#1047 I Love Tall Boots

October 24, 2023Scott Benner

Rebecca has type 1 diabetes, celiac, Hashimoto's Raynauds, Mast Cell and more.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1047 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'll be speaking with Rebecca who has had diabetes type one for 42 years. She also has celiac, something called neck crow BIOSIS live, you'll find out about that later Hashimotos Raynaud's and mast cell activation syndrome I wish I could pronounce the other thing I'd tell you about it now. Anyway, while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Don't forget if you use the offer code juice box at checkout at cozy earth.com You will save 40% off of your entire order. Speaking of great deals, the diabetes Pro Tip series is completely free and waiting for you at episode 1000 and it runs through episode 1026. What else can I tell you? Are you newly diagnosed, try the bold beginning series. Check it out at juicebox podcast.com. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram Facebook, Tik Tok or wherever you do your socials.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G seven dexcom.com forward slash juice box head over there now get all the information you need. Check out that Dexcom right there and those pretty pictures and all those descriptive words and get started. Just click Get Started. When you get to the website dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. When use the links from the podcast, you're supporting the production of the show. And speaking of links, contour next one.com forward slash juicebox learn all about the contour next gen blood glucose meter, its accuracy, its second chance test strips and why it's the meter that we use here. Contour next one.com forward slash juicebox.

Rebecca 2:18
My name is Rebecca and I have had type one diabetes for almost 42 years. And I have a bunch of other autoimmune issues as well.

Scott Benner 2:29
Wait 42 years. How old are you? I'm old. You're at least 42 But

Rebecca 2:35
well I'm yeah, I'm 52. So

Scott Benner 2:40
I'm gonna be 53 This summer Why are you telling me I'm old?

Rebecca 2:43
Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, it's, yeah, it's halfway there. Maybe

Scott Benner 2:48
what were you nine when you were diagnosed?

Rebecca 2:50
I'm 11 like my birthday is in the fall. So I was like, it was like two days before my 12th birthday. I was diagnosed well,

Scott Benner 2:59
okay, so that's a long time to have diabetes and also in the family have diabetes. No one

Rebecca 3:05
has diabetes. My mom had thyroid disease. My aunt has thyroid disease. My mom's first cousin had type one diabetes and lupus. And yeah, I think there's a lot of, you know, kind of that kind of thing. Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:22
A lot of that kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Do you have any siblings?

Rebecca 3:27
I have a sister Sister.

Scott Benner 3:29
She have any of this stuff?

Rebecca 3:31
No, she has? Well,

not really sure she has cancer that so oddly. Yeah. Because their own thing.

Scott Benner 3:44
You are the first person that said My sister has cancer and then giggled afterwards.

Rebecca 3:49
It's almost like it's ridiculous. Like, I kind of do feel like my health is ridiculous. And it's just a lot. It's a lot in my family. Yeah. But yeah, my sister has ovarian cancer. So she's dealing with that. But no, I don't think she really has autoimmune stuff. I think there was when she was running, they had some kind of like theory about the attachment points of her attendance and that there was something autoimmune going on with that. But that seems to have died down. I haven't heard anything about that recently.

Scott Benner 4:20
It's funny, isn't it? How health can feel like a, like a bad zombie movie? Yes. Yeah. You're like, you kill all the zombies in the living room, and they opened the door into the dining room, you're like, Oh, we did it. And there's more zombies. Like you gotta be kidding me. And then you get all those zombies and you walk into the kitchen, you know, like, Well, finally, we can add more zombies. It's

Rebecca 4:41
exactly, exactly. Well, I think too, like, once you have diabetes, you're like, oh my god,

this is a lot. This is a lot and like the supplies and the insulin and the CGM and the, you know, exercise and monitoring and then and then like when you get something pellets. In addition, it's like, Are you kidding me?

Scott Benner 5:03
Yeah. What else did you What else did you get? So celiac,

Rebecca 5:08
and then but that wasn't till my adulthood but I actually think I had celiac in my childhood before type one. And I actually think that the celiac not getting found and treated with a diet change to eliminate gluten. I think that that triggered my immune system to then attack my eyelets I have memories of like stomach aches since I was really little

Scott Benner 5:33
your parents know about your stomach aches. Yeah. Yeah. What did they think that they just got a defective kid? Or did they? Yeah, they know. They

Rebecca 5:41
were just like, Here have some relates

Rolaids? Yeah. Like I my dad,

I have memories of like my dad having like Maalox on top of his bureau. And I would just like go in there and take Maalox off the top of his bureau. Did it help? No. I mean, it didn't help but it did sort of like placebo effect help. I guess. I don't know.

Scott Benner 6:02
What part of the country you're from that you just said bureau. Bureau. New England. I was gonna say you're in the northeast, right? Yeah.

Rebecca 6:10
Why do people not St. Jerome?

Scott Benner 6:11
I mean, I'm from Philly. So I know that word, but I bet you there are a lot of people right now who are like does she mean the dresser?

Rebecca 6:19
The dresser Yeah, so So yeah, so So celiac. So I think the celiac was first and then the type one diabetes because the celiac wasn't diagnosed.

Scott Benner 6:35
Okay, no, I take your point. But what else?

Rebecca 6:37
Then when I was 15 I got macro BIOSIS lipolytica. Diabetic Horam.

Scott Benner 6:42
Let's just slow down there first no as one does have a second Rebecca as I turned to the other computer, say again? necro

Rebecca 6:52
necro BIOSIS lipo indica. So it's like lipo indica, diabetic quorum.

I got it. Believe it or not. Yeah, it's just like, really ugly thing that happens with the skin because of diabetes. Oh, the

Scott Benner 7:07
dark skin thing around like your neck and stuff? No, no. This is something different. Hold on.

Rebecca 7:13
It's on my shins. Yeah, it's or if you maybe if you look under NLD and type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 7:20
I'll get in there. Hold on. Yeah. Oh, goodness. You have that?

Rebecca 7:25
Oh, yes. So that developed on my shins.

Scott Benner 7:30
Sorry, I don't know what to say that it looks like the makeup from a zombie movie. Because

Rebecca 7:34
yeah, my shins are really like, striking. Like people do ask me all the time. Like what did you do to your shins? And I'm like, I took nothing. But yeah, so that appeared on my shins when I was 15. So that was the next thing.

Scott Benner 7:50
Do you think I should have like a bell or a song that plays when somebody says something? It's never been said before? Like,

Rebecca 7:56
um, yeah, yeah, there should be a bell.

I don't know. You haven't. No one's ever said necroptosis lipolytica. Diabetic. Oral.

Scott Benner 8:04
No, no, this is a first I'm, I'm enjoying the first right now. I don't even know how to write it down. You're saying and LD will get me there. Okay, yeah, that's immune.

Rebecca 8:15
Yeah, that's autoimmune. And it's the it's the immune system destroying the fat layer of the skin. So yeah, it's really like a cosmetic issue. Mostly. If you slow it down with steroids, then it's just been like, no, it's a little rough to look at.

Scott Benner 8:33
But here's this colored. Is yours. Lumpy, or has yours ever festival opened?

Rebecca 8:38
Yes. So it has like it can get infected. I did. It was like infected at one point in high school.

Scott Benner 8:47
Do you love tall boots?

Rebecca 8:50
I love tall boots. Every fall I'm like it's boots weather.

Scott Benner 8:55
And I'm just gonna jot down here for the title of the episode. I love tall boots. Okay. That's a good episode title. This is horrifying. I'm sorry.

Rebecca 9:05
Yeah, no, it's it is it's horrifying. And it's

and it doesn't there's no research really into anything that can be done and it just sort of, is what it is. It just sort of stays. But that was like the, you know, the next thing and I was 15 So like when you're 15 and

Unknown Speaker 9:21
your girl

Scott Benner 9:24
boy 15 And I'm, I don't know a giraffe. I think anybody would be upset. Can you shave this? Like what? How do you shave your legs there?

Rebecca 9:33
Oh, I don't grow hair. They're like it's Yeah, it looks like so both shins have it and it looks like it looks like a burn. Looks like I was burned. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:43
just your shins? Yeah,

Rebecca 9:46
it's really weird because there's skin right next to the lesions and that skin spine. But like, if you go over a little bit, then there's this whole thing happening.

Scott Benner 9:57
Absolutely. The first time I've ever seen that. It's just Is that just the type one? Yes. You said it pairs diabetes.

Rebecca 10:05
Yeah, it's a type one thing I don't. And it's, it's dermatologic. It's, you can treat it with steroids and they give you like creams to start, but they don't work and they thin the skin. And then the only thing that I found stops, it is injections. So they would inject steroids into the shins themselves the lesions around the border of them to kind of keep them contained.

Scott Benner 10:29
Yeah, it says here the cause of I'm not pronouncing this God, you do it, you were already through it. The cause of

Rebecca 10:33
necro BIOSIS lipolytica. Diabetic quorum

Scott Benner 10:37
is unknown. It is thought it is thought to be linked to blood vessel inflammation related to autoimmune factors, the damage, or this damage is proteins in the skin or college and people with type one are more likely to get it than those with type two. Yeah, okay. Well, what's next?

Rebecca 10:55
Okay, so after that, yeah, so after that, I, I guess I had like a little reprieve. And then I got married, had a baby. And then right after my son was born, my thyroid was attacked by my immune system. I guess that's Hashimotos. But my TSH was 89.

My primary care called me and she's like, this is the highest TSH I've ever seen.

Scott Benner 11:25
Yeah, they should have rang a bell for you to write.

Rebecca 11:28
I wanted the bell. That point. I was like,

Scott Benner 11:30
thank you. And when you started dating, you just started asking guys, but boobs or leg which do you prefer? And then if they said, like, you just went home, or how does?

Rebecca 11:40
Ya know, like I, I've always like, been, you know, like, able to

find boyfriends and, you know, friends and what have you. But I do think that I do kind of, I used to sort of preface things like, well, just wait to see my legs.

Scott Benner 12:01
I have to be honest with you, Rebecca, and I think I can speak for men in general here on this. We're very easy to make happy. No one really cares. It just.

Rebecca 12:10
Yeah, I mean, it's a good litmus test in some ways, because I you know, I waited a few

Scott Benner 12:15
out. Yeah, I bet. Well, that's yeah. Okay, I'm so sorry. After the after you got your 89 TSH, down. What, by the way, how did how did you feel at that point?

Rebecca 12:29
Well, I was postpartum. And I was exhausted. And like, everyone was like, of course, you're exhausted. You just had a baby. And I was like, Yeah, but I feel really not good. Like, I need sleep. And I also still had celiacs that had celiac the whole time I was pregnant. And it wasn't, wasn't discovered yet. So

Scott Benner 12:56
I was that on top of it. Yeah.

Rebecca 12:58
So amazingly, I got through pregnancy, somehow. And he got nutrients. You know, he got whatever nutrients he got. He's actually like healthy and fine, which is amazing.

Scott Benner 13:08
But he has no autoimmune stuff. Here's your son. Well, you

Rebecca 13:11
know, he has eczema, like a little bit of eczema.

But he's otherwise like, completely healthy.

Scott Benner 13:19
Where's his eczema?

Rebecca 13:20
Well, when he was a baby, he had like, behind his knees and his elbows and his hands. Now, it's just like, occasionally with like, the wrong soap. He sort of reacts.

Scott Benner 13:32
May I say? Keep an eye on his TSH? Yeah, yeah. Right, just in case. God, was there something else or just stop after the thyroid?

Rebecca 13:42
Oh, no, there's more. So, um, so thyroid, and I started medication for the thyroid. And then when my son was like, I want to say like, one day, I did talk to my endocrinologist and I was like, Listen, I've had diarrhea for like, 30 years, can we maybe think about what this is like, I was just like, I can't leave the house. And like, I went to grad school in Boston, I knew every bathroom in Boston. So I but after I had my son, it was was almost like my immune system has sort of taken a break during pregnancy and sort of was like, alright, we'll let her have a few months of like normal eating and digestion because the baby and then as soon as he was born, I was back to like, being really sick to my stomach all the time. So finally got the celiac diagnosis after my son was born, and started on a gluten free diet, and I had a ton of like, joint inflammation with the celiac so I had like, you know, taken up like knee supports and wrist supports and stopped driving a stick shift, that kind of thing. Yeah, that kind

Scott Benner 14:48
of, you know how when your knees hurt so bad, you can't drive a stick anymore, right? Yeah, no, really. I

Rebecca 14:54
just was like, I can't do this anymore. My knees and

Scott Benner 14:57
Rebecca most people right now are listening. thinking what is stick shift. Now let's talk about the Dexcom g7. The Dexcom g7 is a small and wearable continuous glucose monitoring system. It sends real time glucose readings to your Dexcom g7 app or the Dexcom receiver, use my link dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. To learn more and get started today, you will be able to effortlessly see your glucose levels and where they're headed. This way, you'll be able to make better decisions about food, insulin and activity. Once you're able to see the impact that those variables have on blood sugar, you'll begin to make more purposeful decisions and have better outcomes. My daughter has been wearing a Dexcom product for so many years. I don't even remember when she started. But today she wears the Dexcom G seven and it is small and easy. And oh my goodness, are you going to love it dexcom.com forward slash juice box you can head there now and click on the button that will get you your free benefits check or just hit that other button that says Get Started. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. As you heard earlier, this episode of the podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. But when you get a contour meter, what you're really getting is their test strips. Contour next test strips feature remarkable accuracy as part of the contour next blood glucose monitoring system. They're the number one branded over the counter test strips, and they of course have Second Chance sampling. Second Chance sampling can help you to avoid wasted strips, contour next one.com forward slash juice box. Near the top of the page you'll see a Buy Now button it's bright yellow. When you click on that, you'll get eight options of places online to buy contour meters and test strips walmart.com Amazon Walgreens CVS Pharmacy Meijer, Kroger target Rite Aid. These are all links you'll find at my link, linker D link links, blink blink, blink blink. I'm just getting head over there. Now, won't you please listen, the contour meters are incredibly accurate. They are simple to use. They're easy to hold, easy to read, and they have a bright light for nighttime testing. Part of me wants to say that the second chance sampling is the biggest deal. But honestly, it's the accuracy. These meters are accurate. And I know a lot of people like to think well I have a CGM. I don't need a meter. You do. You need a meter. You need to be accurate. You deserve it to be accurate contour and x.com forward slash juicebox. Take a look at the contour next gen and the other meters available from contour. We use my links you're supporting the production of the show and helping to keep it free and plentiful. They have no idea what you're talking about. Their cars are going to drive themselves and you're like you remember manual transmissions right. And they're like why? Right? Yeah. At one point when Arden was getting her license, she's like, she chose this like, she's like, I want to get this car and she picked some car from a TV shows like an old car from the 60s. I was like you are not going to enjoy driving a car with drum brakes. And she's like with what I was like, yeah, yeah, no power steering, and the heats not going to work very well. It's definitely not going to have air conditioning. And she's like, what, what now? And I was like, Yeah, cars didn't used to be this great. Right? Yeah. So anyway, okay, so we go back for a second. I've had diarrhea for 30 years. Yeah. So

Rebecca 18:37
I really, I really just sort of like, thought I had a nervous disposition or I thought I had sort of a a nervous kind of stomach. And I, I don't know why I didn't, I think because it had always been I didn't. I didn't really know that you could actually like have the urge to use the bathroom and wait.

Unknown Speaker 19:02
Like, God always been like, oh,

Rebecca 19:04
I have to, I gotta get I gotta get somewhere

Scott Benner 19:06
always very impressed by people who are like, I have to go to the bathroom and you're like, Oh, we'll get you to a bathroom right now. They're like, that's fine. We can go when I get home. Right? But those people were superheroes.

Rebecca 19:17
Yeah, they are. I mean, like, that's that is like,

Scott Benner 19:21
super understand people who walked in the bathroom and came out eight minutes later washing their hands. You're like, oh, wait, what happened? How the poop came out. It all came out in eight minutes. And you washed your hair in eight minutes. Like, like you didn't? You're in there just going like do your God just please let this end and and that's happening to them. That's terrible. That's such a long time.

Rebecca 19:46
Yeah, it's such a long time. I mean, yeah.

Scott Benner 19:49
So what did you when you said this to the doctor? What did they say?

Rebecca 19:54
He will I think I had been reporting often on that I was you know having diarrhea. And poor digestion. And what I felt like was chronic stomach aches. And I think like this was I was 30. This was like in the 2000s. So it was like, Yeah, early 2000s. And he was like, Have we ever tested you for celiac? And I was like, No.

And I just had like a feeling write down that this was going to be a thing.

And then he was like, well try avoiding gluten for a few days. He's like, look it up. You know, there's lots of information out there, look it up, and then try avoiding gluten for a few days. And we'll and if you feel better, it's probably that but then we'll, we'll get a look at your antibodies. And then if your antibodies are positive, we'll do a biopsy of your duodenum. So I was like, Okay, great.

Scott Benner 20:45
That sounds like fun. Thanks. Yeah. Sounds great. So how did they diagnose you then?

Rebecca 20:49
So my antibodies came back. Hi, hi. Hi. And then he said, Well, let's do the, the endoscopic biopsy, and just make sure, you know, and see what kind of condition in your villi are in. So we did that. And right after the endoscopy, the doctor came out was like, Oh, you have celiac? You definitely have celiac. They gave me pictures of my, you know, pictures of all the things and there was 100% atrophy of my small intestine of the villi. Yeah. So that was it was almost like, I felt vindicated in some ways. Like, oh, I knew something was wrong. I always knew something was wrong. Like we weren't catching something. And so So yeah, so got that figured out.

Scott Benner 21:41
Jeez. And now you just eat gluten free? That's how you manage that.

Rebecca 21:45
Yes. But so like, and this is, this is sort of one of my, the things that I think people don't know or don't understand is that type one and celiac together is like its own little slice of hell, because it's, it's just a bad combination. So I think like, diabetes control has always been really hard because of the digestion issues. Like I just haven't had normal digestion. And now that I'm gluten free, I think it's, it's better. I also. So once you this is the thing is like, once you go gluten free, your ability to tolerate gluten goes down. So like where I used to have diarrhea and stomach aches. Now if I get even a little gluten, I'm vomiting. It's terrible. It's like, horrendous. And I think that that's, that's kind of the thing that people don't understand. When when you say to a waiter, or you say to someone who's invited you for dinner, it's like, well, it's this whole environment that you really have to be aware of, to cook in in order to not get me sick. So yeah, so I think the celiac has just been rough and, and food labeling is terrible with with being gluten free. So like there's a million foods out there that are gluten free, but aren't labeled gluten free. So you end up reading a lot of ingredient lists and things like that. So I spend a lot of time trying squinting.

Scott Benner 23:16
They don't tell you that when you get older, right or read anything.

Rebecca 23:20
I know well, like my, my close up vision got that right. When I really like now I really have to read ingredients. It's like I can't you know, I have to pull out

Scott Benner 23:31
the tenders. Kelly and I were at the store the other day, picking out frames for both of us for the glasses we need to read and heard to see in general. I just saw us in a mirror and I was like, Oh my god. World. Yeah, yeah, I was like, yeah, that happened. So we're both shocked. I've never like, you know what I mean? Like, that was a new experience for me, the two of us out like, Hey, she's like, I'm gonna get my contacts and get new frames. And I'm like, Okay, well, I think I have to get my eyes checked because I I'm at the point now where I put my glasses on to use something up close. And I'm like, do these not work? Right? So these aren't right anymore, and I need to get a new prescription and yeah, okay, so that's gotta be it, though. Right? You don't have anything else? Or did you get a Raynaud's or something like that?

Rebecca 24:18
Yeah. So then Reno, Reno. Oh

Scott Benner 24:20
my god. Hold on. Stop a second. You didn't put that in your notes? I just guessed.

Rebecca 24:25
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely added that.

Scott Benner 24:29
My God, hold on. I become a soothsayer. Yeah.

Rebecca 24:33
Three notes

in my notes is okay. I mean, it's not a big deal. Like, whatever. I mean, compared to everything else, right notes is like nothing, like keep your hands warm. Keep your feet warm. And I'm a skier. So I put the toe warmers in my boots and I, you know, the three notes is no big deal.

Scott Benner 24:52
Well, only, you know, you have to have the perspective of having diarrhea for 30 years. And then you just go down doesn't matter. I don't even care what color my fingers. Yeah, what do you think of whatever?

Rebecca 25:02
Yeah, that's easy. So yeah,

so there's that. And then, and then I got, I don't know when this happened, but like I have dry eyes, dry mouth, like, I think it's sjogrens. But when I get tested for sjogrens, I, I come up negative, they just got sick a syndrome. And I don't know what that stands for, but it's dry. It's like dry mucosal membranes. And it's, it's, it's hard because it's while I sleep, I have to wake up and put drops in my eyes. So it's, it's, it kind of affects my sleep quality. And, like, if I'm exercising and breathing hard, I have to have water with me. Because it's just really hard to keep my throat from being dry. So that that is a strange thing. But I think a lot of people with auto immune conditions have that sort of dry eyes, dry mouth kind of thing going on. So there's that and then and then more recently, I developed some kind of like histamine intolerance or mast cell activation syndrome, but I that's a whole other thing. And that's, how's that? That's, it's, um, so it's, it's another like, bunch of foods that cause my, my mast cells to I think D granulate. And then you have sort of like this, I was getting these 3am 4am attacks of like, vomiting, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, flushing, passing out kind of thing.

Scott Benner 26:38
And do you have any idea what brings it on?

Rebecca 26:41
Yeah, so histamines. So food with histamine. So I have figured out that like red wine is out. Tomatoes are out, tomato sauce. And then like anything preserved, so anything that has been sitting out, or has been preserved in anything pickled anything, like anything that's in a can, or in a jar on the shelf is full of histamine. And so like, I can do fish, but I have to know that the fish died like yesterday or today, or I really can't do it. So to avoid these, like histamine things, I I've changed my diet even more to accommodate that.

Scott Benner 27:33
Are you taking some sort of a, I don't know. What do you do? Every day?

Rebecca 27:38
Yeah. There's a bunch of mast cell stabilizers and antihistamines that that helped to treat it. And since I've started the treatment for it, I don't have those attacks anymore. Thank God.

Scott Benner 27:50
Any injectables that help any injectables? Yeah. No, nothing. Okay. Okay, so yeah, generally speaking, what's your I'm just going to ask you a left turn question. What's your outlook on life?

Rebecca 28:06
I'm really like, I try to stay positive. And I try to hope that the like, I'm done, I've got my stuff. Up to

Scott Benner 28:14
seven. Right. So yeah,

Rebecca 28:16
we're not accepting new diagnosis here. And we're good. But I think that my outlook is, is life is hard. Like life, getting through a day is hard, like, eating anywhere is difficult. So I, I feel like there's changes that could happen that would make my life and people with type one and celiacs lives better. But the but the world doesn't realize like a how serious it is when we get gluten and how sick we get and then be how hard it is to know that your food is safe.

Scott Benner 28:50
Gluten is that you're like, of all the things you've listed. Is that your biggest concern

Rebecca 28:56
that? Well, it's not my biggest concern. I mean, I think type one diabetes is is sort of the most serious because it affects every you know, every organ system and it's lifelong. And you know, you're you're doing so much to stay alive with insulin and CGM is and all this. And I think that it's, it's gotten so much easier with the CGM than it ever was. And so for me, I feel like it's, it's, it's something that you can fit the pieces together like you. It's a puzzle and you've got to like, be aware of all the pieces, but it's something you can figure out or you don't figure out and you just correct and move on. But I think that yeah, I think it's something that with education, anybody can figure out it just takes it takes experience. It takes reading and listening and yeah,

Scott Benner 29:45
yeah. How much impact? Like do you work outside of your home?

Rebecca 29:50
Yes. So I am a therapist. I work I'm attached to a primary care practice in the city. because that I live next to and I have a small private group practice. So I do that one day a week, and then I am attached to this primary care practice. It's family medicine, internal medicine, and I'm the behavioral health provider for them. So I do I do that during the day, but you're in an office during the day. So on Thursdays I go in, in person and the rest of the time I see people on telehealth,

Scott Benner 30:28
how does that work? Yeah, for them, do you think it works?

Rebecca 30:31
So during the pandemic, behavioral health became sort of more modern, where we were like, Hey, we can do our job on the computer, though. I think that, you know, the choice has really been over the last few years to sit in an office with your the therapist is masked and the patient is masked. And the therapy world I don't think that's ideal. So, so most of us have been doing telehealth visits. So the patient, you know, we use a HIPAA compliant video link and the patient logs in and, and then it's like, we're sitting in the room together. And I mean, I do some things to try and make the time together as if we were sitting in the office together. But it's a little, it's a little weird, but I've gotten really used to, to helping people to make the best of the time and and make it as private as they can on their end. And yeah,

Scott Benner 31:30
that weirdness is Do you think that's more on you or them? Like, it's not something you're accustomed to? Because you've been doing it for a long time? Not that way. But do you think new people to it think anything of it even

Rebecca 31:40
I don't think patients give it much thought but I think it's because, like having been in the field and worked in the field. So like, if someone is sort of like, like, I've had like a guy sort of like sitting in bed topless with his tattoos and now he starts rolling a joint and I you know that it's all new, like the wild west of therapy where

Scott Benner 32:03
I go, Hey, push.

Rebecca 32:07
Yeah, it was like, Well,

are you rolling a joint right now? He's like, Yeah, like, Oh, we don't really encourage people to use cannabis during sessions. It's not really a good idea.

Scott Benner 32:20
Did he put it down here?

Rebecca 32:22
He was like, really? You care if I smoke this? Yeah, he did. He was like, Okay, I'll wait till later. But so you get you do get like an inside view of like, what your, what your patients or your clients are up to at home and you meet their pets and guinea pigs and

Scott Benner 32:39
rabbits. That kind of helpful for you.

Rebecca 32:42
Yeah, I mean, I love that. I love that piece of it. Like,

I've seen everybody's pets, you know?

Scott Benner 32:48
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I just it seems to me that like the knowledge that somebody would, like, while they know you're looking at them, like, say, like, I'm not gonna, like forget even the joint like just, I'm not even giving this my full attention. I'm actually doing other things during this. That That That part's interest.

Rebecca 33:06
Right? Right. Well, I think that there's a lot of that when people start. So I try to kind of set the set the pace as like, this is your time for you. So if you're holding your phone and washing your bathroom mirror while we're talking, that's that's you really not giving yourself the space and the time to sit and talk. So, yeah,

Scott Benner 33:29
all right. That's a that's something if this wasn't your job, if you I don't know had like some nine to five, grind, like where you went to a thing? Like how much do you think? Would this get in your way? All these things? So

Rebecca 33:47
I don't Well, I think that no, but I do think that I do have to bring my food everywhere. My own food I can't count on, you know, the food truck outside understanding my needs. So yeah, I mean, I've had jobs where I went to the office every day, and I did it. But yeah, it takes a lot of planning in terms of food and that kind of thing. And I feel like I feel like there's like the work bag and then there's like the medical supply bag. And then there's like all these rescue medications. If I were to get some gluten or I were to get some histamine reactions, I have like a separate kind of bag for all that stuff.

Scott Benner 34:34
Is the is the question where's Rebecca most commonly followed up with in the bathroom back in the day,

Unknown Speaker 34:44
no, no, I

Rebecca 34:46
don't know. I mean, I think that if anything, my family would say that I always had a stomach ache like I was always lying on the couch or on the floor.

Scott Benner 34:57
Just trying to let it pass. Where does that stomach ache? How I've been on your stomach is it in the lower part upper?

Rebecca 35:02
Um, it's like upper. I mean it's, well, it's intestinal, but it's also like your your stomach itself. And like, I think the small intestine I don't really know, but just the whole thing feels

Scott Benner 35:15
okay, you know, everywhere. But yeah, but yeah. Why did you want to come on the podcast? I

Rebecca 35:23
feel like there's a need for the the world to take the celiac really seriously and the world is getting it wrong. Like if you go to a restaurant they asked you, if you say listen, I've I have celiac and I'm gluten free and I'd like to order fish and steamed broccoli and they'll say allergy or lifestyle?

No, no,

it's autoimmune, but I just say allergy, you know, like, it's, it's serious. It's an allergy, but it's not an allergy. It's autoimmune. It's, um, it's this whole, you know,

Scott Benner 35:56
the lifestyle of question is the inference there is like, so it's not gonna hurt you. You're just trying to avoid it.

Rebecca 36:02
Right? Yeah, I mean, I get they're trying to figure out like, how serious how seriously, do we need to take this but but then that

Scott Benner 36:09
in first, there's levels of how, how well they handle it.

Rebecca 36:13
Right. And I think over time, what I've learned is like, I really just go to like two or three restaurants. And I don't go to the other ones because I just don't, I just don't trust and I've gotten sick so many times from a meal. And like there's no there's no meal that's worth getting sick. You know?

Scott Benner 36:33
Describe that for me. Like you go to a restaurant they give you gluten, you make it out of the restaurant or not even.

Rebecca 36:41
Yeah, so unfortunately, you make it out of the restaurant because like if we got sick, right, then they probably take it a lot more seriously, but it actually takes

Scott Benner 36:50
on the floor. Like gluten in the god.

Rebecca 36:55
I know. I know. Well, they they're like how are you feeling?

Are you okay? And I'm like, Yes, I won't know for hours. Yeah. So I think I had written you when I had just survived like this horrendous night going out for Mexican food and doing my whole spiel with like, I am gluten free. I will order what I am not picky. I just don't want to die. Like I'm not picky. I just want gluten free and they were like, well, we recommend these tacos. And I was like that sounds great. I bet that my husband was like, I don't know. I don't know. They look.

Scott Benner 37:31
They look like gluten. They look loony. Yeah, they looked

Rebecca 37:35
at me, they look like and then I did it. And I was like, oh my god, this is so much. And I was like, This is really

good. If it's gluten free, and he's like, I don't think it's gluten free. And I was like, I I went and got the bartender. I was like, Listen, are you sure this is gluten free?

He goes, I'm gonna go check with the kitchen again. So he came back. He goes, Yes, gluten free. I was like, Okay. And I mean, I had done my whole spiel, I had said to him, I have celiac. I had said to him, it's really serious. I had said to him, I really need gluten free. And if you can't do it, just tell me and I'll order nothing. I will have a glass of wine and just sit here and enjoy my night. But he was like, No, we can help you. We can do gluten free. And then it turned out it was totally not. They were both they were like soft wheat tortilla.

Scott Benner 38:21
They didn't even understand what gluten was.

Rebecca 38:24
No, I don't think so. And they probably thought it was fat

Scott Benner 38:27
free. Or, I mean, you have it all. I've listened. I've had that experience a half a dozen times my life. I'm like, Listen, my daughter has diabetes. She can't or she needs or whatever. And they go Oh, yeah, good. Okay. Yeah. They don't know what they're talking about. No one's talking about, like, so like, the people who know no, and everyone else has no reason to know and therefore, I don't know, like, now they have a name tag on so all of a sudden, Rebecca you're trusting them? You know, three hours now you're gonna bump into this this person at the grocery store, and you'll be like, Why was I listening to him? Right? Yeah, exactly.

Rebecca 39:02
Like, if there isn't like you don't know how educated people are, whether they know how to read ingredients. And like, do they know that barley has gluten in it? I'm

Scott Benner 39:12
gonna go no, no, it's so

Rebecca 39:14
it's hellish. Like, you can't, you can't trust. You can't trust restaurants. I mean, I would love to say you could trust a restaurant, but you can't. And so I go to like two or three different restaurants where I know they know gluten free. And they have like a number of safeguards in place, including a manager always bringing the food to the person who's gluten free and they say this is gluten free. So it's like that. You know, like I always want to hear whoever delivers my food. Here it is and it's gluten free even though I've already said hey, I need gluten free when they bring out the food I still want them to kind of like be like, Hey, this is the gluten free thing. And it has a little allergy flag in it you know that kind of thing? That's nice,

Scott Benner 39:57
like a bell but but more yeah Because, yeah,

Rebecca 40:01
there's like the flag, like you're special. And they and a lot of restaurants will do like a different shaped plate for the gluten free or the allergy. Good idea. Food. Yeah. So that, you know, just another safeguard, but but I just feel like overall like our society and our systems in place with going out to eat and also like hospitals and colleges, they don't, they don't get gluten free, right? They don't. So there's kids in college with, with celiac and getting really sick, because the staff in the kitchen don't understand. There's a lot of ignorance in hospital food prep, like, I worked in hospitals, like I used to work in the emergency room, in the hospital, downtown in the city I lived next to and there was a patient there with type one diabetes in celiac. And he had like this rash all over him, which was the the rash that goes with, with celiac, when you just don't follow the diet and you're eating gluten. So he presented with that, and he had a family member with him. And he had been in the ER for several hours. And one of the things I would do is the behavioral health person is I would ask somebody, like, have you had a meal recently? Are you hungry? Like before we start chatting, you know, would you like a sandwich or something? And I could see that he was he was type one and celiac. And of course, you know, I was like, hey, just by the way.

Scott Benner 41:33
All those things. Yes. Do you need Yeah, yeah.

Rebecca 41:38
No, but I always like if I ever meet somebody with both, I'm like, I love you. Did we just become best friends? Because this is so rare. And it's, you know, it's like its own thing. But, but even so this guy in the emergency room I was. So I got him a tray. And I was I was looking at the tray and it was mashed potatoes. It was some kind of meat and then the mashed potatoes had gravy on them. So he's about to start eating. And I was like, Can I just make a phone call about that gravy? So I called the kitchen and they were like, Oh my God.

Scott Benner 42:11
Yeah, gravy made out of flour that

Rebecca 42:13
gravy. Yeah. So I was like, Don't eat that. That rash isn't gonna get any better if you eat that gravy. No. So we, you know, swapped out the tray and no gravy. But, but that shouldn't happen. And if that were me, if I were the patient, I would be vomiting in two hours. And I would need So Fran and IV fluids. And if my blood sugar were to go low while I'm vomiting then then it's life threatening, you know? Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:39
no, of course. It says here. Celiac disease is a serious genetic autoimmune issue. We know Bob about damages about one in 133 Americans for about 1% of the population has celiac disease. Yeah, except I think it's more. I wonder how many people don't eat gluten and don't realize they don't need it? Yeah, you know, I have

Rebecca 42:57
friends that sort of like, we're like, I, I'm gonna give up gluten because I don't feel well when I eat wheat. And then they they to develop, like sort of an intolerance, you know,

Scott Benner 43:09
after you after you don't have it for a while.

Rebecca 43:11
Right after you don't have it for a while. I think the gut is like, Oh, thank God. Interesting. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:19
Is there? Is there any? Not that there would be? But is there anything that I'm just I'm just trying to get you to? Uh, no. But is there anything that you can take that helps with it?

Rebecca 43:27
So not digestive enzymes, those don't work? There really isn't? So

Scott Benner 43:35
I didn't, I didn't want people to have the idea that it was like, Oh, I could just take something when I'm eating it.

Rebecca 43:40
Like, yeah, no, there's nothing so like with lactate or lactose intolerance, you know, they have this pill. Now, with with celiac, there is nothing that's going to help except getting it out. And so like if you accidentally ingest it, and you know, you've just ingested it. It's just a waiting game until you explode one direction or the other or both. And then after that, you're you're good to go. I mean, you're not good to go. You're, you feel like you feel like but you have to get it out. And then once it's out, you can, you know, start recovering again. Plus,

Scott Benner 44:15
so beyond stomach pain, is there other stuff like muscle joint soreness, tiredness, is there anything else that comes with it?

Rebecca 44:23
with celiac? I? Well, I mean, my joints got gradually better. It wasn't. It wasn't immediate, and it wasn't. It wasn't actually that dramatic, but when I think back to like how bad my joints were, and now how they are now. They're 1000 times better. You know, like, my knees don't hurt except if I'm hiking. Or, you know, I'm old though.

Scott Benner 44:46
So well. It says here. If you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, changing your diet may help either ease arthritis.

Rebecca 44:53
Yeah, I do believe that. I mean, I think I think overall like we in our kind Tree has changed because of the way that the fields and the crops have been treated with. I'm gonna say it wrong, but glyphosate. So I think that, you know, the roundup that is used on fields to kill weeds and insecticides and so forth have changed. Changed wheat and wheat itself is has been changed over time. So I think there's a lot to that as well.

Scott Benner 45:25
What's left to eat.

What's left to eat? Steak

Rebecca 45:29
eggs. I don't say don't read me normally. But I was thinking of adding it back last time. My husband Maybe I'll add red meat back.

Scott Benner 45:37
Go crazy. Rebecca have a steak, right. Yeah,

Rebecca 45:40
I think I might. But I do chicken. I do rice. And we have chickens, actually. So we have eggs from our chickens. So we eat a lot of eggs. And I do dairy. So I love dairy. I eat a lot of yogurt and cheese and eggs.

Scott Benner 45:59
Let me just shift gears here. Yeah, what goes into keeping your own chickens.

Rebecca 46:04
It's really fun. Actually, we did this during the pandemic. So I mean, you know, like, during the pandemic, it was like, the world is very weird. Let's do something to distract ourselves. So we, my son wanted to get chickens. And I was like, Yeah, let's do it. So we got some little hatchlings. And so they have a little coop, and a little chicken run. And yeah, they just sort of bop around and they're cold hardy. So they do fine in the winter. And, and they lay eggs every day. Pretty much.

Scott Benner 46:40
Is that where that movie title came from? Chicken Run? Oh, yeah. Chicken Run. Had no idea. I thought it's because they escaped.

Rebecca 46:47
Yeah, that's their little like space to like, hang out during the day. The run is less secure. Usually, for most people. They have like the place where the chickens can kind of hang out during the day, but at night, they're supposed to go to bed and go up to their coop.

Scott Benner 47:01
I'm just trying to say Rebecca, that chicken run was the double entendre and I didn't realize it. Yeah. Okay, what about what I hear about rats and mice coming to where the chickens live? Is that a problem?

Rebecca 47:14
I suppose it could be. I mean, you have to kind of keep up with like, shoveling the coop and having a way to, you know, you need places to put things where does

Scott Benner 47:24
the poop go? After you clean it up?

Rebecca 47:25
We have a pile? Yeah. Yeah, we have like a place for it. And then yeah, and then over time, it it. it mellows out. And then we use it for fertilizer. So we mix like leaves and, you know, other kinds of organic matter.

Scott Benner 47:43
How often do you call someone in the house? That chicken? That's got it? Oh,

Rebecca 47:47
no. That would be mean to

Scott Benner 47:51
me the chickens? I think it just means like a baby, right? Like chicken. Yeah, but I'm just saying like that has to be in your head. You're always looking at it.

Rebecca 47:59
You know, it's really not.

Scott Benner 48:02
That's fine. How are the eggs more tasty.

Rebecca 48:04
They're different. I think they're a little different. Like they seem a little bit like creamier, I guess I would say. And the yolks are brighter. But we have different kinds of chickens, we don't have all the same breed. So it's kind of cool, because some of the eggs are speckled, and some are more like white and some are brown and some are a little bit bigger and some are a little bit smaller. Are they a daily effort? Uh huh. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, for some, especially during the winters, chickens lay less in the winter.

Scott Benner 48:34
But I mean, you have to interact with them clean water feed stuff like that every day.

Rebecca 48:39
Yeah, but we have like, I mean, there's people that have like automatic water and feed dispensers. And then they actually like, automate the door at night. So once the chickens go up to their little coop area and go to bed, like they sit on a little bar, they just press a button and then the coop door shuts so they can Fancy that. Yeah, like you know, like nest but for

Scott Benner 49:03
once you're all in on these chickens financially. Oh, God,

Rebecca 49:08
I don't know. 1000s Yeah, because the feed like we do organic feed, we supplement it with Omega three flaxseed we do. oyster shell we

Scott Benner 49:20
you know, are the chicken love our chickens gluten free. They are no they're not

Rebecca 49:24
are they are they're not. And the weird thing is like, I was putting straw down because it was snowing and I was just like, oh, we should put some straw down for there. You know, so their feet don't get cold. And I was looking at it. And I was like, Oh, this is this is

wheat. So I you know, put a mask on and then I was I went and got my son. I was like you should do this. I'm not doing it.

Scott Benner 49:48
Oh, look at you just trying to go shove on that chicken. Right? Like no, you know, mommy can't do this one. Sorry. So I'm gonna put let's say, I don't know I'm looking at the chicken run the chickens. I'm gonna say four. A brand just for fun. Okay, and then what? Oh, absolutely. What's a dozen eggs cost? At this point? Five bucks? Six.

Rebecca 50:07
Well, I'm not buying um, so I hear they're really expensive, but I think yeah, like five maybe it's make

Scott Benner 50:12
it. So after you get 800 dozen eggs out of these chickens, you're gonna break even. Yeah. How long do you think that's gonna take? How many? I mean he gets from them a week.

Rebecca 50:26
Oh, it really varies, but we probably are getting right now like five or six every day. Okay. All right, but when they age they they lay less. Fewer.

Scott Benner 50:41
Thank you for saying fewer Hold on a second. Teaching people right? So yeah, we get a couple 1000 eggs a year out of them. Are you the people in the neighborhood who were like, Hey, we have eggs if you need eggs?

Rebecca 50:52
Yeah, we drop them off actually to people's houses like we have extra we dropped them off like the Easter Bunny. Yeah, we like to just, you know, surprise people have some eggs.

Scott Benner 51:03
You're like Peter Cottontail. Yeah, break into their house as though Rebecca you knock on the door. Well,

Rebecca 51:09
we just sort of like leave them on the front steps usually nice. And then they bring the cartons back and sometimes they throw money in the cartons so it's really cute. Or they put like a gift card in the carton. So it's really cute. That's lovely.

Scott Benner 51:21
You're gonna pay No, you weren't gonna pay for these chickens in a decade. No problem.

Rebecca 51:27
No what though? I love them. I love these chickens. Like,

Scott Benner 51:31
my dog hasn't paid me back one red cent. Don't you worry. Nothing right now.

Rebecca 51:36
I have a dog too. And she just like snores and she's Yeah.

Scott Benner 51:40
If those dogs laid an egg once in a while, that'd be alright with me. Anything really? I don't know. After themselves dollar gag learn how to vacuum anything would really be

Rebecca 51:51
right. Right? Yes, they should learn how to vacuum this idea of

Scott Benner 51:55
raising your own chickens. Here's why I'm so interested. You're the third person in a week? Who's brought this up?

Rebecca 52:02
Oh, really? Yeah. Because it's, it's really pretty easy. And then you have like your own food source.

Scott Benner 52:10
You should get chickens that lay like steaks. That'd be amazing.

Rebecca 52:15
Well, I don't know if you know this, but people actually kill their chickens and eat them. But I don't but like some people do.

Scott Benner 52:22
Well, doesn't that defeat the purpose? Again? The eggs from them? Yes, yeah. So you should, you should just walk out there and tell them like, Look, you keep making these eggs. And everything stays good between you and me. And what about what about? Is there an age where they can't produce eggs? You said as they get older? They slow down?

Rebecca 52:41
Yeah, so they do reach an egg? An egg ending?

Scott Benner 52:45
Is that when you rotisserie them?

Rebecca 52:47
No, I would never I just think like I would free range them and a hawk would come along and that would be that you know,

Scott Benner 52:55
eat your chicken then if you ate your chicken. Well,

Rebecca 52:58
I don't want to eat my chicken. I love my chickens. I just think you know, I don't know. I probably just keep feeding them and buying them things and you know waiting free range for them to

Scott Benner 53:08
free range sounds like abandonment in case you're wondering what I heard. I heard like, we'll just leave the door open and whistled. Goodbye. Wait, so wait a minute, how? What age do they slow down?

Rebecca 53:26
I should know. But I don't know. I think probably around like four or five. I'm guessing I think I think that's what I read. But yeah, I think they do slow down and then I think most most egg people just love their chickens and keep them around you know and hope for like a peaceful natural death

Scott Benner 53:46
you know have like a heart attack maybe scattered Right? Or they die in their sleep. But a car accident maybe. So we're just gonna say how much property Do you have?

Rebecca 53:58
I think we have like I think it's like point eight it's

Scott Benner 54:01
almost an acre almost. Okay, so it's not like a crazy amount of property or anything like that.

Rebecca 54:05
No, we have like a wooded portion of our yard so the coop is like in the woods so it's like sheltered a little bit actually not sheltered like a tree fell on our coop, we had to rebuild it.

Scott Benner 54:16
I was looking at the list of autoimmune diseases you have and you said a tree fell on the coop and I thought of course it did.

Rebecca 54:21
Of course it did. I not lucky. I know. This is the thing like, yeah, I don't have good luck

Scott Benner 54:29
with other things you do just maybe not with these things. All right. Okay. Do you ever make you think you're getting other animals? Have you ever, like sat around and said like, we should get just one cow?

Rebecca 54:40
Yes. Well, not cows. Um, no, I don't want cows. But um, but little pygmy goats. I definitely would like some goats. I think goats are like a natural like next step from chickens.

Scott Benner 54:50
Is your property completely fenced in?

Rebecca 54:53
No one actually, we're not even I don't even think we're zoned to have chickens.

Scott Benner 54:59
Don't So I won't tell if you don't tell.

Rebecca 55:03
I thought we were like it was it was the pandemic. I mean, I feel like a few things can kind of just happen. Because

Scott Benner 55:12
Isn't it amazing how many things we say that come from chickens like, like chicken or pecking order, talk of walk, stuff like that. Like there's all this like colloquial raising that comes from like raising animals,

Rebecca 55:27
birds of a feather

flock together, and they totally do. So like, they hang out by species. Like even if they were born in different years, they'll hang out by species. So like, yeah, yeah, they're a little bit like, not intermixed. I don't know.

Whatever that word is. They don't they don't they like to hang out with their people like, Oh, you are. You have red feathers. I have red feathers.

Scott Benner 55:50
A feather flock together? Exactly. They're like that. I'm just saying. Yeah, a lot of lot of things here. Right. Over back. Is there anything we haven't talked about that we should have?

Rebecca 56:04
Well, I mean, I feel like there's a lot of things that could get talked about, but um, for instance, good food labeling, like,

Scott Benner 56:13
Oh, you're pissed about the gluten thing? Yeah. And I hear you. But here's the bigger problem, man, I for a second. Yeah. You can't make people care about something they don't care about. You can't make a company care about something that they'll say, Well, we're not in that business. And you know, like, and if you make me do this, then I'll go out of business. Or I can, you know, go ahead and show me the three people you want me to fire so that I can do the testing? That's, you know, what I mean? Like, it's, everyone's gonna have some sort of a reason why they don't want to, or can't, or have not even thought of doing it. And yeah, and so when you're wanting every 133 people, maybe, how do you? You know, I mean, it would seem to me that the only way to make this happen would be through like government. And I don't know how the hell you do that? Because like, otherwise, you're just you're, you're saying out loud, it would be nice if people would pay attention to what I need. And yeah, I don't know how you get anybody to do that.

Rebecca 57:13
I guess it's more

like, if it's not a big lift to say like, your cream cheese is gluten free, because it is like it naturally is like, Why not just put it's gluten free? I

Scott Benner 57:28
mean, I feel like it's because if you because if you say that it has to be

Rebecca 57:32
right. And I think food companies don't want to be accountable. Right? Like, let's

Scott Benner 57:36
say it's accountability, then if then if one, God knows, I have no idea how cream cheese is made. But if something falls into the cream cheese, and now suddenly, it's not gluten free, and you shoot yourself to death or whatever ends up happening, like something really terrible. Vomiting. Yeah. And something really bad happens to you. And then you go, Oh, I found out later there was cream gluten in my cream cheese. You know, now they're open to liability. That's why That's why they won't say they don't want to be liable for it.

Rebecca 58:04
I mean, no, but I feel like they do need to kind of represent what what is in the package. Like if I, I bought 100%, cacao the other day like cocoa powder. And it said it was 100%. Cacao said ingredients, cocoa. And that was it. But then it had a disclaimer saying it may contain all this other stuff. Yeah, but the title of it was 100% cacao. So is it 100%? Or isn't it? I guess it's not 100%? Because it

could contain all these other things that they're listing like nuts and wheat. Soy? Yeah. Like, what is it?

Scott Benner 58:45
I don't know. But you don't want to get your nuts in the chocolate. Because then yeah, you got it, then all the people that nut allergy have a problem. Right? So you have so so 100% Cocoa is a marketing thing. Yeah, it's not true. Well, it is as long as nothing else got into it. But they're saying, but we don't know what may or may not have got we tried really hard. But there might be this and that.

Rebecca 59:08
But then they might as well just be like, well, it might have staples. I mean, we do you use a stapler?

Scott Benner 59:13
Sure. Don't you think that happens?

Rebecca 59:16
They must write? Of course. 100%.

Scott Benner 59:19
No, but there's a number of red hairs that are allowed. And yeah, yeah, you're worried about something else like this? You know, it's just that's I think that's my point is that there's no way to say for sure. And so most places aren't willing to say it. And the places that are willing to say are in that business, and then they charge you double for the food. Yeah, so if you want the cocoa to be 25 bucks, I guess it could be gluten free. But 132 of other 133 people don't give a crap about that. And that's why it isn't. I mean, that's to me not to be harsh, but like that's the problem, right?

Rebecca 59:54
Yeah, I think it is a problem. I mean, I guess I just think it is food labeling has to be better if they, if they're listing ingredients. They

should. They should know what their ingredients are. Yeah. But I guess it's a lot to ask.

Scott Benner 1:00:10
No. I mean, listen, I don't disagree with you at all. I'm just trying to think of reasons why it doesn't happen. Yeah. And why six gluten free hamburger buns cost $95? Because I'm assuming that that's part of it.

Rebecca 1:00:22
Yeah. You know what, I don't even care about that. I'll pay whatever. I like I'm over it like, Yup. You eight bucks for a loaf of bread? Yes.

Scott Benner 1:00:31
Do it. I mean, honestly, the heart here is that. I mean, how many times a day do you eat? And how many times a day? Do you have to wonder, is this the thing that's gonna make me sick? Right. And that's all right. Yeah,

Rebecca 1:00:44
that's the bummer. And that's, that is the thing is like, we could go out for a nice dinner and hope that it's a nice night, and or it could be a complete disaster will end up in the ER on the IVs. And so Fran, and, you know,

Scott Benner 1:00:59
yeah, no, I mean, I'm not. You realize I'm not. I understand, like, I know what you're saying. And I know, yeah, I just I'm trying to figure out like, why is it that hard? And I, I think that's got to be part of it. I thought what you said was really interesting about how we just changed and how, like, you know, do you have a gluten allergy? I'm sure you do. But like, is that because something's riding on the gluten? And you know, something that's killing? I don't know. Yeah, no idea, something in your body that you need to process gluten?

Rebecca 1:01:31
Well, I think, I mean, just on the wheat thing, like they've taken the germ and the brand out of wheat. And then they fill wheat with like, these synthetic vitamins and minerals. And then they call it we know, so like, we we used to have, like the germ and the brand left in the whole kernel. But that's not the case anymore. With the, you know, the way they produce wheat as a grain. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:02:02
that's to do some what you were saying with how, and I've heard about this and other places to be. And we just talked about it. Actually, recently, I just did something with a regenerative farmer. And so the the soil is being stripped of nutrients every growing season. 100% Yeah. And there's, there's concern that we only have like, I forget what it is, like 60 More growing seasons, and some soils or stuff like that. And, and the other ones that have already been stripped free, they just they dumped manmade, nutrients into the soil so that something will actually grow. Because if you planted there are places right now, that are farms that if you planted something and didn't subsidize, the soil was something nothing would grow.

Rebecca 1:02:43
Right, exactly. Because it's soil should be like a little ecosystem. And it's no longer that it gets used up. Yeah, it gets used up and nothing healthy can grow.

Scott Benner 1:02:56
Yeah. And then they start adding stuff, and that stuff gets into your food, and then eventually, we all run to the bathroom after we eat.

Rebecca 1:03:03
Yeah. Well, yeah. And I do think like, there's peptides, and we that cause endocrine disruption. So there's, I think we itself is problematic at this point. Crazy. For most people.

Scott Benner 1:03:19
It's crazy. I mean, it's not it makes 100% sense. Like the stuff that you know, food is, you know, how everything goes into our body comes through food, mostly. So it's food and you know, drugs and alcohol. That's pretty much what people put in themselves, right. And so whatever's riding on that is having an impact on you, and then you think of it is just you, but then generationally, things change. And then generationally, there are problems. And before you know it, we know, you know, there's autoimmune issues that run in families, and, you know, even like alcoholism sometimes runs in families. And, you know, who knows how all that? I don't know. But it makes sense to think that it starts somewhere and it builds momentum as you're going. I'm sorry, it sucks. I can't imagine. I mean, honestly, I've tried for an hour to like, put myself in your position of like, every time you get food that you can't be, but I can hear your voice when you're talking about like, you know, I tried to buy cocoa Can I not just be sure it's just cocoa and like there's a real, like, dire sense to what you're saying. And, and most people don't, I mean, most people don't think about that, and don't think they have to but, you know, in the end, we all should care about what's in our food.

Rebecca 1:04:33
And what kind of sucks is like when like even doctors don't kind of help. So if a doctor says I'm going to put you on this antihypertensive medication, and then you take that prescription to the pharmacy, and I'll say to the doctor, like can you write on the prescription must be gluten free. So she well, I'll go to the doctor, you know, making sure that everything is is good to go on. prescription. But then when I get to the pharmacy, the pharmacist, you know, she knows me by name. We're like, best buds at this point. But but she still say, Yep, I know it has to be gluten free. So she'll try and call the manufacturer. And if she can't get ahold of them, she gives me their phone number and I call, but then I call and I'm talking to like this company and their their facility is in India. And to the best of their ability, they'll say, we're pretty sure there's no gluten ingredients, or there is no gluten ingredients in the medicine. But we can't guarantee that it's gluten free because the facility itself isn't India.

Scott Benner 1:05:42
The facility is not gluten free, perhaps.

Rebecca 1:05:45
Yeah. Right. And of course, it's not. And then like, do they have the same standards in that country for for washing? The, the belts between manufacturing, you know, yeah, I don't know, I like I haven't studied that. But but so like, every little medicine change, or anything that normal, normal people do with medicine, and that kind of thing. It it's this huge process.

Scott Benner 1:06:10
And eventually, though, there's a breaking point in everything, which is just, it's just human failings at some point, either somebody doesn't care or doesn't do something correctly, or doesn't, you know, or adult doesn't know or whatever. And eventually, you're gonna have things slip through. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's terrible. It's just, I just don't know what to do about it. Yeah, you know, I know. So I mean, because what are we talking about here? Like, you know, is every pharma company going to open up a gluten free place where they make their meds? And you don't I mean, like, is, I guess what some of them probably do. Right?

Rebecca 1:06:47
Well, I think that a lot of the producers of medicines are now realizing they can't use wheat sourced fillers. And they've stopped doing that. So I think a lot of medicines used to have like, stabilizers or fillers, and they don't so much anymore. So I don't know, if there's been a change. It kind of seems like there has I mean, just from my own phone calls to these places, being like, um, it's this thyroid medication. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:07:13
yeah. Do you use tiersen? Because of that, sorry, what was that use? tierrasanta. For your thyroid for your T for

Rebecca 1:07:20
No, I just take Synthroid levothyroxine Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:07:24
because I know we get my kids used here. Arden uses tiersen I think. Yeah, both the kids used Harrison because it's like the cleanest form of the medication. Oh, so I'll have to look that up. Good luck getting your insurance to pay for it. Even here this is from the FDA is they're gluten free medications. The vast majority of oral drug products either contain no gluten, or virtually no gluten. So firstly, which means so which is it? Which is it is there might be gluten to them? That's that's what it's gonna be. Is Tylenol gluten free? There's a whole like rabbit hole. You can go down here. Oh, yeah.

Rebecca 1:08:00
Like, you know, ibuprofen like the liquid gels. I had a headache the other day and I was like, oh, did I look this one up? Dammit.

Scott Benner 1:08:09
God, toothpaste. Do you know there's often gluten in toothpaste?

Rebecca 1:08:15
In toothpaste? I'm learning something. I never even thought about toothpaste. Did you

Scott Benner 1:08:19
know there is often gluten in toothpaste? It's because Gluten is a nice sticky protein that helps toothpaste stay well, a paste corn and grain based starches have long been the best way to fix it and stabilize toothpaste. Okay, for most people, this is not a problem that says same little thing at the end, every one. Every one of these days. Yeah, every one of these statements has a sentence at the end. It's like, you know, virtually, or for most people, it's not a problem. But then but maybe that is part of what you're fighting against is that I mean, it's similar with like, type one diabetes, right? Like, why can't you get anybody to take you seriously when you're like, I really need a diet drink. When you get my drink. Make sure it's diet. And they're like, and you say because I have diabetes? And they're like, Yeah, whatever. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I have no idea what you're talking about. But okay, I'll just not go okay. So no, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, well, I have the chickens. I know right? I love them. Yeah, you can always just go talk to the chickens if things get overwhelming. Do you think I totally do? Do things get overwhelming?

Rebecca 1:09:26
It is overwhelming. I get overwhelmed like I do. I mean, it's like if I pack for vacation, I'm like, Okay. Like, you know, there's like the diabetes stuff which is enormous. And you know, like I'm on a T slim and like the little like the charging cable like that little charging cable like sometimes I forget to like pull that out of the wall and then I'm like, Oh my God, how much battery do I have? But anyway, so yeah, the diabetes stuff and then like packing my own gluten free stuff and then all the rescue man occasions in case I get sick. And the list of my medications, and you know, it's just it's a lot. I think it's a lot. And I feel like it could be easier if like doctors were educated about the difficulty of finding out about medications being gluten free or not. And it could be different if, you know, the staff that worked in hospital kitchens knew that they were, you know, they were really important in whether somebody gets sick or not. And I feel like, you know, if you're going to produce food, know what's in it. Yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:32
I know, it's a lot to

Scott Benner 1:10:33
ask. No. I mean, listen, it isn't it isn't. Right. So it, you know, and for anybody who doesn't have whatever problem you're talking, I forget gluten for a second. Like, if we I think what you get stuck with is, is that if we all stood up and made a list of everything that's really important and necessary for us, then, I don't know, would commerce stand still? Would nobody make food? Would everybody go? I mean, if you're gonna put those that many regulations on me, I can't make this. Like, I think that ends up being the bigger problem. And that's why it's up to communities to try to figure their way through things like this and and get chickens. Yeah. And buyers buy yourself a chicken. Right. All right. Rebecca, I appreciate you doing this very much. Thank you. Yeah, this

Rebecca 1:11:17
is fun.

Scott Benner 1:11:18
Did you have a good time? Yeah. Excellent. That's excellent. I got to say COC in the middle too, which was fun, too.

Rebecca 1:11:24
Oh, my God. I didn't hear that.

Scott Benner 1:11:25
I totally. did. I slipped the COC by you. I said cock of the walk. Oh, that's the saying about chickens. Do you want to get a hold on a second? I know. I know. My chicken sayings. Yeah, I mean, there is a lot. It's someone who dominates others within a group is the cock of the walk. Oh, I know what I'm talking about. And that's talking about a chicken a male chicken. Right? Well, that's

Rebecca 1:11:52
a rooster. Yes,

Scott Benner 1:11:54
but what a cock is a rooster? Is that what you just said? Yeah, that's a rooster. Can you just say it for me? Rebecca? No, you don't want to

Rebecca 1:12:04
that's fine. A cock is a rooster.

Scott Benner 1:12:06
Thank you for it's a male chicken. And is a female chicken. No, no, no. Wait. Well, female chickens are females and roosters are not chickens. Holy crap is that they're two different animals.

Rebecca 1:12:20
Well, roosters are chickens, but they're I'm kind of out of my depth here. But I think that like

I think that male chickens are referred to as roosters.

Scott Benner 1:12:30
All right? Do we have to figure this out before we go? Difference between a rooster and a chicken? Oh my god. So many words. There are so many words on this page. A male chicken is a rooster. A female chicken is a hen I have that right. Unlike the female chickens the roosters are known for their cockadoodledoo during dawn. roosters are grown mainly for their meat and fighting really. cockfighting is well known and practical in many parts of the world. Female chickens are new or reared mainly for eggs unlike other chickens are rooster has a thick comb across the flesh on the head. We know that sounds like the rooster combs are more red and prominent than other chickens. Roosters have more stamina and strength than a female chicken. That's odd. Yeah, I guess you want your car to be strong and be able to really, like stand up for a while. Right? A rooster has bright feather colors when compared to chickens. roosters are known to be sociable around humans, but are known to be aggressive among their own kind.

Rebecca 1:13:30
Yeah. Interesting. Totally. That's the pecking order. They're like so mean to each other. Mm hmm. But they do they have I mean, I hate to say this, but like chickens have personalities.

Scott Benner 1:13:42
So do you think the word that is used colloquially for men? gentled is genitals Excuse me? No, no. How come I couldn't pronounce that is from the way the roosters act?

Rebecca 1:13:55
Yeah, I think it's probably like I do I think the roots are probably, you know, when you think about slang, they probably came from right like thinking about the the rooster and like the rooster does certain things like is is very dominant to the to the other chickens and is protective sometimes too.

Scott Benner 1:14:16
I think all this is teaching us is that we let men name roosters. I think that's what's going on here. There's no There's no way a lady came up with this. Like there's no way like a lady was like I'm in charge of giving roosters and other name. I'm gonna call them this. Yeah, I don't think it works that way. No, I don't think so. I think we're all lucky that hens aren't called vaginas. What do you think of that?

Rebecca 1:14:37
Yeah, that's lucky. Lucky.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
Rebecca, when I listened back to this, I think I talked around. I believe I used all like the right words here. Like there's nothing that I haven't said anything dirty here.

Rebecca 1:14:50
Yeah, no, I don't think so. Yeah, yeah. I think you'll have to edit out a few

Scott Benner 1:14:55
CoCs Yes, for sure. Yeah. Oh, isn't that interesting? All right, I'm gonna let you go. Can you hold on for a second? Yeah, thanks. A huge thanks to Rebecca for coming on the show and sharing that fantastic story with us. And we want to thank Dexcom dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Get yourself a Dexcom G seven, or G six with my link. Let's also think the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com forward slash juicebox. You can get your test strips and your meters all at my link. Those strips may be cheaper in cash than you're paying right now. Through your insurance. Go check it out. Contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. I want to thank you so much for listening remind you to find the private Facebook group click on the links in the show notes when you need the stuff. Support the podcast any way you can. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.