Speaker 1: Hi everyone. I'm Holly Robinson, pete actor, author, advocate, do
Speaker 1: it All mom, and I'm also a caregiver. And this
Speaker 1: is care Walks, a podcast from iHeartRadio and Voltaian Arthritis
Speaker 1: Pain Gel. It's a show for family caregivers who give
Speaker 1: everything to everyone and need to make time for themselves
Speaker 1: through movement. Every episode is designed for you to walk
Speaker 1: as you listen, so just think of me and my
Speaker 1: guests as your weekly walking buddies. We'll hear stories from
Speaker 1: caregivers and gain tips and insights from health experts and
Speaker 1: advocates who know how important it is to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself and manage joint pain due to arthritis that
Speaker 1: often a companies being a caregiver. Together, we'll find community
Speaker 1: ourselves and maybe even alleviate some joint pain in the
Speaker 1: process as we walk together and connect to the best
Speaker 1: parts of being a caregiver. Hello, fellow caregivers, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to care Walks. Thanks for joining us again. All right, now,
Speaker 1: just a reminder. Right now you're listening to the full
Speaker 1: version of this episode, but if you don't have time
Speaker 1: for a full walk today, then go check out our
Speaker 1: bridged version of this same episode. It's like cliff notes
Speaker 1: for podcasts. So now that's taken care of, how have
Speaker 1: you been? We're a few episodes in now, and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to check in and see how you're doing.
Speaker 1: Have you been asking for help? Have you been taking
Speaker 1: a walk every day? Are you reaching out to find community?
Speaker 1: Don't forget these are important ways to refill your cup. Hey,
Speaker 1: what about your eating habits? Are you getting in fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables and other healthy foods into your daily diet.
Speaker 1: I know you have a lot on your plate, but
Speaker 1: I just want to say I am so proud of
Speaker 1: everything you've done to take care of the ones you
Speaker 1: love and the progress you've made and taken care of
Speaker 1: yourself too, and now that you've started adding movie It
Speaker 1: to your daily routine, I want to spend this episode
Speaker 1: learning about the role diet and nutrition play and combating
Speaker 1: joint pain due to arthritis and improving our quality of life.
Speaker 1: To help us better understand how our self care can
Speaker 1: be applied to the kitchen, I've invited doctor Monica Agerwall
Speaker 1: to join me on today's episode. Doctor Agerwall is an
Speaker 1: adjunct clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the University of Florida.
Speaker 1: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. She's been conducting research on the
Speaker 1: impact of diet on everything from physical fitness to mental health.
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to talking to doctor Agarwall about
Speaker 1: her work and learning about how we might be able
Speaker 1: to use diet to treat the symptoms of our joint pain.
Speaker 1: But before I share today's conversation, let's set out on
Speaker 1: today's walk. Let's start with loosening your shoulders and walking
Speaker 1: with ease and letting go of the day and just
Speaker 1: focusing on the in and out of your breath as
Speaker 1: you walk, take some time to reflect what has brought
Speaker 1: you peace in your body today. This moment could be
Speaker 1: anything from a tight hug, to your morning stretch or
Speaker 1: the taste of a nourishing meal. Check in with these feelings,
Speaker 1: how has this moment of peace made you feel? Carry
Speaker 1: that piece with you through our walk today. I want
Speaker 1: you to think about all the aspects of our health
Speaker 1: that help us stay powerful and strong. And as you
Speaker 1: set your pace for the duration of the walk, we
Speaker 1: are going to dig into some simple nutrition strategies that
Speaker 1: can go a lot way in helping us protect our
Speaker 1: joints from the inside out. Today I am joined by
Speaker 1: doctor Monica Agerwall an adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
Speaker 1: in the University of Florida Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Doctor
Speaker 1: Agerwall's book Body on Fire, How Inflammation Triggers Chronic Illness
Speaker 1: and the Tools we have to Fight it outlines prescriptions
Speaker 1: to help guide people to better health. And now she
Speaker 1: has a cookbook, Body on Fire, Anti Inflammatory Cookbook, Your
Speaker 1: Guide to eating plant foods that fight disease. Doctor Agerwal,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Tell me what first got you interested in studying nutrition.
Speaker 2: You know, I am Indian by birth, so maybe my
Speaker 2: whole life, my mom told me to eat turmeric or
Speaker 2: you know that I would do better if I slept more,
Speaker 2: or to you know, eat more couman and mango powder
Speaker 2: because as it was going to help me with this
Speaker 2: or that, and so I always sort of grow up
Speaker 2: in that kind of space. And when I was in fellowship,
Speaker 2: so in training for cardiology, you go to medical school,
Speaker 2: then you do three years of internal medicine, and then
Speaker 2: you do three years of cardiology fellowship. So here in
Speaker 2: school forever and then during that time I also did
Speaker 2: an integrative medicine fellowship, so I was always interested in
Speaker 2: integrative practices try to maybe I don't know the combination
Speaker 2: of east and west, but it really didn't kind of
Speaker 2: hit home for me until I myself became sick. So
Speaker 2: when I finished my fellowship, I decided to have children.
Speaker 2: And when I got pregnant, it was the most amazing thing.
Speaker 2: But I decided that, oh my gosh, I'm older now
Speaker 2: I want to have all these kids. So I had
Speaker 2: three kids within four years. Four months after I had
Speaker 2: baby number three, I started manifesting joint pain and it
Speaker 2: started with a finger and it migrated to my knees
Speaker 2: and my shoulders. Within a two week period, I went
Speaker 2: from being a runner, active, full time doc to being
Speaker 2: unable to climb the stairs. There's, you know, very dark
Speaker 2: time in my life where I was diagnosed with a
Speaker 2: very poor prognostic form of inflammatory rheumatode arthritis. And I
Speaker 2: went from nursing a kid doing all the things I
Speaker 2: normally would do, and within a week of my diagnosis,
Speaker 2: I was told that I needed to stop nursing my
Speaker 2: kid and get on these medications. And that's a humbling feeling.
Speaker 2: And I remember this feeling of being small and being
Speaker 2: told that there was I had an incurable illness and
Speaker 2: I needed to get on medications. There was no way
Speaker 2: I was going to come off. So I just needed
Speaker 2: to accept that. And that's interesting for a doctor because
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, it's not that I embrace medications.
Speaker 2: I was trained with medications. But isn't there another way?
Speaker 2: Isn't there other things? Aren't there other things that we
Speaker 2: can do to make our bodies better? So I started
Speaker 2: on a path of learning about how lifestyle impacts your body.
Speaker 2: I met a woman who said, maybe your nutrition's bad,
Speaker 2: and it's ironic because I was vegetarian. I was probably
Speaker 2: a jerk to her because I said, like, oh, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I'm vegetarian. I got this, But I was an unhealthy
Speaker 2: vegetarian as many of us are.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? An unhealthy vegetarian? Stop right there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, a good question.
Speaker 1: I feel seen right now, So tell me that, tell
Speaker 1: me what that means.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question. And so there are many
Speaker 2: people who call themselves vegan or vegetarian that eat a
Speaker 2: lot of unhealthy foods. And to be fair, veganism is
Speaker 2: often an ethical choice and not necessarily a health choice.
Speaker 2: But we have to remember that there are many vegetarian
Speaker 2: and vegan foods that are not super healthy. Doctors actually
Speaker 2: get very little education and nutrition. So it took me
Speaker 2: years of training after my training to learn how to
Speaker 2: educate people and how to heal my b own body.
Speaker 2: And so I had to learn a lot about the
Speaker 2: impact of what we eat, how dairy infects your body,
Speaker 2: how fats affect your body, how all of this stuff
Speaker 2: triggers inflammation, how inflammation triggers illness. And I went through
Speaker 2: this process over years of educating myself.
Speaker 1: Well, let me go back a little bit to when
Speaker 1: you're talking about out being a mom of three and
Speaker 1: then you get this diagnosis. I'm a mom of four.
Speaker 1: I start off with twins. I've completely blacked out those years.
Speaker 1: I don't remember a whole lot but what that must
Speaker 1: have been. And you touched on it a little bit,
Speaker 1: But that must have been so difficult to be raising
Speaker 1: these little ones and then you get this diagnosis. It's remarkable,
Speaker 1: but I mean, this is your journey. I want to
Speaker 1: shift to the way we can care for ourselves and
Speaker 1: how we can take better care of our bodies with nutrition.
Speaker 1: So let's talk inflammation because I know you know a
Speaker 1: lot about that. What exactly is inflammation? How does food
Speaker 1: contribute to or combat it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so inflammation. I always describe to people that inflammation's
Speaker 2: like your body's mad at you. That's why the title
Speaker 2: of the book is called Body on Fire. And I
Speaker 2: always describe it to people as that your life is
Speaker 2: full of stresses and resources. And just think about the
Speaker 2: stresses in your life. Well, there are lots of them,
Speaker 2: especially in twenty twenty two. There's our constant dinging of
Speaker 2: our phone. There's the lack of sleep, the job stress.
Speaker 2: Am I going to get this job? And do I
Speaker 2: have this job? Do I have enough money? There's lack
Speaker 2: of exercise, there's the foods that we're eating. All of
Speaker 2: these things are stressors on our body. But then there
Speaker 2: are all these resources too, and that's something that we forget.
Speaker 2: And there's all these resources like healthy, clean eating. There's sleep,
Speaker 2: there's movement, there's gratitude, journaling, there's all these things that
Speaker 2: you can do switching off your phone and these are
Speaker 2: things that you could do for resources. And it's funny
Speaker 2: because you know your cell phone goes to seven percent
Speaker 2: and you panic, right, you run over and you're.
Speaker 1: Like, I need a charger.
Speaker 2: I need a charger, but we've forgotten how to charge ourselves, right.
Speaker 2: We are so much focused on the demands in our life. God,
Speaker 2: I remember when I was in medical school. I used
Speaker 2: to talk to people and be like, oh, pulled an
Speaker 2: all night er.
Speaker 1: It's the test.
Speaker 2: What a jerk I was?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Like who talks like because you're so proud, Like you
Speaker 2: wear it as a badge of honor that you didn't
Speaker 2: need the sleep. But you know, we should honor people
Speaker 2: who sleep and who take naps and take time for
Speaker 2: self care and recovery. You brought up nutrition, and so
Speaker 2: what we're focused on in terms of nutrition. Gosh, there's
Speaker 2: so many things you can do with your diet and
Speaker 2: people don't realize, like, wait, what, there's so much you
Speaker 2: can do? Well? Absolutely so, there's all these toxins we
Speaker 2: put in our body right now, and some of those
Speaker 2: toxins are things like refined foods and process foods. So
Speaker 2: think about all the instant foods that are out there,
Speaker 2: or the open up the box and put it in
Speaker 2: the microwave for three seconds and it's made. Those things
Speaker 2: are very refined, and what happens with all those refined
Speaker 2: foods is that they go inside your body and they
Speaker 2: activate your insulin, your sugar levels go up, and they
Speaker 2: process really fast, and they're actually the foods that give
Speaker 2: you the high and low. So if just think about,
Speaker 2: for instance, you worked all day and then at midday whatever,
Speaker 2: you go to lunch with your friends, you go to
Speaker 2: Olive Garden or something like that, and maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 2: have said all of garden, but some restaurant like.
Speaker 1: That, and then I know.
Speaker 2: And then you eat like a pasta meal which has
Speaker 2: no fiber in it and it's loaded in cheese and fat,
Speaker 2: and you eat the bread that comes with it. And
Speaker 2: so people are like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired,
Speaker 2: I'm not getting enough sleep. I know what I need.
Speaker 2: I need more protein. Well, actually that's not the case
Speaker 2: at all. Most of the time, it's neither of those
Speaker 2: things that they just need to cut out their sugar.
Speaker 2: So a lot of those refined foods and sugars are
Speaker 2: a source of inflammation. Another big sources animal fat, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: and mostly fried animal fat. People say, well, what am
Speaker 2: I supposed to eat if I don't eat that kind
Speaker 2: of food? Well, gosh, there's so many things out there,
Speaker 2: and really the foods that we want people to eat
Speaker 2: are anti inflammatory. There are fruits that are antioxidants, like
Speaker 2: blueberries and berries in general. There are spices like turmeric
Speaker 2: that are super potent and anti inflammatory. So all these
Speaker 2: things that you can do to combat to take out
Speaker 2: those inflammatory foods, and you add back some of that
Speaker 2: anti inflammatory food and boy, there you go.
Speaker 1: You know, when you say refined sugars, it sounds a
Speaker 1: lot like that is also carbohydrates. Is that accurate? So
Speaker 1: our carbs something that we should widely avoid.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so glad you asked that, because there's such
Speaker 2: a fear of carbs, and I kind of added to
Speaker 2: that just now, and I appreciate you bringing that up. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think the thing that people need to
Speaker 2: realize is that carbohydrates are this humongous bag of different things.
Speaker 2: And there's complex carbohydrates and then there's simple carbohydrates. Well,
Speaker 2: complex carbohydrates or foods that when you eat them, they
Speaker 2: take a long time to digest. And so because of that,
Speaker 2: your insulin level goes up slowly, your sugar level goes
Speaker 2: up slowly. You feel full longer, and you don't feel hungry. Well,
Speaker 2: those are complex carbs like beans and quin wah and
Speaker 2: whole whole grains that don't have other additives in them.
Speaker 2: And so when we tell people we want to avoid carbohydrates,
Speaker 2: we want them to avoid those simple carbohydrates and refined carbohydrates.
Speaker 2: Then those are things like your candies and your cookies,
Speaker 2: and your crackers and your sodas. Those are the foods
Speaker 2: that we want people to avoid. Now, one of the
Speaker 2: caveats is fruits, because fruits, while they are simpler, they
Speaker 2: are loaded with so many nutrients and fiber which make
Speaker 2: them healthier and cleaner. In fact, studies show that people
Speaker 2: should eat about fifty to fifty five percent of their
Speaker 2: diet on a daily basis should be carbs.
Speaker 1: I'm curious about what a day in your life looks
Speaker 1: like for you. What is the favorite part of your work.
Speaker 2: I spend an hour long with my patients and I
Speaker 2: do a preventive evaluation. And it's intensive. Isn't it that
Speaker 2: we're treating the whole person? Right? We've just forgotten that?
Speaker 2: And so I find that sometimes in my practice, the
Speaker 2: best thing I do is I teach people how to meditate,
Speaker 2: or I give them sleep techniques, or I teach them
Speaker 2: how to move their body when they have severe arthritis,
Speaker 2: or I teach them how to eat better and cleaner.
Speaker 2: I talk to people about touch and intimacy and love
Speaker 2: and connectedness. And you know, I'm a hugger, and COVID
Speaker 2: was hard. You can hug for a little while there
Speaker 2: and write at a sad story. Recently write a patient.
Speaker 2: I asked her to look in the mirror, and I said,
Speaker 2: what is it about yourself that you love? And she
Speaker 2: didn't want to look. She didn't want to look in
Speaker 2: the mirror. She didn't want to see who she was.
Speaker 2: There's nothing about me that I love. And you know,
Speaker 2: I think that there's a lot of people out there
Speaker 2: that are suffering from that sort of lack of self love,
Speaker 2: the joy. There's just so many areas there, and so
Speaker 2: I think maybe the thing that I love most. You
Speaker 2: asked me, what do I love most about my work?
Speaker 2: I love most. When people walk out, they say, you know,
Speaker 2: I feel better, or they'll say, now that I've talked
Speaker 2: to you, I know I can do this. But for me,
Speaker 2: I think you can't feel hope until you take time
Speaker 2: for that moment, for that pause and really sort of
Speaker 2: appreciating what it is in your life that you have.
Speaker 2: It's the beauty of the earth. It's the people in
Speaker 2: your life, the people who give you love and love
Speaker 2: you and you love. It's your plan, it's your puppies.
Speaker 2: It's those things that allow you to feel like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm okay, I'm okay, I can get through this. And
Speaker 2: I think I'm a big fan of gratitude journaling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, good. I was just gonna say you, I'm
Speaker 1: feeling so much gratitude listening to all of the things
Speaker 1: that you're saying that hope emanates from. And yes, that's
Speaker 1: so important. I do that as well.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so glad you do. And I really encourage that.
Speaker 2: I tell people, get a journal, doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: some fancy thing, and just get, you know, right every night, right,
Speaker 2: three things in there that give them joy or that
Speaker 2: they're thankful for, and they will see and you will see,
Speaker 2: and everyone will see how much they feel better. You know.
Speaker 2: There's sometimes simple things that we enjoy in our life
Speaker 2: are okay to be happy with, and then it's just
Speaker 2: starts this process right of sort of remembering and appreciating
Speaker 2: the things that we do have.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more from doctor Monica Agriwall.
Speaker 1: And now back to my conversation with doctor Monica Agriwall.
Speaker 1: It can be really hard to change our eating habits.
Speaker 1: What would you say is the simplest nutritional adjustment someone
Speaker 1: can make that would have the most impact on someone's movement.
Speaker 2: So I know that change is hard. People tell me
Speaker 2: that every day, and certainly I have gone through it myself.
Speaker 2: But I always remind people that even though change is hard,
Speaker 2: change is good and that a little bit of change
Speaker 2: every day can be very impactful. So if I were
Speaker 2: to tell people something that I would like them to do,
Speaker 2: to cut out inflammatory foods or sort of make a
Speaker 2: choice so that they can feel better, I would say
Speaker 2: two things, and I would know you said one, but
Speaker 2: I would say cut out two things, and I would
Speaker 2: say cut out your red meat and cut out your
Speaker 2: instant profit cess food. Start there as the remove and
Speaker 2: you will see I promise. In fact, if I'm wrong,
Speaker 2: you should send me an email and tell maybe, and
Speaker 2: I will send you a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant,
Speaker 2: because I will tell you that in six weeks you're
Speaker 2: going to see such an improvement. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: what I study. And so in fact I put people
Speaker 2: on this dietary change, and in six days I was
Speaker 2: able to show people's blood pressure got better, their cholesterol
Speaker 2: got better, they felt better, their quality of life was better.
Speaker 2: It was incredible. I mean, six days you can make
Speaker 2: a change. So if you give people six weeks of
Speaker 2: a lifestyle change, the sky's the limit. The other thing
Speaker 2: that I'm really not a huge fan of is a dairy.
Speaker 2: I'm not a huge fan of dairy. That data in
Speaker 2: terms of dairy is controversial, is what I would say.
Speaker 2: And so I think that people have this perception that
Speaker 2: milka does.
Speaker 1: Your body good.
Speaker 2: Right, we all grew up with that I need milk
Speaker 2: to make healthy bones. But if you look actually around
Speaker 2: the world and you look at the countries that have
Speaker 2: the most milk intake, well it's America, Swedeen, Europe, Australia.
Speaker 2: We actually take in the most dairy in the world.
Speaker 2: And if you look at the countries that actually have
Speaker 2: the highest amount of hip fractures and bone fractures, what
Speaker 2: are those countries, Well it's America, Sweden, Australia. So the
Speaker 2: same countries that have the most amount of milk intake
Speaker 2: actually have the highest fracture rates. In fact, the countries
Speaker 2: that have the lowest fracture rates have the lowest milk intake,
Speaker 2: like India, Africa, Peru, where they have very low amounts
Speaker 2: of dairy intake and they actually have very little joint pain.
Speaker 2: And that just shows to show so many things that
Speaker 2: you know, dairy isn't the end all. Yes, we do
Speaker 2: need calcium, but we need vitamin D which comes from
Speaker 2: the sun. We need vitamin K, which comes from our
Speaker 2: green leafy vegetables. And it's the combination of these kind
Speaker 2: of things that actually will build bones. And it's not
Speaker 2: necessarily the milk and the cow's milk that people focus on.
Speaker 2: And I think caregivers and people who are sick they offer,
Speaker 2: you know, they feel stuck too, and so I think
Speaker 2: that it's really key to sort of say, well, gosh,
Speaker 2: you know, I can make simple changes and I might
Speaker 2: feel better. So let's start with these small things. And
Speaker 2: almond milk is super easy nowadays because it's everywhere. You
Speaker 2: just have to be careful because there are a thousand
Speaker 2: brands and half of them have stuff in that I've
Speaker 2: never even heard of. So try to get an almond
Speaker 2: milk where the ingredients are almonds and water. Yes, right, like,
Speaker 2: so why can't almond milk be as easy as almonds
Speaker 2: and water? But somehow it's just not. So the other
Speaker 2: thing you could do is you can make your own
Speaker 2: almond milk, which is super easy. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: ask you to soak almonds and peel them off all
Speaker 2: of what you can do, but you can just take
Speaker 2: almond butter, and you take almond butter, you put a
Speaker 2: few scoops into your blender with some water press blend,
Speaker 2: and there's your almond milk. I mean, wow, crazy easy
Speaker 2: and super cheap. So I like almond milk there. My
Speaker 2: husband is a little bit more into those plant based
Speaker 2: cheeses that are out there right now that are cocon
Speaker 2: and oil and oil based. You just have to be
Speaker 2: careful because they're not healthy and so they're not going
Speaker 2: to make your cholesterol go down. The other thing you
Speaker 2: can do. Another trick is nutritional yeast, which is high
Speaker 2: ind B twelve, which most of us need. Is a
Speaker 2: great way to get that cheesy flavor.
Speaker 1: Yes, we speak to a lot of caregivers on our show,
Speaker 1: and with many caregivers, their time is dedicated to focusing
Speaker 1: on the health and wellness of others. How do you
Speaker 1: approach nutrition with time boundaries, like finding fresh veggies, cooking
Speaker 1: whole really good meals, snacks on the go. That's something
Speaker 1: that I know I struggled with.
Speaker 2: So a couple things you can do is pre cooking.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge fan of. So don't be a embarrassed
Speaker 2: to use frozen food first of all, like embrace frozen foods,
Speaker 2: and then batch cook like cook ahead of times and
Speaker 2: buy an instapot. Instapot is like heaven on Earth. The
Speaker 2: other thing for snacks, you know, I carry those baby
Speaker 2: carrot bags around, and I carry tups of hummus around,
Speaker 2: and I carry peanut butters or almond butters, which are
Speaker 2: really good ways to get snacks. Those are sort of
Speaker 2: clever ways to get them in very clever.
Speaker 1: How can movement and physical activity aid in our approach
Speaker 1: to nutritions? Specifically, can it help our bodies absorb nutrients better?
Speaker 2: So there's nothing negative about movement? Well, okay, that's wrong.
Speaker 2: If you overdo it, as you overdo anything, you can
Speaker 2: definitely impact your health negatively. But in general, movement it's
Speaker 2: going to be really good for your body in every way.
Speaker 2: Because it helps you process your foods better. It helps
Speaker 2: your digestion better. If you have extra sugars in your body,
Speaker 2: you're going to process them better when you move. If
Speaker 2: you're eating those healthy, anti inflammatory foods, your body will
Speaker 2: move better. And so the most important thing that a
Speaker 2: person can do who has ostrothritis, they can start doing
Speaker 2: activities that cause impact. We call those weight bearing exercises.
Speaker 2: So movement where they have to walk and move is
Speaker 2: very good for ostroethritis. The problem I think where people
Speaker 2: don't move as much is because they're so darn tired.
Speaker 2: People are just tired, and I think that taking that
Speaker 2: time for that sleep, you know, really trying to stay
Speaker 2: away from television at night. And I always tell people
Speaker 2: that if the goal is to sleep first, first of all,
Speaker 2: the average person should sleep seven to adults should sleep
Speaker 2: seven to nine hours a night. Most Americans and do
Speaker 2: not do that. Seven to nine hours is accurate, yes,
Speaker 2: And you'll see that they'll people will rest more. You
Speaker 2: rest more, you eat, you'll be interested in eating more better,
Speaker 2: you'll want to eat better, you'll make better choices, and
Speaker 2: you'll want to move more just because you slept. You know,
Speaker 2: the life of the caregiver is hard, and it's usually women,
Speaker 2: isn't it. You know, we as women, we ignore our
Speaker 2: own health in favor of taking care of others. In fact,
Speaker 2: if there's random statistics that women actually they all have
Speaker 2: symptoms of angina or chest pain that's related to heart
Speaker 2: pain for so much longer before they actually go to
Speaker 2: the hospital because they downplay everything. They downplay their own
Speaker 2: symptoms and that's very very common and sort of tragic
Speaker 2: to me. Something that's why I really focus on self care.
Speaker 2: So it's tricky when you're in that situation where you
Speaker 2: have to take care of people and yourself, like, how do.
Speaker 1: I do it all?
Speaker 2: And if I give people anything, I give people that
Speaker 2: hope because as a patient myself, I was given no hope.
Speaker 2: I was told that I had an incurable illness, that
Speaker 2: I would not get better and I just needed to
Speaker 2: accept it. And that's not something that I ever want
Speaker 2: to do to anyone else. And so I think maybe
Speaker 2: if I do anything, I give them hope.
Speaker 1: Yes, And that's so important. Doctor Monica Agarwall has been
Speaker 1: so awesome speaking with you. I have been taking notes. Boy,
Speaker 1: this has this been very very enlightening. So I really
Speaker 1: appreciate talking to you today. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us on care Walks.
Speaker 2: It was an honor.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1: I want to thank doctor Agerwahl again for being my
Speaker 1: guest today. You know I'm constantly learning about my own
Speaker 1: habits and routine with each episode of this show, and
Speaker 1: I hope you will take away some valuable lessons about
Speaker 1: nutrition for you and your family. And remember keep walking
Speaker 1: and don't forget to take care of yourself too. That's
Speaker 1: it for today's episode. Don't forget to join me next
Speaker 1: week when we talk to family caregiver Lakita Casten about
Speaker 1: the importance of finding community to fend off isolation when
Speaker 1: you're a caregiver. Care Walks is produced by iHeartRadio in
Speaker 1: partnership with voltairean Arthritis pain Gel and hosted by me
Speaker 1: Holly Robinson Pete. Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our
Speaker 1: head engineer is Matt Stillo. This episode was written and
Speaker 1: produced by Sierra Kaiser, with special thanks to our partners
Speaker 1: at GSK Platform, GSK, Weber Shandwick and Domen