Brain Gut Vagina Connection

Introduction and speaker background 0:00

Welcome back to the Reverse Autoimmune Disease Summit 5.0. This is healing the energy body. I'm Keisha yours. And I'm delighted to bring you Doctor Greenleaf Benson Greenlee who takes a holistic body mind spirit approach to healing and wellness. She believes many of the answers to a healthy life are found within. She views her role in life as your wellness guide. She's a premier women's health expert, a bestselling author, entrepreneur, inventor, and business leader specializing in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.

And that she's done for over 20 years. She's a trailblazer, is the first female in the United States to become a board certified hero in your own gynecology. Congratulations. She's the owner of Greenleaf Health and Wellness, CEO of the Pelvic floor store. She manages a blog at Doctor Betsy greenleaf.com and is the host of some of your parts podcast and the body mind, Spirit podcast. Seltzer, the bestselling coauthor of You Are Made to Be Unstoppable. Welcome to the series, Doctor Greenleaf. Oh, thank you so much, center Keisha, for having me.

I'm so excited to talk with you. So, you know, of course, as a sexologist, this is near and dear to my heart. So to be able to talk about these connections, you know, the vagina is actually connected to the intestine, the intestines connected to the brain. Right. So we tend to think about these things as separate entities because we get specialists and all these areas that there is a connection between the brain, the gut and the vagina. How does that work? You know, it's something that I wasn't taught in traditional medicine, but now that I know about it and researchers are really starting to look into it, it makes so much sense.

You know, the biggest thing, which was just come out in the last couple of years, has been that how the microbiome, the bacterial balance is in these different areas of our body, how they interact. And it's so funny because it's like, all right, where do you start with the connections? Because everything is connected. It's always like, all right, which one do we start with? Do we start with the vagina? Start with the gut. And sometimes I tend to start with the gut because in some ways it's almost a little bit easier to understand, especially how it connects with the brain.

And one of the things I find that's incredibly interesting is that 90 to 95% of your serotonin, your happy hormones, are made in your gut and look at most of the standard American diet, which, you know, spells out the word sad, how that's affecting our gut health. And no wonder we have a nation that is plagued with issues with anxiety and depression. If we're eating poorly, we're not supporting

Brain-gut-vagina microbiome connection 2:53

that chemical production in our intestines to feel good and warm. So they're even connecting that. If the microbiome of the vagina is off, that there's this feedback loop actually to the brain, because the brain doesn't know the difference between you're trying to make babies or you're trying to have fun. It just knows that, okay, if things are off in the vagina, that this is not an ideal time to reproduce. So the brain affects the rest of the body and it says, okay, well, let's start dampening the hormones of reproduction.

So now we start seeing patients having issues with infertility. And you've been low sex drive, which is absolutely amazing because, I mean, how many times does somebody walk into their doctor's office and they're asking for hormones for their sex drive when it may actually be a microbiome imbalance and not just even in the vagina? Now they're actually even finding out microbiome imbalances in the gut. Also have the same similar feedback in that just, you know, any time the body senses inflammation or things out of balance, it's going to be it's going to be dampening the processes of reproduction and of wellness, because we're putting the body kind of in the stress state when we're experience that inflammation.

So what what is you know, I mean, in my book Solving the Auto Immune Puzzle, I talk about food equals mood, right? So if you're not in the mood to have sex right, with your partner, could it be what you just eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner or what you've been eating as a habit over a long period of time? Yeah, definitely. And then I've been connecting that with autoimmune diseases. I mean, a good portion of people suffering from autoimmune issues have a gut source. So if we're eating inflammatory foods and now those, you know, we develop leaky gut where the bowel, the actual cells in the bowel become swollen and kind of separate.

And now we have toxins from our food, whether it's, insecticides, pesticides, the foods themselves, medications that we're taking leaking into our body. And now everybody response to that differently. You know some some people may worsen their heart disease. Some people may worsen their their diabetes and other people. It actually causes and worsens their autoimmune conditions. And so again, not only is that causing inflammation elsewhere in the body, but yeah, any time the body is inflamed the body goes, okay, you know what?

This is not a good time to be reproducing. And so we're going to dampen sex drive. We're going to dampen the hormones of reproduction. You know women that are menstruating, it may affect their menstrual cycles. So it all it all kind of balance is out. You know, I'm sure you've you've talked about it elsewhere in this, in the summit. And I always love to make this connection is we're basically have those two nervous systems, a sympathetic system in the parasympathetic. And they're great. We need them. They keep us alive.

You know, when we were cave people and were traveling across the savanna and a lion jumps out, we don't want to sit there and take the time to go, oh, hey, kitty, Kitty, aren't you so cute? Like, we want that sympathetic nervous system to kick in before we have time to think. That's going to make us either run away, freeze, or, or fight that lion. And so what happens is the body knows put all your energy into stress hormones to get away and to survive. And it's going to suck away all the hormones from digestion and reproduction.

So there you go with the reproduction and sex drive. And then it further sucking away from the, digestion is going to further feed into issues with leaky gut and gut issues. And so the biggest problem, I think, in modern days is our lions are now coming in the form of work stress, economic stress, illness, you know, mental stress, family stress, you know, other areas of stress. And so we're getting stuck in those stress levels really much longer than if, like, a lion jumped out and we were like, ran away, and now we're safe and now we can go back to living a nice, nice life and reproducing and eating and digesting and growing and healing.

So, you know, the modern life has really kind of affect did why we end up having more of these issues. And unfortunately, you know, our foods in general are not as healthy as they were one, hundreds of years ago, you know, advances in food production, you know, yeah, we have insecticides and pesticides to be able to make more food. But those foods are containing a lot of toxins. Our soil has been drained of a lot of nutrients. So even if those foods are grown without those, those chemicals, they're not as nutritious as they have been in the past.

And so this is all affecting mental health, gut health, inflammatory health, sex drive, fertility, increasing your risk of urinary tract infections and raising risk of vaginal infections. And it's just amazing how all of this can be connected. Right. There's another thing that food affects, too. We start talking about vaginal health. And and I don't hear this talked about I wrote a blog about it several years ago, but, you know, it's it's that what you eat actually informs what you taste like, what your vaginal secretions smell like.

You know that all of that is plays a part in it. You know, if you eat alcohol, you're going to have a different vaginal odor than you do.

Food, inflammation, and reproductive health 8:42

If you have a steak. And it's pretty dramatic, you know. And so this is another interesting piece of food affects vaginal health, wellness the microbiome or the biome. But also right. We have this other piece of it and that is your I know a lot of women are very sensitive about that. Like what are their secretions like. And they don't realize, you know, it's not it's not marketing consumer product that they need a do she now to change all of that. It actually just like everything else is what you're putting in your mouth.

Oh, exactly. Completely. And you know, the other thing with that, I was thinking I just saw some study. It was interesting about how the foods we eat and the like part of digestion. We make these different organic acids, and those organic acids are also even excreted in our sweat. So it's also like the agile secretions. It's coming from sweat. And that as we age, we also are processing those organic acids a little bit differently, which I guess we could even term pheromones. But, yeah, unfortunately I see too many times, like, I, I want to, drive me crazy every time I see these feminine health products that are, like, here, smell like a creamsicle, or like, smell like some roses, you know, like the vagina isn't meant to smell like cream sickles and roses.

I mean, it has its own special odor. And there's there's a purpose to that odor. And if things are off, you know, like, a lot of women will blend fragrance rather than odor. Yeah, I like that. I like that it has its own fragrance. And with women are always trying to cover that up. And yeah, if, you know, even if there is something that's a little off, I mean, if there's like a fishy smell, which can be a sign of a bacterial imbalance, or if there's more of a bread smell that's more of a, sign of a yeast imbalance.

I mean, that's your body kind of screaming out like, hello? Help! Down here. Something's going on. That pleasant aroma and taste and your secretions to an odor. Right. That that isn't pleasant, then that is actually feedback from your body that it's been giving you in a variety of other ways, too. It's not just your vaginal secretions aroma. You know, it's going to be the way that your breath tastes and smell is going to be what your skin looks like and feels like it's going to be what the quality or your bowel movements are.

You know, all of this stuff is, you know, are you keeping hair in your head or are you losing hair? These are these are all pieces of information the body's always trying to give us. And so masking with, you know, feminine hygiene products, you know, it's just I just go stop the madness, you know. Yeah. And some of the problem with some of those products, they're really stripping away a lot of the protective oils. So when you're having harsh detergents, harsh soaps, you know, you're stripping away the protective whales are keeping that vulva skin, that vaginal opening, even if you're putting it in the in the vagina, it's going to throw off the balance and actually make things worse and make more and potentially make more, have more issues with it.

So, and yeah, yeah, I mean, heaven forbid we actually turn toward the body and say, oh, I see you're giving me some information. Thank you so much for that information. What is it you want me to know? Because I want to support you in the very best way I can. You've been so amazing supporting me all this time, right? So, yeah, I, I look at that, as, you know, sometimes I say, is the vagina screaming for help to tell you that there's something bigger going on in the body, right. Like, for example, I had this woman who came to me and, you know, really, we didn't get into the fact that she had some autoimmune diseases.

She really came to me because of recurrent yeast infections. And so, very, very separate, not connected at all. Yeah. Right, right. And so we, we, we, I know we were, we were focusing on the yeast and, you know, she was going to the doctors like her or her primary care doctors or her gynecologist and was getting creams and was getting pills, and she would get better for a short period of time, and then it would come back. And then she was running to the store and trying to get, you know, whatever, over-the-counter cream.

And, and this was going on for like two years. And so we got to the point where, like, let's check your gut first. And her gut was no filled with yeast. And so really I was focusing on yeast. And so we ended up doing a three month treatment of different herbals and some medications and some probiotics. Rebalance at her gut. But being so super focused on the pelvic area, I forgot to mention to her that she may see other improvement. And so for her, she was having nail bed issues like her nail beds had looked and her nails were growing in a spoon shaped fashion that they had.

So she'd been working in the dermatologist for years and that never really cleared up. And so her nails started growing in normal. She had psoriasis and the psoriasis got better. She was also having issues with fibromyalgia and was noticing that her joint aches and pains were not as painful. And we were all able to be like, okay, well, once we cleared up that inflammatory yeast in the gut, it could have been worsening all these other these other conditions and, and all the animals and the medications that cleared up the yeast in her gut weren't the end of the story, because she would have also needed to stop drinking the glass of wine every night before bed.

And she would have had to stop having the coffee in the morning with sugar. And, she would have had to stop having gluten. I mean, you know, so that because that's what started the yeast in the first place and, and I, you know, and it funny, the thing about yeast is I always, like, I always point out that, like, yeast is kind of almost like an alien. It hijacks your brain because when you have yeast, it tends to cause sweet cravings. Right? So those are the people that are having problems losing weight because as soon as they go on a diet, all of a sudden they get these intense like sugar cravings because it's the yeast hijacking the brain saying like, feed me, feed me, feed me.

So it's like I always have to tell people that have yeast, like, all right, you're going to be fighting it and it's going to be trying to take over and like stop feeding the yeast. Don't give it the sugars, don't give it the simple carbohydrates to keep it going. Because you're right, none of the other treatments are going to work if you're you're still feeding it. So you'll just get it all over again, you know?

Vaginal odor, secretions, and body signals 15:30

And they're treating the leaky gut, but they're hanging out and, you know, all of that stuff. So it's it's so interesting because people want to land on oh, I'm sure I have a candida overgrowth here. I hit all the symptoms. I took the quiz online, you know, and like. Well, yes. And but you wound up with that overgrowth. There are a lot of different reasons. And your body's been trying to tell you about it for a very long time. And, you know, we need to also take care of that. Right. So it doesn't keep coming back.

So yeah, you know, the funny thing is a lot of women, anytime there's an itch or a discharge, I mean, thank God we have over-the-counter products now because I remember when I first was having these same problems myself as a young woman, you didn't have any of these products over the counter. So now we can go, you know, if it's a weekend and you can't get to the doctor's office. But one of the things is a majority of those itching, burning, discharge only 12% of the time. Is it actually yeast? In 83% of the time? It's not.

Say that again, 12%. Everybody 12%. Yeah. This is so important that really highlight this part. Everyone always have. You know when they have you know when they start getting discharged. And yeah. So what's the rest of it. The majority of the time 80% of the time it's actually a bacterial imbalance. So when you run to the the, you know, 24 hour, pharmacy and you're buying that yeast Medusa. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't work. It's because it's not probably not yeast. It's probably a bacteria imbalance.

And, I'm probably getting in trouble for selling the secret, but I'm going to tell it anyway. A couple of years ago, the yeast medication industry was actually trying to get boric acid shut down as being able to sell boric acid over the counter, because what I love is boric acid is something that can be used vaginally that would take care of their case, whether it's bacteria or yeast. And so, yeah, from a business standpoint, that was a threat to the yeast medication industry because so many, so many women are, you know, they go in, they grab the yeast medicine.

When I like people grabbing boric acid, because you don't really have to know what it is. It'll take care of it either way. So, yeah. Yeah, so much simpler. And then also stop drinking the wine. Yes, yes. And there's. Yeah. Everything else. Right? Yeah. And I was lucky I also some recent, literature that was really surprised at how wine actually affects our estrogen metabolism. And this is why, you know, they even say like, only like 1 or 2 glasses of wine, like a week or something like that for women.

Otherwise it increases your risk of breast cancer and other hormone related cancers. Men drink more wine than than women, but even men, it can lead to, gynecomastia, breast development that men can get breast cancer. And they can also develop estrogen related cancers. That, are can be worsened by alcohol and alcohol throws off your gut. Yeah. So I mean goes off the gut pick on wine because it's all of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also one that turns to sugar instantly, you know. And so the, the thing that I'm pointing to and I rain on everyone's parade on that is when, you know, I see people with autoimmune disease and when I do genetics, I do genetic testing on all of them.

There are certain patterns I see in genetics of people that have autoimmunity, and one of them is that they can't they don't metabolize alcohol very well. And so it's one of those things that throws their microbiome off, you know. So then the 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 glasses a week that comes out in a statistical analysis does not pertain to people with autoimmunity. They you really need to be alcohol free. So yeah. And you know, and unfortunately, I think, it's the health community or maybe the media did a disservice because I remember I mean, it's got to be almost 20 years ago that they came out like wine was good for you.

And so I have so many patients that come in, they're like, I take my glass of wine every night because it's got resveratrol in it, and it's and I need to go back. We are getting older. So like it was the 1980s. I remember it was on the front of wow glass classic wine. Every night is good for your heart. And then several years later it came out, oh no it's not. And then, you know, like these conflicting, right? Like, I don't know how you are, but when I took my babies home, one baby, they would say, make sure you, you know, avoid SIDs.

So make sure you have a sleeping on their back. Next be yes avoid SIDs. So make sure they're sleeping on their tummy. Next baby their voices. Make sure they're on their right side. And I'm curious. This actually happened. I have four kids. The next one was left and I finally went, wow, like, we really don't know what we're talking about when we take statistical information from a study that has a cohort of a certain number of people in it who all have their variables that are individual and try and apply it to a population, it doesn't make any sense, you know?

So, yeah, these, this this the thing around wine is very fascinating because it's we've had conflicting research and you can just choose which one. And same with coffee. I know coffee's good for you. Here's a study. Right.

Yeast, bacterial imbalance, and treatment options 21:08

And then there's the you can find equal number of them that say no coffee causes inflammation in people with autoimmune disease. Please don't drink it. That's why I like genetic testing. Because then I can go through and I can see, like, where are you with coffee metabolism? Where are you at? Like the ApoE4 gene or in mouse sniff to see if you know you can tolerate alcohol. So it's I think this is an important discussion we're having right now. We're in you know and I can individualize now there.

You know there's an the way things kind of stick like when it comes to things that come out in the media. I mean, it was the late 1990s, early 2000 where everybody came off their hormone because the Women's Health Initiative study was like, hormones are bad in low, everybody come off your hormones. And so, yeah, that now it's like, you know what that was done on synthetic hormones, which based like a study that was based on synthetic hormones, which we now are metabolized in a way that can now damage your DNA and can increase your risk of cancer.

But bioidentical. But I like to call them bio equivalent. I like that name better. Bio equivalent. Those hormones themselves don't cause cancer, and in fact, sometimes some of them can actually help prevent them. And they definitely prevent colon cancer. And they definitely prevent osteoporosis. But I always do mention to people when it comes to hormone replacement hormone therapy is that we're making cancer cells all the time in our body, and majority of the time our immune system takes care of it.

But if you happen to have one that takes hold, there are, you know, our hormones can sometimes feed it, but they're not gonna it's not going to cause it. If it's a natural hormone, they do nowadays. That didn't we weren't doing during the wishes which wishes study was we actually can track. That's what's going on in an individual body and response to a specific bioequivalence hormone. So you can see what is the metabolic pathway your body is taking, what it how is it using it in your body so that we can see if it's leaving behind some of the garbage, carcinogenic byproducts that can get stored in your system, then create some problem.

So it's really cool. Now we don't we don't have to just like take something made from mares urine and then ignore it for the rest of our lives and then have it go sideways in there. We can we can actually be very, very thoughtful, very precise according to what your body's asking for and then track it. Right. That's that's the safe way. That's what Lance Armstrong did not have. Right. Yes. Yeah. No I agree I agree. Yeah. And you know, that's something that comes up too is that a lot of women walk into my office and they think, well, from a vaginal health standpoint, they're like, oh, I'm good because I'm postmenopausal and I'm on, hormone therapy.

But what we don't mention, unfortunately, to people unless they're in my office, is that as we age, the blood flow to the vaginal tissue is not as robust, actually. You get like, kind of retraction of those blood vessels. We also see that in some of the autoimmune issues where so you could be taking all the hormones you want systemically, but at the blood can't bring it to the vaginal tissue. Vital tissue is not going to be healthy. So therefore that's why sometimes we need to incorporate other therapies, whether it's topical or hormones or I'm a big fan of laser, I've seen just so many people especially like from an autoimmune standpoint, we see a lot of conditions like lichen sclerosis, which can be very uncomfortable.

And it's an autoimmune inflammatory condition of the vulva and vagina. And it forced it. It doesn't respond as well to hormones or even steroids, but using laser and some of the regenerative therapies like red light or even, PRP, platelet rich plasma injections, they tend to the tissue can they can almost return the tissue back to normal. And I mean, I'm, I'm a fan of compounding pharmacists. Right. Taking what it is you need based on test, don't guess right, based on what you're testing for and smearing it on your face and in your vaginal tissue, older tissue.

I mean, that works for me. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely my face a couple times a week. And same with with my, genitalia. You know, it's like, oh, that works really great. Yeah. So, you know, there's there there are so many different options we have now that we never used to have. So yeah, I love that we're having this discussion. This is the stuff that a lot of people don't get to know about. Right. Yeah. No it's really and you know what I think that's the problem is I looked recently, there was a study based out of England that 65% of women are uncomfortable saying the word vagina, yet 80% of us will have a pelvic health condition at some point in our lives.

And so my mission in life is let's normalize the conversation. I mean, if you had a problem with your elbow, you'd be like, hey, I'm having an issue with my elbow. I think toe's bothering me down there. You know, the the down there. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So it's just like your body part, you know, I'm constantly battling my passions is to help people understand that the when they're referring to their vagina, they're usually talking about their vulva. Yes, yes. Yeah. But I have to say, I, I've, the all encompassing term that actually we're leaving out the vulva, you know, so.

Yeah. Exactly. You're right. The vagina is just the tube on the inside. The vulva is everything on the outside. You're right. I'm just happy if anybody says any of those words. I know it's great. Any of them. But I have to say, unfortunately, I've kind of, trying to fight the battle I found, fortunately, the hard way that the word vagina is, not accepted very much in social media. So I've had my social media shut down for a couple of time. So though it drives me crazy using the word down there, that's the language that a lot of women use is down there.

Hormones, menopause, and vaginal tissue health 27:28

So now I'm I'm going off as well on the down there doctor, because Elise, maybe that'll kind of get me in the door and not get me kicked off social media. I now fucking vagina means you could be a podiatrist down there. I know. Right? So that's that's what happened to me, too. I am the mother of functional sexology. Like I'm the first one that started, like, saying functional medicine, sexology. These two, these need to go together. Right? And so I do these things around functional sexology. And I have the Functional Sexology Institute.

I couldn't email anything. Yeah. Every server would shut it down. So as the word sex in it you know then that's that. That's not okay either, which we haven't really come very far from the 1800s, I'm afraid it is reading it is a natural, normal part of life. I mean, this is something that I'm doing with my kids right now. We we talk about it like it's just a regular subject because if you talk about it enough, you desensitize yourself. And it's not like taboo or shameful or embarrassing. It's just a fact of life. Right?

So it's information that you want them to have that comes from you or somebody that is, an expert, not from the internet, where they may get drawn into some sort of chat room or some weird place that they can get information that they're seeking. So yes. Yeah, I used to have sex parties when my kids were teenagers, where I basically was like the Doctor Ruth of the neighborhood. They would come over and, and I would let them write down any question they had, and they would put it into a file, and then I would just draw them out and, and read them and answer them.

And that's a great idea. So thirsty for this information. It was like they were just rapt attention. You know, sometimes I'd be there for hours, just like answering questions, because after I get through the papers, then they'd start feeling comfortable and start just asking, you know, asking questions like that. Wow. You know, this is this is a real whole. And the education for these kids. So, yeah, it was a really great way for my kids and their friends to explore information that was coming from a place that was sex positive, non shaming, non, you know.

Yeah. Non erotic. You know it's just information right. Yeah. Yeah yeah. No I love that I love that. And you know went and talk about misinformation I just saw somebody post recently on some website. And they were talking about with vaginal secretions. This misconception that as a woman, the wetter you are that that's a sign of how excited you are. And this is definitely something that we need to kind of get rid of that idea. That's kind of read in general, really, because that can be very damaging to women, because there's so many things that can play into vaginal secretions and the amounts of it, some people make a lot, some people make a little, some people are more hydrated than others.

Some people are dehydrated. And you have, you know, if you have an autoimmune disease, if you have something like scleroderma, you're not going to be making, you know, your tissue's going to be a little bit drier. You're not going to have those secretions. And it has nothing to do with how excited and not excited you are. It's just basic. Like our how sexy, attractive desirable you are. Because I guess when somebody feels like they can't desire, you know, or they, they can't respond physically the way they want to, that their head gets in, you know, your head.

I always say whatever's in your head goes to your bed, so, you know, their heads get in the way. And now you've got all this mental chatter going on and mental chatter definitely shuts down. Desire and physical. Oh, it wants to arousal cues. So, you know, if you're if you're thinking about all of the things going wrong, then it's very likely things won't be going right. Oh. Got it. Completely. Completely. And unfortunately too, the different lubricants that are on the market, like, I'm going to throw them under the bus, but K-Y is happens to be probably one of the worst things you could possibly ever use, because it was actually designed to purposely dry your tissues.

So you have to keep using more and more and more. And so the science of lubrication in the last ten plus years has exploded. And now we have products that are more balanced for vaginal health that support the microbiome. You know, some of my favorite companies are like, I guess a good clean love or Uber lube. And there's there's new and better ones coming out all the time. But, you know, I would say really amazing. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. They've been using that for thousands of years and innovated medicine and it works really well.

Yeah. The, the you know my question for you, it always comes up to me and I want to ask you this one. And what turned things on you. What what is your opinion about coconut oil. Because I get that one a lot. And I have mixed emotions about it. Coconut oil and the Vedic paradigm is cooling. And so you actually want something wormy, right? You don't want to cool. So you use coconut products, whether it's oil or coconut milk or coconut water.

Normalizing vulvar and vaginal health conversations 33:08

They it grows in a place where it's tropical. It's Mother Nature's way of cooling. You down here. Here's a coconut. Right. So if you are using it as a vaginal lubricant, I mean, it could be neutral. It's not going to be beneficial though, especially if you have dryness. You don't want to cool that. You want to warn your tissues plump your tissues. And sesame oil has a really nice. And it's the same with, oil pulling. People say to use coconut oil, but no, you know, I mean, fine, but sesame oil is much, much more robust for that.

And it has antiviral and anti bacterial properties. So you're also getting that when you're doing oral oil or using it as a loop. So oh that's fascinating. Thank you. Well I was going to say like you can actually you don't have to believe what we're saying here. If you take a drop of water and you drop it onto any surface and then you rub it really, really, really hard and you get friction and heat underneath your fingers there, you're going to have that squeaking and and pain, searing pain from that heat friction.

That's what's going on with K-Y jelly. You know, it's it's that base. You don't want to be doing that. Like putting it on something and then creating friction. So it's the worst choice possible. Yeah. Vaginal tearing. Yeah. Yeah. Not good. And for years I mean that's all all we had in the clinics at the hospital was surgical lube which is very similar. And so, you know, you're a couple of years ago we replaced all our lubricants in the office with more of that, you know, like like a good clean lab or something that's more balanced for the, for vaginal health, you know, well done.

Or I tell patients like, you know, obviously you're not coming to see me. Bring your own lubrication with you to the doctor's office. Yeah. You know, and be like and just say, excuse me. You know, I'm sensitive or whatever. Like, can you do you mind using this product? And those doctors are like, fine. So yeah. Well is there something that we haven't talked about that you feel we need to say before ending this amazing conversation that I would love to continue forever. Yeah, I know, I think you know the biggest thing is looking into eating a clean diet, doing things that are good for your body and like getting enough sleep and hydrating.

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Make sure you're getting enough fluids, enough sleep, get off those tablets and all these little things are adding to inflammation in the body. And let's talk more about vulvar and vaginal health. Just even if you got to get in front of a mirror and say the word vagina or vulva like 20 times, just until you get to the point where you're like, oh, you know what? That's just another word. I don't even notice it like that just because you can't ask for help.

If you can't say the words, they're where you're having the problem. So. Exactly. Thank you, Doctor Greenleaf. I appreciate your time and wisdom so very, very much. Thank you so much for having me. I always love talking to you. All right, until next time, everyone be well.