Have you ever considered that the menstrual pain you're shrugging off could be a sign of something more serious? I'm Leonila Campos, and on today's Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast, we unravel the complexities of endometriosis with Dr. Mendoza, shedding light on how this condition extends beyond the uterus, causing excruciating pain and often impacting fertility. Our in-depth discussion illuminates the overlooked signs and necessitates a call to action for women to seek professional advice for their menstrual health concerns.
Embark on a journey through the transformative realms of manual therapy with us as we examine its role in alleviating the debilitating effects of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis. Dr. Mendoza's expertise brings to the forefront the intricate process of breaking down adhesions, restoring organ mobility, and enhancing blood flow, which can significantly improve the quality of life for sufferers. From specialized care to the powerful stories of resilience, discover the critical interventions that are making a difference in the lives of those battling the severe manifestations of this condition.
Concluding our session, we champion the broader spectrum of women's health and self-care, emphasizing the power of being your own health advocate. At Restore Therapeutics in Fresno, we pride ourselves on creating a sanctuary for women's healthcare, where the joy of witnessing positive changes in our patient's wellbeing is immeasurable. We also spotlight the indispensable support from the Endometriosis Association and the role of natural approaches, including diet and physical therapy, in managing endometriosis. Our heartfelt conversation aims to bring not just relief but also hope to our listeners facing this challenging condition.
Endometriosis Association
Restore Therapeutics
Restore Therapeutics IG
High Fiber Foods
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg
Have you ever considered that the menstrual pain you're shrugging off could be a sign of something more serious? I'm Leonila Campos, and on today's Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast, we unravel the complexities of endometriosis with Dr. Mendoza, shedding light on how this condition extends beyond the uterus, causing excruciating pain and often impacting fertility. Our in-depth discussion illuminates the overlooked signs and necessitates a call to action for women to seek professional advice for their menstrual health concerns.
Embark on a journey through the transformative realms of manual therapy with us as we examine its role in alleviating the debilitating effects of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis. Dr. Mendoza's expertise brings to the forefront the intricate process of breaking down adhesions, restoring organ mobility, and enhancing blood flow, which can significantly improve the quality of life for sufferers. From specialized care to the powerful stories of resilience, discover the critical interventions that are making a difference in the lives of those battling the severe manifestations of this condition.
Concluding our session, we champion the broader spectrum of women's health and self-care, emphasizing the power of being your own health advocate. At Restore Therapeutics in Fresno, we pride ourselves on creating a sanctuary for women's healthcare, where the joy of witnessing positive changes in our patient's wellbeing is immeasurable. We also spotlight the indispensable support from the Endometriosis Association and the role of natural approaches, including diet and physical therapy, in managing endometriosis. Our heartfelt conversation aims to bring not just relief but also hope to our listeners facing this challenging condition.
Endometriosis Association
Restore Therapeutics
Restore Therapeutics IG
High Fiber Foods
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg
Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode in the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, leonid Lacampos, registered dietitian, and today I welcome back Dr Mendoza to another episode. In today's episode we're going to talk about endometriosis and how physical therapy can help. First full disclaimer you will hear my little one in the background.
Speaker 1:He's sick, and so we're making it happen anyway. So, dr Mendoza, welcome back to another episode with me. Thank you for having me, yeah, awesome. So I know we did one episode on PCOS and physical therapy, and so we did talk about the importance of other conditions, right, that physical therapy can help, and so endometriosis is a big one too, and so I wanted to bring you back and talk about that. So let's start with, maybe, what endometriosis is and then go from there.
Speaker 2:All right, well, again, thank you for having me back. So endometriosis is basically a condition, right, in which the tissue that usually goes in your uterus, that grows in the uterus when you're having a menstrual cycle, grows outside of the uterus, right, and so, because you're basically having tissue growing where it's not supposed to be having, it causes problems right within the cycle. This usually happens, right for, you know, women who are of what we call childbearing ages, right. So around when you start having period, whether it's 12, 13 years old, up until usually about 45, okay, and it grows on the outside, usually on the outside of the uterus, sometimes on the fallopian tubes, and what happens is, because the growth is there, it starts to sometimes what we call adhesions. It kind of makes things stick together Because when you're menstruating right, you have that, and then when you menstruate, your body gets rid of those, gets rid of all that lining, right.
Speaker 2:But when it's outside of the uterus, there's no way for your body to get rid of the lining, because where it's supposed to go, right, like, you're not shedding through the uterus. So all those things basically can cause irritation. It forms scar tissue and because of that you have basically what's the biggest symptom is having a lot of pelvic pain right, and so usually that manifests mostly during like periods, right, they, the women who suffer from this lot of having, for the most part, very painful periods. They can also have pain with intercourse, pain with bowel movements, urination. They have excessive bleeding Sometimes, you know their menstrual cycles are very, very long. Excessive bleeding sometimes, you know their menstrual cycles are very, very long. And about half of the women who suffer from infertility are not to be suffering from infertility because of endometriosis. So it's like a good amount, right, it happens to about 10% of those women. So I mean, if you think about it, in the United States, that's like millions of women, right?
Speaker 1:You might think like, oh, 10% is not that much, but it kind of is. We're talking about millions of women during that age and the impacts, right, yeah, and when we just think about having, you know, our regular periods, right, regular cycles, we have symptoms, right where we notice that, oh, we're going to start, or even when we're in it, right, we have something, really strong symptoms. And so will you say that someone that maybe has symptoms and maybe for them they're normal, right, they're really painful, but they've been having them like that since they started, yes, Sometimes it's hard.
Speaker 2:Yes, sometimes it's hard because you only know what you feel, right, and to you it might be, quote unquote, normal. And I think sometimes you know we see TV or you see things and they're like oh, you know, yeah, your period is supposed to be painful, you know. You know it is a little normal to have pain. But if you're having such pain because women sometimes have such pain, that's literally affecting their entire lives, right, they can't go through with their normal everyday lives because the pain is just so bad. And so it is also that sometimes it takes a really long time. It's a disease that takes a long time also to diagnose because it's hard, right, to be like be like, well, what, how painful, is painful, or how long is the period like too long, because it varies all within you know right, um, it's almost like you almost have to learn what some women have is right yeah, to be like hey, yeah, like there's a bigger chance you have it.
Speaker 2:like if you have somebody in your family, like if your mom or an aunt, right, or a sister like has endometriosis, there's to be a genetic factor, so there's also a bigger chance that you can have, right, if you first started having periods like really early and we consider that like kind of like before, like 11 years old. There's like a connection there. If that's real early, then you know that you might have endometriosis again, if you're having all this pain and these issues. Also, if the length of your menstrual cycle is really shorter than what we quote unquote consider normal, because it tends to be about like a 27 to 30 day cycle, right, we all know that.
Speaker 2:So some of these women have a period, unfortunately, like almost like every two weeks, right, like it's such a short time. So if you're having those kind of symptoms and that's something you know you can talk to your doctor about right, like to be like hey, you know, yeah, I know it's painful, but you know to me, to you, it should be painful, but anytime you're experienced some kind of pain where you feel like it's affecting you in any way, like that's when you should go and see a health professional. Like don't just't just be like, oh no, this is normal, you know, it's fine, all women have pain, like. I never advocate for that ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so definitely learning right. Obviously, we know ourselves more than anyone else, but we also have to not compare right, but know the signs. If we have a really painful cycle or periods, right, or, like you said, maybe they're really short or you notice that, okay, every two weeks I have one, right? We know that that's probably not normal. So, looking into that, right and finding out more a self-advocate right, like if you're not finding the answers, finding out more a self-advocate right, like if you're not finding the answers, maybe look for them somewhere else, and so that that's definitely important to remember to you, right?
Speaker 2:yeah and to advocate um, so with endometriosis.
Speaker 1:Right um, when you work with your patients, what? Obviously you ask lots of questions. I know we talked about these in the first interview, right. We just asked so many questions to try to learn about the patient as a whole, but with endometriosis, right maybe? What are some of the questions that you ask them to help you help them.
Speaker 2:You know, basically just very simple questions like when did you start your period? Right, and at at first, like how long is your cycle? Um, like to keep track of, like well, how painful it's right. So sometimes what helps is because you know you deal with this all the time, so it's help us to keep a diary right, like what we call like a little diary. So the day like they start the period, like symptoms that they're feeling, like rating the pain, right, you know you go to the doctor and tell you what, what's your your pain? Zero to 10, you know like, and then that way you can kind of check that like any other symptoms, right, like the pain, like if you're trying to describe the pain, sometimes I tell them like, just like going through that way, and so when you have kind of like a journal and it's written down, you can kind of go through it and see, okay, you know this, this is not normal. Or is that normal Because anything, again, that disrupts your life, right, even if we have different pain thresholds.
Speaker 2:But I also ask my patients like do you feel like this? This just disrupt your life? Can you go about your work day? Or you know like your day at home when you're on your menstrual cycle and you feel like you know, like it doesn't affect you too much. So we just talk about those kind of things, right, because, again, some people can take a little bit more, but anytime it's affecting your quality of life or anything like that, that's when you know something needs to be done.
Speaker 1:Have you got any clients that maybe they have no idea that they have endometriosis but they're having like the symptoms and like how do you go about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, because one of the major symptoms is pelvic pain, right, since we do get patients that are like, oh, you know, like I have this pain, and they're kind of you know, wondering like what are they, what they can do to help, especially because you know, in this world, like you kind of take it like as a normal, so that you have painful periods and so they're like, oh well, I don't want to complain, or it's that kind of thing, right. So we do ask a lot of questions, simple questions, right, like again we were talking about the risk factors. I go when did you start your period, like how long does it last? Tell me a little bit more about the symptoms, or that kind of thing. One of the things I do is have them keep like a little journal, right. Things I do is have them keep like a little journal right to kind of go out through about the day and to write down, like any symptoms they had, even when you're not on your actual you know cycle, like because you know we have things that happen before and after. Just kind of write down. And this day I felt this, this day I felt that to rate their pain every day, to be like you know, this day I felt this much pain or that kind of thing, and so it kind of helps us keep track a little bit, right, but what I tell my patients all the time is like, hey, you know, just because, uh, you think you know that's normal sometimes to have pain If at any point it's affecting your quality of life.
Speaker 2:Right, because we talk about, like, when you're on your um cycle, can can you work, are you fine at work, are you fine at home? You know, do you have to like stop or you can't? Anytime anything is affecting your quality of life, you know that something needs to be done about it. Right To go see your doctor, your OBGYN, something like that, because it might. You might think like, oh, no, it's fine that people go through it, but no, because now it's affecting you. Right, it doesn't matter whether I could stomach that kind of pain or anything like that, it doesn't matter, it's you and your quality of life. Anytime, anything. Right, and we're talking about menstruation. If this pelvic pain affects your quality of life, then we should see somebody about it, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially, you know, when you're not able to do things like your daily things, right, or you're on bed because the pain is so much right, or maybe you're just bleeding a lot, right and like you can't even move because it just feels so uncomfortable and so all those things like essentially are not normal.
Speaker 1:And so then you have now this patient right that is coming to you because of endometriosis and they're having this pelvic pain. What do you do after that, like what are some of the things that you help with, or how do you help them in that sense?
Speaker 2:Yes, so we talked about this a little bit the last time. But what I do is a lot of manual therapy, right. So when I was telling you about what it is a little bit, we were talking about these adhesions. So sometimes if you're having adhesions, right, for the most part what happens is again you have your body has a natural mobility and even in your organs, right, even your uterus, your fallopian tubes, everything right down there has to have a little bit of mobility. So when you talk about these adhesions, it's basically scar tissue and I don't know if you've ever had like a scar big enough that if you look at your skin it kind of helps, it keeps it from moving. You know, like a little bit. Normally it's different, right, and so it's the same thing inside of you. You have your ovaries Imagine having that scar tissue and so it's inhibiting mobility, right. So now again, what happens You're having, uh, it even affects again your cycle because it's on your ovaries and things.
Speaker 2:So the manual work that I do, it goes in and it's it's not comfortable, right, it's not comfortable, um, and also, you know, I talk to them the whole time through and I'm like you have to let me know if it's too much.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you know we have to break down, um, when we're doing manual work, and that's fine, um, to go through there and break up those adhesions, to come back and give the mobility that your uterus and your ovaries need to be able to function correctly, and then to come and bring that better blood flow, move out, drainage lymph fluid, and so it helps with that.
Speaker 2:So when you regain mobility again, you're lessening the pain that comes with not having those mobile organs like you should right. When you're again bringing in like better blood flow to kind of just go in there, heal through everything, it helps. Um, unfortunately, you know, some, a lot of women will have to have a surgical procedure sometimes to get this stuff removed because, as I was saying, um, when it's there and it's outside of the uterus, the body can't expel it right, because there's nowhere for it to go. And so if it does get to a certain point, sometimes surgical procedures are the only way to be able to get there, to get it, you know, kind of like taken out and so you're not having. But it has been noticed we haven't, like I see a great improvement in my patients all the time, like once we go in there and get that mobility back, because the adhesions you know not tends to be but a lot again causes pain when things are supposed to be mobile and they're not.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, okay, yeah, and those are really good news, right, and I don't think a lot of people know that right, that you're able to do something like that with a specialist right, because I'm sure they have to go to someone that knows what they're doing a specialist to be able to do that in a safe way, not just like anybody that says, oh, I can totally do that, right. I know we were talking about something similar when we went to the health fair, right, what was the um, the name that they gave? Like that someone said, oh, that's what you do and you, you corrected them, but it's not the same right like someone that is just that they don't have the qualifications to do it. Versus, yeah, I can't.
Speaker 2:I think I can't remember what it was. I don't know if it was a massage therapy. I can't remember what it was and i'm't know if it was a massage therapy. I can't remember what it was and I'm like, sometimes I feel like that, but it's just, you know, because I say this all the time and not like to disparage anybody but sometimes I feel like, as health providers, we're trying to help. We are that's what we do. We get into this because we want to help people.
Speaker 2:But sometimes it's hard when you don't know what you don't know. You know and you're trying to help people and you realize that you maybe that's not like your realm of work right, that you should be sending them to someone else and help them. You know, like I do that in my work all the time, like sometimes, uh, you know we're trying to have patients and things are just moving along the way they should be and they're like you know you're getting a little bit results, but not kind of like they should, and you're like you know what, let's stop, let's step back and let's let's go back and see the doctor. Let's step back and let's go back and see the doctor. Let's go back and see this person? Do you mean to see if something else is going on? Because at the same time, I mean I know that what I should be seeing and I don't see it right.
Speaker 2:So that's why you go to professionals you know to follow along to, when they know what they're doing, because they know what they're looking out for to be like, oh you know what. Let me continue, let me continue. Let me not continue like let's add someone else right into this, and we were talking about that last time, about how you know, we all have to be like as a community with your health providers and all working together to help everybody, right, not like not in silos, not separate thing, and so, um it's. I feel like you know, when people just kind of don't know what they don't know, sometimes it hurts right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So instead of doing good, they actually doing the opposite.
Speaker 2:And with the best intentions.
Speaker 1:But you know it's, they're doing the opposite Right, and I think that is really important to know and for the listeners to know right, that if you're having pain, in this case, if you have endometriosis, and you already know right, and this is something that you're wanting to explore going to the specialist right, going to someone, a professional, that knows what they're doing, because you can imagine, you know, going through even more pain without like being safe, essentially right.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and like you're saying, and that there is other alternatives. Like I met a young lady not too long ago who was 22 and told me that she had gotten a hysterectomy at 20 because of endometriosis and I literally you could have picked up my jaw off the floor because I was like, wow, you know what I mean, like so young. And she was like, oh no, it's fine, I know I don't want to have kids and things like that or whatever. And I was just like I mean, that's great that you're no longer like suffering from this pain. But I was like man, she was so young, you know like to think that there is like other alternatives. You know I'm not saying that like what I do is going to completely, you know, like cure the pain or anything like that. You know it's just a tool to help. You know, to help to help lessen that pain, to help to be able to deal with like a long time you know what I mean Obviously following along with your OBGYN, your regular doctor, and stuff like that. There are things you can do, especially for women who want to have children or who think about having children later on down the road, right, like you know, because if the doctor's like, well, you know, let's have a hysterectomy or let's do this, like, oh, you know, maybe she was so young. I just couldn't believe that they would do that to someone who was so young, right, I mean, maybe she had an extreme, extreme case, which which does happen sometimes, but that there is, like, other alternatives because, like I said, you know women who, um, aren't, who have problems with infertility like a half of them, about half I think, is having problems with endometriosis. Sometimes they don't even know it, because we're talking like a lot of cases but a lot of surrogates. But sometimes you can have endometriosis and not really have really bad symptoms and you just you don't know it until you're like, you know, now you're trying to have a family, you're trying to get pregnant, and it's not happening, and you're like, wait, what's they'll? Either you know again, talk about your history and things like that, and then they're like, well, maybe you know you have endometriosis and then that's where you're having fertility problems, and so, again, it's just one of those things that you kind of have to like know yourself and like be an advocate. And you know, it's one thing I do.
Speaker 2:I have noticed, you know, when women are, are trying to get pregnant and having a little bit of issues. The internet is like their friend, right, that they can go on and they research all these things. And so they start to learn about all these things, right, like about their body, endometriosis, um, their diets, right, that's one of the big things. I hear that like 99% of time, like well, I changed the way that I eat, you know, like to help with, uh, trying to fix, like, their infertility and things like that.
Speaker 2:So, you know, I just I want to tell people like hey, like the information is out there, like take it and then, you know, have a conversation with a professional right, because I think we talked about this last time too that sometimes the internet gives you ideas and it's a little crazy, but it's good to be informed, right, and to know that there is these things. After that, maybe you are suffering from this. You can go talk to your OBGYN or doctor like hey, you know, I read this, I have these symptoms. Like what can we do now?
Speaker 1:right, exactly, uh, and I love that you brought up, obviously, the nutrition aspect of it, because, as a dietitian, that's my area of expertise um, and we know that, right, endometriosis is, uh, it creates inflammation, right, and so there's a lot of inflammation throughout the body, um, and we can manage that inflammation right with nutrition, essentially to to a certain extent.
Speaker 1:And so we're making sure, right, yes, we're, we're changing our eating habits, right, because that's something that we I mean, we eat for the most part, every single day, three times a day, maybe a few snacks in between. So, yeah, absolutely, what we're going to consume can affect, um, our inflammation, but it can also help with symptoms, right, because, specifically, we're having defic consume can affect our inflammation, but it can also help with symptoms, right, specifically, if we're having deficiencies, right, okay, let's address those deficiencies zinc, magnesium, other minerals right. If there is a lot of blood flow, right, maybe iron, because you know there's especially the frequency of the cycles, right, if we're having cycles every two weeks, yes, for those women who have those very heavy cycles and frequent cycles and you're losing all that blood.
Speaker 1:yes, Right, yeah, so checking that often, right, and I know it's not something that maybe is done in terms of like, oh, let's check your blood work, let's check your minerals, right, and so you as a patient, right, you have that right, you can ask your doctor hey, doctor, can we check my zinc, can I check my magnesium? Right, to make sure that if you are low, then you have a plan right to optimize them, to bring them back to normal levels, but, at the same time, right, there is a lot of research that shows that increasing your fiber right, increasing your protein, can help manage some of the symptoms and bring down the inflammation. To, specifically, fiber, which you know fiber, for the listeners, is going to come from your plant sources, right, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and so and that's an easy- fix right, like that's an easy fix that you can be like vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and that's an easy fix.
Speaker 2:Right, like that's an easy fix that you can be like okay, let me increase my fiber intake. Right, so like you have to go out, you know, into the world and hunt down a way to increase that fiber intake right. It's like a pretty simple thing that you can do.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's so interesting because it's you know, when we think about us as health professionals. Right, it should be a no brainer. Right, it should be so simple to do it. But, believe it or not, the majority of the population hardly gets 15 grams of fiber, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:I have, yeah, yes, because we have the. You know, I know you did it with the chemo partner, but we see patients with that right To the constipation complaints but also like what can lead like to you know, having issues with that constipation. A lot of things that we see that can be prevented, like you're saying, from just you know, like have that healthier diet. In that fight for the intake, because that's the very first thing that even like we talk about, it's like well, you talk about your diet and like, well, how much fiber are you taking in? Right, and then they're just like you know, and when you look at it, like yeah, no, nowhere near that you know and you can avoid, you can avoid a lot of things by that. I feel like that alone just upping your fiber intake.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, and, like you said, right, first thing, with constipation, right? Okay, let's figure out the fiber right. Where is your fiber coming from? Are you getting any fiber? Right? And so, if there's hardly any fiber, and to put it in perspective, right, if you're having vegetables at each meal, right, at least two cups. Right, usually two fishels, two fishels and you know two to three fruits in between, and you're adding nuts and seeds, you should be able to get at least 25 grams of fiber right.
Speaker 1:Now, if we're trying to maybe reduce inflammation some more, right, maybe decrease the estrogen or whatever the case may be, then adding more fiber, right, aiming for 30 grams of fiber. So increasing your vegetables, right, increasing, maybe adding some beans and legumes to add more fiber. That's one of the ways to do it. But sometimes the hard part, what I hear from my patients, right, is that I don't know where to get it from, right, I don't know how to convert it into my meals, and that's great, let's figure out a plan for that. So, in this case, I'm not saying that I want you to get a fiber supplement right, just because, even though we might need a supplement, but if we can get it from food right, we're going to get more nutrients from food versus taking just a supplement that you're just going to get that and you might have to add tons of it, right?
Speaker 1:Because, especially if it's a capsule form, you might have to take like five capsules three times a day right, like 15 grams of fiber, like when you can have a cup of lentils to get 20 grams, or something like that, right um, you know, encouraging food first, uh like natural, natural intakes, right.
Speaker 2:So that's the same thing that we talk to my patients about.
Speaker 2:Like there's things that we can do that I can help with, that are like natural forms, right, when we can again work on the body naturally, like work with exercise or manual therapy, that these are all like natural things that don't have side effects, right.
Speaker 2:And I know, like I said, you know, sometimes when I do and I do work and it's painful, um, it's kind of painful like at the moment, right, but then at the end you know the patients, they can feel the difference, right, and like the pain has gone so far down, like my uh, it regulated my menstrual cycles a little bit more, and you know, you know, and like it's an uncomfortableness, but because again, we're doing manual therapy or we're working on the body, it's all natural, right, like with my endo patients, also with my infertility patients, right.
Speaker 2:Like these are things that we're helping the body just kind of like naturally do, helping it along and actually do the stuff that we want it do, right, as opposed to bringing all this like outside, uh, you know, unnatural, unnatural things, right, I don't know how to make supplements, but that's the things where if you could just healthily take it in and have your body like, process it right the way that we were meant to like, the difference that it makes right, yeah, I think that's the first, you know, hopefully the first line of intervention, right, let's try to do it naturally and let's try, let's help your body by essentially being able to get better.
Speaker 1:Of course, you know, we might get to a point when we need something different, right, when we're, if we're not meeting, you know, meeting it naturally. Okay, let's add now, maybe the second line of intervention. That's something, yeah, exactly, and how common is you know, physical therapy, or pelvic floor work or manual work in endometriosis, like treatment, like this is the first time you, you know, when I met you guys that I learned about that and so I don't know if it's common well, it's, it's so again.
Speaker 2:You know, we talked about, uh, last time, about how we're just trying to get out that, that information right, like to do, um, we're trying to teach people like and it's not, it's not I. I want to say that maybe oh, I can't put it into words, but it hasn't happened to me very often, when I have a conversation with someone, to be like, oh, yeah, yeah, I've heard of that before like, and I meet lots of women that have endometriosis. Again, like I was telling you, it's like one in ten women. You know, there's a lot of millions of women in the in the united states alone and they're like, oh, I've never've never heard that, because usually, you know, they go to a doctor, they talk about it, and the first line of kind of treatment tends to be to put someone on birth control right. To put someone on birth control which, again, you know, I'll leave my opinion on that kind of like out of this, right, that's a whole other thing, maybe we'll talk about it later's say you know, you're trying to get pregnant, right? So then your first glass of the friend or your treatment is going to be like, you're needing birth control but I'm trying to have a family, right, and so that's.
Speaker 2:The thing is that it's not heard of. But I'm trying, we're trying to get out there, we're trying to get that education out there, that there is something else, like we're just talking about something that will help you, something that's natural, something that's not going to cause side effects or anything like that. Right, that we can help with the pain, that we can help regulating those periods a little bit. Right, like I was saying before, it's not going to be like a complete treatment, right. I'm not saying that you're going to come to me and I'm going to get rid of all the pain and it's never going to happen to you again, unfortunately. I wish I could, but no, you know.
Speaker 2:But again, we can have I, can I help manage it. You know, like I. You know, like I again, like I had a period this time and it was, you know, it was so much less painful, I didn't have too much work. You know, like again, the quality of life difference that I see right, and then I didn't have to go on birth control because some of these patients aren't trying to get pregnant. Some of them are, but you know, some just don't, like the, they've done their research and they don't want to take birth control, right, um, and so I'm like, yeah, like this, we let's do this, like let's work on this and then, hopefully, like you don't have to like again, managing like the body, like as a whole, right, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's, that's, you know, obviously the awareness right and learning different ways to treat something right, and that you guys are doing the education as well. I think that is important Just to allow women right to have other options and not, you know, just go straight to oh, let's just get rid of the organ, right, I didn't go to the hospital, and so I think that is definitely important that women have other options, because, just like with anything with surgery, if, at the end of the day, that's what needs to happen, then we also have to consider what's coming after that. How are we going to help someone that has a hysterectomy, because it's not just like the end, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:With hormones and things like that. And so Akemi and I sometimes like to put it into perspective, right, when we talk to people, we're like, hey, imagine you went to your doctor because you started to have knee pain. Right, you're going to your doctor and you're like, hey, I've been having this knee pain, it's been hurting me for a while, it's starting to affect me, and the first thing the doctor was like, okay, let's have surgery, let's get that knee out and give you a knee replacement. And when we say that, people are horrified and they're like, oh no, I wouldn't do it like that fast, right, and so that's the thing you know. When you kind of put it into that, sometimes people like it opens up a light bulb and they're like, oh no, yeah, you would try to lose weight, you would go to physical therapy, right, to get your legs stronger to help you.
Speaker 2:You go through all these other alternatives before you would even think surgery. And so that's what, like you know, I want, like your listeners, to know, or you want, like women, to know, there is other alternatives that you can go through before you get to something so drastic, right, like whether I mean hysterectomy. Because you get to something so drastic right, like whether I mean hysterectomy, because, like you said, it's not the end. You know like you take that out. Now you're missing organs that your body you know like needs for certain reasons, so you have a whole nother issues, right, that come with no longer having those organs that you know with estrogen and all those things like that. And so, believe me, that's not a walk in the park here, right? So it's not just like hey, yeah, let's take these out and you'll be fine. There's a lot of things that kind of go along in consideration with that.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, and I think that's really important also for women to know that, hey, if you already had the hysterectomy right, there shouldn't be shame there. But if you're having issues right, like with hormones, following up with your doctor, right, because we still have to be able to manage, we still have to be able to help those women right that are having hormonal issues. Or I know at one point I had someone that said you know, I had a hysterectomy and I'm now having like constipation right, like I'm having these issues with like fully emptying, and I know probably this is another episode, but I think people should know that women should know that right that there could be those issues to you you know, because sometimes you know people, they're what we call more common symptoms, right, you're like, well, you know, I, I don't have that, or this is different.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, you read things up, but those are just common things that women, you know, or people, whatever they're suffering from complaining about, but everybody's different, right, you know, you read things up, but those are just common things that women, you know, or people, whatever they're suffering from complaining about, but everybody's different, right, you could be having symptoms again, that are not so common, or there's symptoms that are just, for some reason, your body decided to manifest it a certain way, right, and so that's why I always I'm like, be, be an advocate for yourself, like you know.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, you know, doctors are wonderful, like we all, everybody, again, we've gotten to this profession because we want to help people, the healthcare. But you know, sometimes they, they need you to advocate a little bit more, to be like hey, I know we talked about this last time and you told me, like, let's change this, but it's, I have these symptoms, it's not changing. Like you know, like there's some, what can we do? Like, sometimes you have to be that person. You know, we don't want to be the person like, hey, like they're the doctor, they don't know. It's not that, it's just, you know you, you said it, you said it correctly. Like you know your body, you know yourself, and they just know what you're telling them, right?
Speaker 2:And so sometimes, you know, I'm missing work, I'm doing this, I'm no longer, you know, be able to have like fun with my family. I can't, you know what I mean. I'm short with my kids on the days that I'm going, you know, through my cycle, because I'm in pain. You know, all those things like matter no-transcript. This is what we can do and then they'll give your options and then we can go from there. Right, but we got to be a little pushy sometimes, I think, for ourselves, like as women, right, we're just so used to, um, taking care of everyone else. You know, like our kids and our families and things like that, that we don't want to be a burden, I feel like, to others. But you know you have to take care of yourself right before you can give yourself to everyone else and kind of, like you know, be that there for everyone else. You got to be for yourself first, you know.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah, you said it so perfectly right that, yes, we want to take care of everybody else, right, and that's just our nature usually and so, but you got to take care of yourself too, right? Essentially, you want to take care of yourself first to be able to continue to take care of everybody else. So, yeah, I'm sure it's so amazing to see someone right that she came in like maybe with so much pain, and you started working together, right, and now you see them, like you said, less pain, right. I think, just that alone being able to say, oh, I was able to get out of bed right, or I didn't miss work, right, because I felt good. I'm sure that has to feel amazing, right One, obviously for your patient, but also for you, right, as the provider.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I again I have like a crazy like family, you know, work-life balance and that kind of thing, and so on the days, right, that I'm like feeling sick and I feel guilty sometimes like for like feeling sick and not being able to like help them the way that I normally do right, like for like feeling sick and not being able to like help them the way that I normally do right.
Speaker 2:So when I talk to my patients and I see just like how, like I said, it's affecting like their everyday life, their quality of life, right and again, not to mention the pain, and sometimes, like I said, I felt it before like the guilt and all these things like to come, and when they, you know, see me, like hey, you know, I went through these last two months and I felt like so much better, it was great, like I could manage it, like just that, like being able to help somebody and seeing that how much better you can make their lives for something you know what I mean like just to help them.
Speaker 2:I don't know to me, like that's why I do what I do, right, like just to be able to help people, and think and again, we say that all the time. But that's why we do what we do. Right that you have that impact on someone else to be able to help them, like help with their journey through this life. Right, just to make it a little bit easier on them so they have less pain, they sleep a little bit better, or having being able to, you know, have that time with their family, be better at work, like I. You know, I don't think there's anything better.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah, I definitely have to agree with that right Just being able to see them get better, right, Because I mean, I don't know, I think about just having pain right, and then intense pain and how debilitating that can be, and so I think it's amazing, right, that you're able to help somebody and just see those changes and, you know, help them feel better, essentially in the same way.
Speaker 2:So that's great yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Okay, great. So let's say, you know there's, and I know you're local, right, you guys, and I don't think I even introduced the practice, right Restore. Paracletics, you guys are in fresno, but I'll let you say it's because we're already used to talking to each other, so right, yeah, like just a natural conversation here, conversation yeah um, but, yeah, so our practice is here in fresno.
Speaker 2:We're out not too far from fig garden, uh, out there on shot and fruit. We're called restore therapeutics, physical therapy uh, it's a key. Me and I, right now my partner we're out there. We just, you know, we wanted to create like a safe space for, like women, you know, because we're a women-centered clinic, so, true, women at this time just somewhat like safe and comfortable where they could come and like know that there's help, right, you know, like we said, a safe environment, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:You know that we can't talk about, that we haven't heard before already or that we haven't like kind of. You know, there's a lot of things that we go through ourselves and sometimes us women we start to get in conversations and then we, you know, we get to know each other a little bit better, and then you talk about all these things. You know, hey, again, these things are not like normal. You don't have to live with this, right, we're here to help you. There's other alternatives. You know, we work with our patients one-on-one all the time, like sit down and we have long conversations we talked about this before, right, about again what's going on with their life and all these things because we're there to help treat you, but also like treat you but also like treat you like as a whole, like we want to be able to help you and you are there to tell us what we can help you with. Right, and so that's just like our goal in life to get that education out there, that we're here, that there's alternatives, like holistic alternatives, right, to help women to get through our lives, you know, a little bit easier every day, and to help treat or help whatever it is that you know, know that you're suffering from or anything that's kind of keeping you from living like your best life.
Speaker 2:Right, like that. That's what we do. Like we're nurturing lives. That's what we talk about all the time. Right, like we're all about pelvic leg problems, because we want to help people and nurture their lives. So you can come and see us, like we're there. Um, you can go to our website uh, I think you have the link down there. Right, we do online booking, we have our time frames, but again, I'm not going to say it like I am. Sometimes I have patients like, hey, I have to work and I can go really early or really late. That's a great thing about having your own practice. You're like, yeah, I can get you in super early or I can get you super late. We want to help and we do everything that we can to help us, because that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1:Right. Thank you for sharing that information and I think it's wonderful that you have a location right, an area where women, essentially, can come in and feel comfortable with you talking about these things, because nobody talks about these things right, Like oh my gosh if.
Speaker 1:I have pain when I have a cycle, I shouldn't talk about that. Or if I'm bleeding too much, I shouldn't talk about that. These are things that we need to talk about as women to be able to get better, or just to talk to other women, other health professionals about it, right? So I think that is so important, that you guys encourage that, yeah, and just to have some.
Speaker 2:So and I'll send you the link so you can put the link in. But you know, there's again other resources out there. There's other support out there. The Endometriosis Association is like a website that will put the link through, right, so you can read all about it. There's, you know, just different things. There's other women on there telling their stories. You know what I mean. Like just to know that you're not alone, right, that you're out there. There's a group of community women that are going through the same thing, you know, that are there to help you. Just, I think it makes us feel better to know that we're not alone, right, or to be like that you're not the only one going through this and that there is help up there. But there's also like support. You know someone that you, like you said, that you can talk to to be like. You know, I went through this just to help each other out, right.
Speaker 1:Right Exactly, and also to not feel like you are the problem, right Like it's your fault. I think that, especially for women, I see this a lot when I, when I have my client, my women, female clients, right Like they blame themselves, like this is my fault.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and you know what You're right, and I see that too to be like cause. Sometimes, you know, the patients will ask like well, did I do something wrong? Right, uh, did I did this happen, or whatever. I get that, especially with my, my uh patients who are suffering from infertility Right, that's a, that's a whole, nother thing myself to your next podcast absolutely, you can do another podcast, like on infertility.
Speaker 2:But I do see that a lot right to be like did I do something wrong? Like what did I do that caused this and things like that. You know what I mean and it's to know you're right like that. That it's not you right. You know genetically, like also environmental factors have a lot to play with it, right, and there's something those things that we can't really change, but there is things that we can change, right, to kind of counterbalance those things that we can't change, like like the diet, right, um, like the extras, like the things that I do to help, like with manual therapy, to help it along, even the things that can't, but for them to not feel like, hey, yeah, I did something wrong, there's something wrong with me, when that's not fair right right, I love that.
Speaker 1:You said right, um, doing the things that we can do. Right, essentially what? Where can we change? Right, the things that we have. Control, the right. Control over right, versus, like, oh, the environment well, there's not a lot of things that we can do about that. But nutrition, right, that we can absolutely do. Right, we can focus on nutrition or, like you say, exercise, right, we can go see um dr mendoza and work on that. Those are things that we are able to have that direct impact and, like, focusing on that, right, really helps. But, absolutely right, just being able to be in a community with other women, right, that are going through the same thing. Not to feel alone right, again, this could be just a lonely process or feel like nobody's there to help.
Speaker 2:You know, because knowing that leads to, like, the loneliness and just you know symptoms when women have to deal with these kind of things. You know it's it's not obviously like a big step to think, like they also deal with other things like feelings of depression or you know things like that. Again, this is like something affecting your daily life, right, when you feel alone or, you know, in pain, all those things. It affects us not only physically but mentally, right, and so that you know that one of those things that helps with those things is to be able to know that you're not alone, to have that support, to be able to talk to someone about it and you know those kind of things, and then, like we were talking about, to doing the things that we can do, that we can control, to help with it right, yeah, exactly, and doing it with the help of um health professionals too, like us.
Speaker 1:Great, um, perfect. And so are you guys still offering the um series of classes as well? You guys are doing on saturdays, I think, are you still doing them?
Speaker 2:uh, so, so the classes right now, um, we change it up a little bit because sometimes you know patients, so now I'm doing a tuesday, we're doing a tuesday basically kind of take it by um, month to month, right, and so when we get um, we get messages and things like that and we're like, oh you know, I go and take the class and so we kind of, if we, I guess, first come, first serve, right if I have my couple of patients, and then we kind of figure out like what day works for best, or or I say, hey, we're doing good today. So right now we're changing it up. We did saturday, right now we're doing tuesday, I think, um, next month we might be doing a friday one. We're trying to so that we can fit into different people's schedules, right, because not everybody is available like saturday morning, because, especially in the summertime I I don't know about you, but we get super busy in the summertime to be available, like on the weekends.
Speaker 2:But we do, you know, we still are doing our classes, like I said, tuesday night and those are a little bit more general classes to just kind of help with the general things. But again, you know, the people who take our classes are coming and they're like oh, I jumped the other day and I didn't. You know leak, and it's great that they have to. But you know, there's things that when it's like, like I said, general right, like it's like a general like working out, sometimes you need a little bit more specific and again, that's what we're there for. But we want to help those who have obviously specific problems and those who just what I call maybe a little tune-up, and that's what we kind of do our classes for.
Speaker 2:But right now, tuesdays, yeah, so, but, um, if you follow us on instagram, which is like a at restore underscore therapeutic, we post about our classes. The next class is going to start this time, you know, like DMS, and we can get you in and stuff. So following us on Instagram is a great way to kind of like, you know, follow up, to know when we're having the next class and all the other stuff that we're doing around the clinic.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, and now I'll link the Instagram page in the show notes too, so people have that as well. Okay, dr Mendoza, thank you so much for your time. Any final thoughts, any final information that you want to provide or that you want to share?
Speaker 2:You know, I just again, like I say all the time like know that there's other resources out there to help you. Know that professionals like us are here to help you. We want to help you live your best life right, and that's just what we're here for. That's why we got into this. We want to help you know that there's other things that you can do that are not so drastic, right um, that there's things along the way and that there's people along the way to help you thank you awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are great final thoughts. Right, knowing that, yes, you have, maybe you now have um, this diagnosis right and, as you know, looking for that help um, and finding resources that can help you right, it's really important and not allowing the diagnosis right to overtake you. Essentially, sometimes that can be difficult to you, right, when you have a diagnosis and you're like, okay, but, not letting you, not letting it define you right. You're still, you no, and so getting that help, awesome, all right, perfect. Thank you so much, dr mendoza, I know thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we'll have to do another one on infertility. I think that's a huge one too.
Speaker 2:Yes, I deal with that a lot, so.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so I'm sure the public right, the listeners will benefit from that too, so we'll schedule that for sure. Awesome, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you everybody for listening. Remember to stay healthy and stay strong. I'll see you and I'll talk to you in another episode. Bye-bye for now.