Phil: 0:03

Welcome to Take Your Medicine podcast. I'm Phil Cowley, and I have learned over the years. The best way to learn is to listen to your patients. After 25 years of being a pharmacist, I thought I was so smart in the beginning. And then I started listening to my patients and realized how much I still had to learn. Today, we have the beautiful. Brilliant. Ariana Medizade, who is a pharmacist. She's currently in California, but you may know her better on her Instagram handle@wellness.pharm. She also is on TikTok, TikTok shop, and something exciting, you're launching your own supplement brand. Is that right?

Ariana: 0:40

Yes, I am. Iris supplements, pharmacist formulated, filler free, third party tested, all the good stuff.

Phil: 0:47

Filler free. You know how huge that is? People need to understand that most of the time, my wife was asking me yesterday, Like how many of these supplements we get are mostly filler? I'm like, well, about 90 percent of them just refill. And the worst ones are the ones inside the United States. She said, are they worse when they come from outside the United States? I said, no, it's the United States. The packages will come in and they'll throw so many fillers. It says it's saffron. It says it's DHEA, but in the end you get like 2%. That is brilliant.

Ariana: 1:14

Yeah, I mean, you really never know what you're getting, so always make sure you know it's third party tested and wherever you buy supplements from. But thank you. It's definitely a huge passion of mine.'cause I start out on social media telling people how to heal naturally, how to empower themselves using herbs and minerals and supplements. So it's like a full circle moment for me.

Phil: 1:36

And it takes so much courage. So everybody should go check it out for sure. It takes a lot.

Ariana: 1:40

Oh, thank you.

Phil: 1:40

To make the jump to doing your own because now your own butts on the line instead of somebody else's. It's so much easier to point at somebody else's product than it is to say, okay, mine's did it. So.

Ariana: 1:52

Yeah, no, thank you so much. It took a long time to, you know, get it started and to source it and to find someone that believed in the, you know, the filler free, the third party testing vision, because it takes a long time, but it's something I can at the end of the day, be very proud of and stick by.

Phil: 2:08

I love having that is so perfectly said. I love having somebody with the passion for their own product. Like that's so cool. Okay. I'm going to jump right in because I love it when I have another pharmacist on who has gone through a journey, the way that I have. Somebody who starts out in one place coming out of pharmacy school and you're just fresh as a daisy you're ready to to do everything you're supposed to and then life changes you along the way

Ariana: 2:34

Yeah you know throughout pharmacy school it's really funny because I used to tell my family, my friends I'm going to graduate pharmacy school, get licensed, and I'm going to go work for Allergan or a big pharmaceutical company, because I always envisioned myself as being a medical science liaison and MSL. And throughout pharmacy school, I just was always dealing with really bad anxiety. It started when I was honestly my whole life, it got pretty bad in college, and then it got worse in pharmacy school. And that's kind of where I discovered my love for natural healing because I went through so much and I was like, I can't function. I have to go to the doctor. I went to the doctor and the doctor I had personally was very dismissive and just was like, take, you know, take, um, SSRI. And then she also was like, let me give you Alprazolam, which is Xanax. And I was very surprised because a lot of doctors are trying to push back on that, but. I just didn't really feel listened to at all, and that's kind of what prompted me to do my research, really listen to my body and be like, what can I do to just improve my health and hopefully improve my anxiety?

Phil: 3:49

See, that's so, it, I was talking to a doctor the other day, and we were talking about how we give out all this advice to patients, and then the second it happens to us, how it changes your perspective on everything you say, because we get trained. And so what, one of my stories I always talk about is, you know, we were trained in pharmacy school to look at individuals and take a look at their meds. And one thing we look very close at is, addictive potentials. I mean, that's something that just hits us. And so when you have somebody who looks like they're abusing drugs, you're supposed to take a second look and they kind of drive it into your brain. And, I didn't take the time to listen to people, so instead I would see their list of meds and I would think, Oh no, this is going to be a user. I have this story that, like, changed me. I had a patient come in and he, he was using way too much. It was actually Xanax he was using too much of. And he was really stressed out. And, of course, I did the pushback thing. It's not 80 percent gone. Said, you know, I've got to wait. I did the whole thing, but I never talked to the patient. And about three days later, his wife came in and wanted to talk to me and said, is this really a problem? And so on. And I'd been out of school six months. And you know, like I was trained to a point where I'm like, yeah, he's got a problem. This is turning from anxiety to addiction. And I said some of the things I wish I could have just taken back every word I said. And I've actually apologized to the couple, I don't know, a dozen times. And so when I look at my own life and I look at my own struggles, I love hearing a pharmacist who said, I went to the doctor and the doctor said, take your medicine. And it didn't feel right.

Ariana: 5:26

Yeah. And you know, I've, I've had moments like that too, in the pharmacy, when I was first starting out, I worked at a small community pharmacy and, the customers in there were always just, they're like your friends, you know, it's different than when you work at a big you know, pharmacy like CVS, right? Because that smaller community pharmacies that are independent, you really get to take your time with the customers. And, similar to you, you know, I was fresh out of school. I still had that in me where I wanted to educate people about natural remedies, but since my license obviously doesn't cover that, I was hesitant to do that in the pharmacy. So I remember, you know, people. With high cholesterol or people on antidepressants or people who just could not stop getting bad headaches and be like, what else can I do? What do you recommend? But I don't want to get in trouble by, you know, the pharmacist in charge or the owners. And so I'm like, you know, like you can look at this, but there's not enough evidence. Like I really had to protect what I was saying and I couldn't help people as much as I, you know, maybe can now being self employed. And so, that's like a regret that I usually have too, is like, with all the knowledge I know now, I wish I could give that to people in a pharmacy setting, as well as, you know, educate them about Western medication, but it would be nice to get that holistic approach to people who are desperate for answers and they're tired of taking medications.

Phil: 6:50

That it's such a great answer. There's actually two things I want to make sure we hit on first. Why do you think that evidence is so limited insight? I get asked this question. So I want to know what your opinion is. I get asked all the time. Why is there so little evidence for supplements? Because I completely believe in it. And I know that there are good supplements and bad supplements and the whole thing. But you get asked, why is, why is it always so little evidence? Why do you think that's the case?

Ariana: 7:15

So the reason I think that there isn't enough Evidence backing up natural remedies and supplements is because who is going to put funding behind studies that look at these things if they can't monetize it into a pharmaceutical. And I know that this approach might be like a little controversial, but It's pretty obvious if you look at it, a lot of different companies, pharmaceutical companies, institutions, hospitals, private sector. They will fund studies with the hopes that they can maybe get enough evidence to back up claims behind medications and then they have to you know, put it through, clinical trials, which you don't really see a lot of supplement companies doing that they can. It's about$20,000 if they want to do it. And it's great, but not a lot of supplement companies are going to invest that much money into it. So you really have to look at it from a money standpoint, honestly, like yes, there are a lot of different types of research and clinical trials backing up pharmaceutical medications because we need that to put it on the market, but supplements, it's hard to monetize that on a mass scale in the pharmaceutical industry. Do you get what I'm saying?

Phil: 8:26

A hundred percent. Well, and it's also very difficult because you can't patent it and, and, and get exclusivity to it. So, I also think that a lot of the studies, like they'll say out that there's little to no, you know, um, evidence on there. And then I'll go look at the meta analysis and they take every garbage study that's ever been done by anybody and they throw them all together and they say, Oh, this is no good. Rather than looking for studies that have good statistical values. So there's a lot of garbage studies that pharmaceutical companies get away with too. Yeah. But they don't get thrown in the same mix as, and then there's good ones and they don't get thrown all together. When we start looking at, for example, magnesium, you'll get magnesium that some, some guy, somebody did in, in some country that doesn't even exist anymore, thrown in with a good study that comes out of the institution of health. And then they'll say, well, there's this one study, but there's three that don't count. And so for me, it drives me a little nuts because it's almost like they're fighting against even there being a chance of them working.

Ariana: 9:25

Yeah, I mean, listen, there's good studies and bad studies for everything. And you also have to look at who is funding these studies, because sometimes there are conflicting interests in place, not for all studies, but for some studies, right? So you really need to make sure that what you're reading is is pure and it's not, you know, being funded by certain companies or being worked on by certain people who might have conflicting interests, but I love supplements. Obviously there are supplements that you can rely on, that are third party tested, maybe don't have filler ingredients. And then there's some that are a little sketchy and you kind of need to stay away from them, but that can be said for pharmaceutical medications to in terms of purity, they're all pure, but maybe some cause harmful side effects for you. And some don't everyone's different. And the approach that they take to their health should be different too. It should be individualized. And so I think that mixing the best of the holistic world and the Western world can really give you amazing patient outcomes.

Phil: 10:26

Oh, for sure. I mean, we live in such a day and age where it's like you have to choose a camp and I just hate it because I like all the camps. Like, why would I, why would I cut myself out of anything? Like, I like dessert, but I like dinner. I mean, why would I just pick one? Why? You know what I mean? I, there's even that saying out there right now where it's everything's so divided and the last 12 months, I think I've been in 16 states and I've yet to meet one that I don't like. And so the idea that you're talking about mixing things together. That is just such a perfect way to go, where we take the best of Western medicine and we take the best of holistic medicine and we throw them together rather than have to be at each other's throats.

Ariana: 11:05

Exactly. Sometimes I'll get DMs and people and women will be like, you know, I, I suffer from UTIs often. I have one right now, but I don't want to take any antibiotics. And I'm like, listen, you need to take antibiotics to clear the UTI. That's very important so that you don't form any more complications. But what you can do is also add in a marshmallow root. You can also add in cranberry, right? Like D-mannose. And so you can use. things from both sides to really make yourself a healthier person. And it's okay to use over the counter medications or antibiotics, or even SSRIs because some people do need it. But what I'm really advocating for is like, try both don't block yourself out and don't just because supplements don't have enough studies behind them. Don't completely block it out of your, you know, tree of options to choose from.

Phil: 12:00

Right. It's kind of funny though, cause they're so, I, I a hundred percent agree. And then you'll get somebody started on something like they'll start their methylated B vitamins or they'll start their cranberry and like, wait, this really works. I was told it was all voodoo and you're like, well, it's not voodoo. It's just, you have to be directed in the right way. And then I'm always doing what you're doing. Like, but. Don't come off your other medications until we can get you healthy because you'll just crash because there's it's like they have to swing so hard like I'm going to go completely all natural and I'm like, Oh, good luck. You'll be back because the UTI will catch up to you. I mean, you can say what you want, but as soon as it moves to your kidneys, you'll be back. But on the other hand, maybe giving you an antibiotic over and over again, which is going to ruin every microbiome across your whole body without replacing it is going to have a problem too. So I 100% love everything that you're saying because it allows people to be empowered. Um, I do, I do want to go back to, to anxiety. So anxiety is something that I'm old. You're so young and everything. I mean, I look at you, you're like, you're just, just a baby in every way, but you have life experience that I think is so valuable. As generation X, um, anxiety, if you said you had anxiety to your parents, they told you to go dig a post hole and get outside. And, you know, it was just the thing we're now living in, in a place where I look at my children and they have massive amounts of anxiety. And if you look at life now, it's explainable, and you know why it is. When did you first start realizing that your anxiety was something that needed to be treated, and it wasn't just, just, you know, a little bit here and a little bit there?

Ariana: 13:40

I think there's a difference between feeling bits of anxiety and nervousness. Um, because sometimes it can be situational and that's completely normal. It's part of the human experience, right? But when your anxiety or your nervousness gets to the point of interfering with how you're functioning on a day to day basis, it's changing how your relationships work. It's changing how your days are spent. It's preventing you from maybe going out and seeing people or getting through your to do list. That's when you need to stop and say, how can I take medications or take supplements to improve my anxiety? And so that's where I was at. It was to a point where I was waking up really bad heart palpitations. I constantly had thoughts in my head, like, Oh, like I need to do this. I need to do that. And it just wouldn't stop. I'm always thinking about maybe what other people were thinking. Um, it was just kind of a lot of overthinking and a lot of physical manifestations of anxiety. And then in turn, that would affect my quality of life, right? Like I wouldn't really be acting like myself. I didn't feel like myself. My relationships weren't as good as they could be because I just was pulling back from others. So that's when I knew I had to do something about it.

Phil: 14:54

Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's, it's really, it's funny how we do the absolute worst thing when we have anxiety. Instead of reaching out to people, our first move is to reach in and they're like, okay, I'll just, I'll get my crap together. I mean, just give me a minute. And then your crap gets worse because nobody's helping you unload it. And so now you're in this, this awful situation where you've isolated, which then makes the next interaction so terrible. And being able to say that I need help is that. It's a visual, visually you start looking at you're like, okay, that's gonna make me look weak. Did you feel weak when you started saying, okay, I need to do something about this?

Ariana: 15:33

And it's not necessarily weak. I just didn't want to inconvenience others. You know, like I, I told my mom, for example, I'm like, well, at first I was like, I don't want to tell my mom, cause I don't want her to be worried about me, you know? And so for me, it wasn't more. So I felt weak, but that is such a real phenomenon. That's so many people deal with. I didn't feel weak. I felt helpless and scared in a way. And I didn't want to inconvenience people, but I, I see it right now myself with other people or even like, like my brother, he's, you know, he's studying for his accounting exam, just an example. And he really needed help with like figuring out how to structure his studying habits and things. And he wasn't reaching out to anyone and he just like, wasn't studying optimally. And I was like, Andrew. If you need help, like I took my board exams for pharmacy. If you need help, tell us and then we can help you and you will improve, you know, but I think it's so real that people don't want to speak up for themselves and fears that they might be looked down upon, you know.

Phil: 16:36

Well, I love the fact that you bring up that you felt like you were inconveniencing people because those are you either feel like I got to hide or you have, you have a, when you say you feel inconvenient, you're inconveniencing people, there's a self worth there thing that you do, you're missing, you're missing how much you mean to those other individuals. So when Andrew doesn't want to ask for your help, he's demeaning the fact that how much you care for him in the same way when I've had my issues and when you had them, we're like, Oh, well, you know. Nobody, nobody wants this on their plate yet. The opposite is true. Everybody wants it on their plate. Like they want to help people.

Ariana: 17:07

Yeah. I don't think that as humans, we realize the people around us do love us. And if there is something wrong in your life, speak up because. there's actually a higher chance that they will want to help you and reach out and you're not inconveniencing anyone. And if anyone ever makes you feel like you are inconveniencing them when you need help, they're not a true friend.

Phil: 17:31

Now you give them the middle finger and move to the next. I always tell my kids there's 7 billion people in the world. A couple can dislike you. There's plenty to replace them. And, and a lot of times that has to do with them and not you. That's one thing I also explain is when somebody doesn't want to hear it, it probably means they're not in the place to hear you. But why would you, like, I don't know, there's so many negative cycles we all get into, there's nothing worse than getting into a cycle and not having improvement. Speaking of improvement, we've talked anxiety, let's talk about what, so I personally, you know, what, 2020, owning my own pharmacy, I started on Lexapro, and it was necessary at the time. I mean, yeah, we lived through it. I don't need to explain it but it was terrible for me to come off of Lexapro. It changed my opinion on how fast we start people. I get that people need them, but now when I sit down with somebody, I'm like, are you ready to commit? Like this is commitment time because this is going to be hard. As you went through your anxiety, I'm sure that you got, well, you got put on Xanax, which is. Like, if you take that one regularly, that's crazy hard to get off of, you know? What did you find that helped you, both pharmaceutically and non pharmaceutically, to cope with anxiety in a more natural way while you were still using Western medicine until you could come off?

Ariana: 18:48

So I was offered the, SSRI and the Alprazolam, but I didn't take it because I knew about the side effects and I was in a special position because I was a pharmacy student at the time I had literally just finished my, my, you know, my mini like six weeks or whatever on psychiatry. So I was pretty well versed in all the side effects and what can happen. And that's what made me not want to go through with it. Personally. I wasn't at a point where I was like, just give me anything. I'll take it. I was at a point where I was going through anxiety, but I still had it in me to just wait it out and, and research and, you know, experiment with supplements and things like that. Um, so for me, in terms of the supplement aspect of it, what really helped me was magnesium, you know, magnesium glycinate really helped me. Um, Um, Saffron really helped me and that's kind of like my thing. I love Saffron and, um, Rhodiola. Amazing. L Theanine, which is an amino acid. Calms down any thoughts.

Phil: 19:49

Did you know that Saffron is the most expensive?

Ariana: 19:52

Yes.

Phil: 19:52

You probably knew that, right? Per pound, there's nothing more expensive than Saffron. I'll let you keep going, but it's always one of those things that when you have somebody puts together a good Saffron supplement, you got to look at that. And I do love magnesium. It's a cool thing as well. So you were saying Rhodiola is another one that you moved to.

Ariana: 20:08

Oh, I love Rhodiola. And that's why when I made my supplement brand, I have something called chill pills and it's basically everything that helped me and I thought would help other people. But rhodiola is really amazing because it lowers your cortisol. So that lowers the stress hormone. While energizing you. So it's very different than something like Ashwagandha, which I'm sure you've heard of before on, you know, on TikTok, Instagram, it had its moment. But Ashwagandha makes you a little tired because it reduces stress. It makes you mellow. Rhodiola, it gives you energy. It's an energizing adaptogen, so you can take it during the daytime. So I will say, you know, the magnesium, L theanine, rhodiola really helped me. I also experimented a little bit with passion flower, um, and they've actually done studies on passion flower and they found that it's almost as effective as Oxazepam and treating generalized anxiety disorder, which I thought was really cool.

Phil: 21:05

No, it's way cool. The study actually was really well done too. Like they, they decided to really look at it. And I love the fact that you, you kind of pushed to that, but you're also talking about how it wasn't like you woke up and you went in and you got your St. John wart and you were ready to go. You did some research on all of this.

Ariana: 21:21

I did. I did a lot of research because that's honestly what made me fall in love with pharmacy in the first place is learning how medications work. And so that's why if maybe if you guys notice like in my video content too, I love to talk about the mechanism of how herbs or minerals are working because that's what made me go to pharmacy school in the first place. I love to learn about the mechanism of action of different medications. So I, yeah, I did my research before.

Phil: 21:49

Well, that's why I love saffron too, to be honest with you, because it's got that aromized, it's got to be aromatic in nature for it to work and most people don't do it right. And I've talked to everybody about, okay, so it's got this aromatic component to this, so and everybody else rolls their eyes. I'm like, It actually is really cool. Like, you know, for a few of us, so I love, and the rhodiola is really a cool one. And Ashwagandha does have a place. It's just Ashwagandha is more of a nighttime. Let's see if we can reduce the stressors do it for, and people make mistakes with Ashwagandha because they'll take it. And they're like, it worked really well for the first three months and then it quit. And then, when somebody says that their ashwagandha quit, I actually was listening to you about cortisol and ashwagandha. So, tell them what you told everybody else. Like, what happens when you take your adaptogens just all the time? Especially, Ashwagandha.

Ariana: 22:40

So Ashwagandha and other adaptogens as well. But the most important one in terms of this concept is Ashwagandha. If you take it every day without stopping, it can actually reduce the effectiveness of the adaptogen. And so you want to make sure that you cycle Ashwagandha. You want to take it for four weeks on and then give your body a break for about two weeks, and then you can restart it. So always cycle your ashwagandha. That's what we call it is cycling and you take it for four weeks on, two weeks off, or you can do like, okay, I'm only going to take it Monday through Thursday. Do it in a way where you're giving your body a break. Another issue that comes up with ashwagandha is it mellows you out. It makes you very chill, sometimes a little too chill. So it can cause you to have no reaction or kill your emotions. It's not going to make you completely emotionless, but you're going to notice you don't have the same reaction that you normally might just, you know, not being on ashwagandha. So just make sure that you cycle it.

Phil: 23:38

See, people need to know how brilliant that is because most people just say, here's your ashwagandha and take it. And they don't realize we're trying to enact change. And so the way you say it, Like, for real, it was so perfect. I just want to make sure we threw it on there. It was just really, really good. Like, I, the brilliance behind a lot of your posts is something that jumps out at me. And I, it comes from a point where I think that that's somebody who's used it. Like, it's not somebody who read the book. They're like, okay, I, I want to fix my life. I used it. It has its place. But for me, you mentioned rhodiola. Now rhodiola is a different type of adaptogen because the way that the cortisol and everything else responds is a different animal. Yeah. And cortisol is one of those subjects that everybody's like my, they'll go to a doctor, this happens all the time. And they're like, my cortisol is through the roof, what can I do? And for me I always like, It's so complicated, like I have to decide, am I really willing to commit the next 10 to 20 minutes of my life to this conversation or not? Do you have simple, I mean, you know, it's because it's cortisol, it's not something you take and automatically things drop. Cortisol is a response to

Ariana: 24:47

Your life.

Phil: 24:48

It triggers that don't end, right?

Ariana: 24:50

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people, they So the first mistake people make is that they think all cortisol is bad. Cortisol is your friend. We need cortisol to be alive, right? When you wake up in the morning, that's when your cortisol is the highest and that's good. That's what we want because it helps you get up in the morning. It helps you have energy. It makes you more alert, you know, but then as the day goes on, your cortisol levels should slowly drop so that nighttime you can go to sleep. The issue with cortisol is that if it's chronically elevated, if you have high cortisol in the morning and it just never drops and it's always elevated, that's where you get the issues of you can't sleep at night. Meaning wait, you're craving carb heavy, sugar heavy meals. Um, you know, you're breaking out, your hair is thinning, things like that. And so, um, with cortisol, you want to make sure that you are targeting two different things. Number one, your lifestyle. What, how are you living your life on a day to day basis? And how is that contributing to your stress? And then number two, are you using any herbal remedies to just give you a nice, you know, blanket on your cortisol and just, Puts you at ease at nighttime because that can really help.

Phil: 26:03

Yeah, I love it because what happens most people is you'll be talking to them like and the first question I always ask them is if you close your eyes I just want you to close your eyes think for one second I want you to name three things that are stressing you out right now and then they tell me what they are I said okay can you change any of those in any way and it's funny the number of people who they'll they'll close their eyes and just as soon as they say it like it blurts out what's stressing them and then you're like okay before I can give you stuff that'll help with the cortisol level but you have to work on the other part or else we'll be back where you're at. No matter what I give you, it doesn't matter if it's pharmaceutical or herbal. It doesn't matter if it's a supplement that is pristine, like freshly picked and given to you right off the plant. If you don't do the things to make life changes, that cortisol level will go back because

Ariana: 26:51

Yeah.

Phil: 26:51

How many of us live, live in fight or flight? Like it's the term you hear that all the time. I hear it all the time,

Ariana: 26:56

All the time. Yeah. All the time.

Phil: 26:58

I live in fight or flight and I'm like, okay, so change. And they look at you almost dumbfounded like that's like, how am I going to do that? You know?

Ariana: 27:05

Yeah. And I mean, there's like little things too, right? It's like, we're all going to have problems in life. That's just part of being human. But how do you respond to it? So working on your coping mechanisms, maybe even. Even little things like when you wake up, don't immediately drink your coffee, wait at least one hour and then drink your coffee. So it helps their cortisol. It's very little things go to sleep at the same time every night. Even if you're in the middle of a divorce and it's the most stressful thing ever take a bath and go to sleep at the, at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, wait one hour until your coffee and do 30 minutes of physical activity. That alone is going to help so much, you know,

Phil: 27:46

And get outside. I mean, with that exercise, like, people think, oh, I don't want to go to the gym. I'm like, don't go to the gym. Just go walk for 30 minutes outside and just start making that a priority. And, and on top of it, we do want to look at some of the medication, like there's the whole mix of it. But the way we respond to stress usually is based on how we responded to it yesterday. And if we don't change anything, it'll be the same stressors tomorrow.

Ariana: 28:12

Exactly.

Phil: 28:13

It doesn't matter, even if I gave you an SSRI. So when, you know, if I gave you an SSRI, if I gave you Xanax, if I gave you, if I gave you any of this stuff, if you don't make lifestyle changes, everything we do as pharmacists, in my opinion, should be self limiting if we do it right. That's what I always think, whether it's herbal or not, you're like, okay, let's do this, change your life, get you off of it. And it's funny how few people really. As it goes for healthcare providers, look at people in that direction. I've heard enough of your stuff that that is a huge part of who you are is how do we help you make the changes you need?

Ariana: 28:49

Yeah, definitely. I think that giving people small actionable steps to make changes is really helpful because it's really hard to be like, you need to work out five times a week. Because people get overwhelmed and understandably, right? Like picking up any new habit is very intimidating, but if you set small actionable items that you can accomplish throughout the day, it helps you meet those bigger goals. And then without even realizing you're probably going to exceed that goal. Um, so I am really big on that. I'm really big on number one lifestyle changes. You can take all the medications, all the supplements and the world. The most expensive, pure ones, like you said, but if you are still Putting yourself in an environment or eating the same things or consuming the same things that are harming your body and harming your mental health. Not much is going to change. It's, you really need to take a holistic approach, even with something like, for example, type two diabetes, right? That's why a lot of pharmacists, they actually work with nutritionists. They work with doctors, nutritionists, a whole team, because now they're starting to really pick up that. Okay. It's not just us prescribing metformin. The patient also needs to really be making lifestyle changes. It's important in every aspect.

Phil: 30:04

Absolutely. Okay. So you have, you've got a beautiful podcast. Um, the podcast name is

Ariana: 30:11

The Wellness Pharm,

Phil: 30:13

The Wellness Pharm, and she has 51 episodes and I listened to about 26 of them because, and of those, you have one that really jumped out to me. It was advice I would give to my younger self. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Ariana: 30:28

To never give up and to always believe in yourself. And I know that people always, you hear that a lot growing up, always believe in yourself, never give up, but until you truly believe that, like that alone just has changed my life so much because I think that growing up, you see how other people live and you see what you should do. There are certain steps that we learn, especially like as women, you need to do certain things in society. Right. And going. Against that is sometimes really hard. Um, because you're just like conditioned so much growing up. And I think that you can really accomplish anything that you want in life. Any goal you have, if you truly, truly believe in yourself, believe in yourself and don't care about what anyone thinks, because your life will change if you do that.

Phil: 31:19

Oh, absolutely. It's funny because we always worry about what other people are thinking, But they probably aren't thinking about us. Like, that's the thing I keep wondering.

Ariana: 31:27

No one cares about you. Yeah.

Phil: 31:29

Like you go into a room, you're like, Oh, I look so slobbish or I didn't get my hair done and all they're thinking is, Oh, my hair doesn't look the way it's funny how little, you know, the things that we put stressors on how little other people focus on it, like, it's just one of those such great advice that you're like, I don't want to do that. It'll be embarrassing. And then the person sitting next to you says, what are you talking about? Cause they're not even the person you're with isn't even paying attention.

Ariana: 31:54

They're not even listening to you. Yeah. And you know, I grew pretty quickly on, TikTok because I didn't know anyone on that platform. No one I knew in real life followed me. So I was just being myself, you know, giving wellness advice in like a, a fun, sassy way. Like I always do in my videos. And then I was like, I really want to grow my Instagram. But a lot of people from like high school, college, pharmacy school follow me. It's like kind of awkward, you know? So I never really tried hard on Instagram. I never really was aggressive with it. Like I was on TikTok. And then, you know, a couple of months ago, I was like, I don't care because I finally believed in myself. Like I was like, don't care what other people think, have high goals for yourself and you can accomplish them. Just do it for you. Right. And so I started posting how I did on TikTok on Instagram and I grew like over 60, 000 followers.

Phil: 32:48

Right

Ariana: 32:48

In less than like three months.

Phil: 32:49

People love you. And I'm saying that to everybody listening. They actually love you what they don't want is homogenized you. They don't they don't need to see the pretty perfect anymore You just come out and say what you think and and if you worry about like there's a lot of people that say well somebody will say something negative. I always take that negative as we, you know, I think we overrate the negative statements. I think most people are saying something negative are just expressing themselves too. So, you know, I'll tell people that you can use Benadryl and kids for three days because I've had kids. I don't want to use it forever. There's got its bad side effects. But third night row, kids not sleeping. You give them one dose of Benadryl, your life will change the next morning. Everything's fine. And I'll get all this. And originally it's like, oh, you get so much hate when you said that. I'm like, I don't think it's hate. I think they have a strong point to be made that there is problems with Benadryl. And I have my point. And I still can sit down with them and we can have a barbecue together and I would be fine. I'd go swimming with them. I, I don't, you know what I mean? Like, I don't have to dislike people who say things negative, nor do you have to, I love it when people read nice comments with a really aggressive tone and how you can, that's what we do when we hear negative. Like you put the most negative tone you can to it. And I'm like, okay, now say it again. But read it again in the nicest, sweetest, grandma tone, who's not real good at typing. And you're like, holy cow, maybe people aren't bad. Maybe they're just, maybe it's an opening. And I love you get to be who you are because you shine. And I think that that is great advice on anybody looking to get over anxiety is you have to first learn who you are and then accept it. And then once you do that, it's easy to be you and like, holy cow, life's easier when I'm just who I am.

Ariana: 34:30

Yeah, I mean, I can really relate to that because with, for example, with Instagram, I was just homogenized me, you know, I was kind of following what I thought people would want to see because other people were doing it. And the minute I stopped doing that, even not even online in my personal life, the minute I just showed up as me. Unapologetically me. My life changed. Like this year has been the best year of my life so far and it's because I'm me. I'm not pretending to be someone else. I don't have a mask on. I'm not dimming my light. I'm just showing up as me.

Phil: 35:11

Right. And everybody loves, they all say, let's just be me. And I think that that's what, so that's what I did. I was, but see. Oh, I was 47 when I started. I'm like, okay, it's way too late for me to be anybody but me. And so I just went on there and was me. And I thought who in the world is watching this garbage I'm putting out and people liked it. And I'm finding people like people, they don't actually like the homogenized. They don't like the over processed. They don't like it anymore. And so I love what you do. Um, I love everything about it. I'm gonna ask a couple of questions here that I know that people ask me all the time.

Ariana: 35:45

Yeah.

Phil: 35:45

Um there you have a podcast and a couple of posts about antidepressants and libido, and I have found women do not like it when a man explains their libido issues to them, so I'm going to let you explain it to them because you're brilliant and you're a pharmacist. So what would you tell people who are struggling with libido issues who probably still need to be on their antidepressants? Because stopping it is not always a great option, but having no libido and no emotional range isn't good either.

Ariana: 36:14

Yeah, definitely. I think that it's important for women to know first off. It's okay to take antidepressants. Um, sometimes it's needed based on your brain chemistry. So let's get that out of the way. Number one, you're on an antidepressant, but then you're figuring out that you're getting all these side effects. Maybe you're gaining weight. Maybe you have loss of libido, but the libido aspect, there are certain things that you can do to help the, the low libido from occurring again. And one of those things is looking into herbal remedies like slippery elm, slippery elm is really great. There are amino acids like L arginine and L citrulline. This can be used in both men and women because it helps promote blood flow. And then the third thing is, um, looking into whether you can take saffron. So saffron is really great because it improves your mood. And although it does increase dopamine, primarily dopamine. It is amazing for a libido. It's an amazing aphrodisiac. It's been used for years and years and years as an aphrodisiac actually. And so if your doctor does approve of you using saffron, definitely look into that because it's not only good for your mood, it's also good for your libido.

Phil: 37:23

It's fantastic advice because what you're saying is, is that we're going to take what you need. And if we can reduce that dose by talking to your doctor by adding something else and then getting you off it works really good and you're giving them options from multiple see the brilliance of that I understand how brilliant the answer was because first you worked on blood flow which is a physical problem and then you used with the mental capacity part of it where you're talking about is your dopamine just moved to a slat level so you're not getting those boosts. The whole thing was circled in there and like I said, a lot of my listeners are women and they really don't like it when I tell them how to fix that and I don't blame them because why would I know? I mean, we're so much different, you know, so the other thing that I really love when I listen to your podcast and when I listen to your posts is that you talk about medications you like and medications you don't. My one of my medications I dislike the most is long term use of Omeprazole. I think short term it's great long term. It makes a mess. Are there any medications you kind of can say I really don't like it There's a place for it, but I think it's something I just don't really like. So for me, it's Omeprazole. I think people get trapped in the Omeprazole cycle. And so that's mine and I'm going to put it out there. There's, there's others, but Omeprazole is the one I'm like, Oh, that one just needs to like be looked at differently. It's got a place, but it is not how we're using it.

Ariana: 38:42

Especially for women because it reduces bone mineral density over time. People don't realize people just take Omeprazole and, um, they think it's just working as. And their GI, but there are a lot of side effects that come along with it long term. Um, for me, I would say I'm not a huge fan of, I just posted about this last night. I am not a huge fan of NyQuil. I am NyQuil's biggest hater. I'm also not a huge fan of any type of over the counter product. And it doesn't matter what aisle it's in. If it's in gummy form, I'm just like, what are you doing? Waste of money. But I will say NyQuil because it just contains ingredients that I don't think mix well together. It has acetaminophen. It has alcohol in it that can cause a lot of issues with your liver, especially if you're overusing NyQuil, which a lot of people do. Cause you know, they're like, Oh, I just want to pass out. I'm so sick. And they don't realize how much they're harming their liver. It has phenylephrine in it, which doesn't work.

Phil: 39:40

Right, I love that one.

Ariana: 39:40

The FDA released a statement.

Phil: 39:42

Everybody complains about supplements not working. And then they, they have like almost every coffee, like DayQuil is the best. Dayquil is literally Tylenol.

Ariana: 39:51

It's literally Tylenol and they're selling it at such a high price point. And it's just syrups and, and colors and sugars and Tylenol. And so there, you know, I like how it has a cough, you know, NyQuil, it has a cough suppressant in it. Right. But just get a cough suppressant. You don't need to take. NyQuil or even honey. But you can take Tylenol.

Phil: 40:13

Have you seen the study where it compares dexamethorphan and honey and shows that honey works better than dexamethorphan? Like it's one of those things.

Ariana: 40:19

Oh yeah.

Phil: 40:19

And dexamethorphan freaks me out. Like it's, I'm one of those people that takes the dexamethorphan. I will have the weirdest dreams if I take any. So like I, I used to think nothing of, but I'm with you a hundred percent. Like NyQuil is one of those things. And the worst part about NyQuil When it had Sudafed in it back in the day, we all fell in love with it. But it, but then they had to put the doxalamine in it because we kept them up at night. And so now you're like, okay, well my heart rate's going up, but now I'm overly dehydrated and I'm taking more Tylenol with it. Like they put this mixture together and it's, I'm, I'm a hundred percent with you on that. When NyQuil is one of those things where I'm like, it's such a waste of money. I, I don't know why people spend what they do on it.

Ariana: 40:59

I'm sure Vicks is making a huge, you know, profit off of, um, NyQuil alone, but yeah, just buy it separately. Take your Tylenol, have some Manuka honey, call it a day. You don't, you don't need to take all this NyQuil stuff.

Phil: 41:12

No, it doesn't. And, and even if you want, you're like, okay, I really want to be knocked out. Fine. Go get the Unisom. You can get it. Take half a Unisom and. And you're paying like a fraction of the cost. Okay, so the podcast is called Take Your Medicine, but one thing that I have always thought about is, I was kind of like you, I didn't expect much out of the social media, and then it kind of blew up. And I had somebody ask me, if this got big, you need to have a platform, something you want to do, because you're lucky enough to have People that are listening and the thing I decided is if I could do anything in this world If I could make the world 1% nicer just 1% kinder that it would be a success So I asked the last question I always ask everybody is if do you have advice to everybody listening? I was telling to go up give somebody a hug send them a text say nice things do you have advice to have people make this world just 1% kinder?

Ariana: 42:04

I think my number one advice would be to have more empathy for others. Sometimes people might react to you in a certain way or they might snap at you, especially, you know, working in a pharmacy, right? You get those customers that are really mad or something. Oftentimes, it's not because of you. It's because of something that's happening internally. And so it's important to show compassion for people who maybe aren't the kindest, who maybe have a lot of issues, who start a lot of drama or trouble. It's not because they're necessarily a bad person. There's just internal struggles that they haven't yet overcome. So instead of getting angry and being reactive, try to be there for them, show that you are a friend to them, because that's going to domino effect if they see that. Even though they're being mean to you, you're still showing compassion and patience to them. They're really going to take note of that. And hopefully that does transfer over to others. So that would be my bit of advice.

Phil: 43:04

I love that. If we see people for who they are, we'll accept them more. And I, I love the idea that we're taking two seconds to stop the cycle of unkindness to see that. All right. Tell everybody where they can find you.

Ariana: 43:18

Yes. So my Instagram is a@wellness.pharm P H A R M. So short for pharmacist. My TikTok is@thewellnesspharm. And if you do want to follow my supplement company's, Instagram Iris supplements, We are@irissupplements on Instagram and TikTok.

Phil: 43:37

And she's got a brilliant ebook out on hormones, which we didn't even get into it. I was going to get into the whole birth control whole thing. But if you have time, go check out her ebook on hormones. Hormones are one of those things that pharmacists can talk about for hours.

Ariana: 43:51

Yes.

Phil: 43:52

And so it's one of those things that I, the more we learn, the better off we are. So thank you for listening to Take Your Medicine podcast. I'm Phil Cowley. Today we've had the beautiful Ariana. Say your last name for me. I've said it wrong a hundred times.

Ariana: 44:07

Medizade.

Phil: 44:08

Medizade. I, I really apologize. I, I definitely have the Utah tongue. It doesn't even want to pronounce certain words. Medizade. She has been wonderful. You're going to want to go check her out. And if you've liked the podcast, Hey, give us a follow, give us a five star rating. And thank you so much for all of your time for listening.