Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, who is a Licensed Psychologist, Speaker, Media Personality, and the host of the wildly popular mental health podcast, Therapy for Black Girls.

This week Dr. Joy lends her expertise to help teach the Lunch and Learn Community about the importance of therapy, how to know when therapy is right for you and helps us fight off the misconceptions with therapy.

We also get to talk a bit of shop with Dr. Joy about the origin and motivation for Therapy for Black Girls, some of the hurdles she faced along her way what keeps her going on to the next venture.

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Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
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Links/Resources:

• Therapy for Black Girls Directory- therapyforblackgirls.com/directory
• Therapy for Black Girls Shop - therapyforblackgirls.com/shop
• The Yellow Couch Collective (YCC) - therapyforblackgirls.com/ycc

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Introduction

Dr. Berry: And welcome everybody to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of Pierre Medical Consulting, helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy here on Lunch and Learn with yours truly, Dr. Berry. And today we bring you a special guest on a special topic. For those who have been rock with me from pretty much way back when, you know that a big thing with me has always been mental health and the importance of mental health especially on the total body health wise. Because I talked, I say this all the time that, you know, I can give you all the medications I want. I can, prescribe all the regimens I can, but I understand that if I don't make sure your mental health is in order, it's not going to matter. Right? Like your blood pressure isn't going to be controlled. Your diabetes isn't going to be controlled and mentally just aren't there to want to take control of those things. Right? So I always stress mental health and of course, obviously my wife's being a therapist, makes me a little bit biased, but I truly believe that the importance of getting our mental health together is paramount and I think that's why they dedicate a whole month, especially depending on when you're listening to this episode, a whole month, a mental health awareness and just really understanding that there's stigma, understanding that there's help and I knew I could not do this episode any justice, right? I thought bringing someone who not only specializes in mental health, but it has really taking that to the next level with the formation of an entire directory of podcasts, books, everything under the sun, kind of related to the brand in mental health.

So this episode we have Dr. Joy Harden Bradford who is a licensed psychologist. She's a speaker, media personality and of course, the host of the popular mental health podcast - Therapy for Black Girls. Her work focuses on making mental health topics more relevant and accessible for black women and specializes in creating spaces for black women to have a fuller and healthier relationship with themselves along with some others. And she's been featured almost everywhere. She's been featured on the Oprah magazine, Forbes, Bustle, Black Enterprise, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Essence magazine. She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia now with her husband and two sons. So it's definitely a guest of honor and you know, one that I've admired for the past couple of years. So of course, when this topic came up, a mental health and we were going on and deciding like, hey, who could really, you know, bring the extra off to Lunch and Learn community. The list was very short and of course she was on top of it. Right. So again, get ready for another amazing episode here on Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. If you have not had a chance, make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Leave a 5-star review and obviously tell a friend to tell a friend that, hey, we're talking about mental health, we're talking about therapy. We're talking about getting ourselves together if you want in this new year, like the way it needs to end. Right? Thank you and have a blessed day.

Episode

Dr. Berry: Alright, Lunch and Learn community again you heard an amazing introduction from person who I've admired from afar and I even got a chance to admire her close. Actually a friend of my wife's and I was able to kind of sneak in from association, definitely thankful you know for to talk about such an important topic. Of course I'm biased. Mental health is one of the essential things in medicine in general that I know. You know if you're mental healthy together, it'll matter what I do with your blood pressure, no matter what I do with your cholesterol, diabetes. If your mental health ain't there, it's always going to be a problem. And of course, my wife being mental therapist, make sure she presses that bias and make sure I'm always on my p's and q's, as we celebrate this month, mental health awareness month.

I said, you know what, we had a short list of names of people we wanted to get in and get on the show and kind of talk and educate Lunch and Learn community on such an important topic. And I think everyone, again, when you're doing your wellness exams, you know, I think that should be one of the first questions which actually. And now that it's starting to become now for a lot of different reasons, but well, can talk about that later. Dr. Joy thank you for joining this episode of the Lunch and Learn.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Thank you so much for having me Dr. Berry.

Dr. Berry: Dr. Joy when we talk about mental health and, and I've talked about it ad nauseum, the show in general. Because you know, I believe and is important. And again, like I said, my wife's a therapist so you know, she definitely makes sure she stresses it on me. But as an outpatient clinical physician, as an inpatient clinical physician and I see that the different ranges of what happens when it's not put together.

And again, for those who are in Lunch and Learn community, again, May is mental health awareness month. I know you guys love facts, right? So of course we're going to, you kind of hit you with a lot of home facts. But again, I really want to make sure we really kind of pay attention to who that on the show, because again, this is, you know, a special person definitely in our eyes, especially when it come to the topic of mental health awareness. So Dr. Joy before we get into all that, you know, I talked a little bit about you in your bio, but could you explain to people, you know, Lunch and Learn community who you are, why you do the things that you do and why you're so amazing?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah. Well thank you for that opportunity. I always appreciate a chance to share more about what I'm good I got going on. So I am a licensed psychologist in Georgia. Most of my career has been working in college mental health, which I still have a very soft spot in my heart for because I love college students and still have a few of them in my practice. But my job full time now really is the therapy for black girls podcast as well as the therapist directory that is also housed on the therapy for black girls website. So you know, the therapy for black girls' mission is really to make mental health topics more relevant and accessible for black women and girls. And so all of the content that we put out, all the conversations that we have with our community are centering around helping black women and girls to prioritize their mental health. And so the fact that I get to do this as like my work is like still a surprise to me because it feels like so much fun that I don't even consider it work sometimes.

Dr. Berry: I love it. Again we're definitely gonna dedicate a good portion on just the therapy for black girl because I like, I'm so amazed, a mission. But I'm pretty sure when you first started, like I said, we will talk about it. Like when you first started doing probably wasn't a mission that was well traveled, pressure you will probably the first to do it. So I definitely can't wait to kind of get in to talk about specifically, you know, that therapy for black girls and just that brand and that imprint in general. When we talk about mental health awareness month guys and Lunch and Learn community, again, I know you guys love facts, right? So we're just gonna give you some unfortunate, right? And I hate these, have these facts, unfortunate facts that are out there that really kind of drive home the point why we need to have a whole month.

And really, like I said, every month, like I said, for every disease that has this month, it really is a 12-month thing. But you know, you got to celebrate when you celebrate. So from a mental health standpoint, one of five adults in the US will experience some type of mental health condition in a given year, right? That's one in five, about 47 million adults face, you know, mental health illnesses on a daily basis. Right. So again, just from a numbers standpoint, this isn't something that every now and then person may fuss. A lot of people suffer from this disease process in that regards. Half of all lifetime mental health conditions begin at the age of 14 young, like 14 I think about it, think about what we were doing right at the age of 14 right? And to think that a lot of people are experiencing mental health issues even at that early age. Just so we can understand that, again, this isn't something that just affects, you know, when you get out of college and when you hit 18 or when you hit that and when you get out to houses something, you know, you're in middle school and 14 is the middle school age and you're dealing with a lot of these stresses that a moment sure you're not prepared to deal with.

Suicide. We talked about suicidal out here as a 10th leading cause of death right here in the United States. And we know about 90% of those who suffer from suicide have some form of mental health illness kind of associated with it. Right? So again, this isn't, you know, unfortunately, this isn't a one off thing, right? A lot of people suffer from mental health related issues and it really is a big problem. And in that regards, right? So Dr. Joy when we talk about like mental health and you know, the fact that yes, they do say, you know what, let's focus a whole month on it. Right? Like what does that mean for you, especially for your practice as you were kind of coming up along the ranks?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah. I think it's really important. Like you said Dr. Berry, that we continue to have this conversations not only in May, but you know, kind of all year long because when you look at those numbers, it's very likely that you, or somebody in your life has struggled with maybe a mental illness in your lives or that you will, right? And so I think a part of what happens during mental health awareness month is that we see lots of conversations about like symptoms and signs to be aware of, which I think is really important because a lot of times people, like the person who is struggling, is not the first person who recognize that something's going on. Right? A lot of times it is the people in our lives who will say, hey, something's going on. You know, she doesn't seem like herself or, you know, it seems like something's different there. And so I do think it's important for people to kind of have a general awareness of like the signs and symptoms of mental illness so that they can intervene in other people's lives or can recognize it by themselves if it comes to that.

Dr. Berry: So when we talk about mental health and just making sure we're kind of recognizing and what are some of the things that kind of help kind of motivate you. Right? Especially because as a champion of mental health in the position that you're in, what have been some of the biggest motivation and say, hey guys, we need to wake up especially when we talk about people back. We need to wake up and this isn't really an issue that everyone needs to be like all hands off.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah. I think like I mentioned in the beginning, because a lot of my background has been in working on in college counseling centers, I often will be working with, you know, students when they see the first signs of this. Right. So a lot of times they're away from home. They have to be conversations with parents and other loved ones. And so I feel like that has given me a really unique vantage point about what this looks like and how it impacts so many different areas of your lives.

I do think it is important to, you know, like I said, to recognize the signs and symptoms as early as you can so that you can get the help that you need. A lot of times, especially for black women, the people are, you know, kind of walking around in silence and really struggling and either don't know that they are struggling with a mental health concern or they don't want to admit it to themselves. And so, you know, especially with the work that I do for Therapy for Black Girls, that's why it's really important for me to make sure that we're having these kinds of conversations and to make sure that people know it's okay to reach out for help if you feel like you're struggling.

Dr. Berry: And kind of going, you know, kind of segwaying right on that when we talk about the reaching out for help and someone kind of makes that connections, hey, you know what? I think I have a problem that I need some assistance, right? When we hear the word therapy, right? Especially in the general kind of public sort of thing. Right? What does that kind of mean? Right? Because I think when we hear therapy, I mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, it does. And I don't know that it's always a positive connotation, right? Because usually I think we think about a therapist when there is a crisis, right? So you know, somebody is maybe struggling with like severe depression or they're really anxious or maybe they're hearing things or they feel suicidal. Like I think in those situations we readily kinda think about a therapist. But I also like to encourage people to think about the fact that a therapist is not just for a crisis situation. In many cases it actually can prevent a crisis situation if you talk to a therapist before we get to the crisis.

So at the first signs that you're seeing, you know something's off with your sleep or something's different with your appetite or you're not enjoying things like you used to. Whatever it just kind of feels a little different that can be a great reason to go and talk with the therapist. And therapist can also just give you great information, help you talk through things that are just good for your own personal development. So there are very few things that you couldn't just talk with a therapist about that would likely improve some area of your life.

Dr. Berry: I love that. Lunch and Learn community, I hope you caught that, we're prevention, right? We stress it a lot, right? When we talk about blood pressure, wellness, we stress prevention a lot when it comes to the medical, right? But like again, I want us to really take this show and make sure that we're understanding that our mental health is extremely important. Preventively you should be going to see a therapist before you get to that point, right? But again, before you come see Dr. Berry, right? Before you get the heart attack, hopefully I can give you some blood pressure medications, right? And before you have that mental health breakdown, hopefully, you can see your therapist and try to prevent that. So I love that drive and that goal of prevention, prevention, that even stems into the therapy work. And I know you get this all the time, right? Like what does somebody who's the common misconceptions kind of really associated negatively and maybe even positively with therapy, right? What are some of the issue that you kind of have, the hurdles that you have to kind of go over to get someone to really accept?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, that's a great question Dr. Berry. So one of the biggest ones we just talked about, which is the idea that you only see a therapist in crisis. That's one of the big ones. Another one is, well, how is talking to a therapist different than talking to my friend, right? Like, I have friends who can listen to me and of course your friends may be great and they can be helpful and supportive, but your friends are biased also, right? So they have all this history about you, they know all this stuff about you as opposed to a therapist who is a objective party who only sees you in their office. That's why you don't hang out with your therapist on the weekends and you don't go play golf with your therapist. Their whole reason that there are those boundaries around the therapeutic relationship and so that you can come into the therapist's office and say things that you likely would not tell your friends because of judgment or you know, whatever it is.

So you know, in some ways it is like a conversation with your friend. But in a lot of ways, it's very different because we are not in any other area of your life. And we're also bound by confidentiality, right? So how many times have you had the experience of talking to a friend and you tell them don't tell, but then they tell your other best friend anyway, right? That's not going to happen with your therapist, you know? So that's a huge part of our ethical guidelines and a licensed to protect clients is that we don't talk about what's going on in the office with our client, unless it's to keep them safe or keep someone else. So the confidentially piece I think is also huge. Another big misconception I've heard about therapy and I think this one, is particular to like the black community is that if you're struggling with a mental illness that means that you don't have a strong enough faith relationship or you're not believing in God enough.

But that does come up a lot. And you know, I'm really encouraged to see so many congregations and faith communities now bringing therapists in to talk to their congregations about how therapy is different from prayer. The whole idea that they don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like you can still talk to your pastor and pray and do all of those things and talk with a therapist. So I'm glad to see that there has been some movement of people realizing that it's not that you don't believe in God enough or that you have a weak faith relationship. Mental illness is an illness just like anything else. So you know when people get diagnosed with cancer, you don't typically hear people say like, Oh, if she would've just prayed harder, you know, she might not have gotten cancer, but you do get those kinds of things about mental illness.

And so I really want people to kind of divorce themselves of that belief that mental illness has anything to do with your faith relationship.

Dr. Berry: Yeah, you definitely, you touched on a lot of points there. One where I think, where your friends become that family council, right? A lot of people are placing a lot of burden and sometimes your friends don't even want that burden, right? Like you guys a piece in a lot of burden and stress when you tell your problems to your friends and family members, but they're not really even equipped to kind of deal with it. Right? And I think that's why a lot of times never tell somebody else because I can't be the only one sitting on this type of information. So I love that aspect of it. And then of course the faith. Faith is the one that always, you know, they've always gets an interesting conversation turnabout, because again, you had that kind of where I'm not even sure why it's a dichotomy where they feel like if you take care of your mental health for some reason, your faith isn't as strong. Like I'm not sure where that came from, but it's definitely there. Definitely strong. And do you find that to be more, and again, of course I'm biased because I take care of you know, black families, right? So you find out more on in black families as far as like the religion and mental health bumping heads?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, for sure. That definitely has been my experience as well as that I definitely hear them more in communities of color than I hear that, you know, like in white families.

Dr. Berry: Okay. Alright. So we talked about, you know, the thing that we want people to kind of race out at a memory when we talk about therapy, like well obviously the benefits clearly outweigh, right? Like so what are some of the most common benefits that you tend to see, you know, your patients really experienced when they first start and really accept the process?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah. So a lot of that really depends on like what they're coming in for, but some of the things that you can expect or maybe better relationships with other people in your lives. But the downside though is sometimes you lose relationship that likely were very healthy for you in the first place because you learned maybe, oh yeah. But sometimes you know, you learn things like assertiveness and setting boundaries and then when you go and practice that in your life than people who you know are invested in you not having boundaries get mad with you. Right? So you may lose that relationship, but it's very likely that their relationship wasn't a healthy one or reciprocal for you anyway. So that is a caution that sometimes you learn things in therapy. Even then you go and practice it and then it results in, maybe you losing relationships or the relationships change. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing if you're coming in for something like depression or anxiety, typically working with a therapist who has specialization in those areas will result in a relief of some of those symptoms.

So not that you may never be depressed again, but you will see likely a very significant decrease in those symptoms. May be a decrease in the severity. If you're having panic attacks, there are things that your therapist can teach you about how to manage those panic attacks or helping you to recognize your triggers so that you don't experience the panic attacks as frequently. And you know, just lots of different things. And like I said, it really kind of depends on what you're coming in for.

Dr. Berry: Perfect. I love it. And we kind of already talked about like when you should see him. In your eyes, you feel like the sooner the better, right? If we had to surmise it?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I don't think that there's any, because we're human, right? We're not perfect. There's always something going on in our lives that we would likely benefit from talking to an objective party about. And so, you know, talking with a therapist just about work stress or like how you know, now I am the supervisor and how do I manage people who work under me in a way that feels fair. And there are lots of different reasons why you can talk with the therapist. But definitely if you notice anything going on like changes in your behavior, the sooner the better to talk with a therapist is a great idea.

Dr. Berry: So let's see, I come to a decision where at like I recognized, you know, something's going on. I'm not necessarily equipped to kinda handle it, right? How do look for therapist and what should I look for?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: That's another great question and I think a lot of people get kind of stumped here because I think there are a lot of options. It isn't necessarily like your PCP, right? Like, you know, most primary care doctors like treat the same kinds of things and so as long as you probably liked their bedtime manner and it may be relatively close to your home or at work, then it's probably fine, right? But your therapist is a different kind of a relationship and so more than like your PCP, you really want to make sure that you actually kind liked this person because you're likely going to be sharing some very intimate information with them. I mean, you know they're going to kind of be getting all in your business and asking you all kinds of questions that you likely have not been asked before. Do you do want to try to find somebody that you know, that you think you would feel comfortable talking to? I also think it's really important that you find a therapist who has specialization in the thing that you are coming in for.

So you may find, so there are lots of different directories. You know, like I mentioned, I have a directory on my website that is primarily targeted to black women and girls who are looking for a therapist. There are tons of different ones. Psychology today, open path, collective good therapy. Like there are lots of different directories and so you do want to make sure that you find somebody, like I said, who has a specialization in which you're looking for. So you may find somebody who looks like they're, you know, maybe really friendly or you've heard him on a podcast like this and it's like, okay, I think I might enjoy talking with them. But then you realize they don't actually have a specialization in what you need and that's likely not going to be a really good turnout for you because wow, most therapists are trained in kind of general kinds of things and some of us do additional specializations and different trainings and certifications in certain areas. And so you want to try to find the therapists who, one, you would feel comfortable talking with, but also has a good expertise in the thing that's bringing you into therapy.

Dr. Berry: I love it. And I think that's very important, especially when we talk about it, and especially if you're hearing some of the health insurances, you know, your piece chosen for you, the option of choosing and kind of like, well this person's the one we're going to make you go to. And some people just kind of accept it and understanding that you need to have a great, and I'm even, I'm good relationships. Some, you know, sometimes a great relationship before you embark on such a journey, which, and, and I always talk about, especially when we talk about mental health, is that it's really is a journey, right? There isn't really a point A to point B.

Like, all right, let me get off here in and I'm good to go. A lot of times we did something that you have to kind of continuously work on, continuously improve, continuously get better, and if you fall off, alright, I know what I need to do. So I definitely am excited by some of those points because you know, really trusting a person is extremely, extremely beneficial, especially if you're gonna tell them, you know, the things that you know, cause you hurt the things that cause you pain and everything else. That as a primary care physician, I unfortunately, I guess fortunately, unfortunately, you know, I had patients who trusted me enough to at least get to that point. But even me, I'm be like, Hey, yeah, you know what, I think you might need to actually see a therapist. And not that I don't emphasize with what you going through, but I can't really give you that advice and I think you're gonna need in my 15 to 20 minute session.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Right and you mentioned about health insurance, Dr. Berry in Africa to mention that. So if you think that you're going to want to use your health insurance to see a therapist, you can probably save yourself a lot of time and frustration by getting a list of therapists who are covered by your insurance plan from your insurance company. Because sometimes, you know, clients will find a therapist that they really enjoy. They think, you know, they have a great specialization and only to realize that they don't actually accept their insurance which can be really frustrating. So getting a list from your insurance company to kind of start that search may be a really good idea as well.

Dr. Berry: Perfect. Again thanks for, you know, kind of really guiding us through a process. And I don't think a lot of people unfortunately experienced, especially because we said the numbers, a lot of people probably should experience it. And you know, whether they're being stopped off and saying like, Hey, let me just go to my pieces of pizza on my piece of me, my problems in a kind of go and they don't get referred up like I feel like they should. And more often. So again, thank you for walking us through that process of, you know, what is therapy? It's a bad things, good things. And then most importantly, like, how do I look for a good one? So now that we say way, so how we look for good one, right? We, let's, we gotta talk about therapy for black girls and then let me just kind of get my soapbox. I think I discovered you a few years ago and I was so infatuated, so interested, right? Because I was like, oh, this is a person who recognizes such a need and it is a need. Right? And sometimes that scares people away because they feel like, oh, if I only focused on population, right? Then what about the others? And I always say, especially in a business standpoint, right? If you are trying to, you know, serve everybody, you're not serving anybody. So when we talk about therapy for black girls and just that motivation behind it, what made you realize, I say, you know what? Like this is it, right? These are the people who like, I need to go like 150% for.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah. So I feel like it really was just an extension of what I was already doing anyway. So therapy for black girls started as a blog and I started it in 2014 after watching the black girls rock awards show on VT. (I like that show too.) Right. Exactly. And it was just such a [inaudible] yes, right, exactly. And then you could just feel the energy you've been through the TV screen. And so I was like, oh, is there a way I could create something like this that gave people the same kind of energy around mental health? So it started as a blog with me just kind of like blogging about topic that I thought would be interesting to black women and girls. So like I started with a blog about how to find a therapist and what is your support system look like? Like just those kinds of like general mental health kinds of things. But it really, like I say, it is an extension of what I was already doing because every time I worked at a different college counseling center, I would always be doing outreaches and groups with the black women on campus. So a lot of my career has also been working on predominantly white campuses. And so I noticed that, you know, the black students weren't necessarily coming into the counseling center at the same rates as their peers.

And so I would go out to the multicultural student center or to the sororities or whatever and say, hey, let's do these groups. Like let me see what's going on with y'all. How can we kind of make sure that we are kind of in contact that you know, the resources are here and where to reach out to if you need some help. (I love that.) So yeah, so I mean, so I was already kind of doing therapy for black girls before therapy for black girls ever became a thing. And really the blog just kind of, you know, gave me a way to kind of talk to black women and girls who were beyond my campus. So it started as a blog when now includes, like I said, the therapist directory that has over 1300 therapists in it as well as a weekly podcast that comes out every Wednesday that has topics about all kinds of things relevant to black women and girls.

Dr. Berry: Now when you first started with, are there any particular challenges like focusing on getting, you know, black women and focusing on talking about health? The reason why I ask that because I know as, as an outpatient physician and even inpatient physician, I know I see the difference in a person's eyes right when I walk in and they're also black really like this. I see like they just kind of light up. They opened. Like it was almost like a visually open up and like they're just more relaxed. (Yeah.) Doing it. But I know that's in the medical world. Right. And I always feel like when it comes to talking about mental health is a little bit of barrier. Did you find that a little bit easier because you are a black woman and going to black women and saying, hey, this is important too?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, I got nothing but excitement from black women. When I would tell them about the blog, like I would give like, Oh yes, that's needed. You know, that kind of thing. So, but I know the feeling that you're talking about because I think what that is is really a feeling of I'm going to be seen and heard by this person. Right? Like even though you know, blackness is not monolithic, right? Like you as a black man, even Maria is a black woman is different from me as a black woman. You know, like we all have different experiences. But I think that there is a sense of there not being some things that I won't have to understand. There are some things that you're just going to get because of our shared cultural language. And so I think that lighting up that you see in that, you know, maybe relaxing and I'm not as tense is because they feel like okay I won't have to do some of that explaining that I might have to do if this was not a black provider. But yeah, like overall I think people have just been really excited and supportive about therapy for black girls, which is, you know, why it has kind of taken off in the way that it has.

Dr. Berry: And when we say that it has, because you say you started out as a blog and you know you're even writing like, hey like this is how you should find one. What kind of push you to say like, oh you know what like maybe I should have my own, you know, like location cause they're already coming to me to read about therapy and mental health topics. Like maybe I shouldn't have this like directory. Like what was the motivation because I think that's even a different step where you always kind of business minded or was it just like made me like this would be a place that people can come to and maybe they can find someone that's local in their area?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: You know Dr. Berry I wish I can say that I was really business minded but so much of it is, has really just been about me paying attention to my audience and having the kinds of conversations with black women that I was always having. You know? So the directory's started because I kept seeing people on social media, primarily Twitter because that's where I spend a lot of time saying like, Hey, I love to find a black therapist. Does anybody have a recommendation for a black woman therapist? And I kept seeing those conversations and I was like, well surely there has to be a way for us to kind of put something like this together, right? So I just kind of put a call out on social media and said, hey, if you're a black woman who's had a great experience with a therapist, nominate them and I will kind of compile all the information and that way other black women may be able to find therapists who other black women have had good experiences with. And so that was in December of 2016 it really just started as a Google document. I think by the end of that year I had like 90 therapists in the directory. And like I said, now there are over 1300.

Dr. Berry: Wow and the reason why I love that it's cause I think a lot of times, especially in the general public, I don't think people realize like how many professionals are out there that can cater to our needs. When you put it all in one area like oh my God, isn't it? Like I'm pretty sure that like that probably drew some people back. We were like, oh okay. I didn't know. Okay. All right. All right. I didn't know we were out here. And it's crazy because I think mental health is one of those things that gets talked about but for some reason doesn't get talked about. And in like that same hand and when you see like, oh I can go to one area and you know to search five. For example, let's walk us through like if we were on your site right now, right? I want it to find someone and like say like it is, this is a process that easy. Like it might just click and click and then boom, something like that. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, I mean in some ways that is easy. In some ways it's not. So you know, like I said, the process of finding a therapist is probably going to be a little more involved than like finding a primary care doctor because you do want to find somebody who has a specialization in whatever you need. But if you were on the website and you wanted to search by your area code in your insurance, you could just type in your area code and then filter by insurance and then the therapist who are in your area who accepts that insurance would pop up. And then that at least makes it a little smaller for you to kind of go through those profiles and say, okay, this person feels like they might be a good fit, this person not so much. And then you can kind of narrow down your list like that.

Dr. Berry: Yeah, I love it. So again, Lunch and Learn community I hope you hear that. So it's not, again, I know always like uplift like rocket science, but it's not rocket science. Right. You should be able, if you're lucky, right. If you're lucky, you should be able to find someone in your area who can help service their needs. Because again, remember this is Mental Awareness Month, right? We're putting it out on front street that everyone, even if you don't think you got a problem. But you may say like, oh, I could benefit. Like there's possibility that you could possibly benefit. Like I said, prevention is key even when it comes to mental health. And then you're like I said, from that you kind of springboard and I have a podcast as well, again, kind of champion that the call of mental health especially in black women and girls. So again, absolutely love everything that you're doing.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Thank you. I do want to go back to one of your points. I don't want us to make it seem as if like therapists are like plentiful and like anybody can see them. Right? Because the truth of it is that there are still a lot of barriers that might make it difficult for people to get in with therapists. You know? So sometimes, you know, like I said, sometimes you will find therapists who are not like accepted on your insurance plan. I mean, that can be for lots of different reasons. You know, sometimes finances make it difficult to see a therapist. Unfortunately, you know, kind of across the nation, lots of like community mental health agencies have other clues or are so overrun with people wanting the services that they are like at a wait list. So there are still lots of reasons why it may be difficult for people to get in to see a therapist if they want to.

But my hope is that the directory makes it a little easier for people to kind of get connected with a therapist who they might want to see.

Dr. Berry: I love it. I definitely agree because like I said it's there, especially because I'm thinking look like, and I'm fortunate, I'm in South Florida, right? So I'm almost sure like I'm gonna find somebody in south Florida who does. Right. But imagine if you're in the town, you're in a state, you know that that isn't plentiful. So it can be very daunting just to even look to see like, hey, like I need to find someone. But again, hopefully we can kind of channel people to at least start with your directory cause you gotta start somewhere, right? Like you've got somewhere you got to look somewhere, you've gotta be able to make that first step and says, yes I have an issue and I want someone to help take care of it. (Right.)

So you know, kind of piggybacking off the therapy, directory, the podcast. Remember Lunch and Learn community, all of these things will be in the show notes. So you'll have, you'll get direct links to all of this. Is there any other services that you offer or is that really the main two things right now? Or like are you doing any books and courses and in speaking of like where can people find you and talk to you, listen to you and everything from that standpoint?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, so those are the main two things. But I do have other things going on. So my clinical specialty, I do still have a small practice. It's helping women to recover from breakups and so out of that work, I've also developed a workbook for people who are struggling with breakups. It's called questions that need answers. After the breakup though I also have that workbook available. I also developed an affirmation, like a guided affirmation track, which I love. So it's kind of like an affirmation set to music and it's particularly for women who feel like their life doesn't look like what they thought it would look like right now. Like all these questions about like why am I not partnered, why don't I have kids and I don't want to have the job that I thought I would love. That affirmation track is specifically for them and I'm working on a second one too that'll be released soon. But I also have something called the yellow couch collective. So you know, we have a large social media communities around in like the podcast and all of the work that we do. And I really wanted a place that was like a smaller, more intimate group for people to really take the concepts from the podcast and take it to the next level. So that group is called the yellow couch collective. It is a membership program for people who listened to the podcast and really want to do some work surrounding the topics that we're talking about. So all of that you can find on thetherapyforblackgirls.com website. But those are the other things that I have going on as well, the speaking. So I do have typically have at least one or two speaking gigs every month related to like mental health and black women.

Dr. Berry: I love it. Again Lunch and Learn community like I told you in the intro, this is an amazing person, for a few years I've been lucky enough I've been able to piggy back the friendship by association acts and my wife's a friend of hers, so like right in there. So before we let you go and we talked about, so we know thetherapyforblackgirls.com the website, again links will all be in the show notes. Is that like the main way like people contact you and you said you were on Twitter a lot too. What's your social media handles on there?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, so my personal social media handles across the board or @hellodrjoy, H E L L O D R J O Y and then you could find the therapy for black girls handles their therapy for black girls on both Instagram and Facebook its @therapy4bgirls (the number four b girls) on Twitter.

Dr. Berry: I love it. And before I let you go, last question, how can what you do or how does what you do help empower the women to take really better control of their mental health?

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Yeah, I think that a large part of what we do is giving women the language they need to kind of describe what's going on with them and to help critically think through things that they meet once a better in their lives.

Dr. Berry: Absolutely amazing. Amazing podcast. Of course, you know, no surprises because Dr. Joy have your own show, so no surprise that was amazing podcast. Again, thanks you for taking the time to really get our Lunch and Learn community together when it comes to mental health and when it comes to the awareness and just kind of recognizing like, hey, you guys should be seeing this therapist sooner rather than later. So again, thanks for everything you're doing.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford: Thank you, Dr. Berry.

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Candrice Heath. Dr. Heath is a board-certified dermatologist and actually comes tripled boarded in Pediatrics, Dermatology and Pediatric Dermatology. She is a nationally recognized best selling author, and speaker and this week she lends her expertise to the Lunch and Learn Community for National Skin Cancer Awareness Month.

Dr. Candrice gives us the ABCDs of skin cancer, teaches us what to expect when we go see the dermatologist and helps me try to break down some of the misconceptions associated with skin cancer and people of color.

Dr. Candrice also lets us in on some exciting upcoming news about her company My Sister's Beauty.

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Links/Resources:

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/drcandriceheath/
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Introduction

Dr. Berry: And welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com and as well as Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy. This week we bring you an episode with Dr. Candrice Heath, who is an amazing person and most importantly is going to be talking to us about skin cancer. And you know, just to kind of caveat before we get into her bio and how amazing this person is. For those who may be listening, especially Lunch and Learn community. I've kind of referenced this before on a previous episode where we talked about skin cancer. I felt like this time I wanted to bring an expert and kind of get their expert opinion on to disorder, right? And if you want to know why this topic is so important, we're actually in skin cancer awareness month and when we talk about the number of cases of skin cancer that occur per year, it outnumbers the number of cases of lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer combined, right? So it's an extremely important topic that I think a lot of times doesn't really get the fan fair especially because a lot of times when we think about dermatology tend to think about the aesthetic aspect of dermatology. But we really don't think about the fact that they are really in high demand when it comes to pathology and disease process and education, which is why I felt, you know what, let me bring this amazing guest here. And again. I just want to kind of read her bio just so you guys can understand, how important and how specialized this person is, Dr. Heath. She is a highly respected dermatologist. She's board-certified in Dermatology, Pediatrics and Pediatric Dermatology. And ladies and gentlemen, I mean she is triple certified in her specialty, right? Just so you can guys can get an idea of how amazing, especially she is. She got her undergrad degree at Wake Forest University. Her medical degree at the University of Virginia and her pediatric training at Emory. And then she ended up getting her dermatology training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. She was elected to achieve dermatology resident during her final year of training and she went on to serve a role at John Hopkins University, Department of Dermatology. And as well as a pediatric dermatology fellow as well as a dermatology instructor. If you didn't get that right, just understand that this is definitely a very highly specialized person that we're bringing onto the podcast, really to educate the Lunch and Learn community. And most importantly, and this is what I love. She's the founder of My Sister's Beauty, the official skincare line of the woman of color and founder of a vibrant online community associated with skincare and beauty tips for women of color. So amazing person, Dr. Candrice Heath. Again, she is a personal friend of mine as well. And she has blessed us with the opportunity to talk to us today just about skin cancer. And really, you know, what we should be thinking about when it comes to skin health, right? Because I think when we talk about empowering ourselves for better health, right? We got to understand that the whole body has to be working in unison, right? And I think a lot of times we forget about the skin. Again, I talked about the numbers, more cancer cases worldwide and the majority of these cancers put together. So you know, ladies and gentlemen, get ready an amazing episode. Again, I have Dr. Candrice Heath and we're going to be talking about skin cancer and skin cancer awareness. If you have not had a chance, remember, subscribe to the podcast, leave me a five-star review. And you know, when we leave the links for Dr. Candrice, go ahead and follow her and let her know how she did an amazing job this week.

Episode

Dr. Berry: All right, Lunch and Learn community. Again, thank you for joining us for another amazing episode. Again, this month being, you know, skin cancer awareness month. I was thinking long and hard and I said, you know, who can I get to really educate you to get us on far, to get us, get those bad thoughts that really shouldn't be in our mindset when we talk about skin cancer but really educated us and you know, kind of go through a lot of the fluff that I know that's out there. So of course if you listened to the bio, you know, we have Dr. Candrice here who is an amazing person in general. This is just an amazing person, an amazing physician. And I was just glad that, you know, she was able to give us some time to talk to us today, Dr. Candrice thank you.

Dr. Candrice: Oh, thank you so much for having me today, Dr. Berry.

Dr. Berry: We did a little bit of your bio in the introduction, but you know, for people who may not know you and you know, this is their kind of first entry into your world. Who is our Dr. Candrice? How are you going to get us together today? Especially when we talk about this discussion of skin cancer that even when I was doing like, you know, the little research that I did on skin cancer, I didn't realize how serious it was. Still the people a little bit about you that, you know, they may not have gotten from your bio, but you know, they will get, just have to listen to this episode today.

Dr. Candrice: So I guess, I mean there are lots of things out there about Dr. Candrice, but what people really want to know or need to know is that I truly love being a dermatologist. I've learned on my journey that not a lot of people can say that they're passionate about what they do. They love it. But I truly love being a dermatologist and I enjoy all aspects of that from the education to what happens in the exam room, with the patients. And I realize that not only am I providing a diagnosis, treatment education but that I am actually impacting how someone feels about themselves. And that is a huge win for me.

Dr. Berry: I love it. I love that. And of course, especially for Lunch and Learn community who may not realize, like when we talk about medical specialties, dermatology is one of those upper echelon specialties that if you're able to get through the rigors of medical school and conquer and do what you need to do, right? Like you can attain it, right? So again, this isn't a specialty that people just kind of walk into. Like they really have to put some work in. And again, I know Dr. Candrice as a person. I know her, I noticed she's an amazing person. I do want to really illuminate the fact that we got really a special person to talk to us today about skin cancer, right? Which again is, first of all from the numbers. Just from a sheer numbers standpoint, it was common cancer in the world, right? Boom. Like if that alone doesn't get your ears up and ready to educate yourself on this topic, I'm not sure what is. But Dr. Candice again, I'm an internist. I'm a hospital physician and you know, they've kind of heard the back story of how I got into there. What made you fall in love with dermatology? Like what was the path that kind of led you here to be able to grace us today?

Dr. Candrice: Growing up, my older sister has something called nevus of Ota and it's actually a green birthmark that covers one side of her face. And so not only did we spend time going to our regular checkups with our pediatrician. We also would yearly visit our dermatologist in our local town. And I can still recall how excited and with anticipation. We would anticipate these visits because we would hope that they would have something to share that could take this birthmark away. And year after year, appointment after appointment, we were met with disappointment because there were, the technology hadn't really caught up so people with skin of color were not able to use the laser devices that were coming out to take away things on the skin such as my sister's birthmark without leaving significant scarring. But despite the answer being, "no, not yet," there's no solution yet, the dermatologist would take time to address my sister's self-esteem. And those few minutes actually really made the difference to me. And I said, wow, you know, dermatology, that is true, this is a different kind of doctor's experience. So I could definitely experience what it was like to have a family member that had an ailment on the skin that everyone can see. So it's not like diabetes or having a heart problem where people may not be able to tell from your exterior that you're having issues inside of your body. But to be able to walk around with something that the general public can see. Man, that is an experience. Okay. So I took those observations and thoughts and also that experience that we had in the exam room. And then that's when I became interested in this whole dermatology, this skin disease. So if you can imagine, you know, 10-year old walking around and saying, hey, I want to be a dermatologist. That was me. I did not know about the uphill battle that we're following at it, know about how challenging it would become. And yes, I did set that goal based on my personal experience and I persevered to cross the finish line, but it wasn't easy. So people have to continue to follow me as I share more about that story. The great news is that yes, I am a dermatologist today and I'm so grateful for that so that I can live in my passion. But it was definitely a journey of perseverance to get here.

Dr. Berry: I think that's telling because I think a lot of times when I think the common person, kinda hears about dermatology. I think they get kind of skewed, right? Because, they kind of think of more of the aesthetic, the Botox, that type of feel not realizing like no, there's a lot more things that you know, it's scary. Right? You know, it can be disheartening especially from a self-esteem standpoint. So the pathology alone, right? Like and when we were talking about mythology, we talk about like disease courses, right? The amount of diseases that either originates from the, that show up on the skin is so vast. Again, I'm always impressed that you know, by my dermatologist because I know how much work, when did they put to get there as well as how much work they got to do while they there. Right? Like it's not a nine to five, you just chilling your junior year injecting people and then you're kind of keeping them, you know, a beautiful and healthy whole day. Right? There's a lot of clinical diagnostic procedures and treatment and discussions that go on a day to day basis. Right. Which is why I'm definitely such a fan of the field in general. Not so much offended. I wanted to be a dermatologist but enough that I can appreciate it from the outside.

Dr. Candrice: And I definitely, thank you so much for highlighting that I think our other physician colleagues understand the scope of what we do. Yes. I do have colleagues who only do aesthetics, the only botox and fillers and things like that, but there is a large breadth of things that we do under the dermatology umbrella and I'm happy that our physician colleagues are excited that we can actually help them with their patients. Now the general public may just see us as, you know, a skin doctor or pimple popper or something like that, but in actuality, on a day to day basis, I am taking care of people who have severe disease and like brought up Dr. Berry as a dermatologist. It's amazing. I can go into the exam room, I can look at someone's skin and I can say, hmm, I wonder if this patient has diabetes. I wonder if this patient has thyroid disease. I know this patient has an autoimmune disease. And so it's amazing because, you know, the medical students are thinking, how would you know all of this stuff? My mind is trained to look at the skin, look at the hair, look at the nails, and come up with conclusions based on the patterns of recognition that I've seen over the years. So it is amazing. And yes, we do more than just acne and dry skin. We do lots of things and we take care of patients who have a serious disease.

Dr. Berry: That was interesting. I know, and I know we're definitely gonna talk about it, you know, a little bit late on this show is the fact that you were introduced to the field very early. Cause I'm being honest, right? Like I've never been to a dermatologist, right? Like I'm 35 years old. No, don't hate me. Don't hit me. Right? I know, I know. I'm bad. I know. Trust me. You know, doctors make the worst patients, right? But I've always felt like, well, what am I going to do it here? This my skin looks okay. Right? So, I'm actually very happy that, you know, you guys were very introduced very early because I think a lot of times we hear, well, you know, let's say, skin color, you know, your dark skin, it is really nothing after you to do, there isn't nothing that he can tell you. I read the books, right? A lot of times when I'm reading books and I'm trying to get the description and I'm like, well what does this look like on a black person? Right? What does it look like on me? I don't know what this rash would look like on myself. Right? So I always kind of struggle with that. And again, we're definitely gonna talk about that later on. But I'm definitely kind of happy that, you know, you got introduced very early.

Dr. Candrice: Yes, it is. It definitely has been a passion for a long time and yes, we do need more educational resources that highlight people with skin of color who had these specific things that we're trying to educate our colleagues about and the general public about.

Dr. Berry: So with, with me, right, obviously we're recording this right? This is a skin cancer awareness month. I'll kind of all wrapped into one when we talk about skin cancer awareness. Like why for one. Right. Because this is the question I always get when we have these like health-related month. I like why does it stay made a whole month? Right? So like that I, I post you, right? Like why does skin cancer really need a whole month for us to be aware of? And what kind of says, you know what, I need to take this mantle and make sure I'm educating everyone about like skin cancer. Not to say that all your packages are nothing but skin cancer. I, but why is this like particular subjects such an important, I think for everyone to kind of know about it.

Dr. Candrice: Skin cancer awareness month is a very important topic and yes, it should span the entire month of May and as a dermatologist, every day is skin cancer. Well you know, I could be a little biased. I mean, the thing is we all have skin and so sometimes we have been ingrained with these things that say, Oh, if you have brown skin, you don't have to worry about, you know, getting skin cancer. You don't have to worry about these things. So you just kind of tune it out. But I hope that every year when the month of May rolls around that people, regardless of their skin tone, learn something new about something that can potentially affect them, which is skin cancer. So it's all about educating, educating, educating. And if we only get 30 days out of the month to do that, or 31 days out of the month and do that, I say, let's go forward. We all have skin and we can all be infected regardless of skin tone.

Dr. Berry: When we talk about just like the sheer numbers, right? I kind of alluded to it being the most common type of cancer in general, which is funny, right? Because me being an internist, I hear a lot about long, right? I hear a lot about the prostate, right? I hear a lot about breasts, I hear a lot about those things, but then when I'm looking at the numbers and they're like, whoa, those skin cancers, like I was pulling it out of water. Like I think that was more shocking to me. Obviously, you're in the field so we're probably not gonna be a shocking you. But like I thought that kinda hit me. I was like, oh I have this many people like dealt with like skin cancer. What are some of like the numbers, the stats, you know, Lunch and Learn community loves numbers from a statistic standpoint. Like, like how many people like are dealing with cancer and especially on a worldwide basis. The United States, you know, black folks, some women. Like what are some of the numbers that you kind of run across?

Dr. Candrice: So I'm really, the numbers are usually broken down into the number of cases of melanoma that are diagnosed every year, which is a specific type of skin cancer than the most deadly type of skin cancer. There is the other group which is non-melanoma skin cancers. And often non-melanoma skin cancers, you're going to probably get about 5.4 million cases that had been treated in an average year. So that is a lot of cases of cancer. And then if you dive deeper into the statistics, you will find that one in five Americans by the time that their age 70 they're going to develop skin cancer that's taking all comers, all ages, all races of people putting them in the pot and you're coming up with the one in five Americans. So yes, it is definitely way more common than you think. And even when we really dissect out to the most deadly type of skin cancer, which is melanoma, it is predicted that there will be an increase in the year 2019 unfortunately by almost 7.7% so this is something that is not going away and it is definitely increasing. So we have to be on the lookout for it. The prediction of the number of cases for 2019 is over 190,000 cases are predicted to be diagnosed this year. So we definitely enough to be on the lookout for this.

Dr. Berry: And what's interesting especially, and I am not sure if it's because it doesn't get the fanfare right? Like again I know we talked about breasts, we were talking about lung and just for Lunch and Learn community just from a number of sake, you know she was talking in the millions, right? When we talk about cases I'm like lung cancer, breast cancer, those are like in the 150 to 200 thousand. Just to give you an idea from a sheer numbers standpoint. How much more common it is right to have skin cancer than it is the other cancers, right? Not to say that no one is better than the other, but just when we talk about media and we talk about the influence of it, but then we had Dr. Amber Robins talked about the influence of media on our health care.

This is one of the things that we see, right? Like we, we see like this is an issue that probably should get like more than a month if this many people, right. Ideally, with a skin cancer wet, you know, we got a month so we're gonna focus on and kind of do it here. And you talked about the different types of skin cancer, right? Like especially in your training when you're dealing with the melanoma and again, melanoma, we, you know, I know as an internist, you know, that's a bad word for us, right? We were as the one that's kind of scary for us as one, we tend to see exhibit an in a lot of different functions and especially when we're talking about when it starts spreading everywhere. When you're talking about melanoma versus the non-melanomas type skin cancers, right. And you just kind of start breaking those down. What is it that people should be doing? Right? Like again, what should I do? Should I start like scan to my skin now? Because now I'm getting kind of scared, right? All these people are against cancer, I'm getting kind of scared. I need to be worried about it.

Dr. Candrice: Well definitely really the first step is to educate yourself. So you landed in the right spot. So we talked about melanoma being the most aggressive, a type of skin cancer. And then there are also those types which include Basal Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, and even a rare to very rare type that we don't talk about that often called Merkel Cell Carcinoma. So there are various types. And the best thing that you can do is to definitely see a dermatologist once a year to get a head-to-toe, a skin check. But then right in your home you can actually go ahead, advocate for yourself, taking a mirror and looking at your own skin. The first step is to really get to know what is living on your skin already. You know, time and time again, I may ask a patient, how long has this been there? And they, so I don't know. I haven't seen my back in two years. That's unacceptable. I want you to get to know what is on your skin regularly. That way you can be a better, this hectic just in case something changes or comes up, you can say hey you can go to your primary care doctor and say look I need a referral to a dermatologist because this is changing. This was not there before I'm concerned.

Dr. Berry: Okay, get in tune with what your skin is so you know what their baseline is and you do recommend just like once a year? Like I said clearly I'm overdue. Right? So you're just saying just like you're doing your regular annual checkup, you should be seeing your skin screening as well?

Dr. Candrice: Yes, I do recommend that people get skin checks and definitely you know if you had lesions on the skin, moles, etc. They should be checked. And people with skin of color, of course, we have to be very very careful because skin cancer can happen on areas of the body that you may not expect. So for people with skin of color that means anyone with non-Caucasian skin, non-white skin, the risk of your skin cancers are going to be higher. When we were talking about melanoma on the soles of the feet, the palms of the hand inside of the mouth. So those are areas that people may not even think about that can be effect by skin cancer. And yet that's where we find the most deadly type of skin cancer in people of color.

Dr. Berry: Are we've already dealing with more aggressive types of skin cancer or is it our lack of, you know, just being aware and following up on the skin cancer? Like what would you, if you had to lean one way or the other?

Dr. Candrice: The number one thing for skin cancer and people with skin of color is late detection and delayed diagnosis. The patient doesn't believe that they can ever have skin cancer, so that may delay treatment. Also, there are some primary care physicians who are uncomfortable with things on the skin and that stems from just, you know, how physicians are taught and what they're exposed to. So they may not actually get a lot of teaching in dermatology during their training. So it's an area that they may not feel as comfortable with. So it may not be on their radar to even look at the hands and feet of someone with the skin of color and to refer that patient. So basically, usually by the time that patient with the skin of color lands in my office, regardless of the cancer type, it is usually at a higher stage. So it is going to be the worst case scenario I'm walking in. So versus someone else who may have been trained from a child to say, you know, we can get skin cancers, you have to protect your skin from the sun, you have to do this, you have to do that. So they're more aware that things can go wrong on the skin. But if you have no clue that 'that' could happen, you have definitely, there's a long time lapse between when that appeared on the skin when you can actually get your diagnosis. And that definitely affects your prognosis.

Dr. Berry: Wow. Okay. All right. Dr. Candrice, she's getting us together. So yeah, I'll know until right now, next week, I am scheduling my dermatology exam because it is clearly serious. And again, this is if, if you, if you had one month to choose to like do your routine skin screening exams, why not let it be in the month of May when you know, skin cancers around us. The spotlight is on from a media standpoint is on it. So this is definitely the month you should be thinking about, you know, calling your primary care doctor like right now. And if you're in Florida, fortunately in Florida, you don't even have to get a referral. You can go straight to your dermatologist. Thank you for Congressman Wasserman for that standpoint there. That's great. So I taught, I hear about skin cancer, I read Baskin cancer a lot. And I always see this is the A, B, C, D, E of the skin cancer. Right? What is that? And you know, how could my Lunch and Learn community, you know, derive and be educated and you know, get on the ball with, in the car and in regards to at ABCD's of skin cancer.

Dr. Candrice: The ABCD's are really A, B, C, D, E. Now we've actually added E to that as well. (Okay.) It is a reminder for you when you're looking at your skin, what are some of the things that I should look for as warning signs or things that are going wrong on the skin? So let's say you have a mole on the skin and if you were to look at, if you were to imagine splitting the mole in half with, you're just with your eyes a little line. If one side does not look exactly like the other side, we say that that is asymmetrical and that is a warning sign. That lesion should be checked. So A stands for asymmetrical. One side doesn't look like the other, that could be significant. The B stands for border. So if it has a round, nice, crisp border, then we're not going to worry as much.

But at the borders brace squiggly and not a very crisp, that could be a problem. Also, the C stands for color. So if your mole all of a sudden goes from being brown to having brown, gray, pink, white, basically changing in color, that could be a problem. So that's something that could trigger you to get that checked out. D stands for diameter. So typically, melanomas are in other things that are going to be problematic are the greater than this, the head of an eraser. Now I've definitely diagnosed things that were smaller than that. But anyway, it's part of the warning signs. So that may be something else that can prompt people to come in. And then the last E has been added in the last several years and that stands for evolving. So basically what that means is even if you don't remember the A, the B, the C, the D with those things stand for if you have a mole that is evolving or changing in any way that may be one that we need to look at more promptly.

Dr. Berry: Okay. All right. They added E. I've been out of school for a few years. So when it was my time and they just stopped that d and maybe even add something new. Again, this is why, Lunch and Learn community I tell you all the time I get just as educated from my guest as you guys also. Like I said, I'm getting myself together, get myself mentally prepared, to see this dermatologist, right? So when I do not, again, just like when I go to see this dermatologist, like what happens? Right? I know what happens when I go and get my wellness check and I talked to my doctor about the flu. But what happens when I go to see different charges? I've never been to. So what happens when I go to the dermatologist for the first time?

Dr. Candrice: Well, you have to expect to show your skin. I was not born with x-ray vision. So we have to get you out of those clothes and into a gown. Now they usually will ask you, you can leave your undergarments on if you like to make you feel more comfortable and then you will be placed in a gown. And during that visit with my patients, what I do in a very systematic way is that I look over the entire surface of the skin from head to toe looking for anything that stands out. That could be something that is an abnormal and abnormal lesion on the skin. So I definitely will take a look at every area in the extremities, the back, the chest, the scalp, the face, all of that looking to take a look to see if there's anything that looks unusual that needs to be biopsied. So yes, number one is to do expect to actually get out of your clothing, including your shoes and socks and get into a gown. And I think some people…

Dr. Berry: Is that something you run into, like people in that really unexpected that part?

Dr. Candrice: Yes. Roll up the sleeve, will pull up the pant leg and I said, look, I'm a dermatologist. I need to see the complete picture. You know, that part is very helpful because everybody's moles may not be textbook the same as someone else's. So I need to know your body is making molds and that can actually help me to determine. Is that something that needs a biopsy? Is this just how your body's making them? I need to get a sense of all of that. So I need to see your entire body surface area.

Dr. Berry: Okay. I like that. And anything, out there, tips and tricks, get our patients to have it? To get them a full dermatology evaluation?

Dr. Candrice: Sure. You know, don't ever be afraid to ask or you know about things that you may be concerned about. Sometimes dermatologist, you know, we lay over the completely benign things, but I often use that as a teaching moment. So I do give those things names and I educate the patient about what those lesions are. But it is important that you get your questions answered as well about specific things that you're concerned about. I think, you know, one of my, some of my favorite instances as a dermatologist is to walk in and you know, there's a someone there for an exam and I start to examine their skin. I see like five circles on their skin with a marker and I'm thinking, hmm. Basically, every time I inquired, basically it's usually a wife that has circles, these lesions because she wants to know exactly what those are and what's the, make sure that those species are okay. So even if you don't have a wife, this makes circles on your skin and there are a few things that you are concerned about. It's okay to make a list of those things so that we can make sure that we address those specifically so that you leave feeling empowered about your skin.

Dr. Berry: I love it. We love empowering here. Because especially when they come to see, you know, the general family practitioner or internist and they're asking a lot of questions. Like I do wonder like what type of leeway do they have when they go in to see their dermatologist? Right? Because again, obviously, you're the expert, right? And you know, if something's like, oh no, that's nothing, but they just want to know, right? Like they read it in a book, they read a blog, they've heard a podcast and they say, oh no if it looks like this, you're supposed to do something about it. Do you run into a lot of that where patients are, you know, they're empowering themselves to be an advocate for themselves. But sometimes you almost have to educate them away from doing extracurricular things that you wouldn't necessarily need to do.

Dr. Candrice: Absolutely. I think that's our job as physicians to provide the education and say, this is by all accounts, this is a something that it's benign. It's something that can be observed, you know, you don't have to remove it. So I think just spending time to educate also can be helpful for them as well.

Dr. Berry: All right. So I'm in the dermatology again and just kind of preface it. Because again, I remember when I was studying in dermatology type questions for boards and everything else and my number one question was always, well you know what? Like yeah, I understand like how it looks, raised, bordered, redness. Like I already understand how that looks. But like for a person that looks like me, right? Like how does that look? Does it look the same? Should I be worrying? Like is it different? Is it the opposite? I don't know. Do you, when you take care of patients of color and they're coming to you with skin related issues as well, do you tend to find that more difficult or is that just feed your training? You're aware of it? Like I always, because I always want to know, cause obviously when I'm reading a book I don't tend to see too many skin colors and I looked like mine that is examples.

Dr. Candrice: Yes. I have specifically sought out training in the skin of color. So I was excited to be able to do my dermatology training with some skin of color experts. And actually my program had a skin of color center as well, so we were known for that. So that allowed me to be able to see dermatology on multiple different skin types. And you're right, yes. Some things do not follow the descriptions in the book at all. So you have to go to someone if you do have the skin of color, go to someone familiar with your skin type so that you can get a more expert exam when it comes to that.

Dr. Berry: And when we talk about this is skin cancer in general, especially for skin of color. I know you talked about us 10 being caught later. So does that mean like we're from skin cancer total wise, we're dealing with it a lot more frequently or we just happen to catch it at a much later stage? What are some of the numbers especially for skin color and people with skin of color when we talk about skin cancer and diseases of alike?

Dr. Candrice: And this is actually really sad, but people of color, we are less likely to get skin cancers. But for an example with melanoma, the one that is the deadliest tight. When we think about the five-year survival rate after someone has cancer, they, you know, was always these statistics. They go out to say, well, in five years, you know, what's the likelihood this person being alive for an example. So for melanoma, when you compare black patients to white patients, white patients have, you know, it's like over 91% of those patients will have a five-year survival rate. And for blacks, it's only a little over 60% or about 65% or so. So that is drastic, a very drastic difference. And so that goes back to the point of late diagnosis. Particularly when we talk about the most deadly type of cancer. Yes, we don't get skin cancer that often, but man, when we do get it, the prognosis is horrible because it's often caught very late and it has spread beyond just the skin at that point.

Dr. Berry: And I can tell you from an internist standpoint, some of the patients I've taken care of, unfortunately in a hospital, you know, we've had skin cancer shows up in the lungs, we've had skin cancer show up on the GI system, we've had skin cancer show up in the brain, you know, Lunch and Learn community, give you an idea like this isn't a benign disease that you know a little, you know, biopsy cuts and get outta here. Like once if it does what it's, you know, set to do, it can really cause some problems.

Dr. Candrice: Yes, it is very devastating and it definitely will be called metastasizes, which is what you definitely explained. It can go all over the body.

Dr. Berry: So, and when we talk about this, some of the reasons why we're coming late, right? The reason why we're not seeing Dr. Candrice earlier, basically for people of color. Like I honestly, I was like, oh, what do I need? Like I'm protected, right? Like, well, you know, I'm protected from the sun, like from it from my peers and my skin color. But what are some of the biggest misconceptions that are out there? People like me, it's getting people of color really need to like kind of erased from their mind when it talks about, you know, just skin cancer and skin disease in general.

Dr. Candrice: Please erase the fact that your brown skin and your melanin can embrace all potential harm. Is not true. You can get skin cancer. Let me just hit on my mic to make sure they heard me. Look with brown skin, yes, you too can get skin cancer. Take it from me. If you don't believe the statistics. I am triple board certified dermatologist that looks exactly like you. And yes, I see devastating cases. So please, please, please. It's just, it's not true when people say that it doesn't affect us, it's just not true.

Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community I hope you I heard that. She's a triple boarded, right? So again, this is, this isn't just you're running the mill like a physician who was trying to like, no, this is a person who really knows what they're talking about and especially for, I have a lot of listeners of color. You know, if you have not, right, again, don't be like me, right? Like, get just skin check done ASAP. Right? The month of May, get it done by the end of this month. Like, make sure that happens like today. And then make sure you bring family members too right. We didn't talk about, but make sure you bring your family members and get them some chopped too. Because I know a lot of us, a lot of y'all don't already like coming to see us for the world has visited. Right?

So if y'all already not seeing us for the wellness visit, I know. Yeah. Not going to see yourselves for that, the skin can visit. So please do that. And you know, kind of get out of that mindset. Right. So, you know, Dr. Candrice can kind of help get us together and get us earlier. Again, that's sad though. 60% of us on a little bit over two-thirds of us are actually making it within five years once we're diagnosed just because we're not being seen early and it has a problem.

Dr. Candrice: Yes. Devastating statistic.

Dr. Berry: So let's talk about skincare, self-care and I wanna know, right? Like I wanted to know because obviously again for Lunch and Learn community even those who don't know, Dr. Candrice and I, we've been friends for about, like three years now. You know, medical always together. I know how amazing this person is and as she does so much education. That's why I wanted to bring her on the show. Right. So Dr. Candrice tell us about skincare, self-care, and why we need to be with it ASAP?

Dr. Candrice: You know, I see so many manifestations of stretch in the skin, in hair disorders, lots and lots of things. And so what I thought about was sometimes for people the moment in the morning before the day gets crazy and they're in the bathroom doing whatever they need to do, that may be their only time for self-care. So I developed this concept, this really kind of mindset that yes, skincare is self-care. So focusing on your skin is a way of taking care of yourself. You walk around with your skin all day, every day, so why not take a few minutes to take care of your skin in those moments of the day when you actually have time to do it. So that really was the impetus to all of this. Just, you know, people stressing out and a lot of, and seeing all these diseases on the skin that all you have to do is cleanser or moisturizer.

It's like a really quick fix, right? But people were not taking those few minutes of the day because they said, oh, that takes too long. I don't have time for that. I'm busy. I'm this, I'm that. Well, you at least can you give me three minutes a day to be able to care for your skin? And man, what I saw happening was that yes, people, skin disease improved, but also their attitudes improve. Once I started to pitch it as a self-care, their self-care moments of the day, things began to change. They saw it from being something that was cumbersome that they had to do to something that they actually look forward to doing.

Dr. Berry: A highlight of their day to take care of this again.

Dr. Candrice: Right, exactly. And you say that with some hesitation, but it's dermatologist, yes.

Dr. Berry: Oh no, my way, she's about to make up that now. So I already know that when she's in that mood. I don't even mess with her. Go ahead, do whatever. I'll wait. I'm in no rush. I ain't going nowhere anyway. She got a whole routine. It's funny because she's got a morning routine, she's got to go on the bed routine as I'm like, wow. Oh, and of course I'm naive, right? And like I gotta ask you a question like, especially when it comes to men, I'm naive, right? And I'm like, why can't you just wash your face? And they're like, no, you gotta do this and this and it's so it's too funny. That's good care. So can we definitely here for that. I got to ask, right? Because I know obviously Lunch and Learn community what about the men, right? Like how much men are you seeing in your practice? How can we get, and we just, we have this issue just getting them to do their wellness checks, right? Like how are you getting them to come to check their skin out?

Dr. Candrice: I see men all the time in the office and as soon as I walk in, I know whether they are there by choice or force. I don't care how you land in there. I'm just happy to see the men when they do come in because it is important for me to have those conversations with them. And then we talk about some of the things that they don't really like. People talk about how, Oh, if I wear sunscreen and, and I'm working out or doing something, and I sweay, it gets in my eyes and this, that and the other. So we have conversations about, okay, well how can we overcome some of those things? Some have been cumbersome for you to get around to kind of get on the bandwagon of protecting your skin. So I really enjoy those conversations. And so I had that segment of men that come in for skin checks.

But then also what I'm finding is that even just for general skincare things that men actually care about the way they look. They may not tell you or emphasize it and you know, but they do care about it. They may be coming in for ingrown hairs on the face or a little bit of dry skin here, there. Just you know, things that cap into, to happen to come up. And I've definitely given my male patients permission to actually ask about those things. I'm very active on social media and when I look at the statistics and some of my followers, I was surprised that like 20 to 30% of my followers are men. And no is not because I'm so fabulous myself. Right? (Part of it, maybe.) No, it does not because I am definitely an, I make it a point to really give tips along the way about really, really realistic, you know, short steps that you can do to really take care of your skin. And I said, wow, you know, the guys are actually benefiting from this as well. And they make me feel good that my information can be valuable for both women and men.

Dr. Berry: Okay. I love it. Before we get you out of here, I always ask my guest, how can what you do really help empower people to take better control to skincare?

Dr. Candrice: I understand that my words are powerful. I understand that my interaction with every patient is important. I can remember being a child in the exam room with my physician and if that physician gave some words of encouragement to me. Oh, you want it to be a doctor? Oh, that's great. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You may have understood that depending on where on the neighborhood that you work in, that you may be the only physician of cover that this patient ever sees.

I may be the only physician that ever takes a second to encourage a child, encourage their child. And that one piece of information can be the thing that drives them through their entire schooling to become a doctor because somebody told them that they could. So I always had that in my mind. So I know that I'm empowering that way. And then also empowering beyond the exam room currently. So I know that when I'm giving information to women who come in with hair loss and brown spots and this and that and the other, that I encouraged them to talk to their families about it, talk to their girlfriends about it, talk to other people at the hair salon about it so that my words can travel just beyond, beyond well beyond just my patient, but also to a community. And so I love it when patients come in and say, oh so and so referred me or Oh I heard about you at the hair salon. Oh, I heard about you at church. I love it when that happens because it means that I've done a great job of taking something that can be very scientific and complex and making it very simple enough or just my patients to be able to say, look I saw this dermatologist and she told me x and you should get into. That to me is super empowering. I have now turned my one to one patient experience into a one to many experiences.

Dr. Berry: Oh, I love it. Absolutely love it. So Dr. Candrice, how can someone follow you, get educated. Like I said, again this is just one episode but this isn't, this is more of like a blip. Like cause you're doing this all the time and I want to make sure my Lunch and Learn community kind of follow along with you. Where can people find you? When's your next speaking engagement? Let us know some details so we can make sure we get you right.

Dr. Candrice: I can be found @drcandriceheath on all social media platforms. That's @ D, R, C, A, N, D, R, I, C, E, H, E, A, T, H, that's @drcandriceheath on all social media platforms. Also. I have launched a beauty line called My Sister's Beauty. So I hang out there a lot as well www.mysistersweetie.com. What we really focused on simple skincare. That is also of course self-care. You know my motto, love that. Very simple. You have to tell your wife about that. And then for my people in the medical community who are always asking me about how do you get these speaking gigs, how do you do that exactly? Why are you so comfortable? How do you do that? I finally put everything into a portal. Okay. So I am debuting very soon, www.drcandriceheath.comf/clinicalpearls. So that you can actually be able to go right there. www.drcandriceheath.comf/clinicalpearls to find out what I am doing in the speaker realm for medical professionals.

Dr. Berry: And Lunch and Learn community, all of this link will be in the show notes. So you know, if you're driving, take a shower, whatever you do it, you'll be able to get access to it. And I was just about, I let you go, but you gotta tell us you gotta you can't just like a drop that, you know, beauty line comes and just let you go. Right? What about that right? I know we're talking about skin cancer, were on the self-care now. Let's get us right.

Dr. Candrice: I am so, it brings tears to my eyes because this has a long journey to launch this line. And really the primary focus is based on all these experiences that I've had with women. Like I told you before, you know, people feeling overworked, too busy to, you know they have the kids hanging off of one arm, the job doing this and you know the taking care of the home depot, all of these things but yet and still they want to look great, they want to feel great. And one of the main things that people often come in about it, they talk about brown spots on the skin. So I know I wanted to develop something that could definitely help to brighten the skin, give people more, even skin tone. All those things they look for so that they do look refreshed and feel refreshed.

So I'm excited about the cleanser that we have. It is amazing. I cannot wait for you all to try it and it is packed with a fruit acid called Mandelic Acid and it definitely helps address those dark spots. And I'm really thrilled about it. It's packed full of botanicals so you will see ingredients that you recognize and like in the line including bringing tea. But moisturizer is my group, My Sister's beauty. Recovery cream is packed full of aloe and it is just amazing. Like I'm so super excited about this. I have a launch party coming up in my city. I cannot wait. So it's, it's been amazing. It has definitely been a long journey and amazing journey and basically, the best is yet to come and I am just excited to finally be able to birth the thing that has been, working on for so long. And yes that really the focus of all of this is about self-care and that's the most amazing part of this whole thing. So I'm ecstatic.

Dr. Berry: I love it. Whenever the launch date we'll make sure we promote. We'll make sure we let the world know Lunch and Learn community where they can get that because that's awesome. Absolutely amazing.

Dr. Candrice: I would love that. Thank you so much, Dr. Berry. I would love that.

Dr. Berry: So again, Dr. Candrice thank you for really enlightened us, educate as getting us together. I'm like, I said next week this skin care is being made. I'm not sure I'm going to see. I know dermatologist is busy. I might not see off for a month, but the appointment will be made at least. So we were going to get us together.

Dr. Candrice: Wonderful. Wonderful.

Dr. Berry: And again Lunch and Learn community, you know, this person's amazing. Please. Her information will be in the show notes. Please follow her again @drcandriceheath at all social media outlets. Wherever she's at, wherever you're at, she's likely at as well. Or she'll get there so you know, please make sure. This is a person, a friend that I value her opinion or her expertise or knowledge. And now she's about to drop a line and we're going to make sure we get some from the wife because we're going to get everyone together.

Dr. Candrice: Yes. Wonderful. Thank you so much Dr. Berry and your awesome Lunch and Learn community. You really know who I am at this point. I am Dr. Candrice, your favorite fun board-certified dermatologist. I am your go-to girl for everything - healthy hair, skin and nails.

Dr. Berry: I love it. Thank you. Have a great day.

Dr. Candrice: Thank you.

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Angela Fadahunsi. Dr. Angela is a board certified Internist who then completed her fellowship training in Allergy/Immunology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center-Memphis. She offers Allergy and Asthma relief for her patients in her own beautiful practice in Wylie, Texas.

Dr. Fadahunsi knows from first-hand experience the agony of dealing with allergies as a child. Her goal is to have everyone enjoying the beautiful world around them and that is what has made her such an empathetic doctor who always takes the time to listen to her patient's needs.

I felt that since May was the month we celebrate National Asthma and Allergy Awareness month what better way to educate the Lunch and Learn community with such an amazing guest.

This is definitely an episode that you will enjoy. Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

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Episode 107 Transcript...

Introduction Dr. Berry: And welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com as well as Pierre Medical consulting. Helping you empower yourself with better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy. And this week we bring you a special one. We have Dr. Angela Fadahunsi who is an allergy and immunology specialist, who's going to be schooling us and educating the lifeline community on allergies, on sinuses. What are some common things we can use to kind of treat our allergies and how a lot of us may be using a very common product wrong. I know at least I was. Before we begin the show I want to talk a little bit about her so you can kind of know exactly how credible this person is because again at Lunch and Learn community I want to bring you known, specialized guests who know what they're talking about. And you know this one's no different.

She earned her medical degree from the University of Texas. She completed her internal medicine residency as well as her specialty in allergy-immunology fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. Dr. Angela combines knowledge with compassion. And she is proud to offer allergy and as not really for her patients. She knows firsthand how it feels to have allergies to keep you up from enjoying the beautiful world around you. And as a result, has become an empathetic doctor who always takes time to listen to your needs and of course for a lot of my allergy suffer especially in Lunch and Learn community. This is actually a topic that we've been really wanting to get on this show for a while. This is a very common reason why patients walk into the hospital as the very reason why patients walk into a doctor's offices. Actually one the more requested topics from the Lunch and Learn community that I wanted to get on.

And you know I didn't feel like I would do it as much justice if I didn't have you know someone specialized to come and talk in school as a little bit about our allergies and our sinus problems and you know what we can actually do about it so you know sit back like always if you had not had a chance. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast. Make sure you leave me a 5-star review. Leave Dr. Angela 5 star review. Let Dr. Angela how was she's doing. And you guys have a great and blessed day.

Episode Dr. Berry: So alright Lunch and Learn community. Yes, you heard and that a great introduction from a guest who honestly I've actually been kind of looking for. For those who have been following with the lunch line community, I've been looking for an allergist for quite some time just to kind of talk about, you know, allergies and sinuses and everything, what not. And of course, you know, I was, like I said before, I know a little bit about a lot, but I always, whenever I can try to get an expert on to kind of talk to educate us, I hear and that's what I have today. Right? So again, Dr. Angela, thank you for coming onto the show. (Thank you). during your residence?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Yeah, so I am, honestly, you know, allergy is, it's such a small field when you think of a lot of the other subspecialties and so it's not very well known. I wasn't aware that the field even existed until I was in college. And so that, at that point, I was already pre-med, knew that I wanted to be a physician, wasn't sure exactly which route I was going to go once I got into medical school and then in a residency thereafter. But it was pretty much a personal experience. The primary care doctor that I was seeing referred me to an hour just during my college years and I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. You know, I've been suffering from allergies all of my life. You know, as long as I can remember from childhood and just never had a name for what it was.

Just thought that was just, you know sinuses as we call it, but didn't realize that there were things that you can actually do about it, the ways to investigate it. And so when I started seeing an allergist and then subsequently being treated realized, wow, this is awesome. You know, what capabilities we have available as allergist can be really life changing as far as the quality of life day to day for people in the symptoms that they suffer with. So that's what drew me to it, learning about it through personal experience and then also really seeing the benefits of the care of an allergy specialist.

Dr. Berry: That's very interesting because I always wonder. Like what was it like where were you? Did you have a lot of algae is kind of growing up. And then especially as what I find when I was taking care of patients to outpatient, you know, they'd come to me, it has some issues, you know, upper respiratory infection come back and they would just keep coming back. And forth and then finally I have to say like, Hey, I think you need, I don't think this is just a regular infection because you shouldn't be having this. Over and over again, like do you tend to find yourself getting a lot of those types of patients where you know they've been through the ringer, they had the antibiotics, they've seen urgent care and nothing kind of seems to happen?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Yes, yes. I mean that's most of what I see when it comes to what we call allergic rhinitis or high fever seasonal allergies, whatever label we want to give it as people that have been dealing with these symptoms for years and really are kind of at their with end of like, okay, what is going on and what can be done about it. For me, the first time I remember inexperience of now identifying that I was allergic was in elementary school. We had a field trip to our state capital and baton rouge, and there's this really pretty he'll that comes, that rolls down the front of the state capitol and we were in maybe second first or second grade I can recall.

And everybody thought, oh, it'll be fine. It's a roll down the hill together. So we did and I got up itching, sneezing, watery eyes, you know, redness, all of that stuff. And again, never understood exactly what that was and why the other kids didn't feel the way that I did. And then the same thing, just, you know, seasonal allergies all the time, every year. It was always the same thing for me. And so yeah, most of the people that I see have similar stories where they've been suffering for a long time and just kind of, you know, stuck and don't know what else to do and, and where to turn.

Dr. Berry: It was very interesting. I was definitely the same way where I, you know, I didn't, I wasn't a kid who played in the grass. I wasn't a kid who liked to, I would get short of breath. I'd get a lot of wells and all of these things as I was like the kid like I want it to be cleaned the whole time.

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi: That's how kids are, you know, they don't have a name for it, but they know that it doesn't make them feel good. And so they just naturally start to avoid and adults too, naturally start to avoid the things that are triggers, you know, because even though they don't really understand that it's necessarily a trigger. I know when I playing grass or when I'm running around outside, I don't feel well, so I'm just not going to do that. So yeah, that's, that's where we come in and we can, you know, do our best to try to get to the root of what's going on and provide answers about how to do deal with it.

Dr. Berry: So for the Lunch and Learn community, they love to hear numbers, right? Because a lot of times I don't think they can grasp how serious, you know, every disorder, every disease we tend to talk is on his podcast. Right. So I want, I want to just give you some Lunch and Learn community so you can understand how important that we really should be thinking about allergies and we'll talk about as far as like, because I feel as a subspecialists, a lot of times they get cases and maybe a little later than they should. I'm just at this, I said it was my person with that.

I never know. So from an allergy standpoint, right? Allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States. They cost about 18 being a year and we're in their 50 million Americans suffer from allergies every year. Right. Just so you guys can get an idea of like how important her field is to just health and just wellness in general. There's, a very interesting, I was almost shocked by it and everything. Yeah. Wow.

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Very, very prevalent. Very calm. Absolutely.

Dr. Berry: Now are you, especially in your field, like is there some allergies that you find are the worse than others that are more common than others like that as you're practicing? Dr. Angela Fadahunsi As far as more common, I'll start with that first. So certainly, you know, springtime and fall seem to be the seasons that people, in general, suffer more, at least in my experience. And those seasons tend to be more common as far as, you know, people complaining of symptoms go fall, you know, being ragweeds spring being, tree pollens, which is, you know, most of the suite of different types of tree pollens, grass pollens, etc. During those seasons.

Jumping back to one particular or a certain group being worse than others, it's a really subjective answer for that because everybody's different of course, you know, and so some people it's, you know, just a little bit of over the counter discern thing or clear thing or whatever does the trick in there fine. But some people can have, another person could have the exact same allergies are sensitivities and they're miserable. You know, they've got asthma related to it as well and so their symptoms are now being, you know? The triggers rather are now exacerbating their chronic asthma issue.

So it's, there's not necessarily one particular thing that's worse. It's really just about the quality of life that that particular person has, you know when dealing with whatever their particular allergies are.

Dr. Berry: Okay. So we don't get a person, right? Cause I got, Lunch and Learn community, I'm going to talk about myself a little bit. I need to talk about the sciences. Right? And I'll get my little backstory. Like I'm from South Florida and I went to school from the house to North Florida. When I was in South Florida, I didn't have any issues. I was fine. No watery eyes, no stuffy nose method. When I went to school at Florida State, all of a sudden, summertime, springtime comes around you.

I would just be watery eyes tearing up uncontrolled were nothing to do at nothing had. Stuffy nose. I was absolutely right, I don't know what it was up there at Tallahassee net area that like cause all these problems. But I got to know like what are we doing for sinus right? Let's talk about sinuses in general because I like I'm biased but I feel like is there demographic is known everywhere. (Yeah).

I have friends who follow me on Twitter and you know like literally every Monday like we'll say like, hey, how are you doing? How's your sinuses? Like how's, did you make the weekend? Like that's like a running joke. But that's because it's just, it's not, we don't look forward to.

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Yes. So of course over the counter treatments is where everybody starts and that's what we recommend as well. So Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, whatever your preferences. I usually encourage people to not do Benadryl just because of the sedating effect of it. And it usually is not as long-lasting. Whereas the other ones you can take once or twice a day and you know, be covered as far as your symptoms are concerned. From there, if that's still not giving you a resolution of your symptoms or you know, improving, you know your symptoms.

Then the next step is the nose sprays and nobody really likes the nasal sprays. (I tried to get my patients to do that). Yeah. But you know, it actually works better than the allergy pills or, you know, any histamines do. It covers as far as the symptoms that you're experiencing and especially the congestion that a lot of people suffer from the allergy pills themselves or any histamines rather don't have any effect on that.

They're mainly for the sneezing and you know, a little bit of what we call the rhinorrhea. So the runny nose, but when you're thinking of the congestion, that's where your nose spray comes in. And what I find with a lot of people is they're not using it correctly and so they are using are not getting the benefit of it and you've got to use it for at least two to four weeks consistently to really get optimal benefits. So there's a couple of things that go into play as far as getting, you know, what she can or the best relief from the nose spray. So I always make sure that I educate people when I'm starting them on a nose spray or when I'm seeing them for the first time about the proper administration techniques so that they're getting what they, you know, getting what you paid for, basically, not kind of wasting, you're wasting your money and wasting your time by doing it.

Now, once you've done those two things, if you're still not having, you know, benefit or relief than us, the point where you need to see a specialist, you know. Whether it's your primary care doctor, discussing with them what your options are and then from there they can determine, you know, okay, well let's go ahead and send you to an hour. Just are coming straight to an allergy specialist as you know, of course, an option as well.

So that is the gist of sort of where we start. And then, you know, the other thing too is with what we offer as far as medications, we're just treating the symptoms, right? We're not dealing with the root cause. And that's where the allergy specialist can come in. As far as identifying what exactly is it that you are sensitive to that's causing you to have the watery, itchy eyes, the sneezing, the runny nose, the congestion, postnasal drip, whatever your symptoms are, and finding those triggers and then educating you about what your options are to deal specifically with those triggers instead of just medicating the symptoms.

Dr. Berry: Now I know, especially from the trigger standpoint, like I tend to think, I want to educate my patient. I'd be like, I always think about like, you know the trees, which is such a bland term because what does that even really mean? I fell, you know the trees and pets. Right as well. Those are always my two biggest things. But are there other common triggers that you've seen that some people like tend to neglect?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Those are, those are pretty common ones. Another one that especially for people that suffer year round, so you know there's certainly people that are just springtime, just fall time, you know, just some or whatever the season may be. But then there are people that have triggers are symptoms year round and one thing that we always consider of course is pets, you have a dog, do you have a cattery exposed to a dog or cat on a regular basis and is that causing your symptoms. But then dust mite is another common, but we call perennial or year-round allergy and that kind, it varies depending on where you are in the United States.

But in general, like there's, I shouldn't say any amount of humidity but a decent amount of humidity, then you're going to be exposed to dust mites and where dust mites accumulate the most as far as our exposure levels on a day to day basis is in our bedding. So your pillow and your mattress. And so when we can identify dust mite as a trigger, as a sensitivity or allergy for a particular patient, then we can counsel them on ways that they can minimize that exposure. And that's where you get your dust mite proof covers for your pillow and your mattress and bedding.

Washing your sheets once a week and hot water your linens and hot water to try to minimize that risk or exposure rather on a day to day basis. So that's one that doesn't always come up, but it's very prevalent.

And then like you said, you know that right on the head with, you know, the trees, of course, being a big one for people that have spring allergies. And like I mentioned before, fall, ragweed is pretty common in a lot of places in the United States as well.

Dr. Berry: I know here in South Florida we tend to deal with it, not necessarily trees but more like an environmental issue because they burn sugar cane during times of the year and we see a lot of the quote-unquote allergy, which again I think allergy is such a basket term. I think a lot of people call it everything allergies, you know. So I never really know allergies, it was like I don't, I never really know. But like the burning of sugar cane tends to call it a lot of quote-unquote flare-ups of allergies and some environmental issues as well.

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Yeah. So yeah, it could certainly be, but then also of course when you, you know, smoke exposure or just things in the environment, chemical substances or things about nature, irritation as well can cause similar symptoms. So but hard to say for sure. But yeah, definitely a consideration.

Dr. Berry: Now pictures in it because I know we've talked about allergy immunology, but like asthma, especially in your practice is big, I guess component of it. Like how much in relation to just allergies in general? Like does asthma play a role or is that more from the immunology standpoint from your training?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Now, so it's all linked together so people that have allergies are at risk for development of asthma. There's actually something that we call the Eight Topic March with Children. So kids can start off with Eczema. So you know the dry, itchy skin, irritated skin, and then that can progress to allergic rhinitis. So all of the nasal symptoms that we were just discussing. And then from there, it can progress to asthma. So the respiratory issues, the coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and the link between all of that is whenever you have asthma, especially if you do have an allergic component, are allergic asthma as we call it. Knowing your triggers is very important because it's going to help you identify and your allergist or your primary care doctor identify what seasons to be extra mindful of, you know, keeping a close eye on you.

If you've got a ton of tree allergies then when springtime comes before springtime comes, I need to make sure that you're good and you're well controlled because we know that those tree pollens are common and those triggers, those allergens on top of your asthma history puts you at risk for what we call an exacerbation. So worsening of your asthma symptoms or you know, or poor control of asthma symptoms leading to hospitalizations, urgent care visits, ER visits, steroid bursts. So yeah definitely a huge shift as sleep, links excuse me, from especially in the pediatric side but also on the adult side as well. It's fair, very common for the two to kind of go hand in hand a lot of times.

Dr. Berry: Yeah. Before, because I definitely want to delve into just you know your business quote unquote. I know you talked to, initially about how a lot of people are using these, the nasal inhalers wrong? Like how, how do you use that wrong?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi: Yes. The proper way to use flu nasal, coordinate, that's what I'm referring to when I say nasal sprays is to, when you stick the nozzle and or are the, you know the tip into your nose and you actually want to angle your head down so I always tell people nose to toes, so hap head down a little bit. And then when you stick that nozzle and or that tip, you should angle it towards the outer corner of your eye.

So angle it out on both sides whenever you in. (Ok). And what I noticed is a lot of people don't, of course, do that because they've never been told. And that's understandable. It's really kind of strange that at least the ones that I've seen, I've never seen the instructions written on any information, that the patient, so it's understandable that people don't know that.

So that's the first card. But making sure that you're angling it towards the outer corner of your eye, top of your ear on either side. The other thing is a lot of people do like take a big deep sniff in or inhale in, don't do that. When you do that a lot of times has that medication goes right into the back of your throat and people, a lot of the complaints that people have is, I don't like the way it tastes or you know, you're not really supposed to taste it.

It's supposed to stay in your nose. So when you feel it going down the back of your throat, then you've probably inhale too deeply or you know, just basically sucked it down into your throat and it's not really penetrating and getting to the tissue that is swollen and, and causing you the problems as far as the allergy symptoms that you experience. And so those are the two biggest things. Pointing it towards the outer corner of your eye and then just take a natural to inhale and you don't have to do anything extra as far as getting that medication where it's supposed to go.

Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community I just want to let you know like, I am 0 for 2 on, I thought for, I don't know why I thought for sure it had to like, point in towards, yes. Okay. All right. So we all learned here Lunch and Learn community, we're all in it. That's funny. Okay.

So let, let's talk about your practice, right? Let's talk about, you know, why you want to start your practice. Like what was your motivation behind it and then, and then eventually what we need to let people know how they can come to see you?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Yeah. So for me, I was really fortunate with my allergy-immunology training experience. We have the opportunity to, of course, it's the academic institution, so we train with lots of great experts on the academic side. But then we also had the opportunity to work with a private practice who were out in the community and affiliated with our university.

So I had the chance firsthand to see the best of both worlds, the pros and the cons of staying in academic or being in an employed position, as well as the pros and cons of doing it on your own and being in private practice, appealed to me. But then also what I felt the allergists who were owning their own practices, you know, what they really appreciated about it drew me as well. And so that led me to decide, okay, you know what, not only am I going to do private practice, but I'm going to open my own practice and do it on my own.

And what I hope for with my practices, that I create an environment and an experience that people don't necessarily see and other practices or other medical offices and I can kind of steer the ship the direction that I wanted to go without having to do a lot of, I don't want to say negotiating, but you know, when you're the leader of whatever situation, when things aren't going the way that you want them to go, or the way that you feel is in the best interest of your patients, it's up to you.

And it's ultimately your decision to change the direction of things. I mean, I just want it to have more control over what I was able to provide for my patients and always feel like there wasn't anything hindering those decisions. And that's the reason that I decided to do it for myself to kind of start afresh and build something that I could be really proud of and be a part of for the long run.

Dr. Berry: I love it. So as an internist, but are you only seeing like again, I tell people all the time, if you're 17 and below I don't even want to, are you only because it definitely feels like there's a lot of overlap. But do you only see like adults and up? Is that, is there like a cut off for you?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi No. I see children as well. So allergies, one of those unique fields where we process trying to see both adult and pediatric patients. So actually me coming from the internal medicine side, it's a requirement and you know, same for my co-fellow who was coming from the pediatric side. It's a requirement that at least I think the percentage was at least 60% of your patient population be from the other side. You know.

So for me, as an internist or internal medicine physician, it was required for me that at least 60% of my patients be pediatric to meet, you know, the standards of ACG and me for my allergy fellowship. And so a lot of what I saw was pediatric. But then I also had the chance of course to see lots of adult patients. So I feel very comfortable seeing both men even down to like age four months or so, we would see patients, especially with the newer recommendations for early introduction of peanut for kids that are at risk for development of peanut allergy. And Eczema, of course, is a big thing for infants as well. So all ages come into my practice pretty much birth to old age.

Dr. Berry: Wow. That's nice. (Yeah). Like I say you if you're a 16, 17 I get weary. So that was great.

That's a question, especially in your practice, is there like common things that you know, issue that people kind of deal with on a day to day basis but they don't even realize that they're actually dealing with an allergy problem?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi I think a lot of what we talked about is that, you know, like you were mentioning, you have patients that come in and they've always got bronchitis or quote-unquote sinus, sinus issues or you know, whatever terms people like to call it. And a lot of times that is just plain and simple what we call allergic rhinitis. There's an allergy trigger to it.

And if we can identify that, then we can, you know, give you answers and work on getting you feeling better and getting you feeling well. But that's the most common thing. And then of course sometimes it is allergies. It may just maybe something else. But certainly making sure that that's crossed off when you've got somebody coming in with the same seasonal complaint year after year after year is definitely warranted.

Dr. Berry: When should, speaking as an internist, when should I be sending my patients to see analogist? And if you're just a patient out there who even dealing with these issues, like what should they be coming to see?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi I usually tell people when over the counter stuff is not working well enough for you. So, and that's again a subjective thing. If it's bothersome to you and what you're doing isn't helping, then that's when you need to see an allergist.

As I mentioned, for some people taking Claritin or Zyrtec or whatever over the counter is fine and they're like, okay, I'm good. You know, whatever I wrote through spring, you know, with Zyrtec a day and I'm okay. Whereas other people it's like, no, I'm miserable. You know, my head is always hurting or you know, I'm always seizing. I can't get my work done.

And that's another thing too, you know, it affects the quality of life, but it also affects people's productivity at school. And at work whenever they aren't feeling well for whatever reason, but certainly if you're having to blow your nose every 10 seconds and you know you can't breathe out of your nose well or your eyes are always watering. I mean, just imagine dealing with that for a season at a time or constantly on and off all year.

How productive were you want to be when you're feeling that way? So once over the counter isn't working, then that's when I suggest people see a specialist to get to the root of what's going on and try to get answers about what they can do.

Dr. Berry: Wow. Right. Again, Lunch and Learn community, alright thank you for, you know, really helping enlightened especially me, with definitely Lunch and Learn community, on allergy because it's a topic that has been so requested. Then I said, okay, all right. I gotta find one. And I found out, I gotta make sure I had a chance before we let you go. The question like this is like, how can what you do empower others to really take better control of their health?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi: Yes. So I think anytime we can have answers about what's going on with our bodies, that's the start of taking control. And you know, it's hard to take control where we don't really know what's going on or what can be done about it. So anytime that I can give answers to people, it's such a relief for me to be able to provide that answer. But it's also, of course, a huge relief for other people when they can point to this is the reason why I don't feel well.

So I think that's the gist of it. It empowers people because they now have an answer and then once you have an answer, you can work towards a solution. So yeah, it's all about just trying to provide answers and give people the knowledge that they need so they can have that quality of life and productivity, you know, and just be able to be able to enjoy the everyday things that you know, we want to enjoy going outside, taking a walk, you know, breathing fresh air and not feeling miserable minutes later.

Dr. Berry: I love it. I love it. So where can someone find you? Where can someone find you? Whether it's social media, where do your physical office, where?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi My office is in Wiley, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas Metroplex, so Northeast Dallas suburb. And as far as online, you can reach me online through either of my social media pages, Facebook or Instagram. On Instagram, it's @allergywylie, all one word. And Wylie being spelled W, Y, L, I, E. And then on Facebook, it's allergy and asthma care of Wylie. So either of those places sends me a message. There's also an email of course on my website, www.allergywylie.com and you can communicate with me that way as well.

Dr. Berry: Perfect. And again, if you're driving, at work, wherever you're doing it, all her links will be in the show notes as well. So you can, you know, get directly in contact her and get you, get your allergies right, get your, just wants to get you outside for the summer. Alright.

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi Enjoy the fresh air. Take a walk. Stay healthy.

Dr. Berry: Again, thank you so much for joining the podcast. Like this has been absolutely amazing and I already know we're going to have like people jumping for joy, being able to kind of learn, especially that nose thing. Like I said, I'm 0 for 2 y'all, so we need to be 2 for 2 after this episode aired, right?

Dr. Angela Fadahunsi: Thank you for having me.

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Okey Enyia, Founder of Enyia Strategies whose company focuses is on health policy, and consulting on ways to influence policy issues related to health equity and disparities.

With the political climate being as it is we can no longer avoid the needed conversation on how policy affects our everyday lives. As we sit down with what got led him to politics, his experience as a former medical student and how hitting rock bottom changed his life for the better.

We also get to talk about his new book "Indisputable - The Story of a Favored Son", to see the motivation for it, the process of writing it and what he hopes to see come from the book.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

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• Enyia Strategies - http://www.enyiastrategies.com
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Episode 106 Transcript

Introduction

Dr. Berry And welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of DrBerryPierre.com as well as Pierre Medical consulting. Helping you empower yourself with better health with the number one podcast, for patient advocacy helping you empower yourself with better health. And so fitting that today we are gonna talking about health advocacy. AndI have a special guest for you guys today, Okey Enyia, who is the founder and CEO of Enyia Strategies, a health policy consulting firm that provides advising research, support policy analysis, project management and legislative strategy for individuals and entities seeking measurable ways to influence policy on issues related to health equity, health disparities, social determinants of health and health in all policies. He also helps entry level and make career professionals find ways to maximize their career advancement aspiration by reviewing resumes, cover letters, facilitating interview, preparation and providing a roadmap for a successful transition from higher education into the workforce and entrepreneurship. Okey was a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Health Policy fellow from 2014 and 2016. He worked three years with members of Congress on a wide range of issues areas in the context of health education, foreign policy, civil rights, voting rights and advocacy. He was a master's degree in public health from Chicago State University and a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology and Biochemistry from Lewis University, Romeoville in Illinois. He resides in Maryland. Enjoys cooking, reading and traveling and really the most important thing you guys I've harped on it before that, yes we can talk about being healthy and understanding taking medications and taking right medications. Being healthy is the way to go. Well you have to understand that there are a lot of forces at hand that play a role in people being healthy and I know especially as I find a lot in physicians right, where they don't like to talk about politics and the effects of politics on the way we practice medicine. But it is extremely true. So I wanted to bring someone who really on the ground floor like actually they're working with people who are making these laws that are sometimes good and a lot of times is not very good in your everyday order of health, right? So let's get ready for another amazing episode. If you had not had a chance, go ahead subscribe to our podcast. Leave me a five star review and let Okey knows he was such an amazing guest on a podcast today. You guys have a great and bless day.

Episode Transcript

Dr. Berry: And again, thank you. Lunch and Learn community, heard an amazing introduction on today's guest who I'm excited for, to kind of, you know, bring a little light on health policy, which is, that is a taboo topic. You know, a lot of people don't like. It's not sexy. I know a lot of people don't like to talk about, but again, when you got people who are kind of, in their field doing it and I wanted to kind of, make sure I bring that expert here. So, okay, first of all, thank you for coming to the episode of Lunch and Learn community.

Okey Enyia: Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Berry: So I want to, and I said your bio was absolutely fantastic, right? But I always like to kind of, you know, starting to beginning, right? Like tell, tell us Lunch and Learn community, a little bit about yourselves in your own words. And then I want to, I want to rev up and I want to kind of talk about, you know, what were some of your goals and aspirations as you were going through your journey?

Okey Enyia: Sure. So my background is in medicine, public health, policy research and teaching. I'm a former House and Senate staffer on Capitol Hill and now I work at the Department of Health Human Services where I report to the Assistant Secretary for preparedness and response. And so I have a social justice background as a grassroots activists. I consider myself a scholar activist and I bring is the nuance, you know, on the ground perspective to the policy space, particularly as it relates to African Americans and African American men in particular. So enjoy talking about my experience, my journey, how I got to this point. I'm the oldest of six children. I have two brothers and three sisters. My parents are from Nigeria. I grew up on the south side of Chicago and I moved to Maryland in 2014 to work as a staffer on Capitol Hill. And so I'm also getting a doctorate in public health with a focus in health policy at the George Washington University Institute School of Public Health where I plan on further explore the intersections of race, gender equity, health and policy as who they is to the lived experiences of African American men and boys over the life course. So that is some of my background. I'm also an author, entrepreneur. I've just released my first self-published book dated 2018 that also clinical. My life experience from Childhood High School, College, Grad School, Med school, Capitol Hill, and into our, into author entrepreneurship. So I'm excited to share some more details about my experiences and hopefully it serves as an inspiration and as a way to help people kind of try it out their path, sign purpose to overcome adversity and to pursue destiny.

Dr. Berry: I love it. So six siblings, part of six siblings. Are you the oldest? Are you the youngest? Where do you fall?

Okey Enyia: Yeah. So I'm the oldest of six children. I have two brothers and three sisters.

Dr. Berry: And that's tough because you kind of, have to, you're the lead. Okey Enyia: Right. Yes. I have the, you know, it's a blessing and a challenge to be the pioneer, to be the first, you know. To kind of make the effort to lead by example. You know, the first born usually has a little bit more pressure put on them, you know, from pen. Well, you know, so yeah.

Dr. Berry: Now when we look at, we're okay. Is that today when you were growing up, you know, the oldest kind of, leading the charge, is this kind of where you envision yourself?

Okey Enyia: Not necessarily. I actually was in the Nigerian culture. You know, we, there's this tendency to, you know, we are known to be high achievers, right? We value higher education. You know, we are very driven, very ambitious. And so my personal goal growing up was to become a medical doctor. And so, which is not entirely unusual, particularly within the context of the Nigerian culture where it's, you know, it's how the doctor, lawyer, engineer, professor, something like that.

Dr. Berry: High level. This is what we expected. (Right, exactly). The oldest. I'm pretty sure that carry an additional set of burden, on top of the burden it carries just wanting to obtain those professions.

Okey Enyia: Absolutely. So, you know, we have been kind of to carry on a mantle, you know, of sorts. Um, it definitely made the journey much smaller, interesting and enriching. But I didn't, so maybe about five years ago, five or six years ago, I didn't envision what I'm doing right now on Capitol Hill. Because again, I'll, I know I, I kind of grew up thinking that I'll be serving as a position in terms of direct patient care. But what ended up happening was that it went from direct patient care, public health, to now health policy on a much broader scale. And so that's kind of a hard.

Dr. Berry: Full disclosure, Lunch and Learn community. I have a public health degree as well. I've talked about in prior episodes that I am 100% sure I'm a different physician because of the public. Because it definitely correct, you know, add to it. Like I felt that as a just a general physician. Yeah, it was great with the one on one, but I always found myself asking, well if this person in front of me is dealing with this blood person, is diabetes, his cholesterol, what is that community dealing with? What are the community related problems that kind of put this person who I'm just happening to be taken care of in front of me?

Okey Enyia: Right? And so what you're getting at is what framed as the social determinants of health, where you know, one's health outcomes or outcomes can be determined by where you are born, live, work, play, worship. And so, you know, all of those factors know it's beyond just the patient, the patient physician relationship. It's what are the, what are the social context, you know. What type of environment, you know, place matters. And so what type of environment, you know, and what type of influences our emotions to inform or to impact the extent to which you're able to really live the best quality of life possible.

Dr. Berry: And I, I definitely, so first Lunch and Learn community I want to kind of what we're going to give the, the, the World Health Organization definition of health policy, but I want to as, okay. Like what is, what does he feel health policy is to him? Like, because I think it's depending on who you talked to it said you get a different kind of interpretation. So the World Health Organization says health policy refers to decisions, plans and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society and explicit health policy can achieve several things at the defines visions for the future, which in turn helps establish targets and points of reference for the short and medium term. It outlines priorities and the expected roles at different groups and then builds consensus and informs people. So that's the, yeah, that's the textbook definition of health policy. But when, when you, when you talk about health policy and your extra tease, like what does that mean to you?

Okey Enyia: Yeah, so to me personally, there's an interplay of several factors and I used the social justice framework as the backdrop or African foundation that informs my work. And so for me it's an interplay between power, politics, economics and influence. And so it's, it's a matter of the extent to which one is able to get to the decision making table with data research and compelling story to make a case to help change minds or to better inform. Whether it's a in the course of a conversation or in times of college proposals for legislation at the local state and federal levels. And so, you know, all of those factors play into what, you know, I believe policy is and does. And so for me in terms of health policy, so what I bring to bear is the health space and all of those nuances, particularly as it relates to people of color and how I can better drive the conversation around. How to better influence and impact policies on behalf of people of color.

Dr. Berry: Is that something that always kind of attracted you to it? And I want to talk, cause I know, I know you kind of mentioned you were on path to be a physician and we'll, we'll talk about when did that divert, but then just the race and ethnicity, like behind health policy. Was that something that was always kind of drew you to it or you just, while you're going through that package, just realize you were kind of magnetizing that area?

Okey Enyia: Yeah, so I evolved into it. I come from, from a lineage and a legacy of Dalit activists, of entrepreneurs, ministers, educators, teachers, and so, you know, this, it's so it's in my blood to be an advocate, to be someone that has a passion for speaking truth to power, to serving as a scholar. And so as I lived…

Dr. Berry: I hope you heard that truth, to power and that's powerful. I love it.

Okey Enyia: Yeah. And so, and so as I've lived and I have experiences, whether it's in College or Grad School or Med School or wherever. My passion for really putting voice and language to be issues and challenges that people of color face had, you know, has evolved and has strengthened. And as I have educated myself as I have lived as a conscious black male in this society, I've been better able to inform, to influence, to impact, you know, to raise awareness around issues of race. And ethnicity and cultural competency and you know, all of those things that really inform policy in some way, shape or form. And so I think the pivot point for me, I think came in med school because while I was seeing patients, but at the same time, I just felt this burning desire to effect much broader change. And, you know, having seen patients of color treated differently, talked to differently, you know, all of that just fueled my passion to say, okay, beyond the patient position and counter what been, can be done in terms of public health or in a policy space that can it help to address these issues that I'm seeing pay out, you know, on the ground.

Dr. Berry: Now, if you ask like cause I, I take care of patients in a hospital, I take care patients in outpatient clinic and I think a lot of times the, the general person doesn't realize the impact these policies that are there, that are around them that are making decisions for them actually have on how, how I take care of them in the hospital or how I take care of them. And the outpatient, you know, space is, do you find that conversation difficult to translate? Like to really explain to a person like no, no, no. Like what I'm doing here in DC, like affect somebody in like California and Arkansas and Florida and New York even though you can't necessarily see it personally.

Okey Enyia: Yeah. So that's something that I've come to better appreciate about the and making process because you know, if you wanted to find a, in terms of, so for example, I served on the Senate side, I worked on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee and where I got a chance to really understand the various policy levers that can be pulled to effect some type of change, at least at the federal government level. And so what that entailed was as a staffer doing research to draft a memo or to help to draft a bill that includes the language to main, to people of color or two black women, two black men or two Hispanics. And so ensuring that you're able to include language in bills or proposals or include language in a clause statement that the number of Congress would read on the House or Senate floor. That's also an example of influencing policy. Dr. Berry: Can you ever find yourself? I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you ever find yourself if you were not in that room, maybe left out? Like if you're not in there saying, hey, we need it. Like talk about the black man. If he, if do you think if you weren't there, like that wouldn't even come into fruition?

Okey Enyia: Correct. And I lived at it every day because I can tell you now in the meetings that I attended, in these hearings and briefings on the Hill, literally if I wasn't in the room, at the table, the conversation would be different. Right? And so, and so I find myself, you know, I lived to give, I'm on about seven, seven leadership and lifting as I climb. And so for me, it's not just about me getting into the table, but how can I create a pipeline to ensure that other people of color who have the education, the, have the passion to help to inform your colleagues who don't look like you or don't share your background? How can we create kind of a ground well and you know, really kind of build out a staffing, a staffing infrastructure that will bring in people of color or bring in more nuance diversity and inclusion and equity conversations to help to draft those privacy that affects the general public. Right? So yes, there are times when literally, if I wasn't there in the room, some things wouldn't have happened if I wasn't there in a room. Some decisions might have been made differently. So while on one hand your presence matters, but to take it further, you, you being able to articulate in a compelling way which was supported by data and stories, your cases then it's, you know, it, it becomes much more challenging for very nuanced policy to be drafted into get across the finish line. So yeah.

Dr. Berry: You mentioned cultural competency and I can tell you when I was a student Med student and we had to take that, I think it was like a three week course. It wasn't, it wasn't long. And I remember sitting there being like, uh, Duh, like of course he should do that. And I remember some of my classmates were like, really enamor. Like, this was really like the first time, like someone saying like, Oh, you know, it's actually not a good idea to talk this way. Or like it's like in, and I think that's what sometimes gets lost on, especially when you're in this space, when you're in the know like yourself, like you know, like we should be there. But it's, it's almost surprising that like if you don't actually speak up, people are going to be like, people aren't going to like pick up like, oh actually I actually should include minorities and like I actually should actually look out for them. So thank you for, you know, carrying that light, cause it's gotta be hard. Right. Cause I would assume that it's not a lot of black males doing what you're doing. Like, I would, I would love to see what that room looks like when you go to a meeting and everybody else's there just to kind of be able to do that. You know, the quote unquote headcount.

Okey Enyia: Yup. Absolutely. You know, and, and you know, so let's say in a room full of about a hundred staffers on the, on the House or Senate staff for example, as far as black males. So there'd be maybe triple, two or three, five max and then, and then there's usually the higher percentage of black women than black men.

Dr. Berry: I was going to ask that because I wonder, like, I see it, I see him at school, but I was wondering like, even in that space, the women much more represented, not as, not as much as it should, but more than us. Right. Let's talk, let's talk a little bit about just some of the adversity that you had the face to even get to where you're at today. And obviously still up and growing. Let's talk about, you know, because we talked about, we were in medical school, right, but, and medical school, right? Like what were, what, what was the thoughts there? What was happening? What were, what were some things that you wish could have been different?

Okey Enyia: Yeah. So over the course of a decade I had study and taken the medical college admissions test four times. And then I applied to med school three times before finally getting into me at school. And the last one that I took, the mcab was actually in a post back program called Medpre which is southern Illinois University in Carbondale. And so I was able to get in and in my cohort, I think the class size was 72, in my cohort. And out of that 72 I think, I think for black males and I think maybe two or three black females. And so going to a predominantly white.

Dr. Berry: And Lunch and Learn community, I just want to let you know I went to Nova, it was about two half, and we have three. This ratio is not surprising unfortunately.

Okey Enyia: Right? And so you know, just kind of having to work and study and out of rhyme one, right? So you're studying and you are dealing with, you're dealing with hostile fascinates who are sharing information and you're dealing with passive aggressiveness. You're dealing with in the context of an environment is that while I think the school did make efforts to create a safe environment and as a welcoming environment as possible, it's still, you know, you know, the new ones just kind of daily interactions, you know, made it much more of a challenge for me as the kind of right now and to do well in the coursework and also to maintain fantasies for that matter. And so having to work in infants, again I give the programs or the school credit for making an effort, but at the same time, if you go to any predominantly white institution, usually the, one of the largest challenges is how do you best create the most welcoming, safe environment for anyone to attend that school and then we have a number of those, you know, kind of factor into it. It makes it that much more difficult for you to really be able to focus and to perform well on the exams and pass the course shift and pass the board exams and whatnot. So this is that. There is, but fortunately for me, I guess even getting into Middle School, I knew that my vision was going to be a lot bigger than just seeing patients as a physician. And so it went from the right patient care, but then the pivot into public health and then going from there. So it was a lot of, a lot of, the support was there, but it wasn't enough for me to perform at my peak. So I actually ended up leaving, may have school and I moved back home to recalibrate. It took about a year or so for me just to kind of be calibrate from the experience of constant being questioned my competence question, you know, just trying to get my identity back whole and just the self care, the mental health and emotional health. So, so just getting all of that's together. It took about…

Dr. Berry: And Lunch and Learn community, I just want to tell you that this story, like is, is not an anomaly. This story is one that many of us who are in a space that were to say minority is probably more of an exaggeration. Like it's, like almost like a spec sometimes where we don't even feel like we kinda belong because we're like, yeah, again, I was in the class of 200 plus and it was three of us and I would look around. I'm like, wow, this, that this story. Like when, when he tells the story, like I just, I picture myself back at Nova, I pictured myself having to take tests and having to answer questions knowing that I was unfortunately be representative of the whole black male community when I answered a question right. If I got it wrong, like I let the whole community down, right? Like that was, that was, that's a burden that you have to face on top of what medical school is, which is one of the most, very things ever. So I appreciate it because you tell a story that is an anomaly, enlightening and true, but resonates to a lot of people like you. And I'm pretty sure you probably talked to others who felt right in this ill like, like, yeah, Lunch and Learn community. You could see me. I just, the whole time he's talking about…

Okey Enyia: Exactly. And so part of it too is to work though syndrome. As you mentioned, gonna questioning or doubting whether you belong and just gonna work through that. I mean, so you know, after I had moved back home to be calibrate, the question became, okay, well what's next? And in my case I was, I was already considering giving, getting a master's in public health. And so I applied to a few programs in Chicago and I got into Chicago State University, which is a minority serving institution, which was a phenomenal experience for me. And it helped me to heal and to become whole and to get my confidence back because I was surrounded by people that looked like me and faculty that look like me. And that affirmed me. And as an aside, a quick shout out to HBC news, you know, definitely have low for them, you know. So my dad actually taught at Coppin State University in Maryland very early on in his career. And so back, I remember, I think maybe I was in first, second grade I was, I brought me to the campus and, and just to kind of, and also expose me to the campus. And I always remembered that that's how that I was walking on that campus. And yeah, and that left an indelible impression on me that just as set as day. And so once I kind of with the graduate program, I mean because of my previous training, I just go through the program, probably love them public health. I found my stride in terms of health policy and social justice and that nexus. And that further informs my avenge work and the intersections of social justice, you know, health, black men and boys and policy. And so after I graduated from Chicago State University, I was thinking, I'm like, okay, well what's next? So is it at that for our program? Is that a fellowship? You know, what's next? And so I have to go through a little process and trying to figure out, you know, get some clarity around my next move.

And fortunately I had some good mentors and advisors who are helpful and in providing some clarity and some encouragement to, to me to continue to move forward. And so I applied, I have taken the JRB once and I've got in to Chicago state with that score. But then prior to that program piece. I actually took the GRE I think two or three more times before finally getting answering. But two of the program that I'm at now at GW and also applied to the doctoral programs, I think it was three times between I think 2013 and 2017 now just prior to that, I had gotten into my fellowship, which is named the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation health policy fellowship, which was where I was able to work a year on the house side and Congress and a year on the Senate side as a health staffer policy staffer. And so I went from my graduate degree in public health at Chicago State University to my two year fellowship and Congress, which wrapped up in 2016. And then I made the pivot into that a parchment of health and services in 2016, which is where I'm at currently. And I just started my, my 12 program last fall. So this is the second semester of my doctoral program. And, and, and so this is where we are.

Dr. Berry: What's a normal day? I'm naive, right? I'm in south Florida right? I don't know what goes on in that BCA. I just assume everyone's like around the White House. I don't know.

Okey Enyia: Yeah. So you know, for me, obviously it's different for each person, but for me it's, my day usually is made up of meetings with colleagues and writing policies or policies, attending hearings and briefings either in house or the Senate to repair for policy decisions that might be coming down the road as it relates to some issue area that say the ACA for example, or, or if it's the primary industry, there's a whole host of interests and you know, kind of issue areas that we can tap into. And so for me right now, my current space is in BD, in the preparedness space. And so anything that pertains to natural disasters, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, Ebola, Zika, emerging threats. So anything that needs to, those types of challenges, that is the current space that I work in. And so again, part of what I bring to the table where the conversation is the social justice bent in terms of health equity and health disparities. And so how do we lift up the communities of color, how to kind of lift up the most vulnerable populations to ensure that they get the support, the resources that they need to recover when things happen, you know, whether it's a hurricane or some of the threat, how do we assure that people of color or communities of color are not left out of the conversation?

Dr. Berry: And we appreciate you for sitting at that table. Definitely. If you had to and of like if someone said, well, okay, what's like the most pressing issue right now from a health policy standpoint that I and south Florida you should be worried about? I will would you say? (Yeah. I think. Thinking national) Right. So, you know, I, I hear a lot about the affordable care act. I hear a lot about they may cancel this and they asked, they may cancel that. Like, like what is, what are your thoughts?

Okey Enyia: Yes. So I haven't studied the demographics in Florida in terms of whether you are a Medicaid expansion state. But you know, certainly part of the strategy as a physician would be to make every effort to get involved at the local state or federal levels as it relates to out of the ACA or Medicare, Medicaid. Like those issues are very important and salient. And especially now as we are approaching the 2020 presidential elections with, with Medicare for all being high on the list of priorities as it relates to those who lean left that is definitely have priority. And then kind of tacked on to that.

Dr. Berry: Physicians, health care workers. If you're in this field like a, like you said, you, you should know. And uh, for those who are Lunch and Learn community in Florida and we are not Medicaid state because our governor is whatever.

Okey Enyia: I'm in DC, but you know, I do have a good sense of nationwide kind of what states are Medicaid friendly. And I know that, you know, what politics I had. So I was following the races with answers…and you're right. And so certainly he has his hand on the call of national health politics and, and so I would definitely encourage, especially again in the run up to 2020 to really get up to speed on the nuances of the Medicare for all states because even now in fact this morning I saw several articles speaking to the fact that I think it was and Louisiana, a federal judge denied or is making a case or dismantling the ACA. And so there are stakes level efforts being made to dismantle the ACA. This has been going on since March 23rd of 2010 when the bill was signed into law by President Obama. And so we know the dozens of efforts that the ride has made to this mass. And so again, if you'd being left, if you are a progressive, then part of your responsibility is to ensure that you are up to speed on what's happening and that you are able to work closely and collaboratively with people that share your views and your values in ways that would be able to move the needle to ensure that self-care is protected. And that is a human rights.

Dr. Berry: I love it. So people ask me all the time. Dr. Berry, you podcast, you blog, do videos and you're physician. Like how do you have the time? So I got to ask with all of the amount of work you do, how we got to, okay, the author like tell us about that. I want, because I want to talk about this book. I want to talk about the why. I want to talk about what was your influence, who at float. Let's get to that. Like how did becoming, was that something you always wanted to do? Like did you always have a book in you?

Okey Enyia: No. I don't think. I think and this part of the part about it write about in the book is that maybe over the past maybe seven to 10 years I would get just in passing and just not, you know, candid conversation as I live life as I navigate it from one space to the next, I would kind of get some type of signal or some type of, you know, something someone would share some things just kind of, with to say well you know, you should write a book, you know, you use your experiences would help a lot of people. And even when that was shared, you know, I didn't really pay it any mind because I was focused on actually trying to get through med school and get through Grad school and you know, find a job and you know, so I wasn't in the headspace to really kind of say, okay, yeah this might be good to start to put pen to paper and not, it just kind of evolved. And so I think it had to have been a swing. I seen, maybe it's 2016 it's around that time where, wow. While I was in the Senate, my thing, I was like, okay, you know, my experiences like my trials, my fails, my challenges getting into med school tries to get into that 12 programs, you know, that it is so important to document. And so I began to journal actually I think maybe it was 2011 or so. And so my journal was helpful in terms of, and having just kind of like a frame rail, but like an outline that I was able to, to build out. And so by the time talking about 2010, 2011 till now, in fact, I was able to leverage a lot of the content that our journal daily into a format that helped me to really frame my experience in a way that was helpful. And so part of my interest and passion was to leave a legacy for generations to come and also to become an entrepreneur. How do you turn your pain into purpose? And ultimately into profit, right?

Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community, I hope you heard those things, turning your pain into purpose. And then most importantly, into profit.

Okey Enyia: Absolutely. Because you know, I believe you know that nothing happens by accident. And you know, frankly, as a, as a man of faith, as a Christian, you know, I'm like, okay, you know, how can I be the best, the most, the best impact possible? How can I make this world better than how I found it in some way, shape or form? And so that, those are things that really drove me and motivated me to be, to sit down to write the book. And so practically speaking, it took about 40 actual riding hours over the course of 90 days to write the book just to, just to do like a big brain dump, just get everything out, get to journal together and just get everything together in one document. And then I hired a writing coach, I hired a business coach to also help me to kind of ensure that I was one about this whole writing, publishing process the right way.

So I'm a self-published author. I started writing it in December of 2017 and I finished the first draft in March and think it was February of 2018 and then I took about four months to edit, tend to get a proof read and then I was launched it on my birthday last year, which is November 22nd and then it became the question of okay, taking that content now. Right, and how do I best leverage and maximize the content in this book. And so multiple revenue streams. And so that's where I'm at right now is really kind of exploring the various ways in which I could take the content, how to get a job on Capitol Hill, how to get a job in the workforce, how to find your passions, your purpose, you know, just framing the content in a way that will be helpful and can be plugged into different areas and networks.

Dr. Berry: Oh I love it. Was your influence, cause obviously the trials that you went through playing a huge role in being able to put that pen to paper? Did you, did you delve in with a lot of experience even when you were on the hill even when you were like in the thick of things within government that also like make the book as well?

Okey Enyia: Yes. It is very transparent, you know, I include all of my experiences how I got into med school, how I got into my doctoral program is on Capitol Hill, as a black author, author entrepreneurship and it's a very transparent, we meet with lays out the framework that I'm helping to drive conversations and that covers a wide range of issue areas as it relates to mental health and well-being, self-care epidemic, the stem fields, the school to prison pipeline, health disparities, health equity, health and all policies. My time on Capitol Hill, like it's all in there.

Dr. Berry: Love it. That's absolutely amazing. And putting on my, you know, the arms because we're, we're both in that field from neuro standpoint cause I definitely can see where you know, you, you have courses whether you have, whether you're speaking right? You know, cause I think you have a story I think people should hear right? And whether we're talking about high school students, college students, like me, I mean honestly even professional who really need to hear like, hey, I'm here, I'm doing the work and this is how you can do to work with me.

Okey Enyia: Absolutely. And you know, I'll also plug the fact that it also talked about my experience in Nigeria, which also my sense of identity and culture, you know, which are, which helped me to get to this point as well. So I definitely have to give a shout out to my culture and my people kind of draw a parallel between Nigeria and Black Panther as well in terms of, you know, living in a country that rules ran by people of color and how empowering that is. And so I definitely want to kind of plug that as well.

Dr. Berry: I love it. How can someone who is interested in working with you, interested in learning from you obviously interested in getting this book right? Like let's get this promo going, right? Like how can I get in touch with you? Let them know. Wherever you're at, you have social media outlets, web, give them the details.

Okey Enyia: Absolutely. So my website, I'm also a consultant which is part of my business model, my website is Enyia Strategies which is spelled E, N as in Nancy, Y, I, A Strategies dot com, that's my website. Where you can find my book. If you want person signed copy you can go to my website and I will ship you out a person signed copy. You can also find my book on Amazon and Kindle. I'm going on the book, since I launched it almost every weekend I'm doing a book signing somewhere. As far as social media, my Instagram is Enyia Strategies, my Twitter also is Enyia Strategies. I'm on Linkedin as my name O K E Y, the last name is Enyia – E N Y I A. On Facebook account. You can also find me on YouTube as my name Okey Enyia - O K E Y E N Y I A. Also Periscope as Enyia strategies and what else? I think that covers social media, so IG, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Periscope, YouTube, Website. My email list. If you go to my website or my email list enyiastrategies.com. I'm in the process of actually creating an online course that is focused on creating a career roadmap for individuals who are, who are challenged. We're trying to pivot from the state college to grasp at a workforce, and so I help people to successfully transition from one point to the next by creating a roadmap for them to, to navigate throughout the workforce in that fashion. So I'd have to talk about how to network, how to find mentors, how to negotiate salary, soft skills, email etiquette, phone etiquette, how to search for jobs in government or elsewhere, how to find purpose and destiny and passions and get clarity around your purpose. You know, that's, that's where the big for me, so that's the online course that I'm creating. I'm hoping to launch it very soon and I'm excited about what's ahead. Dr. Berry: I love it. Lunch and Learn community, if you're driving, listening at work, all of those links will be in the show notes, so we'll make sure you get a chance. I'm also going to be giving away a Kindle version of his book as well too because I definitely think this says a person that you meet, because again, I've been, I've been following him for about, I think almost like a year or so on LinkedIn. And when I first started I was like, oh, okay, this is the person that I might, I'm going to have to keep kind of close because when you see people working and doing work, they don't even have to say it. You just, they're, they're so busy working, you could just notice like, oh, this person's actually been, some move him. And so he was definitely someone who I was ecstatic about getting on the show to kind of talk to you guys, because I know, again, I know health policy, I know politics isn't sexy, but it is extremely important. I promise you that medication that you're picking up at your local pharmacy, there's some policy that's made it to a price that it is that, that point, right? So don't think that you are immune and in this bubble that some type of policy does not affect what you're doing here in your little community. Okey Enyia: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's so important to be able to frame issues and challenges and policies. What kind of context the person that lives, you know, day to day. So how do you best? And I think in terms of how to find relevancy with what's going on at the federal level with what's going on at the state level and then what's happening locally. You know, all politics is local, you know, power, influence, economics, education, like all of those nuances. And so part of it for me is helping to drive the conversation and create a narrative that makes the, what is oftentimes, the aim office, products and making process relevance and the main, and makes sense and connected. Right.

Dr. Berry: I love it. And before I let you go, I was last, I always ask this question, how can even though, how can what you do empower others to take better control of their health? Okey Enyia: Yeah. So, you know, I always say that change starts with you and I think being, being willing to change, which is very difficult at times, you know, that's being human and just, you know, living, having a heart to serve and being willing to seek out support and help. For example, for me, especially now it's a question of strategy of normalizing self-care. So I go see a black nurse psychologist biweekly. I'm going to gym weekly. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a Christian, so I go to church weekly. I eat well and I try to. And so because I've been exposed to this lifestyle, to these values, I'm better able to, and I'm blessed to be able to share my experiences in a transparent way that hopefully will encourage you to make some positive changes. And so that is also a part of what drove me to about the book to say I'd have to go through personally and then for the thing that I did or that have helped me to get to where I am today, where I am hopefully inspiring people and I'm helping to change people's lives. How based upon you know, my story. That is what drives me and, and my hope is that the opportunity that should made available to me on your podcast and said other radio interviews and TV interviews and speaking engagements that this is one way in which I am hopefully leaving a legacy and making a strong impact. So. Dr. Berry: I love it. I love it. Again, Lunch and Learn, amazing guest. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you guys next week.

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On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Jerisa Berry, she is a nationally acclaimed board-certified in Emergency Medicine who boast a resume of a nationally recognized author, speaker, consultant and media personality.

Dr. Jerisa is co-owner of a medical clinic and concierge patient practice, Vital Care Medical Center, Inc and is the founder of SecureYourFertility.com, where she helps single ladies and career-minded women take control of their fertility. Because of her wealth of personal and clinical experience in the topic of infertility she has become an expert in ovarian preservation, assisted fertilization, and surrogacy, helping to decrease the pressures and stressors associated with the process.

As we take in end our month of April we recognize National Infertility Awareness and I figured who better to discuss the importance of infertility than one of Dr. Jerisa's caliber.

On today's episode we not only try to dispel some common myths associated with fertility but talk about some of the personal struggles Dr. Jerisa faced with the topic.

Listen to the end as she discusses what compelled her to start her company and what she wishes to do to help the countless women who suffer from infertility and may not even know it.

This is definitely and episode that you will enjoy.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• Official Website
• Secure Your Fertility
• Apple Store Link
• Google Play Store
• Facebook - @drjerisaer
• Instagram @drjerisaer
• Twitter @drjerisaer

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On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough, better known as America's Favorite Family Physician to bless the podcast with some wisdom and knowledge.

As we take in another month of April we recognize National Minority Health Month and I figured who better to discuss the importance of focusing on minority care & physicians than Dr. Shanicka.

As the medical director for BlackDoctor.org, she works tirelessly to connect culturally competent physicians to patients and vice versa. Dr. Shanicka recognized the need to act on this void of information between the willing parties and continues to be essential in bridging the gap.

Her love to support those in need aren't just centered here in the United States as you will get to here about her many passport stamps over the years.

Listen to the end as she discusses her love for growth & guidance and how it helped propel her to write not just one or two books but twelve in a year.

This is definitely and episode that you will enjoy.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• drshanicka.com
• www.herdailyjournal.com
• Facebook - @drshanicka and @drshanickaauthor
• Instagram @drshanicka
• Twitter @drshanicka
• BlackDoctor.org

Social Links:

• Join the lunch and learn community - https://www.drpierresblog.com/joinlunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/lunchlearnpod - use the hashtag #LunchLearnPod if you have any questions, comments or requests for the podcast
• For More Episodes of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry Podcasts https://www.drpierresblog.com/lunchlearnpodcast/

If you are looking to help the show out

• Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
• Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

[showhide type="post" more_text="Episode 104 Transcript..." less_text="Show less..."] Introduction: Dr. Berry And welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of Dr. Berry.com as well as Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself with better health with the number one podcast, where patient advocacy helping you empower yourself with better health. This week we have an amazing guest. A good friend of mine, Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough who is going to educate us on how we bridge the gap. We get to talk about National Minority Health Month. We get to talk about a lot of her endeavors. Because she's a phenomenal woman who just does absolutely amazing things and is probably busier than me, right? And I know I know a lot of people say I'm busy. With this one, she is a busy one. Like this kind of doors and my works, like she makes me work a little harder when I see the amount of work that she gets done. So quick bio. I know you guys need that credibility boost so you know like hey, make sure Dr. Berry is just talking to anybody. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough a.k.a. America's favorite family medicine doctor. Graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 2009. She completed her family medicine residency program at Advocate Christ Medical Center in 2012. Since then she has gained invaluable experience as a board-certified family physician. She has had the privilege of owning and operating a private medical practice. She is a bestselling author with four titles including As the Wind Blows Vol. 1 and 2. As well as her Daily Journal Series where she emboldens women to take one step closer to Christ and a longtime physician entrepreneur where she teaches at a physician and physicians in training how to start her medical practice. Currently, Dr. Shanicka is the Medical Director of Black Doctor.org and works as a wound care specialist in Sacramento where she lives with her husband Pastor Darrell Scarbrough and their three rambunctious dogs. Dr. Shanicka mission is to be transparent about her life in hopes and share her testimonies will help bring others closer to God. Haven't been the featured MC of the Diva M.D. radio show on urban broadcast media as well as a variety of other platforms on television social media. She speaks in various educational inspirational settings travels internationally including Haiti and many countries in Africa to extend her knowledge skills and expertise around the globe and you do and you'll have the links to her website and her daily general series that I think you guys all need to pick up because it's absolutely amazing. And like I said you know this is amazing person right. And again weekly, we talk a lot about her work with Black Doctor.org or we talk a lot about her work with the international mission trips as she does. So you just got to sit tight and be ready for another great episode but remember before you do that make sure you hit that subscribe button. Make sure you share this with a friend of yours. Tell them to hit the subscribe button and leave 5-star review. Dr. Shanicka 5 star review. Let her know she did an amazing job and you guys have a great take. You're ready for an amazing episode. Episode Dr. Berry: All right, Lunch and Learn community. Again, you heard amazing intro from not only a person I respect in the health community especially when it talked about minority health and it talked about physician empowerment. But a friend of mine, Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough, who is, you know, really helped educate us on, you know, obviously when rational minority health needs. You know, what the roadblocks of being an author. You know, why, as she kinda, taken upon herself to get physician out there, own way. You know, put the pen and paper. So definitely excited about today show. And again, Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough, thank you for coming. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Berry. Dr. Berry: Again, again, Lunch and Learn community, I can't hide this person enough. Again, I think, things were going on almost 3 years now I think and it's (Yes, sir). Quite some time and as see, we both see each other grow. Its pace is been absolutely amazing and I'm the biggest geek fan. I watch a lot of my colleagues from afar. Do amazing things. So I knew Lunch and Learn community, that I needed to get her, you know, to educate us a little bit and talk about some things I think is important. Especially in this month that we're in now when we talk about National Minority Health Month. Again, first of all, before that, Dr. Shanika, please tell Lunch and Learn community a little bit about yourself and you know, they may not know, they may not read the bio about of. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Absolutely. Again, thank you, Dr. Berry, for having me on your podcast, Lunch and Learn. This is an amazing platform. I am a geek as well, looking from afar (laughing). And all of you guys do some amazing things and watching you all, do your amazing things is actually what motivated me and some of the positions that I have now, to be able to amplify that. So, super excited about that and we can talk about that and just a bit. And I am back, Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough, formerly Dr. Shanicka Williams. Scarbrough came two and a half years. No. Yeah. Two and a half years. Now, my husband is a pastor. We are originally held from Chicago. Then we moved all the way to Sacramento, California. Our work, he has called to pastor church. My church, Homboss church in Sacramento. So I'm super excited about what God is doing in the city of Sacramento itself and our church community. I am a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician. I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine (laughing), in hometown 2009. And did a residency in family medicine. I'm an advocate of Christ in 2012. Since then, I have a multitude of opportunities and things to do within the family medicine scope. That's really shaped to why become as a physician as well as some of the physicians that I currently have. I am currently the medical director of Black Doctor.org as of September of 2018. And I am a skilled wound care physician and that's a wound care specialist where I going to nurse and council. I take care patients who have wounds, all types of wounds, diabetic wounds, pressure ulcers, so any wounds that inspection, any wound that you can think of, I'm taking care of those, in the nursing homes. And over the past, since September, actually been able to prop of my lifestyle to fit the way I wanted to look. You know, as a physician. It's always a tough thing to do. (You're right about that). Yeah. (Laughing). That's always a tough thing to do but I think right now, I think I fit that sweet spot. So, yeah. I'm excited about what happens in medicine, what happens in the African-American community, as far as the physician, and the growth of physician in medicine, increasing the diversity in medicine. So all of that is important to me. Dr. Berry: Love it. So again, Lunch and Learn community until you see, some special. I usually, I guess. I got a lot of special friends and she's definitely one of them and you know, I thought of, depending on where you listen to his month of April, National Minority Health Month which obviously, I'm biased, right? Because a minority, as a physician, I'm keying to a lot of the different concerns that the, especially the African-American male faces on a daily basis when it comes to healthcare. Obviously, tell us, especially with the month going on as it is in your role at Black Doctor.org. What does national minority health month kinda mean to you? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Yeah, absolutely. So, I've always had a passion for the African-American community, not just because I'm an African-American or I'm an African-American physician. But because of our inequality in health. I have a passion for any person or group of people that are marginalized, that is decent advantage, especially when it comes to healthcare because that's my profession. That is what I see the most. So, everything that I do is centered around career wise and education wise and getting the word out is centered around education, educating the minority population on health disparities, things that they need to know, to live a healthier life and that is ultimately how I became to be the medical director of BlackDoctor.org. So national minority health month is huge for me because I feel like, it is my duty (strong word). It is. It is my duty, not just in April, right? Not just in February, you know. It's my duty on a daily basis to educate and whatever that's look like. That's what I'm gonna do. Whatever capacity or rule that I'm in. That's what I'm gonna do. So I'm a first lady of the church. We have the first lady's health initiative where we are around the country. We have chapters around the country that focus on health in the African-American churches. So I didn't want just to be a pastor's wife. I didn't want just to be a pastor's wife right? I used my platform to educate and that it's all about. So National Minority Health Month has just been an exemplification of what my goal is to do on a daily basis, every day of the year. Dr. Berry: And it's so important, right? Lunch and Learn community. We talked about various diseases here in a podcast, where diabetes, heart diseases, and immortality and birth. You've heard them (Absolutely). And the minority seems to be more adversely affected by it, right? So it's definitely something that drives a lot of us to really want to do more because we need to do more, right? It's a duty. A lot of us really feel like it is our duty to do more because if we don't if we continue to trend, right? It's not gonna be good. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: It's detrimental to our community. Absolutely. Dr. Berry: I like. Actually, it's a first lady, what is that? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: So a first lady is just a pastor's wife. (Right). If you are a pastor's wife, your pastor having a church, you are considered especially in the African-American community to be the first lady of that church. And if you can even see me but I'm putting up air clothes, as I'm talking. So you know, there are a lot of people like you know, that take that rule very seriously and you know, unfortunately, but fortunately, people, they follow you, like that. Because you have that rule. So I don't want to be, miss in my responsibilities and that's what God is calling me to do. Any opportunity, it's not just a title to me. Any opportunity that I have, I gonna push God's agenda, all the time, every time. (Love it). And He has a passion for the marginalized. Dr. Berry: Speaking of roles, as a medical director, again, I've always been familiar about Black Doctor.org has been, one of those websites, even as a medical student, as a student, oh ok, this is speaking to me, right? And I'm always, always keen to stuff that, kinda speech directly to me. SO that, I actually love the way website. Obviously, you have been the director. What's the rule kinda and tell them what some say that you know what, I can do this? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: I'm always pushing whether act to do this. That is always the question of my life, am I qualify for this? Am I doing just fine? But, so, actually, Black Doctor.org, I became aware of them because they are Chicago-based company. Maybe a company. And I've always loved looking at their articles, receiving their newsletter, all of those things. So kinda develop he relationship with the CEO, over the course of many years. I did a few educational Facebook live for them while I'm living in Chicago and even came back. And you know, once I move, but because of that relationship, the rapport that I built with the CEO, I was able to relate to him some of my passions, some of my desires and some of my frustrations, about the way medicine was going and share with him some of the jobs I was working in frustrated me. And you know he's a business mind and ok, let's create some solutions. All right! Let's do it. Officially, as of September of 2018, I became their very first medical director Black Doctor.org and my role is essentially is to create programs and services that ultimately connect positions with the patient. And one of my ideas was what we just launched last month. Web video connects directory. Is a directory, culturally sensitive positions. So that patients can go on our site. Our site already has over a hundred thousand kids a day where patients are looking for doctors. So we have to find a doctor feature. Now, we are building our list of African-American physicians that are culturally sensitive physicians. You don't have to be African-American to be a part of our directory, but it does mean that you have a passion for decreasing the health disparities in the African- American community. So yeah, so we're building that directory right now as we speak and positions across the nation are joining and we are hearing testimonials of a patient coming to the doctor office saying I found you on Black Doctor.org and I trust you. That in itself, ok look, we are on the right track. We are growing, we supposed to do. In the ultimate goal is to really bridge that gap and help disparities present patients with physicians that they trust so that they can get good access to care, that's the bottom line. That's our ultimate goal in any of the products and services that we create. Dr. Berry: Now was especially that first business of just connecting patients to physicians. Was that something that a lot of the viewers and people come to a website that ask for, hey, how do I found one in Detroit? How do I found one where I living? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Absolutely, we would see that questions all of the time. Like our facebook page, in our customer support, asking where can they find physicians that look like them or as culturally sensitive. You would also see it. Even if some of our doctor's work. People don't know that we have a small community or even a large community of doctors where we talk to each other across the nation and we would get the question of, hey looking for African-American doctor in Philly, that you now, see OBG. We would have those conversations among ourselves because we want to refer our patients to people that we trust. So it was twofold, you know. Not only with the consumers asking but also the doctor. I wanna, need a doctor that I wanna send my patient too for, especially to care or happy is. I' m so, we are definitely trying to fill that void and make that easier for people to connect. Dr. Berry: And Lunch and Learn community, I wanna really stress on, I think we talked about this in the past. It's already been shown that if you're doctor shares similar characteristic like you, it kinda looks like you, you are one more likely to follow the direction, you're more likely to take the medication was supposed to and see them when actually supposed to. It adds to the cycle of becoming healthy and getting healthier. When you actually follow the direction of the doctor. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Absolutely, absolutely. Dr. Berry: I remember, there was a doctor, I forget, where the person I suppose to be while back where the family didn't speak in English, English were not there primary language and the physician actually upset that the person can't speak in English. Speaking of a non-culturally competent physician. Like that's where a lot of people run into. They run a lot of physicians who don't respect their culture, don't look like them and can't relate to them and this is no way they can possibly treat them to best of ability. So I'm definitely excited about this, the connection. That's really it is. I know a lot of time when people talk about these disparities. They always say they would just go to, they can't really find them. It's not that they don't want to go to OB, they really don't want to go to PH, and they really can't. They don't know where they're at. (Exactly). Not a twofold part because again actually, me and Dr. Shanicka talked about all time, a lot of us physician, we don't do that a bit job, let folks over here, right? If you've heard Dr. Shanicka, she let you know she's in the building, when she's here. There is no question about it. But a lot of us, unfortunately, what we did during medical school, during our residency, we get to a place, we don't tell people, hey this is why you need to come to me. Definitely thankful for, Black DOctor.org just can able to say hey we gonna do the legwork for you. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Yeah. And we're also, our goal is to be able to offer cultural sensitive training as well. So hospitals and organizations can offer webinars or seminars or some type of didactic so that they are able actually to get culturally sensitive training, right. For all of the physicians. You know, we need it. I'm not just saying that just African-American. Listen. If I have Chinese patients or I have Korean patients, or I have Muslim patients, I wanna know culturally acceptable, right? (That's so true.) We can all use it, you know. That the United States is supposed to be united. (Talk about it). Laughing. Just say it. Dr. Berry: Speaking of United, again I want to, you know, Dr. Shanicka business right, before. For those again, if this is the first time you've heard of her. She does now only amazing work here in the United States, but she, let her said, her passport is full. She might already on the second book. I don't know even know. Right? She probably in the second book. Because she is, not only the Christian to the world of health care right? In the United States and try to get us together. But she does outside the country. Can you tell Lunch and Learn community, just a little about your international work, right? What's influenced you? Again I'm in awe in some of the stuff that you do. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Laughing. Let me just tell you. The guy blesses my feet. He's definitely blessed my feet. In the past year and a half, I wanna say. I have been to Africa five times. In Haiti in May, it would be at least three or four times. I try to lost count. But I go again, I go again in May. I was, actually really blessed to come across a young lady Sheryl Posla, a missionary for Christ, whose vision and the mission was so completely in line with everything that I stand for. That I have not on a mission trip without her and her team yet. So every trip that she's goes on that I'm able to go on. I just go. I just go. We've been in too many parts of Africa. We've been to South Africa with our church as well. We've been to South Africa, West Africa. You know, a lot of different parts. Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameron, like Kenya, it has been, which the other one, I trying to, I see it in my head and I can't, oh Ivory Coast. Dr. Berry: If you like Lunch and Learn, I tell you, you thought I'm playing if I said she's in the second book. I think you know, the first book is like, put away somewhere. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: No. Claim it, claim it. It's not yet but claims it. I'll take it. Yeah. So you know, her vision. I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Christ. What we do is we spread the Word. Not only, will a lot of these countries not let you in. You know just to talk about Christ. Period. So she has few bringing medical care and treatment to countries all over the world and just so happen over the past two and a half, it's been, Africa. But she goes wherever she leads her. And you know also, try to save souls. We have awesome times. We were usually gone for 10 days. We usually go three or four times a year. It has been you know, be most. I don't even know how to describe it. Amazing experience. If any physicians, whether you are a Christian or Muslim. Whatever you know, whatever you are, that holds no bearing for what God is calling you to do. But if you are a physician and have not done a mission trip. It puts the United States healthcare system on the front line. Ok. When you see so many people that do not have access to care and the appreciation that they have for members to come and bring them medical care, to bring them to health education, to try to treat their diseases. I've seen miracles happened. I've seen patients who were ostracized by their country or by their tribe because of medical condition that they have that easily fixable, right? But they didn't have access to care. Just the stigma, you know, laid upon them. Just the feeling of gratitude to be able to assist them and to help them, to love on them. To come across the country for them. It just, it has been an amazing ride. If you are a physician and you have not done medical mission trips, you know, please, please, please. Get with the organization and go. Dr. Berry: Try to have Dr. Shanicka. (Get with me). And I think, you said a great point because I remember going to, I believe it is Jamaica and the act of gratitude. Like they were so happy that I was just saying hey, this is what you should take for blood pressure. Something that we take for granted. I'll be honest, we take for granted over it sometimes right? Just abilities, oh just take this medication, just do this here. And when you go to the country that you know. Yes, we have some resource unavailability here in the United States. Like it doesn't even compare, right? Doesn't even compare when you go to these countries and just as you see the look of their face and just happy to talk to them. Because they are happy because they know the work that you have do just to come to their country. You know what, thank you. I've never heard so many thank you when I did a medical trip because they were just so thankful that I was just there to take blood pressure and to do vitals. It's just an amazing thing, with that sentiment. So you have heard basically what does mean. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: I am, oh my gosh. Yes. As many times as financially possible that I can go, absolutely I am all over. And when I say it put the US healthcare system in the front line. I hear some of these surgeons that are going out and operating, for instance, like cataract surgery, there's a doctor out in Kenya who does cataract surgeries and it costs the patient maybe $20. Now $20 to them is a lot of money, you know, and they have to gather their resources and they have to do the things they have to do to get that $20 but what can you get? You can't get to get Starbucks by yourself and get free and a cup of coffee and a Donut, $20 you understand what I'm saying? That it costs, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars putting people in debt for surgeries that could be, you know, costs pennies on the dollar. So it, you know, it frustrates me the way our health, the direction our healthcare is turning to. It's really frustrating. And not only that and that's a whole another soapbox to get into. Dr. Berry: Well probably, we probably have to do a separate episode. Where do we upset about with them? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Because you know, I can go in and I can go in all day long, (Yes.) on our healthcare system. Then I won't do it on this podcast Dr. Berry. Dr. Berry: No, that's a future one, that's a future one. Lunch and Learn community, she already says she'll come back for a second one so we don't, we gonna talk about the ills of our healthcare system. Just to get a look on our side. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Yeah, absolutely. I'm all for it. I'm all for it. We got to make a change. Right? If we don't talk about it, we can't do anything about it. Dr. Berry: I agree. It is speaking to talk about it. One thing that what I love about you as you love the document, right? One thing is people are gonna know what you're doing because you're going to let people know what you're doing. Right? Can you talk about just how important it is to really document one story and you know, get their truth out there? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Absolutely. So I don't do it just so people can know what I'm doing. I'd do it because I want people's lives to be transformed. If I, if I could be honest with you, I'd transparent with you if I'd never posted again on a social media site. But if you were to look back from my post from 2010 where I was just posting to be posted versus you know, the posts that you see now, all of my posts have some transformative message. Then I want you to get that, you know, if you are not born to get it anywhere else, you scroll past my page and at least gave it for me. You know, sometimes people say that your life is, you know, maybe the only Bible people read, you know. So, and I want to be a testament. I want to be a testament to God's goodness. I want to be a testament of if it mobilizes you to do good for someone else. Awesome, I've done my job. So that's, that is the intent behind my content of sharing with people. Is, I really want people's lives to be transformed. Whether their health, whether it's spirituality, whether you know, whatever the case may be. I want you to be transformed. Dr. Berry: And speaking of that, can we, can we just, can we talk about the, your, your, your journal series just to bring the Lunch and Learn community, just kind of talking about it again. And that's where I really want to really, really dive deep. And because I think one thing about you that I love is that your word is so consistent. It's been consistent for three plus years. Through ups, through downs. It's, it's just been this like, I want you, and depending on who you are, whatever the subject is, I just want you to do better. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Yeah, no, that's that. That's it right there. You said it in a nutshell. That's how the Her Daily series, Her Daily Journal series was born. Um, I was literally in the car with my husband driving to you know, San Francisco or Oakland. Driving somewhere is fun . And God spoke to me and I said I needed to write a journal a month for the next year. And you know, see how that transform people's lives. And what it is, is every for the month or for the year of 2018. The beginning, the end of 2017 to almost the end of 2018, I literally live in front of everyone watching. Wrote 12 books in 12 months and each one detailing some biblical principle. That you know, that and it's mostly geared towards women. That they can use to help them in their everyday lives. And that was one of the most difficult but amazing journeys I've ever taken in my life. To be able to hear God speak one thing and then see Him bring it to finish 12 months later. And the close of the journals was at the death of my mom right after the death of my mom. So that final journal was, was dedicated to her. And actually, her death actually brought everything full circle for me and brought everything into perspective for me. And, and it just made me just love God more. So that was an amazing journal, that journal, you know, those journals are out and they can be used every, every month for the rest of your life. Yeah. I have people that are going through the journals for the second time. We're now doing a hard daily journal live online book club for women. So on the last day of each month, we go over the journal. That you know, what was going on for that month. For April, we're going up a prayer daily chats with God, how much talks about how to pray prevalently and what that means, what does it mean to pray. So yeah, it's, it's been exciting. I've been, you know, I get so many messages about, you know, women's lives are being transformed by these journals and it's just a blessing. I didn't write one of them. Okay. I didn't write one of them. It was the Holy Spirit that led me the entire way. I thought I had a list of topics I was going to cover and God was like, (I got this, I got this) Laughing. I got this. Exactly. And you can actually see as I'm going through them again, you can actually see my progression as I get close to Christ. And that's, that's the model. You know that these journals helped embolden women to take one step closer to Christ. And you can literally if you did journal by journal starting from December. December, what's the first one you can see my journal, my journey of growth. And that's what epitomizes for me is that I want women to grow as they continue to go through each of the journals. Dr. Berry: I love it. And, and, and it's so, so interesting, especially because again, we, we've known each other for a while. So, ah, you know, we used to watch, I used to watch and take care of your mom and I could just see the love that was there. I could see, you know, that I can see regardless of what was going on, you are there to brighten up her day. And she brightens up. And again, Lunch and Learn community, you know, we're fear at the logo, so leave it I guess to say we've actually been rocking the, again for a good time, but you know, pretty close. I definitely am happy for, for everything that's been going on, but especially the accumulation of the journal series. You know that. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: I appreciate that. Thank you for your support. You've always been very, very supportive and I'm very appreciative of that. Absolutely. Dr. Berry: So, so you've, you've taken, you've taken what God's kind of put your heart into your mind, right? And put it on paper. But then when I noticed, right, again, again, cause I get it, I'm watching from afar. You did channel that energy to get other people to do the same. What, what was, what was that motivation and how did, like, because again, you dropped 12 books, I figured you're like, Oh wow, (laughing). Oh, I'm bringing you along with me. (Yeah) It gets again, right? Because again, this the subject, you, the, you, the word you is always objective, right? But whoever that you is, I'm going to bring you along with me and I want you to tell your story. Like what was that thought process? And, and again, as I said, I'm always surprised at the stuff you do. So I just very you, regardless of whatever you want to do, you just go ahead and do it. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Hey, you know what? That's the whole point is to be obedient, right? If God gives you something, you want to be obedient in what He tells you to do. And that's what I've been and you know, really focusing on over the past couple of years is number one, being able to hear him clearly and then two, you know, acting on what he tells me to do. I don't want to just be a consumer, you know, I want to be able to give, you know, give what you told me to do and do it because it's not about me. It's about the fruit. It's about the people that are being blessed by it and the lives that are being changed by it. And that's basically the concept. Um, and I believe you're speaking of as the wind blows series. Yes. Yeah. So those are, those are two analogies that I've done and I'll probably continue those, but everybody has a story. Everybody has a testimony. Everybody has something that they have gone through that they have overcome. And you know, I want it to be able to share that with people. I want you to hear other people's struggles and let them know that you are an overcomer, that you can overcome this, that just because you're in the situation that you're in right now, it doesn't mean that number one, God doesn't love you. And number two, that he's not going to bring you out of it. You just got to trust him. So to be able to see people tell their testimonies and even watching them, watching them write it and the transformations that they had reliving it as they put their pens and paper and you know, the cleansing that came from releasing their stories. Some of these people, they never shared their stories with anyone before in life. So to be able to open up their heart on, on pen and paper and to share with the world is huge for them. And to see the feedback given to them because they were so transparent and because they were so open and willing to share their story of redemption. I think that's what it's all about. You know? How, how did God transform you? How did, how did he shift? How did he change you? You know what? What steps did you take to become, you know, who you are now? How did you overcome the abuse? How did you overcome the addiction? How did you overcome depression? Right? So those are, those are all stories that need to be told. Um, and I think if more people open up their mouths right, then more people will be transformed. Dr. Berry: Now, was it difficult to get them to put that on the paper to get them to open their mouth of that was, that was where they, in a way, it was there some issue, (No). That we caused them to say like, I've been, I didn't want to do it before. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Well, as some, sometimes some people didn't actually know that that's what they were supposed to do until they saw the calling. Does that make sense? (Yeah). So they were like, oh wait, I do have a story. Oh, oh wait, I did survive the abuse. He tried to kill me and I did survive that. Maybe I'm rape. Right? For some people, it was a revelation. Other people, this was the first step to the full book that they needed to, right? So one of them, my authors wrote just a, uh, a snippet of her story and we just finished her book. Lishel Evans, Breakthrough. We just finished her, but she completed her whole book. So it was a stepping stone and something that gave her the courage to say, listen, I want to tell more of my story and I want, I want people to hear it so that they can be transformed. Dr. Berry: Beautiful. Like I say it again. Let me, like we alluded earlier, Lunch and Learn community. When you know, when you have special guests like Dr. Shanicka and you can just kind of see the different facets of her life and her work. But you can always see at the end, right? It's always about, you know, becoming a better you. When we talk about national minority when we're talking about a National Minority Health Month. But how can we help our minority community to become better again? Right? When we talk about international work, like how can someone become better, right? So that's a theme that a, is such a sight to see. And sometimes I, and I, I like to, I always, I always like to get on my friend, right? Because a lot of times we're doing so much great work that we don't really have the time. Right. So like the lay it all out say, Oh wow, look at all the stuff I'm doing it right. So this is why I started to like to brag on because they, cause they won't brag on the cell. That too humble. Fortunately for me, right? Humility sometimes still working on it. Right. So like I can recognize like when I'm doing something and I could recognize when they're doing so again, that's why, you know, I said yeah she, we, she gotta be on the show because we got and we just got to talk about her and you know how she can help us become better us. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. Dr. Berry: Before I let you go, because I know I've been long talking to you. Right? I want, you know, just, you know, just some, some quick caveats like how is, I probably already said it right when I, how is what you're doing, you know, not only, you know, empowering other women really to the better, better excels and better control of their health and everything else. But like just like the world, how are you, how are you doing that? Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Oh boy. But no. That's, you know, to sum it all up, whenever you see me do, you may be in a different position, you know, next week or you might see me in a different country next month. Just know that everything that I do has a purpose. I'm still working on me. I'm still, you know, that still has some things in me that I, that needs to be ironed out and, and kicked out and punch that. (Laughing).It tells something. But I'd like to share that journey because the transparency on that journey, whether it's, you know, you know I have a post on my Vimeo right now that yeah, I gained, I gained 20 pounds. I like to be transparent and my journey to show that you know, number one I'm human. Number two, you are human, you know, and if you know God is still working on me, he's still working on you, (yes) right? So health-wise, mentally, physically, spiritually, however, I can get you to a place where you are healthier, you are smarter, you are spiritually field, and you, you know, you are everything to make your home, then that's what I'm going to do. I come to bear fruit. That's it. Dr. Berry: Love it. We appreciate it. Where can others, you know, find you, right? Where can others find you, whether it be at, like a or where the media international or list them links out cause you know, they're gonna want, they're gonna want to read the books. They're going to want to read a series. Like, tell them. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Yeah. Absolutely. So everything can be found at www.shanicka.com. That is, um, that'd be www.shanicka.com. You can find some free gifts for health. You know, a free shopping cart lists that you can take to the grocery store to help you shop for better foods. And you'll also find my books. You'll also find how to join the Her Daily Journal. If you want to go directly to the book club, you just go to www.herdailyjournal.com and it has us, you can donate to mission partners for Christ, you know so that we can continue our medical missions. It has everything on that one site and finds out where, you know, all of my social media handles, everything is on that site. Oh d, oh wait! I used to do a radio show, The Diva MD show. (Laughing). Dr. Berry: Again. Honestly, regardless if she says she used to do blank. I'm a believer. Okay. There are no reasons. Like she's already shown me three years of work to say that she probably could do whatever, you know we put in front of her so it's a believer. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: That was a health show. So you know, if you want to go back into the archives and listen to some old health shows, we can do that as well. Dr. Berry: Perfect. And again, Lunch and Learn community, if you're driving, you know, at work, take a shower, whatever. All of these links will be in the show notes. Because again, you definitely, this is definitely a person. If you can only follow one person on a social media platform, this is definitely a person I think you should choose you guys. Absolutely amazing. Again, Dr. Shanicka thank you for coming to the Lunch and Learn community and you know, really blessing us, educating us, putting our thoughts into motion of how we can be better us. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: I appreciate you Dr. Berry for having me. This is an amazing opportunity and all of the work that you're doing is, is phenomenal. You know, I follow the blog, I follow, I get all of your emails. Yes, and the podcast. Dr. Berry: I apologize for this. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: But that great information, they'll make sure that you guys are subscribing to this podcast because you know we are movers and shakers and medicine so we want to make sure that you guys are aware and hanging out with Dr. Berry. Dr. Berry for Lunch and Learn. Dr. Berry: Yes, thank you. And again, Lunch and Learn community. See you guys next week. You have a blessed week. Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough: Take care. [/showhide]

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On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry, we have a three time returning guest to the show, Maria Davis-Pierre to talk about Autism Awareness month and why she decided to take her passion for Autism and help black families.

April is the month where we highlight Autism Awareness nationally and and as a father of an autistic child it hit closer to home the importance of knowing, diagnosing and early intervention.

On this episode we talk about the importance of early intervention, growing up as an autism parent and why she decided to focus on black families.

Like with most things in healthcare early intervention is key. I remember when my daughter was first diagnosed how much work my wife had to put in to practically beg for services to be started. Because she was considered too young for the diagnosis we had to go through much more hurdles to get the care we need.

The early intervention has been nothing short of life saving when I think about where my daughter is now compared to where she was before getting her started.

This is why this month is so special because I know that autism awareness will help some parent or child get over the hurdle that is placed before them on this lifelong road.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• Autism in Black Official Website
• Facebook - @autisminblk
• Instagram - @autisminblk

Social Links:

• Join the lunch and learn community - https://www.drpierresblog.com/joinlunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/lunchlearnpod - use the hashtag #LunchLearnPod if you have any questions, comments or requests for the podcast
• For More Episodes of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry Podcasts https://www.drpierresblog.com/lunchlearnpodcast/

If you are looking to help the show out

• Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
• Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

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On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry, we have Dr. Amber Robins, who helps us get the best of medicine and media in order to become the most healthy we can be.

If you are like most people you get a lot of your medical information secondhand. Whether it be from your favorite physician (someone like me), your favorite health blog (www.drberrypierre.com) or even a podcast on the way to work like (Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry).

On the episode we talk about some of the dangers of media & how you navigate through the clutter. We also get a personal glimpse at the work of Dr. Robins and what inspired her to become a physician in media.

There has been this love/hate relationship with the media and medicine. For many people it has helped open a broad range of topics of health to the forefront that probably would have never seen the day of light. It has allowed the conversation of health to be something that everyone can have and with anyone.

Before you were confined to talk about your health with your doctor because she/he was the expert in that field and no one else knew enough to talk about it. When healthcare became more accessible it allowed the conversation to extend to the kitchen table and outside the doctor's office.

For many it was a great thing to happen because it allowed them to be a better empowered in their health care but unfortunately what also came with it was the decline of respect for physicians and their level of expertise.

The term Dr. Google was derived to indicate those who were qualified to make medical decision based on their google searches. Initially it was seen in jest but overtime the respect for physicians continued to dwindle and soon many people less qualified were seen as qualified to give advice.

The goal of getting the best of medicine thru media is to know which information you can trust, which information you can take and build upon and which information you take to your local health care provider.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• Dr. Robin's official page
• Facebook - @dramberrobins
• Instagram - @dramberrobins

Social Links:

• Join the lunch and learn community - https://www.drpierresblog.com/joinlunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/lunchlearnpod - use the hashtag #LunchLearnPod if you have any questions, comments or requests for the podcast
• For More Episodes of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry Podcasts https://www.drpierresblog.com/lunchlearnpodcast/

If you are looking to help the show out

• Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
• Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we celebrate National Physicians Week. It occurs from March 25-31 and helps to highlight the work of physicians.

I think quite often as a physician you go through all this heartache, pain & struggle to become a physician and then once you get the ultimate goal there is a sense of gratitude is often missing.

On the episode you'll hear about how it started out as just a day of appreciation & evolved into the National Physicians Week.

Also, get a chance to hear who are my top 6 favorite doctors thus far on my journey of becoming such a great physician.

For those of you who have a favorite physician whether it be your outpatient clinical specialists (Internist, Family Physician), your Cardiologist/Surgeon, or even your child's Pediatrician whoever it is let them know how much they are appreciated.

Call their office, leave a message on their facebook pages or just post a status on your social media pages letting the world know what your doctor means to you.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• Physicians Working Together (PWT)

Social Links:

• Join the lunch and learn community - https://www.drpierresblog.com/joinlunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/lunchlearnpod - use the hashtag #LunchLearnPod if you have any questions, comments or requests for the podcast
• For More Episodes of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry Podcasts https://www.drpierresblog.com/lunchlearnpodcast/

If you are looking to help the show out

• Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
• Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

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On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we celebrate two accomplishments. Our 100th episode and a feature with the Culinary Doctor. The 100th episode here on the podcast is a milestone that we can not overlook. I want to take the time out & thank every single one of you who have ever listened to an episode or gave a recommendation to a friend/family member about the show.

It has been such an amazing journey joining this world of podcasting & I am glad that there is an audience out there who are ready to take control of their health and are willing to allow me to help that movement.

Now for the 100th show we have a special guest Dr. Lauren Powell, The Culinary Doctor who is going to talk about the role nutrition has on our health. March is National Nutrition month so I thought what better way to educate the Lunch and Learn community by bringing on a physician who underwent additional training in culinary medicine.

On the episode Dr. Lauren Powell goes through her journey to becoming the Culinary Doctor, why as physicians we need to stress the importance of healthy eating and the mindset needed to make that shift.

This is a great book and resource for those who are always on the go and can't seem to get over the mental block of proper nutrition. In this book you will learn how the Culinary Doctor uses six key principles to stay ahead of her nutritional goals.

Dr. Lauren talks about some of the amazing opportunities that have been afforded to her as she continues to pursue her passion. Ranging from speaking opportunities, live courses & cooking classes.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

• Lunch and Learn Community Online Store (code Empower10)
• Pierre Medical Consulting (If you are looking to expand your social reach and make your process automated then Pierre Medical Consulting is for you)

Links/Resources:

• Official Page for Dr. Lauren

Social Links:

• Join the lunch and learn community - https://www.drpierresblog.com/joinlunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lunchlearnpod
• Follow the podcast on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/lunchlearnpod - use the hashtag #LunchLearnPod if you have any questions, comments or requests for the podcast
• For More Episodes of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry Podcasts https://www.drpierresblog.com/lunchlearnpodcast/

If you are looking to help the show out

• Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
• Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.