Physician, Heal Thyself The Podcast

We spend our days doing, doing, doing, then come home depleted and wonder why. Dr. Kirk Slagle’s answer is that we have lost connection to what is happening around us and inside us, and that connection can be practiced until it becomes natural.

Dr. Ana Lara sits down with Dr. Kirk Slagle, educator, author of The Five Spheres of Wellness and The Six Sided Circle, and founder of the Wellness Education Network, who has taught wilderness medicine, outdoor education, emergency preparedness, and holistic wellness for nearly 50 years. He traces his framework back to a moment in an Illinois bean field at age ten, then walks through the energy, spiritual, and mental spheres with everyday examples. Dr. Lara adds what she sees as a naturopathic doctor: patients reacting from old survival patterns, and children who are losing the outdoor play that builds awareness. The conversation continues in the next segment.

Dr. Kirks Bio:

Dr. Kirk Slagel is an educator, author, and lifelong student of safety, leadership, and wellness. He has spent nearly 50 years teaching wilderness medicine, outdoor education, emergency preparedness, and holistic wellness. He is the author of The Six-Sided Circle, The Five Spheres of Wellness and Founder of the Wellness Education Network.

The Five Spheres of Wellness: Navigating Whole-Person Health, and the framework it offers for understanding wellness as an integrated, whole-person experience.

To purchase the book visit: https://www.amazon.com/FIVE-SPHERES-WELLNESS-Navigating-Whole-Person/dp/1732240531

The Six-Sided Circle: An Adventure in Creating Self-Direction, my work with the Wellness Education Network, and my Self-Direction Method (SDM), as appropriate to the direction of our conversation.

To purchase the book visit:

https://www.amazon.com/SIX-SIDED-CIRCLE-Adventure-Creating-Self-direction/dp/1732240515

To contact Dr. Kirk email at [email protected]

Chapters:
0:00 — Welcome and introduction to Dr. Kirk Slagle
2:40 — The bean field at ten years old and finding stillness
6:11 — The five spheres and the rock-climbing moment of awareness
9:00 — Energy sphere: pauses, pressure, and personal space
12:12 — Spiritual sphere: intentional connection to something bigger
14:22 — Mental sphere: associations, reactions, and thanking the thought
25:49 — The art of medicine: attitude, resources, and techniques
28:01 — Children, screens, and outdoor play

Listen to the next segment, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and visit raicesndmedcenter.com to schedule with Dr. Lara at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center.

She had never told anyone. Not her husband. Not her family. Not her closest colleagues. In this episode, Dr. Ana Lara shares a story she has carried alone for fifteen years — a dark moment when physical illness, grief, and isolation converged — and the voice she heard that stopped her. This is the most personal thing she has ever said out loud. And she is saying it so someone else doesn't stay silent.

Continuing their mental health series, Dr. Ana Lara and Dr. Myleene Simone go deeper than any episode before — into the real darkness that can overtake even the most resilient, faith-filled, highly functioning people, and how God stepped in when they were at their lowest. Dr. Simone continues her story of suicidal ideation during medical school — the voice that told her it was easy, the rational thought about her children that interrupted it, and the faith she has rebuilt since. Dr. Lara shares for the first time a moment from 2011, before medical school, when physical illness and suppressed grief converged — and she found herself reaching for her husband's gun before hearing what she describes as God's voice telling her to put it down and step away. She shares the two weeks of dietary transformation, prayer three times a day, and the gradual lifting of the weight that followed, and how that moment became the seed of her calling as a physician. Together they discuss chronic pain and suicidality, the enemy's strategy to take people out before their purpose is realized, the fruit of the spirit as a guide to discernment, Dr. Simone's 17-year-old son's extraordinary unpublished book on Christianity and faith, and the non-negotiable role of community — real, honest, non-judgmental community — in getting through the hardest seasons of life. This episode closes with one simple message: have faith over fear. Hold on to that one thing. It will get you through.

Timestamps
0:00 — Dr. Lara's disclaimer: she is sharing something she has never told anyone
2:19 — Welcome back: continuing with Dr. Myleene Simone
3:00 — Dr. Simone continues: the voice, the logic, her children, and what stopped her
6:22 — The enemy's strategy: when you know your purpose, you become a target
8:21 — Dr. Lara speaks: the moment she has never shared, 2011
9:08 — Physical illness, grief, and isolation: the convergence
10:49 — The moment, the drawer, and the voice she heard
11:46 — Stepping away: the peace that followed and the surrender
12:08 — What came next: prayer three times a day, eating the food God created
13:37 — Two weeks: the heaviness lifted
14:21 — Suppressed grief: loss beginning at age six, stored for over a decade
15:06 — Medical school as a healing ground — and the warfare that came with calling
16:52 — When the enemy can't take you out directly: children, family, and patients
19:11 — Chronic pain and suicidality: the clinical correlation
21:02 — Trauma, sexual abuse, and the absence of a brake pedal
21:24 — Coping mechanisms: what do you turn to under this kind of stress?
22:12 — Dr. Simone's son: a 17-year-old's book on Christianity, faith, and spiritual warfare
23:38 — Why Christianity has been repackaged and what to do about it
24:10 — Reading the Bible with the Holy Spirit as teacher
25:18 — Psalms 23 and restoring the soul: the light bulb moment
26:39 — Who restores the soul — and what medicine cannot do
29:07 — God welcomes your doubts and questions: the early disciples sat in circle and questioned
30:23 — God's light and the darkness of the mind: what was happening in those moments
33:25 — Faith builds character and credibility: going through it to walk others through it
35:05 — Closing: faith over fear — hang on to that one thing

If you are in a dark place right now, please reach out: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7). You are not alone — and your story is not finished. Dr. Lara is at raicesndmedcenter.com. Dr. Simone's practice, Regenerative and Restorative Health Center, is in Surprise, AZ.

Why do some people struggle to understand what a person with serious mental health challenges is going through? Because the brain under trauma does not respond to logic, positive thinking, or simple advice. And because the people who appear most put together are often the ones carrying the most — silently, invisibly, until they can't anymore.

Dr. Ana Lara and Dr. Myleene Simone continue their conversation on mental health with their most vulnerable and clinically important episode yet. Dr. Simone shares from her own past — including a period of suicidal ideation while navigating solo parenting, a custody battle, and adrenal crash during medical school — to illustrate what it actually looks like when a person is so depleted, so without support, and so without hope that the mind goes to places others cannot fathom. Together the two physicians walk through the complexity of why mental health is so difficult for others to understand: the invisible nature of the wound, the minimization and avoidance patterns that develop from childhood trauma, the nervous system's learned survival behaviors that persist into adulthood, and the profound inadequacy of responses like "just think positive" or "stop worrying about it." They cover somatic emotional release through craniosacral, visceral, and neural manipulation — how the body stores trauma in tissue and what happens when it is finally released — the delicate balance between physical, mental, and spiritual treatment, Psalm 91 as a clinical tool Dr. Lara prescribes by name, a case of severe psychosis approached with prayer and herbal nervous system support that resolved without medication, and the non-negotiable role of finding your community and your people when you are in the depths. Dr. Lara closes with a reminder that these two physicians are wounded warriors — not despite their struggles, but because of them — and that the hope they offer their patients is earned.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Dr. Lara's content disclaimer before the episode begins
1:27 — Welcome: continuing the mental health conversation with Dr. Simone
2:16 — Why mental health is so hard for others to understand
3:30 — Suppressed childhood trauma: why children delete memory to survive
5:16 — Men and abuse: how avoidance patterns form and persist into adulthood
8:18 — A male patient's story: the abusive father, the locked door, and the man in his 50s still running
10:19 — Avoidant personality patterns as nervous system survival responses
11:03 — The body keeps score: somatic emotional release in clinical practice
12:02 — Visceral manipulation and emotions stored in the gut
13:25 — Deep mental health and childhood abuse: when therapy has "already been tried"
15:01 — When I'm stuck too: faith as a clinical tool
15:54 — Praying with patients: anointing oil, holding hands, and permission to feel
17:35 — Suppression and mental illness: why you have to go through the fire
18:05 — You cannot heal alone: inviting God into the process
20:23 — Psalm 91: why Dr. Lara prescribes it by name and how she instructs patients to read it
23:14 — A case of severe psychosis: Psalm 91 read aloud by an 18-year-old daughter
25:07 — What happened: the before and after, no medication needed
27:06 — The balance: spiritual is not all spiritual — hormones, metals, and physiology still matter
29:32 — Naturopathic doctors as integrators: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
32:03 — "Just think positive" — why it fails and what actually helps
33:46 — When people are buried under depression and anxiety simultaneously
34:15 — Preserving life: the clinician's deepest concern and deepest fear
35:22 — Dr. Simone shares her own experience with suicidal ideation — and what pulled her through
37:50 — The thing that kept them both anchored: their children
39:11 — Wounded warriors: why their struggles make them better physicians
41:06 — Closing: honor the story, find your people, reach out

Dr. Myleen Simone, NMD

Founder, CEO & Medical Director of 

Regenerative & Restorative Health Center

https://www.rrhealthcenter.com/

If you are struggling with mental health and need support, please reach out: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

If you are ready to work with a physician who addresses the whole person — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual — Dr. Lara is at raicesndmedcenter.com. Dr. Simone's practice is Regenerative and Restorative Health Center in Surprise, AZ.

Postpartum depression. Postpartum anxiety. Postpartum psychosis. But what about postpartum rage — the thing almost no one talks about, that has a hormonal explanation and a name, and that women are still suffering through alone because they're afraid to say it out loud?

Dr. Ana Lara continues her conversation with Dr. Myleene Simone — licensed psychotherapist, women's mental health specialist — covering the full picture of what women are experiencing mentally, emotionally, hormonally, and spiritually during the postpartum period and beyond. Together they address the gap between the care women are seeking and the care they are actually receiving, the critical importance of hormone testing at every age (including teenagers — and why insurance companies consider it "medically irresponsible" while approving birth control and antipsychotics without labs), the COMT gene and how genetic variation in dopamine and norepinephrine metabolism explains why some women have warrior-level stress resilience while others are devastated by it, postpartum rage as a real and hormonally driven experience, the role of the partner in a woman's postpartum safety and recovery, the protein crisis driving hormone and mental health decline in women who are under-eating and over-functioning, practical daily strategies women can start immediately, and a frank discussion about what it means to invest in your health when insurance won't cover what actually works. Both physicians share from personal clinical and lived experience, and close with a shared faith perspective: God is doing this for me, not to me.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Welcome back: continuing with Dr. Myleene Simone
0:49 — What to ask your doctor: continuing education in the field you need help with
1:15 — Hormone testing for teenagers: the LabCorp letter and Dr. Lara's response
3:05 — Insurance paradigm vs. healing paradigm: two different goals
4:08 — Young women with depleted hormones: it's lifestyle, not perimenopause
4:28 — Birth control for teenagers: the conversation that needs its own episode
5:02 — Naturopathic doctors test before treating — conventional medicine often doesn't
6:57 — Health coaches vs. licensed naturopathic doctors: knowing the difference
8:19 — Medicine as art: clinical observation beyond the labs
10:23 — Heavy metals and mental health: when toxins drive psychosis, depression, and anxiety
12:11 — The nervous system: why Dr. Lara treats it in every patient regardless of presenting complaint
12:57 — The endocrine system as a symphony: hormones don't work in isolation
13:48 — Insulin resistance and mental health: the brain connection
15:01 — The COMT gene: warrior vs. worrier, stress tolerance, and pain perception
17:07 — Tesamorelin peptide: Dr. Lara's personal experiment and what it revealed about her COMT type
20:28 — Genetic variation and pain tolerance: why the 1–10 pain scale isn't reliable
21:18 — Practical strategies: movement, rest, and starting with one thing
23:09 — Overexercising and under-eating: a stress pattern hiding in plain sight
27:35 — Boundaries around food and sleep: Dr. Lara's personal rules and why they matter clinically
29:00 — Digestion requires parasympathetic state: don't eat under stress
30:12 — The protein crisis: 40–60g vs. the 90g minimum women need
33:14 — Why women aren't hungry in the morning: cortisol, glucose, and the starvation adaptation
35:15 — What happens when protein goes up: energy, mood, brain fog — within two weeks
37:03 — Gut health and mental health: another overlooked connection
38:21 — Sleep, insomnia, and the cycle: herbs, acupuncture, and addressing the PTSD root
41:27 — Getting support: how to vet a professional before your first appointment
42:13 — Get your hormones checked — and plan for postpartum the way you plan a gender reveal
43:33 — Postpartum rage: naming it, explaining it hormonally, and why oxytocin is part of the story
45:04 — The role of the partner: nervous system safety and what a good postpartum partner looks like
47:41 — A case of postpartum psychosis: two months to get help, a husband who stepped up
49:11 — Compassion without justification: the community responsibility in women's mental health
53:02 — Investing in your health: what it really means when insurance says no
55:24 — Dr. Lara's personal story: 10 doctors, 6 years, and the $3,000 that changed everything
56:51 — "God is doing this for me, not to me" — closing reflections from both physicians

Dr. Myleen Simone, NMD

Founder, CEO & Medical Director of 

Regenerative & Restorative Health Center

https://www.rrhealthcenter.com/

If you are ready to get a real picture of what is driving your symptoms — hormones, gut, nervous system, and all of it — Dr. Lara is accepting new patients at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center. Schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

Every new woman who walks through Dr. Lara's door says the same thing: I went to doctor after doctor and they kept telling me I was normal. You are not crazy. You are not normal. Your hormones have not been checked — and there is a difference.

Dr. Ana Lara sits down with her longtime friend and colleague Dr. Myleene Simone — naturopathic doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of Regenerative and Restorative Health Center — for a candid, personal, and clinically rich conversation on women's mental health, the postpartum experience, and the systemic failures that leave women suffering in silence. Both physicians share from their own lives: Dr. Simone, who navigated a custody battle, an alcoholic ex-partner, solo twin parenting, adrenal crash, and PTSD — all while in medical school; Dr. Lara, whose 2021 car accident led to a concussion, a PTSD diagnosis she resisted, and the profound experience of a nervous system that could not relax even in stillness. Together they dissect why highly functional women are invisible in the system — because the facade holds, because they keep showing up, because the makeup goes on and the dark circles go under it — and what it costs over time. They cover the hormonal mechanics of breastfeeding (prolactin suppressing estrogen and progesterone, leaving women without the very hormones that support sleep, calm, and mental resilience), the postpartum hormone plunge (estrogen surging 100-fold during pregnancy then dropping within 72 hours of delivery), the role of prior sexual trauma in postpartum mental health, the neuroscience of sleep deprivation, and why you cannot fix a hormone deficiency with a psychiatric drug. They close with Dr. Simone's personal account of screaming alone in her hallway so her babies wouldn't see her break — and the community and culture that used to hold women through exactly that moment, and no longer does.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction: Dr. Myleene Simone joins Dr. Lara
0:49 — Why this conversation: women screaming for help and not being heard
2:11 — "Normal" — the word that ends the conversation before it begins
3:01 — Two doctors, two mothers: shared stories from medical school
4:53 — Dr. Simone's story: custody battle, solo parenting, antidepressants that made her a zombie
7:33 — Adrenal crash: what it actually feels like when your adrenals give out
8:20 — Breastfeeding hormones: prolactin, estrogen suppression, and the sleep-hormone connection
9:45 — Progesterone and sleep: why melatonin isn't the answer for women
10:46 — The culture of overwork and the permission women need to rest
11:10 — Sleep science: women need 8–9 hours; less than 6 raises dementia risk before 50
12:57 — When women stay silent: the stigma of mental health and the fear of the label
13:39 — Dr. Lara's sleep deprivation story: two sick days, brain hijacked
15:17 — Postpartum and the possibility of psychosis: hormones, sleep, and cascading dysfunction
16:02 — The invisible patient: highly functional women whose symptoms are hidden by performance
17:52 — The physician's role: asking the right questions is part of the treatment
19:01 — Why women look fine on the outside — and what that conceals
21:17 — Hormonal difference between men and women: the cycling vs. steady reality
22:27 — Dr. Lara's testosterone experiment: what groundedness actually feels like
24:46 — Mental load and hormonal cost: why worrying about small things depletes estrogen and cortisol
25:13 — Delegating and releasing control: advice for over-functioning women
27:26 — Community, hyper-independence, and the postpartum support gap
28:44 — Dr. Simone's personal postpartum story: alone with twin newborns and a breakdown hallway
32:29 — The nervous system stuck in fight-or-flight, unable to relax even when the babies leave
34:24 — Ancient postpartum wisdom: Mayan culture, herbal baths, and what community used to provide
37:42 — Dr. Lara's 2021 concussion: PTSD, IV ozone, NadP+, and the healing that followed
39:43 — Why women close up when a therapist announces mandatory reporting
47:44 — The postpartum hormone plunge: estrogen surging 100-fold then crashing within 72 hours
49:07 — Sexual trauma and its postpartum trigger: what every birth plan should account for
50:44 — Mental health as an invisible wound: when someone says they're having intrusive thoughts, act immediately
52:10 — You cannot fix a hormone deficiency with a drug — and why it often makes things worse
53:46 — Closing: if the first doctor says you're fine, keep looking

Dr. Myleen Simone, NMD

Founder, CEO & Medical Director of 

Regenerative & Restorative Health Center

https://www.rrhealthcenter.com/

If you have been dismissed, misdiagnosed, or simply told your labs are normal, Dr. Lara works with women at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center — schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

Doctors are not immune to fear. They are not immune to social pressure, groupthink, or the institutional conditioning that makes saying yes easier than saying wait. Understanding how that happens — and what it costs patients — is something every person who interacts with the medical system needs to think through.

Dr. Ana Lara steps back from clinical content to address a question she can't stop thinking about: why were so many physicians so easily influenced during the COVID era, and what does the psychology behind that mean for patients navigating the healthcare system today and in the future? This is not an episode designed to shame physicians — it is a psychological and sociological examination of how authority bias, groupthink, institutional conditioning, fear, and artificial urgency can overwhelm even trained, intelligent people and lead them away from independent critical thinking. She walks through the specific pressures physicians faced — fear of losing patients, losing hospital privileges, losing licensure, public humiliation, and being personally blamed for patient outcomes — and explains how cortisol released by fear literally impairs the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for rational decision-making. She applies the same framework to patients: peer pressure from your doctor is still peer pressure, and you have both the right and the responsibility to think for yourself, ask questions, and take time before making any significant health decision. She closes with three practical takeaways for patients — protect your independent thinking, recognize the influence of fear on decision-making, and expect humility as well as conviction from your physician — and with a clear-eyed message to the younger generation of doctors she is watching and believes in.

Timestamps

0:00 — Introduction: why this question keeps coming back
1:18 — Six years out — and what physicians are now saying privately
3:35 — The intent: not to blame doctors, but to understand the psychology
4:32 — For patients: your doctor is an expert, not an authority over your decisions
5:41 — How medical training conditions compliance over critical thinking
7:31 — Medical school rewards the correct answer, not the questioning mind
8:41 — Hospitals, licensing boards, insurance companies: layers of institutional pressure
10:07 — The missing question: where is the clinical evidence?
12:22 — The fine line between following rules and advocating for your patient
13:22 — Gaslighting, manipulation, and forcing compliance in the exam room
13:46 — Authority bias: taking your doctor off the pedestal without dismissing them
14:46 — Social conformity: when everyone else is doing it, it feels safe
15:35 — Your nervous system as a discernment tool
15:56 — Fear as a decision impairment: why urgency is a red flag
16:23 — The specific fears physicians faced — and why those fears were real
17:32 — Groupthink defined: when agreement overrides critical thinking
18:54 — Three days: why you should never make a major health decision under pressure
21:05 — Cognitive dissonance and why some doctors still won't admit error
21:49 — Takeaway 1: protect your independent thinking
23:46 — Takeaway 2: recognize how fear changes thinking
25:36 — Takeaway 3: expect humility and conviction from your physician
26:05 — A word to younger doctors: don't leave medicine — change how you practice it
27:36 — Closing: think for yourself, ask questions, and let the decision be yours

If you want a physician who welcomes your questions and builds a plan with you rather than for you, Dr. Lara is accepting new patients at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center — schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

Millions of people are insulin resistant for 10 to 20 years before they develop diabetes. Their labs come back "normal." Their doctors tell them they're fine. And the whole time, elevated insulin is quietly driving weight gain, brain fog, hormone disruption, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and cancer. The test costs $9. No one is ordering it.

Dr. Ana Lara breaks down one of the most widespread and underdiagnosed metabolic conditions in medicine today — insulin resistance — and explains in plain terms why standard screening is missing it, what it actually looks like in the body, and how to reverse it completely through diet, movement, targeted nutrients, and the willingness to address what is actually driving the condition. She walks through the mechanism of insulin resistance (the cell receptors that stop responding to insulin, leaving glucose circulating in the bloodstream and driving inflammation), the symptoms most people don't connect to blood sugar (fatigue after eating, brain fog, belly fat, skin tags, skin darkening around the neck and armpits, mood swings, sugar cravings, waking up hungry, difficulty losing weight), and the diseases that develop downstream when it goes unaddressed — type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, PCOS, infertility, erectile dysfunction, kidney disease, peripheral neuropathy, Alzheimer's (now being called type 3 diabetes by some researchers), and cancer. She then covers how to diagnose it — fasting insulin, C-peptide, HOMA-IR, hemoglobin A1C, fasting glucose, and a comprehensive metabolic panel — what the optimal (not just "normal") fasting insulin range looks like, and exactly what to do to reverse it: a low-carbohydrate diet starting with protein, healthy fats, and vegetables; weight-bearing exercise that builds new insulin receptors; prioritizing sleep; managing stress; and targeted supplementation with chromium, magnesium, vitamin D, zinc, and berberine.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction: why insulin resistance is being missed
0:58 — The limits of standard screening: hemoglobin A1C and fasting glucose aren't enough
2:25 — Millions are insulin resistant for 10–20 years before diabetes is diagnosed
3:30 — How insulin works: the key-and-lock mechanism explained
4:22 — What happens when receptors stop responding
5:17 — Why fasting insulin and C-peptide are the smoke detectors for diabetes
7:20 — Myth: you have to be overweight to be insulin resistant
7:47 — Early warning signs: fatigue after eating, brain fog, belly fat, sugar cravings
10:42 — Belly fat, waking up hungry, and why cells starve while blood sugar stays high
11:25 — Mood swings, sleep disturbances, and downstream hormone disruption
12:31 — Women: irregular periods, PCOS, infertility, miscarriage
13:01 — Men: low testosterone, erectile dysfunction, muscle loss
13:30 — Visible skin signs: skin tags, darkening around the neck and armpits
13:53 — Diseases linked to insulin resistance beyond diabetes
15:03 — Alzheimer's as type 3 diabetes: the insulin-brain connection
15:36 — What causes insulin resistance: diet, lifestyle, visceral fat, toxins, steroids
16:57 — How to diagnose it: the full panel Dr. Lara orders and why
18:13 — HOMA-IR: using fasting glucose and fasting insulin together
18:48 — What a fasting insulin over 10 means — even when it's "normal"
20:43 — How to reverse insulin resistance: diet first
21:53 — The low-carb approach: protein, healthy fat, vegetables — no fruit initially
24:05 — Exercise: weight-bearing movement builds new insulin receptors
25:24 — Sleep, stress, and the cortisol-insulin connection
27:41 — Nutrient deficiencies: vitamin D, chromium, magnesium, zinc
29:05 — Chromium dosing, berberine, and supplement guidance
31:48 — Emotional eating and the deeper root Dr. Lara addresses
33:40 — Why children and teenagers are developing insulin resistance
36:09 — Closing: insulin resistance is reversible — and Dr. Lara has the proof

To find out whether insulin resistance is driving your symptoms, Dr. Lara offers a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center — schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

She was a labor and delivery nurse. She told her husband, her mother, her family, and every medical professional she saw that something was terribly wrong. She was prescribed 13 psychiatric medications in four months. Her symptoms never resolved. She was not crazy — she was hormonally depleted and medically failed. And she is not the only one.

Prompted by the high-profile Lindsey Clancy case, Dr. Ana Lara sets aside the legal narrative and speaks as a physician about what she sees as the central medical failure in this story and in countless women's stories that never make headlines: no one checked her hormones. She explains the dramatic hormonal cliff women fall off after delivery — progesterone dropping from 214 nanograms per milliliter during the third trimester to effectively zero after the placenta is delivered, estradiol crashing from peaks of 30,000 picograms per milliliter to nothing — and what that physiological free fall produces: insomnia, racing thoughts, anxiety, paranoia, emotional dissociation, brain fog, and a feeling of losing one's mind that is not a psychiatric disorder but a hormonal emergency. She walks through the clinical data: progesterone levels optimal range of 15–24 nanograms per milliliter in a menstruating woman, the pattern she sees regularly of young women — even teenagers — testing at under 1. She explains the role of progesterone in sleep, nervous system regulation, brain protection, and mood, and the role of estradiol in memory, emotional regulation, serotonin function, and sleep architecture. She names the specific hormones every woman should have tested — progesterone, estradiol, pregnenolone, DHEA-S, testosterone, cortisol, vitamin D, B12 — and why postpartum screening for hormone depletion should be standard care. She closes with a direct message to women: you are not crazy. Your hormones need to be checked. Don't wait for a crisis. And she mentions vitex (chaste tree berry) as an herb that supports the body's own hormone production — safe postpartum, safe while nursing, and appropriate across the lifespan.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction: what prompted this episode and Dr. Lara's medical lens on the case
1:25 — A woman who sought help — and wasn't helped
3:24 — Postpartum depression vs. postpartum psychosis: definitions and distinctions
5:45 — Baby blues, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety and rage: who is affected
7:13 — The birth history: traumatic deliveries and what they leave behind
10:06 — Three children under five, two traumatic births, and a depleted hormone tank
11:32 — Progesterone: the hormone that keeps women calm, sleeping, and mentally resilient
13:24 — Why psychiatric medications cannot fix a hormone deficiency
14:36 — Her reported symptoms — and the medication list: 13 psychiatric drugs in four months
17:43 — What a proper postpartum workup should look like
18:20 — When hormones are balanced, medications don't resolve symptoms — and they didn't
19:29 — The millions of women silently suffering the same way
20:50 — Progesterone deep dive: optimal levels, luteal phase timing, what depletion looks like
23:48 — The pregnancy hormone cliff: 214 nanograms to near zero after delivery
25:18 — Estradiol: what it does, what the numbers look like, and the postpartum crash
27:21 — What balanced hormones feel like — from Dr. Lara personally, at 47
29:10 — How to show up for the women in your life who are telling you they're not okay
35:44 — The full hormone panel every woman should request
39:21 — Vitex (chaste tree berry): a postpartum herbal option that supports hormone production
40:44 — Closing: you are not crazy — get your hormones checked

If you have been told your labs are normal but you don't feel like yourself, Dr. Lara works with women on comprehensive hormone evaluation and root-cause care at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center — schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

Everyone is talking about GLP-1 medications. Hollywood is using them. Doctors are prescribing them. Influencers are promoting them. And Dr. Lara is not going to stay quiet about what she is actually seeing — in her clinic, on her patients, and in the evidence that is not making headlines.

Dr. Ana Lara takes a clear, clinically grounded stand on GLP-1 medications — semaglutide and their class — and explains in plain terms why she will not prescribe them, would not take them herself, and would not recommend them to anyone she loves. This is not a trendy take or a reflexive anti-medication position. It is a physician who has thought carefully about mechanism, downstream consequences, and first principles applying those frameworks to a medication the industry has normalized far too quickly. She explains how GLP-1 drugs work — slowing gut motility, suppressing appetite, and producing weight loss that studies show is predominantly muscle mass, not fat — and walks through the clinical consequences she is observing: constipation, nausea, nutrient deficiencies, hair loss, brittle nails, gray skin tone, bone loss, loss of mental clarity, gallbladder disease, gastroparesis, kidney issues, diabetic retinopathy, thyroid nodules, and thyroid cancer. She also addresses the hormonal root causes of weight resistance that most prescribers never investigate — leptin resistance, insulin resistance, estrone elevation, pregnenolone deficiency — and explains the naturopathic alternatives she uses instead. She closes with practical guidance on tracking true fat loss versus muscle loss, and a direct challenge to practitioners who are prescribing these medications without addressing the underlying reasons the weight was there in the first place.

Studies show that the majority of weight lost on GLP-1 medications is muscle mass, not fat — and for women especially, lean muscle is longevity, hormone regulation, glucose control, and structural integrity that cannot be casually sacrificed.

GLP-1 drugs slow gut motility, leading to constipation, nausea, gastroparesis, nutrient malabsorption, and — with chronic constipation — increased colorectal cancer risk. Gut health is the foundation of systemic health; deliberately impairing it is not a small trade-off.

Known risks include gallbladder disease, pancreatitis, kidney issues, diabetic retinopathy, thyroid nodules, and thyroid cancer. Dr. Lara has personally observed thyroid nodule development in patients who have been on GLP-1 medications for one to two years.

Weight resistance is usually hormonal — leptin resistance, insulin resistance, elevated estrone, low pregnenolone, unaddressed thyroid dysfunction, or cortisol dysregulation from poor sleep and stress. These can be tested, treated, and resolved without pharmaceuticals.

Safe, sustainable fat loss is 1–2 pounds per week. Use a smart scale and digital measuring tape synced to a tracking app to distinguish fat loss from muscle loss — especially important when incorporating strength training.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction: why Dr. Lara is willing to be the unpopular voice on this
1:14 — What GLP-1 medications are and why she will not prescribe them
3:51 — Muscle loss: what studies actually show about GLP-1 weight loss composition
5:02 — Why losing muscle mass is especially dangerous for women over time
5:54 — Saggy skin and "Ozempic face" explained: it's muscle loss, not just fat loss
7:13 — How GLP-1 drugs work: slowing gut motility and the downstream consequences
8:36 — Constipation, nausea, vomiting, and nutrient deficiency
9:43 — Long-term consequences: bone loss, hair loss, brittle nails, gray skin tone
12:32 — Gallbladder disease, pancreatitis, thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, retinopathy
13:52 — Gastroparesis: the paralysis of the stomach GLP-1 can cause
14:22 — Chronic constipation and colorectal cancer risk
15:27 — Natural alternatives Dr. Lara uses instead
15:54 — Thyroid, adrenals, and mitochondria: how food deprivation strains energy systems
17:49 — What Dr. Lara checks instead: full hormone panel, leptin, insulin, pregnenolone
19:34 — Addressing the real root causes: sleep, stress, cortisol, and diet details
21:46 — Safe fat loss: 1–2 lbs per week, smart scales, and measuring tape tracking
25:53 — Closing: Dr. Lara's final word on GLP-1 and why she stands firm

If you want to lose fat, balance your hormones, and heal your metabolism without medication, Dr. Lara works with patients at Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center — schedule at raicesndmedcenter.com.

Anthony Bates had 25 sports physicals. Not one of them checked his heart. At 20 years old, he died of sudden cardiac arrest after a workout — from a condition that could have been detected with an EKG. His mother Sharon turned that grief into a mission that has now screened over 2 million people and saved more than 100,000 lives.

Dr. Ana Lara sits down with Sharon Bates, CEO and founder of the Anthony Bates Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to saving young lives through early detection of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes. Sharon shares the story of her son Anthony, a Division I football player at Kansas State University who collapsed and died at age 20 from an enlarged heart three times the normal size — a condition that produces no symptoms in many cases until it is too late. She walks through what the foundation does, the scale of what they have built, and why 1 in 7 people screened have a detectable heart problem and 1 in 40 have a life-threatening one. They cover the warning signs parents and children should know, what an ABF heart screening includes (12-lead EKG, limited echocardiogram, blood pressure check — in 15 minutes for children, 20 for adults), and what it costs ($35 for children, $135 for adults — made affordable through major corporate sponsors including the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Cardinals). Dr. Lara also announces that Sharon is bringing screenings to Raíces Naturopathic Medical Center, and both women make the case for preventive heart screening as a naturopathic principle: you do not wait for symptoms to investigate what could already be there.

Timestamps
0:00 — Introduction: Dr. Lara welcomes Sharon Bates and the Anthony Bates Foundation
1:57 — Sharon's story: Anthony's sudden death at 20 after 25 sports physicals
4:33 — How HCM presents — and how Anthony's heart was three times its normal size
5:40 — Why routine sports physicals miss HCM: the gap in standard care
6:09 — How Sharon started the foundation and the first screening at Kansas State
8:59 — The ripple effect of a child's death on the entire family
10:15 — 23,000 sudden cardiac arrests in US children per year
10:46 — Warning signs: dizziness, chest pain, palpitations at rest — and why kids don't report them
12:16 — Scale of the foundation: 2 million screened, 100,000 lives saved
14:47 — Anthony's Eagle Scout legacy: leaving the world better than you found it
15:16 — What an ABF heart screening looks like: EKG, echocardiogram, blood pressure
16:01 — 1 in 7 screened have a heart problem; 1 in 40 have a life-threatening one
17:49 — The most common finding: high blood pressure in teenagers
18:47 — Screening cost: $35 for children, $135 for adults — why ABF keeps it affordable
21:28 — Prevention as a naturopathic principle: screening before symptoms appear
23:26 — Save story: Sam, 13, Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome detected — and corrected
26:46 — Sam's outcome: surgery, high school graduation, college graduation, marriage
27:41 — The shortage problem: 74 million children, only 3,500 pediatric cardiologists
29:03 — Upcoming screenings in Phoenix and at Raíces; how to schedule
31:21 — Sharon's closing message to parents
32:40 — Dr. Lara's closing: share this episode, get your family screened

Sharon M. Bates-Maier 

CEO/Founder                                  

Anthony Bates Foundation    

(602) 482-5606                   

www.AnthonyBates.org 

www.AnthonyBates.org/appointments 

Screening at Raices Naturopathic Medical Center on September 21st, 10:30am-4pm
To schedule visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/raices-phoenix-appt-registration

Youth screenings take 10 minutes, and Adult appointments are 20 minutes. Within our schedule, two youth can be done within 30 minutes, or 1 adult in 30 minutes.

Youth screening appointments are $35
Adult screening appointments are $135

To schedule a heart screening at Raíces or find an ABF event near you, visit the Anthony Bates Foundation at anthonybatesfoundation.org — or reach out to Raíces at raicesndmedcenter.com. Screenings are $35 for children and $135 for adults.