#1319 Secret Chinchilla

September 30, 2024Scott Benner

Maddie, a 19-year-old college student with PCOS, acid reflux, low B12, low iron, and reactive hypoglycemia.

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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
OmniPod, Hello friends. Welcome back to another episode of The juicebox Podcast. Today,

we'll speak with Matty. I'm going to do something different here today. Tell you a little extra about Maddie than I normally would in the open. She's a 19 year old college student who has PCOS, acid reflux, low B 12, low iron, talking about anemia, and she has something called reactive hypoglycemia. She doesn't have diabetes, but she does love the podcast because of how much it helped her. But that's not what most of this episode is about. Today. We pick through maddie's problems and try to come up with an answer for her, because her doctors are letting her down, and she's away at college and things are degrading. You're gonna hear a lot of problems that Maddie has, that a lot of you might have too. So don't just be like, Oh, they don't have diabetes, so I'm not listening today. Please don't do that. Okay, this one's good. You're gonna like it also. It's got a great title. Please don't forget 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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. I'd also ask you to check out the private Facebook group juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook with over 53,000 members. It's the place to be. Today's podcast is sponsored by the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing since she was four years old. OmniPod. Omnipod.com/juicebox, you too can have the same insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing every day for 16 years. The episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and of course, at touched by type one.org check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes, touched by type one.org

Maddie 2:07
I'm Maddie. I do not have diabetes, but I think I share a lot of experiences with people that do. And this podcast has helped me a lot. It helped me, especially my freshman year of college. I'm now a sophomore. I go to a school in the southeast. I'll just say it. I'll probably say it. I go to us. I'm very proud of it.

Scott Benner 2:30
You go to see I like how you're like, I'm just gonna say it. Then you just give me two letters, University of Florida, Florida, okay? And you're, what do you like 20? I'm 1919. Okay, wow. Okay, well, I'm 53 so I feel very old, and I'm wondering if we're gonna understand each other at all, although I can I do okay with Arden, I guess like keeping up with things. She like, sees and things. So we'll see what happens here. Okay, so Maddie, let's first just get this out of the way. Do people call you Maddie or Madeline Maddie? Okay, you did not grow up in a house covered in vines. Is that correct?

Maddie 3:10
I did not. All right, excellent.

Scott Benner 3:12
Do you have any idea what I'm saying when I say that?

Maddie 3:16
Um, no,

Scott Benner 3:17
I don't. Excellent. That's excellent. I'm not gonna, oh, wait,

Maddie 3:19
is it like a book, like the book,

Scott Benner 3:21
you don't know the little like, she lives in a house covered in vines, Madeline. You know that? Yeah,

Maddie 3:27
yeah, yeah. Except my mom was always adamant that it's Madeline, and so she tried to separate me from that book as much as possible, even though it was felt the right way when I went to France.

Scott Benner 3:38
So I don't know, Oh, I see your mom. Your mom had a problem with the pronunciation of the book title.

Maddie 3:43
You're not Madeline. There are three E's, all right, you are Madeline, more

Scott Benner 3:46
like Madeline Khan, who's probably another person you don't know. I do not know. Awesome. Okay, so now that we've substantiated that I'm old and you're not, we'll move forward. What do you mean? The podcast has helped you, but you don't have diabetes. Who has diabetes that you know?

Maddie 4:05
So I have reactive hypoglycemia, and it can present very similar to the of the lows that a type one would have, especially in the beginning. It hasn't been bad recently, because I've just kind of figured out my body, but for a while it would be like, I'm fine, nothing's happening. And then all of a sudden, don't know where I am, shaking, sweating, busy, confused. And that was really scary. I had a lot of really scary moments, and I see an endocrinologist, which I really struggled with. I didn't know, like, what to do. Like, it's very daunting.

Scott Benner 4:42
Okay, so now we're into something I don't really know too much about, so I'm gonna have to pay very close attention to what you're saying. I'm gonna sit up. I actually just, I just realized it's like, oh, I just can't, like, sit back on this one. I don't I'm not gonna know what the hell she's talking about. Do you have any other medical issues?

Maddie 4:56
Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 4:59
All right. Maddie, hold on a second. Good list them off for me. Do them like,

Maddie 5:03
I say that I'm not like, I'm not like, a cancer patient, like, I'm not, I'm fine, like, but I have, I've had, or have, pretty much every basic deficiency. I'm on B 12 right now. I'm on iron. I've always been borderline anemic. I'm actually not right now, I had low sodium at one point, so pretty much, oh, I pass out a lot. I'm just, I tend to be a very passyati kind of person. I have other hormonal issues. I have polycystic ovaries, pretty bad acid reflux, which you wouldn't think would affect my lows, but it means that I pretty much anything medically that happens to me, I just start throwing up, which is not helpful. Yeah.

I mean, I think, I think that's it. I might have to look through my medications and make sure I covered everything.

Scott Benner 5:54
Hold on a second. You're 19 years old. You pass out a lot. You have PCOS, other hormonal issues, acid reflux, A, B, 12 deficiency, your anemic. What else? What's the thing? What's the thing? The with the low blood sugar, called reactive

Maddie 6:10
hypoglycemia. Okay, it's what it sounds like. It's basically, I tend to run low a lot of the time, like before I started paying attention. I I usually lived in the 70s and 80s, just like, all the time, regardless of, like, if I ate, but also if I have something that's really high in simple carbs, my pancreas will be like, Oh, this is awesome. Like, I love carbs. And then I'll spike up way high. For a non diabetic, for my experience, I go up way high, and then I will shoot down low, like way too low. So okay,

Scott Benner 6:44
so blood sugar goes up, your body overreacts, crashes you

Maddie 6:48
low. Yeah, okay, pretty much

Scott Benner 6:50
do your parents have any medical issues?

Maddie 6:53
Not blood sugar wise. I'm trying to think my dad's adopted, so I don't really know, on that side, he's good himself, but I'm sure, like, it would be great to know, like, what the women in his family have. My mom, she's always been, she's been a fainter to, like, again, borderline anemic, like, not quite enough to be like, Oh my God, you're, like, so anemic. Like, we need but just enough to be like, Yeah, that's probably a problem. But it will let it sit, and then it's, it's just like that for her whole

Scott Benner 7:23
life. Okay, so, and what do they do for you? For this,

Maddie 7:26
I wear Dexcom, and that is, like the main thing that helps me. I've been, I've been on a CGM. I started May of 2023, I talked to dietician. Sometimes I had one appointment, and he was like, you should try CGM. And that's kind of how it started. And then, yeah, just kind of, I don't know, I nobody's

Scott Benner 7:48
trying to fix it for you, right? They're just, they're giving you a CGM so you don't fall and hit your head, yeah, to deal with it, yeah. Okay. All right. Hold on. Can we go through some things? Yeah? All right, so because then we'll get back to why you've listened to a podcast about diabetes, so that. Diabetes, so that'll be later, yeah, or how a 19 year old finds a podcast about diabetes. I That's not the point right now. Hold on a second. Let's go through a couple of things. How are your dietary habits? What do you eat? Be real. Like, let's be honest. Okay? Like, so, like, my daughter goes to college. I mean, did you have Panera Bread yet today? Or is that still has to happen?

Maddie 8:23
That's so embarrassing. That's what I had for dinner. Of course. Yeah. And I

Scott Benner 8:27
understand what's happening to you. Don't worry. But I mean, like, are you taking vitamins? Don't lie. I know you're not. Maddie, just say I'm not. Yeah,

Maddie 8:35
yeah, I'm not. I'm taking, I'm taking what my doctors tell me, I take iron and stuff like that. But I don't, I don't go out of my way.

Scott Benner 8:43
Do you know about I don't go out of my way to like, you know, try to supplement myself, but that's fine. Hold on a second. Oh God, this is Maddie. At any point during this conversation, if it feels like this is very personal, it's probably just some of my frustration with Arden coming out at you. So don't worry about No,

Maddie 9:01
I'm very frustrating. I get it.

Scott Benner 9:05
Do you try to name your episode? I'm very frustrating. That's wonderful. All right. So listen, is it fair to say, in the course of a month, how many times do you eat a fresh vegetable?

Maddie 9:17
Well, I'll say I'm pretty good about that. I like, like, a little tomato, a little bag of cherry tomatoes as a snack. Okay, I'll mess with that. That's

Scott Benner 9:27
what we're calling, that's what we're calling fresh vegetables with tomato. Well, I

Maddie 9:31
know it's technically a fruit, but like, No, I'm

Scott Benner 9:33
saying, like, like, you're saying that there's been a couple of tomatoes on your salad, and you don't push them aside to get to the croutons. This is true. Yes, okay, all right, so, but you haven't had broccoli in the last, I don't know, four weeks?

Maddie 9:46
No, probably not. I like broccoli, but no. Okay, and when

Scott Benner 9:50
you have a salad, does it have, like, bacon bits on it and oil? Actually,

Maddie 9:53
no, I my go to salad is a Greek salad, but with no olives, so it's probably not. Really a Greek salad. I like all the stuff except olives,

Scott Benner 10:02
so a ham and cheese sandwich without the bread, is that? What you're saying? My

Maddie 10:06
sister is worse than me. I don't know why she don't

Scott Benner 10:10
move the goalposts. Maddie, you've got a whole life.

Maddie 10:13
I need you to get this. My sister eats pizza without sauce, so just know that I'm the normal one right now.

Scott Benner 10:18
But what's on a Greek salad? Feta cheese

Maddie 10:21
lettuce. Obviously, I usually go pretty heavy on the feta tomatoes. Cheese

Scott Benner 10:26
tomatoes, is there like, like, ham or any kind of meat in it?

Maddie 10:30
That's one of my less proteiny meals. Yeah. Okay,

Scott Benner 10:34
so basically, it's cheese and lettuce. Is that what we're talking about? And

Maddie 10:39
you got onions and tomatoes, and I don't know what they're called, the yellow pepper things that tanara puts on them.

Scott Benner 10:47
Okay, well, let's just call them banana peppers. Yeah, sure, okay, and then okay, and you'll have one of those salads. How frequently?

Maddie 10:57
That's a more that's a more frequent meal for me. I'd say, like, once or twice a week. Okay, so like, you

Scott Benner 11:04
got up this morning. What did you eat? I

Maddie 11:06
was stressed about my presentation, so I did not eat, which actually is a very interesting part about my blood sugar that I would like say, go ahead. I don't know that that was not meant to be aggressive. I'm gonna say this now.

Scott Benner 11:20
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Maddie 13:43
Yeah. So one thing that my endos say is, like, Are you skipping meals? And like, I will be so for real with you. I'm 19. Yes, it happens that being said, when I go extended periods without eating, my blood sugar looks like I am the healthiest person in the world. It is a flat line. It looks beautiful. It is the moment that food is thrown into the equation that makes things get absolutely insane. Like, I won't go low from not eating, I will go low from eating, which is kind of the scary part to me.

Scott Benner 14:16
I'm assuming that's part of what the reactive hype is in reactive hypoglycemia. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, so we'll dig into that a little more. You and I, we you and I might end up on chatgpt or Google or something together in a second. But like, because, again, I mean, not a doctor, but so although it doesn't sound like doctors are helping you, how long have you had an acid reflux for?

Maddie 14:39
So I don't know, because I didn't really, as a kid, like I thought it was, like everyone just had burning a lot in their throat, like, I did not realize that that was an abnormal thing. I'm sorry. I'm gonna I just thought it was like that for everyone. Yeah, so since you were little, you've had it. I don't know if I. Was little, but I my first memories of having it, I would say it's a hurricane. I'm trying to think which one. That's how I measure my time in Florida is hurricane.

Scott Benner 15:10
Are you on a proton pump inhibitor? Now

Maddie 15:15
I'm actually not, no. So you have reflux. Oh, wait, no, no. Is that like? Is that, like, um, like,

Scott Benner 15:21
Tums or but something over, but something, yeah, prescribed.

Maddie 15:25
I am okay, oh, sorry. No, don't

Scott Benner 15:26
be sorry. It's a who? Why would they call them that?

Maddie 15:29
I don't know, because that I'm for context. I'm a biomed engineering major, so, like, I kind of know a little bit, but, like, that's a weird name for that. I did not make, but yeah, I'm on, I always say lanzoprazil, but it's like omnipodrazole, yeah.

Scott Benner 15:45
But just for your edification, a proton pump inhibitor. Inhibitor is a medication that, like, reduces the production of stomach acid, yeah, okay. Are you on one of those, like, daily? Yes, okay, and that helps?

Maddie 16:00
Yeah, it's actually weird. I've it's been worse lately because I started the B 12 injections very recently, and that kind of messed with it, but it's calmed down again. But, yeah, I started that around 16, so I guess three years.

Scott Benner 16:15
Okay, so you've been on it for how long? Say that again? I'd say, I think three years, three years, you know, some of the long term risks of being on that include vitamin B 12 deficiency.

Maddie 16:27
I do. And it's actually funny, because no one mentioned that to you. Nobody's

Scott Benner 16:32
gonna tell you anything. Like, even when it

Maddie 16:34
came back, you know, like, I came back, God, I can't remember the normal range, but I was quite low. I think it was like, We want you to be at the minimum 300 I was at like, 80. It was quite like, it was low enough for my doctor to be like, okay, injections. Pick these up tonight. I looked it up, and I was like, Damn, that would have been nice now. Like, yeah. Also,

Scott Benner 16:56
like, it's not, I think it can block the absorption of iron too.

Maddie 17:01
I'm sure I can. So

Scott Benner 17:02
when did you start your iron issue?

Maddie 17:04
I've always had issues. I've always like, I remember when I was in middle school I started, I would just black out randomly and

Scott Benner 17:13
ebbs and flows. Have you ever had an iron infusion?

Maddie 17:16
I actually haven't. And I made a post on the Facebook because I was just I was so frustrated, my ferritin came back at like,

Scott Benner 17:23
I think four. No, you need an iron infusion. Yes.

Maddie 17:27
And you commented that, did

Scott Benner 17:29
I was I there? Look at me. I'm a man of the people. No, you were Maddie. I'm everywhere and I'm nowhere. At the same time I like the shadow. Now you can't have a ferritin level four and expect to live a reasonable life, you're not absorbing all right? Listen, I am not a doctor. Maddie, this is not advice, okay? But I don't think you're absorbing your nutrients, and you're probably not taking in that many to begin with. So if you're having an absorption problem, which is a thing that I live with my whole life, right? Then you get deficient in the your anemic. It makes you pass out. So the anemia, let's put the passing out on the anemia. Okay, and you're taking iron supplements, but your body's pro not absorbing them, and even if they could, bringing up a four ferritin with a freaking iron supplement, you're gonna, like, you're gonna not be able to hit before you're gonna get your ferritin higher. Like, are you constipated with these things? I'm sorry, I'm asking you, surprising. No, no, no, um, that's okay. Surprisingly, no, okay. Also, I think there's something else you have going on that could cause diarrhea. So maybe they're balancing each other out. The proton pump inhibitors could make you, give you diarrhea or constipation, nausea, stomach pain, gas, dizziness, headaches. You got any of that

Maddie 18:49
dizziness and headaches, but like, it's one of those things, and that's honestly part of why I started listening to the podcast, is I have so many things that make me exhausted and pass out and confused and disoriented, etc. That like, I have to have, like, spidey senses to know, like, am I low What did I eat today? Is it a bad blood pressure? Oh, yeah, I have low blood pressure too. Forgot about that one.

Scott Benner 19:17
Well, yeah, but that could come with the anemia. Yeah, yeah.

Maddie 19:21
It's like, I have to have bitey senses to know what exact problem in this moment is making me feel terrible. And honestly, I've gotten better at it like I feel like, for a college kid, I am more aware of my body than I would expect myself to be. Okay,

Scott Benner 19:40
but we don't want this for you. No, it's not great. It's not great. Are you? Do you drink enough liquids water for a

Maddie 19:47
normal person? Yeah, for Florida, probably not. I'm also, right now, I'm outside a lot. I'm in marching band, and so definitely not enough for that marching

Scott Benner 19:57
band. You're like, you know what? We need? Let's give the pass out girl a baton and see what happens. All right, listen, low blood pressure in you, right? Could be linked to several of your conditions. I am. So here's what I'm doing while I'm talking to you at the same time. So I've gone into chat GPT, and I've told it about you, right? And as your have, you never done this, actually,

Maddie 20:19
no, well, I've done it with my Snapchat, AI, but it just told me, man, you need to take better care of yourself. And I was like,

Scott Benner 20:26
okay, Jesus, all right, hold on a second, B 12. Deficiency and anemia, both can lead to fatigue and weakness. We know that they can also cause low blood pressure. The body may not have enough red blood cells or oxygen to adequately maintain your pressure. I'm gonna say right off the bat, if you go to your doctor and say, Hey, Jack up my iron. I want an iron infusion, right? I think most of this goes away for you. Now, the problem's gonna be is that if you can't get in these nutrients that you need through food, it's gonna come back again. Yeah, and if you're having a problem with your digestion somehow. So that's what was happening with me. And I know what happened to me isn't necessarily what happened to you, but I'm hearing a lot of me and you okay? So if I started taking a GLP Med, which slowed down my digestion, and now I'm absorbing my nutrients better, wow, right? Is there any chance, I can't believe we're we're rooting for this. Is there any chance that you're overweight and you could get a GLP medication to try? Actually, I'm

Maddie 21:26
not, damn. I

Scott Benner 21:28
mean, good for you. So I'm not. No, no, it's okay, like, but now I'm not saying that would, actually would do it for you. I'm just it's what happened for me. You need to find a way for your nutrients to get absorbed. Which is which, in my mind, is what's not happening for you. So the stomach acids been, like, six years or no, it's been your whole life, acid

Maddie 21:51
reflux, I'm not really sure, but I've always my first reaction to everything has been puking, like, since I was a kid. Like, if I was allergic to something, I would be throwing up all night, like, like, an excessive amount of just like any minor problem, even if it had nothing to do with my stomach, I would immediately start

Scott Benner 22:09
vomiting. But the burning in your throat, you remember from being a kid too, yeah, I'd

Unknown Speaker 22:13
say probably, like

Scott Benner 22:16
1011 so for most of your life, or half of your life you've had too much stomach acid. It's probably messing up your digestion. How does hold on? Here's our question, ready? How does acid reflux? I can't believe you haven't tried this yet. You're 19. Reflux.

Maddie 22:39
Impact,

Scott Benner 22:42
B 12 and acid reflux and this treatment of medications, but yeah, we know the proton pump inhibitor stops it. Stomach acid is crucial for breaking down food and making certain nutrients bioavailable, particularly with B 12 and iron. Stomach acid helps release it from the proteins in the food than a protein called in Jesus. What does that intrinsic factor produce in the stomach binds to the B 12, allowing it to be absorbed in the small intestine. Certain Iron Stomach acid is also important for converting dietary iron, especially non heme iron, from plant sources, into a form that can be absorbed in the intestine. So if you're okay, so for someone like a 19 year old with existing B 12 deficiencies in anemia, low blood pressure, long term use of proton pump inhibitors can worsen the nutrient deficiencies, further aggravating symptoms like fatigue, dizziness and fainting. That tracks. Yeah, that sounds like what's happening to you. So, because listen, if you're gonna wait for a doctor to fix this for you, Maddie, you might as well go throw yourself into one of those Gator infested puddles along the side of the road. Okay? Because that's not gonna happen, right? You need, I think, is, an iron infusion, right? Because you're gonna get your energy back. You're going to get your iron up. You're going to etc. You're taking B 12 Hal like orally, or they give it to you in the juice. They juice you up in the veins. They juice me up. Okay, so let's get them to juice you up with the B 12 and the iron. Get everything up where it belongs. Try to stop the proton pump inhibitor for a little while, and then eat very well to see if your body can keep absorbing the nutrients from the food. And maybe, maybe, maybe you get lucky and it

Maddie 24:37
doesn't come back. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm totally with you. Maddie,

Scott Benner 24:42
back to how you eat like a like a monster for a second. Okay, has this been your whole life? What do you mean? I mean, if you had more Doritos or asparagus in your life, probably Doritos, okay. Do you think of yourself as a healthy eater?

Maddie 24:59
No, I. Why I think I think deep down, I think I'm healthier than I think I am. But that's

Scott Benner 25:06
the funniest thing anyone's ever gonna say to me. I don't even know what that means. Can we parse that sentence deep down, I think I'm a healthy, healthier eater than I think I healthier eater, eater. What did you say? I say it again.

Maddie 25:20
Okay, so I feel like there's two levels of thinking. It's like, My my, like, go ahead. Okay, okay, hear me out here. I'm an engineering major. This is for engineering right now. I feel like I have the, the like, primary brain that, like, says stuff that comes out of my mouth, but then, if I like, if, if I think deeper, there's, like, the deeper part of my brain, and like, in the primary part, I'm like, Oh no, I eat like crap. I'm 19, but I think I try my best. And considering that, like being so for real, I have no energy to cook all the time. If I'm given the choice between go and take a nap or eat and not feel hungry anymore, I will choose take a nap because I'm tired all the time.

Scott Benner 26:03
Well, listen, there's no doubt I have felt the way you feel. It's horrible. Has it changed your personality yet? I think so. Yeah. Like, are you harder to get along with? Or, like, have a shorter fuse, or anything like that. Yeah, yeah. To be

Maddie 26:18
candid with you, I do. I have diagnosed depression anxiety, too. But I think the depression, it's it's hard, because I I've been in a place where I it was not my, like, physical health, it was my mental health. That was like, I was so severely depressed I couldn't get out of bed. And I think since coming to college and just functioning as an adult for the first time, I have gotten to places with my health a few times now where, like, I have the fatigue part and not the mental part, and the the cognitive dissonance of that. It's a lot. It's a lot.

Scott Benner 26:54
Hey, how long? How old were you when you felt depressed the first time? Or anxiety,

Maddie 26:57
anxiety, I want to say, like middle school depression when I was 15, it was I remember, like very much, when it started.

Scott Benner 27:07
Okay, we're gonna read the Internet together. Several of your health issues, such as B 12, deficiency anemia, reactive hypoglycemia, hormonal imbalances and even acid reflux, can contribute to or exacerbate depression and anxiety. And here's how each of them may do that. B 12 is crucial for brain health, and deficiency can affect mood and cognitive function. Low levels are linked to symptoms of depression, confusion, memory problems and anxiety. B 12 is involved in producing neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which regulate mood. A lack of B 12 may result in reduced production of these chemicals leading to mood changes. Anemia, iron deficiency and fertile levels, anemia leads to fatigue and reduced oxygen flow to the brain, which can cause cognitive impairment, low energy and mood swings. Many people with anemia experience feelings of depression and irritability due to constant fatigue and weakness. Low fertile levels can also lead to brain fog and feelings of being mentally drained, which can contribute to anxiety and depression. Depressive symptoms so far, this is you, oh, yeah, yeah. Fluctuating blood sugars levels can cause rapid changes in mood and energy, and low blood sugar or hypoglycemia can lead to anxiety, irritability and even panic like symptoms, when the body experiences a drop in glucose, the brain perceives it as a stressor, triggering and releasing stress hormones like adrenaline, which can make someone feel jittery or anxious. That tracks, oh, yeah, PCOS can cause significant hormonal disruptions, especially with estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, which can impact mood regulation. Many women with PCOS experience higher rates of anxiety and depression, possibly due to both the hormonal imbalances and the stress of dealing with physical symptoms like your regular periods, acne and weight gain. Do you have your regular periods or acne?

Maddie 28:51
Oh yeah, acne, not as bad, but yeah, my period since obviously, that's another thing. It screws up my blood sugar. It screws up me emotionally. It I used to miss school. Like, since I was like 13, I would miss way more school. I'm

Scott Benner 29:08
not suggesting this. I'm asking, have you taken the pill for this? Yes, are you down?

Maddie 29:13
I've been on it for a couple years. It helps. Yeah, actually, this is what a time to be recording this. I'm getting my IUD in on Friday. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 29:21
congratulations, but yeah,

Maddie 29:25
that's gonna be fun. Tara,

Scott Benner 29:27
will you have a party? Or is that different? I don't understand exactly. Will you and your friends get together and celebrate?

Maddie 29:33
My mom said she'll come pick me up if I want her to. So, I mean, you know, oh,

Scott Benner 29:38
after the Oh, are she making you walk to it? No, no,

Maddie 29:41
no, no. She was like, I'll come and because she just got hers changed, like last month, and she was like, Oh yeah, once you haven't had kids for 15 years, that's a lot worse. So she was like, I'll drive you everywhere.

Scott Benner 29:53
Do you think it's possible that your mom is hearing this right now and thinking, oh good, yeah, go on a podcast and tell people about my IUD. 300%

Maddie 30:01
I don't think I ever told her that I was recording this, but I have to say, Good, all of us. I think I'm definitely the most straightforward in my family. But like, I don't think any of us really have anything to hide. Cool, no, excellent.

Scott Benner 30:13
All right, hold on. We're gonna keep going. Acid reflux and digestive issues. Chronic discomfort from acid reflux can lead to stress, anxiety, sleep disturbances, which could worsen your mood. The ongoing discomfort and dietary restrictions associated with acid reflux can impact mental well being. Do you find yourself eating things you know won't upset your stomach,

Maddie 30:33
not really okay? The medicine takes care of that, and it's very much something that I think about now, of like, I'm not going to have the crutch of like, medicine that makes it go away forever, because the studies that come out, and I haven't looked into it too much, because I am in this thing called College that takes up most of my capacity, I know that they are not the greatest thing to be taking for your entire life, so I do think about it, but okay, I Don't really act on it. People

Scott Benner 31:01
with digestive issues sometimes experience gut brain connection, where the chronic gut problems like reflux may contribute to emotional distress, and then the low blood pressure can cause fatigue, dizziness, fainting. Again, these can make you feel helpless and anxious. Now here's the question, what if she got a iron and B 12 infusion stopped thing

Maddie 31:28
or, like, What the hell is wrong with her blood sugar? Don't even worry. I had this just with

Scott Benner 31:32
that too. Hold on, yeah, well, you haven't gotten to that yet. Really stop the PPI. And so what would we do? We jack up your iron, we jack up your B 12. We take away the proton pump inhibitor and use an additive digestive enzyme

Unknown Speaker 31:55
at meals. Let's

Scott Benner 31:56
see if it can put all these twos and twos together and come up with

Maddie 31:59
four. It's like, it's, it's one interconnected web of just like, being tired and feeling awful, but they don't quite connect. There's like, a like, there's one weird piece, no,

Scott Benner 32:10
no. It feels like, it feels like you're like, it feels like I knocked you over and I'm squirting a fire hose at you, and you're like, uh. And when you roll away from the fire hose. Someone squirt you from another fire hose from the other side. Like, no, stay there, and then they start throwing sandbags on top of you. And you know what I mean? Like, you know, you're just like, I have this wrong with me, this wrong with me, this wrong with me. I'm always tired, my foggy, I'm passing out. I'm blah, blah, blah. Like, I just think that it's possible. And this is based completely on, and I want to be very clear, because you're 19, I barely got through high school. Do you understand I am not I have no no no training in this whatsoever. I just have a lot of conversations with people, and I have my own problems. And as I'm like, and maybe I'm wrong, I could be 1,000,000% wrong, but the way you feel, could easily have to do like, like, you're like, Oh, I pass out all the time. But what if, like, your irons just so low? Like, look, my iron was once my Fert was once nine, and I bent down to pick something up in my kitchen and almost fell on my head. Like, seriously, right? And then I literally was two weeks away from a doctor's appointment where they were going to give me an infusion. But I couldn't wait that long, so I just went to the emergency room, and I was like, Look, I'm going to die before I get to this infusion. They gave me a little bit of it. It changed my life. Then they gave me the rest of it at the the appointment, because you got to go to a hematologist, right? And you go in there and you're like, look, here's all my Jimmy's like, as everything is wrong with me, can you please jack up my my ferritin, right? Please, please, please, please, please, please, because here's what I think is going to happen. And the doctor's going to listen to what you and I have been talking about right now, and they're going to go, Yeah, that's a reasonable thing to consider. Let's do that. And then you're going to say, you know, you're probably at the same infusion center. You can probably go back and get your B 12, get all of your, you know, all your supplementation that's impacting these problems, Jack back up. Now, what's the next problem? You've been on this proton pump inhibitor for six years, so you're not absorbing anything, and they're trying to over like, basically what they're doing is, is they're blocking the absorption of your iron and your B 12 with the proton pump inhibitor. And then they're just going here, take a bunch of supplementary iron and and we'll, we'll inject you with B 12 once in a while. That's not working for you, like you're not dying, but you're not living either. You know what I mean? Yeah. And now, why wait? Good. Say whatever you want to say.

Maddie 34:39
One way that I've described it is, like, you know, those, like, those splash pads, where, like, if you if there's a bunch of little sprinklers, and if a kid, like, steps on one of them, it'll stop spraying, but the other one will go like crazy, higher. It feels like that all the time, like I just, I gotta pick my battles. I. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:00
I think that that's just going to leave you with a lifetime of Whack a Mole, like, just hitting the thing that's Yeah, and I don't think that's going to be good for you, because I don't think you're going to get anywhere with that. So the reason I brought up the digestive enzyme is then, like, maybe if we ease the the burden on your body of getting your food through you for a while, I wonder if it wouldn't tamp down your stomach acid, and then I don't know how to suggest why my GLP got, oh, why don't we just ask the machine? Why does GLP stop reflux?

Maddie 35:35
So sorry, my cat is playing with a bag, and I don't know how to make him

Scott Benner 35:39
stop. You have a cat at college?

Maddie 35:41
I do. He's my best friend.

Scott Benner 35:44
Oh, that's so sad. I mean, that's so nice. Okay,

Maddie 35:47
okay, okay. Full disclosure, I am a dog person, but this cat like attached himself to me, and he acts enough like a dog where I'm like, Okay, this is fine.

Scott Benner 35:58
I don't understand. Oh, you have an apartment. You're not like, in a dorm. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm like, how did you get a cat into a dorm? Although my son in his freshman year of college texted us one day and goes, Yo, there's a guy on our floor with a chinchilla.

Maddie 36:15
I think it was a chinchilla. I think my friend's Ra had a secret chinchilla. And I was like, You're literally the one inspecting yourself. Like, how do you have like, what

Scott Benner 36:24
Maddie, do you know what your episode is going to be called?

Maddie 36:28
What secret chinchilla that's amazing. Well, it's

Scott Benner 36:32
so good. Oh, okay. Glps, people are like, Wait, he's 53 and she's 19 or vice versa. GLP, one, medications commonly used for type two diabetes and weight management can help her management can help reduce acid reflux in some people, but here's how slows down the rate in which the stomach empties food into the small intestine. The slower gastric emptying reduces the volume of food and acid in the stomach at any given time, which can lower the pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter. Ooh, that's sexy, the Les and reduce the likelihood of something stomach acid backing up into the esophagus, so it slows down the digestion, which takes the pressure off the sphincter, which leaves that thing stay closed, and then that reduces the idea of the acid backing up into the esophagus. Because, by the way, this is also very important, because you could get something you could get something called Barrett's esophagus, by the way, which is, could be precancerous, I think is pretty Yeah, you don't want esophageal cancer, that's for sure. GLP, medications promote the feeling of fullness, leading to smaller meal sizes, since larger meals are the major trigger for acid reflux. Do you eat a lot of big meals? Yeah, and

Maddie 37:40
it's kind of, it's a self feeding problem, because one thing that will happen is I am so exhausted all the time that I have to kind of delegate all of my energy into a few hours. And so I'll have, like, a couple snacks, and then this big, like, actually decent meal, and then that'll be my day. GLP,

Scott Benner 38:01
medications are often used for weight loss, losing weight especially, right? You don't have a weight issue, though, right? No, does that mess you up eating healthy? Like, are you a thin person? Yeah,

Maddie 38:12
yeah, yeah, I'm thin.

Scott Benner 38:13
So my question is, So Maddie, the reason I'm asking is is, my question is, do you see yourself in the mirror and then think thin, I'm healthy, so how I'm eating must be okay.

Maddie 38:23
No, it's actually, it's a lot. It's, this is a great point that ties back to my blood sugar, because when I look up the issues that I'm having, and even when I go to the doctor, sometimes, even if it's not intentional, the way that they speak to me, the connotation is always you are on a path. You are you are eating terribly, and you need to be perfect all the time, or else you are going to probably get type two, which you know happens, especially with PCOS. It's very much like you're doing a bad job eating, and you are doomed to be an adult who's struggling with their weight and with their eating for the rest of their life. That's kind of the vibe I get, especially when you look up reactive hypoglycemia. You look it up on social media. This is one thing that I found it's a lot of like middle aged women that are like, Do you have a hormonal imbalance? Do you feel like you're fat? Here's my weight loss solution, to balance your hormones and not have reactive hypoglyce Like it's you don't see anyone my age with this issue.

Scott Benner 39:30
You don't see a lot of 19 year girls like, Oh, guess what I have but you have PCOS, see? So the GLP can help with the PCOS too, yeah, but you don't need it, and they don't microdose it yet from doctors in a way that might be helpful, although, have you tried tried Metformin for the PCOS? I haven't

Maddie 39:49
been brought up. No one's no no one's suggested it. But I think one of the concerns is, since I do, my blood sugar just tends to. Run lower. I think one of the concerns is that it would bring it even lower, and then I'd be more kind of teetering on the edge of low all the time. Yeah,

Scott Benner 40:09
so we haven't gotten to that yet. I'm still working through this whole thing. Also, it's hard for me to work through it because I'm an idiot, but I'm trying so like, but what we, what we've learned from the GLP thing, right? Is ways that glps Because we don't. We're not saying, take a GLP. We're saying, How does GLP stop stomach acid? Maybe we can find ways so it looks like smaller meals would be one for you, okay? And then, of course, avoiding some of the foods that you know do that, which we'll get to in a second, but so you can decrease acid production so smaller meals is what I take out of this for you, because you don't need to lose weight. So eating more frequently, smaller meals during the day could help with acid reduction for you. So that we've that we've got, yes, reactive hypoglycemia can be an early indicator for type two diabetes in some individuals, if it's related to insulin if it's related to insulin resistance, and that's

Maddie 41:04
one thing I don't really know. Like, my doctors have never really mentioned it, I need to be more assertive in my appointment that it's like, you know, you know how it is.

Scott Benner 41:16
Like, how would you be more assertive?

Maddie 41:18
I just, I don't know. They, they kind of they come in. Here's my experience with the Endo. And this is maybe getting off topic, but I don't know this is, this will kind of explain why I

Scott Benner 41:27
think we're on topic. Go, you're fine, yeah,

Maddie 41:32
I I come in and I'm like, Hey, I've been having this. They run through my Dexcom, they look at some of my worst days, and they go, this looks bad, but I don't know, maybe, maybe you didn't think or prick enough, maybe it wasn't accurate enough. And they look at my overall trends, and they go, Well, you don't look like you have diabetes. And I'm like, No, I didn't think I had diabetes. And they say, Okay, well, you're a skinny girl. You're probably not eating well, you're probably not eating enough. Eat more and stop partying. You know, that's kind of that's what I get. And I go, Oh, well, I could be doing better, so I guess, yeah, and I don't really fight for myself, because you

Scott Benner 42:15
just 19 year old girl. Are you partying a lot?

Unknown Speaker 42:19
No, okay.

Scott Benner 42:20
They just assume you are because you're in college.

Maddie 42:22
It's just they tell you, you know, eat better. Be good, you know, bad pretty much,

Scott Benner 42:32
you know, yeah, they just say a bunch of shit that's not helpful, yeah, yeah. And they don't really talk it through, okay, yeah, all right, so we've fed a lot of information so far into chat, GPT, and I told it when we started to remember you, so that we could keep talking about it, right? And I can actually, like, I can send this to you when we're done, if you, like, like, every but so I said, Could any of her other issues be the reasons for her reactive hypoglycemia? Says the PCOS is often associated with insulin resistance, which can cause, which can cause the body to overproduce insulin after meals. The overproduction can lead to blood sugar dropping to low after eating. So PCOS, yes, hormonal fluctuations can affect insulin sensitivity. If our hormones are out of balance, her body might struggle to regulate blood sugar. Anemia, while anemia itself doesn't cause reactive hypoglycemia, fatigue and weakness from anemia could mask earlier signs of low blood sugar, making hypoglycemia more noticeable. So it what it what that's saying is poor oxygen circulation due to anemia may also exasperate the feelings of weakness into so you might feel so crappy all the time that it's stopping you from realizing your blood sugar's getting lower to do something about it before it's happening. That's where it's saying anemia could exactly

Maddie 43:47
that, like frame that and quote that. That's why my doctors say, you know you're not going low that often, but when I do, it is catastrophic, and now I can see it. And now someone can be like you need to eat now you're 50, because otherwise I just let through it and it would,

Scott Benner 44:04
you know it, because you always feel crappy, so you don't notice it right away. Yeah,

Maddie 44:08
okay. And then I'm at the point where I'm in public, disoriented, and it's scary. It's really scary. B

Scott Benner 44:16
12 is essential for healthy nerve function and metabolism. Deficiency can lead to nerve dysfunction, which could affect how the body senses or responds to changes in blood sugar levels, possibly making her more vulnerable to hypoglycemia symptoms or slowing her response to them. And then the PPI, the proton pump inhibitors, can reduce the absorption of certain nutrients like magnesium, which play a role in glucose regulation over time, this could contribute to metabolic disturbances, which issues with blood sugar control, though, the link between PPIs and reactive hypoglycemia is less direct, acid reflux and the use of medications might impact nutrient which could Okay. All right, so here's what I think, if you were my kid, you. I would first say thank you for going to a state school. I'd be very excited about

Maddie 45:04
that. Thank you. Oh, yes, it's so much cheaper. Yes, yes.

Scott Benner 45:07
That would be the first thing I would say to and then I would say this, I think we need to get your iron up, your B 12 up, and get you off of this acid reflux medication for a little bit. I don't want you to suffer from acid reflux, and I know there are a lot of reasons, very good reasons, why you want it to stop, but it feels to me like you're 19. Now, when you were 13, they put you on a proton pump inhibitor, right? And most of your problems have started since then.

Maddie 45:41
Is that right? I thought about it like that, like, yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 45:43
Because prior to 13, were you passing out? Prior to 13? No, okay, did you have and

Maddie 45:50
to clarify, I I had acid reflux. I didn't really start. I started a PBI. I think 15 or 16. Okay,

Scott Benner 45:58
all right, so about three. Okay, so let's, let's. So let's timetable this for Mr. Don't worry about the exact date. Let's just think about what came first. Yeah, so what came first? What was your first problem, period, growing

Maddie 46:11
up and stuff. So I think in hindsight, I would say probably the acid reflux.

Scott Benner 46:16
Okay, so acid reflux comes first. When do you start getting your period? 13. Are they bad? Right away. Yes. Okay. So then you start losing iron from the from the heavy bleeding, right? Okay, so now the iron starts to go away as the heavy bleeding happens, but it takes them three years to put you on the proton pump inhibitor. By then, your iron super low. The proton pump inhibitor takes away the acid, but it's also blocking you from reabsorbing any iron and what else. When does the passing out start around, when

Maddie 46:59
I got my first round, when

Scott Benner 47:01
you got your first period, has it gotten worse, better or stayed the same?

Maddie 47:05
I don't know. I It's always, it's all, it's ebbs and flows. I mean, sometimes I'll have a month where, you know, a few times a day I'm if I stand too fast, I gotta sit back down. I don't usually have a grand. I'd say a grand passing out episode is probably, like, once or twice a year.

Scott Benner 47:24
And is that from low blood sugar, or is it from like, like, low energy,

Maddie 47:30
all of them, it depends. All right.

Scott Benner 47:35
Okay, so what came first the chicken or the egg? What came first was the tough period, the acid reflux, the tough periods, kind of come at the same time your iron probably gets low from the bleeding. You can't reabsorb it, because it's just, it's just listen, between you and me, taking an iron supplement a day is not going to build you back up from a four ferritin like it just, it's going to take for ever. Okay, so yeah, and then you just bleed again. It doesn't matter, you know what? I mean, you're like, I gotta let and it's gone. So, yeah, okay, so the PCOS is the crux of a lot of your issues, right? Because that's a hormonal disorder that can cause insulin resistance, irregular periods, metabolic issues, hormonal imbalances, are probably related to the PCOS. Anemia is probably related to the bleeding, and then you can't get back from it because of the bleeding. And the proton pump inhibitor, the B 12 is probably the proton pump inhibitor. When's the first time they started giving you b 12? When did they notice that I was

Maddie 48:36
never tested for it until I kind of had a breaking point recently, like a few months ago, I had a lot happened last semester, my spring semester wild. And so I came in and I was like, I don't know if I'm depressed or if I'm just exhausted, but something needs to happen. Some change needs to happen. And so she was like, Okay, well, up your antidepressants, and that helped a little bit. And she was like, I also, when I do this, I want to test for deficiencies. That's when she saw my ferritin was low, and it's been low before, just no one did anything about it. And she was like, Okay, let's start working on that. And then after that, after we started on that, she was like, I also want to check your B 12. And so she checked my B 12, so I started injections for that a month ago, like,

Scott Benner 49:21
okay, not, they didn't talk about the iron at that time. You can get her to give you iron. What kind of doctor is she?

Maddie 49:27
It's actually the college is student health care. She's a,

Scott Benner 49:31
I think, a PA. Dear God, no, we need to get you to a to a physician. Okay, hold on a second. Not that nice lady that works at the Okay, all right, hold on a second. Do you eat a lot of spicy food or other things that can cause because I'm trying to think about how also, by the way, you can't just, like dead stop a PPA, I think you have to go off them gradually. So be careful about that. Okay, yeah, yeah. But, but, do you eat a lot of spicy foods or anything like that? Yeah? Spicy,

Maddie 50:00
not really acidic, yes, although, honestly, this is not. People do not believe me when I say this. I used to be like a coffee addict, and college has actually weaned me off. I have a lot less coffee and soda than I used to, because

Scott Benner 50:13
we want you off of spicy foods, caffeine, citrus, chocolate, alcohol, fatty or fried foods.

Maddie 50:19
Yeah. Can you do that? The best a college student can,

Scott Benner 50:22
Maddie, here's what I really I do try. Here's our plan, yeah, iron infusions. Keep up with the B 12 infusions. Get off the PPI. Avoid spicy foods, caffeine, citrus, chocolate, alcohol, fatty and fried foods. Use a digestive enzyme at your meals, which you can buy over the counter to help, like, get your digestion, like, rolling, um, get your magnesium built back up, and see if you don't feel better in a month after doing that, which I definitely think you could do. I also might use, you know what slippery elm is? I don't, all right, it's just an over the counter, like, like, you know, it's like a crunchy supplement kind of a thing, but it kind of coats your insides, your esophagus, your stomach, that whole lining it'll help your eye, your poop is, how do you Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Maddie, how do your poops come out? Are they messy, or are they nice? Informed that, okay,

Maddie 51:17
this is one thing I'm very proud of. I have so many stomach issues with like, growing up, my poop has always been wonderful, regular, good, texture, wonderful, all right,

Scott Benner 51:27
good, good, but it this slippery elm with a could help coat your insides, you know, coat your esophagus, your stomach lining to protect you from acid while we're figuring out if we can eliminate your acid some different way, because I think in my heart, again, if you were my kid, I think that the proton pump inhibitor is causing a lot of your other problems. I believe that, and then we need to impact your PCOS somehow. Maybe the PCOS is the founder of the feast in the beginning. You

know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm

with so now that's a bigger problem, because modern medicine doesn't seem to give a about women who suffer with PCOS. No, it doesn't.

Maddie 52:07
Yeah. Same thing with women who have deficiencies and pass out. It's like, Damn, you don't eat that well. And, you know, yeah,

Scott Benner 52:15
I hear you a lot of times. They're just like, if you Has anyone said to you yet? Like, Oh, you might grow out of this. Christ, no one said that yet? No, no, no, no, no, a lot. Oh, they say it a lot. Yeah, that's a very common thing to say to women about hormonal stuff, like, oh, or this could change after you have a baby. Has anyone said that to you yet?

Maddie 52:33
Yes, no. My favorite was my endo was like, Yeah, this, this hypoglycemia, like you're having episodes, like we would usually see in a kid, but you're not a kid anymore. You're 18 now, and that's weird. Okay,

Scott Benner 52:47
that was it. Good luck. I hope you don't die. Would you be willing to try inaccetal inactivel At first, I'm gonna send you a link to something on Amazon. This is ridiculous. I can't believe this is what we're doing on a podcast, but okay, I only have your text on my burner phone that's not connected to what I'm googling. Give me a second. And also, no offense to anybody who thinks they have my phone number

Maddie 53:10
but you don't. I was gonna, I was gonna hit you up. You

Scott Benner 53:14
definitely can. I will not answer. Love it. No, that's not true. I might answer the doctors

Maddie 53:19
aren't going to do it. And this isn't even a hate on doctors. They don't have enough time. They got

Scott Benner 53:25
more time than you think. Let's see. I'm sure I'm tired of that excuse. All right, so I just texted you something called avacitol. Okay? It's a powder you can buy over online. It's a little expensive. I'm not gonna lie to you, can look at other versions of it if you want, but this is the one that my daughter used you take. I think you start with like again, read the instructions, okay? But it's another thing you're not going to get a lot of instruction from. So here's what my daughter's endocrinologist told us. Tart, start with two scoops a day. If you get diarrhea, try a scoop and a half. If it doesn't go away, go down to a scoop. Okay, so you're gonna want to read about it. Okay, and don't just take it, because I told you, obviously, but I want you to look at it all right. A lot of women have a lot of luck with PCOS symptoms being curbed with this stuff. Seriously, like you'll you will see people online say, I couldn't have a baby, I started taking this and I got pregnant. Okay, so give it a shot if you want see how that goes to curb your hormonal issues, get your doctor to give you an iron infusion. Tell them that you have heard that a 70 ferritin is the absolute bare minimum for a woman of menstruating age, okay, yes, okay. Tell them that, because they're gonna say that you know 30s, okay, or 20s, okay. Tell them, yeah, you you try living my life like that. I want you to Jack my iron up so that we can see what's gonna happen. I want my iron. Jacked up. I want my ferritin higher. I want you to keep going with the B 12. I'm going to take ovacetol for my PCOS. And I'm also going to make these changes to my eating, right? Yeah, and I, and I'd like to be taken off the proton pump inhibitor so that I can start absorbing my nutrients through my food. And then you're going to take a vitamin every day. Maddie, I don't care that you're in college or that you're 19 or that it's not fun. This is me talking to Arden, not to you, so don't take this, like, the wrong way. Okay, all right, and I think you're a different person in two months, if we do all this stuff, I think you're naming a baby after me. One day, one day, I get a text and it's like, Hey, I know this is your burner phone, but it's Maddie. And here's a picture of little Scott. Okay, I married. I'm 29 and blah, blah, blah. Oh, wow, wow. Yeah. Okay, all right. Also, no reason to have a baby that early. Do whatever you want, though. Now we want to find you a nice multivitamin. Okay, to be taking. There's a lot of good ones. I'm gonna trust you to do that on your own. Don't buy it at the grocery store, okay, get something made by a nice company and take it every day the amount you're supposed to not if it says take two, I took one that none of that. Okay? Every day a multivitamin. You're going to let your body absorb those nutrients. That way. You're going to grow and learn to eat better as you get older, and you're going to get out of college where they're not being assaulted all the time, where a world where Panera bride is considered high eaten, okay, like so. And any of you who are listening, Panera Bright is not good for you. I know they sell salads that doesn't make it healthy, and if Panera Bread is listening, don't sue. I'm sure your stuff is great for people. And if

Maddie 56:39
they if they are listening, give me a gift card, because I will disregard

Scott Benner 56:43
right away and I'm broke. Listen, I'm sure there's a way to eat well, there like but that big cookie that looks like a pumpkin with that sugar on top is probably not part of it. And you know, you're washing your salad down with that cookie. So what are we arguing about right now?

Maddie 56:58
Anyway, I love Panera. I'm very passionate about Panera.

Scott Benner 57:03
I'm very passionate about Panera. Also, what else you guys love? Chick fil A

Maddie 57:09
I feel like I'm like, I'm being roasted right now. Yes,

Scott Benner 57:13
yes. This is usually when Arden goes. I feel attacked. So, okay, so you know what we're doing, or do I need to write it down for you?

Maddie 57:21
No, no, I get the plan. No, I'm with it.

Scott Benner 57:24
Okay, tell your mom. First of all, say, Mom, I need, here's what I figured out. And hold on a second. I need this entire conversation repackaged to share with a 19 year old,

Maddie 57:43
including a path of action.

Scott Benner 57:52
Also this stuff's either going to take over the world or save us. I'm not sure which yet.

Maddie 57:56
Yeah, I, I think take over the world. But it's great. It's great. Well, it hasn't.

Scott Benner 58:02
The first time I did this, I use chatgpt, and I talk to it because I'm not good with the typing. And so I'll be like, Hey, I'd like to have a conversation right now about my health issues. And then I tell it as much about it as I can remember about myself. And then I started saying that this happens to me. What do you think? And like, I'm not saying it's right, but it does hold all the ideas and then keep them in mind when it's answering. I think I've heard, I think I heard Mark Cuban recently say, think of AI as, like, a really smart friend who remembers everything you've spoken about when it answers yes. And I think that's how I feel about it, mostly not that it's always right, or that it can't make mistakes, or, you know, call the wrong thing, sometimes it gets confused, etc. It is putting out a an absolutely like a plan for you right now. Okay, that's wonderful. Give this to me so I can share it

Maddie 59:04
all right. What else? Why did you come on the pie? How

Scott Benner 59:07
the hell did you find the podcast? I

Maddie 59:09
actually remember it very well, like the exact sequence of events. About a year ago, I was in fall semester of college. I'm in marching band, which is, I love it, but it's a bunch of standing around, and sometimes adrenaline. And, you know, it's, it was wonderful for my blood sugar. It was really, it wasn't that sarcasm. And I was having lows, and I have always been fatigued, and so I just sleep through them. And so I would wake up with 70,000 Dexcom alerts, and I was struggling. I was like, I don't know how to fix this. I am like, deep in this hole, and I don't I have no one to talk to about this. I now have friends that are type one, but at the time, I didn't, and I was like, I don't know what to do. And if I you. If I go online, it's advice for this is not a nice way to put it, but it's advice for moms that think they're fat, that have hormone issues. It was so frustrating. And so I looked up everything until I went crazy. And eventually I was like, I don't know how to deal with my lows, and I feel so alone. And so I started listening to the podcast. I looked up low blood sugar, and I found episodes of this. And even though, you know, I'm not taking insulin, I'm not on a pump, I'm very interested in that part of it, and the part of it about management and just kind of the rawness of like this podcast does not expect me to be a perfect person this, by the way, you should like, pay me like, this is an ad

Scott Benner 1:00:43
right now. Hey, it's an ad to people who are already listening. What are you talking about? You got to go find people. Hey. But, I mean, I think your generation is confused, all right, I can't pay you for telling people who already like the podcast. To like the podcast, I'm being nice about

Maddie 1:01:03
something very good.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:07
I don't even know what you're saying. Seriously,

Maddie 1:01:08
I had no one to talk to about my lows, and it is very isolating. You know, no one. It's like, Oh, I know when I don't eat and I get shaky. And I'm like, That's very sweet, but no, you don't. You don't. It's

Scott Benner 1:01:24
not the same as what's happening to you. Are you saying that? Basically, you're like, look, I have a real problem here, and while this podcast probably can't fix it, at least I'll be surrounded by understanding people while I'm listening. Yes, yeah, yes. And you can feel a little comforted and not alone, and find a sense of community, even though this isn't really your community, but it's as close as you can find.

Maddie 1:01:48
Yeah, and through that, I have found, I actually found another girl my age, a little bit younger, that has it via social media and talking about dexcoms and stuff.

Scott Benner 1:01:59
Oh, wow, that's great.

Maddie 1:02:01
I honestly, I don't listen to the podcast as much anymore. It kind of served the purpose that it needed. For me. I

Scott Benner 1:02:07
completely understand the Facebook group, though. Oh

Maddie 1:02:10
my God, I am on a thing constantly.

Scott Benner 1:02:13
Excellent. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah, I don't think it can't be all things to all people, but I think that when you need it and it's there, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. Okay, I just had chatgpt Send me a document, which I forwarded to you. Okay, but between you and I, again, I think this is a fairly straightforward event. This is slowly getting off the proton pump inhibitor. This is you getting an iron infusion, not iron supplements. And do you know how to tell the doctor about that? It's it's going to take forever. I have heavy periods. Any gains that I make are wiped out by the period next month. I really need to get my iron up so that I can feel better. I think it's going to clear up my anxiety, maybe even some of my depression. It's going to help me with energy, mental focus. I think that's going to help me to be able to eat better, because I'll have more time, which I think will impact my my acid reflux. Here's my plan for foods I'm going to avoid with my acid you know, to help with the acid reflux, I'm also going to add a digestive enzyme to my meals to help my digestion go a little smoother in the beginning. I'm hoping to get off of that. I'm hoping I don't have to use that forever. I'm going to use some sort of an acetal to try to address my PCOS symptoms, which I think will help balance out my hormones, which I think will make my periods better, which I think will lessen my bleeding, which will help me keep up my iron but until then, I might need these iron infusions every six months till I get all this together. If you say that to a doctor and they don't understand or disagree with you go, you don't know what you're talking about, and then go to the next person, okay, but I think you want to have this conversation, probably with your endocrinologist, but you're going to end up needing a hematologist to give you the iron infusion. Okay, yeah, yeah. Don't not do this.

Maddie 1:04:01
No, and I definitely, I that's something I'm working on this year. I think my freshman year of college in a lot of ways, but part of it was my health. I had to survive. And I'm working on fighting for myself. You

Scott Benner 1:04:15
know, I understand the problem is that there's too much going on to do this thing. But this is, this is you putting on your air mask before you sit you look to the person next to you. Okay, yeah. Like, if you do these things, your life gets I'm going to tell you right now, just the iron infusion in the short term will change your life. Okay, no, no, no, please. You will be a different person. And the reason that I have no trouble spending all this time talking to you about this on a diabetes podcast with a person who doesn't have diabetes, etc, and then people are going to say, oh, Scott, you never talk about diabetes. But yes, I do. The reason is, is because this thing that is happening to you, I see overwhelmingly happen to people in an autoimmune community to begin with. So this is going to help a lot of people. And by the way, a lot of ladies get horrible periods that nobody helped. Them with and then they have all these other things, and then they just think they're just tired. You know what I mean? Oh, I'm tired because I have kids. I'm tired because I'm older. I'm tired because I didn't eat. Well, like, no, no, this is probably what's happening. You gotta, you gotta see the bigger picture. You know what I mean, yeah, okay, what did I just say that you needed to know about avastatal? Oh, a digestive enzyme too.

Maddie 1:05:20
Yeah, that I know nothing about, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:22
uh, thorn labs makes a nice one, and pure encapsulations makes a nice one. Look on Amazon for so you can see it, then you can buy it wherever you can get. Just make sure you're getting the real thing and that it's, um, you know, you're not overpaying for it. I'm going to send you a link to one of them on Amazon, just so you can see what I'm talking about. So you have the ovacetol powder. You've got the digestive enzymes. You have the word document from that we want your ferritin. Okay? Ferritin above 70 minimum, but it should be higher, but we want higher and take a good multivitamin every day. And by good, I mean by a good company, okay? Again, foreign labs makes a nice one. We use your mom going to pay for this? Oh, yeah.

Maddie 1:06:21
Is she okay? Yes, no. Seriously, like, I am very, very lucky. My dexcoms is one thing that, again, pick your battles. My insurance is awful. I have to pay a lot of money to wear one. And,

Scott Benner 1:06:34
well, I'd like to see a world where you don't need one.

Maddie 1:06:37
Yes, and I'm getting closer. Oh, I'm getting closer. I think

Scott Benner 1:06:40
you get your hormones straightened out. It's possible this goes with it

Maddie 1:06:46
right, or at the very minimum, because this is what my endos say. And I'm like, I'm not physically able to do this. If I could feel myself going low before I get to 55 I wouldn't need a Dexcom. But I'm getting to 55 and I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe I don't know where I am right now. Like, I don't feel it at all.

Scott Benner 1:07:06
I hear you. I hear you. And so maybe these things actually help with that too. Yeah, yep. Maddie, as far as I'm concerned, you are one good doctor's appointment away from feeling better. If I was there, I would fight for you in those doctor's appointments. You're gonna have to do it yourself. Get the mom to do it with you too. And I'm gonna say this too, you've done a thing here today that doesn't usually happen. You made an episode with me. I'm gonna rush through and put up really quickly, because I want you to be able to listen to it damn because I think it's gonna help you. So I'm gonna send this off to the editor today. I'm gonna tell him to do this one first, and I'm going to try to put it up next week or the week

Maddie 1:07:42
after. I know it's because I'm great, I'm great TV. Everyone loves me. Maddie, listen,

Scott Benner 1:07:46
Let's not get crazy. It's so that you. I just want you to be able to share it with your mom so she understands where you're coming from when you start jibber jabbering her about to her like, Mom, I went on a podcast. This old man told me that he thinks I should get an iron infusion, and you're in, your mom's going to be like, Oh, honey, come home. We didn't realize you were so unsafe at school. Okay? So

Maddie 1:08:03
we don't know. This is right up my alley. This is right up my alley. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:08:07
this. This fits for you. I think so. Okay, listen, even if you're not listening to the diabetes stuff anymore, go back into the feed and find the I don't understands with Arden, I think you'll enjoy them.

Maddie 1:08:20
Okay, I've listened to a couple with her, and I feel like, I feel like we'd get along.

Scott Benner 1:08:26
I'm sure you would, but we're doing a new series right now. It's Arden and I talking about things she doesn't understand. So we've done so far, so far, we've done how fingernails grow, what blind people see. Those are out. You're soon going to get ones about like she doesn't understand money. We talk about being

Maddie 1:08:46
judgmental money. I don't understand money. Okay? Being

Scott Benner 1:08:50
judgmental. What did we record yesterday? God, yesterday we did. Hold on. Let me pull up my list. I record so many podcasts. I swear to God, I don't under I don't remember anything. Oh, internal monolog. When you're thinking, can you do hear a voice? Oh, yeah, you do. And if I asked you to close your eyes and picture an apple, can you picture it?

Maddie 1:09:16
You know, I can't. That's crazy. Well, I'll take it a step further. I actually also have synesthesia, so I read letters in color, and it happens when I read cheat music too. Really,

Scott Benner 1:09:26
I don't hear an internal monolog, like, Arden's like, when you think, what do you hear? I'm like, I don't hear anything, but I know the words are there. She's like, I don't understand. I'm like, I don't understand that you hear

Maddie 1:09:36
something. Yeah, it's like, it's like, me, but different,

Scott Benner 1:09:40
super interesting. So check those out, because that's her and I, by the way, I sent her back to college with a microphone. So now we, like, get together once a week and we're recording them. I love that. It's fun. Okay, Maddie, I'm gonna let you go. You have to go learn some more, and probably sleep. You're probably exhausted, and by the way, sleeping doesn't help you at all. Right? No, no. Know you wake up just as tired as when you went to bed. Yeah, yeah. I feel so bad for you, honey. This happened to me, and I know, I know what it is, and it's really terrible. And so the iron infusion is step one. You should call your mom right now and say, I need to get an iron infusion. Help me get an iron infusion? Yeah, okay. And call her mommy and tell her you love her, because the she'll probably just do it. No, she

Maddie 1:10:22
knows. She knows I'm asking for something. If I call her mommy,

Scott Benner 1:10:26
I know we all know, but it still works. So just do it. All right, hold on. One second. We're done. You were great.

Maddie 1:10:32
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Oh, of course, it's

Scott Benner 1:10:35
my pleasure.

I'm OmniPod five sponsored this episode of The juicebox podcast. And to get rid of your fomu, go to omnipod.com/juicebox. That's omnipod.com/juicebox. No more fomu. I don't want you running around with a fear of missing out on OmniPod. This episode was sponsored by touched by type one. I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram and give them a follow, and then head to touched by type one.org where you're going to learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes. Hey, kids, listen up. You've made it to the end of the podcast. You must have enjoyed it. You know? What else you might enjoy? The private Facebook group for the juicebox podcast. I know you're thinking, Oh, Facebook, Scott, please, but no. Beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community juicebox podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook. Of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way? You're absolutely welcome. It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in, but make sure you're not a bot or an evildoer. Then you're on your way. You'll be part of the family. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongwayrecording.com, you.