The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
Skin Deep: The Power of Prebiotics for Healthy Skin W/ Kelly Graham
Dive into a powerful and inspiring conversation with Kelly Graham, the founder of Aleavia, as she shares her journey from a life plagued by chronic migraines and health challenges to establishing a skincare brand that champions gut-skin health. In this episode, we explore Kelly's personal struggles, including her radical shift toward integrative medicine after witnessing the limitations of conventional treatments for herself and her daughter.
Kelly sheds light on the revolutionary concepts of prebiotics and probiotics, explaining how these natural elements can balance the skin's microbiome and lead to healthier skin. Alongside her insights on product formulation, she emphasizes the importance of dietary choices, hydration, and sleep in maintaining overall wellness. From heartwarming customer success stories to the challenges of entrepreneurship, this episode presents a holistic view of health and beauty.
Join us as we uncover the motivations behind Aleavia’s creation and discuss how fostering a healthy skin ecosystem is not only vital for beauty but paramount for overall well-being. Discover practical tips for integrating healthier habits into your life and learn how you, too, can embark on a journey of healing and empowerment. Don't miss this opportunity to step into a conversation that promises to inspire rigorous health changes and deeper understanding! Be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review to connect with our growing community.
Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/
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Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
The views, opinions and statements expressed by our guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Dr Jason Littleton or the Concierge Doc Podcast. We do not endorse or take responsibility for any statements, claims or perspectives shared in this content. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and form their own conclusions.
Speaker 2:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and healthcare topics. The information Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete. Variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, ceo and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine, dr Jason Littleton, and today we have an excellent podcast. I'm really, really excited. We have the CEO and founder of Olivia, kelly Graham, and she's going to talk about her company today and how it's helped her and others. She's also a patient in my concierge medicine practice and we're going to talk about that as well and, of course, I'm going to ask her how she moved. Eat, drink, sleep the four health laws to wellness that I talk about in my book Energize. Again, I'm really, really excited. Welcome to the podcast, kelly, thank you. Thank you for coming on. I just want to just start off with, right off the bat? Why, alevia? Why did you develop this company and then tell us about your skincare line?
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you. Well, really, I mean I always joke around and say it's kind of like a ready fire aim, I mean, because the way everything evolved and happened it was so crazy. I mean it's just amazing that I'm here and this is here. We're 10 years in. We have grown exponentially, but really it started out of hardship, out of my health and, um, my two daughters.
Speaker 3:I had really really difficult pregnancies, um, and after faith was born, I had complete muscle atrophy from being in bed for a hundred days and, um, I just never felt right. I started having back issues after she was born and I started having really bad migraine headaches and so I was kind of on this path to try to get myself feeling well and I was having a really difficult time and I quit my job. I worked for a big company for 15 years and I decided to stay home full time with the girls, and so I was probably about eight years in with them staying home and when faith got to be about, and this whole time I'm still trying to figure out my health journey.
Speaker 1:I'm having a hard time.
Speaker 3:So I was dealing strictly conventionally and then I started to do more integrative. So around 2010, 2011, I got really into integrative as well, with my health and through supplementation, through diet, through different means to try to help with my migraine situation, hormone situation, um. So basically I was changing my life at that time and at the same time my daughter, faye she was having really bad skin issues and she was having this problem called KP or keratosis pilaris.
Speaker 3:And you can see it on the back of people's arms and hers was really, really bad. And it was crazy because my pediatrician at the time was like, well, you know, it's so bad we need to do like steroid creams. And I was becoming more holistic in my journey and I was like there has to be a better way to help heal these type of issues. Be a better way to help heal these type of issues. Well, I met and it was it was really a fluke, but I met a biologic chemist who specializes in live organisms, organisms and in prebiotics and at the time this was like around 2010, 2011,. And nobody was talking about prebiotics and he told me he said I work in environmental first, but I found the environment, that the bacteria in the environment is the same as the bacteria on the skin and how you heal it. And it's all about balancing the ecosystem. We have an ecosystem in the, in our environment. We have an ecosystem on our skin, right, so we have over. I mean, we have billions of bacteria on our skin and on our body, um, at all times, and it's good and bad bacteria and how you balance that ecosystem is how you what dictates how your, how your skin performs if it's balanced and if you do or don't have issues. So he gave me a variation of this. This is our first product that we ever came out with. It's only seven ingredients. And he said try this on her, have her bathe in it and follow up with the spray. And the spray is actually a 30 times stronger concentrate of prebiotics. So this is actually a really, really, really important product for people that have skin issues.
Speaker 3:And in 30 days her keratosis pilaris was completely cleared up. And what's crazy is is I happened to snap a picture. I normally, but her skin was so bad I was I just took a picture out in the sunlight and then in 30 days I took another picture and I was like this is crazy. And so it just more than anything, it was like a mom that was like, okay, the light bulb went off and I was like what mom would not want this option for their kids? So for me it was more like a mom for a kid and I called him on the phone and I said can you please come over? I want to hear your story, I want to know more about what you're doing.
Speaker 2:I mean, you were extremely intuitive, you know, as you went through that season in your life and when you created the company. And I think one of the things that you said that I loved is the use of prebiotic and probiotic. And I want to bring that up because our skin is one of our main defense lines, along with other aspects of our immune system, and if that ecosystem is not right, well then the person's more prone to infection.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we can talk about the bombardments right. So what are some of the bombardments that we deal with every day? You know fragrance.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I mean horrible endocrine disruptor for the, for the things that we're not even aware of environmental outside exactly right all the things that you're subject to on a daily basis disrupt the skin sun.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean it all disrupt, disrupts the skin microbiome, and so basically it is. And then what we put on it to clean it? Right? So we've been so conditioned to use regular soap, lathering soap with chemicals in it. And so what does it do? It strips everything. It doesn't just strip the good or the bad, it strips all of it, right?
Speaker 3:So then what happens is that you're constantly, your skin is having to replenish the bacteria in order to try to keep up, to be balanced, exactly. So then this is what causes problems, like you know rosacea and eczema and acne on the skin. So the whole premise behind prebiotic is keep the probiotic that is on your skin, the good and bad probiotic that is already on your skin, all the time, that is moving and multiplying at a very fast rate on your skin, and then feed it, and you feed it with a prebiotic. And so what happens? The healthy bacteria on the skin starts to kind of go crazy on the skin and it says, okay, this is good stuff, this is food, this is food. And then your skin starts to change and all of a sudden, you notice rosacea going away, the redness starts to go away.
Speaker 2:The acne starts to Clearer, more vibrant skin.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, and we do this all working with algae and with sea kelp, and so he has a really special process where he takes the alkali, extracts the alkali out of the sea kelp and also dead sea salt. Dead sea salt also is really important in the process too, and that creates we put this in and we blend it for two days. So it takes two days to blend one barrel of our product. It's a really really special product, so, and then after that we add oil, essential oils in and a very simple. So all of our products are really simple. This is seven ingredients.
Speaker 3:This is what put us on the map and it was crazy because this was like 2011. And this is before Instagram really kind of took off, and so I told my husband he thought I was crazy to want to even start this venture, but I said I'll just start in the state of Florida, I'll just start selling, going to the health food stores, cause that again, at that time, social media wasn't really taken off like it is now, and I I would go to the health food stores and they would correct me when I was talking and they're like prebiotic, you mean probiotic, right? Because nobody was talking about it. So I started this out of my passion and love, yet it wasn't catching on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, just for the listeners, just to go over those terms like the prebiotic is food that the bacteria in our skin or the probiotic eats, so that they can be healthy and they create that ecosystem.
Speaker 3:I just want to, you know, and so, when you think about it now, it has become so popular that now, when we talk about it, which one is actually more important? Because you can put the probiotic. You can take a probiotic internally for your gut, right, right, but it's not going to do what it's supposed to do unless you feed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Well, that's a good point.
Speaker 3:So the prebiotic has to play the pivotal role to feed the probiotic in order for it to do what it has to do on the skin, in your gut. The whole connection of the gut-skin-brain connection, All of it's the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just did a recent podcast where we had Dr Parth and Andy on and we were talking just exactly about that about that.
Speaker 2:And it's so important when it comes to your immune system. You know having healthy, you know an ecosystem as far as the bacteria in your skin that being healthy, or the probiotic, quote unquote. And you know, my question that I have for you is you know how do we know, like, if someone is not using this product and they're using soaps and they're they're lathering is that is that really? And you kind of said that, but I'm assuming that's, that's that's hurting our skin ecosystem.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, that's the biggest fallacy is that we've grown up with soaps and body soaps, that when we put them on, when they lather, we're thinking clean Right.
Speaker 2:But really that's just a chemical.
Speaker 3:Right, it's a chemical to make that reaction.
Speaker 2:It removes oils.
Speaker 3:Yes, and it removes oils. And so that's why all of our products are called cleanses or wash, because it's a wash, yeah, and it's there to actually feed your skin and keep things stable, the ecosystem stable on the skin. But that's been our biggest thing. People hear about our product and then they're like, oh, I want to try it. And then, the biggest complaint, they'll look into our customer services. How do I use this product? Because it's just like I put it in and it's, you know, clear, and so we educate them. And you know, now, it's like we put it in and it's, you know, right, clear, right, and so we educate them. And you know, now, it's like we have such a huge following. Everybody just kind of knows yeah they know that.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is, this is how we wash yeah and if you want more um lather, I always say get a loofah like a loofah sponge, put it on there, rub it with your hands and you'll create some lather, and that way it goes a lot further on the skin.
Speaker 2:That is brilliant. I mean especially now where there's so many toxins out there and we want to protect the immunity of our skin. This product seems so invaluable. I mean this, this, this just seems like it should. Everyone should be using this.
Speaker 3:Well, and what's kind of been really cool about watching this company evolve is when we started in 2011,. You know, again, I had had a really successful career for 15 years. My husband was doing insurance and real estate, so it wasn't like we were in this position where we, you know, it was about money or finances. For me, it was a 100% passion. I came to him and I said I think I know what I want to do for the second half of my life. I'll never forget it. I went to his office and looked at him and he looked at me and he said this is crazy. Like you don't feel well, you're trying to take care of yourself, but I had so much passion around this that I said I'm going to bring it to market.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And so it took us a year and I couldn't believe it. It was like Doug said he was on board and he was like all right, I'm going to help you do this thing, even while he was doing his other stuff and um, now it's turned into a multimillion dollar business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's crazy because when we first started, there were so many days where I lay in bed and I'd be like what am I doing? And this is what I want to, um, tell other small brands that are just getting started and maybe feel that way and they have a really good product. There were so many times where I was like this is never going to catch on, like no one's going to. You know, feel what I'm feeling.
Speaker 3:And then that same day I'd get a testimony that you healed my baby's rosacea or eczema or cradle cap or whatever it was, and I'd be I would take it as a sign from God that keep going.
Speaker 1:Everything is babysit. Everything, yeah, and I would take it as a sign from God that keep going. Everything is babysitting.
Speaker 3:Everything. Yeah, and we have such a huge following with babies. I mean it's crazy. I mean this is a family brand. Yeah, and that's what's great. When you buy a $20 bottle of body wash, the whole family can use it. Wow, and the men can even shave with it. They can put it as a shampoo. We had, I mean all of it. But so, and that's what I wanted when we created this. I'll never forget when I was in the room with our chemist and with Doug, I said I want it to be reasonably priced and I want to. I want people that have an issue with their baby skin or their skin or what have you. I want them to be able to afford it, to try it and for it to work for them. So it took a long time, a long time.
Speaker 2:But it's such a genius product. Yeah, I mean, just as we're talking about it. I'm just like, really everyone should be using this if you want to optimize your immunity.
Speaker 2:You know I mean it's just it should be part of people's program and I mean I just I loved how you explained it and broke it down and and and really discuss the development you know of your product to where it is now. And now you know one of the questions I want to ask you in your health journey, you know, how has it made a difference with where you are today and how are you feeling today? Let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Well, I want to talk a little bit about how really social media and Instagram really changed things for us. So about six years ago, it just started when Instagram came on and influencers came on and people that were in health and nutrition chiropractor, physicians, dermatologists, all that they all started seeing this product on there, and now what's happened is is we're all over the country and what I love is that we're in wellness spas, we're in dermatologist offices, we are with nutritionists, and I love that because they see the value of like this is what you need to be doing while you're trying to get your insights going or you're trying to get on a good plan for your health and wellness and your diet or whatever. You need to be using Alevea. So that's been super fun to watch that whole category blow up for us, and so now it's it's like I call it our tribe.
Speaker 3:We have people that have been buying from us for 10 years now, so our our average rate of people that buy again is over 75%. Wow, so we retain our customers for a really long time, and so we're kind of like family, and so that's kind of where we've evolved. So now we're growing. We're bringing new products to the mix with our body washes. We added a men's. This is crazy.
Speaker 3:We added this men's wash in the fall fall of last year and it's already like our number three seller wow and this just goes to show you that this was missing all the all the wives were like this is what we have been wanting is a men's clean body wash that they can use, and it's been fun to watch this one just completely take off.
Speaker 2:So, like what you know, you have to be getting just tons of testimonies from men.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have. We have thousands of testimonies now at this point in time, and Amazon is crazy. It just has blown up for us. And what was wild is during COVID. Actually, we didn't know what was going to happen with our business, unlike you know, probably most everybody. It was the unknown. But what happened is our business just went through the roof because everybody was just ordering, not going to the store, and they were ordering on Amazon or directly on our site. So it's been a really interesting um time to to do this and I guess, um, I've done all this while I've been trying to deal with my own health and wellness journey, so it's been humbling. It's humbling how I've had to depend on my husband to help me a lot when I'm not feeling well and, um, he's just been incredible. We're completely opposite. I am like the person for sales, for new product development.
Speaker 3:I'm constantly working on new things, I deal with all the influencers and people on social media and he handles all the logistics, and so we make a really, really great team because he it's just amazing what he does on a daily basis to help run this business. I mean, especially to the size that it's come to now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and that's something that I really want to get into because, you know, I take care of a lot of business owners and CEOs in my concierge practice and one of the things that I have found as a trend is that these people want to stay ultra healthy. Yes, because they're always on the go, they're the originators of their idea Right, and they have to really stay in tip top shape shape physically, but also mentally, so they can come up with new ideas, innovate and feeling well, being well. I mean, that's like.
Speaker 3:That's the backdrop right being a successful entrepreneur, right?
Speaker 2:um, I mean how I would like you to talk about how do you do it all in the midst of that and then, and knowing what I know about you as your doctor, but also, how has all of this evolved to where you are now and what are you doing now and again, I want you to put that in the context of you know we've talked about you know, move, eat, drink, sleep.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Those four principles that I have talked about. You know, designed and wrote about in my book, energized Again. Obviously, it creates, informs, the word MEDS, that acronym, and I feel like that's so important because you know you can take a lot of supplements, you can take a lot of medicines, you can hear a lot of advice, but at the end of the day, how you exercise, exercise, eat, hydrate, drink and sleep, it's just like that's just the core of good, healthy living.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:How do you, can you expand about that in the midst of everything you know, olivia, everything where you're at now and where you're going from there?
Speaker 3:Yes. So firstly, just to be, you know, open, and you being my doctor, you know I suffer from chronic migraine and terrible back issues, so really I call it chronic pain and so it's. It's been a really hard journey to juggle that situation and you, you know, you've been there for me in situations where it's been really bad and, um, sometimes I'm like I can't do it, like I, I just wondered how in the world I could keep going. But, um, I just, I just did, and with with a ton of help from my husband too, when I would be out or in the bed for four or five, six days at a time with a migraine and I just couldn't do it, he would take over. And so I realized that, um, you have to keep searching, you have to keep learning and you have to keep.
Speaker 3:You know, what am I missing about this equation in my life? With chronic pain and I know I'm speaking to a lot of people out there right now that deal with chronic pain and I had to make some really big changes and I thought I was doing really well with supplementation and I thought I was eating really well. But then when you really start getting into how you sleep and how you move and how you eat, and you really want to make a difference. You got to go deep. And that's what I've loved about you being my doctor, because you don't think I'm crazy, you know. I mean, when we talk, I mean there are times for conventional medicine and it has gotten me out of some serious fines. I mean there's times when I've been on the phone with you and you've been like no, you have to go to the ER. And then then when I'll, when I talk to you about hey, um, this is what I'm trying, or whatever, you've never once looked at me like you're crazy.
Speaker 2:Instead, you're like great, go for it.
Speaker 3:Great, go for it.
Speaker 2:You know I understand it's about finding the right combination.
Speaker 2:You know it's about finding whether it is the right combination of supplements, medications, routine therapy. It's about finding the right combination. It can't be a cookie cutter response. There's always an answer Exactly. And it's about and it's a journey, and it's a journey. It's something that and I think you were just talking about it. When you were saying that you know it's like you keep going, you were kind of describing how you don't give up and you have to do that, and you were talking to people that are listening to this podcast, because there are a lot of people out there that I think have that want to give up, they want to give up, they want to give up and they feel like there's no hope.
Speaker 2:And if they feel like there's no hope and I want you to talk to this because there I think there are people feel things in their body, symptoms that sometimes it may be difficult for them to articulate, and if a physician looks at them and examines, listens to their heart and lungs and says, okay, everything sounds good, we're not finding anything, but yet they haven't perfectly lined up exactly what the patient's feeling and experiencing, you know, it's like that separation or that difference between what the patient is feeling, the signs that they might be showing, and what the physician may understand.
Speaker 2:There could be a wide gap sometimes and I think it can create kind of a hopelessness in where a person does want to give up. You felt that way before. You've been there, what do you say to people who feel they're now and they might not have the resources or the help, or what's your message for them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and this is great because we talked about this offline before we came on here and you were like, how far do you want to go?
Speaker 3:And I said I think it's important to be vulnerable and real because I think what people see on social media and what they see, they see this perfect scenario, right. They see like, oh, they see this girl and has this great family and just thriving business and all that and not all the days where you can't get out of bed and where you have sciatica going down your legs and you just you can hardly move and you just feel debilitated and you feel defeated. But you do have to. I have had the resources to have amazing doctors like yourself, and you've put me in touch with amazing doctors that have helped me and I do a lot of things on the integrative side and I, you know, you can feel hopeful and I think what happens and I've talked a lot about this recently is that you get people that have a lot of issues and the disconnect of like with a doctor, of like how you're really feeling.
Speaker 3:You get like a dysregulated nervous system. So what happens is is that there's nothing maybe really wrong with you, but because you've been on this journey for so long, you get, you get uptight, and so the body does crazy things and it doesn't mean that you're necessarily having a heart attack or you have a bad heart or whatever, but you're having anxiety over the issue and and it's been great Like he was a physician physician, we've talked about this so many times and you've looked at me and you're like, hey, you know what, I know you're having this, but you have to also live your life yeah, you have.
Speaker 3:It's important to to live your life. But some pretty cool things that I've done that have changed, um, the way I feel since last year. The way I feel since last year is I've gone. I started with a nutritionist, um, early last year for three months and did a pretty intensive program and that kind of set me on a course and I had had a round of thyroiditis I don't know if you remember that and, um, it was crazy. I had this flare up, I had the virus, I had a biopsy and I gained all this weight. I couldn't, I couldn't get rid of it. We were kind of like you know, and I've seen all the top doctors and they're like you're fine, there's nothing wrong with you. But I was like this is crazy.
Speaker 3:But one of the things from thyroiditis is stress, and so it comes back to where I was. Like I had to start thinking about all right, I have to learn to control this, like I have to control the stress part because it's making me. It's making it worse, right, and I think a lot of people that are listening today can understand that the stress and anxiety because you want to fix it right, right, can make it worse, yeah, can make it worse. So I just got on a better plan with myself through food and just the food part alone, which is pretty intensive. All of my thyroid markers went back to normal. I never had to go on any medication. And then I started with a integrative migraine specialist who is really into the food aspect also as well, but also mindfulness.
Speaker 3:Right, that's the doctor from New York, um, caffeine, alcohol, which wasn't a problem for me because that's not something I mean I haven't had alcohol since for months and months and months, but I've never been a big drinker anyway, so we excluded that because it was no big deal for me to give up this.
Speaker 3:Then the other one was, um, processed foods, and then there's another category of gluten and bread, and so she's like you have to make that decision to give up one of those categories for four to five months and see what happens and how it changes the way you feel. So I gave up the bread and gluten part and I've never done that, I've never gone that deep before but I also gave up the processed food. I went all in. I also gave up the processed food, I went all in. And so basically my philosophy is this word called jerf just eat real food. And so when I go to the grocery store now it's completely different the way I eat and I the 20 pounds that came on from the thyroiditis gone from food no medication, no anything.
Speaker 3:But it's just that you making that decision to go all in and see if it works. And that's why that my, my um coach from new york is like give it four months, give me four months and see what happens. And I haven't taken an emetrex. I take maybe one emetrex a month. I mean, mean, and you know how bad I've been.
Speaker 2:That's migraine medication. Exactly. I love what you said there and it goes in line with what I was saying about it's really finding the right combination of what works. You know, being your concierge doctor, being able to step back and kind of see the whole picture of how the parts interrelate. You know, I find it so important because what we have to do is find what is the right combination for you, which obviously is not going to be the same thing for somebody else, because you have certain dots you have to connect that make your health thrive and work, and I think that a lot of people can resonate with your journey.
Speaker 2:They may not be dealing with the same thing, but they could be dealing with things that you know. The symptoms are real.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What they feel is real. But then they have to find, like, the right healthcare provider to help them connect the dots and then to help to move with them and to go on that journey with them.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I think that for some people, it's not always, you know, easy to put that together. For whatever reason, maybe they just haven't found the right doctor and food's really hard for people to give up.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I'm in these, I'm in these groups, with these women, that all are chronic migraine sufferers and when, when you're talking with them, I mean it's like crazy for them to give up caffeine or to give up alcohol or you know whatever it is, but it's, it will change your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, and so basically, I feel like inflammation is the root of all evil, really in our body Right, and you can attest to that Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And so it's. It's slowly pulling that out and my coach explains to me you've had migraines. So I started getting chronic migraines after faith was born. Something happened after I gave birth to her. It was such an incredibly stressful pregnancy and it's genetic. My mother gets migraines, she still gets headaches and she's 75 years old. It's, it's a disease and I have it. And unfortunately, faith is getting migraines now and but it's not your fault that you have it. So it's basically like, okay, I have this, so how how can I best approach it?
Speaker 2:And it's all about regimen, because when you talk about foods, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's eating the right foods consistently over time and making sure that you don't miss a beat with that and making sure that you create an environment where your body can respond in a healthy manner, and I think consistency for most people is the difficult part. It is, I think, exactly what you're talking about. I mean that is like that is the key. I mean that is the key. I mean you know we, you know you've shared with us about how you eat, but what about? You know, how does the whole picture play in as far as, like you know you talked about, you know, not drinking alcohol?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you talked about, you know, drinking alcohol. Yeah, I know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly, drinking water. I'm assuming you drink a lot of water, but hydration is key.
Speaker 3:Hydration is key. Another thing that I've learned going through this program, too, is hydration. I look at totally different now. You have to, so you're carrying around a water bottle all day and you're drinking sips here, there, sips there. Really, the proper way to hydrate yourselves is to take an eight ounce glass like this four to five times a day and chug it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So because if I take this and I drink it within a three to five minute period of time, I'm actually really hydrating myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my body Right.
Speaker 3:So I learned that it's not doing me any good carrying around my water bottle and taking a sip here and sip there, sip there. I'm not getting the true hydration that you need and you're losing water as you go through the day, Correct, All right.
Speaker 2:And so I mean that's a very good point and I love that. And you know, and actually now that I think about it, you know locking in the moisture is important too, Right, that kind of circles back to your, your skin line too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that's important because you want to keep what you want, to keep positive water balance Right. And everyone's different. Everyone has different conditions. There are people who have, you know, know, chronic kidney disease, congestive heart failure and their, um, the amount of water that they can take is different. But outside of those situations, um, you know, being hydrated, you know, the average person, outside of chronic medical problems, should have at least two liters a day. More, obviously, depending on what they're doing.
Speaker 3:And just a pinch of salt If you can't do electrolytes.
Speaker 2:Well, right. That's going to help retain the water Exactly.
Speaker 3:And just, you know the other thing I've learned. If anybody here watching has issues with migraines, but if you have a migraine brain is what I call it you actually get more dehydrated. Yeah, so you actually get more dehydrated. So you actually have to salt more often, and so I'm learning how to. You know, you can have like an eighth of a teaspoon of salt and put it into your water, that eight ounces of water, and drink it within a five-minute period, and you are really getting to yourself.
Speaker 2:What type of salt do you use?
Speaker 3:I use a Celtic salt.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so we have that as well, yeah do you use?
Speaker 3:I use the aceltic salt, okay yeah, so we have that as well. Yeah, yeah, so you don't want to use table salt.
Speaker 2:You definitely want to get a good salt. Yeah, yeah, we have that, you know, here in my house as well, but you want to balance that out.
Speaker 3:You want to make sure, if you're adding more salt to your um regime, you need to balance it out with potassium yeah which is through food yeah, so again we go back to where jerf, like just eat real food, right, so spinach and bananas, and bananas, avocado. Avocado is like the best food ever.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's like if you have a headache also very high and, um you know, highly unsaturated fat yes the good fats right um, I think that those tips are like extremely, extremely helpful. And how does this all balance out to like your sleep?
Speaker 3:talk to us a little bit about so sleep has been one of the biggest things that I've tweaked, and I remember when, um we first uh, like in 2020 um is when I think we started having you as our family physician, our family physician and um, sleep was a horrible area for me and I was talking to you about that. Basically, for me, sleep looked like staying up until 1130, 12 o'clock looking at emails you know crazy stuff work, work, work, work, work. And then I go to sleep and I wake up with the kids cause you, you know, 6.30, 7. And I was running that life for a long time, you know, ever since I've started Alevia, and you know the kids and all that. I just sleep as you just think you're going to be young forever and you can do it. Now I'm like I'm realizing that sleep is probably the most pivotal thing that we can change and our body will react to in a positive way over even metabolic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so what I've started is I've completely changed, and I know my husband can attest to this I go back, I take a magnesium bath. I mean sometimes I'm there at 7 o'clock, 730. And then I get into bed at 8. And I'm shutting things down, and I'm there at seven o'clock, 730. And then I get into bed at eight and I'm shutting things down and I'm asleep by nine o'clock and I am sleeping. But on the flip side, where it's changed is that I'm up at 530. And what's great about that is when I get up at 530, it's amazing what you can accomplish from 530 to 8am. So I was telling you I can get up and do devotion, I can get up and do mindfulness, and then I can look at the news, see what's going on. Then I get into checking my emails for the day and then I go out on my porch and I watch the sun come up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I get the early morning sun, and so I'm setting the tone of my day all based around my sleep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whereas foundation for successful day yeah.
Speaker 3:Whereas before you're going to bed, 11, 12 o'clock, you're not watching the sun come up. Right, You're not, you're just you're. You're too tired. Yeah, you know you're too lazy, but I've noticed the circadian rhythm.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So at nighttime I've even been telling Doug I'm like why am I so tired by seven? There's nothing wrong with being tired by seven, right Cause the body needs to listen to right.
Speaker 2:It's the natural progression of my body saying it's time, it's going to be dark, the sun's going down, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's very, very good, I mean you know, so often in the work-life society that we live in, we live outside of when the sun comes up and the sun goes down and we extend those hours and I think it adds a lot of fatigue and other medical problems that kind of complicate how we feel every day. I think what you're talking about, there's a lot of rhythm to that and I think it makes sense and I think that's really good for you, because I think it it really helps put your health and take it to the next level and I think it's optimizing the natural things that you can do.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And it's free, and it's free and exactly and free to have a very healthy life.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:You know that's what movie drink sleep is about, and I think that you know. I think your products I have to say I think your products and I've used them before I think it goes. It aligns well with that because they're all natural. It's focused on making your skin, which is, like the largest organ of our body, healthy, protecting us, protecting our immunity, and it just flows with that whole balance of doing what you have available to live your most optimized, healthy life, and I love that. And it's just another reason why I think everyone should be using this product. And I just think your testimony, your health journey I think it's where a lot of people are at, where a lot of people are at you have, I think, been a major overcomer because, despite what you have felt, what you have experienced, you still keep moving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I keep pushing forward. And you're right, you know what it is. It's a journey, yeah, and I think that's one thing I want to tell people on here is that my life's not perfect and but I wake up and I have to feel hopeful and I always say to myself I have, if I, if I have the means to have these amazing doctors that help me. If today I helped one person on this podcast, that's like, wow, I can change that about my myself. It's free. I can change the way I hydrate myself, I can change the way I sleep.
Speaker 3:You know the exercise, the exercise part. You know I have major limitations with my back. I have terrible, um, my lumbar back is messed up. I need surgery. But I'm opting to do, you know, weekly therapy and it's, you know, kept things going. But what do I do? So I say, okay, I can't go long periods of time of exercising. So I've learned that I get up in the morning, I go one mile and then I come back, I get dressed, I go to work and then, when I come back at the end of the day, I go another mile, I break it up. So I've done two miles and I haven't put myself in a pain, really bad pain situation. So I've learned. So I want people to feel hopeful that they can figure things out and they can still move.
Speaker 2:See, I love that your story is one of determination and fortitude. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. People listening to this are not perfect opponent, where we all try to put our best foot forward. But we have things that we have to work on, improve, keep going, moving forward, and I think that optimizing our health on that journey is important. That's what your product does, that's what the movie, that's what my acronym meds movie drink sleep is a part of, but also what I'm hearing from your testimony. You've been through a lot, you've experienced a lot, but yet you keep going, you keep being successful, you keep making multi-millions. I mean your, your company's a multi-million dollar business. You don't stop, and I think, I think that's like the main lesson that I've always you know we've talked about this before you keep going, you have to keep going, you have to keep living.
Speaker 2:I think you can't wait for things just to be picture perfect. You have to keep living.
Speaker 1:That's reality.
Speaker 2:You have to keep moving and you're doing that. But people need to hear your story, I believe, so that they can have a nice reminder that they need to keep doing that. And that's a part of health, I mean, it's a part of getting from point A to point B. You have to keep moving, optimize your health, optimize the natural supplements that you're using, optimize the natural products that you're using, like this one, but don't stop. Like this one, but don't stop. Get to your destination and live a long and healthy life. I mean, that's, that's the takeaway, that's what I'm getting from our conversation, that's what I know about you and that's what I know that we've talked about, you know I've shared, we've talked about, we've discussed and when it comes to your health, and I think that's about that's, that's a part of living a well-balanced, healthy life yes, and you know, the really cool thing about being in this industry is that a lot of founders of um clean beauty brands um have a history similar to mine.
Speaker 3:They've built it out of adversity, yeah they've had issues they've and most of them have had chronic issues.
Speaker 3:I mean, I talk to people on daily basis that have chronic issues that are so severe and they're pushing forward because the passion they have to bring products to market. And to me it's amazing. Yeah, and I just talked to someone the other day. I said we should start a podcast and interview all these people, all these brands that started from, these people that were having that, were severely sick or are still going through it or what have you, and to me it's admirable and it's and it and it makes me realize that I'm not alone and that there's a whole lot of people out there that need to hear it. Yeah, they need to hear it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they need to hear it and be like okay, I don't feel alone and I'm. You know cause? I think what happens is you want to isolate yourself a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cause you feel like everybody else feels great except for me, and it's clearly not the case. Yeah, and I think people need to become more vulnerable and be like no, I mean when you see what people are going through, like when I, when I joined this migraine group of women, I thought I had bad migraines.
Speaker 2:When you you realize that there are people that are five times worse than you with it what you just said I always try to bring across in my consultations you are a unique person, but what you're going through is not unique. Other people have gone through it. You just don't know it yet.
Speaker 3:And people need to you need.
Speaker 2:You can think that everyone out there is normal and that you're the only one with the problem and dealing with things but, that's just not true. I mean I, you just have a great testimony. I mean I, but you just have a great testimony.
Speaker 3:I mean I, but it is about attitude and it's hard some days.
Speaker 3:But I mean you, you, you can get there, but you have to do the hard work too. I mean, when I started this program and and when I started doing this with the food aspect alone, I was like, okay, this kind of sucks. And then all of a sudden you get used to it and then when you go to the grocery store it totally changes the way you shop. I mean, you're shopping on the whole outer edges of the store. You're going to the produce section, you're getting fruit, you're getting vegetables I only eat berries right now and bananas, because berries are great fiber, they're good in vitamin C and vitamin K. I eat full-fledged cottage cheese. I don't use anything low-fat, I use everything that's original food.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so and meat, and chicken, and fish, and so that's I eat. I try to eat like eight eggs a week, you know, because of the choline. Choline passes through the blood-brain barrier. It's awesome for brain health. So I ate a lot of eggs.
Speaker 2:You're eating real whole food Right and I lost 20 pounds. It's crazy.
Speaker 3:People think that you're eating like that and you're going to gain weight. The weight just dropped off. I told my husband I'm like this is crazy.
Speaker 2:All of my thyroid you took out the process materials. Yes, it's the way we're supposed to eat. Yeah, you took out the process, you know materials out of your kitchen and now you're you're eating clean, you're eating whole food and it's making a difference and it's reflecting in who you are as a person and your health.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's. I mean, I love it. I want more people to do that. I think that, um, I have to say this, I have to say this and I want to ask you one more question. It's just, it's an honor to be your conscious physician. It's honor to take care of your family. It means a lot to me. You guys are so awesome and wonderful, and I think your business is so awesome and wonderful. What do you, I want to ask you, what should people, what do you want people to take away from you? Know this conversation, your life, your journey, what do you want to leave them with?
Speaker 3:you want to leave them with? Um, well, I think the first thing is is that I'm a ordinary mom that had this vision and a mission and I didn't realize it was going to be this hard to to to do this. But what good thing isn't hard to do right.
Speaker 3:It takes time, but I just want to give other women out there hope that whatever vision that they have or mission that they have, that it's possible. I don't have a PhD. I'm not a doctor, but I was smart enough to know that when I saw this, it sparked in me a passion, and I think that's half of our life, right? Is the passion that you truly believe in something different and that it can help somebody, and that's all I felt. I told my husband I'm like. For me, this is a passion. I wasn't thinking about how much money I could make. I mean trust me, I mean the money didn't come for.
Speaker 2:yeah, you wanted to help people and you combined that with common sense, intuition.
Speaker 3:And I still feel that way 10 years later. When people DM me on social media and they send me a thing, how it's changed their life. That's it for me.
Speaker 2:I love it, and that's what keeps me going.
Speaker 3:That's what keeps me, and then I'll be like I'll get with my chemist and I'm like I want to do this. This is what I want to do next. This is what I want to do next. And algae is amazing. There's so many. I mean, I consume algae every day. I've been taking a form of astaxanthin for like five years. It crosses the blood brain barrier as well, so instead of like omegas that can be contaminated with mercury, I do an astaxanthin capsule every day.
Speaker 2:So I mean algae is like the bomb. It's unbelievable what it can do.
Speaker 3:Where can people get this product? You can get it on our website at Aleviacom, or we are also on Amazon and we're in a lot of you know places all over the country, but that's the two easiest ways that you can purchase it.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, I mean, I highly recommend it. My family uses it. I think everyone should use this. I think that the explanation and how you described it, it's just common sense. It makes sense. It's just going to help you, in my opinion. I feel like it just helps my family and I live a better, healthier life by taking care of our skin. I want to thank you for coming on today.
Speaker 2:I want to thank you for diving deep with me about not only your company but your health, and to my audience. Obviously, if you have medical concerns, you can always come and see me. You can go to JasonIndycom and become a member at Littleton Concierge Medicine. Obviously, keep listening to the podcast, sharing it, subscribing. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, our other handles, Facebook, instagram, linkedin. I can't wait to talk with you guys again. Thank you for coming on and this has just been another awesome episode of the Concert Shop Podcast. Thank you so much.
