EP128 Crush Fear & Think Critically About Your Health with Dr. Ryan Cole, MD

Fearlessly Fertile Podcast with Rosanne Austin

This post was authored by Rosanne on Rosanne Austin.

With so much fear-mongering and statistics scaring the heck out of us about our health, here is a steady-handed voice of reason. If you are worried about age, inflammation, or whether your immune system may be rejecting your baby, you’ll love this powerful conversation. Time to take a giant step out of fear and into empowerment.

The post EP128 Crush Fear & Think Critically About Your Health with Dr. Ryan Cole, MD appeared first on Rosanne Austin.

Transcript:
Hey, gorgeous. If you want success on your fertility journey, you’ve got to have the mindset for it. It’s time to kick fear, negativity, doubt, shame, jealousy, and the whole clown car of low vibe fertility journey BS to the curb. I’m your host, Roseanne Austin, Fertility Mindset Master. Former prosecutor and recovering type A control freak perfectionist.

I use the power of mindset to get pregnant naturally and have my baby boy at 43, despite years of fertility treatment failure. I help women across the globe beat the odds on their fertility journey just like I did. Get ready for a quick hit of confidence, joy, feminine badassery, and loads of hell yes for your fertility journey.

It’s time to get fearless baby, fearlessly fertile. Let’s do this. Welcome to the Fearlessly Fertile Podcast, episode 128. Crush fear and think critically about your health with Dr. Ryan Cole, MD. Hey loves. I am so excited about this week’s episode and I want to share the inspiration behind it. I get questions as you can probably imagine from women all over the world, whether it’s on social media, from the ladies in my fearlessly fertile method program or from my VIP coaching clients.

About the current state of what’s going on in the world when it comes to health and questions about global health crises, injections, supplements, and about a zillion other things. Now, having seen some crazy shit on my own fertility journey, I know why they ask me, but as I’ve said before, and I will say again, I am not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on TV.

My doctorate is in jurisprudence, not medicine. Diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions is for those with that expertise. My piece of the fertility puzzle is mindset. Mind and body unquestionably work together. This is a fact, and I know to stay in my own lane. With what seems like a fever pitch of fear going around about health these days, I decided once again to go to another top expert in the field of health and wellness.

This time, I looked to my very own adopted home state of Idaho for that expertise, and to my delight, found Dr. Ryan Cole. My attention was drawn to Dr. Cole because of his even handed level headedness about his approach to health and wellness. Dr. Cole’s work is as much about what he does behind the microscope as it is about really explaining to people what they can do in real life to truly be healthy.

He’s a Mayo Clinic trained pathologist and has studied immunology and all kinds of great stuff, but it’s not his credentials that I think you are going to find impressive. It is his humble. and relatable approach to such an important topic. And just remember, as with anything, the information on this podcast is no substitute for the input of your own intelligence and that of a licensed medical professional that’s actually treating you.

Take nothing as gospel and do your own research and beware of so called fact checkers that are unquestionably funded by big pharma. Just keeping it real, baby, because that’s what smart people do. We do our research and think for ourselves. Here’s my conversation with a smart AF and courageous Dr. Ryan Cole.

So we’ll just get started. I know your, your time is precious. So I would love it if you would start us off by just giving the women in the Fearlessly Fertile community a little bit of information about your background. Okie dokie. I’m a Mayo Clinic trained anatomic and clinical pathologist. So what you see here, the microscope, that’s what I do most of the day.

So I see parts of patients under the microscope all day long. I do a lot of women’s health. I do a lot of pap smears. We do a lot of, you know, infectious disease testing, HPV, you know, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia. Some of the genital urinary conditions and whatnot. So my job is to, I’m the, I’m the cancer answer man and the infection answer man.

So in my career, I’ve been here in Idaho almost 19 years. I’ve been an independent physician for 18 years. I’m on the board of the Independent Doctors of Idaho, representing over 600 providers around the state. And, uh, I’ve seen about 350, 000 patients in my career, mostly parts of them. But, you know, during this past year, we’ve stepped up and done a lot of, uh, COVID testing as well.

So that’s, uh, virology and immunology are part of my training and background. And I did some PH, uh, PhD work in immunology as well. So my job is to figure out the diseases of the human body and I’m the doctor to the provider and just making sure they understand for their patient what their patient does or doesn’t have and what hopefully help them know what they do or don’t need.

Right. Oh, that’s awesome. And you know, this past year has been quite an opportunity for people to get educated and really become great advocates for themselves. And that’s really why I wanted to have you on because What you shared with the people of the state of Idaho was some really common sense, critical thinking, data based.

Information about how they can be really great advocates for themselves. And since my audience is women all over the world, uh, we were actually number 10 in Qatar. I was like, who knew? But like, you know, there’s a lot of women asking me a lot of questions about how they can best start thinking critically about the information that we tend to receive, um, which tends to be kind of.

Mainstream, I guess you could say, and how to start thinking about that and some things that they could start doing in their own lives proactively to reduce fear and to really start thinking for themselves and taking control of their health. Right. Well, to your friends in Qatar, I’ll say Salaam Alaikum.

You know, that’s a great question. And that’s the challenge I think of this last year is we get input or feedback of just It tends to be one message or we we get strong messaging In life what I like to do my job is to Be a neutral third party. So I like when I look at a piece of uh, you know Patient tissue under the microscope on a glass slide.

I don’t look at the name. I don’t look at the date of birth I want to go in unbiased So, you know, it’s the same thing in life when when you hear a message or health advice or personal advice. It’s like, okay If I were an alien from another planet coming down and listening to the conversation, if there are two opposing points of view, in order to come to a conclusion, I don’t want to hear just one point of view.

And that’s, so I always say, okay, make yourself a third party, don’t criticize, don’t demean either side, listen, and listen fully, and let both sides speak, you know, whatever the argument is, you know, political, et cetera, et cetera, scientific, health, Whatever it is, step back and say, I am an observer here. Let me observe.

And then once I have all the data, what makes sense? Cause usually the answer is at, at neither extreme, the answer usually comes somewhere in the middle. So when it comes. So personal health, you know, the challenge with modern medicine is, unfortunately, we’re seeing the death of modern medicine by guidelines.

So who pays for a study in a journal? Who sponsors that type of research? Is there a bias behind it? And if you step back and say, okay, wait a minute, they have a bias here. And then those studies get aggregated and it becomes a population statistic model. And instead of saying, wait, everybody is an individual.

I can’t treat an individual. You can’t treat yourself based on this big population based model because everybody’s there. As many people as there are in the planet are, we’re all different. We’re all the same in many ways. Don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, What works for one person may not work for another and that’s been a challenge of this past year is the system saying, Okay, here’s your guideline.

You must only be within this, this, this. You may never be right, but you may never be wrong. And then the doctor or the extender goes, Well, but I was within the guidelines. So, you know, nobody can come after me. But I think to myself, wait a minute. Isn’t there something more that we can do for that patient?

And they don’t fall under a population statistic. They’re a human being. So critically thinking is going. Okay, a Ferrari is not a Honda Civic is not a pickup truck. They’re all different. And you treat those engines differently. You, you put different fuels in, you put different oils in, you different air pressures in the tires.

So in that same concept, we as human beings, you know, what I eat makes me healthy. May be slightly different for somebody else, may be slightly different for somebody else. My hormonal balance may be slightly different from somebody else’s. And we’re such a complex algorithm as, as physical beings that, you know, one little tweak here and there that works for someone may not work for someone else.

So it’s understanding and appreciating and, and honoring that fact that we’re each individuals. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, there’s a lot of wonderful medical knowledge that we need to apply. that that can can apply to, you know, many individuals, but that doesn’t always apply to all of us. Yeah, I mean, that stands for the proposition that two things could be true at the same time.

There can be statistical data and there can be people that fall out of the statistical data that can be treated in a different way. And I mean, I bet the women You know, so many of my ladies that are listening are we get hamstrung by statistics. Dr. Cole, we freak out. We’re like, you know, you know, we’ve all heard stories where people somebody was given a 95 percent chance of dying, you know, and But they’re part of the 5%, but we spend so much time focusing on, Oh my gosh, this, you know, the statistics are, you know, the cards are stacked against me that we, we don’t think critically and say, well, what about this 5%?

Yeah. And you know, one of my favorite quotes in life was by Mark Twain, and that’s, there are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics. And so that’s the problem. I mean, you know, I, I am very data driven. Right. You can make statistics say what you want them to say. And sometimes whatever powers that be kind of use those against, you know, what somebody may not have expertise in that area.

So they’re like, well, the numbers say this, but again, why are they trying to make the numbers say that? And then again, you third party person yourself and you go, okay, what’s behind why they’re trying to make, because I can make the same argument based on same statistics, you know, like, I don’t want to get too political, but like the vaccine’s 90, 95 percent effective, like at doing what?

And so you look at the numbers at decreasing one symptom from severe to moderate, moderate to mild, and that’s using a statistic called relative risk. But what they left out of those calculations was called, you know, absolute risk reduction, ARR. So I’m going to get really complex here, but. Basically means 120 people need to get both shots for one person to have one less symptom.

And that’s not 95 percent effective. So again, you can take those numbers and statistics. And so the, the real risk reduction. If 100 people get a shot is one person less out of 100 getting covid. So it’s the number needed to treat is 100 for one person not to get covid. So, wow, I know. So it’s just you don’t hear that, you know, mainstream.

But if you go to the depth of who’s giving a message, you critically think, okay, What’s their interest? Is it a financial interest? Is it a power interest? Is it a true health interest? What’s the interest behind the information that you’re getting and is there something else out there instead of just going to our confirmation bias in our mind or our our heads saying okay, I hear this I see this they Everybody, you know comes from a different angle in life, but stepping back and going, okay Is there another point of view instead of just saying, okay, that resonates.

I like that one. I’m going to go with You step back and go there’s something else out there too. Let me listen to that And then you can understand. Okay, maybe there’s a bias here. Maybe he’s a bias there You throw away your own confirmation bias in order to critically think about something and say Okay, the answer is almost always in life.

It’s somewhere in between. Right. Right. And I love that. I mean, especially in the past year where there’s just been so much fear, so much confusion, you know, that not a lot of people are talking about the real numbers, you know, in your position. I mean, you’ve treated over 350, 000 patients and you Seen this, I mean, you are knee deep in this.

What do you think about people when you know, when they’re saying, you know, Dr. Cole, or you know, what should I think about all this? Like where would you start when you’re considering all of the information that’s coming out, you know, and all of the fear, like what would be a first thing you would encourage somebody to do, to do?

Aside from just taking a step back, being a third party? Like what would be another step? How well do you take care of yourself? That’s the first question is we each individually know our body. Are you doing the things to take care of yourself physically to shore yourself up against not just COVID, but influenza, common cold, other infections, how are you taking care of your body?

And that, I mean, that’s the foundational principle is health and wellness optimization of immune health. And beyond that, then it’s like, okay, if I know I’m not, well, what small steps you don’t have to go from zero to 90 like that, but what small steps can I take to improve my health today, tomorrow, the next day, 1 percent improvement, incremental, it doesn’t have to be okay.

I need to make this big life change. All of a sudden, some of us do don’t get me wrong, but at the same time, it’s like, What’s my health? And then, you know, we, unfortunately, we, we have turned fear into a virtue this year and in fear, suffering, here’s your only options. And when you hear a message like that, again, think to yourself, is that really true?

All you have, all you have is an option is fear and suffering. No. And what you don’t hear, again, I’m going to go to the statistics now, is how well. The if it bleeds it leads in the news in the media So if it’s not attention grabbing then it’s not going to be a headline. So when Large media sources are feeding us information They want our attention and and attention is the commodity they’re buying and stealing away from us So when you buy into that construct that everything’s a panic or everything’s a worry or everything’s a fear If you feel that fear, step back and go, wait, they’re making me fear.

Why? And that’s when I say, go to other sources and start to look. So what’s your basic help? What’s the messaging? And if it’s, if it’s putting you on edge, turn it off and then start looking elsewhere and go, okay, there’s other information out here. Like, Hey, look, if you’re under age 50, 99. 99 percent of people that got COVID survived it.

But even better than that, 100 percent if you do early treatment survived it, you don’t hear that message in the news. Hey, 99. 999 percent of people survived COVID today. And gosh, you know, those who died from COVID today were over 70 years old, obese with 2. 7, 2. 6, 3. 8, 4. 2 comorbidities. You don’t hear that in the news.

So when you hear those those fear messages, tone it down, turn your brain down, take a deep breath, be mindful and go, okay, I can’t worry about the population statistics, but I can start with me. And what can I do? Can I fast for a day or two to shift my autophagy of my old immune cells and build new ones?

Can I change my diet just a little bit and cut out things that are inflammatory, you know, be it sugars, be it Uh seed oils or fatty omega 6 oil, you know Am I vitamin d deficient? Am I taking adequate amounts of food for me in in your realm for my baby? Am I taking care? Am I putting sand in my radiator?

Am I putting the right things into my body? And so, you know look at the population and be afraid it’s not going to help you as an individual other than stress Lack of sleep actually weakens your immune system. It makes your blood cells less sticky to each other. So they can’t talk and fight off things.

So the less sleep you get, the more stressed you are, the more weakened your immune system is. So that’s kind of a, I don’t know, I’m rambling, go ahead. No, no, it’s brilliant. Because I, you know, because even though the women that I’m speaking to are acutely focused on fertility, you know, cause they’re trying to get pregnant and they’re, they’re struggling in some way.

These are common sense, very basic pieces of information that most of us don’t get, you know, I, it’s like I was a prosecutor in, in California for 10 years. Nobody even, nobody ever once whispered in my ear to think critically about medicine, to think critically about statistics. I was in such a fear based place that any number in front of me I took as, as truth.

And I felt it was wildly disempowering. And what I love about what you’re sharing is saying, Hey, take a step back. Yeah. Take a step back and look at things like in your realm, you know, if women are thinking about fertility, now I go down the rabbit holes of medicine and complexity and whatnot, what we don’t hear and what we haven’t heard from the pulpits anywhere this year is public health messages.

Here’s how you can improve your health. So like when it goes to fertility. 80 percent of Americans are metabolically unwell and insulin resistant. And about the number 1, 2, 3 things that causes infertility is insulin resistance. Wow. Right? Yeah. And so in terms of, you know, what does that mean? So what’s your fasting insulin?

What’s your fasting glucose? How quickly do you process food? And, and the more sugars and carbohydrates and again, fatty seed oils. To take, you know, say canola oil, soybean oil, grapeseed oil, um, safflower, sunflower, um, leaving a couple out. I know peanut, peanut oil, all those oils, those Omega six oils, those are all inflammatory.

So between the high fructose corn syrup in the population’s diet, 80 percent of the processed foods, if it’s processed, basically it’s adding to infertility. So those, those inflammatory oils, uh, too much sugar, too much high fructose corn syrup. And read a label and does it have soybean this or this oil or that oil if it is and you’re truly trying to Optimize your health if you’re eating those things infertility a lot of the time comes from the fact that your immune system is overreact and attacking and preventing conception if you can shift that inflammation Into a calm pattern by again avoiding things and we don’t get that message It’s like willy nilly eat what you want, you know live how you want, etc No, there are consequences unfortunately, and i’m not you know, i’m not blaming anyone.

I’m just saying these are some Medical facts that you don’t hear from your just typical doctor Like well, we can give you this pill or give you that pill and maybe it’ll help. It’s like what can I do? What about me my body? Am I treating it as a fine piece of machinery? Am I treating it as a temple? Am I treating it as something that, you know, God, nature, the universe, whatever, gave to me and optimizing it, protecting it in a way that can give life?

And there’s a rabbit hole too. One, one area that’s fascinating in, in some women with like polycystic ovary disease, you can, you can reverse some of those conditions too. Again, through diet, um, you can do some immune modulation too. I don’t know if you’ve ever studied low dose naltrexone. I’ve heard of that, but I, I haven’t done any study on that.

That’s a fascinating, I’ve been on it two years for, uh, you know, another condition, but yeah, it, it helped bring back my health. It was amazing. Um, so if that’s another rabbit hole, that’d be a whole, right? That was anyway, optimizing yourself. And, and again, it goes down to the individual response. How do you change the world?

You don’t go out and be an activist. Start with the responsibilities around you. Like Jordan Peterson says, make your bed there. Oh, love Jordan. Right. Step one, you’ve done something responsible in your own environment. How can you change the world? If you can’t manage yourself, same thing with, with our health, it’s like we can panic and worry about what’s happening to the rest of the world.

Or we can optimize who we are as a physical entity and being by putting the proper inputs in and avoiding the improper inputs as well. Right. Oh, that’s brilliant. And I love that. It’s like, okay, take a deep breath, take a step back. Think critically about who is providing the information and, and what the bias is, because there’s always a bias and, and for better or worse, that’s how it is, but at least consider that there is a bias and then look to yourself.

How can I, like, what am I doing in my life? Right. Make some personal responsibility. Imagine that to lovingly ask, Hey, how can I, you know, impact my health today as an Yeah, and it’s very resonant. You know, your body, you know, your brain, you know, when you’re on, you know, when you’re off. And then you can just reflect and say, okay, what have I done or what haven’t I done that has shifted the state I’m in right now?

And to your point, take that deep breath, be mindful, be, if you’re prayerful, be prayerful, if you’re meditative, be meditative, whatever it is that will calm and clear the mind, and then you can self reflect and not blame it on the world, not blame it on anyone else. Take that first step of saying, okay, within myself, what can I do?

And that’s that first critical thinking step. Yeah. Yeah. And I always tell my ladies, I’m like, look, you know, just because somebody has a white lab coat and yours is pretty awesome. But like, you know, just because somebody has a white lab coat on doesn’t make them an authority on you. They’re an authority on the information they have.

you. Right. I can take th Oh, no, no, I love it. I No, no, no. But I, but yo bow down and don’t always you, if you don’t feel co somebody isn’t comfortabl I make, I say, good, get I’m the authority boy. That’s in my mind. MD means make a difference in some doctors minds. It means minor deity And i’m like no no if you get with some of the and and don’t get me wrong.

They’re Fantastic physicians everywhere, but there are some that say my word my authority That’s when you gotta be really careful if they’re not willing to be, I’m always willing to be wrong in life. I don’t want to be wrong, it’s not my job to be wrong, but if you’re willing to be wrong, you’re always willing to learn.

Right. So if something isn’t resonating, then you say, Huh, where should I go for a second opinion, third opinion? And that happens on complex cases, diagnostically even. It’ll go to two, three, four experts around the country and we’ll do, you know, two, three, five, ten different genetic tests. And sometimes the answer is we don’t know and that’s another honest answer in life that one has to be willing to To accept or hear is there just isn’t an answer yet And and that has to be a comfortable place to land is in the discomfort sometimes of not knowing but the willingness The willingness to be able to say I don’t know and that sometimes is the most honest answer Oh, I wish there were like, I don’t know, a million of you, Dr.

Cole, nobody’s going to be like Dr. Cole, but like, I love this. I mean, this is going to be so inspiring for so many women to hear a very, you know, to hear a physician with such a, you know, such humility, you know, to, to understand that, Hey, this is part of the picture, but it’s not all of it. Right. And, and to really be encouraging people to take that responsibility and think critically.

And that’s an important point. If you don’t mind me interrupting. Oh, no, please. I love it. You know, as a physician, the challenge that we have is sometimes, unfortunately, the way the system’s designed, we don’t get as much time as we would really like to with that patient. So when you come to the physician, In my experience over the years, nine times out of 10, the patient gives you the diagnosis.

If you as the clinician will just sit back and go, okay, tell me the story and you listen and you listen, you may prompt with a question or two, but you listen, you listen, you listen. Nine times out of 10, the patient tells you in so many words, what they have. So it’s important. It’s critically important as the patient going into any provider to be a good storyteller, be able to put that timeline together, be able to put the symptoms together, be able to put everything together.

And if you have a good clinician, they’re going to listen more than they talk. That’s, you know, Dr. Larry Pilevsky was talking about that as well, is like going back to that old school diagnostic where you actually have a conversation. Yeah, just like you’re laying out here. That’s fantastic. And, you know, and it would be awesome if you would share some of those, these common sense things that you shared at the Capitol about this.

I’m taking care of ourselves and the role of vitamin D and all of this other good stuff that you had been talking about. Cause I remember when I was listening to the talk that you gave, I was like, please don’t stop him from talking. I was My husband and I were like, Oh, this is brilliant. But you had, you were talking about how a lot of us are running around immune suppressed and we don’t even know it.

We, we are. Uh, and, and you know, vitamin D is, is a major factor. Most people think, Oh, it’s one of those vitamins. No, it’s a cruel hormone and it controls directly or indirectly 2000 genes in our body. And it’s the master key to our immune response. It ramps it up appropriately and all those different genes.

Every cell in your body has a receptor for vitamin D on it for a reason. And so those genes, they all crosstalk. Okay. Ramp up, ramp up. Okay. Appropriately responded. Now, vitamin D if it’s present, we’ll say, okay, now you turn off, you turn off, you turn off, okay. These immune cells turn off. Everybody ramped down.

Okay. Now we’re calm. We’re recovered. If you don’t have those signals present, if D is absent, then the, all the signals get crossed and go haywire and keeps ramping, ramp, ramping until you have a cytokine storm or you, you’re over responsive in, in your immune response. So, you know, it’s not just vitamin D with vitamin D.

I, I, 70 percent of North Americans are vitamin D deficient. We look at other countries where COVID hit the hardest is where you have most D deficiency. Adipose being fat that adds to being overweight that adds to it because your vitamin D goes to your fat. And if you want to move your vitamin D from your fat to your circulation, you have to have magnesium on board.

But guess what? 80 percent of North Americans are magnesium deficient because their soils are depleted. So what are you putting into your body? So if you’re going to take D, you need to be taking magnesium at bedtime. And I could cure probably 50 percent of osteoporosis alone. I don’t tell women to take calcium, I tell them to take magnesium.

It helps move, move the calcium back to the bone where it belongs. If your magnesium is present in normal numbers. With that as well, vitamin K2. So vitamin K2 helps balance. Magnesium and calcium as well as it can even move calcium from plaqued arteries back into the bones. If you have adequate vitamin K2 with your vitamin D, you can literally reverse atherosclerosis.

So, I mean, there’s so many things intertwined. Vitamin D is a major factor. are adiposity. Yes, we are an overweight nation, you know, 42 percent obesity rate. And then in some of the ethnic populations, I’m on a federal committee for COVID disparities in ethnic groups and trying to help explain just the pathophysiology and things that are public health messages.

So yeah, losing weight is important. You know, if, I mean, there are, there are unhealthy thin people as well. Don’t get me wrong. Right. you know, generally being overweight tends to be an inflammatory condition because of the inputs most americans do put into their bodies, but not just americans around the world.

I know there’s a sugar and a sweet tooth problem and a vitamin D deficiency problem around the world. Um, you know, certain cultures that that, you know, are very strict and don’t have imbibe in alcohol or or other substances there. Cheat is sweets instead. And so that’s not overall good for our health either.

Sleep is critical. I mentioned that, you know, if you get into a regular sleep cycle, that optimizes your immune health. What was ironic about this last year too, is lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. One of the most important things for your innate, your T cells, your immediate response immune system. Is to be outside nature.

And you know, there are chemicals or, or microbes we get from the soil that give us different signals that will boost your immune response. In Japan, they call it forest bathing, where you go for a walk in the forest, but they literally, before you go for a walk, they check your T-cell, your T-cell activity, your natural killer cells after you go for a 30 minute, hour walk in the forest.

literally because of the inputs of the environment, those T cells are more active and ramped up. So it’s literally being out in nature. Obviously, sunshine is great for you to just so many simple things we can do. Move our bodies, be out in nature, avoid the junk in the diet, eat the healthy things, make sure your vitamin D levels are doing well.

If you’re going to take D, make sure you’re taking vitamin K two and magnesium as well. Make sure that you are resting. Stress also messes with our immune system. So again, when you hear that fear, a basic approach is I can’t do anything about the world fear, but I can do something in my own self. I love that.

I love that because I work on mindset, you know, with the women that I help. And, you know, so if you wouldn’t mind, I mean, I’d love to talk about. You know, just giving women who are listening who maybe this is the first time they’re stopping to think critically, you know, and it’s totally understandable because when, when we’re, when we feel like we’re in a place where something we desire very much is at stake, that there is that overwhelming fear.

What if I don’t get, you know, this or what do I, I don’t have the family that I want, but I’m talking more about this overall fear of what’s going on in the world. Like, do we really have anything to be afraid of based on the data you are seeing as a clinician, you know, as a pathologist and, you know, speaking with other experts all over the world?

I mean, should we be afraid? No, no. And, and again, now we’re going to go back to statistics, but overall, this was a bad flu season overall, 80 percent of those who passed away and God bless all of them and their families. But 80 percent of those who passed away were 70 or older. Those who passed away that were younger had an average of 2.

6 comorbidities, be it heart disease, diabetes, asthma, cancer, etc. So. You know your body, you know your comorbidities if you have some of those. Yes, then there are things you can do be afraid No, I think the number one way to start thinking in life is not well What if I don’t what if I don’t but rather what if I do and that positive thought I mean those positive Intentions literally stimulate hormones, literally will go to your adrenal glands, they’ll affect your endorphins, that’s your natural opioid system, your metencephalins, those are your natural happy hormones your body is capable of producing, so that positive mindset, and, and, and again, if you, if you step back and look at what really happened, what we’re being told is not what really happened in terms of the numbers, so the numbers are here.

pretty close to normal numbers of deaths. But instead of it being attributed to death from heart disease, it was death from covid. But it was really heart disease. And if you tease all of those things out, you can play the statistics and numbers game. But my answer is If you’re middle aged like me, no matter where you are in life, I mean, I know 80 year olds that are incredibly physically active.

I know, um, people who are young and inactive, there are things we can do. And the other, the other challenge in life is The moment you stop learning the moment you stop being curious about how you can change or improve is the moment you die So I like to say some people die at 25, but aren’t buried until they’re 85 so And and knowledge is my personal drug of choice I mean, I love learning new things and even with my kids at the dinner table and in Retrospect a lot of my I hated when you do that dad.

I’d say Your day isn’t complete until you’ve learned something new today. And so at dinner time it would be, Hey, what new thing did you learn today? Like, okay, dad. But at the same time, now that they’re, they’re growing and launching and doing their own things, they look back and go, Oh, love learning. And same thing.

If you’re kind of stuck in that rut or you’re afraid, the first step is learn something. And it doesn’t matter what whether it’s i’m going to study butterflies or i’m going to study covet or i’m going to study art or i’m going to Learn how physics of lenses works, whatever it is Getting your mind engaged in the learning process for the joy of learning Takes you away from the stressors of life and and it becomes a new hobby.

I I another thing I talk about is You know, in life, people should never retire. They should only rewire. Oh, I love that. Refocus your energy. So if you’ve come to a place over this past year of fear and paralysis, look at it as an opportunity. Whenever you come to a fork in the road, take it. It doesn’t matter which way.

Just take the road. I mean, there it is. It’s a new opportunity to take this work or that for it, but, but be moving forward in life, be doing something purposeful. And sometimes again, for our health and wellness, it’s not, what can I do for me? But what can I do for someone else matters just as much. How can I be part of my community?

Who can I, you know, I, I felt sorry for myself because I had no coat. Then I saw the man who had no shoes. So it’s that same concept. You know, we can, Oh, what was to me and my condition is challenging, etc. We all have challenges in life. Welcome to life. That’s the blessing of life. Is how we manage the fear and the suffering with grace and dignity in a mindset of growth or feeling overwhelmed and cowering and running away.

But if we take that approach to one, improve self, but then two, don’t go try to change the world, but impact someone else for good. Same thing, happy hormones happen. So just happy hormones. I mean, stepping outside of ourself, giving of ourselves to others. literally can impact how our body reacts. So, I mean, if we’re stressed and stuck within ourselves and our own mindset, you know, probably one of the best things you can do for feeling down or depression is not wallowing in self, but doing something for someone else.

And so, again, that really affects your own body’s Well, it affects your community for the better for one, but two, it does, you know, the selfish gene, it’s actually improving your wellbeing and status as well. Yes. I, you know, I appreciate that Dr. Cole and, you know, thank you so much for sharing that because, you know, in a very short period of time, we were able to get how to think critically in the face of what’s going on in the world or what’s even going on in our own lives with a diagnosis, whether it’s fertility or otherwise.

And then looking at personal responsibility, really seeing ourselves as a whole supplementing where, you know, it makes sense and also being, you know, connected in the community like we’re not just cheap, you know, there, there’s so much more to us. Yes. And, and there’s so much more to think about. And ultimately, do not be afraid.

What an important message for all of us to be hearing right now. Don’t be afraid on your fertility journey. You don’t have to be afraid of what’s, you know, what’s out there. You know, we have to think critically about all of this and find ourselves in a place where we can take control of our lives.

Absolutely. Absolutely. It starts with you. And, and, you know, as we are an individual, we are all part of a community. I mean, same thing, your body, you have a community of, of gut microbiomes and skin, skin organisms, et cetera. Your body is a community. So how you treat that community is how that community treats you.

Same thing, how you treat yourself. with, you know, either fear and remorse and loathing versus treating yourself with goodness and kindness and feeding your mind and soul with good things that affects your health. And then if you are healthy and well because of that, then it’s going to impact those around you as well.

It’s all interconnected and you don’t have a heart system and a lung system and a brain system and a gut system. They’re all intertwined. You are one whole. It’s an integrated body that you have. And so, so goes your gut. So goes your brain. So goes your brain. So goes your heart. It’s all intertwined. So, you really need to think about yourself as something critically intertwined, integrated, interconnected.

And, and, you know, it all starts with you. And don’t get me wrong. That’s what other people are there for. They’re there to, just like I’m saying, you need to help others. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I’m not very good at that. Don’t give me one of my big weaknesses. Somebody, a lot of people like I need to clone myself and people will remind me.

No, what you need to do is stop and ask for help. Like, Oh yeah, I do. Don’t I? So it just being, being humble enough to stop and say, okay, I’ve come to that point in that knowledge journey where I’m stuck. But where’s a mentor? Where is somebody I can learn from? And whether it be a book, a podcast, uh, a search, whatever, but finding someone else that’s willing to take your hand and take you on that journey of knowledge in the direction you’re going.

So having a mentor is critical as well. Being humble enough, you know, admittedly, look, there’s so many things I’m still learning every day. And it’s like, okay, who can I go to in that area to learn from learn with a critical ear? Like I was saying before, critical thinking and say, okay, this guru is saying that, and that guru is saying that I have no guru, but I have a critical thinking brain, but I can still reach for mentors and try to learn.

I love that approach. I mean, that would have changed when I think back on my own fertility journey. If I had somebody like you saying that to me. It would have rocked my world in the best possible way. I mean, it certainly would have shaken up the paradigm, but it’s so empowering to be able to think that we as individuals can have that much impact on our health and, and, and our outcomes.

So, wow. I am so grateful that you’re out doing the work that you’re doing, Dr. Cole. I mean, you and other independent physicians that are out there really standing for critical thinking. And empowering the individual. It’s such a blessing to the world. So keep fighting Dr. Cole. Like I love it. Get out there.

You’re doing amazing work and thank you for sharing your work with us today. Oh, it’s it’s an honor and it’s blessing. I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m just one small voice out there amongst many I you know, there’s so many fantastic people to to learn from i’m just grateful to just be one One small part in this greater whole trying to do good.

So thank you so much for the opportunity Yeah. And you’re representing Idaho quite well, sir. So keep rocking that out. Thank you. I will give it a good college try. Thanks so much. OMG loves. Didn’t you want to just shrink Dr. Cole and carry him around in your pocket? Who knew that someone who has treated over 350, 000 patients and be so successful could be so approachable.

Humble and open. It’s also super awesome that he knows the power of the mind body connection. There’s no way you didn’t walk away with at least three kick ass ahas from that combo. The question is, what are you going to do with this information? And here’s why this is so important. Love, when you make the decision to get out of fear and into critical thinking, you can crush the blocks between you and your baby.

There is a point when we all get to a place where DIY just doesn’t work. And just like what Dr. Cole was talking about, this is what having a mentor is perfect for, especially a mentor that has lived this journey, beaten the odds. And has a proven track record of being able to effectively teach other women to do the same.

Kind of like yours truly. Think critically about how you are going to use the remaining handful of months, weeks left in this year. Will you linger in fear or will you be proactive and set yourself up to make the seemingly impossible possible? Once and for all, my fearlessly fertile method program is for women who intend to get pregnant in the next 12 months and say hell yes, to covering their bases, mind and body.

I work with women who are committed to success. To apply for an interview for this program, go to my website, www.FromMaybeToBaby.com and apply for an interview there. My methodologies help women around the world make their mom dreams come true. Their results speak for themselves. If you don’t have a mindset for success on this journey, baby, you got a gaping hole in your strategy.

Let’s fix that shit and set you up for success. Don’t let the block between you and your baby be you. Till next time, change your mindset, change your results. Love this episode of the Fearlessly Fertile podcast? Subscribe now and leave an awesome review. Remember, the desire in your heart to be a mom is there because it was meant for you.

When it comes to your dreams, keep saying hell yes.