Phil: 0:04

Welcome to Take Your Medicine Podcast, I'm Phil Cowley, pharmacist of 25 years, and over that 25 years, I've learned more from my patients than I have from anybody else. But because of HIPAA, I couldn't share them. I decided the best way to teach people about health care Is by listening to the people who need it. So we started the podcast to hear those stories. And today we have the beautiful, wonderful, smart. Accomplished and in every way somebody you want to hang out with at a barbecue or have your birthday party, everything you want there. It is Jessica DeLuise. She is a physician's associate, which is a better term for physician assistants, just so you know. She has gone through so much studying. She's got culinary degrees that go along with this. She has done her homework. She is writing a book. So anybody out there who wants the book that is going to hit the top of the charts, that's listening. Contact her and she is the Wellness Kitchenista and that's where you can find her online. So thank you so much Jessica for being on the podcast.

Jessica: 1:06

This is such a pleasure and I've been such a fan of yours for so long, so I feel honored to be here and be included in this and I I love to share and educate just like you do so I think this is going to be great.

Phil: 1:17

It's one of those things with social media. You accidentally have something happen and you're trying to figure out what happens next. So it's so weird to have somebody say that they're a fan because you're like, how can you be a fan? I'm just a, a pharmacist. And, and then you're like, you know what, maybe I can do some good with this. And it's been a fun ride. And I've seen you do so many things that are so good for so many people that I wanted to have you on here for sure.

Jessica: 1:39

Thank you. Yeah, in terms of accidents, I totally understand. My first speaking engagement was to a Girl Scout troop. That was a total pure accident and then it just spiraled and snowballed from there.

Phil: 1:51

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Jessica: 3:09

You know, I just posted yesterday. I just posted a lentil burrito and so many things about that recipe are so exciting for me. One is lentils, right? So we're talking a plant based convenient shelf stable ingredient, inexpensive. You can find it at the dollar store. And they're loaded with fiber. And that is something that I really think most people, adults and children don't get enough of. So, and then the burritos, hello, they're delicious and you can get creative.

Phil: 3:33

In the car, easy.

Jessica: 3:35

Oh yeah, for sure. So I I'm really into that one at the moment, but it could just be, cause it's the latest one I posted.

Phil: 3:41

No, I mean, fiber is really interesting. I hope we get to it because I want to talk about how much of our mental health is tied to our gut and. One in particular, the story that came out just recently, was the fact that Parkinson's disease is now being tied to alterations inside the esophagus, which is you know what that tie ends up being is going to be interesting, but they're seeing that the Vegus nerve being stimulated by that constant irritation is now leading to inflammation elsewhere. So I love the fact that what you do is a whole body way of fixing it, but you do it in a way that people actually can make this in their homes. And I forgot to mention. She has an Emmy guys, so she knows what she's doing here. That's not an easy task. And if you listen to her story. She hustled to get herself out there. She's got a TV show on Tubi right now, but she hustled on this stuff. This was not given to her. She's, I would watch out, stay on her good side. Cause this is one that is going to work for what she needs in life.

Jessica: 4:37

There's no malice here, no matter what. Uh, yeah, the Emmy was so crazy. The Emmy, can I tell you, can we diverge for a moment here?

Phil: 4:44

Anything you want, your story.

Jessica: 4:46

Do you know, I didn't even know I won that Emmy. Okay, so I was working, we're talking fall of 2020. So we all know the situation, the, you know, at present at that moment. I was in the urgent care. I was seeing telemedicine patients. And I got this really bizarre message from somebody at a health system about two hours north of me in Pennsylvania. And they said, Hey, I think I got your Emmy delivered here by accident. And I was like, there's no way this is real. This is total scam, total BS.

Phil: 5:11

Right. And I went to the, you want my bank account number now or later?

Jessica: 5:17

Exactly. Like, you know, where do you want me to wire the money kind of thing? And so I went onto the Emmy website and I went out to the MA that was in the nurses station out front and I said, look at the website. Like, is that my name? Spell it. Like, is that my name right there? And we looked at the Emmy website and they had the winners listed. And it had been about a month and a half since I had won this Emmy. But because it was 2020, there wasn't an award ceremony. So we, nobody knew, like, nobody knew that we had won this Emmy. And long story short is, it was legit. It was real. And about a month later, I got the Emmy in the mail, you know, third, third person. But it was crazy.

Phil: 5:50

You'll get another one. Like, honestly, I watch your stuff. You're going to get another one. It's not a problem, but I do want to jump into your story. So I want 16 year old Jessica to walk into her house. So this we're starting 16 on purpose. So, so I want you to describe to everybody who's listening as you walk through your door. First thing I want to know is what does it smell like inside your house, right when you open that door.

Jessica: 6:13

Oh my gosh, the smell of home. Definitely garlic or onions or both sautéing in the kitchen. That is such a reminiscent smell for me. My mother was always doing that. Always sautéing something. Something cooking low and slow. Something in the oven baking. That is the immediate smell that I smell. And I can hear it's funny, I can hear that sound, the sizzle, and I can hear my brother. So I have two younger brothers. So I'm 16, that means one of my brothers is 14, the other is 12. And they're there, rambunctious, you know, probably arguing over something, right, because they're teenage boys. And um, yeah, that's the smell. That's the smell, that's the sound. That's such a, wow, such a memory.

Phil: 6:49

So your mom's in the kitchen, brothers are fighting. She's yelling out their names. She's yelling at him at some point to stop it right.

Jessica: 6:56

Probably. Yeah. Right. Probably exactly. Yep. And I'm a senior in high school at this point. So I went, I was a senior in high school at 16 turned 17. So yeah, making big decisions about life and college and what my next move was and then dealing with, uh, sinkable episodes at the same time. So this is when my health journey really started. And when I started to put all of my food and lifestyle habits under a microscope because I had started passing out, um, bizarrely in the dentist office where I worked after school and getting these episodes of deja vu and then boom, I was out, out like a light. And this continued and persisted until my early twenties, these episodes. So as a reminder, this is not medical advice. Everything that Phil and I are talking about today is 100 based on our anecdotal experience, our personal experience. So whenever you're making changes to your diet or your supplement or medication choices, always consult with your healthcare provider first.

Phil: 7:54

Now, the one thing I find pretty common in almost all patients is when they first find something like this, and it's a mystery, it's hard, because you and I both work in healthcare, and there's nobody who's ever gone into healthcare who went into it because they didn't care. Like, everybody went in with the idea that they're going to help people, but the system really beats us into submission that you have to remind yourself every morning when you go in. That this person is not just another case because you see so many of them. You're like, okay, here's another bottle of antidepressants. Here's another, here's another this. Um, one thing I found common in all patients is a feeling of weakness and not having any power. At 16 to 20, you had to have some of those, like, I don't want to complain. I'm just going to like deal with it. They had to be some of those feelings.

Jessica: 8:40

Yeah, I think for me it was a little bit different because at 16 now I have my license and I'm driving and so all were in jeopardy, right? I wasn't able to drive when I was passing out. And I think that navigating the healthcare system at that age but also at that time, so we're going back now 20 plus years. So I think at that age at that time it was very, very difficult to do. Um, and I think my mom, my parent, my mom and my dad. They were huge advocates for me to help me navigate that system. And in fact, I recently gave a keynote address at a physician associate conference, the first. Physician assistant, as they were called at the time was someone I met through this experience. So they were the person that motivated me to actually get my master's and become a physician associate. It was that OBGYN PA at that time that I was like, wow, this, this person, it was the first person that we didn't obviously identify what was going on. Right. In the form of that appointment, but she was the first person to put on her listening ears and make me actually feel like I wasn't the one fabricating or, you know, creating this scenario that didn't really exist. And I think that's important too is validating patients. So I think I was one of the lucky ones because I went into being a health care provider, having had that experience and knowing how important someone just saying like, Wow, like, that must be scary. Like, just validating your patient's feelings is so monumental in, I think, their overall prognosis.

Phil: 10:06

I used to give out dexamethasone to people whose kids had croup and thought nothing of it. And then my third boy, my third boy had a croup episode. We were up in the mountains and he wasn't breathing. And I have never treated a patient the same about croup since. I can't, I was so scared all the way down. So I found that true experience of your own changes the way you see patients on a daily basis. Have you found just that, oh it's just gastric reflux, which you had to have heard along the way, oh it's just reflux.

Jessica: 10:35

Oh yeah, yeah.

Phil: 10:36

Has that changed the way that you see your patients and how you hear your patients?

Jessica: 10:41

It's funny because when you say that and when you say, Oh, it's just reflux, or Oh, it's no big deal. You don't realize something like that, that feels so minuscule. Honestly, because in reality, as compared to people who have diagnoses of cancer, which my mom had, and all of these other things that seem so much more catastrophic. It is, it's, you know, it's heartburn. But that one thing can be so, um, Like, like the rock in the river ripple effect, the epicenter of your entire life, you know, it affects every decision from going out to eat with your friends to what you're preparing at home to the medications you have to take and not even what you eat, but when you eat it, how much of it you eat. And this is something we do three, sometimes 10 times a day. So yeah, it does make me. Treat every diagnosis or every issue or complaint that a patient has like it is the most important thing in the world because it is to them and it's going to have a huge and profound impact on them and their families.

Phil: 11:35

And it's really important when you hear someone as accomplished as you are, because getting those diplomas behind you, that's not an easy task, and so when you are able to see an individual and see from inside them the way you can, that makes you a very special provider. And that's one thing that I always remind patients in general, you need to see yourself that way. So then the providers see it. So if you go in and they're like, Oh, it's just reflux, you're like, okay, it's just reflux. Nobody's going to think anything of it. But if you're like, okay, I'm having Reflux that's impacting me be able to drive my social life in place. I don't know what my life looks like after 20. Is this forever? Somebody said something about Barrett's carcinoma to me at some point. I don't know what that means. And so it's one of those things where knowing that your thing, no matter how big or how little it is, is the most important thing in that room or with that pharmacist or with the nurse. If you say this is important, they'll fill you. And they'll say, okay, let's make this important.

Jessica: 12:32

Yeah. And you know, it's funny. I have colleagues and this is something I just spoke with somebody about and they, it's a joke, it's a running joke that a lot of healthcare providers have that. Don't confuse my medical degree with your Google search or whatever it is. Right. And there are a lot of my colleagues that over the years that had been in healthcare for close to 15 years that have been annoyed by that patient that comes in and said, Hey, I looked this up. I printed out this, I brought it in. To me, that is a patient who is actively invested in their health, who wants to learn, who's seeking answers. They're motivated. To me, that is a great patient who really actually wants to hear what you have to say and values your opinion and wants you to help them. I mean, obviously we can, there's the pendulum can swing very far. It's one way, but there's always sides. Yeah, sure. Of course. But I think that's a great patient. I think that's a great patient to have, um, because they're really going to be the ones that are going to implement those changes you recommend.

Phil: 13:23

Right. If you just give them pills, they're probably not going to take them. But if they come in and before they even get there in the patient portal, they type out my top three concerns are these. You'll spend the time on those. And I really, I love that. I want to go to your mom for a minute. So we're still in the kitchen. I'm taking you back in there. The brothers are wrestling. Something just got broken because I got four boys. Something always gets broken at some point. And, and you've got the garlic and the onions. Everything is delicious, and yet, if we're looking at what your mom's making for you right now, how does that do with your reflux? Because that was one thing that I really found interesting as I'm looking, is that, okay, she comes from an American Italian home, so you know everything she ate was firing up that, that reflux. Like, it's the most delicious food in the world, also, at almost 50. If I want to sleep at night, half of that stuff cannot go down my belly. So how does this impact your mom when you start to look at all your, your eating habits and things like that?

Jessica: 14:19

Yeah, that was tough because you're right. Italian American. So we had the sausage and the peppers and the antipasto and the, you know, the red sauce or gravy, whatever you, whatever you want to call it. It was a tough time of my life. And that's what I'm saying. I was not able to eat all of those things for a very long time. And then understanding that raw onions will still give me heartburn. So I avoid those if I can at all costs, but if I cook them low and slow, they're okay. No longer, they no longer give me symptoms. So really taking a close look at how food affected my body specifically was something that took a lot of practice and it took a lot of time. Um, that time of my life was really difficult. So a food journal helped. You know, um, and you know, we, I remember being like baseline angry, right? I mean, it's just so frustrating, like baseline, like, why is this happening? Why am I dealing with this kind of feeling? This is so frustrating, but at the end of the day, I, I don't recommend this to anybody, but what I did was I took away everything. Like I started with kind of blank slate, wipe the slate clean. went to raw food at the time that was very, you know, very sexy and very hot. Uh, so I did raw foods for a while and just slowly added things back in, allowing my body a chance to digest them, feel them, interpret how that made me feel, you know, really mindfulness kind of behavior. And that worked for me because I was really able to decipher how my body reacted to all of these foods.

Phil: 15:44

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's all like, just fantastic advice. And I want to look at the baseline angry, cause this is like a big topic. High levels of cortisol is something I get asked that all the time. How do I lower my cortisol is if I have a magic pill, right? I almost, I shy away from talking about cortisol because cortisol is this absolutely complex thing that you have to fix everything. You can't fix the cortisol. You have to fix. everything around it and that baseline angry that you had, had to have a part of your cortisol level being like there's people always say I live in fight or flight every morning all night and that's probably a lot of that baseline anger if I had to take a guess

Jessica: 16:24

Yeah I mean and at 16 Otherwise pretty healthy. We'll call it quote unquote healthy. What is that really? Um, but it's 16 and healthy. I think my core I was, it was not as big of an issue for me having my cortisol levels like that. But I will say, yeah, I do think it had an impact and I don't think it made my reflux any better. Right? I'm passing out. And that right because we know that it has a GI effect as well. Um, cortisol is a big deal. And I think no All hormones have to be treated with nuance and with care and with attention to detail, but cortisol specifically, I do get asked about as well. And my biggest, I think the biggest thing that people can do is address sleep first. I often find that sleep is so intimately connected to cortisol, blood pressure, weight maintenance, all of digestion, uh, regularity, all of these things. So sleep is huge when we talk about cortisol and I don't think it gets talked about enough.

Phil: 17:21

So your expertise is actually something that I really believe is, is people need to hear about what they eat, how they eat. Oh yeah. In order to sleep well because most of us do a lot of dopamine searching right before bed So we start to slow down the gaba kicks in and our brain says oh, no, no, no, you've got to stay alert. And so the first thing we do is we go dopamine searching and I like to search for my dopamine in the pantry. With sugar like that's the first place I go So I want you to kind of explain to people the mistakes they're making before bed Because everybody wants a pill and I keep telling them if a pill will start on one side, but you're still pushing on the other. So now you have all the weird dreams. You're never going to get good quality sleep. I can knock you out. Michael Jackson taught everybody that they can get knocked out and not get sleep. So in order to get good quality sleep, sleep hygiene becomes. just so monstrously huge. And really, if you ask me, our relationship with what we eat when we eat is probably top two or three of sleep hygiene all by itself. We'll leave screens alone since we're both on socials so they can keep watching them. I don't want to get that down, you know, but

Jessica: 18:30

Right before sleep, you're only going to watch the Wellness Kitchenista and Phil's My Pharmacist. That's it. That's it. That's it.

Phil: 18:35

If you watch three of mine, you'll go to sleep anyway, so you're good, so.

Jessica: 18:39

That's funny. Yeah, you know, food, obviously, nutrition, culinary medicine, what I do, plays into overall wellness and sleep. But yeah, I think most people will, will agree that about two to three three hours prior to bedtime should be your last should be your last meal. It allows your insulin, your glucose levels to drop adequately. Um, and everyone is going to be different. Obviously, this is, with the caveat that you have no issues with diabetes or glucose control, right? You're not on medications for that because that's going to be an entirely different conversation situation and safety issue. Sleep hygiene involves not only being clean. I actually did a video on this. Uh, TikTok I think not only being clean but cooling your body down to the appropriate temperature for sleep last I checked I think it was like in the middle to high 60s. It's quite cool to get that perfect temperature. And I think that comes from the sleep association. And wearing, um, wearing comfortable clothing, breathable, same thing with your sheets, breathable, cotton is best for sleep, I think bamboo, nice cooling covers on your bed is really important. And then, yeah, it's not looking at your phone, right, because the, you're getting that dopamine kind of boost. burst. You're getting the light, you know, a lighting affects our circadian rhythm. People don't realize that, but the blue light from devices from television from phones can affect how our body cycle sleep. Um, and even turning around alarm clocks, you know, our clocks in your room. I don't, we don't have a, it was a big sticking point. My husband and I have been married almost 11 years and we do not have a television. In the bedroom. That was a big thing for me because I knew that he loved to watch TV before sleep, and I knew that I would watch it, but then I would never go to sleep. And it would interrupt my whole sleep cycle. So we don't have a TV in the bedroom, believe it or not.

Phil: 20:21

You know what's funny? There's always one. No, I think it's fantastic because people don't understand you take melatonin because you've ruined the light. So the light's supposed to go down. And when it hits their exact right angle, and I don't remember what it is, but it's like 47 degrees. Like it's this, they have exactly know when it happens, we squeeze on that penile gland, it drops out that melatonin, everything starts. But we don't do that anymore because we're always sitting that light right in front of us. So then what they do is they turn around and take a bunch of melatonin to make up for the fact they're still looking at a screen. And it just doesn't work, but it's funny. You bring up the fact that, so my wife, she falls asleep at a drop of a hat. Like

Jessica: 20:56

Oh, God bless her.

Phil: 20:58

Well, until she's now, now I'm, I'm 49 and I'm older than her, but she's hitting that age where progesterone is starting to give her sleep disturbances. So first time in our lives, she understands what it's like not to sleep. So like, at first I was like, really, really sympathetic. Cause it's really hard. And I'm like, well, welcome to my world. Like, it's just, you know, Right. It's a really interesting thing that every, every partnership has one that can watch TV, go to sleep and the next one cannot. So you have to look at yourself as an individual and not as like, what is everybody else doing?

Jessica: 21:27

And the other thing is, I also think with sleep is we want it to work the first time. So we do all of these great, amazing sleep hygiene techniques, and then it doesn't work the first time, but sleep is habitual and it takes time to get a rhythm going with your body. So. If you're doing anything in the bed, you know, there's two things you should be doing in bed. One thing is sleep. We know what the other thing is, right? We don't need to mention it. So if you're having a hard time falling asleep, it's important to get up, go somewhere else, read a book, do something quiet, no screens. I think that's another thing for people that need to understand. Then put yourself back into bed when you're feeling sleepy and train your body. It's all about training your body and doing it for a long term consistently to find that habit that works.

Phil: 22:07

Absolutely. You'll create that. Yeah. Creating a residual pathway. That when you're in bed, you sleep. It's the way that you don't put your kids in timeout in the place you want them to be at. So, because then they, they'll end up saying that that's the bad place. So if you want them, you send them to their bed all the time, every time they're in trouble, then at night, when they go to bed, their brain is now saying I'm in trouble. This is where I go when I'm in trouble. So it's one of those, like our brains, we like to think of them of being like super complicated, but it's funny how easy you can put a pattern inside of them.

Jessica: 22:38

And then you're in fight or flight again. Right.

Phil: 22:39

Absolutely. Cause you're like, I'm in trouble. So they get the year. It's, it's one of those things that you just see all the time. Okay. So your gastric reflux, you're 16, you go to 20, so we were happy. Everything was going, you're like, I, by the way, I'm still floored that you're a senior at 16. Cause I always bragged that I was 17, but you like, you beat me. So I got it. I can't even like, I don't even win again. I thought I had one thing, but, but you're 16, you're graduating top of the world. And then you start having these spells where you're fainting and, and some people would take it serious. And others like, Oh, that's attention seeking or whatever it is. Come 20, you start to change your diet. Tell me where we're at on, because gastric reflux is one of those things I get enormous amounts of questions about because there are things we have to change. And I want you to list a few of the things you have to change with gastric reflux, even if you don't want to. There are things you have to change.

Jessica: 23:31

Yeah, you have to change them. And I think that the other thing is I was very lucky that lifestyle and changing my diet did help my symptoms. There are some things that cause reflux that require medication or require surgery. There are other extenuating circumstances. So at this point, I let's fast forward. I'm 23. I just graduated with my master's. I'm already a physician assistant working in Philadelphia. And it's finally when I got my reflux out of under control. And so what did I have to change? I had to eliminate the known triggers for reflux. So I had to eliminate some of those fattier fried foods, which, you know, in my early 20s, and I'm going out drinking with my friends, that was a really big challenge for me. I had to do it.

Phil: 24:10

They're also delicious. I mean, we could say what we want. I mean, sure. Yeah. You can't eat them, but they're also delicious.

Jessica: 24:15

Yeah, yeah. So I had to get rid of that. I had to get rid of coffee. I had to, had to, had to. I find that, um, it was a trigger for me then. It doesn't seem to trigger my reflux now. And then something along with the fatty food, peanut butter, I had to get rid of. So all of those known food triggers I had to get rid of. I had to change the timing in which I ate and I had to change the amount that I ate. So what I found was that when I was eating those really much bigger meals, as you know, so for people that aren't familiar with anatomy, right, we chew our food. First, the first part of digestion happens in our mouth. We're chewing our food adequately. So I had to relearn how to do that. Not just eat when I'm studying and I have a test and I'm on the fly and I'm, you know, I'm busy. I sat. I paid attention to my body and some of those cues, right? Just mindful practice while I was eating, put my phone down, shut off the TV, listen to my hunger cues, my fullness cues. So I sat, I ate, I chewed, and then it goes to our, we swallow. It goes down to our esophagus. There's a sphincter right. Right between our esophagus and our stomach that lower esophageal sphincter for some people that need addressing because it's not closing adequately, uh, so that's where, and then the rest of the digestion happens. We get all of our, you know, our acids in our stomach and it moves through the small intestine and then through the large intestine and then it pieces out, right? So, if we are eating bigger, bigger meals, right? And we're overly full. We're not listening to those hunger cues. Those fullness cues, that food is going to put pressure on the stomach and on that lower esophageal sphincter. And it's going to reflux back up and give us symptoms. So understanding that, yeah,

Phil: 25:45

It's really interesting too, because, you know, when you travel, cause everybody's traveled most places, when you go eat, they eat. small portions, but they'll eat it over a long period of time. So when I've gone to Europe, I've been there twice, you know, I'm waiting to get, you know, the, the biggie sized, whatever it is, get it all in front of me, literally bite it three times and have this huge amount of food in my stomach. And as the American that I am not being cultured as I should be when they bring out one at a time and I have to wait 20 minutes for the next one, I'm, I'm impatient. Like, I'm like, no, I was supposed to be done and onto the next thing here. And so what you're talking A lot of cultures have figured out they just do better when meal becomes that time where they're conversing. It is what you're doing. In America, we're always trying to eat wings while we're watching the game. We're trying to eat nachos before, like, just pounding things down. And that information that our stomachs aren't actually supposed to be stretched to their fullest every time we eat, and that that could be, it's not even maybe what you eat, but what, how much, is a huge part of what I see with a lot of people. If you're hungry eat, but I always tell my kids take the size of your fist first and then go for seconds, because if you overdo it, your stomach's going to still say, let's eat even when it's full.

Jessica: 26:56

Yeah. And taking that break, I think between your first portion and then your second. So we actually have a four year old foster child with us right now. And she will say, can I have more of that? Yeah. And she was like, can I have more of that? And I'll say. Honey, there is. You do not have to look for food. There's as much as you want. Finish what you have. If you're still hungry, you can have more. It's no big deal. So understanding that food is not, there's no scarcity of food. We can just take a moment, take a beat, listen to our body. I think that's the hardest thing. It's listening to your body and how you feel when you eat. And then saying, Oh, you know, I'm full. I'm in a comfortable fullness and I could have this later. And so just retraining your mind that you don't need to eat it all right now. Uh, you could maybe eat it later for most people who have access to food. I, again, I don't want to make assumptions with everyone's mealtime.

Phil: 27:42

No, absolutely not. And everybody's different. So you always give out. A lot of advice and I always tell people you just take what I say and put it in the gumbo of everybody else's. I've never been offended when somebody says I don't like your advice. It's never because all I'm doing is giving another piece to the whole thing. However, I am jealous that you have a four year old in the house right now. I gotta be honest. They are so much fun. I'm just thinking about the four year old. Yeah, a lot of nail painting,

Jessica: 28:03

a lot of Barbies. But it's

Phil: 28:05

just, they're so, they're so happy just to be happy, you know, it's just one of those things. Anyway, I've gone completely off tangent on this thing, a hundred percent. Can you give us a couple of, so I'm going to be upfront and honest. I'm not a big fan of omeprazole, not because it doesn't work, but because people become dependent upon it over long periods of time, and it kills our magnesium levels, like taking it for six months while you fix things, I'm on board, the stories of 20 years and 30 years has always made me concerned, because we've never really dove into lifestyle changes and everything else, and so, I'm I'm always on the idea that we use medications as a tool. I love every tool out there. I actually don't believe there's a substance that's really bad in the world. It's just how we utilize it and where it's at. If somebody's saying, Okay, I have been on reflux medication since I was 19. I'm now 50. Because there's a lot of those. Let's you and I come up with a couple of ideas Well, I'm going to let you do it. I'm just going to take credit if that's okay. Of a few dietary changes Sure. That would be easy to implement like today. Help with that reflux.

Jessica: 29:12

Okay, well we know that, we know there are known triggers. So let's go through those together. We know, and that doesn't mean that these are triggers for everyone. We just know that these are tried and true. So maybe start with these. Talk with your practitioner and start with them, right? Chocolate. Chocolate.

Phil: 29:25

Yeah, chocolate kills me. Coffee. Like, honestly, chocolate. Christmas comes when I'm done. Like, I am done.

Jessica: 29:29

Yeah. Done for. Chocolate, coffee, peppers, hot sauce. Onions, garlic, tomatoes, or tomato sauce. Like, I notice that fresh tomatoes won't do it for me, but tomato sauce does. Uh, let's see, chocolate, fatty or fried food. So peanut butter is one of those things that is actually really, really, really fatty that tends to give me heartburn, still to this day. Now, I, I, I'm, you know, I eat a cup full of it, but, so I wouldn't suggest doing that. And I like peanuts. I want to go

Phil: 29:57

back to, I like the peanuts. I like looking at it because peanut, peanuts and peanut butter. Are one of those things that you find yourself saying, okay, this is supposed to be healthy but what we don't realize is that sodium has a huge play inside of your gastric reflux like If you notice you'll eat high salt foods It'll trigger you probably more than just about even anything else that sodium sets off those Hydrogen pumps in a way that just is insane.

Jessica: 30:24

Yeah, I think people don't recognize that too, that when we talk about sodium, I'm often talking about it in the context of heart disease, but yeah, sodium, potassium, they all of our receptors, our channels, right, are all based on these electrolytes that are so important. So you hit the nail on the head with that. Exactly. Sure.

Phil: 30:40

And the nice thing about it, and I always say this, is that your body does actually talk to you. Like, it's funny if you sit down with a patient, you're like, okay, what do you want? And they're like, well, I hate my reflux. I want to get rid of it. You're like, okay, what are you doing? That's causing it. They can list it because their body has told them what they shouldn't do. And I think that that's part of the listening to patients. That's so easy. And so you just look at them like, so if it does it, you know, you could connect those dots.

Jessica: 31:06

Right. And alcohol. We forgot about alcohol too. That's a tough one, I think.

Phil: 31:10

Especially over a long period of time. Chronic gastritis is a huge issue. Like a very, very big deal. All right. So with, with your platform, you've done an excellent job on, on educating everybody. You're a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful cook. Now I want everybody to know that if you're looking for recipes that are doable, that taste really great, And you want somebody who is just fun to watch. Like I watch a lot of cooking things just because they're so fun to watch. Jessica is the one you want to go watch. Like she is so much fun, but I do want to go through if it's okay. We got a few minutes left here. I'd like to go through a couple of more of your favorite recipes. Is that okay? Right now, the ones you actually do it because like, I have a few, I use, like, for example, I use the lanolin with hydrocortisone for my lips. I actually use that one because if I. I dehydrate myself with caffeine, then my lips get chapped, and then I go to it instead of just drinking water like I should, so there's a few I use. That's like one of my favorite that I use. Um, there's uh, the, the Panares inside of the Nasacort is one of my favorite because I can clear it out now, I'm not taking decongestants, I'm not raising my heart rate, I'm not putting, you know what I mean, there's a few I like. What I do know is that when you ask somebody who's made as much content as you have, which recipes are their go to, those are the ones that usually just always hit. So can we get a few of those from you before we end?

Jessica: 32:31

Yeah, let's do that. I am a big fan of hummus alfredo. I know that sounds super weird, but it's one of my go to's. Weeknights I'll make pasta and I'll use hummus instead of an alfredo sauce. So I will use a little pasta water. We're getting the beans, we're getting the protein, we're getting the flavor, and it's super easy. So we are doing that. All the time. Um, let's see. I'm a big fan of soup. So you're going to often find me making a pumpkin soup, whether it is the spring, summer, winter or fall. So pumpkin soup. I have a great curry pumpkin soup on my website that I top with yogurt and pumpkin seeds. And it's fantastic. That is like in the rotation, almost twice a month. Um, We make a lot of chicken. I'm a big batch cooker, so I'm very busy and my husband, I both work full time and I work at urgent care. So batch cooking is huge for me. So we will make, I will make a huge oven stuff for roaster chicken. And I love to put herbs and orange slices and lemons underneath that chicken skin and let it go low and slow in the oven while I'm roasting some potatoes or roasting some carrots and I'll batch cook it. So I love that a big, huge chicken. So let's see, those are three and then pancakes. I'm, I will make a batch of pancakes, 20, 30, 40, 50 sometimes. and then freeze them. And instead of vegetable oil, which I, you know, I often will use olive oil or avocado oil if I'm choosing an oil in my kitchen. Instead of vegetable oil, which most people, or melted butter, I'm actually using applesauce or pumpkin puree in my pancakes, or another pureed fruit or veggie, like a mashed banana, just to get more fruits and veggies into the diet for my family. So then I'll make them, I'll line them with either wax paper or parchment paper and freeze them and pop them in the toaster so I can just, it's like a hand pancake on the way to the office or something.

Phil: 34:15

See I love that. And the pancake recipe, like I said, I think it's right now on the very top of your Instagram page because I just was watching it. It's one of those things that I'm like, okay, that one. I'll do because many of the recipes I'm like, I totally want to do that, but I am not going to wait for the water to boil. Even. I just want something I can do. No, right now, right now. In the world of pharmacy. Being able to use the bathroom is a huge deal. Consistent, comfortable bowel movements are something that everybody struggles with at some point, and if you think you won't well, sooner or later, you will. The gold standard used to be polyethylene glycol, but there's been a huge push away from it. Polyethylene glycol helps drag water into the bowel, but it also causes huge problems. Inulax has come up with a solution. Now Inulax has taken two types of fiber, a soluble and insoluble fiber added some inulin to it and then put alovera in it. Inulin works like polyethylene glycol, but it's just a natural sugar. So when you're looking to make sure everything keeps running fluidly, and, just like you like, Inulax is the very best way to go. And if you go to their website Inulax.com and put in MEDICINE20 you get extra savings. So go to Inulax.com now and save yourself trouble down the road. So how is your, I'm going to ask this and if you don't want to answer it, it's just fine. How is your reflux now over all these years, you've done all this stuff. You are busy, which means your stress level can be. A lot. A lot of the time, I'm sure.

Jessica: 35:42

Yeah. To the max. It's okay. It's good. You know, I, I have found things that work for me. And for me, specifically, I won't give this out as medical advice, Digestive enzymes are actually something that have helped. I noticed that I take those with meals. Those seem to really help dramatically for me. And again, I'm watching those portion sizes. I'll notice immediately if I don't watch those portion sizes and take a beat and eat more mindfully or I eat something that I know is going to give me a little bit of those symptoms, I will have symptoms. So I, I know my body at this point very, very well, and I know what will trigger those symptoms. And to be honest, it's something I've learned to live with. I'm not on any prescription medications at this point. Um, my symptoms are sporadic, you know, sporadic at the most. They're really not frequent anymore. And you know, my GI and my endoscopies, everything looks good. Everything looks good. My blood works good. I'm a healthy individual. So thank goodness.

Phil: 36:34

One thing I love about this whole story is, is that there are things that happened to us in our life that changed the course of where we're going. And so, although the syncope. Being 16 the whole thing had its downside. It pushed you in a place where you're helping so many people and so if it's nothing more than you found a way that you can connect with people, it became important to you, you realized how important the food journey is for everybody else. It is like an amazing story and I'm so appreciative that you shared it with us today.

Jessica: 37:04

I think the only piece of advice that I would share to people who are looking to make a change, because I think that's important, is I encounter a lot of people who want to redo and kind of, you know, feel like they have to undo everything they've done. And so something that I often will say is there's no starting over. There's just starting now. So no matter where you are, you just have to look forward and start slowly, you know, give yourself a little bit of grace and patience. And one thing, if you could choose one thing to change, And no matter how long, don't set a timeline, right? Set goals, but hold yourself to, um, accountability of course, but give yourself the grace and the patience to figure out that one thing at a time. You will compound those changes over time and hopefully live a very long, healthful, happy life. So as a reminder, this is not medical advice. Everything that Phil and I are talking about today is 100% based on our anecdotal experience, our personal experience. So whenever you're making changes to your diet or your supplement or medication choices, always consult with your healthcare provider first.

Phil: 38:08

See, that's perfect. Because I always say that change comes at 1% of the time. If you try to make a change, you're going to fail a 100% of the time. And that actually is my final question. So my goal. When I first came on social media was to save my pharmacy, and then all of a sudden we kind of started moving and I thought this was weird. And then I thought if you could do anything in this world what would be the thing you would do? And I thought if I could make the world one percent kinder, one percent kinder, how big could that be? And so at the end of every podcast I tell everybody to go out and give somebody a hug who needs it. Say something nice to somebody. And I always ask my guests, how can we that are all listening to you right now, make the world 1 percent kinder.

Jessica: 38:52

Oh, my gosh, that's a good one. Um, I think a smile goes a really long way. And I know that sounds so cliche. Um, I think a smile has the power to make you, yourself feel better. And sometimes that's all it takes is to smile at somebody randomly on the street. You never know what they're going through. And so that could be the difference in how joyful their afternoon is. If they just see you and see a smile and that you've taken that extra time to share it with them, I think that's really impactful.

Phil: 39:22

Absolutely. And you have a beautiful smile, so it makes it even easier, doesn't it?

Jessica: 39:25

Oh, thank you.

Phil: 39:27

But a smile does, when you see somebody who is cheerful and smile, it will, again, trigger those, those residual pathways inside you, remembering what it's like to be happy. And I, absolutely love that advice in every way. This has been the Take Your Medicine podcast. We have been with the wonderful, talented, beautiful Jessica DeLuise. And I can't tell you how thrilled I am. You're gonna go right now, you're gonna go look at the Wellness Kitchenista on Instagram and you're gonna follow. And again, we're looking for someone for her book because whoever does it is going to make a ton of money. So contact the publishers and get a hold of her because I need to see this book. Thank you so much for being on.

Jessica: 40:08

Thank you so much for having me. This has been such a wonderful afternoon.

Phil: 40:12

Thank you. Have a great day. If you have a second, go ahead and subscribe to the Take Your Medicine podcast. This has been Phillip Cowley and we've enjoyed your stay with us. Thank you.