00:20:27
now helping many individuals and also helping other
00:20:30
practitioners so that they can be well-su suited.
00:20:35
It's almost like passing the baton from Exactly.
00:20:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what you know Michael Simmons was for me
00:20:40
in that setting of, you know, not only from a doctor
00:20:43
perspective but as the business side of things, helping support
00:20:47
that.
00:20:47
And so now you know if there are other practitioners out there
00:20:50
that are, you know, thinking they need to do something
00:20:52
different, and whether it's because they want to help their
00:20:55
patients better or their own life.
00:20:56
You know, I mean the life that doctors are living right now in
00:20:59
the medical system is horrible, and you know I mean the rates of
00:21:02
depression and suicide and things in that world, and even
00:21:06
if it doesn't get to that point, but just you know, their health
00:21:09
is not good, their happiness is not good.
00:21:11
If there's any way, I mean I'm helping them touch their lives,
00:21:14
but then you know again that pay it forward mode is just going
00:21:17
to be how many more lives are they going to be able to affect,
00:21:20
you know, because of maybe something that I can help
00:21:23
support them with.
00:21:24
So you know I love my patients, I love being in the office, I
00:21:27
love doing what I'm doing, but it's so rewarding to be able to
00:21:32
even pass that on to another practitioner who you know can
00:21:36
help support their patients too, and it just exponentially
00:21:39
explodes.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: It does.
00:21:41
That's the reason I want to take it from that point Let
00:21:43
people know that normal doesn't have side effects.
00:21:46
Yeah, and you said something, I'm going to say it.
00:21:49
To be successful, yeah, you need a plan and a support system
00:21:53
that can help you learn, understand and do all the things
00:21:57
required for a fully functioning, healthy body.
00:22:01
And you're not just talking about your patients, but you.
00:22:04
The way you worded it, it seems like you were wording it for
00:22:06
yourself as well, and that was a pivotal point for me, because I
00:22:10
always talk about the wellness.
00:22:11
We talk about health literacy, so that the patient can
00:22:15
understand what we're talking about.
00:22:16
Even clinicians, practitioners, also need to have their health
00:22:20
mentor so that they can be their best selves as they're treating
00:22:25
whom they are in the field or in the community.
00:22:28
Speaker 2: You know I often share that quote that you owe it
00:22:30
to those you love to be at your best potential so that you can
00:22:32
help them be at their best potential.
00:22:34
And you know I love my patients , I love my mentees, I love my
00:22:38
kids.
00:22:38
You know that's been a huge transition for me again in
00:22:42
writing this book over the years is it's one thing to practice
00:22:45
what you preach, but you really, you really have to do it.
00:22:48
You know and as a mom you know we hear this all the time, like
00:22:51
you know, it's the idea of being in a plane and putting the mask
00:22:55
on yourself before you can help anybody else, like easier said
00:22:59
than done, I know, but you know, until you live through it, you
00:23:02
have got to figure out how you can take care of yourself.
00:23:05
Because if you're just spent and that's a lot of what I see in
00:23:08
my patients who are coming to me in this you know late forties,
00:23:12
fifties or even sixties, where they have spent years taking
00:23:15
care of everybody else, and you know they're taking care of
00:23:18
their kids and now, you know, just when their kids are out,
00:23:21
then their parents start to get older and now they're taking
00:23:24
care of parents and now they're flipping back to taking care of,
00:23:26
you know, grandkids and things like that, and absolutely we
00:23:29
want to be able to do that and I'm not saying don't do that,
00:23:32
but if you're not taking a minute to take care of yourself,
00:23:35
then it's going to be hard for you to do anything and you won't
00:23:38
be there to help them later.
00:23:40
Yeah, you know you won't be able to keep pushing.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: No, you can't.
00:23:44
Speaker 2: And then who's going to take care of you, you know?
00:23:46
Speaker 1: Right?
00:23:46
No, you nailed that one.
00:23:48
You nailed that one.
00:23:49
That's huge.
00:23:50
I just want to say everything that we discussed today is
00:23:54
pivotal for the patient, for the healthcare practitioner and
00:23:58
even meeting the needs.
00:23:59
I see something that could be so pivotal you just helping the
00:24:04
other physicians who are in the 40s, 50s or 60s and wanting to
00:24:09
make a change for themselves, for their patients, or maybe
00:24:13
even start their business.
00:24:14
I see that baton truly passing.
00:24:17
Dr Duffy, I really do.
00:24:19
Your wealth of knowledge, your impact that you have on your
00:24:23
community and your patients is truly not just pivotal, but I
00:24:28
see it just glowing from you and what you're doing.
00:24:30
You really and truly are genuinely enjoying what you're
00:24:33
doing and you want others to have that same kind of joy and I
00:24:37
give you thanks for that.
00:24:38
Is there any one thing that you specifically want to share with
00:24:42
the audience today, like one message?
00:24:46
Speaker 2: I mean gosh, there's so many in there.
00:24:48
And I just want to touch a second on the title.
00:24:51
When we say normal doesn't have side effects, but you know that
00:24:54
takes a little bit of an explanation.
00:24:56
So you know what I love about that and where that came from,
00:24:59
is when I'm with a patient and having a conversation with them
00:25:02
about you know what may be going on with them and what our
00:25:04
treatment plan might be.
00:25:05
And I say you know, ultimately you're not broken, you know this
00:25:09
is not broken.
00:25:10
And that, I think, is what gets so frustrating for some
00:25:13
patients is that they've been to other doctors and they've had
00:25:15
tests run and everything's normal, right, and so they feel
00:25:19
like there's something wrong with them because you know,
00:25:21
they've been told nothing's wrong with you, you know, yet
00:25:24
they feel horrible and they can't function.
00:25:26
And so when we really dig deeper and we start specifically
00:25:28
looking at the hormone side of things and recognizing that you
00:25:32
know things may be technically within range but they're not
00:25:34
balanced appropriately and everything's kind of
00:25:36
dysfunctional and out of whack.
00:25:38
When I sit down to explain what we're going to do and what we're
00:25:41
talking about and I say you know, oftentimes when you're at
00:25:44
a doctor's office and you're getting a prescription for
00:25:46
something we're obligated or, you know, supposed to say here's
00:25:50
the list of side effects to expect, right, and you know,
00:25:54
call me if you have this or call me if you have that.
00:25:56
And I say you know, ultimately I just want you to get back to
00:25:59
normal, and normal doesn't have side effects.
00:26:01
So when we're using this system and we're getting things
00:26:04
aligned to the way that they were supposed to, then that's
00:26:07
not a conversation we need to have.
00:26:09
I have no expectation that you're going to have a side
00:26:11
effect.
00:26:11
So that's kind of where that quote came from.
00:26:13
But really it just becomes this bigger picture, like we're
00:26:17
talking about, I mean, what we should be doing.
00:26:19
It's not outrageous.
00:26:20
You know, being healthy shouldn't be as hard of work as
00:26:24
it is.
00:26:25
You know.
00:26:25
I mean it is so easy to be unhealthy, unfortunately, just
00:26:30
the way that we live in the world we live in, right.
00:26:32
But I mean it just should be the norm.
00:26:36
The norm should be energy and sleep and normal weight and
00:26:41
feeling really good and involved in your family and your life
00:26:44
and your career and whatever.
00:26:45
That should be the norm and it shouldn't be so hard.
00:26:48
So how do we get back to that?
00:26:49
And that's really where those pillars come from is we weren't
00:26:52
meant to do this alone.
00:26:54
We're a tribal society and I think you know what we found.
00:26:57
It's interesting in the South, you know, I moved to the South
00:27:00
from Colorado and my family was all spread out everywhere.
00:27:04
So, you know, in the South, you see where families and
00:27:07
generations are still, you know, living next to each other and
00:27:11
we're in the same unit and whatnot.
00:27:13
So it's a little bit different here.
00:27:14
But we weren't meant to do this alone.
00:27:16
And it's so funny how, even with social media and the
00:27:19
connections we have in these things, I mean, so many people
00:27:22
just feel like they're isolated, you know, and they're in
00:27:25
competition with each other instead of being in
00:27:27
communication.
00:27:28
And that's what's so huge in this world of functional
00:27:31
medicine that we're in.
00:27:32
We're in collaboration.
00:27:33
You know we're not here to compete.
00:27:34
There are plenty of patients out there.
00:27:37
We don't need to fight, you know, for the patients.
00:27:39
We need to help, support each other.
00:27:40
And if I can help somebody figure out a way to communicate,
00:27:43
you know, their message to somebody or set up their system
00:27:47
so that they don't make the mistakes and have to go through
00:27:49
the struggles that I went through, then you know that's
00:27:52
just one more thing that I can do to help support someone so we
00:27:55
can all live a normal, happy life.
00:27:58
You know, it doesn't have to be so hard.
00:28:00
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
00:28:01
That's an awesome message.
00:28:02
I really really do.
00:28:03
No, seriously, it's the honest truth.
00:28:05
That is an awesome message and there's so much more that's
00:28:08
within the book.
00:28:08
There's so much more to Dr Duffy that we did not touch
00:28:12
today and, as I stated, my intention is to bring her back
00:28:15
because she has so much that she can offer and some of her
00:28:20
examples within the book will explain.
00:28:22
Actually evolves that title even more.
00:28:26
I'll just leave it like that.
00:28:27
I'm giving y'all a hint, okay.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: We'll have part two, maybe part three.
00:28:34
Speaker 1: I'm telling you I love this.
00:28:36
I just want to say definitely.
00:28:38
Thank you so much, Dr Duffing, for joining me on Cold Press
00:28:40
Conversations.
00:28:40
This is Dr Jewel White-Williams with you and until next time
00:28:43
I'm signing off.
00:28:44
I want everyone to please take care and remember knowledge is
00:28:47
power when it comes to your health.
00:28:48
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Cold Press Conversations.
00:28:53
If you love this episode as much as I did, I need you to
00:28:57
head on over and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
00:29:00
This is Dr Jewel signing off to health and cognitive happiness.
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